Should have been. A Blog about Gymnastics

Womens US Olympic team named

gymnastics08 — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 02:17:21 +0000

No surprise here until you get to the alternates.

The team is Shawn Johnson, Chellsie Memmel, Sam Peszek, Alicia Sacramone , Nastia Liukin and Bridget Sloan. Alternates are Jana Bieger (after falling both days at camp on bars) Ivana Hong and plucky Corrie Lothrop.

Corrie making it this far is a complete shock. I call her the little gymnast that could. All she did was go out and compete with no special help from the judges. She wasn’t the favorite. She isn’t well known. Her only help could have been from being coached by Kelli Hill. (former coach of Olympians Dominique Dawes and Elise Ray) but IMO that isn’t a positive.

Congrats to the team. AA ers should be Johnson, Memmel and Liukin with Alicia doing vault, beam and floor.

My team set up for prelims

Vault-Memmel, Liukin, Sloan, Alicia, Shawn (alternate Sam who wasn’t getting her dty fully around at Trials)

Bars- Liukin, Memmel, Shawn, Bridget, Sam (alternate Alicia. Though IMO if she had been training bars I would have given her an AA chance)

Beam- Memmel, Shawn, Liukin, Alicia, Sam (alternate Sloan)

Floor- Shawn, Memmel, Alicia, Sam and Nastia (alternate Sloan)

Johnson wins Trials.

gymnastics08 — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 01:40:11 +0000

Trials ended tonight with Shawn Johnson taking the title. Nastia Liukin came in second overall and Chellsie Memmel finished third. Johnson and Liukin were named to the team. Tim and Elfi kept talking about A 3RD someone possible being named tonight but it never materialized.

The Olympic team is pretty much a done deal right now if you look at the results tonight with IMO Shawn, Nastia, Chellsie, Alicia and Samantha making the team baring a melt down at Marta’s hell camp (The gymnasts call it this) That leaves one spot open and the US is in desperate need of an UB worker. Jana Bieger fits the spot right now even with her bad form. Both Bridget and Shayla messed up one of the two nights at Trials. This is the norm for Shayla who is inconsistent. Bad form and all I would take Jana as my finals spot. Shayla is a gymnast that when hits does a beautiful job but she hits only 50% the risk may not be worth it. While Bridget hit 3 of the 4 bars routines she did over Nationals and Trials she didn’t score well at the China test event and I worry the Olympic judges might pick her a part as well.

Look not one of these gymnasts tonight that hit are going to get these types of scores at the Olympics (Shawn has a great floor but over a 16 is near impossible. Chellsie hit an amazing floor routine tonight but they only deducted 4 tenths. Nastia’s floor is not getting in the middle 15′s with those form problems on the twists either) but overscoring at Trials is the norm. I just think tonight it went way over anything that has ever happened at this event before. The every 4 year gym fans are going to wonder why these scores aren’t even close to the ones they are getting at the Olympics. Then again who knows. Maybe the judges will be blind in August also. You never know.

:My thoughts

: Sam Peszek has a nice DTY and when she hits beam I love it but her floor landings are going to get her killed at the Olympics. If Memmel can add some tenths to her floor not taking Sam might be an option. I love Mattie Larson make this team. She could vault and do floor.

: Nastia was just as over scored tonight as she was on night one. I don’t get why her B score only had a point and a half deduction but I was impressed with her vault at Trials. She hit it four times

:Shayla Worley certainly loves that camera.lol and if I had to hear that story of her telling Marta to take the 07 World team one more time I am going to throw something at the TV:)

12 Gymnasts named to the camp from what I heard. This is not a final list.

(AccoRding to IG)
Bieger, Davis, Hong, Johnson, Larson, Liukin, Lothrop, Memmel, Peszek, Sacramone, Sloan and Worley.

Johnson (on team)
Liukin (on team)
Sacramone
Memmel
Peszek
Sloan
Bieger
Worley
Hong
Larson
Davis
Lothrup
: Corrie Lothrop finished 9th at Trials with no help from the judges. She isn’t one of the favorites and isn’t coached by Kim Zmeskal (Chelsea Davis) so the scores she received tonight were 100% hers.

