9 posts tagged “chellsie memmel”

Spoilers, if you weren't a numbnut and stayed up all hours of the night, scrambling over the Internet trying to catch live feeds on CCTV-5 and elsewhere trying to watch live. BTW, NBC, you fail. Instead of wasting the energy shutting down the few decent live feeds there were, maybe you should have realized that amongst the casual fans you want the ratings from, there are a grand many hardcore fans that are counted in those ratings. So you had a couple of options: 1.) show qualifications live or 2.) have a live feed like you did for podium training. Quit being greedy bitches and actually appeal to the fans. I can guarantee it would work better for you in the long run; in any case, I'm sure there would be less profanity-laden e-mails in your inbox.

Anyway.

My thoughts, in bullet form (I would be more coherent, but I just found out that Issac Hayes died and now I'm all discombobulated again):

• He Kexin falling on UB was a little unexpected and her nearly missing out on qualifying for UB finals could have been one of the biggest upsets of this Olympics.

• Deng Linlin almost booted Jiang Yuyuan's AA spot. Also surprising.
  

• Alicia Sacramone missed out on qualifying for FX EFs. Devastating, but when one thinks about it, the writing was on the wall all year. Her floor has been regressing since Stuttgart and I will go out on a limb and say that's where she peaked. I love A-Sac, mostly because she's not your robotic sound bite gymnast in interviews ("It's such an honor!" "I just want to go out and hit my routines!" and so on), but she hasn't really hit a floor routine all year.

• In that vein, Nastia Liukin ended qualifying for FX finals, as well as the expected BB and UB EFs! WTF, yo?

• Chellsie Memmel did not qualify for UB EFs. She fell on her Tkatchev, thus taking her out of contention. That pisses me off. She is only doing one event, much to her fans' chagrin, and she fails to hit that one event so she could at least go for an individual title. Wasn't UB her specialty or something?

• Sam Peszek kind of confirmed my suspicions that she would become the dead weight of the US team, despite her being one of the guarantees (I will never understand how she got into that golden position). Not only has she regressed (her FX has downgraded and she's barely hitting that and Sloan has surpassed Sam on vault), but she sustained an ankle injury and did not compete on FX or VT, that is, THE EVENTS SHE WAS PUT ON THE TEAM FOR. And it's now past the point of no return, so we can't put in Lothrop, who would probably be the best alternate for this position, given that she's pretty good on VT and FX.

• Sloan, however, is rocking the casbah. Her UB was off, but hot damn did she bring in the scores on every other event, even BB, and everybody was saying that would be her lowest score. Go Bridget!

• Shawn, unsurprisingly, hit every set. Her nerves from podium training have seemingly dissipated and she went out there like she owned the joint. But, her flexibility skills have also regressed, and that's really saying something in her case because her splits and leaps were rudimentary at best in the first place. It seemed like they were improving last year, but looking at the pictures from TQs, she's is really cheating the hell out of them:

SJBBTQ.jpg

There are a couple more, but you get the point.

• Japan made Team Finals!!!!! すごい！　おめでとうございます！　私は、日本がうれしい！ (Yeah, my Japanese is a little rusty, but the main point is I'm so happy for them!). Koko Tsurumi qualified for AA, however Mayu Kuroda did not qualify for UB finals, which is a shame because she's rather good on them, even if she doesn't have a 7.0+ A score.
  

• Australia also made TFs, but not without an implosion from their stars, Dasha Joura and Lauren Mitchell. Dasha failed to qualify for the AA or any EFs, and we're all heartbroken along with her. Apparently, she crunched her ankle (hot damn, what is with this Olympics and ankle injuries???) in training and continued to compete on it for the sake of her country. Somebody predicted that not only did she not qualify for any individual rounds, but this Olympics would probably be the last we see of Joura. I really hope not. Are we going to lose everybody with a modicum of originality in this sport?

