Here Ye'. Here Ye', Something "Bandwagon Gymnastics Fan," This Way Comes

     Strap on your seat belts and keep your hands & feet inside the bandwagon at all times.
 I pre-apologize for any and all innacuracies, discrepancies and lackadasical remarks. 
 This is my attempt to recap an entire quadrennium of gymnastics. Some things will be brushed over while with other things that I personally care about will be disexcted in excruciating detail. Like the title of the blog says, this is SOMEWHAT relevant. 


   The 2009 American Cup 
(SCAMerican Cup. Some athletes are scammed in favor of American Athletes. SCAMerica and America rhyme. It's cute) was the first major international event of 2009 and the biggest on American soil. With the 2009 edition of the SCAMerican Cup, brought the the sr. debut of Ms. Jordyn Wieber. Jordyn won the American Cup as a Junior, in a major international Senior competition at just 13 years old. She wasn't even old enough to compete but she did. Because she's a baller. Although she's a junior, I don't think that anyone was kind enough to tell her that. Jordyn competed with spark, flare and poise of a seasoned competitor.

(Why yes, that is Jo and Fabian Hambuchen of Germany.<333333333333333333333)

At the 2009 National Championship, first year Senior Rebecca Bross was the favorite to take the title, but untimately it was won by 2008 Olympian Bridget Sloan. I was happy to see Bridget do well because she was the most inexperienced member of the Beijing team and still had fire left in her. Rebecca was third All Around behing Ivana Hong and CHAMPION Bridget Sloan. On the Men's side, Jonathan Horton took his first national title. <3333333333

   

The 2009 World Championships in London were an individual Worlds, meaning that no team competition was contested.
The team was composed of Bridget Sloan, Becca Bross, Ivana Hong and Kayla Williams. After the Al Fong situation, Ivana Hong switch gyms, to WOGA. 
     In all honesty, the World title was Becca's to win or lose. Despite a few mistakes from everyone, it looked as if Becca would be the World Champ. On her last event, (FX) she underrotated a pass and fell. This wasn't a disaster, but was also a disaster. Becca. Bross. had just conceeded a world title. What? Bridget Sloan was the new All Around World Champion, with Rebecca taking the Silver, with an additional bronze on the uneven bars. This marked the SECOND time that Becca lost an AA title to Bridget. Although happy for BSLOAN, I was still a little bite surprised. Ivana won bronze on the balance beam and Kayla Williams took the 1st ever American Vault GOLD medal. (: It was a successful trip. 

2008 Olympic Team First Round Draft Picks

2008 Before the Olympics. 

2008 Visa National Championships in Boston, Massachusetts. Leggo. 

       It was no surprise that after winning the 2007 World All Around titles,  Miss Shawn Johnson took her second consecutive national gymnastics title, directly in front of  Nastia Liukin. At this point in time, even before trials started, it was obvious that barring injury or disaster that these two girls were Beijing bound. In hindsight, they probably could have sat down their dismounts, fell from the beam 3 times and done a half twisting Yurchenko and still would have made the team. Shawn Johnson was the obvious national champion. Also, her double twisting double tucked salto floor mount was the tits. 

       The men's side painted a different picture. So many talented young men were in the hunt for the 2008 National title, including the x2 Olympic team members, twins at that, Paul and Morgan Hamm. Making the 2000 Sydney team at 17 wasn't enough for them. Neither was an Athens team Silver and an All Around gold and High Bar Silver for Paul. These two were determined to make an historic third Olympic team together for Beijing. Most guys had strong and convincing showings at nationals. It was a particularly good day for David Sender of Stanford. David was the "surprise national champion." But during podium training for the Olympic trials, he came off of the high bar, jumped back up to stop it from shaking and then jumped down and he injured his ankle. He petitioned onto the Olympic team, but his petition was denied due to another petition granted. His dream didn't end after coming off of pommel horse or sitting down a dismount. All he did was grab the bar and then landed wrong on the jump down.

     Ok so Women's Olympic trials in Philly--- The top two female athletes from Olympic trials were granted automatic berths to the Olympics while the 4 other members and the alternates were decided at a selection camp before the team left for China. 5/6 team members were nearly obvious at the beginning of the trials because of their consistency and team contribution. Shawn Johnson won the Olympic trials, with Nastia Liukin in second, giving them both automatic bids to the Olympics. Although over the few days of competition, Nastia didn't perform up to par, she still scored very well due to her high difficulty level. No surprise there.
3 other athletes were Alicia Sacramone, Samantha Peszek and Chellsie Memmel. Cut and dry. That coveted 6th spot was up for grabs but concluding trials, looked as if it would be granted to Jana Beiger.