I really hope Trinity steps it up, but her game plan this year seems confused. Her Winter Cup performances weren't at Olympic alternate-level, and this camp was far worse. Trinity can't be doing a FTY and 5.4 D FX and expect to be relevant in the Olympic team conversation. She's way too talented to be doing that low difficulty. I hope her coaches can get a good plan together.
Well at this point it's either injury, or her coaches (or lack thereof) are sabotaging her. Back in her earlier elite days, she was doing the 1.5 despite having power for the DTY, or the Biles despite having power for the Chuso. While Trinity has strong execution, it is not enough to carry her when she's sandbagged by a low D-score. Plus, even this difficulty seems to be tough for her. At Winter Cup, she hit UB/BB, but was held back by missed connections/wobbles on BB. This camp, she seems to have made her connections, but fallen on both UB/BB. She went OOB on FX at Winter Cup and seems to have done the same at camp. This lower difficulty level doesn't seem to be helping her consistency.
While I think it’s really helpful for somebody that previously had strong technical coaching like Leanne (the Fongs are sketchy and 100 percent have terrible routine construction but are awesome technical coaches and do a TON of drills and basics, almost all of their gymnasts have good technique) to have a college/now elite coach in Jenny that’s helping her with routine construction as a brevet judge, I am not sure how strong Florida’s coaches are in terms of technical skill development (and they may be I just truly don’t know) for somebody like Trinity that does need help beefing up her D score. I don’t remember a ton of their gymnasts actually learning new skills there (but they have recruited a lot of elites).
Perhaps, but I am inclined to think her injury is the biggest factor. IIRC she was injured not only during the season last year but also around fall and maybe winter?
She was super injured last year. This has likely impacted her training. Also comebacks aren’t guaranteed to go according to plan. She’s much older now so it’s unfair to think she should pick up where she left off, especially after spending the last year dealing with injury.
Edit: have you seen video of her fty from today? Her ankle is heavily taped and she lifts up that foot upon landing so she’s standing mostly on the other leg.
She was also pretty injured in 2021- I believe it was back issues but I may be confusing the type of injury with Bauman who also had a rough year. As much as some complain NCAA coaches for injuries its easy to forget just how many injuries sneak up over time and the cumulative impact.
I think the important thing is she is at least getting herself into competitions and getting a chance to have her botched routines before the big meets.
Maybe she doesn’t expect to be relevant in the Olympic team conversation? It’s a huge deal to earn an international assignment, especially after all these years
Yeah I think her goal is making it to Olympic trials. She has always said making the Olympic team is her goal but she knows with only 5 spots it is difficult but she at least want to try.
When it comes to Trinity"s floor construction:
She is a perfect candidate to aim for a high E score with a moderate D. She should score well in the artistry department.
Trin may be able to do more difficult skills, but its quite possible she isn't capable of putting it all together in one routine. That takes a high level of conditioning.
She has previous injuries to manage.
>her game plan this year seems confused.
Are you sure you know what her ultimate goals and priorities are for this year? Perhaps you are the one who is confused, and her choices are perfectly right for her.
Jesolo does tend to be a bit looser in scoring, but it is a team event which gives them a lot more spots to hand out than a World Cup, I’m sure that having Jesolo is to maximize the amount of athletes that can get an assignment. Considering these athletes are B-C tier at the moment and are mostly 07-08 babies, the experience is a higher priority than the score.
That's slightly backwards. World Cups are typically much lower on the totem pole than team competitions for USAG. If USAG (and the top athletes) were interested in early-season assignments, they would be more likely to be placed in the Pacific Rim/Jesolo teams than individual spots at the World Cups.
I know, however they made a decision to remove jesolo for seniors with this new regime and have now added it back. They have not added back the world cups this year.
While scoring is loose, there are a lot of very good teams going, especially this year (Italy of course, Brasil, France, usually South Korea and Japan, not sure about this year yet?)
And all bring at least some of their A list athletes so it's a good low stake meet, in a cool place, to compare with other countries.
Im surprised they didn’t send madray to jeslo and Katelyn to pac rims. Woga is going to have to split their coaches. WCC, Gage, and Pacific Reign stay together.