• Great Britain failed to make TFs (Japan just squeaked by them). Beth Tweddle, however, proved she's hardcore by saving her awesome combo after hitting her feet on the low bar. That was crazy.

• Romania was looking rough. I'm going to go out on another limb and say that the two consecutive Olympic team champions will find themselves not on the podium at all. Russia could easily surpass them. Romania is barely a team; it's Nistor, Izbasa, and friends. Though frankly, it's difficult to watch both Russia and Romania while they're rebuilding. There was no infrastructure left in place after everybody and their mom retired so now they have to start from square one.
  

Got all the way to Beijing, only to sustain yet another injury. Alicia Sacramone is also still struggling with her leg injury.

Goes to show how the marathon of competitions before the Olympics is NOT a good idea, USAG. What good does it do if our girls show up to the granddaddy of all competitions broken and exhausted? Are you trying to make China's win a cakewalk?

Chellsie, while not of the pretty gymnastics, will provide the security that one cannot necessarily count on with Nastia or even Shawn (while consistent, was one of the two who fell in TFs at Worlds).

Bridget, yay! She's really taken herself from being the alternate of the group to making herself worthy of the team spot. Good on her!

I am so stoked to see Corrie as alternate! She was not expecting to get as far as even Trials, so you know she was probably happier than the named team members themselves when she was named as alternate. I'm a little disappointed we didn't get an Amanar from her, but I hope we'll see more of her next quad and I'm sure she'll bring it out then. Better to stay safe than to bring out all the guns for a small chance.

Shayla, what rotten luck that was. But she was already so broken that she was a liability in the first place. Better to have happened then than at prelims or TFs when it's too late to bring in an alternate. Here's to hoping she can keep her chin up and heal properly and rock NCAA.

Mattie developed a stress fracture, taking her out of the running. I wonder if TPTB will take a good hard look and continue to think that having Nationals, Trials, and the selection camp so crunched together (and very close to the O-Games, mind you) is a good idea. The girls don't know when is a good time to peak; they have to look good for TPTB so they can be picked for the team, but not show up for the Games exhausted and past form.

Jana, also another tragedy. If she had hit her UB sets, she probably would have been on the team, no problem. Instead, she fell on the same skill both days and everybody, including herself, lost confidence.

Ivana got lucky with alternate status. For a while, people were thinking that she would be left off the team altogether. Frankly, I think that since A.) the Fong-Hong relationship isn't exactly working out, B.) she doesn't want to continue with her family being split apart (father is in CA and mother and siblings in Missouri with her), and C.) she already has such good technique and basics that she should make one more gym hop and give AOGC a try. I think she'd be happier being back with her family. And since she's expressed an interest in Stanford, well, it's there in CA as well.

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Did Vox eat my Nationals Day One post? I swear I made one. Oh well.

Anyway. The Trials have come and gone and to nobody's surprise, Shawn and Nastia locked up the two guaranteed spots. If you were surprised, either you only just started watching gymnastics or I need to start drawing you pictures with crayons.

The 12 girls going on to the selection camp are:
    Shawn Johnson
    Nastia Liukin
    Alicia Sacramone
    Samantha Peszek
    Bridget Sloan
    Ivana Hong
    Jana Bieger
    Shayla Worley
    Mattie Larson
    Corrie Lothrop
    Chelsea Davis
    Chellsie Memmel

The only actual surprise on that list is Lothrop (who is coached by USAG staple Kelli Hill). Lothrop apparently agrees because she was in tears once hearing her name called. Just getting to Trials was a major accomplishment for her. I think she's awesome and wish her a lot of luck.

Chellsie Memmel pretty much sealed her spot on the O-Team, leaving one spot left (aside from the four locks of Johnson, Liukin, Sacramone, and Peszek). Bieger seems to be everybody's current #6 despite not even being on their short list for so long and Sloan, who was the lock up until Trials, is now out. God, we go through these girls like they're fads or something.