USA-Gymnastics

2008 Olympic Team Trials – Day 2 – Meet Results

2008 Olympic Team Trials – Day 2
Meet Results Women – SR Competition II 6/21/2008 – 6/22/2008	#1 = (100%) 2008 Olympic Team Trials – Day 1 #2 = (100%) 2008 Olympic Team Trials – Day 2

Rank	Num	Name Gym		Vault	Bars	Beam	Floor	AA
1	108	Shawn Johnson Chows	#1: #2: Total:	15.950 15.900	15.700 15.350	16.250 16.200	16.100 16.200	64.000 63.650 127.650
2	110	Nastia Liukin WOGA	#1: #2: Total:	15.000 14.900	16.700 16.150	16.100 15.850	15.700 15.450	63.500 62.350 125.850
3	112	Chellsie Memmel M-n-M	#1: #2: Total:	14.800 14.200	16.150 16.400	16.000 16.100	15.300 15.850	62.250 62.550 124.800
4	115	Samantha Peszek DeVeaus	#1: #2: Total:	15.100 15.150	15.300 15.200	15.800 15.550	15.650 15.500	61.850 61.400 123.250
5	105	Ivana Hong GAGE	#1: #2: Total:	14.800 14.800	15.200 15.550	15.700 14.450	15.150 15.300	60.850 60.100 120.950
6	122	Jana Bieger Biegers	#1: #2: Total:	14.600 14.650	15.650 15.700	15.250 15.450	14.600 14.700	60.100 60.500 120.600
7	109	Mattie Larson All Olympia	#1: #2: Total:	14.800 14.700	15.100 14.900	14.400 15.050	15.250 15.500	59.550 60.150 119.700
8	103	Chelsea Davis Texas Dreams	#1: #2: Total:	14.700 14.600	15.000 15.200	14.750 15.200	14.850 15.000	59.300 60.000 119.300
9	111	Corrie Lothrop Hills	#1: #2: Total:	14.900 14.900	14.950 14.950	14.600 15.000	14.950 14.900	59.400 59.750 119.150
10	102	Olivia Courtney Orlando Metro	#1: #2: Total:	14.700 14.700	14.400 14.250	13.550 14.450	14.750 14.900	57.400 58.300 115.700
11	120	Randy Stageberg Excalibur	#1: #2: Total:	14.750 14.950	13.450 13.900	13.900 14.550	15.200 14.400	57.300 57.800 115.100
12	107	Alaina Johnson Texas East	#1: #2: Total:	13.800 13.500	14.100 14.000	13.900 13.900	14.250 14.400	56.050 55.800 111.850
13	118	Alicia Sacramone Brestyan	#1: #2: Total:	15.900 16.000	0.000 0.000	15.650 15.500	15.400 15.700	46.950 47.200 94.150
14	124	Shayla Worley Orlando Metro	#1: #2: Total:	14.600 14.700	15.400 14.200	14.800 15.400	0.000 0.000	44.800 44.300 89.100
15	119	Bridget Sloan Sharps	#1: #2: Total:	0.000 0.000	15.600 14.500	14.850 14.250	14.550 14.300	45.000 43.050 88.050
16	104	Darling Hill Will Moor	#1: #2: Total:	14.650 14.500	0.000 0.000	13.000 14.450	14.950 15.200	42.600 44.150 86.750
17	117	Britney Ranzy Excalibur	#1: #2: Total:	15.100 15.250	13.700 0.000	0.000 0.000	14.300 14.500	43.100 29.750 72.850
18	123	Amber Trani Parkettes	#1: #2: Total:	13.250 0.000	0.000 0.000	14.400 14.650	14.250 14.350	41.900 29.000 70.900

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2008 Mens team named

gymnastics08 — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 22:17:17 +0000

USA-Gymnastics team named
My recently deleted post about Morgan Hamm making the Olympic team came to fruition today and I still don’t get it. He might be able to hit floor in the team final but he was the last person at the Olympic Trials. Not improving from Nationals where he was grossly overscored. His PH is also another event we “need” him for but he didn’t hit those consistently either.

