Nastia to compete 2 events only at Nationals.

Probably a good thing since she looked so bad at the Cover girl Classic. We all know US judges will ignore her form problems and bobbles but will Grandi let the Worlds judges do their job and score her properly? I doubt it but we will see

Here is the article,

Liukin makes decisions about AA

People also seem to think that Nastia is a lock for the World team in October but what if she doesn't look better at Nationals and the training camp? Will she still get a free pass or will Marta man up and sit her butt down?

There is no team event so her UB has no extra value to help the team. IMO if someone looks better Marta needs to send a message to Nastia and keep her home. She either needs to give a 100% effort or not bother. I see no point in sending her just for bars.

In the past Marta has had no problem doing just this. She sent Samantha Sheehan to an individual worlds and Sam came home with a medal. At one point she led the competition so she had a chance to win the World title but Sam was no Olympic AA champion. Does Marta have the guts to sit down the Olympic Champ when it is so obvious to the world that Nastia is not the same gymnast she was last year? At least not yet.

Lets take a look at Nastia's chances on her two "best events? First we have bars. On bars Beth Tweddle, He Kexin and any number of Chinese gymnasts could literally keep a hit Nastia off the medal podium. Beam is a lot less tricky. Nastia could win a medal by just showing up. Not because she is better then everyone else but because when she is on she is very clean. (minus the hand positions in her jumps and the less then great jumps most judge ignore anyway) It could be a splat/ sloppy fest ala the 2007 Worlds when everyone made mistakes and Nastia won by default.

The Chinese are inconsistent on the event. WHEN they hit they should win but will they hit? Australia has Lauren Mitchell with an alleged very high A start value (7.2) but she is generally pretty sloppy with the routine. Whoever wins beam will be whoever stays on the event. Nastia takes no risk what so ever in her beam routine but is that enough to put her on the team?

I guess we have to wait to see if Nastia is ready in two months but if she isn't I don't see Marta keeping her home.

2009 US classic. The truth is not good

Olivia Courtney won the meet when Ivana Hong fell on bars. Besides the over scoring of Nastia (see below) I won’t bore you with the details of bad form, bobbles galore and cheap gymnastics of the night but I will give you my overall impression. NO one stood out. No matter how hard Tasha and John harped on how cute Sabrina Vega is that doesn’t make her gymnastics a joy to watch. In fact I found her loud, phony and way to involved with the camera during the meet. (Being cute I will leave for the eye of the beholder) Her form is pretty sloppy and overall her gymnastics has a lot of work needed. Yes she is a junior but that doesn’t change the facts about her gymnastics.

Kytra Hunter has no shot as a Vault/floor specialist if Marta has a brain. Her dance is horrific and her messy style would be killed by the World Judges. Think Natasha Kelley.

Kayla Williams is another gymnast John and Tasha harped on all night as a Vault/floor specialist but I can’t see that happening either. Her tumbling was great but her presentation was horrid. I hate to pick on poor Natasha’s Kelley again but…. Kayla is rumored to be working on a Rudi vault and an Amanar that she has not landed once on her feet but if some how she hits them both at Nationals and the training camp things could change.

Sam Peszek had a very high DTY with great distance but she was short on the second twist and took a step. She was nailing beam until she fell. (Judges might question her sheep jump and switch half , L turn but overall she looked the same as she did last year. Nothing improved. I was really looking forward to seeing how her beam routine was judges last year at the Olympics but the injury took her out.

Cassie Whitcomb won bars with a 14.650 (A score was 5.600 and B score was, 9.050) A few leg separations but overall she reminds me of every Mary Lee Tracy gymnast on bars. Just there. I guess I shouldn’t say that because she was clearly the class of the event last night. She has a few leg separations she needs to tidy up but we all know the judges pretty much ignore those any way.

Georgia Dabritz from Ace gymnastics had a lot of skills in her bars routine but the judges treated her like they treated Grace Taylor as an elite. Not very well nailing her B score with almost 2 points in deductions. (5.400 A- score)

Jana Bieger was a mess all night. Except on vault where I thought her form looked a little better. (still not good but better ) Crossed legs on her 1.5 but not as badly as usual. Her bars was a mess, she made multiple mistakes but didn’t fall. Her beam was another mess and she didn’t compete floor. Doesn’t look good for her this year. Rumors last year had Marta refusing to allow her to compete for Germany which IMO was a pretty ass holy thing to do if it is true especially when Germany is no threat to the US in any team event.

Ivana Hong is now training at Woga and that in itself gets her bonus points from US judges. Her bars was the same form and presentation wise, her beam was a mess with a lot of bobbles for 75 % of the routine. Her DTY looked good but she had a step and her floor was presented well but I can’t remember what she tumbled so I won’t even comment. That is my typical Ivana opinion, unmemorable.

