2018-2020 Gymnastics Quad Discussion Thread
 

Not sure if anyone else here follows gymnastics at all but I feel like the quad is actually about to start now with worlds coming up and people actually competing unlike the disaster that was 2017 so I feel like this thread is necessary since time is ticking.

I also really made this thread just to showcase ~BITCH SIMONE~ which is officially my favorite iteration of Simone Biles:

Exhibit A: The entire Simone Biles/Morgan Hurd feud, which started with this



on Morgan's finsta, which then Jade Carey sent to Simone :skull: Simone, being the ever mature 21-year-old, decided to tweet that people need to get their reigning world champ and then tweeted how she's being bullied by Morgan and liked a shiiiiiiit ton of tweets bashing Morgan :joker: This then led to them both being on the podium at US Classic and not hugging eeach other :o


Exhibit B: This shady ass ****



like..... :joker::joker::joker: I am SO EXCITED for nationals this weekend and all the drama that will unfold throughout worlds. Bitch Simone is here to stay :love:

Day 1 of women's nationals is starting and Ragan Smith had a DISASTROUS bar routine. Kim Zmeskal and Texas Dreams are breaking all of their gymnasts this year, Emma Malabuyo's out of the comp and Ragan's floor routine was a hot mess in podium training and she nearly snapped her ankles during a triple twist.

Jade Carey's floor upgrades looked really good though :love:

Simone NAILED her Moors on floor but then went out of bounds on her Biles and double-double. Still looks much more comfortable and at ease with her routine than she did at Classics though.

Yuuup and Ragan put her hands down on her beam dismount too.

Simone NAILED her Cheng though, had the tiniest hop and the chest was just slightly down.

Morgan Hurd's floor routine :love: she took out her Moors but it's probably for the better tbh.

Riley McCusker had a good beam routine apart from her nearly hitting her head on the beam on her dismount.

omg Trinity Thomas did the Florida Gator chomp in the middle of her floor routine and I nearly passed out

McCusker's bars was def overscored and Hurd's floor was underscored

lmfao Simone destroyed her bars routine :joker: this isn't fair

Pleased to see Riley hit her double layout on floor even if it was out of bounds! It looked shaky in podium training and I wasn't sure if she was gonna pull a Shannon Miller with it.

omg WHY is Ragan doing floor someone needs to smack Kim Zmeskal bc this is just stupid as hell

I mean that ended up being Ragan's best routine of the night so far but the bar was set incredibly low and she's going to completely destroy her ankle and ruin her whole year soooooo gj Kim Zmeskal

Didn't get to live blog Day 2 but some afterthoughts...

-Simone is unreal and I cannot *WAIT* for her to regain control on her floor passes and hit into the 15s. I also desperately want her to medal on bars at some point so she can have a medal from ever apparatus.
-Morgan and Riley also had very good meets even though I felt like Riley was a tad overscored. Girl practically sat down her front tumbling pass on floor Day 1 and still got like an 8.2 in execution???
-Jade seemed to be severely underscored throughout the whole weekend, but at the same time girl NEEDS to learn how to express some artistry in her floor routine. Like she just *nailed* probably the best Moors ever and then just goes into static poses? :\
-Grace McCallum caught my attention! Her routines are very good at being tailored to a level of difficulty she can handle and her landings are always super solid.
-Ragan Smith.......... idk what Kim Zmeskal is even doing. Homegirl is a walking rag doll who is only being held together by athletic tape and maaaaan did it show. Two awful bar routines, a bad beam routine, and two ****ty floor routines later hopefully they recognize that she needs that ankle surgery. It's really sad bc her floor music was clearly picked for Worlds in Doha but like....... her double layouts were messy this weekend. She nearly snapped her ankle on her "triple" twist. That double Arabian........ girl. I feel bad but she's on the Rebecca Bross path right now and I'm getting more and more doubtful that she'll ever do anything for the US.
-What else hmm... Worlds team! Simone, Morgan, and Riley are obvious locks and I think Jade is a pretty certain one too even with her vaults not being a full difficulty yet. Hopefully she can get her Amanar back in time. As for the fifth spot, I think it's gonna be a race between Kara Eaker, Grace McCallum, and Trinity Thomas and it'll probably come down to who performs best at Pan Ams. Eaker's beam is great but the international judging might destroy her, and McCallum and Thomas are both solid in all of their events so they would be good picks to slide into the UB/BB spot that they'll probably be called upon for in the team qualifying round.