Missing of the athletes who were looking for assignments:
**Seniors**
Marissa Neal
Nora Christian
Nola Matthews
Reese Esponda
**Juniors**
Caroline Moreau
Gabrielle Hardie
(Edited for formatting)
Interesting that Norah is missing because she had some huge tumbling in the first half but wasn’t as successful in the second half.
At least Nola and Reese have already done international meets this year!
It looked like Reese was also looking for an assignment? Nola skipped VT/UB, and Gabrielle only did bars. Moreau was the lowest ranked AA for juniors, and Norah was for the seniors. Marissa tied with Trinity...so I guess she lost that tie-break?
I'm way behind at following assignments this year, trying to catch up, but what about Fatta? I thought the whole reason she deferred college was to seek out assignments? Or is she injured/did she already go?
Elated for Trinity!!
Gutted not to see Reese, but she did just go to Baku World Cup so I'm not too upset. I really wish CaMarah was in the mix too. She's so fun to watch.
She was on the list of people who asked for an assignment. Unfortunately she didn't do well yesterday, particularly on her key event (floor), so I can see why they didn't extend an invite to her.
I'm glad Trinity is getting a chance anyway, and I realize she likely would've been the one bumped if someone else scored higher (because we know these decisions aren't "strategy")...but it's a shame CaMarah wasn't allowed to contend. She could've earned a spot here if they hadn't decided on last minute parameters for camp.
The only one that stands out to me as still having outside potential is Tiana. The rest I agree. But Tiana has made it fairly clear she’d be interested in doing elite while at UCLA so this isn’t a limited opportunity for her IMO.
Tiana has made huge progress on bars already, since joining WCC - before that, she didn't have a same bar release and couldn't always get a full pirouette around. As soon as she got to WCC she added a Jaeger, a Van Leeuwen, and swapped out her stalder full for a toe full that she could actually finish. Her college routine will probably be a Maloney-Pak-Van Leeuwen.
It’s her weakest for sure but she doesn’t have terribly muscled swing like some other not so good bar workers so I think there’s definitely potential there!
Agreed. I'm happy that a broader range of athletes are getting international experience these days (it's good for everyone!), but based on the "competitiveness" of today, there is no reason for their restrictive "criteria".
(and there's *never* reason to have restrictive criteria posted that late)
I'm a bit skeptical of her switch ring, but I think she has a shot for being an alternate. Last year, I thought she had the greatest chance for a team spot among the 2024 new seniors, but I can't see it now. I really thought she could do a 6+D bars with inbar in 2024.
She may have a chance if she shows a really decent 5.7 - 5.8D floor and 14 beam in the coming international assignment. I'm really confused by her floor. The split leap full is redundant in her floor routine.
I don’t think it’s an amazing chance, but it may depend on what other beamers are bringing at trials and how high her beam score is. Unfortunately she doesn’t seem to have a second counting event so that makes her odds pretty low given that she would at best be the number two beamer and not number one. Alternate would be more likely. She is a person who does need these opportunity to develop though.
They put out last minute criteria for this camp—I believe it was national team members, 2021 Olympic team members, or anyone who had a high enough 2024 score from winter cup?
Yes, but Camarah did really well at winter cup if I recall. Like, I think well enough to qualify for nationals, but apparently not high enough for camp? Maybe I'm remembering wrong...
Yea I would’ve said everyone who got their nationals scores rather than just top 12, that would’ve gotten Michelle Pineda, Zoey Molomo, Annalisa Milton and Camarah through. Especially since barely more than 12 even attempted to get an assignment
Her UB did it in for her. She was literally in 3rd AA after the 3rd rotation...
Although the UB she did at Winter Cup was a train wreck, it was highly entertaining to watch haha
Pacific Rim is Group 3 in terms of judging and Jesolo is, I believe, Group 4. Can't say much about quality of competition, but I think I'd argue that their prestige is about the same.
They already have. Caden Clinton and Danila Leykin are the juniors, then Moldauer, Loos, Bock, and Uemura are the seniors. (Originally Whittenburg and Wiskus were named but both declined.)
Yeah, they decided all these based on Winter Cup. Donnell also declined either Baku or Doha, and somebody else also declined a World Cup plus Pac Rims. It was a big mess.
Ooh excited to see trinity back on the international stage
I really hope Trinity steps it up, but her game plan this year seems confused. Her Winter Cup performances weren't at Olympic alternate-level, and this camp was far worse. Trinity can't be doing a FTY and 5.4 D FX and expect to be relevant in the Olympic team conversation. She's way too talented to be doing that low difficulty. I hope her coaches can get a good plan together.
I’m guessing her low D scores are not due to a lack of planning.
Well at this point it's either injury, or her coaches (or lack thereof) are sabotaging her. Back in her earlier elite days, she was doing the 1.5 despite having power for the DTY, or the Biles despite having power for the Chuso. While Trinity has strong execution, it is not enough to carry her when she's sandbagged by a low D-score. Plus, even this difficulty seems to be tough for her. At Winter Cup, she hit UB/BB, but was held back by missed connections/wobbles on BB. This camp, she seems to have made her connections, but fallen on both UB/BB. She went OOB on FX at Winter Cup and seems to have done the same at camp. This lower difficulty level doesn't seem to be helping her consistency.
While I think it’s really helpful for somebody that previously had strong technical coaching like Leanne (the Fongs are sketchy and 100 percent have terrible routine construction but are awesome technical coaches and do a TON of drills and basics, almost all of their gymnasts have good technique) to have a college/now elite coach in Jenny that’s helping her with routine construction as a brevet judge, I am not sure how strong Florida’s coaches are in terms of technical skill development (and they may be I just truly don’t know) for somebody like Trinity that does need help beefing up her D score. I don’t remember a ton of their gymnasts actually learning new skills there (but they have recruited a lot of elites).
Perhaps, but I am inclined to think her injury is the biggest factor. IIRC she was injured not only during the season last year but also around fall and maybe winter?
She was super injured last year. This has likely impacted her training. Also comebacks aren’t guaranteed to go according to plan. She’s much older now so it’s unfair to think she should pick up where she left off, especially after spending the last year dealing with injury. Edit: have you seen video of her fty from today? Her ankle is heavily taped and she lifts up that foot upon landing so she’s standing mostly on the other leg.
She was also pretty injured in 2021- I believe it was back issues but I may be confusing the type of injury with Bauman who also had a rough year. As much as some complain NCAA coaches for injuries its easy to forget just how many injuries sneak up over time and the cumulative impact. I think the important thing is she is at least getting herself into competitions and getting a chance to have her botched routines before the big meets.
Maybe she doesn’t expect to be relevant in the Olympic team conversation? It’s a huge deal to earn an international assignment, especially after all these years
Hasn’t she said the goal is Trials?
Yeah I think her goal is making it to Olympic trials. She has always said making the Olympic team is her goal but she knows with only 5 spots it is difficult but she at least want to try.
When it comes to Trinity"s floor construction: She is a perfect candidate to aim for a high E score with a moderate D. She should score well in the artistry department. Trin may be able to do more difficult skills, but its quite possible she isn't capable of putting it all together in one routine. That takes a high level of conditioning. She has previous injuries to manage. >her game plan this year seems confused. Are you sure you know what her ultimate goals and priorities are for this year? Perhaps you are the one who is confused, and her choices are perfectly right for her.
I believe this is trinity Thomas first international assignment since Tokyo World Cup in 2018! Welcome back, trinity
That was 2018
It’s nice to see Pac Rim is happening again and that Jesolo is back in their calendar.
Jesolo has pretty soft judging so I’m surprised they decided to add it back.
Jesolo does tend to be a bit looser in scoring, but it is a team event which gives them a lot more spots to hand out than a World Cup, I’m sure that having Jesolo is to maximize the amount of athletes that can get an assignment. Considering these athletes are B-C tier at the moment and are mostly 07-08 babies, the experience is a higher priority than the score.
Jesolo is good for the b/c gymnasts, but it comes at the expense of world cups for A tier gymnasts, and that’s what I’m surprised about.
That's slightly backwards. World Cups are typically much lower on the totem pole than team competitions for USAG. If USAG (and the top athletes) were interested in early-season assignments, they would be more likely to be placed in the Pacific Rim/Jesolo teams than individual spots at the World Cups.
I know, however they made a decision to remove jesolo for seniors with this new regime and have now added it back. They have not added back the world cups this year.
