2011 American Cup

96 Olympian John Macready (center) interviews Jonathan Horton (l) and Jordyn Wieber (r)

So it has been a week since this competition took place in Jacksonville. I was lucky to be in attendance at the Jacksonville Veterans Arena to see what went down. It was exciting to be there to see a great field of world class gymnastics. Overall, though, the meet was filled with several mistakes. Still had a good time - I hadn't seen a live meet in nine years.

Men's competition:

Jonathan Horton had a very solid competition. Upon watching the internet/TV broadcast a day after the competition, I was surprised to find out that Jon had been away from major training for a while due to his thumb injury. He looked very prepared. I think he may be hitting a consistency streak now, and I surely hope it continues. He was very fun to watch and the crowd seemed to show him the most love out of everyone, male and female competitors. Philipp Boy was charming and appeared to me as confident in the first event of the night (floor), but mistakes on pommel horse - a rough event for many - put a damper on things. He also faltered on high bar, suffering two falls, but it didn't stop the crowd from enjoying him. I was excited to see Koji Uematsu because of his exciting high bar routine, though his best event of the night ended up being parallel bars. He wasn't completely sharp in the earlier rotations. Mykola Kusenkov did a great job and I was overjoyed for his placement. Almost thought he'd win, and I would have been happy for him because Ukraine could have really used a victory. He is one of my favorites. Jake Dalton came on strong on floor (one of the meet's highlights), then had a rough pommel horse rotation, but he didn't let it affect him and he had a strong showing for third (and for being a last minute replacement). Cyril Tommasone of France did one of two decent pommel horse routines. The British gymnasts - Samuel Hunter and Daniel Purvis - really suffered and had a rough competition. It was sad because they are so much better than what they showed. Hopefully they will bounce back soon for European Championships.

The women:

I wasn't really sure who I thought should have won between Jordyn Wieber (1st place) and Aliya Mustafina (2nd). Both had a fall on one event and had a shaky moment on another event. Mustafina's mistake ended up being more costly, though. Despite the mistakes, I felt Mustafina had a special spark, a special quality about her. Yes, she has her flaws, but there is a star power to her gymnastics, on uneven bars in particular. Her bar routine was the highlight of the meet for me. I also did not see any "diva" behavior from her on the competition floor (though NBC was working hard to get a glimpse of something). Jordyn was super certain of herself on beam and did a great Amanar vault. It is good to see her back in competition. Huang Qiushuang - oh, I wanted her to hit all events so much! Oye! She did a strong bar routine (exquisite lines) and a decent vault, only to fall on beam. Her floor was nice to see in person. Lauren Mitchell just didn't seem to be herself at this competition - perhaps she just was not ready for the meet. She didn't seem down on herself, however, so perhaps this competition just allowed her to get her feet wet for the rest of the year. Aly Raisman was one of two female gymnasts to have a good all around meet. This gymnast is not the classical artistic type of gymnast, nor the most stylish. But she is pretty consistent and just goes out there and does what she is supposed to do. She is cool and calm, and the way she is makes me appreciate her. I wish to see her continue to do well. Ariella Kaeslin - the other gymnast who hit all four events - was nice to watch. Lacking in difficulty on some of the events caused her to finish out of the top four. I have liked this gymnast since 2005. Hannah Whelan, much like her British male counterparts, had a rough meet. She still delivered a lively floor routine (though she fell). Jessica Lopez is another athlete who struggled, but she finished well on beam and floor.

Other things:

Chellsie Memmel and David Durante did in house commentary - they did a great job calling the skills and answering questions from the audience. Everything flowed very well. I wonder why NBC did not show those two like they showed Alicia and Nastia (both of whom were also in attendance)? Just a quick pan of the camera to them and a sentence about them would have sufficed.

The Mag 7 (minus Dominique Dawes) and Svetlana Boguinskaia were also in attendance. It was great to have them there - the Mag 7 were an instrumental part of my involvement with gymnastics. I just wish I could have gotten a better view of them! Svetlana Boguinskaia signed autographs at the International Gymnastics Camp booth. She is a legend in the sport and I felt kind of sad that some of the fans (who weren't kids) did not recognize her, but perhaps some of them were casual fans at best. It was great to get to meet her.

I was surprised Martha was not on the prowl on the competition floor, instead opting to watch seated on the sidelines.