Who will make the US World team?

We have the locks,

:Jordyn Wieber :Aly Raisman :Alicia Sacramone

Then we have the most likely,

: Mckayla Maroney.

I know Mckayla beat Aly at Nationals but that whole competition was a question mark after Rebecca’s injury.

I could see Aly having a melt down at the camps and still being named to the team but I wouldn’t say Mckayla has that same free pass for a melt down. For arguments sake I will call her a lock for the sake of this blog.

So with those 4 locks we pretty much have Vault: covered. Any 4 of the named gymnasts could vault. Aly has a beautiful DTY. Mckayla and Jordyn have the Amanar’s and Alicia is , well Alicia.

BEAM: This group of gymnasts has Beam pretty much covered too. Poor Jordyn at this rate will be doing the AA in team finals. Alicia has a lower start value but she is pretty clean. Jordyn is great. Aly is solid. Mckayla is messy to me but if we had to use those 3 it would be plausible.

Floor: needs a bit of work. Again we have Jordyn. Aly’s routine scored well last year until they blatantly cheated her from a floor medal in the event finals. (If Aly deserved a deduction for artistry why the hell didn’t Chelaru and Mitchell get one? They are worse then Aly “allegedly” is.

I don’t know why Alicia is training floor at all. I don’t see her ever being relevant on this event again with her cheap tumbling but we all know the judges love to prove me wrong so she will probably be world champ in 2011.

Team Final,

Bold are definite. No need at all for a discussion.

Vault is covered

:Alicia:Mckayla:Jordyn ALT Aly

Beam:

:Jordyn :Aly :Alicia

Floor: :Jordyn :Aly

???

So we need two bar workers. A beam worker and a floor worker and we only have two places left. The beam worker is not as important as the floor worker. Alicia scores well at worlds. I honestly can’t see us using Mckayla or Alicia on floor.

SOOOOO….. Who has a really strong bar and floor routine???? Hey you know who fits this bill? Cassie Whitcomb. Too bad Marta screwed her out of too many teams she chose to go to school instead of compete elite. I know, you are saying she wasn’t really strong on those two events but I remember her winning floor and placing second on bars at one of last years camps. Sounds like a fit to me.

The only answer we have for this position is to take a chance with Chellsie Memmel. If she upgrades her floor the girl is a rock on this event and she is a former world champ on bars.

So an update,

If we add an updated, upgraded Chellsie Memmel we have a second bar worker and another beam worker. Also another floor worker but this is all IF, she upgrades.

So if we add Chellsie into the group VT, Beam and Floor are covered and so is 2 of our 3 bar workers which leaves us with only one person left for our team and that person has to be a bar worker.

your choices are.. Macko Anna LiGabriela Douglas.

Gabby was horrible at Nationals and I honestly wouldn’t take her on any team I picked. That is why she has a line through her name.

Anna Li is a one event gymnast. If she hits her bars great but she hasn’t hit her 6.7 routine yet because she hasn’t competed it. She was out scored by Macko on night one.

Anna is a one event gymnast that can’t even hit her one event. If Chellsie is on this team and she gets hurt Anna can’t replace her on a single event. That is why I just went and put a line through her name above.

If we take Chellsie the only option for the sixth team member is Mackenzie Caquatto. She fell on beam at Nationals on night one but she hit night two. Her start values are not as high as they could be but Gabby Douglas being the only other option Macko is pretty much the only option.

So my team with a healthy, upgraded Chellsie Memmel is

Jordyn WieberAly WieberMckalya MaroneyAlicia SacramoneChellsie MemmelMackenzie Caquatto

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

But……. What do we do if Memmel is a no go?

Part 2, tomorrow.