Catty Comments here,
From Gymnastike & Couch Gymnast, both Alicia Sacramone and Clubfoot the Raisman went down with injuries in practice on Thursday, only 2 days before qualifications.
Raisman actually returned to working out on bars, so hopefully she can still compete. Everyone's talking about Sacramone's injury, and she left the workout on crutches. No doubt that Shawn Johnson, the non-traveling alternate, is being yanked out of the grocery store and thrown on a flight to Tokyo as I type.
UPDATE: Clubfoot the Raisman, per AP's Nancy Armour @nrarmour "is NOT hurt or in doubt."
Japan is a 14 hour time difference from Iowa. Shawn would never be able to function. Not to mention the equipment is different and Shawn doesn't even do floor anyway! We can easily insert Douglas or Raisman into vault and Maroney or Vega into beam (that would suck, but it's better than nothing).
ReplyDeleteMaybe we shouldn't have two friggin Selection camps 2 weeks after Nationals and maybe Marta should give these girls a day off from pounding during the training at Worlds. OMG.
Anon - at 9:28 - you took the words right out of my mouth. These girls are expected to train and competeat a top level for a RIDICULOUS amount of time, again and again and again. This was BOUND to happen. Will someone PLEASE fire Marta now??? I am so mad right now!
ReplyDeleteAlso, they cannot switch their 7 gymnasts less than 24 hours before the competition. I am assuming that Shawn would need to physically be there to get accredited... but maybe not?
ReplyDeleteI agree that it would be hard for Shawn. Very hard. But the alternative may be that we are competing without 3 athletes Li, Raisman and Sacramone- which means we aren't competing as a team at all and would have to bow out. I think even a zombie-fied, jet lagged Shawn would be better than having to have the team withdraw from the competition. Even if we only got 8th place, at least we would qualify to London without having to go to the "second Worlds" in January.
ReplyDeleteI think that you need a visa to even make it into Japan. The world is not going to stop for gymnastics
ReplyDeletetoo tired to think straight...
ReplyDeleteassume asac is out and we have to sub ann li back in and asac2 is ruduced to just bars.
what would our prelim line up be???
On the good side, at least the four we have left can all compete all-around if necessary in Quals.. Even then US will be top 8 for sure, even with some falls.. Wieber, Douglas, Vega, and Maroney. Suddenly Martha looks like a genius for having Vega there (and an idiot for injuring everyone else)
ReplyDeleteYou dont need Visa for US Citizen to enter Japan before you go, you will get Visa as you Enter.. and if you are not going to stay more than 90 days on Business / Vacation, the visa is more or less auto granted at immigration :)
ReplyDelete- Exp
Unf*ckingbelievable.
ReplyDeleteOh my God. This CANNOT be happening. All my best to Alicia for a full recovery. Thank God Aly seems to be okay.
Shawn Johnson-YOUR COUNTRY NEEDS YOU!!! STAT!!!
All of a sudden it looks like a squad made entirely of first year seniors...
ReplyDeleteIt is pathetic that a so called Doctor like Larry Nassar who is supposedly an athletic trainer as well would let this go on. I personally hope that every gymnast he has ever treated sues him. It is totally a case of putting your personal ambitions ahead of what is best for the gymnast. Total malpractice. I urge each and everyone of you to report him to the the medical boards.
ReplyDeleteWhat's this got to do with Dr. Nassar? He's not the one who came up with this insane selection/training system we have. Direct your anger somewhere else.
ReplyDeleteWell, it's a good thing we have a healthy 4-event alternate there, right?
ReplyDeleteGRRR! I could see this coming after Li was hurt and off in training. Marta should have had Shawn on the plane a day ago. She is so damned last minute. Frikking David Durante would have probably literally walked down out of the stands in 2008 and competed if we needed him to...but our 08 alternates were in a foreign country.
Throw a leotard on Nastia. She's in the stands somewhere. I get that a lot of people are pissed off, but they make it sound like Marta is walking around with a baseball bat clubbing girls in the legs. Before you get so fired up, you might want to ask the Romanians, Russians and Chinese what their training schedule has been the past month.
ReplyDeleteA lot of your aren't thinking straight... Prelims is 6-5-4. You only need to send up 4 gymnasts, and if Raisman competes, we have 5 girls. (And I imagine Anna Li is still capable of swinging a bar routine in an emergency, which makes it 6 girls) That's plenty. You do NOT have to be a strong team to make the top 8 (Finals). We will do it easily, even with 4 girls, so don't worry. It appears Raisman is fine anyway.
