Watching the seniors - P&G

[3rd_time_around]

In no way am I only looking at her faces during floor exercise. I am also looking at her face when interacting with her coaches. When she came off the podium after beam Kittia was talking to her and she literally turned and walked away. Kittia gave most of her corrections or comments to the back of Gabby's head. This is disrespectful and it's not the first time she done this on camera. She sure as heck wouldn't do it to Martha, I think her own coach should garner equal respect.

I find most of the elite gymnasts to always look stone-faced. It was the thing that turned me off of Rebecca Bross. She NEVER smiled. We nicknamed her the Ice Queen at our house. I know how hard they work, and I know concentration, but there's a difference between a game face and a stone face. Even if they have that serious, dramatic look during their routines, I wish they'd smile at the end. They just did something amazing, enjoy it!

 

[3rd_time_around]

Yes, and when describing them said Kim needs to find a way to motivate her since she is so young. She is the same age as Laurie and the same age Kyla was in 2012. They also kept calling her "little Ragan". Them trying to play up that angle really left a bad taste in my mouth.

This. She used to compete in our state, against my kid (different age group). She's always been very small, but enough! She's about to be 16, she's not a baby. Yes she's cute, yes she's small, but she's a young woman and deserves the respect that the other 16 year olds get. Her mom is also very small. There are no cute points in scoring, focus on her skill and strength and ability.

 

[3rd_time_around]

Not loving her leo tonight. The back is cute, though. I love Maggie's leo!

On another note...Simone's 1st vault, amazing! But why on the live scoring does her vault total not add up...and I thought they kept the first score, soon shouldn't it be higher anyway? Or am I missing something?

Didn't like Simone's leo at all tonight. It looked like a priest's collar. Loved her Day 1 leo, though. One of my favorites tonight is Gabby's, very classy, very pretty, nice color. Ragan's Day 1 also not liking it, but loved Elena Arena's Day 1. Lots ot hot pink out there this year. I hope the team has patriotic colors this time, they really need to bring them back. Alpha Factor has a beautiful patriotic comp leo.

 

[Seeker]

re: the Simone hop, I'm wondering if she is saving her ankles for Rio and so just plans a little rebound and taking the 10ths instead of fighting for sticks (since she can afford it!).

This is it... She's not really trying to stick it here. Save her knees and ankles.

 

[raenndrops]

Didn't like Simone's leo at all tonight. It looked like a priest's collar. Loved her Day 1 leo, though. One of my favorites tonight is Gabby's, very classy, very pretty, nice color. Ragan's Day 1 also not liking it, but loved Elena Arena's Day 1. Lots ot hot pink out there this year. I hope the team has patriotic colors this time, they really need to bring them back. Alpha Factor has a beautiful patriotic comp leo.

With GK/UnderArmour as a sponsor… it may look weird for Team USA to compete in AF, lol. Kinda like the issue the Mens Basketball team had the first time they let pros play and half of them had contracts with a rival company.

 

[raenndrops]

I find most of the elite gymnasts to always look stone-faced. It was the thing that turned me off of Rebecca Bross. She NEVER smiled. We nicknamed her the Ice Queen at our house. I know how hard they work, and I know concentration, but there's a difference between a game face and a stone face. Even if they have that serious, dramatic look during their routines, I wish they'd smile at the end. They just did something amazing, enjoy it!

We saw Gabby smile a few times tonight

 

[Gymmommy71]

Whoever that was sitting next to Gabby when she finished bars had a gorgeous teal/light blue and black leo - I tbink it was Nia Dennis, but not sure. It was my favorite Leo tonight. I liked Ashton's leo too.

Wow did I feel bad for Mikayla Skinner on beam. That was a disaster. Can't believe they showed that in the footage actually :/.

 

[l.c.o]

Gabby didn't have a good meet. Not disastrous, but not good. But there's something to be said for her being 'off' and still placing 4th in the US. I hope she pulls it together at trials.