Mattie Larson made her case for an alternate position. Larson's FX was the favorite of both evenings and her DTY, while could use some improvement on the landing, is usable. There's the added bonus in that Larson isn't putting a lot of pressure on herself to make this particular team because she knows most of the spots are all but sown up and she has every intent on going for London 2012. Whatever you all are doing to those AOGC girls, please keep it up. Shapiro and Larson are just such a treat. They're what gymnastics should be.

Ivana, Ivana, Ivana. She's pretty much out at this point. An alternate position would be her highest attainable position. Nationals didn't go so well and Trials wasn't much better, culminating in a botched BB dismount that revealed her headcasey side. A damn shame because she's in the same category as Larson: what gymnastics should be. Her double front is a thing of beauty.

Shayla Worley is broken and others have surpassed her on UB, the event that she would have been taken for. I would say that she would be alternate. Too much of a liability to put her on the team.

I don't know much about Chelsea Davis or her gymnastics, except that she is coached by former Golden Girl/World Champion/Karolyi favorite Kim Zmeskal. It's almost nepotism with Davis getting to the camp (I'm only half serious).

Juniors:

• When Rebecca Bross broke her foot and couldn't compete at Nationals, everybody predicted that Jordyn Wieber was going to run away with the competition. After preliminaries, Wieber is...well, winning. But Samantha Shapiro is not making it easy! Shapiro was actually leading the competition with her precision, grace, and poise (and that 15.75 on BB sure didn't hurt), despite Wieber's big tricks. It wasn't until nearly the end of the competition that Wieber took the lead by .1. Day 2 will definitely be interesting between these two.

• Randi Lau had a good night; solid and with good form. She looks to be on her way to making her first National Team.

Seniors:

• Shawn is leading. Big surprise. She also received the biggest gifts of the night, what with her whip-triple being not being fully rotated, her Rudi and Amanar kind of iffy, and her splits still not where they should be for the Olympic favorite. And seriously, what the hell was she wearing? That leo was pure chaos. In fabric form. Oh, and everybody who reads this has to take a large swig of the liquor of their choice if she shows up on Day 2 with any hanzi (Chinese characters) on her leotard.
  

• Jana Bieger 2008 Nationals = Natasha Kelley 2007 Nationals in terms of scoring.
  

• Chellsie Memmel is kicking some definite booty. Her sets are still watered down, but she's making her case.

• Alicia Sacramone needs to get back into a competition state of mind. She had a nice long break, but vacation's over. I agree with those who said that she didn't quite seem herself.

• WTF happened to Priess? Why'd she drop out and retire at the 11th hour?

• Shayla is also out of Nationals and is petitioning to Trials. Since Priess is out, her status is back up (it was slipping dangerously out of reach because her only ticket was UB), but being constantly broken and leaving camps and comps early is not making it better.
  

• Mattie Larson is still not consistent enough to warrant a spot on the team, but she'll be at Trials. And her gymnastics is as lovely as her AOGC clubmate Shapiro.

• Ivana Hong is a huge disappointment. The double front on FX is impressive and I definitely had my doubts about her getting it around, but her bars are abysmal and her best events are more than covered already by the O-Team locks. Plus, the DTY, the one thing that could have won TPTB over was majorly flawed. She'll get to Trials and probably the selection camp, but alternate will likely be the highest attainable position she'll get. Hopefully Day 2 is better. Her gymnastics is still pretty, though.
  

• Nastia, Nastia, Nastia. We understood the meltdown at Nats last year. You're supposed to be healthy and better this year. WTF is with the UB dismount? That shizz is just fugly. The FX isn't improving. In fact, it almost seems to be regressing. And methinks you need a new BB mount or to speed the one you have up because you're dangerously close to going overtime and you're not holding the scale long enough.

• It's starting to look more and more that ScAm was a fluke for Samantha Peszek. She was shaky, to say the least, here. Given the rumor that Janssen-Fritsen equipment (that is, what will be used in Beijing) was disguised to look like AAI equipment (that is, who USAG (and Nastia Liukin) has deals with) and that Peszek has issues with anything but AAI equipment, plus the fact that Peszek always had consistency issues, I'm not surprised. But no matter. She's on the team, barring injury or her performances on the level of FUBAR.