Here is your team and the last 3 are alternates.

Joe Hagerty, Rio Ranchero, N.M./Team Chevron
Morgan Hamm, Waukesha, Wis./Team Chevron
Paul Hamm, Waukesha, Wis./Team Chevron
Jonathan Horton, Houston/Team Chevron
Justin Spring, Burke, Va./Team Chevron
Kevin Tan, Fremont, Calif./Team Chevron
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Alexander Artemev, Lakewood, Colo./Team Chevron
Raj Bhavsar, Houston/Team Chevron
David Durante, Garwood, N.J./Team Chevron

A bigger shock to me then Raj not making the team is Sasha Artemev not making the team. He made mistakes on his best event but if potential of hitting put Morgan Hamm counted in this decision Sasha deserves the same benefit and his results are not more then 4 years ago.

“I plan on continuing gymnastics to beat Shannon Miller’s medal total at worlds” Nastia Liukin

gymnastics08 — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 02:15:47 +0000

On tonights broadcast Tim Dagget quoted Nastia saying to him that she was going to continue in gymnastics so she could beat Shannon Miller’s world championship medal total that now stands at 9 (they are tied). He said she said she really wants that tenth medal.

All I can say to this is wow. How arrogant and ignorant can one person be to make such a statement as this in the first place. Even if she didn’t know big mouth Tim would repeat it arrogance is one thing I hate in a sports person.

I always loved Nastia attitude and never had a problem with her bitch face (It used to crack me up) but these comments are just way over the top.

Miller’s medal count has AA Gold twice and she is a world champ on 3 of the 4 events. She could have won vault in 94 if she didn’t fall and she competed with some of the best gymnasts of all time. Nastia has one silver AA medal and some bars and beam medals . Her competition was weak. The medal count may be the same but the quality of competition is not.

Looks like I hit a nerve. Name calling comments and tell me to f off because I think Nastia’s ego needs to be put in check will not be posted especially not by Natsiafan’s full with e-mail and websites. Some of you people border on insane and need to flood other message boards with comments like these because here you will be banned.

Disagree respectfully and I have no problem.

Trials day 1. Johnson in lead but not by enough

gymnastics08 — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 03:01:52 +0000

Trials Day 1 for women

These results look familiar because these are almost exactly your National results. Top 8 are the same. The same over scoring at Nationals was ten fold here and mostly in favor of keeping Nastia Liukin in the running for an AA spot she does not deserve.

Take these routines to the Olympics and Shawn Johnson is leading by a heck of a lot more then .500 so why does USA-Gymnastics keep over scoring Nastia Liukin to the point where even every four year gym fans are noticing?

Nastia is a nice kid but this has nothing to do with nice. If Nastia had not messed up bars Marta Karolyi would have had her winning both Nationals and Trials. It just isn’t fair and it is not a very nice way to treat your World Champion either.

They did this to Shannon Miller back in the 90′s. They did it to Kristin Maloney back in the late 90′s and now they are doing this to Shawn. What do these three gymnasts have in common? They have the results to back up the gymnastics. These gymnasts went on to success at World and the Olympics where as their counter parts while having success it never measured the success of the three mentioned above. Kristen never won a medal but she proved herself for four years. While Atler got the glory Kristen got the results.

Maybe I shouldn’t care. I can’t change this.

Here are some , You should know’s.

:Jana Bieger out scored both Bridget Sloan and Shayla Worley on bars
: Chellsie Memmel was dinged two tenths because the judges said her Jam was not landed in a handstand
:Chellsie had a 6.9 A score on beam
:Shayla competed only bars and beam and was in obvious pain all night long
:Randy Stageberg nailed floor
:Corrie Lothrop was under scored. Getting these scores with no extra help from the judges.

