The Shibtanis skating to The Prayer at Evening With Champions.
ESPN has a must-read article on the Shib sibs that confirms just how much of an A+ Asian Skating Mother the two have. She does indeed tape every practice and review it with the kids. They also have a ballet room in their house. Kris Jenner could learn a thing or two from Mrs. Shibutani.
IG spoke to Rebecca Bross about her injury. Rebecca vows to be back in top form, but it is evident that she cannot condition the way she'd like to given the injury. She has a tough battle ahead of her. Sadly, she has spent much of the last four years coming back from injuries. Rebecca's best chance at making the Olympics is doing all four events and hoping she can be considered as a back-up on vault. It will not be an easy road.
Alissa Czisny told Ice Network about her summer training during her media call. Alissa will be performing a Triple Lutz+Triple Toe, a solo Triple Lutz, adding a Triple Salchow and performing two Triple Flips in her seven-triple program. It may be tough for her to be as consistent this season, but she is raising the bar with her technical content. If Alissa wants to be at the top of the sport, she needs to advance technically.
Richard Dornbush will debut a new short at Skate America.
Belu and Bitang are PISSED and ready to clean house in Romania after the team's medalless performance at Worlds.
Team USA preps for Pan Am dominance.
A chance to listen to Die Fledermaus and imagine Marlie's music edits. Once you get past the '96 compulsory section, you realize just how wonderful this program can be. This may be just the vehicle they need to stay on top of the podium this season.
More EWC Vids:
Ginger Jackson finished second in the short at SWP Regionals.
Highlights from last night's '80s night on DWTS:
Are the alternates for Pan Ams (Mossett and Wofford) going with the team to Guadalajara or were they just present for the verification camp the past couple days?
ReplyDeleteAny word on if Shawn is going to compete floor at Pan Ams?
Shawn is not competing floor, yet. -from her twitter
ReplyDeleteBross is going to have a hell of a battle. Think about it, Marta left Shawn Johnson off the World team even though prior to Beijing she was known to be super consistent. She showed up from one meet to the next (Classics - Visas) looking much sharper after a shaky start. Word from camp was that she was hitting and would likely have been named but for the fact that she's only doing 3 events at the moment. Bross likely won't be training her vault until early 2012 IMO. She may do timers and work on her technique until then but I don't see (or at least hope they don't aggravate her knee). On top of all this the Olympic team will be named at Trials, not after countless camps. Bross has to make a splash at Nationals and likely go to Pacific Rims in April just to show she's in contention. She can't show up with 2 strong events, she needs 3-4 of them. After Worlds Marta let it be known that she prefers AA'ers to specialist and on a 5-person team I doubt DOUBT Marta will take more than 1 specialist - and it'll be someone doing spectacular bars. And Bross' competition there will already be Nastia, Anna Li, Macko, and Memmel.
ReplyDeleteCan she do it? Yes but IDK, I think it's a long shot. I know that all surgeries are different but it seems that gymnast usually need 6-9 months to regain most of their skills and feel comfortable at a meet. Pac Rims are in April, National June (?) and Trials June 29, July 1.
It's a shame she went pro, NCAA is no longer even an option. And yes I know not every elite wishes to go that route, just sayin'.
Has Bross even expressed an interest in NCAA? Not every gymnast wants to do it and for those who don't, why not make a few bucks?
ReplyDeleteI DETEST STRAUSS. Of all the classical music for Marina to pick...whhhhyyyy. Getting past it being the compulsory music is near impossible...
ReplyDeleteAkiko Suzuki is also skating to Die Fledermaus
ReplyDeleteI don't get why people get freaked out by the Shibutanis... I'd totally ice dance with my older brother, if he was willing, lol.
ReplyDeleteStill amazing to have two former world AA champions on the B squad.