• Darlene Hill has quite a few injuries and is backing off in order to prevent some of them from getting worse. She scratched bars and only got a 12.75 on BB after two falls. This does not help her case, as endearing as she is.

• Bridget Sloan competed only two events, BB and UB, and put up a 15.2 and 15.75, respectively. Word on the street that she's probably on the team, barring further injury or meltdown. These scores, especially the UB, would cement her spot.
  

• While I realize China kind of backed the U.S. against the wall with their overscoring at their Internal Test Event and Nationals, I wish the U.S. was scoring more fairly and closer to what the girls would score internationally. Overscoring the stars and busting the balls ovaries of the unliked does no favors.
  

Since USAG is not posting information yet, these are tidbits from the gymn boards (thanks to various peoples).
AA Results:

1.) Ivana Hong (YUSH!)
2.) Ashley Priess
3.) Chellsie Memmel
4.) Mattie Larson

Darling (not a typo, actually her name) Hill is supposedly injured, but there is no confirmation yet. A-Sac made her three events her bitches, including a 16+ on BB.

Gymn.ca had this to say about the Canadian reps:

Emma Willis of Bluewater Gymnastics club was the top Canadian all-around gymnast at this week’s friendly international competition in Houston, Texas. Willis scored 55.95 after hitting all for events to rank 8th in a field of gymnasts representing the United States, Canada, Germany, Columbia, Italy, and Venezuela. Also competing in the all-around for Canada were Sydney Sawa (10th) and Catherine Dion (13th). Aisha Gerber competed two events only (vault and floor) while Alyssa Brown competed all events but floor. Competition was to conclude today with apparatus finals, with each Canadian planning to compete on two events. This friendly competition was held at the conclusion of a week long training camp.

Nothing about EFs yet and those are what will really tell us anything. This blogger wishes to know about Ivana Hong's upgrades and especially her bar routine, especially since she recently said that she's taken out her signature German giant to reverse hecht because she was getting killed for that.

1. Super consistent. What else can one call a gymnast who is called at the 11th hour to compete AA in TFs at her first World Championships and nails each routine? And wasn't even an alternate in the first place, more like the alternate to the alternate? Even after puberty and into the next quad, she's kept her consistency. So you know she'll hit when it counts in high pressure situations. Not even the It Girls and locks for the O-Team can boast such a thing (except for Alicia Sacramone, also a rock, though it took a few years and NCAA for her to reach rock status).
2. Is rather self-sacrificing. She injures her shoulder in the UB rotation in Aarhus and instead of saving herself and      preventing further injury, she continues to compete and rips up her shoulder something fierce, taking her out of commission for a year and a half. So she sees the bigger picture and while probably somewhat masochistic, would probably be willing to make the sacrifice again for the team.
   
3. Tenacious and determined. At an impasse after being picked as an alternate for the 2004 O-Team, despite being a double World Champion the year prior, she decided to continue on and go for 2008. And many gymnasts would have seen the shoulder injury as a career-ending one.
4. Is favored by the international judges. Her scores speak for themselves, despite her form issues. I would love for her gymnastics to be all Ivana Hong-Samantha Shapiro pretty-like (in fact, wasn't she supposed to spend at week training with Shapiro's coach?), but it's not going to happen.

I dunno. I think I'd want her on my team, assuming her SVs are where they need to be. And she's a sentimental favorite. After the hell she's gone through trying to make a spot for herself on the Olympic team, I'd be a little heartbroken to see her left off again.

And Amanda on the Difficulty Plus Execution blog brought up a good point: only in America will we leave not one, but two double World Champions off the O-Team. In other countries, that's like an automatic seat reservation to major competitions. Then again, that was done in favor of a failed gamble on a virtually untested gymnast and a one-event gymnast. *shrugs*