Secret Classic Senior Reflections

I am so excited that the season has begun! From here, we have only two weeks until Nationals, and from there only two-ish weeks until Trials!

The Secret Classic is the first competition on the way to Nationals, with many gymnasts using it as sort of a rehearsal. While I understand and expected that Wieber wouldn't compete the all around, I was upset that Douglas didn't--I wanted to see what a real all around battle would look like without Wieber in the mix. However, we did still see some interesting and exciting things at the competition.

Let's just start off with the obvious: Nastia Liukin. When I walked into the arena, I was shocked to see her competing. I mean, we've all heard about her training and we saw that short video of her training beam, but I never thought I would see the day when she actually stepped out onto the competition floor again. Her beam looked pretty fantastic.  She tied for third, only a tenth of a point behind Jordyn and Aly. Her connections were slow and she lost some points on that, but her lines were absolutely beautiful. I'm so used to seeing Jordyn's routine that's all power, and although I love it too, it's just completely different.  Her leaps weren't quite there, but otherwise it was just beautiful. I actually enjoyed her comeback a lot more than I expected to. In terms of what this does for her Olympic chances, I'm not sure. She did exactly what she needed to do by hitting and getting a solid score. At the same time, we've only seen one event and don't know what else she has in store for nationals. Her beam is great, but if her bars aren't up to par we wouldn't take her just for beam. Although I did really enjoy seeing her compete, it's going to be hard for a specialist to make a team of only five people.

Photo Credit-Gym Examiner

I hadn't really seen Sarah Finnegan compete before The Classic, so I'm trying to figure out how she fits into the equation. Some people are putting her on their Olympic team, but I'm not sure I would make this jump yet. Her bars were weak at the classic, but her floor is fantastic, so that's the trade off we'd have to make. Her beam is really nice; she tied with Nastia for third. She looks really graceful and calm, which I like, but at the same time I'm a little worried about how young she is, and since she wouldn't really help on bars it might be better to have Alicia (if she's ready) who would bring experience to the team.

Another person people were interested in seeing is Rebecca Bross.  Her bars were actually pretty nice, but she fell, once again, on beam. The Patterson dismount is just not working for her, yet she continues to do it. Apparently she was hitting it during training, but I wouldn't feel comfortable putting her on a team with all the inconsistencies she's had. Since her and Nastia are now doing the same two events, you'd have to choose between the two, and as long as Nastia can pull out a bar routine by Nationals, I'd pick her. I get that Bross wants to put in the difficulty, but she just can't hit and that won't work for us in London.

One person who I was kind of disappointed by was Sabrina Vega.  After Worlds last year, many people picked her to be on the Olympic Team as a dependable team player.  Although she did her job at Worlds, at Classics, she messed up her bar routine and only scored a 14.1 on vault and 13.45 on beam because of a bunch of wobbles. Although I love her lines, the scores she brings in just aren't really high enough. Even though she's solid, we have Kyla who can do a much better bar routine, which is where we really need the help.

Gabby Douglas looked really good. Her bars were (as they always are) absolutely breathtaking. I'm liking her more and more, and I'm pretty sure she'll be on the team. While her bars are phenomenal, she's also bringing in other scores in the high 14s and is a really great all arounder. The one thing I'm concerned about is her vault. She scratched vault at Classics, apparently because she sat down every single Amanar she tried in training. Although her Amanar looked nice at the American Cup, I've heard that she hasn't hit it since then. We do need three Amanars for team finals at the Olympics, and it would be nice to have four for qualifications. While she needs her vault to compete with Aly and Jordyn in the all around, even without it we can use her on the team.

There's not much to say about McKayla Maroney. Her vaults, of course, were absolutely beautiful, but her beam wasn't looking too good--she balked on her BHS-LOSO and then had to do it over again. While she covered it up nicely, her score was only a 13.8. We didn't see her bars or floor, so that will also impact how ready I feel like she is. At the same time, I'll be heartbroken if she doesn't compete at the Olympics. We have the best vaulter (by FAR) in the world, and there's a very good possibility she won't be going to the Olympics. While I want the best for the team, it's just not fair to her to keep her home.

Photo Credit-Gym Examiner

Last but definitely not least, there's the most obvious story of Chellsie Memmel. If you've been living under a rock for the past few days, here's the abridged version: She only competed beam at Classics, and wanted to petition to qualify for the all around at Nationals. She fell twice on beam and her petition was denied. Many, many people are very angry about this. Nastia only competed beam and petitioned for bars, which was accepted. There's a wonderful post from Bekah at Get A Grip Gym Blog about all of these discrepancies, so check it out if you're interested. Personally, I feel bad for Chellsie, but at the same time I don't think she would have made the team anyways, so there wasn't much of a point to her competing at Nationals. I do feel bad that it happened this way, though, and that she didn't really get a dignified ending to her career.

Those were most of the big players/stories from the Classic. I might try and post some reactions to the Junior meet, and I'd like to do some best/worst leos from the meet as well. Let me know if you have any ideas!