Kaitlyn Clark finished third and I don’t remember seeing her at all on the broadcast. Her best event by score was an 14.05 on beam (A score of 5.400 with a B score of 8.650)

Bridgette Caquatto was hyped by Tasha and John as having an amazing bar routine but her score certainly did not tell that story. A 5.1 A score with nearly 1.5 points off in deductions does not a great routine make.

Kyla Ross a junior from Gym-max won the Junior event but she competed during the day and wasn’t seen. Had the best score of the competition on vault with a 15.2 and that is seniors and juniors. A gym blog has more info on her with some video from earlier in the year. GymBlog She is very impressive for 12 years old. Wants to win juniors this year.

Olivia Courtney won the meet but wouldn’t have if the judges had their way. IMO she was the best and should have won even if Ivana had not fallen. She is an amazing tumbler and swings the bars really aggressively. Not a huge fan of her gymnastics but it’s nice to see someone compete in gymnastics that doesn’t play to the camera. She just went out and did what she did. Olivia was the only gymnast to come even close to getting a plus 14 on every event (Missing beam by half a tenth with a 13.950)

Rebecca Bross is the next it girl according to some. I personally don’t see it. If she didn’t train at Woga no one would even know who she is. She competed only on bars and fell on the dismount (on purpose to protect the injury) Her bar routine was full of leg separations and she has Nastia’s hideous giants.

Overall I guess I was pretty happy we got any coverage but they really need to get rid of John Roethlisberger. He isn’t funny at all. Tasha
Schwikert did okay but some of her comments were over the top. Saying that Jana should have replaced Sam at the Olympics after her injury was impossible. Tasha should have known that. Jana replacing Chellsie on bars is just as ludicrous.

We got an interview with Kim Zmeskal to announce she was pregnant. Umm this is a gymnastics meet try showing routines. Can’t be too mad at Universal Sports this was their first Gymnastics competition on their own without the help of NBC.

Shawn Johnson was at the meet but wasn’t interviewed. Shawn is currently the most well known gymnast in the US over Nastia Liukin (which I don’t get. The AA Olympic Champion deserves a little more attention then the runner up don’t you think? but that being said Shawn is out in the public eye and in many people’s opinion should be the real Olympic Champion over Nastia so hakuna matata.

John insisted that Alicia Sacramone is coming out of retirement. If that happens forget it being this year. Alicia has gained at least 25 pounds since the Olympics and is too busy drinking and partying to be ready this year.

John mentioned tonight that Nastia is still competing because she wants to be the Most decorated gymnast from the United States. I guess Nastia runs around telling this to everyone because Tim Daggett also loves to comment about this. Great you want to have the most medals but bragging about it to everyone is pretty immature. Almost as immature as the way you, Alicia, Sam and Shayla treated Shawn last year. Someone needs to grow up. Running around announcing this to every commentator is not being competitive. It’s being petty. Shannon Miller I am sure is above responding to this type of bragging but I am not. I’ll save that for my next blog:)

Now to what you have all been waiting for….. MY opinion on Nastia Liukin.

Advice for Nastia, Don’t quit your day job. Your commentating skills suck. She babbled through every question and A’s and wouldn’t stop giggling. As for her gymnastics below is what I think. Sorry but her beam is full of cheap skills done badly. She didn’t even change much of the routine around.

Nastia Liukin competed in her first meet since the 2008 Olympics. Probably the second biggest name in gymnastics currently (more complaints on that later) Nastia only competed on beam at the US classic and she did not look good.

Not in gymnastics shape at all Nastia bobbled her way through her beam routine not connecting her front walk over to her backhand spring to back layout, (should have lost connection bonus) bobbling on her jump combination (sloppy not very well done wolf jump) a slightly wonky side somi (the ugliest move in gymnastics next to a full twisting swing down) another bobble on her Onodi to sheep jump (not even close to being connected) Another bobble on her signature move no longer in the code and a near fall on her last jump combined with a simple layout with a step to end the routine netted Nastia a 14.5 for second place on the night. Boggles the mind how the judges only found 8 tenths of deductions in this routine. (5.4 A score for difficulty)

Please do not give me she only trained 8 months this year because I don’t want to hear it. If she isn’t committed to competing this year then don’t expect special treatment. It’s obvious that is exactly what she thinks she deserves this year by bringing out this crappy routine.

Is this how it is going to be this year? Nastia can be a complete mess and still get ridiculous scoring from the judges. I thought it was bad at Nationals and trials last year (6 falls overall and she still ended up in second) but the Olympics even topped that.

Until next time….