Meet Results
Women – SR
Competition I
6/19/2008 – 6/20/2008

Rank	Num	Name Gym		Vault	Bars	Beam	Floor	AA
1	108	Shawn Johnson Chows	A: B: ND: Final: Place:	6.500 9.450 __.___ 15.950 1	6.400 9.300 __.___ 15.700 3	6.900 9.350 __.___ 16.250 1	6.600 9.500 __.___ 16.100 1	64.000 1
2	110	Nastia Liukin WOGA	A: B: ND: Final: Place:	5.500 9.500 __.___ 15.000 5	7.700 9.000 __.___ 16.700 1	6.600 9.500 __.___ 16.100 2	6.100 9.600 __.___ 15.700 2	63.500 2
3	112	Chellsie Memmel M-n-M	A: B: ND: Final: Place:	5.500 9.300 __.___ 14.800 8T	6.800 9.350 __.___ 16.150 2	6.900 9.100 __.___ 16.000 3	6.100 9.300 -0.100 15.300 5	62.250 3
4	115	Samantha Peszek DeVeaus	A: B: ND: Final: Place:	5.800 9.300 __.___ 15.100 3T	6.200 9.100 __.___ 15.300 7	6.600 9.200 __.___ 15.800 4	6.400 9.250 __.___ 15.650 3	61.850 4
5	105	Ivana Hong GAGE	A: B: ND: Final: Place:	5.800 9.000 __.___ 14.800 8T	6.600 8.600 __.___ 15.200 8	6.700 9.000 __.___ 15.700 5	6.000 9.150 __.___ 15.150 8	60.850 5
6	122	Jana Bieger Biegers	A: B: ND: Final: Place:	5.500 9.100 __.___ 14.600 15T	6.600 9.050 __.___ 15.650 4	6.500 8.750 __.___ 15.250 7	6.100 8.800 -0.300 14.600 13	60.100 6
7	109	Mattie Larson All Olympia	A: B: ND: Final: Place:	5.800 9.000 __.___ 14.800 8T	6.100 9.000 __.___ 15.100 9	6.000 8.400 __.___ 14.400 12T	6.000 9.250 __.___ 15.250 6	59.550 7
8	111	Corrie Lothrop Hills	A: B: ND: Final: Place:	5.800 9.100 __.___ 14.900 7	6.100 8.850 __.___ 14.950 11	5.900 8.700 __.___ 14.600 11	5.900 9.050 __.___ 14.950 9T	59.400 8
9	103	Chelsea Davis Texas Dreams	A: B: ND: Final: Place:	5.500 9.200 __.___ 14.700 12T	5.900 9.100 __.___ 15.000 10	5.800 8.950 __.___ 14.750 10	5.900 9.050 -0.100 14.850 11	59.300 9
10	102	Olivia Courtney Orlando Metro	A: B: ND: Final: Place:	5.800 8.900 __.___ 14.700 12T	5.600 8.800 __.___ 14.400 13	6.000 7.650 -0.100 13.550 17	5.800 8.950 __.___ 14.750 12	57.400 10
11	120	Randy Stageberg Excalibur	A: B: ND: Final: Place:	5.800 8.950 __.___ 14.750 11	5.400 8.050 __.___ 13.450 16	5.900 8.000 __.___ 13.900 14T	6.000 9.200 __.___ 15.200 7	57.300 11
12	101	Mackenzie Caquatto Aerials	A: B: ND: Final: Place:	5.800 9.150 __.___ 14.950 6	5.900 8.550 __.___ 14.450 12	5.600 8.200 __.___ 13.800 16	5.600 8.400 -0.100 13.900 18	57.100 12
13	107	Alaina Johnson Texas East	A: B: ND: Final: Place:	5.000 8.800 __.___ 13.800 17	6.000 8.100 __.___ 14.100 14	5.600 8.300 __.___ 13.900 14T	5.600 8.650 __.___ 14.250 16T	56.050 13
14	118	Alicia Sacramone Brestyan	A: B: ND: Final: Place:	6.300 9.600 __.___ 15.900 2	0.000 0.000 __.___ 0.000 17*	6.500 9.150 __.___ 15.650 6	6.200 9.500 -0.300 15.400 4	46.950 14
15	119	Bridget Sloan Sharps	A: B: ND: Final: Place:	0.000 0.000 __.___ 0.000 19	6.700 8.900 __.___ 15.600 5	6.100 8.750 __.___ 14.850 8	6.100 9.050 -0.600 14.550 14	45.000 15
16	124	Shayla Worley Orlando Metro	A: B: ND: Final: Place:	5.500 9.100 __.___ 14.600 15T	6.700 8.700 __.___ 15.400 6	6.100 8.800 -0.100 14.800 9	0.000 0.000 __.___ 0.000 19	44.800 16
17	117	Britney Ranzy Excalibur	A: B: ND: Final: Place:	5.800 9.300 __.___ 15.100 3T	5.400 8.300 __.___ 13.700 15	0.000 0.000 __.___ 0.000 19	5.700 8.700 -0.100 14.300 15	43.100 17
18	104	Darling Hill Will Moor	A: B: ND: Final: Place:	5.500 9.150 __.___ 14.650 14	0.000 0.000 __.___ 0.000 17*	5.600 7.400 __.___ 13.000 18	5.800 9.150 __.___ 14.950 9T	42.600 18
19	123	Amber Trani Parkettes	A: B: ND: Final: Place:	5.800 7.450 __.___ 13.250 18	0.000 0.000 __.___ 0.000 17*	6.000 8.400 __.___ 14.400 12T	5.600 8.650 __.___ 14.250 16T	41.900 19

