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It’s a Wonderful Life: Simone Biles. Part 3 : The Olympic Year
Simone didn’t compete at Jesolo or the American Cup. She won the 2016 Pan Am‘s but was taken out of the Event Finals. ( Without Simone, Aly wins, Laurie Hernandez is second and Brenna Dowell moves into 3rd) Simone only competed, bars and beam at Classics placing 5th and 1st ( Without her competing, Alyssa Baumann takes first, Aly Second and Ashton Locklear into 3rd (beam)
2016 US Nationals: Let the Marta Games begin
Simone wins Nationals by almost 4 points. It’s pretty boring in general and more remembered for who didn’t compete or show up then who did. Ragan Smith fell apart and finished 8th. Maggie Nichols was injured and only competed bars and beam. Nia Dennis only did bars. Madison Kocian had her DTY back and was told not to compete it or she would have placed 4th. Bailie Key was out with injury. Mad props to my girl , Amelia Hundley for going 8 for 8 and finishing 6th.
***** Without Simone the only option for a Vault/Floor specialist was once again Mykayla Skinner. I still feel like Mykayla Skinner would have been less nit-picked if she was the only option for a Vault medal.
All Around: Simone Biles.. Aly Raisman 2nd- Laurie Hernandez 3rd- Gabby Douglas
Vault: 1st:Simone Biles Mykayla Skinner
Bars: ( No change) Simone finished 4th behind, Ashton, Madison and Laurie. Gabby finished 5th . Rachel Gowey would have moved up to 4th…
Beam: 1st- Simone Biles Aly Raisman 2nd- Laurie Hernandez 3rd- Alyssa Baumann
Floor- 1st- Simone Biles Aly Raisman 2nd- Laurie Hernandez and Mykayla Skinner
****** Aly would have been all Around, beam and Floor National Champion.
The 2016 Olympic Trials: The injured make comebacks…
In the past hitting when it matters has always been huge in Marta’s eyes that’s what makes watching this meet so frustrating. Everyone did their job. Everyone showed up especially on day 2 when the pressure was the hardest. Well almost everyone. I tried not to make the 2015 Worlds all about Gabby but that’s what it turned into and I don’t want to start this 2016 blog the same way so I’m just gonna say no matter what Gabby did at this competition there was no way she wasn’t making this team unless she fell off bars, twice. In 2016, she won Jesolo. She won the American Cup. In the end it doesn’t matter if Marta perfectly planned her “year 2016” keeping her away from Simone Biles and forcing Maggie not to do her Amanar at the Scam Cup. It is what it is….
Without Simone, Laurie Hernandez wins the 2016 Olympics Trials. She had some scores the announcers were concerned about and probably would have been a lot higher if she and Aly were the two fighting for best gymnast in 2016..
2016 Olympic Trials :
1st- Simone Biles Laurie Hernandez 2nd- Aly Raisman 3rd- Mykayla Skinner- 4th- Ragan Smith 5th- Maggie Nichols 6th- Gabby Douglas 7th- Madison Kocian 8th- Amelia Hundley
2016 Olympic Games:
Qualifications: (Scroll down)
Vault, Simone would have been replaced with, Brittany Rogers… On bars, no change. Simone qualified 14th with the best routine I have ever seen her do. She was lowballed here then overscored from here on out oh, and, FAN YILIN WAS ROBBED…. On beam, Simone would be replaced by, Gabby or Aly. Both had the same start value and same deductions. I always thought execution was the deciding factor back in the day so I’m not sure who would have replaced, Simone and on Floor, Simone would have been replaced with, Laurie Hernandez. It should also be noted without Simone, IMO, Mykayla Skinner would have been on this team and would have made finals on this event. Same with Vault.
The All Around: ” We all have to deal with disappointment”
1st- Simone Biles Aly Raisman 2nd- Aliya Mustafina 3rd- Shang Chunsong
******* Laurie Hernandez or Gabby could have made the medals without Simone existing.
Aly would have qualified first into the AA with Gabby in second BUT without Simone, Laurie Hernandez would be competing in this AA and easily would have beaten, Gabby to be the second All Around gymnast. All she needed was a , 14,756. Aly received a , 14.733 ( I rest my case) Also remember, someone like Skinner or Smith also could have competed. OR even Ashton who would have kicked Gabby out of the bar final….
2016 Olympic Games : Event Finals
Vault : 1st- Simone Biles Maria Paeska 2nd- Giulia Steingruber 3rd- Dipa Karmakar
**** Hong never would have tried the triple Amanar and could have won the Gold medal.
Uneven Bars: No change
Beam: 1st- Sanne Weevers 2nd- Laurie Hernandez 3rd- Simone Biles Marine Boyer
Floor: 1st- Simone Biles Aly Raisman 2nd- Amy Tinkler 3rd- Vanessa Ferrari
*** Laurie Hernandez would have placed second.
IMO:
It’s hard to say who would have replaced Simone Biles on this team. She was the best chance at a Vault medal.She was an All Arounder even if everyone kept calling her bars her weakest event. She could have won beam and floor. Fact is, NO ONE could have replaced her but someone had too.