So as incompetent as always, it appears that USAG has no clue how the new qualification system works (yes it's messy, but come on, you're the national organization) and they are somehow under the impression that Jade can't possibly compete as an individual in Tokyo if they send her to Worlds this year........ so the nominative roster is Simone, Morgan, Riley, Kara Eaker, and Grace McCallum with Shilese Jones as the alternate.

:joker::joker::joker::joker::joker: this is so morbidly sad like I am FUMING for Jade but also laughing so ****ing hard.

A) Turns out Jade actively chose not to go for Worlds this year which is like... probably smart for her but terribly stupid for USAG?

B) Simone did this at selection camp. I'm still in obsessed.



C) Ragan Smith somehow weaseled her way onto the team as an alternate at minimum? IDK I'm not particularly a fan of hers anymore just bc I think she should've gotten the damn surgery after 2017 but w/e

D) Simone ROASTED Mary Bono on Twitter bc USAG can't ****ing vet any of their employees and she's one of those awful Nike boycott people. Simone and her coach then proceeded to wear Nike to selection camp bc petty :love:

E) Speaking of petty, here's Ashton Locklear!

https://i.redd.it/z1yrajo5jur11.jpg

Two weeks until worlds!

American girls in qualifying!

UB:
-Morgan did great! Doubted herself a bit on the dismount but hit her handstands really well
-Grace was okay! Quite a bit of leg separation but somehow she almost had nearly the same E score as Morgan bc score building?
-Riley, eeeek :\ she missed a connection that would've really helped her D score and landed really deep on her dismount so she didn't even end up beating Morgan. No way she makes EF :\
-Simone :love: almost went over on one or two handstands but NAILED her dismount and is currently only 0.2 behind the top qualifier!

BB:
-Morgan looked a little hesitant and had some balance checks but nothing major!
-omg and then poor Riley fell in her acro series :( but again she only somehow ended up 0.2 behind Morgan bc of bull**** score-building? Sad that she won't make EF for her two best events and will probably only end up with a team medal. Floor won't happen unless there's insane score building or something.
-Kara did great!! Lots of doubt coming in because of her ring positions (almost a reverse "but her inbars!!!!" type of situation from last year) and how harsh the judges were last year, but she ended up doing great! Can't seem to ever nail her dismount but she has the top qualifying score!
-omg and then Simone things, scoring a 14.8 and taking the lead while she has a damn kidney stone :skull: a few balance checks but she's #1 now and Kara's #2 which is awesome

omgggggggg Morgan's floor takes me on such a journey though she's such a performer. Small hop on her double-double, stuck her double layout, third pass gave me a scare since she's been struggling in warmups but she downgraded and it ended up being fine, and then nearly stuck her double pike! Wonder if that could get her into EF?

13.933 for Morgan!

I actually love Grace McCallum too? Like she has a perfect routine afor her bc she and her coaches know what she's capable of and she hits moves that she can nail the landings for. Nearly stuck double-double, step forward on her forward tumbling pass, small hop on triple twist, nearly stuck double tuck!

I'm loving all of these floor routines, good music selection and good tumbling and WOW I'm thriving rn.

Me during Riley's Nightmare before Christmas floor music: THIS IS FLOOR ROUTINE THIS IS FLOOR ROUTINE

Pretty solid routine for her! Double pike looked under-rotated and she took a hop out of bounds but still good recovery after BB.

13.8 for Grace so Morgan should make EF?

13.266 for Riley, looks like both feet went out of bounds. So yeah, no way she passes Morgan on vault unless Morgan doesn't even land her DTY.

WOW Simone's Moors is just so stunning

yaaaaas Simone didn't have any out of bounds in her floor routine! First time all season? <3 Can't wait to see how absurdly high her score is.

15.33 for Simone :skull: Mai Murakami is in second with a 14.1 for reference

Grace's DTY looked great, 14.6! 14.266 for Riley.

Grace throwing a second vault out there, can she sneak into EF? Not counting on it but bodes well for the future

13.533 for her second vault, her average puts her in 4th right now?!

14.6 for Morgan as well! Small step on the landing

SIMONE JUST CASUALLY DID THE BILES VAULT OMG 15.966 queen jsigo;ajsef

60.965 for Simone, 56.465 for Morgan, 54.765 for Riley