Camp 11/17-11/22 - Full Attendance List

It's National Team Training Camp Time!!!

It's expected that Top Gym Assignments will be given, along with another possible December competition.It's also possible that the Olympic Test Event team will be chosen at this camp, because as Jennifer stated in the comments, Nominative entries are due December 7th. 

Here is the full list of camp attendees:

Kennedy Baker 

Simone Biles

(Property of Gym Examiner)

Rebecca Bross
Brianna Brown 

Nichelle Christopherson

Bridget Dean
Nia Dennis

Maddie Desch
Brenna Dowell

Peyton Ernst
Sarah Finnegan
Amelia Hundley
Brandie Jay

Amanda Jetter

Bailie Key

Lizzy LeDuc
Nastia Liukin 
Grace McLaughlin
Katelyn Ohashi

Elizabeth Price
Lexie Priessman
Kyla Ross
Polina Shchennikova
Mykayla Skinner

Kiana Winston

McKenzie Wofford

This list is based on conversations I've had with gymnasts/coaches & posts on twitter and other sites by gymnasts/coaches. 

My guess is that it will be Junior National Team, Some Seniors and some extra invites. 

The biggest shocks to everyone have been Amanda Jetter, who had pretty major surgery to repair her foot after complications with her Jesolo injury in Early September and Lizzy LeDuc, who was rumored to have dropped down to Level 10 after her move to Zenith.

Happy Signing Day! - Where the 2012 Elites are headed

Today is National Signing Day where athletes headed into the NCAA sign their letters of intent! (There's another day in the spring as well, but most gymnasts will sign today.) Here's where some of our favorite elites and former elites are headed!

Lauren Beers (Southern Tier) - Alabama
 2 Time Championship Qualifier, TOPs Team Member, good on bars.

Lily Hardin (WOGA) - Arkansas 
Qualifier to 2009 US Classics, Multiple time JO National Qualifier, has an insane amount of strength!

Caitlin Atkinson (Cypress) - Auburn 
 3 Time US Classic Qualifer, 1 Time Championships Qualifier, Strong All Arounder.

(Property of Ryan W Shulz)

Asi Peko (Brown's) - UCLA
 2008 National Team Member, NLSC Qualifier, Qualified to JO Nationals 4 times!


Sophina Dejesus - UCLA
2009 National Team Member, 2009 Jr. Japan Intl Floor Champion, Fabulous Dancer!


Bridgey Caquatto (Legacy Elite) - Florida 
 Reigning Pan American All Around Champion, 3 Time National Team Member, Great on bars and vault!

Brandie Jay (GK) - Georgia
Pan Am Games Vault Champion, 3 time US Vault Medalist,  has a good bar set!

Madeline Hanley (Parkettes) - Minnesota 
3 Time Championships Qualifier, Competed at Gymnix International, Good Beam Woker.

Congrats Class of 2012!!!

Pan American Games - Women's Vault Finals

(Grace Chiu) 

Today's Vault final had no big surprises. Brandie Jay of the USA won the title followed by Mexico's Elsa Garcia and Escobar from Columbia.  As Spanny Tampson noted earlier this afternoon, now all three of the USA's 2 Vault competitors now have an international title. There's no doubt that I (and many other fans) miss Jade Barbosa and wish her a speedy recovery, but overall, the girls did well. While the field was slightly disappointing without any Amanars and only two DTYs, I have to respect the girls and their coaches for the high E scores in comparison. All the girls hit mid to high 8s and half of the girls reached a 9.0. You have to respect them for that. 

The same cannot be said for Yamilet Peña Abreu, a gymnast from the Dominican Republic who attempted the Handspring Double Tuck. As only one of few women ever to attempt the vault, she immediately gained my respect when I heard about her earlier this fall. "Wow," I thought to myself, "a gymnast from a minor gymnastics country competing such a difficult vault!" Well, if it sounds to good to be true, it probably is. Of the 5 different occurrences that I've seen her vault, she's fallen twice and never, ever had a non-scary landing. Every single vault looks like she's going to tear a ligament, or worse. Seriously, If you're taking a vault to your back 40% of the time that you do it in competition, and looking like your going to break something the other 60% of the time, Why are you doing it? Even when she landed the vault, her highest E score of the season was a 7.9. She competed a watered down vault in Prelims and still ended in Bronze Medal Position. Why take the risk when your body, your reputation and possibly even your life is at stake? 

Watch her Worst Vault of the season: 

And her best: 

Do you think that it's worth it? 

