Saturday, April 28, 2012
This and That
Camp starts today in New Waverly, TX. Last minute withdrawals were had by Shawn Johnson and Nastia Liukin. Recently, Nastia has been looking and training better. This marks the third camp that she has missed. Martha was not pleased that she missed the last one. What is interesting is that the gymnasts are expected to show two events at this camp. Nastia is a two-event specialist. It is likely that she is ready on beam, but is not in competition shape on bars. Showing up at camp without a routine ready to win could cause doubt for all parties involved. It is quite possible she could do beam at Classics and then two events at Nationals in order to buy time to preserve her shoulder and get into shape. Time is the enemy for Nastia. At this point, it is very important for her to be able to do at least one event at Classics in order to get back into competition mode, appease Martha and get her own confidence and mindset it order. I fully believe she can pull it off if anyone can, but she has pushed things to the absolute wire. Some of it can be due the timing of her comeback, but part is also due a shoulder that has been uncooperative. I fully believe going to Nationals without at least doing a beam routine at Classics will be beyond costly. One needs an opportunity to get competition jitters and the death of expectations faced by an Olympic Champion expected to be her former self Re: Shawn Johnson at 2011 Classics. Nastia's beam is extremely valuable to Team USA in Team Finals, but it is worthless without a hot bar set.
It is curious for Shawn as the rumors continue that she will do a few events at Nationals because her book comes out that week, but she will likely not do Trials if it is unlikely she will make the team. Shawn has filmed an alarming number of commercials lately based on photos and tweets she's posted, which is telling by how close it is getting to the Olympic Trials process.
In more shocking news, Ashley Priess has petitioned to Classics. This is a girl who walked away from her best Olympic bid possibility. Priess is her own bird. It goes without saying that she may very well regret her previous actions. Our mothers may be correct when they force us to do things we don't feel like doing in order to stave off regret later in life. This is a huge addition and help to the CGA juniors who will get to see an Olympic try first hand. It also brings a bar worker back to CGA and re-establishes it as a 'bar gym.'
Jordyn Wieber update.
Jenny Hansen continues quest.
Zhang Nan visits the Chinese National Team.
A peak at the English National Ballet.
Flashback Interview with Shannon Miller (I hope they will ask about Peggy Liddick at some point, as she was crucial in Shannon's success.)
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I think you need to learn the difference between rumors and speculation.
ReplyDeleteWhat in the above post has been rumour? Everything is 100% accurate. If you don't know what you're talking about, why don't you stop posting and waste everyones, including my time.
ReplyDeleteIs this a serious reply to what I wrote? "It is curious for Shawn as the rumors continue that..."
DeleteObviously reading isn't a priority for you.
I love AJ's writing.
ReplyDeleteI want Nastia to make this team so badly, but skipping yet another camp does not bode well for her. With today being media day there, I thought Shawn and Nastia both be in attendance.
ReplyDeleteIf anyone else was pulling the shit Nastia was pulling you would be having a cow AJ. You're biased, at least admit it to yourself.
ReplyDeleteThere is nothing wrong with Nastia's shoulder. She is lying about that to avoid the obvious, she is too fat to get her bar routine down.
i agree nastia is too fat to get through a bar routine. It is pathetic she did not get her shit together much earlier.
ReplyDeleteI love Nastia's gymnastics, and I think she COULD have been an asset to this time. That being said, it was incredibly arrogant of Nastia to think that she could get her s--- together between the end of the last year and now. I have no sympathy for her. She should have had enough sense to make the decision sooner, rather than killing herself and winding up with shoulder problems trying to make up for 2+ lost years of training. You reap what you sow, kid.
ReplyDeleteYou know, being that Nastia is Olympic champ, I have no doubt that she gets more leeway from Marta than the other national team members....however, even Marta has her limits, and she needs to avoid the appearance of favoritism. IIRC, Marta made it clear that everyone who wanted to be in contention for London needed to be showing routines in April. I'm thinking based on Shawn's sudden slate of tapings/endorsements that she may well have stopped training altogether.
ReplyDeleteI can not imagine that marta is going to take a fat assed gymnast for two events, especially when she can not even do those two events. Seriously fatty thinks it is going to happen after not competing for several years? There is too much at risk. Sorry Nastia, you accomplished a lot, give it up now.
ReplyDeleteI understand why people are pissed at Nastia. I honestly think there is much more about being lost after winning Olympic Gold unsure and insecure about reaching goals that is playing with it more than arrogance. Nastia hid behind a weave and media stuff, a guy, etc for a few years after Beijing and didn't seem to be her true self. People make mistakes, grow up, etc, but I think a lot of people without knowledge of the situation are distorting things a bit...though missing this camp is a very big deal. There is more pressure on her than ever to put up or shut up, because no one is going to do her any favors after she has failed to comply with the rules. The shoulder issue is absolutely real and why she didn't do bars at the last camp she was at. In retrospect, she will learn a ton from this period in her life---it just is a messy situation now that she needs to right.
