WAG Kara Eaker's beam at Worlds

[Flippin'A]

My heart breaks for Kara. Al Fong has been coaching since the 70s. He shouldn't need a wakeup call in 2019 to properly compose a beam routine. And there's no excuse for filing an inquiry for a gymnast who's safely through the the EFs. Pretty much everyone failed her here.

 

[doublestrike]

She's on the national team, all the national team coaches should have worked on this prior to the competition, people had been commenting on it all year. It's their job to get her coach's attention and overrule their egos. They had time during selection camp and then again prior to making the decision to inquire to think about her routine composition. I feel incredibly bad for her and her parents. It will be interesting to see what they do before team finals, because it won't get credit now for sure.

 

[Ginger]

It will be interesting to see what they do before team finals, because it won't get credit now for sure.

I am not sure and can't find it anywhere, does anyone know how the team finals work? Same as qualification (team of 5, 4 on each event, 3 best scores count) or it is only 3 on each event and all scores count?

 

[amiandjim]

3 up, 3 count.

 

[josie55]

I found this video that seems to walk through it slowly for those of us who may have trouble following this stuff.

What I still find difficult is that the video angle on the leap in question seems to make it difficult to see what's going on, right?

And as much as it seems annoying that the coaches would contest a score when she'd already qualified, perhaps they were trying to play the long game? Maybe at least the issues have been identified prior to the team competition? That said, I kind of wonder if you can just ask for an explanation, versus contesting a score?

 

[Flicfliclay]

US gymnasts also suffer from generous domestic scoring and paying of skills/connections at times - Sacramone competed a floor routine at without a proper passage of dance on floor at one worlds that went un-noticed all year domestically. co-gym owner was also head floor judge at Nationals which arguably helped her win over another great floor worker without the name, but it hurt Sacramone in the long run. It has been pointed out that Mykayla Skinner had a 14.4 on beam at the recent trials when internationally not many gymnasts are going above 14. Did she actually hit all her connections and had some split miraculously or lenient judging. Inaccurate home scoring means you have gymnasts who look good on paper but will never score like that under international judges who do not have blinders on or any reason to help certain gymnasts.

Gage has traditionally had poor sheep/ring positions and poor composition, not a good mix under the current code where this can be penalized heavily.

I believe Mykayla may have done a new dismount on day two giving her a higher beam score.

 

[Carabistouille]

What I still find difficult is that the video angle on the leap in question seems to make it difficult to see what's going on, right?

Even from this angle it's still pretty obvious. Here is the ring leap (note that her front leg is already going down, it was actually the worse skill) :

Here is the switch ring :

And, for comparison, the ring jump, which was the only one who got credit (not perfect, but good enough and deserving credit) :

And as much as it seems annoying that the coaches would contest a score when she'd already qualified, perhaps they were trying to play the long game? Maybe at least the issues have been identified prior to the team competition? That said, I kind of wonder if you can just ask for an explanation, versus contesting a score?

Yeah, I guess they could have asked or just figured it out by themselves, just like we did...
Also the issue with the inquiry is that it draws attention on it, so the judges will know what to expect for TF.

I agree with whoever said she was failed by her coaches and by the NT staff. It's a shame really, because her form is otherwise quite lovely and she is obviously quite flexible so finding dance elements that fit her shouldn't be a problem...

@Flicfliclay Oh, interesting ! Would you happen to know which dismount ?

 

[bookworm]

Shades of Jordyn Weiber.... arrogance of a coach who thinks their gymnast won't get deducted for a skill that has DEDUCTIONS written all over it, and then has the balls to submit an inquiry...and lose points. Kara is a lovely gymnast with enough talent to have a beam routine that meets all the requirements and doesn't leave her vulnerable to a debacle like this...

 

[wandrewsjr]

That Eaker was still the 2nd highest American, and 9th in the World, with a debacle routine, shows how good she is. Just reconstruct the damn routine.

 

[Pineapple_Lump]

That Eaker was still the 2nd highest American, and 9th in the World, with a debacle routine, shows how good she is. Just reconstruct the damn routine.

Also not much higher than her team-mate who fell... Maybe she would be a true specialist if the adults around her understood the rules of the sport and their implications in all scenarios.

Which you would think that the national team coordinator would be able to pick up on or at least make someone in charge of routine construction. Someone should be analyzing routine composition and checking dance skills when there has been so much feedback internationally about how strict the judging is of these elements.

 

[IreneKa]

Well, this was better! 14.000, 6.0 difficulty. Of course I don't know anything, was watching for those ring elements, they looked better to me. But looking forward to the full analysis of this routine compared to the one in Q.

 

[amiandjim]

They took out the switch ring! Smart!

 

[TumbleTimes4]

I don’t think it helped her going directly after Suni either. Suni has a beautiful ring in her routine (at least I think it’s a ring, still learning all of this!).

 

[Carabistouille]

I don’t think it helped her going directly after Suni either. Suni has a beautiful ring in her routine (at least I think it’s a ring, still learning all of this!).

It is indeed a ring and it's beautiful indeed !

 

[FlippinLilysMom]

She might be in the beam finals now...

 

[MILgymFAM]

She might be in the beam finals now...

What happened to change things?

 

[FlippinLilysMom]

What happened to change things?

Ellie Black injured her ankle on vault during AA this morning. No word on how bad the injury is but if she can't do beam then Kara is in.

 

[MILgymFAM]

Ellie Black injured her ankle on vault during AA this morning. No word on how bad the injury is but if she can't do beam then Kara is in.

Thanks for the info!

 

[txgymfan]

Ellie is definitely out of beam finals

 

[Flyaway]

Ellie is definitely out of beam finals

Yes and Kara is in. I haven't seen it announced anywhere official yet, but I follow Coach Fong on Instagram and he shared it on one of his stories this morning.