Pan American Games - Day 1

(Photo property of Grace Chiu, USA Gymnastics)

I, like many gymnastics fans at the moment, am dealing with some very conflicting feelings. If you weren't following gymnastics this afternoon, the USA won the team title at the Pan American Games as everyone around the world understandably expected. However, what people around the world didn't expect was the USA's lead only consisted of two points, Johnson's double fall on beam, and DeZiel, who is a first year elite, leading the US on each event that she competed. While the US should certainly be commended for their first place win as well as their standings on vault and bars, I can't help but be disappointed in the fact that not 1 US Gymnast qualified for beam finals. In fact, DeZiel was the highest beam scorer and she placed 16th. Unfortunately, this means that for the first time in at least 10 years, the a US Gymnast will not win the Beam Title at a Pan Am Event. 

(Photo property of Grace Chiu, USA Gymnastics)

To be honest, I have NO IDEA what Marta's thinking at this point. Are her feelings mixed like mine? Is she pleased with the team win? After all, she does always say that "it's all about the team". I'm at a loss. I asked the Twitterverse what they thought Marta was thinking, and the answers were all across the board. 


@Laura722: "they won by over 2 points, no big deal"


@TommyStark11: "shes thinking "THIS is our B team?!?!?!" Then she swears a bunch in Romanian"


@caseymagnesium: "I think she is currently forging a birth certificate for Katelyn Ohashi... that's what I would be doing."


@BTOgymblog: Thank god I chose the girls I did for worlds! Or WHY DID MY FEED NOT WORK?


That feed was horrendous, wasn't it? Oh well, at least it's free coverage. The point is, there's no way to know what she is really thinking, or whether today's performances will have any positive or negative effect on the girls' future assignments. 


Looking forward into Wednesday's All Around, 2 girls from the USA qualified: Brandie Jay in 5th and Bridgey Caquatto in 4th. The girls in medal position included Ana Sofia Gomez of Guatemala, a first year senior whose DTY and strong beam helped her qualify first, Peng Peng (Christine) Lee of Canada who finished 19th in World All Around final and her teammate, Kristina Vaculik, a gymnast for Stanford who may have qualified for the World AA Finals, had she hit in prelims. 


My predictions for the Podium: 
1. Bridgette Caquatto (Not just because I love USA, but today's score was in fact, her season low) 
2. Peng Peng (Christine) Lee 
3. Ana Sofia Gomez 

In my opinion, two girls have a shot at the Vault gold medal, USA's Brandie Jay and the Dominican Republic's Yamilet Peña. Peña, who qualified for the World vault event finals, only attempted a handspring tuck today, but landed a handspring double tuck (SV 7.1) in Worlds Qualification. In finals however, she took it to her back and received a zero. I'm not sure whether or not she'll go for it in finals, but if she does, and lands it, the gold isn't necessarily  hers. If she lands the vault the was she did in Worlds Prelims and gets a 15.0, she'd still fall a few tenths short of Jay's 2 vault average. If she lands it well though, I don't think there will be any argument. Regardless, Today she qualified 3rd without it. 


If I had to guess the podium:
1. Yamilet Peña Abreu (I've got a hunch!)
2. Brandie Jay
3. Elsa Garcia (of Mexico) 

The USA would have qualified all 4/5 of their gymnast to bar finals if the 2 per country rule didn't exist. Unfortunately on this event, it does. Caquatto and Johnson will compete in finals for the USA while  Peng Peng Lee of Canada qualified in 3rd with a score over 14. The next qualifier, Marisela Cantu, the next highest qualifying competitor qualified more than 6 tenths lower than Lee. For this reason I believe that the top 3 qualifiers will be the medalists. If history has shown us anything in the past, it's that when she disappoints herself and others, she goes out and she redeems herself. For this reason (and also because I know that she can get rid of that stall she had) that I think Shawn will take the Bars Title. 


Podium Prediction: 
1. Shawn Johnson 
2. Bridgette Caquatto
3. Peng Peng Lee 

While the US didn't qualify any girls to the beam final, it's still a pretty interesting field! Ana Sofia Gomez (Guatemala) is the clear favorite (watch for her beautiful Back Walkover into a Full), but Vaculik (Canada), Gil Ortiz (Columbia), Salzar & Estrada (Mexico) all had routines that could potentially medal. Canada's Peng Peng Lee and Talia Chiarelli tied for 4th place, so I'm not sure which one they'll put up in finals and to be honest, I'm not really sure what the rules say about it all. The wonderful blogger at Tsuk the Pain believes that it's the highest E score, which would send Chiarelli to the finals. 


