In my opinion… there is a valid argument for either MyKayla or Grace. I’m glad they published the selection reports. Seemed to make sense to me.
See, I just read the selection reports and -- I agree. Here, they made a coherent argument! Now, PERHAPS this argument was applied after the fact to save face, and cover up the real reasons which were shady and unjust? Or perhaps these were the actual legit reasons from the start. No way to know.
Anyway, if any of those reasons had been indicated initially, instead of Tom's atrocious tweet, there would never have been an issue. I never had any problem with Grace as a team member. I just wanted a reason. This provided enough of one for me.
In any case, a legit selection report days/weeks later still doesn't excuse the aforementioned tweet by Tom, or any of the fallacious arguments being used to defend it, or to defend the choice, or degrade the arguments of others. So for now I must continue:
I don’t like Mykala’s character.
I’m also sensitive to the “ it’s not fair” whining, especially about who makes a team. After years of working with children, that phrase hits my nerves.
So at least you admit you are not objective. Then, you proceed with several fallacies:
"...the 'it's not fair' whining..." - fallacy. Characterizing an argument you don't agree with as "whining."
"after years of working with children" - fallacy. Implying your opponent and/or anyone who calls something unfair is being childish.
And then the combined fallacy, implying that protestations of unfairness must be due to "childish whining" --
Regardless of the "whining" from the children you have worked with, there is PLENTY of actual unfairness in both gymnastics and figure skating (the other sport I watch.) Very skilled individuals with a lot of patience can and have gone through many performances in both figure skating and gymnastics, and painstakingly laid out the case, element by element, point by point, why many scores were 100% provably unfair. One notable example for figure skating is the Olympic win of Adelina Sotnikova in 2014, her ridiculous gifted GOE scores, and (though circumstantial evidence) her subsequent exuberant embrace with the Russian judge. Disgusting.
After seeing the treatment of Riley which was pointed out in the other thread, and watching all the various USAG scandals, it's clear this sport is also not homogeneously populated by objective, fair individuals who are above reproach. When questions arise, they should NOT simply be given the benefit of the doubt. Clear, mathematical analysis can and should be applied.
Above, gymnastics was characterized as subjective. While perhaps technically true, to me this is certainly a strange characterization for a sport which is now based on a code of points, where both difficulty and execution are clearly and methodically scored and deducted, to arrive at a final combined score.
Either an element was completed, or it was not. Either legs were separated, or they were not. Either a step was out of bounds, or it was not. Either a step was a 0.3 step or a 0.1 step. Etc.
Forgive me but, other than a human's inability to completely see and process a multitude of fine muscle movements, fast-changing positions or to judge with 100% accuracy between what should or should not be deducted, I'm actually not quite seeing where gymnastics should really be called "subjective." Are you just saying it's "subjective" due to human inadequacy to call every aspect with computer-perfect precision? Are you saying it's subjective because judges are lacking sufficient personal ethics, penalizing more or less harshly because of unworthy reasons? Or because there's some other subjectivity I'm missing?
It just seems very strange to me to say gymnastics is subjective, where unlike figure skating and its GOE shenanigans, it seems every single aspect could (ideally) be taken element by element, point by point, to arrive at a final, objective score.