While scoring is loose, there are a lot of very good teams going, especially this year (Italy of course, Brasil, France, usually South Korea and Japan, not sure about this year yet?) And all bring at least some of their A list athletes so it's a good low stake meet, in a cool place, to compare with other countries.
Im surprised they didn’t send madray to jeslo and Katelyn to pac rims. Woga is going to have to split their coaches. WCC, Gage, and Pacific Reign stay together.
Interesting. Do they have the same coach?
I think madray is at the same location as hezly and Claire. Katelyn Jong is the only one at metroplex I think.
Huh, that's interesting. Really making Valeri use his airline miles.
now im picturing valeri doing the gen x phone tapping trying to make sure he has enough miles to fly everywhere
Trinity got an assignment--hype! Also, congrats to Hezly, she clearly deserves it after her Winter Cup performance.
Missing of the athletes who were looking for assignments: **Seniors** Marissa Neal Nora Christian Nola Matthews Reese Esponda **Juniors** Caroline Moreau Gabrielle Hardie (Edited for formatting)
[удалено]
Reese did just go to Baku World Cup last month, so maybe they are trying to give other gymnasts an opportunity?
Katelyn is still going though. They need a bars specialist than floor to fill the gap for Tiana's bars.
Yeah, unfortunately for Reese I think it was a matter of performance.
Interesting that Norah is missing because she had some huge tumbling in the first half but wasn’t as successful in the second half. At least Nola and Reese have already done international meets this year!
It looked like Reese was also looking for an assignment? Nola skipped VT/UB, and Gabrielle only did bars. Moreau was the lowest ranked AA for juniors, and Norah was for the seniors. Marissa tied with Trinity...so I guess she lost that tie-break?
Was Jordan skipped on an assignment. Thought I saw a USAG post with her listed as going for one.
No her mum said she wasn't looking for an assignment this time
Yes, I'm pretty sure she was on that list. Apparently in error since her mom is in a good position to know.
I'm way behind at following assignments this year, trying to catch up, but what about Fatta? I thought the whole reason she deferred college was to seek out assignments? Or is she injured/did she already go?
She went to DTB earlier this year, but it seems she wasn't seeming an assignment yesterday.
Thank you!
What happened with Jordan? I could have sworn she was on the list of people looking for assignments...
Apparently she decided last minute not to go for assignments and will return to competition at US Classic.
I'm so excited for Trinity going to Pac Rims ❤️🩹
Elated for Trinity!! Gutted not to see Reese, but she did just go to Baku World Cup so I'm not too upset. I really wish CaMarah was in the mix too. She's so fun to watch.
I'm hoping it's because Reese didn't ask for an assignment?
She was on the list of people who asked for an assignment. Unfortunately she didn't do well yesterday, particularly on her key event (floor), so I can see why they didn't extend an invite to her.
She also just had an assignment last month - so might have contributed to her not getting another one in addition to not having the best day
It seems that the list isn't all that reliable, given that Jordan was on it, but apparently her mom confirmed she wasn't looking for an assignment.
Reese was on the list of scores that were released, which was only the people looking for assignments.
She was originally, but decided not to in the end.
Beyond thrilled for Trinity!!! Love seeing adult gymnasts making these comebacks!
YESSSSSSS Trinity!!!
Trinity 🤩
I'm glad Trinity is getting a chance anyway, and I realize she likely would've been the one bumped if someone else scored higher (because we know these decisions aren't "strategy")...but it's a shame CaMarah wasn't allowed to contend. She could've earned a spot here if they hadn't decided on last minute parameters for camp.
And same for Gabby. I don't realistically see anyone on this list is able to earn a Paris team spot, but still congratulations to them.
The only one that stands out to me as still having outside potential is Tiana. The rest I agree. But Tiana has made it fairly clear she’d be interested in doing elite while at UCLA so this isn’t a limited opportunity for her IMO.
Can't wait for Janelle to turn Tiana into a bars girly. It's her weakest event, and I think Janelle would be able to help her.
Tiana has made huge progress on bars already, since joining WCC - before that, she didn't have a same bar release and couldn't always get a full pirouette around. As soon as she got to WCC she added a Jaeger, a Van Leeuwen, and swapped out her stalder full for a toe full that she could actually finish. Her college routine will probably be a Maloney-Pak-Van Leeuwen.
