Thoughts on the US olympic team post-Classics

The long drawn-out, much hyped selection process of the US women's gymnastics team for the olympics is underway. Watching footage from Classics last night there were plenty of nervous wobbles (but that's no biggie at this stage, the first day of Nationals last year was a complete splat-fest and out of that came the best world theam the US has had in years) and a few surprises.

The first was the early end to Chellsie Memmel's olympic comeback quest. I, like many felt it was a bit harsh to dismiss her petition based on one wobbly beam routine (particularly as the reports are Memmel showed a decent all around performance in training the day before the event). Realistically she was a very long shot for the olympics, but others have petitioned to Nationals with only a single performance before (Rebecca Bross successfully petitioned in 2009, competing only a bar routine with no diamount after aggravating a leg injury). To deny a former world all around champion and olympian the chance to compete does seem like a harsh and unneccesary decision.

Speaking of Bross, There were no surprises really. She came out and competed virtually the same beam and bar routines she has competed her whole senior career, with the same trouble on her beam dismount (yes, I wish she'd change it too!). She's not out of the running for an olympic spot yet, but she's not at the top of the list either.

The pleasant surprise was that 2008 World All Around champion Nastia Liukin came back with one of the cleanest and most confident beam routines of the day. Yes, we have been talking about Nastia's possible comeback for years now, but to compete without wobbles after 3 years away from competition shows she is really on her game. If the rumours of her high-difficulty bar routine prove to be true, she will indeed be a very realistic team threat.

Like many, I'm playing the predicting the predicting game as to who will make the 5 member team.

It I were Martha Karolyi and I were thinking primarity team gold (plus ideally an AA gold and a few event medals), I would go for.

3 strong, consistent all arounders
   (Currently I'd pick 3 from Jordyn Wieber, Gabrielle Douglas, Kyla Ross and Ali Raisman)
1 Vault and floor specialist
    (Most likely McKayla Maroney, Raisman has high floor and vault scores too but no 2nd vault)
1 Beam and Bar specialist
    (It could be an intra- gym battle between Bross and Liukin at this rate) 

Whichever way it goes there'll be some very talented gymnasts who stay home come July 27th.