Anyway, here are my predictions: 
1. Ana Sofia Gomez 
(Insert Lee here, if she goes up in finals! Her 4th Place finish was with a fall!)
2. Kristina Vaculik (Even her 8.675 Qualification E score seems a bit low) 
3. Jessica Gil Ortiz 

(Photo Property of Thomas Scheyer)

And finally, we come to floor. I'll be honest, I wasn't really very impressed by any of the gymnasts' floor routines today. It seemed like most of the girls either were incredibly sloppy, made fairly major mistakes or had awful choreography and music. My projected winner falls in the third category. 


Podium Predictions:
1. Mikaela Gerber (Canada) 
2. Elena Torres (Cuba) 
3. Kristina Vaculik (Canada) 

(Photo property of Grace Chiu)

These are all just guesses, of course. I'm not psychic, I honestly don't know that much about gymnasts from Cuba and the Dominican Republic and unlike Komova's mother, I haven't heard the judges talking in the lobby. What predictions do you agree with? Which ones do you think I got totally wrong? Let me know! It will be fun to find out who wins! 

Pan Ams Preview - The US Team

While waiting for The Pan American Games to begin Monday,  I realized how bizarre of a team this is. This is the first international assignment for 3 of the girls, 1 girl has been to some big yet low stakes meets, while 2 more have taken the title of World All Around Champion and were on the 2008 Olympic Team. Wow. This is weirder than the 2008 Pacific Rim Competition when Rebecca Clark and Darling Hill shared the stage with Nastia Liukin. 


Now, information is limited  due to the fact that the competitors are without internet and few bloggers are there so far. We do know, thanks to a picture taken by Amanda Lauren (@amandalaurenrob), that the girls are in the icky bubblegum pink leo for podium training and that they will be competing on Gymnova equipment. 

So who ARE these girls? 


Newest to the elite scene is Jessie DeZiel, 2011 Senior C JO National Champ, Freshman at Nebraska and fabulous vaulter. She only competes 3 events, but she actually had a a pretty decent JO Bar Set. She'll more than likely compete on Vault and Floor. She may compete Beam, but who knows?

Grace McLaughlin from WOGA wasn't even supposed to be on the team. After Chellsie Memmel had shoulder surgery, she was named to it. Most likely, Grace will compete on every event but Vault, on which she only has a 1.5. She's a great bar worker and has a strong beam routine but has problems with consistency. She's also had quite a few injuries. She was out for 2010 due to what I believe was a foot injury and she rolled her ankle keeping her out of the AA at 2011 Classics. Regardless, her leaps and artistry are FABULOUS making her totally fierce.

Next is Brandie Jay who has been an elite for 2 years now and is known as "that random girl with 2 vaults". Seriously, I've heard people refer to her that way several times at meets. She's also known for her cute little haircut. What she ISN'T known for is how good her bars actually are. In addition to placing 3rd on Vault in 2011 (Behind McKayla & A-Sac) she placed 7th on Bars. She most likely will go up on all four events, possibly skipping Beam if the delegation chooses to put DeZiel up instead. I'm certain that barring disaster, she'll make Vault finals and likely even earn a medal to hang in her dorm at Georgia next year. 

Likely to medal on Bars is Bridgette "Bridgey" Caquatto. Bridgey, who competed on the European Tour and Jr. Pan Ams in 2009 and at Jesolo in 2011, has a strong DTY and will almost certainly go up on all four events. You can't help but love her "Jai Ho" Floor routine and overall confidence throughout her meets. I'd be surprised if she did not make the All Around Final. 

And finally, we come to Shawn and Bridget. Shawn's openly said that she will not be competing all four events. She'll be an asset to the team on every event but floor. If she can hit, hopefully she can make beam finals and successfully show that she has returned to the international stage. Meanwhile many fans and journalists are pinning Sloan as the favorite for All Around Champion. I'm not sure if I agree. Sloan, who hasn't competed All Around since she won the World title in 2009, hasn't been healthy in a very long time. If she can return to a good condition, I think she has a shot, but we have no idea what kind of routines she'll be competing. 

(Photo by Grace Chiu, USA Gymnastics) 

I think that everyone's in agreement that unless literally everyone falls, the US will win. The last time that the US did not win the team title at the Pan Am Champs, Games or Jr. Champs was in 1999, one of the deepest darkest years of American Gymnastics. Even this hodgepodge team has strong basics and good form; I just hope they hit. Go USA!