| (Maggie Nichols at Olympic Trials Podium Training, photo by Christy Linder) |
It’s the Olympic year. It’s been a whole four years since the last Summer Olympics, and a lot has changed in the world of gymnastics that casual, Olympic year fans may not realize. Well, have no fear, I will give you what you need to understand what exactly has gone down in the last four years since London 2012, and what is happening now in gymnastics in preparation for the Rio Olympics.
What Gymnastics Is
Women’s gymnastics has four events: vault, bars, beam, and floor, going in Olympic order. If you’ve been completely living under a rock (or have just forgotten), the old “perfect 10” system based on execution has been replaced with a system that also accounts for difficulty as well as execution, which is still based on a 10 like it was before. The difficulty score, which is based on the elements in the routine (or in the case of vault, the vault alone), is added to the execution score to get the final score. The perfect 10 system hasn’t been used since 2006, when the new code was adopted, however it is still talked about on occasion. The “golden” (in my opinion) difficulty value in the new system is a 6.0. Each score on each event is ranked from highest to lowest, and a gymnast’s all around score is the result that is produced by adding the score a gymnast gets on each event together. The US girls regularly attend camp, which is run by National Team Coordinator Marta Karolyi, at the Karolyi Ranch to check in on their progress and physical abilities.
Names to Know
Simone Biles is quite possibly the most dominant gymnast of all time. She burst onto the scene as a new senior in 2013, after laying low during her junior elite days. Since then she has won four straight World all around titles while also breaking the record for most medals of all time at 14 and most gold medals at 10. She boasts strong difficulty on all events, but that’s not all. Simone also executes her difficulty quite well, which gives her the edge (which is not really just an edge because she wins the all around by leaps and bounds, even if she has a fall) over all the other competitors. Especially watch for her explosive vault (she does the difficult Amanar, a two and a half twisting yurchenko, and her second vault is a Cheng, a yurchenko half on 1.5 twist) and floor, where she does one of her signature moves, the Biles (double layout half out). Her weakest event of the four is bars, but I wouldn’t even call it a weakness because she still scores well, it just usually scores the lowest of her four. Simone is definitely a lock for the US team in Rio (does she really have to even compete at trials? Like she might as well rest up lol).
Aly Raisman, the London floor champion, beam bronze medalist, team champion, and all around victim of the tie break rule giving her fourth place is back, despite being the oldest on the London team. Aly boasts her same strengths as London, vault, floor, and beam, and bars still are her weakest event. Aly has made improvements to her bars, but they are still an event that she just gets through, and they will never be used in a team final situation. She still has her Amanar, sticking with it despite some rough times that she has worked through to once again find her groove on the event. Her signature pass is still in her floor routine, which is second only to Simone. Other than Simone, she is the only other person that I would call a lock for the team.
Laurie Hernandez is a first year senior this year. She burst onto the junior scene in 2012 and holds a US junior national champion title. She has a spunk to her, which is evident in her floor routine. Laurie is a strong all arounder, but look for her to especially contribute on bars, beam, and floor. Her vault is entirely usable as well, as she does a clean double twisting yurchenko (opposed to an Amanar). Though not a complete lock, Laurie is definitely in the center of the mix to go to the Olympics as well.
Gabby Douglas, the London all around and team champion, is also back, like Aly. She looks to defend her Olympic title, but in all honesty with Simone she probably can’t. She still shines on bars, but her other events are very meh/average, though she is generally clean. She hasn’t got her Amanar back yet (if she has, she hasn’t done it in competition), opting for a generally clean double twisting yurchenko, If she is to go to Rio, it will be mostly for her bars. She’s in the hunt, but there are others on her tail waiting to capitalize on any of her faults.
Maggie Nichols, also known as Swaggie Maggie, is recovering from a torn meniscus which she suffered while training on vault at the Karolyi Ranch. She has fully recovered, though she missed the Secret Classic. Maggie had a little rough meet at Nationals, where she only competed bars and beam, but she did not fall and I think she can easily correct what happened to her at Nationals. She is looking to come back stronger at Olympic Trials, while also adding in vault and floor. When she is on, she is a valuable asset on all four events, especially on vault, bars, and floor, but really she is just an incredible all around athlete that can score well on just about every event. For Maggie, she needs to show that she is still at the level she was before she was injured and that she can contribute to this team. Watch to see if she gets her Amanar back, since that is the skill she injured herself on. She is in the mix for Rio, and an Olympic berth is entirely possible if she hits.
