Category: Olympics

Maggie Nichols – Floor

Maggie would be the BEST gymnast on almost every Olympic team in the world. But Team USA selectors could not rank her in the top 8 for Rio. 😦

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Laurie Hernandez – Olympian

I don’t think there are any doubters left. Laurie is the real deal. And a real threat for an Olympic AA medal.

Her Beam precision matches the best of the Chinese gymnasts. I don’t anticipate USA being weak on Beam in Rio. 🙂

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Gabby Douglas – Vault

Gabby has never been the strongest vaulter. (I still have nightmares about her disaster at Pacific Rims years ago.)

But this one is very good.

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No Amanar, please. USA does not need it.

Madison Kocian – Olympian

I do like Maddie as the Bar specialist for Rio. This way Simone mostly likely won’t have to compete Bars in team finals.

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Ashton Locklear is almost as good a choice. If Madison is injured or ill before the Games, certainly Ashton will replace her.

USA Olympic Team 2016

I do like the way Team USA announced each of the 5 official team members on Twitter.

Gabby did not have a particularly good trials. Falls on Beam each day after parting ways with her Beam coach Kittia Carpenter immediately before the competition.

It could be that USA did not want to face the media barrage if Gabby was not selected to the A-team. She’ll have to prove she deserves the spot every single day at Camp.

“I feel like if we put Gabby in regimented training, with daily planning and daily assignments, we will see improvement – just like we did last year,” Karolyi said Sunday night after the Olympic team was announced.

“We have nine days of training camp, which is long, and we really put big importance on this training camp.”

Translation: That trip to Karolyi’s ranch next week is not going to be a vacation….

Nancy Armour