4 posts tagged “samantha shapiro”
Recently announced:
Pan American Gymnastics Union Individual Event Championships, Rosario, Argentina, Nov. 19-23
Rebecca Bross of Plano, Texas/WOGA
Olivia Courtney of Orlando, Fla./Orlando Metro
Corrie Lothrop of Danvers, Mass./Hill’s Gymnastics
Samantha Shapiro of Los Angles,CA/All Olympia
I'm loving that team right there, especially Lothrop and Shapiro. Likely Bross will be competing all but vault, Lothrop bars and FX (and I'm hoping she's developing a second vault because she could be the vault specialist of the next quad), and Shapiro bars and beam. I'm not too familiar with Courtney's gymnastics to make any guesstimations on what she'll be competing.
International Artistic Gymnastics Challenge, Woluwe Saint-Lambert, Belgium, Dec. 13
Amanda Jetter of Milford, Ohio/Cincinnati Gymnastics Academy
Olivia Courtney of Orlando, Fla./Orlando Metro
Corrie Lothrop of Danvers, Mass./Hill’s Gymnastics
Funny how that Lothrop gets Olympic alternate before we really see her get any other assignments. I don't recall seeing her elsewhere as junior. Good on her either way. Obviously she and Courtney are showing something that Marta is liking to get these two assignments.
Jetter is a junior that will be going senior next year, so this may be good preparation for her. Her gym-mate Cassie Whitcomb was originally slated to go, but isn't now for reasons unknown to me.
Also Notable:
Ivana Hong (who has gone to the media about her complaints with her coach) was off the National Team roster for a short while, but is now back on there under "Independent." Still no definite word as to where she will end up for her 2012 bid. Chow's and WOGA are the loudest rumors, though. I still say AOGC is the best choice.
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
ballsovaries of the unliked does no favors.
Sorry, I would do a more comprehensive post, but too many days in a row at work + a nasty back injury = me being tired and lazy:
- Darlene Hill kicks a little butt, wins FX, and begins making her case to Marta et. al for Beijing.
- Erica Lynn Danko, a half-Japanese half-American from Japan wins silver on vault, beaten by Rebecca Bross. Bross and Danko were the only junior vault finalists to do DTYs.
- Speaking of Bross, she proves that she's a tough little cookie. After taking a nasty spill on her head on the UB and opting to not to continue, she comes back big time to win on floor and tie for gold on BB.
- Danko's teammate, Shizuka Tozawa, ties for silver on FX.
- Samantha Shapiro didn't have as good a night as she did for TF. While she did win gold on UB (kind of helped by Bross' 6.025), she stumbled on the other events. Here's to hoping her consistency is remedied in the next quad.
- Peng Peng Lee landed her Bhardwaj in UB finals and won silver and surprisingly did not qualify to BB finals.
- Nastia Liukin messed up on UB in finals, including falling on her Geinger and takes silver behind teammate Jana Beiger. Liukin does come back to win gold on BB, but doesn't medal on FX. Who really expected her to, anyway?
- Jana Beiger finally starts her comeback trail and takes home gold on UB and bronze on BB. Her feet and toes still haven't figured out the pointed position yet.
- Some generous scoring, especially for Liukin's FX, but who is surprised by that?
Yeah, I think I got it all. I know I promised videos, but the videos aren't the best (and many are completely unlabeled, so I don't know who's performing), plus some of the really good performances ones aren't even up yet.
I'll start on the Euros soon. Finally have a few days off coming up.
Not that I'm upset, just saying it's not a surprise. Results from International Gymnast's Quick Hits and pictures from Gettyimages (obviously).