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Does the end justify the means?

gymnastics08 — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 01:37:23 +0000

The Olympics is supposed to be fun. The creed is Higher, faster, stronger. You work your whole life to make it to this one event held every four years. Blood, sweat and tears depending on the sport but for the first time in a long time I feel pretty annoyed heading into these Olympics.

There is way to much dealing behind the scenes going on and it is taking away my love of this sport. Politics has always been part of picking the Gymnastics teams in a free society. Just ask Kim Kelly but this year the new code is pretty much forcing federations to screw people over. If the federations aren’t doing the fixing then the IOC is.

Examples.

:Verona Van de Leur. The best gymnast the Dutch have ever had has decided to retire. Two months before the Olympics she is so fed up with the way her federation is handling the decision making that she has quit the sport all together. She saw the writing on the wall as they say and knew she was not going to get that spot for the Olympics and she retired. Way to treat your former champ Netherlands.

:Wild Card Selection. The tripartite Commission is supposed to be the conscious of fair play. They get to pick one deserving female and male competitor to compete at the Olympics that for one reason or other didn’t qualify on their own.

: Elsa Garcia. Elsa was winning events left and right before the 2007 Worlds but as luck would have it she was injured at the 07 Worlds and had a bad competition finishing — not qualifying for the Olympics. Now looking at this situation clearly even I can admit she didn’t perform up to par so she didn’t earn her spot but explain to me why there isn’t something in place for situations such as this. A former Champion at major international events gets injured before the qualifying and doesn’t get to go the Olympics because of it? Doesn’t seem fair.

: Aljaz Pegan . At the last three World Championships he has won one gold and two silver medals but guess what? He won’t be at the Olympics. Apparently he didn’t deserve the Wild Card spot either.

: David Sender. The 2008 National Champion recently injured his foot so USA-Gymnastics might be off the hook in this situation but it is pretty well known around the Gymnastics community that David is not someone Miles Avery wants on the Olympic team. David is an AA gymnast but doesn’t stand out on any one event which makes him pretty much useless in the 6-3-3 format. That being said is leaving your National AA champion at home morally fair?

: Jamie Natalie. Finishing fifth at the 2000 Olympic Trails he was passed over for the Olympic team even though the 6-3-3 format was not in place then.