Personally, I like it when gymnasts look like they love what they're doing and are good role models for our kids (so, not shrugging off coaches on national tv). So as a person, she's not a current favorite (she's totally not losing sleep over it). But in the end, I think our best gymnasts should go to the Olympics, regardless. Whether Gabby is on that list remains to be seen. If she is, we'll cheer loudly for her.

BTW I thought Gabby's leo was gorgeous, and we called her Elsa all night. Ashton was Ana.

Simone. Her leo? Not my favorite - I think the high collar could have worked had it been the main color of her leo and had not been white. Those vaults though... Wow! And am I the only one who was glad she had a rough (for her) beam? With the law of averages she's got to have an off one sometime, and I'd much prefer it to happen now and not later, please and thank you!

 

[bogwoppit]

Wow did I feel bad for Mikayla Skinner on beam. That was a disaster. Can't believe they showed that in the footage actually :/.

What a nightmare for her. Event was live and she was last, pretty much no way of not showing it.

 

[munchkin3]

Whatever those beads are, I'm prepared to send Ragan 5 buckets of them if she can put her head back in the game. i know its a long shot since there are so many awesome girls, but I still think she can do it if she is aggressive!
My DD went to bed when Mikayla split the beam....she got up and said good night......( I give the split beam award to Jr. Shshennikova)

 

[Seeker]

What a nightmare for her. Event was live and she was last, pretty much no way of not showing it.

They could have opted to not show it on replay from several different angles though.

 

[bogwoppit]

They could have opted to not show it on replay from several different angles though.[/QUO

True enough. Schadenfreude at it's worst.

 

[Tuppy]

Honestly did admire her iron will to keep on going. But agreed, wish they did not replay it from every angle, as the parent in me was broken hearted for her. My daughter always disliked beam as the last rotation....

What a nightmare for her. Event was live and she was last, pretty much no way of not showing it.

 

[Flyaway]

I'm so glad dd went to bed before the last rotation (we're pacific time so it was already 10:30pm!). Watching Mikayla split the beam would have freaked her out!

 

[CameraShy]

Watching Mikayla split the beam freaked me out! DD's eyes just about bugged out of her head. If anything though, it showed her that even these girls make mistakes and have a bad event.

 

[peginer]

When they talked about Kim Z rewarding her with beads for not crying and good routines I realised that Ragan is just very immature. Maybe in 4 years she will be killing it, but any 15 year old that is motivated not to cry by beads is really not ready for this process.

I totally agree! Her stock went down when I heard that. She is not mature enough yet to represent her country. My 14 year old daughter thought that was laughable and childish to rely on beads for motivation.

 

[Teezi]

The bead thing is defiantly different. At our gym when you get a new skill or medal in the all around you get a sticker on our giant sticker chart. I know I like it because it makes me feel like my new skill is noticed? But I say if Ragan likes the beads we shouldn't judge her about it. I think it's rude the way they try to make her seem so much younger then she actually is just for how she looks

 

[josie55]

We watched it tonight. After reading here what happened with Mikayla I thought about turning it off early but glad I didn't. DH kind of freaked out when he saw the beam split but DD didn't bat an eye. DH said "that must have hurt" and she said "oh it really hurt, but you see, look how she got up and finished her routine. THAT'S harder than splitting the beam and is what's so impressive." Ahhhh this made me happy to hear.

 

[leapfrog]

The bead thing is defiantly different. At our gym when you get a new skill or medal in the all around you get a sticker on our giant sticker chart. I know I like it because it makes me feel like my new skill is noticed? But I say if Ragan likes the beads we shouldn't judge her about it. I think it's rude the way they try to make her seem so much younger then she actually is just for how she looks

About the beads, I also don't think it is that weird. I am quite a bit older than her, and my gym has quite a few people around 15ish, and we get stickers for mastering special routines, and a cookie for each stick at a competition, a candy if you complete all tramp routines (T&T). Everyone who wants the incentives gets them (a couple kids usually opt out) Personally, I don't end up with many cookies, but man it makes sticking a routine feel better

 

[munchkin3]

Our kids sometimes get stickers that can go on your face.