ReplyDeleteIt is pathetic that this happens so often to the US team though. Marta always overworks them in her quest to pick the "perfect team", and by the time Worlds finally arrives, it's the "5 or 6 girls left standing".
I know this is no time for laughter, but I love how you call her "Clubfoot the Raisman"
ReplyDeleteBy no means an original thought, but any other country that broke this many top athletes in the month before a major event would not be able to field a team. Even with our depth, we are perilously close to having the bare minimum 4 - and my understanding is that you have to qualify for the Test Event, so if we were down to 3 gymnasts, we might miss out on the Olys all together. I mean, Becca, Macko, Chellsie, Anna, now Sac - that's a top 8 team right there. (And while Sac's and Chellsie's bodies just gave out, Martha deserves blame on the other 3.)
ReplyDeleteDr. Nassar has actually spoken out against the current code and described it as being too tough on the gymnasts bodies, he later removed his comment...no doubt he was asked to by "higher authorities". This isn't his fault...he is there to treat and diagnose as needed. Not set the rules. It's crazy what they expect from them. It has become survival of the fittest and not necessarily based on talent anymore! Poor girls...they work so hard for this, dedicating their entire lives (and bodies).
ReplyDeleteInteresting that Anna Li is still the alternate. My understanding is that Alicia is still on the roster even though she won't compete in the line up and if the US wins a medal Alicia will get one too--making her the most decorated female gymnast in US history (in terms of world championship medals).
ReplyDeleteI think actually competing will put Anna Li off the alternate list (assuming shes put in TF). I'm guessing that will tecnically dropm Asac to alternate & thus no medal.
ReplyDeleteDidnt AJ call it in a previous post? Aka "asacs expiration date". Sigh. Wish i had believed it. So sad.
This is horrible. I agree, that this is no laughing matter, but the fact that you still call her Clubfoot the Raisman kills me! haha. But I am sad to hear she had a injury scare. Hopefully this won't hurt her chances on floor. Yes she can't dance but the girl can tumble!
ReplyDeleteAs for A.Sac... hearing this news as I walked in from the bar last night totally was a buzzkill. She was looking good in podium training. I would even say she had a chance to be two time vault champ the way she was looking. Also that means no "Sacramone" vault this year either. :( I can only hope she can pull it back together for London. Stay strong A.Sac!
Get Shawn on a plane and sub her for TFs if Anna isn't healthy?
ReplyDeleteShawn should have been on the plane the second it looked like Anna wasn't ready to go...
ReplyDeleteI don't think all the blame should be placed on Marta but her and the code. The code has got to change. It's getting slightly ridiculous. I've heard she did something to her achilles so it'll be interesting to see how or if that affects her Olympic chances.
ReplyDeleteThis makes the team finals a bit more interesting now, IMO. I just hope that whatever happens that the US qualifies a team to London.
Also I've heard rumors that Marta is stepping down after next year. Has anyone else heard the same or have any more info??
Is there a reason why team usa didn't fly 2 alternates in the first place? It sounds like Li was injured prior to the 1st camp and was hoping to work through it. So basically, they already had an injured girl in tow they were hoping would be OK for ONE event in time.
ReplyDeleteSmart.
Marta is stepping down after the 2012 Olympics.
ReplyDeleteI hope Shawn is on a plane and on her way to Japan right now. She would be more useful than Li since her beam is stronger and her bars scores were comparable when she hits.
ReplyDeleteShawn is NOT on her way. She's been tweeting over the last few hours, and none of it is about Japan.
ReplyDeleteBut how much more useful is a jet lagged gymnast who will have very little time to adjust to the equipment? It sounds like another potential recipe for disaster. She should have been there when they named an injured girl their alternate. Foolish.
ReplyDeleteWTF would SHAWN add at this point? Please be serious. Her bars have the lowest start value on the team besides Maroney, and her beam is not spectacular enough to the point where it would make any real sense to fly her all the way to JAPAN to replace Alicia on beam. It's just silly. The Shawn ubers irk me to no end.
ReplyDeleteShawn should have been in Japan already. Then there would have been no issue.
ReplyDeleteAlicia has only recently been training full time. The rest of the time she spends fucking her boyfriend in Denver hit spots. She got injured because of that.
Alicia looked slim. It's hard to know her exact conditioning, but the achilles injury is really more probably related to the impact of training itself, not to being out of shape. It is that sort of injury.
ReplyDeleteShawn should have been in Japan as soon as Li went down. Li probably never should have made the team. She has not shown much on her premier event. Shawn scores similar, but just with high E instead of high D.
Ha!! all of you doubted the team with vega and yet they still manage to win gold without shawn...
ReplyDelete