Mykayla Skinner is most valuable to the USA on vault and floor. She is known for having big, difficult skills, but not the cleanest execution. She, like Simone, does an Amanar and a Cheng, both relatively clean. It’s worth noting that she has been criticized for having a tendency to block with only one arm, but she has improved that, and she also gets the vaults around fine. She trains all around, but her bars and beam are not the cleanest or the best, so her best contributions to the team would be on vault and floor. It’s possible that she will make the team, but it will take her outperforming the other girls who contribute on vault and floor.
Madison Kocian is also coming back from injury, a fractured tibia, like Maggie. She is vying for the spot of bars specialist. Her bars are her strongest event, but where she gains her edge is that she competes all around, and not just on bars. She has been training a double twisting yurchenko, which she didn’t compete at Nationals because of her injury recovery. For the US, she is the most practical option to go to Rio as the bars specialist, since she can also fill in anywhere that she is needed since she is clean all around, though she does not have as difficult routines on the other events as she does on bars (6.6-6.7 D on bars and 5.8-6.0 D on beam and 5.8 D on the other two events, if she does the double twisting yurchenko), but her difficulty on each event is solid enough and her execution is clean.
Ashton Locklear is the girl vying for the bars specialist role with Madison. She has an incredibly clean bar routine with nice lines, though she does not have as high of difficulty as Kocian does. If the spot was being based solely on bars alone, hands down I would take Ashton. The problem is she has a lingering injury that only allows her to train bars and beam. Her beam is clean, but not stellar, and she does not even train vault or floor. This is her major fault. She is still in contention to make the team, but it will depend on what exactly Marta wants, and I think she will want the versatality of Kocian, given that they both score about the same on bars.
Ragan Smith is another new senior. Though she be but little, she is fierce. That is Ragan in simplest form. She will contribute most to the US on beam, but could also help on bars or floor. If needed, she could vault a solid, clean double twisting yurchenko for the team. Ragan struggled a bit at Nationals, so she is looking to recover at Olympic Trials and prove to Marta and the selection committee that she is an excellent option for the team that is reliable and clean. She has a lot of ground to make up due to her errors at Nationals, but she is a contender for the Rio team.
What Has Changed
Bars has been a weakness of the United States for awhile. People still try to say that it is. But the reality of that is that the US is actually pretty strong on bars. Simone still scores well, there’s Madison and Ashton, Laurie Hernandez is solid on bars, so is Maggie Nichols. Ragan Smith is clean on bars. Gabby Douglas is still strong on bars. Maybe not all of them are the stereotypical bars workers, but they are still good. And that’s quite a few girls that can do bars well.
Jordyn Wieber, McKayla Maroney, and Kyla Ross have all “retired” and moved on from gymnastics. Jordyn is going into her senior year at UCLA, where she has managed the gymnastics team there and is moving into a volunteer assistant role this fall. She is not eligible to compete there because she went pro and accepted money from sponsors for doing gymnastics/doing it well. McKayla tried to come back, and she did for 2013 and was a member of the Worlds team (which was a totally individual meet with no team final), but ultimately her body went through too many injuries and she was just not healthy or happy with what she was doing. She had a brief stint acting on Hart of Dixie and is working on music and moving on from the gymnastics chapter of her life. Kyla will start at UCLA in the fall and will be competing for their gymnastics team. She will be reunited with Jordyn, who is a good friend of hers, and it will be a joy to watch her compete NCAA, which she is a great fit for because of her consistent gymnastics.
Marta Karolyi announced that she would retire from her position as National Team Coordinator after the 2016 season. She created a gymnastics dynasty that will hopefully (and likely) continue to thrive after she is gone, given there are other people on the staff, internal candidates, and the fact that there are so many high level gymnasts in the US.
Conclusions
The US has a very strong and deep field of girls to choose from for Rio. There are so many girls that could go, yet there are only five spots for them. Someone is gonna get heartbroken, yet any other country would be happy to have them. It all comes down to trials, and it will be a great ride.
Hopefully this helped those common Olympic fans to understand the sport and what all has happened in the four years that have passed since the London Games. Sometimes this sport can be confusing to those who do not follow it consistently, though NBC’s coverage does a good job explaining it, I just wish they used the actual terminology so it is more educating to the common, four year fans, but us hardcore fans are there for anyone who wants clarification or just wants to talk gymnastics. Enjoy your gymnastics viewing!