ReplyDeleteAll surgeries/rehabs aren't created equal. The recovery time from a kneecap injury is not nearly as bad as, say, tearing your ACL/PCL, etc. And Bross had a "head start" on her rehab by getting injured at Nationals rather than Worlds. I mean, no rehab is easy, but it's not the end of the world. With no clear-cut 2nd top AA'er in the US this year (Wieber won Nationals by 6 pts, and while Raisman is serviceable, her bars are enough to put her out of AA medal contention internationally almost every time), Bross will surely look to fill that void. She has the ability... It's just a matter of getting her skills back and polishing up her technique which can go awry at times. She doesn't have to move mountains here--- she just needs to be a solid AA'er than can put up a big score on bars, floor, etc. Shouldn't be too hard for her really.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous at 5:09 PM, I don't see how Shawn Johnson's situation is in any way relevant to Bross's. They are completely different gymnasts at this point in time. Bross has high d-scores, very strong bars (for this country, especially), and overall fits in well. Shawn has low d-scores, weak bars, and is quite limited by all the time she took off/ACL tear. Most of the skills that made Shawn so great in the first place were HUGE skills (2.5 yurchenko, layout double double off bars, whip-triple and double double on floor) that are very difficult to maintain through puberty and probably gone for good now. And without those skills, Shawn will have trouble getting d-scores and plugging any holes that the US has. She's not a good bar worker, not even attempting floor at the moment... It's not enough to be consistent... You have to have high d-scores and fill holes.
ReplyDeleteAnd I know, I know... Someone like Vega doesn't have high d-scores and found herself competing at Worlds, and while I will never write anyone off due to the large number of injuries in USA Gymnastics, there's no room on a 5 person team for someone with middle of the pack d-scores everywhere like Shawn. And Shawn is the first one to admit she's not going to be doing double doubles, whip triples, etc, again.
ReplyDeleteAlissa will never be able to handle all that content anywhere near as consistently as she was skating last season... And people will start calling her a "headcase" again, when really, it's mostly just that she will be attempting too many hard jumps. Her triple triple isn't rotated enough to receive credit anyway.
ReplyDeleteAnd why Alissa feels the need to add a triple salchow when she never does that jump (probably because it's weak) is beyond me. It's not a great point getter, so why??
ReplyDeleteWill Alicia be in the Olympics?
ReplyDelete@Anon 1:40 just pointing out (re bross - Shawn) that marta wasnt afraid to leave behind a consistent 3-event gymnast for an AA'er (vega). And one that would have given Worlds even more media attention bc obviously Shawn has some media power.
ReplyDeleteYes, Bross' SV on her 3 events that are not vault are high - higher than SJs for sure. But Bross wont have much time ( like SJ with worlds) to prove hersel to Marta. Trials are not the place to finally *try* and shine since the team will be named night 2. Bross will have to bring her A-game at Nationals if not Pac Rims in April. Then one adds the fact that there are 10-14 girls vying for that spot of which 5 AA just helped win a World gold...
Bross has a tough road ahead.
If Bross has 2010 scores at Trials, she will go even if that is her very first competition.
ReplyDeleteThe more intersting aspect of Worlds was Marta taking Li (what a mistake that was) over Johnson.
Marta doesn't care about getting media attention. She cares about winning medals. Shawn is weak on bars. The US always has holes on bars, especially on a 5 person team where 2 of the 5 members very well could be Raisman and Maroney, who both struggle significantly on bars. The other 3 members of the team must be strong on bars (and other events, too, obviously). That is one of the main reasons why Shawn really does not fit in. Even Vega is noticeably stronger than Shawn on bars (when she hits).
ReplyDeleteBross will have the same exact opportunities to prove herself next year as all the other gymnasts. Marta doesn't care what happened in 2011. Yes, she has a better idea of how certain girls are received internationally based on how they did at Worlds, but what the girls do in 2011 ultimately does not matter- it's all about 2012. After all, you have to assume that Russia (and perhaps other countries) will be significantly stronger next year. We can't just sit back and think we're good enough because we won one Worlds (see: 2003, 2007).
It will be interesting to see how Maroney holds up. She's a "power gymnast" with alleged back problems. And without that vault, she has nothing to fall back on since she's just ok on bars and beam, and nothing irreplaceable on floor. But yeah, Shawn has no chance unless girls like Maroney, Raisman, etc, are injured. Still, with the way they get broken, everyone has a chance.
ReplyDeleteWith the rate of injuries that are already occurring (and that will happen in the leadup to 2012), Jessie DiZiel and Brandie Jay probably have as good a shot as anyone. LOL. In all seriousness, I think 3 or 4 of these girls will go down with injury before London comes around. Sad but true.
ReplyDeleteShawn is not "weak" in bars. She's arguably a much better bet in 3 up than Li who hit like one routine out of 20 and it was right before TFs. Shawn almost made EFs in 2008 and was a solid 3rd spot support for TF in 2008. YES, she is NOT the specialist everyone is hoping for. But...she scored better than Vega at 2011 NATS.
ReplyDelete