Kyla Ross has been generating a lot of chatter. She came in second to Wieber at Pac Rims and won the Jesolo meet with a .8 lead over Aly Raisman. I'm very impressed with this girl. If I had to make a team right now, she would be on it. She has amazing lines and a clean bar routine, which the US really needs right now. Her beam routine is beautiful but still has power and difficulty. She also has the now necessary Amanar vault and can execute well enough. I'm pretty confident in her abilities to deal with pressure, but I wish she'd been a senior for longer so I could have seen more of her gymnastics, especially on a world stage. I would definitely consider her a contender in the all around at Nationals and Olympic Trials.
Kyla's beam (from 2012 Pac Rims):
In my eyes, Kyla Ross is seriously challenging Aly Raisman in her bid for the Olympic Team. Everything was looking very solid for Aly until Kyla started posting great all around scores as a senior. I'll say it--I am a HUGE Raisman fan and I will always be rooting for her. As much as I love Kyla's lines and understand that we could really use her on bars, I will never get myself to choose her over Aly. I love Aly's strength and determination, I love her tumbling, and I love watching how she's learned from Alicia. I feel like people are cutting her out just because of her bar routine, but everyone is forgetting that she came in 4th at Worlds, even with a very large mistake on bars. And that was without her Amanar. She has beyond proven herself to Martha of her ability to be a solid, reliable competitor, and I think it's only fair to give her a shot. I desperately want her to compete in the all around in the Olympics, but the two-per-country rule would probably leave her slightly behind Kyla, and therefore out of the competition. I guess I'm being overly partial here, but I don't think it's fair to leave her off of this team. She has a legitimate shot at winning gold on floor and would be mature and dependable in qualifications and team finals.
Aly's Floor (from 2012 American Cup):
Another girl everyone has been talking about is Rebecca Bross. She competed bars and beam in Jesolo, and hit beam, but fell on bars. In my opinion, she hasn't been looking too strong. I really do feel for her--she has such determination and wants to succeed so badly. Her injuries are holding her back, though. She keeps doing very difficult skills that are a little bit scary (most obviously her Patterson dismount on beam). I know we're getting very close to Trials, but I think she could have held back a little bit and not competed the landing she fell on TWICE at Nationals last year. As much as I admire her strength, I'm not sure I would feel confident putting her on the team. Even though she could be valuable as a bar worker, I feel more confident with Gabby and Kyla that we can count on for other things. I'm not sure what happened with her--maybe it was all of the WOGA "threepeat" pressure--but she just hasn't been able to come back from her injuries as well as many suspected. Although I don't think I would put her on my team, I do hope she recovers enough to compete well at Nationals. She has worked so hard and really deserves it.
Rebecca's beam (from 2012 Jesolo):
I think that's enough for one blog. More to come! Let me know if there's anyone you'd like me to discuss!
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