Team
1. USA 245.275
2. Canada 233.475
3. China 233.075
4. Australia 232.675
5. Russia 230.250
6. Japan 224.925
7. Mexico 214.325
8. Chinese Taipei 191.400 (poor Taiwan. They were putting up scores on UB that resembled the old code)
Senior All-Around
1. Nastia Liukin USA 62.850
2. Jana Bieger USA 59.925
3. Dasha Joura AUS 59.200
4. Ashleigh Brennan AUS 59.025
5. Qiushuang Huang CHN 58.850
6. Kristina Vaculik CAN 58.425
7. Mengsi Tian CHN 58.025
*. Lauren Mitchell AUS 57.950
*. Xin Zhang CHN 57.025
8. Alyona Zmeu Russia 56.575
9. Ericka Garcia MEX 56.000
10. Chinami Otaki JPN 55.325
11. Marisela Cantu MEX 55.175
12. Nanaho Hidaka JPN 54.475
13. Jessica Gil Ortiz COL 53.550
14. Nathalia Sanchez COL 53.200
15. Hiu Ying Angel Wong HKG 52.625
16. Jia Hui Tay SIN 51.975
17. Heem Wei Lim SIN 51.275
18. Noor Hasleen F. Hasnan MAS 49.275
*. Xi Hui Tay SIN 48.650
19. Nim Yan Choi HKG 46.850
20. Chun Min Chen TPE 46.725
Junior All-Around
1. Rebecca Bross USA 61.050
2. Samantha Shapiro USA 60.100
3. Viktoria Komova RUS 57.600
4. Charlotte Mackie CAN 57.575
5. Peng-Peng Lee CAN 57.375
6. Wenli Guan CHN 56.925
*. Brittany Rogers CAN 56.875
7. Jie Cui CHN 56.750
*. Rebecca Clark USA 56.725
8. Shizuka Tozawa JPN 56.225
9. Erica Lynn Danko JPN 56.050
10. Britt Greeley AUS 55.700
11. Emily Little AUS 55.675
*. Akiho Sato JPN 54.875
12. Nailiya Mustafina RUS 54.375
*. Violetta Malikova RUS 54.275
13. Karla Salazar MEX 53.200
14. Britt Reusche-Lari PER 50.350
15. Yu Chun Chen TPE 50.050
16. Paula Martinez MEX 49.650
17. Yu Ju Lo TPE 47.350
*. Chen Hsuan Wu TPE 46.975
*. Daniela Espinosa MEX 46.400
18. Wei Zhang CHN 42.825
19. Frances Audrey Munoz PHI 41.300
20. Ka Man Leung Hong Kong CHN 38.475
* Two athletes per country may qualify for all-around rankings
Darlene Hill tweaked her shoulder, so she did not compete BB or UB, unfortunately. This doesn't help her already long shot at the O-Team. She did put up good scores on VT and FX, though (14.9 and 15.125, respectively).
Samantha Shapiro (pictured above) did quite well for herself last night. She put up the second-highest score on UB for USA (15.225), had a 15.8 on BB (witnesses say it was a gorgeous routine), and was just solid all night. I've watched some of her previous competitions and she's just impressive. She needs new floor music because Blues for Klook isn't quite working (literally. Her music cut out on her last night. To her major credit, she kept going and the audience clapped along. She was the very last competitor of the night and received the biggest cheers). New favorite junior, y/y?
Peng Peng Lee (CAN) didn't have such a good night. She had gone OOB on almost all of her tumbling passes on FX, had a scary crash on the LB attempting a Bhardwaj(!)(pak salto full), and fell and wobbled on her BB set. I'm going to say points for her for being the first gymnast I've seen this quad attempting the Bhardwaj (or rather heard. There are no videos yet). I do wish her coaches would slow her down. We're all more than aware this kid is capable of incredible difficulty, but she's not eligible for the Olympics until 2012 or a Worlds until next year. I think the best thing to do for her is start teaching her consistency, work on the little stuff in her routines, and refine the skills she already has. Clean her up a little and she'll have a World beam medal in the bag. Let's not burn her out and cause a career-ending injury before then, please. This little American wants to see her on a World stage, kthx.
Rebecca Bross is on her own little winning streak. Looks like she'll be the new "It Girl" come the next quad. Only to be replaced by Wieber in 2011 and start being called "old" and "washed up" and "crippled" if she's been out with injury. I'm going to be really pissed if that's how it'll play out. I don't like predictability like that.
Videos next post.
