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First, it is simplistic to compare Olympic selection for gymnastics with other sports. Track and Field are not Gymnastics. We all know that for whatever reason someone might have an off night, but on the balance, over multiple competitions one person will hit more times than not. If Simone had a complete disaster Sunday and fell to 5th would they keep her off the team? Second, this narrative about Riley being inconsistent is completely false, she had hit all of her routines prior to Sunday. If she hits she can certainly medal in bars. Third, lets call this the Tom Forrester narrative since he put it out there after trials, the narrative of "oh its just a couple tenths of a point difference between all of them" is lazy and disrespectful to the athletes that work so hard and the other teams. Tom basically said well we have Simone and after she throws all those big skills its not going to matter. You put the best team you can possibly put together out there. I agree you can make an argument about wanting a solid all-arounder for the fourth spot, but on the spectrum of possible arguments its one of the weakest. But really my biggest issue is that he changed his tune from earlier about putting the best team possible. If we are just going to go rank order then why have a team coordinator? Why have a selection committee? Save the money.
Exactly. He made no coherent argument, just basically showed he's afraid to make an actual decision. Relying on Simone or any 1 person to carry the team is such a mistake. She's not invincible. Here's the correct mentality - Simone goes out on vault, underrotates and wrecks her ankle. Out of commission. Now - select your other team members based on that scenario. Yeah we have alternates for injury, but this should still be the scenario.
That's ridiculous, there is nothing political about taking the mathematically highest-scoring team. Best scoring mix of athletes from championships and trials, done. And it is exactly what Tom said they were going to do before trials. Yes, taking AA order on trials only is one way to do it, and this year it will probably work ok because of Simone but what happens next quad, when Simone is not available and picking the team based upon AA order produces a less optimal team? I am fine if that's the way they want to do it knowing that more times than not they will have the least optimal team. Seems dumb to me but if it is open and communicated in advance then ok that's the rules. That's not what happened this year.
To be fair, this is
Yes. I do suspect his thinking was more nuanced than rank order, despite what he communicated. Riley is truly my favorite of this quad, but there were other intervening factors. And I could be wrong, but I think there’s something about if Jade was pulled as back up for an injured team member, that team member would lose their team spot and therefore gold? Correct me if I’m wrong, it’s a bit confusing. Also, while Grace may not be the vaulter Myk is, she certainly isn’t going to lose the team their gold. It’s not like she had a fluke meet, she has been in contention along. And if Myk was on the main team, she could still be 2-per countried out of the EF by Simone and Jade. I think there’s rationale for a variety of team formations, folks are just frustrated because Tom seemed to communicate a specific strategy then change it. But that’s within the committee’s right, just as it was in Marta’s.
"They'll win anyway so it doesn't matter if we made the best choice" needs to stop being an argument to defend this. It's as insulting to the other competitors as NBC spending 5 minutes showing Simone drinking water and having her foot taped rather than showing their events. They've all worked their lives for this. Whoever would have rounded out the best team, should have been on the team.
I never said it doesn’t matter, I’m just pointing out that there are also flaws in the argument that Myk should have been chosen b/c she has the highest vault score. This is one approach, but there are also weaknesses in this approach just as there are weaknesses in not choosing her. I think it’s going a bit far to say I’m insulting the other competitors...I pointed that there are multiple line ups that could work and rationales for each. I’m not sure which is right and which is wrong, just looking at it from another perspective.
no idea who Kim Kelly is, in all seriousness
In that situation, loosing a few tenths on vault by not having Mykayla is far less of the hit to the team scores than if the team had to use her score on the other three events - so perhaps this was part of the logic. Grace was top 5 on 3 events, Mykayla only on one. Not to mention an international field of judges are likely to be much more thorough in taking deductions on her routines, It will be interesting to see what happens score wise when they all compete in front of diverse judging panels.
That would be fine if that's the reasoning and if it's true. He just didn't say anything like that, basically just saying he used the rankings.
Just wanted to retract this bit. It's incorrect logic, because now I know that in case of an injury, they are expected to draw from the individuals before the alternates. (Which in itself is a bit weird, and degrades from those poor alternates ever having any hope of competing, but I digress.) So it should really either be based on:
