10 Weekly Tidbits - 3/17-3/23

Pac Rim Event Finals

Property of Jennifer Buchanan

Pac Rims concluded last Saturday with the American Women earning every gold with the exception of Senior Vault, which no one attempted to earn. (Do any of those girls even have a second Vault?) Arguably, the biggest disappointment of the meet was Victoria Moors of Canada, who many expected to contend for floor gold, who struggled on her final two passes. You can check out USAG Coverage of both Junior and Senior Event Finals on Youtube. 

Spanny tells us "How (she) Learned to Dougie"

Spanny Tampson posted a remarkable tribute this week to Gabrielle Douglas. If you haven't read it yet, you should certainly check it out.

Property of Ryan Schulz

Kamerin Moore to Nebraska, Kiana Winston to Alabama 
The Recruiting Class of 2014 lost two high profile recruits after both Kamerin Moore of Twistars and Kiana Winston of Texas Dreams committed to Division I schools. McKenzie Wofford of 2014 also previously committed to Oklahoma, and Chanen Raygoza to Georgia, but many 2014 recruits remain uncommitted.

Casey Jo Magee Continues to Upgrade

Casey Jo Magee, who Marta seemed to count out for quite a while has been making major upgrades and has the Facebook Videos to prove it. Most impressively, she's got a roundoff-full-beat jump combo on beam. CJM, who looks as fit as ever, could legitimately factor in to this Olympic Picture.

Aliya Mustafina takes Russian Championship
Not shockingly, with Komova out due to an ankle injury and the reigning champion Dementyeva home sick with tonsillitis, Mustafina took the All Around Gold Medal at the Russian Championships. Long time veteran Afansnasyeva and first year senior Grishina earned silver and bronze respectively. Kristina Goryunova, who is unable to compete in London due to testing positive for illegal substances earlier this quad, topped the beam rankings with a 14.933.

Dare Maxwell Returns to Dynamo

Property of Gym Examiner

After Sara Maxwell posted videos of her daughter Dare at Level 10 Oklahoma States, I asked around and discovered that Dare returned home about two weeks ago to train at Dynamo. I've been reassured that although she'll compete Level 10 this season, she will compete both Level 10 and Elite Bars and Beam next year. She's already been working on upgrades on those two events. No word on the reason for Dare's move.

Double Front brings fundraiser to a close

Kristal Bolden of Double Front gained a press pass to this years European Championship and is still looking to raise a little bit of money to get there. If you can help at all and enjoy top notch blog coverage, please help support her!

Cottubus Qualifiers

The Cottubus Cup is underway and qualifications have concluded. Big names on the women's side include Brittany Rogers and Dominique Pegg of Canada who are both returning from injury, He Kexin and Elisabeth Seitz on Bars and Diana Chelaru who qualified to three event finals. 

Ellie Black of Canada is a BAMF

I got a link on Twitter showing "Canadian Olympic Hopeful" Ellie Black's superb combo on beam. She's fairly good on Vault, Beam and Floor and could possibly factor into that picture. But with at least 12 Canadian girls with a legitimate shot, anything could happen.

NCAA Regionals

Property of UGA Gymnastics

Women's NCAA Conference Meets begin this weekend. Keep you eyes peeled on Twitter to see all of the fun  unfold and check out College Gym Fans for links to results and live coverage.

The 2012 Pacific Rim Mini Wrap Up

So the Pacific Rim Championships ended tonight with the US women winning all of the golds they set out for (they won everything but Senior Vault, which no one tried to get). I was thrilled with the results, as unsurprising as they may have been, and look forward to seeing more from all 6 of these girls in the future.

John Cheng

The Team/All Around final was fairly unshocking, seeing as how the US had never lost this competition as far back as I can find record. Some of that is because Russia and China typically choose to send "B" or even "C" teams while the USA always sends at least a few major players. This year, while world champion Jordyn Wieber and 5 other top girls from the US came, China's only major name was Tan Sixin and Russia sent 5 international newcomers. As John Geddert mentioned in his blog earlier this week, this meet would be so much cooler if China, Russia and even Australia sent their A teams.  

Let's talk about Gabby Doulgas for a minute and her "tweaked ankle." Some people say she balked on her vault. This doesn't look like a baulk to me; it's more like she just missed the vault!

Property of Grace Chui, via Inside Gymnastics

And here was the aftermath...

Property of Gabrielle Douglas 

That doesn't look very "tweaked"; it looks legitimately injured! I hope it won't last.

All in all, the women did fantastically though. Although there were a few falls in event finals, the ladies did nicely in the end. ... And I got to see Ohashi's beam in HD. 

Other than the US, who was I impressed with? 

Peng Peng of course, who rocked the hell out of this meet earning multiple medals and a fantastic all around score.

12 year old Charlotte Sullivan of New Zealand who had an adorable floor and qualified to Balance Beam Finals, even if she struggled there. I'm excited to see this team blossom. 

Victoria Moors whose floor is mesmerizing. I'm so excited to see her in London. She should make floor finals there.

Pac Rim & Jesolo Team Selection

So in the past 24 hours, the Pac Rim & Jesolo lists were posted. While some fans were surprised by who made the list, I was more surprised by who didn't.

A few who didn't make the team make perfect sense: Mackenzie Caquatto & Jessie DeZiel are away at school, while Alicia Sacramone is recovering from that awful achilles injury. Hallie Mossett is injured and Bridget Sloan & Bridgette Caquatto (now at Texas Dreams) are rumored to be.Then there are also the girls who seem to get passed over time and time again. (Amanda Jetter being the prime example here.)

Property of Greg Long

  I'm confused about a few of the "major players" who we mysteriously haven't heard from this year.

Sabrina Vega is missing in action. She may or may not have been at camp, but she isn't headed to a meet this year after performing satisfactorily at Worlds in October.

Where is Shawn Johnson? She was definitely at camp this time around yet didn't make either team. With all due respect, how am I to believe that this girl has a shot at the team, if last year's 12th Place Junior Brianna Brown was chosen before her?

If Marta is indeed "testing the waters" with the less experienced girls, then why send Raisman & Maroney to Jesolo instead of Baker & Winston. Or Wofford for that matter. (She had a 6.3 Beam SV at Classics last year and is training MAJOR upgrades on bars).

In any case, I hope that the USA does well at these two meets.

Property of Jessica Frankl

I'm thrilled for all of the girls headed out, but particularly little Bailie Key who's headed out for her first international assignment. I am also VERY excited to see that Rebecca Bross is headed back, although I worry that it could be too soon. I sincerely hope that she stays healthy.

Maybe Marta will have Jordyn just compete Vault and Beam so that Gabby Douglas can take the Pac Rim Title. (Please?!) The six girls on the team are all powerhouses and have enormous scoring potential. While bars is their collectively weakest event, I don't really see any holes on the team at all.

Any guesses on the US Jesolo Amanar Count? There are five girls on the team who have competed an Amanar before, but it's possible that there may be even more now that we're into an Olympic Year. On a team of 14 (9 seniors & 5 Juniors), I'm not really sure what the format will be, but I do know the scores will be phenomenal.

Ahhhhh... I'm starting to get giddy about how deep the USA is right now.


... ... ... Yup, I'm back.