Of the alternates we have Mykayla Skinner and Ragan Smith who are both AA gymnasts. Then we have Ashton Locklear. Simone wasn’t known for bars but she was certainly a back up if needed but I don’t see Marta replacing her existence with someone who only existed for one event. So I crossed her out. We should also maybe add Maggie Nichols back into the mix. She decided not to go to camp and play Marta’s games but I think she would have if Simone didn’t exist. I also think the terrible trio wouldn’t have downplayed every single performance she had at Trials if Simone did not exist. Guess we will never know:)
Overall: I am SO glad Simone existed in 2016. With Gabby as the ” World Champion” from Worlds the year before, God only knows what would have happened with the media train coming at the preschool Queen…
2017: Simone didn’t exist. Not in Gymnastics, anyway….
2018 Haters gonna hate
This year will easily be remembered for the twitter/ fake instagram ” Finstagram” fight between Simone and Morgan. though I personally am gonna remember it for Simone falling twice at Worlds and still winning by nearly 2 points. ( Rumor has it that the powers that be want to fix it so that this never happens again and IMO, That would be 2 points for any fall. Hell make it 3. )
Simone won the GK, US Classic with Riley in second, Morgan Hurd in third and Shilese Jones in 4th…. There was no Jesolo and Simone didn’t compete in the American Cup or pac Rim Championships….
At Nationals Simone won every event.. This is what it would have looked like if she never existed… ( P.S.- Am I the only one who feels like the US gymn heads want to erase every single US record from the record books and replace them with Simone’s name?…..)
All Around: 1- Simone Biles Morgan Hurd 2nd- Riley McCusker 3rd- Grace McCallum
Vault: 1st- Simone Biles Jordan Chiles 2nd Jade Crey
Bars: 1st- Simone Biles – Riley McCusker 2nd- Morgan Hurd 3- Trinity Thomas
Beam: 1st- Simone Biles Kara Eaker 2nd- Riley McCusker 3rd- Morgan Hurd
Floor: 1st- Simone Biles Jade Carey 2nd- Morgan Hurd 3rd- Grace McCallum
2018 World Championships: Falling for medals
World Selection Camp Results : 1st: Simone Biles RileyMcCusker 2nd- McCallum 3rd-Hurd 4th- Ragan Smith 5th- Kara Eaker
The team was named, Biles, Hurd, McCallum, McCusker, Kara Eaker and Ragan Smith. The alternate would be chosen at worlds. Ragan Smith was eventually named the alternate.
***** Without Simones Biles on this team Ragan Smith would have competed. No mention of who the non traveling alternate was…
Qualifications: Kidney Stones, nervous Riley….
The line ups were set, with Simone and Morgan making the AA after a nervous Riley had multiple mistakes…
****** Ragan Smith or Grace McCallum would have been doing AA without Simone existing. With McCallum being so consistent I could see them using her for AA and Ragan for vault, bars and floor or just using Ragan and keeping McCallum off beam for Eaker… it’s hard to say with them all being a bit inconsistent at times…
******* With Ragan allowed to compete we never know what she would have pulled out. I could see her making floor and beam finals or falling all over the place…
It was a strange year but Simone won her 4th AA title.. Khorkina still calling her that American gymnast after beating her record for World Titles was amusing enough to be happy that Simone, the gymnast , still exists 🙂
All Around: 1st Simone Biles Mai Murakami 2nd- Morgan Hurd 3rd- Nina Derwael 4th- Angelina Melnikova
**** I was surprised they didn’t give Morgan the floor score she needed for second and without Simone existing I think they probably would have moved her into first. I would have been pissed as hell too because if anyone deserved to win that All Around gold medal it was the 4 performances put up by Mai Murakami in this AA…
******* Without Simone, McCallum was second reserve in vault finals with Liliia Akhaimova ahead of her…. On bars, Tingting Liu takes her place with Riley’s mistakes putting her in 13th ( she would have moved up to 3rd alternate)… On beam, Marine Boyer would have replaced her with Morgan and Hua-Tien Ting tied for second reserve and on Floor she would have been replaced by Tisha Volleman. Riley was 14th but would have been third reserve without Simone….
Vault: 1st- Simone Biles Shallan Olsen 2nd- Alexa Moreno 3rd- Oksana Chusovitina 4th- Seojeong Yeo
Bars : 1st- Nina Derwael 2nd- Simone Biles Elizabeth Sietz 3rd- Huan Luo 4th- Mustafina 5th- Hurd
Beam: 1st- Tingting Liu 2nd- Anne-Marie Padurariu 3rd- Simone Biles Nina Derwael
Floor: 1st- Simone Biles Morgan Hurd 2nd- Mai Murakami 3rd- Angelina Melnikova 4th- Flavia Saraiva
So overall…… The best part of 2018 was the fight between Morgan and Simone. It spiced up what was sure to be the most boring year in Gymnastics history with Simone coming back to win all the medals… I personally would love to have seen the , World All Around Champion title attached to Mai Murakami’s shoulders which “would” have happened if Simone never existed. It’s kind of ironic we might have had the same debate about winning with falls even if Simone didn’t exist. I personally feel like these judges would have given the World title to Morgan even with a fall if Simone never existed.
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