ReplyDeleteI love how everyone bitches about Nastia only doing it for money and endorsements and gets hate for not going to camp when Shawn has done the exact same thing
ReplyDeleteShawn actually competed a year before the Olympics and has been in the gym for two...
DeleteShawn never made a big deal about a comeback. She just did it. Also, she started training much earlier than Nastia.
ReplyDeleteShawn had a press conference four days into training and invited the cameras in.
DeleteShe did bars the last camp she was at and she was a hot mess. She then skipped the last 3 camps.
ReplyDeleteIt is arrogance and you making excuses for her makes you look as bad as she does. The injury is not real. It is her built in excuse.
The only pressure she is under she put herself in because she is so stuck up and cocky she thought she could pull together a bar routine with half ass training between gym visiting and stuff like the price is right.
I remember Miller's comeback in 2000 where she actually trained and stopped all the BS. She then got hurt and you people ripped her to shreds for not going to Nationals when she wanted to and Nunno wouldn't let her.
The difference is Miller went to camps, did a great job to the point the Jeanette Antolin's, Dominique Dawes and Jamie Dantzschers were bad mouthing her behind her back because she was doing so well at camp. After the injury it wasn't the same but Nastia gets some kind of free ride that no one else gets.
Shawn and Alicia proved themselves with their comebacks. They might not end in an Olympic birth but they didn't lie to everyones faces about training like Nastia has done.
Nastia has always been about Nastia and this is just another case of her needing to feed her ego.
ReplyDeleteWhy are we still talking about her? Fake injuries. More time on twitter than in the gym? Bad attitude? Boring.
ReplyDeleteExcuses by Aunt Joyce. Will you write Nastia's next book? You can change the name of this blog to Ghost writer.
ReplyDeleteNastia is not lost. She isn't misunderstood.She isn't some innocent victim in any of this. She chose to train for a comeback for 2 months seriously and now she looks like a fool.
Everyone knows she is a liar. She is a phony and that she is more concerned with the attention than everything else.
That was proven at last years worlds when she announced a comeback (she had no plans in following through 100 %) with in the middle of Worlds to steal the real gymnasts thunder.
What happened was she saw other girls getting the attention she used to get and she couldn't handle it.
I hope she has a downfall bigger then anything we have ever seen because that is what she deserves. I cannot believe how many people fall for this girl and her lies.
She calls Chellsie fat and says she stole her medal and the excuses are, she is just a teenager. She makes fun of Shawn and enlists Alicia, Sam and Shayla and you make excuses for that too.
Shame on you all.
Shawn made a huge deal about her comeback, far bigger than Nastia did.
ReplyDeleteIt doesn't look good for either one of them.
Everyone is pissed at Nastia for missing camp. Chellsie rarely goes to camp, even when she's healthy. Just sayin.
ReplyDeleteSeriously, Nastia got a Visa commercial and a trip to the Price is Right...woohoo. Shawn got nice shiny Nike deal, Coke commercial, Bounty commercial, trips on Mcdonalds and a book that comes out during Trials (what a coincidence). She also said she probably wont be at Classics.
ReplyDeleteI think the Priess petition is more interesting than either Shawn's or Nastia's antics. She has been training AA consistently (or, as consistently as possible given her injuries) and can still swing bars quite well. Wasn't she throwing toe full + tkatchev + pak her freshman year? She also threw her Rufolva on BB at this year's championships. I am curious to see how this plays out.
ReplyDeleteBut Chellsie is still in the gym training. She isn't running her mouth talking about a comeback she isn't seriously training for. Chellsie shuts her mouth and she shows up and shuts up your mouth.
ReplyDeleteI've always thought it was weird that Shawn Johnson suffered a huge injury to her knee skiing and then decided to try and make a gymnastics comeback and a second Olympics. I mean, why? I think gymnasts have a massive problem moving on from their former glory. Gymnastics is probably 90% a 16-18 year old sport. Any gymnasts successful on a world stage after that age are either freaks of nature (Tweddle, Ponor, the 37 ear old German vaulter) or their country doesn't produce the same level of new junior to senior gymnasts year after year than the US, Russia, China, Romania etc. do.
ReplyDeleteI don't think Shawn, Chellsie or Nastia will make the team. I'm hoping for Alicia Sacramone, but that also seems unlikely.