: Kristina and Nansy from Canada.

nbcolympics.com showing Trials LIVE on the internet

gymnastics08 — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 01:05:28 +0000

Complaining about gymnastics coverage on NBC is a right of passage. Well the last few years it has been but I will never complain about their coverage again if they keep this up.

They didn’t show Nationals prelims on TV but they aired the top routines on their website and now they are showing coverage of the Olympic trials on their website.

Thanks NBC:)

Start Lists for the womenClick here

Ok so while I was surfing I came across a different link to live coverage. With different dates. I am pretty sure the new link is the correct one. If not try the second one.

Live Coverage online
Links to LIVE Gymnastics Olympic Trials coverage

USOC Hall of Fame for 1996 Gold medal Olympic team

gymnastics08 — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 15:25:28 +0000

Kerri Strug didn’t need to vault for the team to win and she has admitted in the past that she did that second vault to make the AA final. (Dominique Moceanu fell on both vaults and while over scored on all 3 other events she still was in line to make that AA final until the fall) but history gets written so it will sell in the media and that brings us the vault heard round the world.

While appreciative of Kerri’s effort vaulting on an injured ankle (even though the real injury didn’t happen till after the second vault) real gymnastics fans know that with out the effort of the entire team there would be no Hall of Fame for the Magnificent 7 today so Congratulations to the entire team for what they are about to accomplish .

I remember when the voting was going on. The Dubbed Mag 7 were up against the 1992 dream team in basketball from the 92 Olympics and I like most felt they had no shot of being voted in but they were. (seriously though this is a Hall of Fame not a popularity contest so having the fans vote makes very little sense. How does the 1992 Dream team not get voted in?)

Mag seven article

Olympic Trials for US start in 3 days

gymnastics08 — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 00:39:56 +0000

Naming them the Olympic Trials is pretty much a liberty when you consider Marta names the team but the USOC says you need a trials so you need a Trials.

Mens competition starts in two days but I can honestly say I am not very interested in them. If you think the US trials is fixed then don’t even bother watching the mens. Miles Avery will take Morgan Hamm even if he doesn’t deserve it and the top two men at Nationals could very well not make the team.

Shawn Johnson is Nominated for a Teen Choice 2008 Awards as favorite female athlete”> Shawn Johnson nominated

Ashley Priess moves on

gymnastics08 — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 22:43:21 +0000

International Gymnast Magazine had a short article on why Ashley decided to not compete at Nationals after traveling to Boston to do just that. For me personally I am on the side that says “Crazy. You were two competitions away from completing your dream” side but Ashley gave her reasons in this article and it is her life. She has to do what is best for her.

The one name looked up most at my blog so far is Ashley so I hope she knows how many fans she has out there. I wish her the best at Alabama.
Ashley Priess article

Canada named it’s womens Olympic team a few days ago. Nansy Damianova and Elyse Hopfner-Hibss are the two gymnasts chosen. This is a huge injustice to poor Kristina Vaculik. She has been Canada’s best AA gymnast for many years and it really is pretty sad that she won’t get to go to the Olympics. That being said people need to stop picking on Nansy Damianova and blaming her for Kristina not being on the team. Nansy did her job. She got the points needed to make the team and for that reason she earned her spot. If you want to fight the injustice for Kristina fine but don’t take it out on Nansy.

There is a few fans of Canadian gymnastics out there trying to change the rules after the fact which is ridiculous. I originally signed the petition (before) the team was chosen and I wish I could take my name off the petition. This is becoming a personal vendetta by some bitter fans against Nansy and I don’t want to be part of that.

Germany named there Olympic team. Here is the list.
Oksana Chusovitina, Katja Abel, Marie-Sophie Hindermann, Daria Bijak, Anja Brinker and Joeline Möbius.
Alternate will be Kim Bui.

and now one of their gymnast is protesting the results. I would provide an article but they are all in German. The gist is Jim Bui’s side thinks she should have made the team based on the rulesw of their federation.