U.S. (CoverGirl) Classic - Gymnastics

Finally finished watching (and rewatching) the U.S. Classic yesterday. At least, the senior portion of the competition. Still need to go to YouTube and gymnastike to see routines I missed (as well as the juniors), but I watched all of the Universal Sports coverage. I can't remember getting so scared watching a gymnastics competition. So many falls and not just falls, but scary falls/landings. And I hope our gymnasts get the confidence to really rock a beam routine. It's lacking right now, and it kind of feels like I took Shawn and Nastia for granted a little bit. I'm sure Martha is very disappointed with balance beam, since she was the BB coach during her and Bela's gym coaching days. And of course, uneven bars is not a strong point overall for the U.S. at this point. It's really sad because for decades, UB was the standout event for the U.S (and it's one of my favorites).

Aly Raisman's fall was the worst. I am so glad she is OK, because that fall could have caused a serious injury. She was said to have been overrotating the Amanar in training/camp, and I would prefer for her to do it the Shawn Johnson way (take a small step forward) than to try and go too hard for the stick and not overrotating. At least at this point. She bounced back well enough on UB, which is kind of impressive since it's her weaker event. Loved her sky high opening double arabian on floor! Very impressive, and my favorite thing I saw from her that night. And I give her credit for hitting her BB routine as well. In terms of hitting the routine and confidence, one of the best of the night.

Sami Shapiro was another big scare, of course. Universal Sports just didn't show her vault in motion. But it was still scary to see Shapiro sitting on the vault mat and not getting up. One of the biggest scares of the night. I was so afraid she'd come back from injury only to injury again in her comeback competition. I wish she could have finished and made the podium. Thankfully it was just hyperextension, but that's still painful, and I hope she will be just fine and able to compete to her full ability at Nationals in a few weeks. I thought she was great on BB as a jr. but paid more attention to Larson and her wonderful floor presentation - think I like her as much as Larson now. GORGEOUS style. I wish she could have finished and made the podium.

Alicia Sacramone - very pleased with how she did! USA Today agrees. Very happy she's back, and I hope things go very well for her at Nationals. Thank you Alicia for providing the exclamation point to this meet! Love the football boyfriend, Brady Quinn, coming to a gymnastics meet. I want her on the world team. She looks to be in fantastic shape (and she really rocked the purple)! The U.S. needs someone who seems confident enough to rock a routine. It was lacking in this competition. She is a spark plug for the team. I just hope we don't have to keep hearing about her screw ups from 2008. We know what happened, let,s move on. I'm sure she wouldn't mind. Enjoyed her commentary as well.

Mattie Larson - extremely happy she won! I anticipated her coming to the senior ranks when I saw her floor in 2007. She and Rebecca Bross were my favorite juniors then. So happy she is back. I guess Saturday was a night in which I felt like making comparisons in the looks department, because I thought she looked like a mixture of Hollie Vise, April Burkholder, and Ashley Postell . Would like to see her floor choreography change up - liked the routine, but it looked like her old floor too much, like, "let's take the dance from the old and put it to new music." The turn on her stomach is a trademark Mattie move, though, so I don't mind that part. Hope she has a top three finish at Nationals to hopefully increase her chances at the world team. She really needs to pull out all the stops on floor and hit her vault as well as she can.

Rebecca Bross - still love her on UB, and I love her on BB, but I am hoping (and I bet she is, too!) that she gets over this "one big mistake a competition" phase she's going through. At least this was a smaller competition. Nastia went through the same thing for a while, and everything worked out for her at the end. She won silver at her first worlds, which was the first one of the quad, and the same happened for Rebecca. Both Nastia and Rebecca also finished second to their U.S. teammate who won the gold (2005 - Chellsie Memmel, 2009 -Bridget Sloan). Carly also only won a world silver AA medal (thought it was the world championships before the Olympics).

Mackenzie Caquatto - girl looks like a cross between Wendy Bruce and Michelle Campi. Takes me back to the early 90s, with a touch of late 90s (Vanessa Atler - who I think slightly resembled Campi at times, and I told her so). At first I thought she looked more like Michelle Campi, but now I think Mackenzie is much more Wendy Bruce looking. Has Tasha Schwikert/Chellsie Memmel type of UB routine - love it.

Kytra Hunter - LOVE the tumbling. It just looks so effortless and smooth to me. Often powerful tumbling/difficult tumbling does not look that smooth (i.e. Dos Santos), but she does it. Love that Kelli Hill has another great top gymnast. Kytra and Mackenzie are going to rock at Florida!

Vanessa Zamarippa - Favorite in NCAA and I love that she's doing elite since she's so talented. Didn't pop as much for me on FX in this competition, but as I understand it she had to change her routine around. Looking forward to her development in elite and NCAA. What did pop is her personality! I love her spirit. I hope to see more of her in elite gymnastics. I'd love for her to make the national team and get an international assignment. She is certainly at the right college for deciding to go back elite, with Miss Val and Chris Waller behind her. She could be even more of an inspiration for Sam Peszek to continue elite when she gets to UCLA.

Bridget Sloan - scared me when she did her UB dismount. I haven't seen her BB routine yet. I hope she is ready to go for Nationals. If she wasn't ready for this competition, then I don't blame Bridget and Marvin for not having her do all the events. She is already qualified to Nationals. Plus she's the world champion and a veteran. I am going to give Team Bridget the benefit of the doubt and think they are doing what's best for her.

CGA girls: Cassie Whitcomb - nice to see she is still in the running for a world team based on her UB and FX. Amanda Jetter - another Amanda for Mary Lee Tracy. Hadn't seen her before. MLT's comments about her BB routine were interesting (the words "garbage" and "you look like an idiot" were throw out when talking about how her skills went) - I'm sure they were in good fun and humor, but it was kind of surprising for me to hear them.

Who had Shawn Johnson's old music?

Without thinking much about scoring potential and who would compete what events, my spur of the moment dream world team was Sloan, Bross, Larson, Sacramone, and Whitcomb or Shapiro. That was with me thinking only five gymnasts were going to this world championships, too. But with there actually being six going, and with me paying attention to scoring now, it's down to Whitcomb, Hunter, Caquatto, and maybe Shapiro for who will be the fifth and sixth gymnast. I will be very happy as long as Sloan, Bross, Sacramone, and Larson make the team. I'm not really getting into analyzing what's the best and most realistic team right now.