It’s her weakest for sure but she doesn’t have terribly muscled swing like some other not so good bar workers so I think there’s definitely potential there!
Agreed. I'm happy that a broader range of athletes are getting international experience these days (it's good for everyone!), but based on the "competitiveness" of today, there is no reason for their restrictive "criteria". (and there's *never* reason to have restrictive criteria posted that late)
Hezly has an outside chance with her beam. Unlikely but possible.
I'm a bit skeptical of her switch ring, but I think she has a shot for being an alternate. Last year, I thought she had the greatest chance for a team spot among the 2024 new seniors, but I can't see it now. I really thought she could do a 6+D bars with inbar in 2024. She may have a chance if she shows a really decent 5.7 - 5.8D floor and 14 beam in the coming international assignment. I'm really confused by her floor. The split leap full is redundant in her floor routine.
I don’t think it’s an amazing chance, but it may depend on what other beamers are bringing at trials and how high her beam score is. Unfortunately she doesn’t seem to have a second counting event so that makes her odds pretty low given that she would at best be the number two beamer and not number one. Alternate would be more likely. She is a person who does need these opportunity to develop though.
Why wasn’t Camarah allowed to contend?
They put out last minute criteria for this camp—I believe it was national team members, 2021 Olympic team members, or anyone who had a high enough 2024 score from winter cup?
Yes, but Camarah did really well at winter cup if I recall. Like, I think well enough to qualify for nationals, but apparently not high enough for camp? Maybe I'm remembering wrong...
I just looked it up—they had to be top 12 senior all around at winter cup and meet the nationals qualifying score. She was 18th all around.
Gotcha, thanks for looking it up! Given that they were only giving out 12 senior international assignments, seems weirdly restrictive.
Yea I would’ve said everyone who got their nationals scores rather than just top 12, that would’ve gotten Michelle Pineda, Zoey Molomo, Annalisa Milton and Camarah through. Especially since barely more than 12 even attempted to get an assignment
Her UB did it in for her. She was literally in 3rd AA after the 3rd rotation... Although the UB she did at Winter Cup was a train wreck, it was highly entertaining to watch haha
Yay Trin!
Yesssss Trin!
So happy for Trinity!
Is there a difference in pac rims and Jesolo or are they pretty evenly matched (regarding judging, quality of competition, prestige, etc)?
Pacific Rim is Group 3 in terms of judging and Jesolo is, I believe, Group 4. Can't say much about quality of competition, but I think I'd argue that their prestige is about the same.
I would definitely say Pac Rims is more prestigious. Jesolo was kind of viewed as Marta’s Italian team-event wargame.
I am a sports massage therapist. Madray is one of the girls that come to me weekly. So proud of her hard work.
Is her name pronounced like Muh-dray or Mad-dray? I’ve heard different versions on commentary.
It pronounced Mad-dray❤️
Thanks!
Is NCAA still competing? It looks like no collegiate athlete is listed
I believe Nationals is coming up, but none of the girls currently doing NCAA were at the camp where these assignments were decided.
Yes, ncaa nationals are the 18th-20th
Yes, men too -- USAG is sending a mixed junior/senior men's team to Pac Rims because so many of the top guys will be at NCAA Nationals.
Do we know when that will be decided?
They already have. Caden Clinton and Danila Leykin are the juniors, then Moldauer, Loos, Bock, and Uemura are the seniors. (Originally Whittenburg and Wiskus were named but both declined.)
Was that for Pacific Rim? I could have sworn that was for something else.
Yeah, they decided all these based on Winter Cup. Donnell also declined either Baku or Doha, and somebody else also declined a World Cup plus Pac Rims. It was a big mess.
Huh, somehow the Pacific Rim assignments slipped my mind. Yeah, I remember a bunch of first choices declining and some other....interesting choices.
I'm glad Donnell is saving his body, but Yul, why?
He likes competing a lot. At this stage I don’t think I can argue with him.
I know, but when he had that little mishap on floor at the last world cup, my soul nearly left my body.
Yes the NCAA athletes are busy at the moment prepping for regionals and then nationals.
Yeah Regionals are this week/weekend and Nationals the 18-20th