[StarsAreFixed]

I think the order will be wieber, Douglas, raisman, Finnegan, Ross, maroney, Sloan.

Wieber is so consistent, extremely tough to beat. Her floor and beam are better and steadier than gabbys and gabby is so inconsistent. Yes she can absolutely nail beam and vault but tends not to in competition. I wouldn't trust her when it really counts, only on bars. It is unfortunate as she has it in her. nastia is a threat to her.

I looooove Finnegan. She has it in her to beat Ross and I would love her on my team ahead of Ross. It means weak bars of course, I will study scores carefully to see if this is possible. I do enjoy Ross but finnegans beam and floor have a much higher sv and her form is beautiful.

I really really want maroney to do well. Her beam is very steady and usable, her bars have very good swing and releases and her floor is probably much improved on jesolo. Hoping for a decent floor especially as Marta has said she will not take her for vault alone. If the team has Ross maroney needs floor but with Finnegan it isn't needed..

No Shawn or chellsie and Peng peng lee and Mai Murakami are all out, though everyone sees Mai in 2016.

I watched classics live and will be watching Nationals live too. Looking at last years, some scores were ridiculous especially Alicia having same vault execution score as maroney and wiebers only very slighly behind it. If this is the case this year it won't reflect London, especially if aly gets a 14.4 on bars.

[StarsAreFixed]

Hmm I was pretty much right! Gabby was overscored, Jordyn should have been ahead. Finnegan probably would have been ahead of Ross except for her mistakes. Inexperience showing through I think. I forgot about Price and Baker. Well done to McKayla, yes messed up bars BUT they look a lot better technique-wise, anyway not going to be used. Perfect vaults, very solid beam and great floor- she'll get that third pass better. I think she and Ross have done enough to get on that team with the top 3. I do not like Nastia's media-whoring personality, but wow, felt so bad for her messing up bars that badly. It was kind of funny to hear Elfi&co. say her beam wasn't important but after bars bang on about oo she has a great beam, it will help her. No it won't. Awkward for the camera to focus on her so much after, and annoying when you think that they could have showed actual routines instead of her very distressed face...lovely. Well done to Alicia, Elizabeth and Bridget but I don't think any of them will get on the team.

Here's my team, which is a format everyone is picking up on now. It IS ideal.

Jordyn, Aly, Gabby, Kyla, McKayla
Alt: Elizabeth, Sarah, Kennedy

VT: Aly, Jordyn, McKayla (yes they all have amanars but the other two are scary)
UB: Jordyn, Kyla, Gabby
BB: Jordyn, Aly, Kyla
FX: McKayla, Jordyn, Aly

I hate Gabby's floor. Not just her music but her tumbling isn't great, the choreopgraphy sucks and it's just scrappy. It would get nowhere near that score she got last night in London, so I will put McKayla and her great form, execution and grace well ahead of her. Kyla's floor of course also boasts excellent form etc. but wow that SV is way too low.

This team has five all-arounders on it. That's what Marta wants. Yes, McKayla is not much help on bars and Kyla is not much help on beam and Gabby and Kyla's vaults are scary and Aly's bars are atrocious...but if it comes down to it, they can all step up. Best to keep McKayla and Gabby as specialists in a team situation though.

[ladymarshmallow]

Kudos to Wieber for winning, but IHMO she and John (Geddert) should be worried about Gabby - she almost beat Wieber with a fall and without her 6.9 UB set. Raisman once again went out there and proved that she is...well, Raisman. Rock solid as usual. I'm not the biggest fan of her gymnastics, but she knows how to nail the heck out of a routine. Almost certainly a lock for London. Nastia's bars were lacklustre. Good job for someone who's only been training full bar routines for a week, but I honestly doubt that she'll be able to develop the endurance to execute an Olympic standard routine from start to finish in three weeks. It's frustrating, because I feel that had Nastia started seriously training just a couple of months earlier, she could have been in with a very real chance.

Right now my Olympic team is: Wieber, Raisman, Douglas, Ross, Maroney

And now for the Russian Cup, although I think they like to keep this competition very much under wraps, i.e. there probably won't be any videos from the meet, scores may not be entirely accurate (weird Russian bonus score).

[StarsAreFixed]

I really doubt Nastia has it in her. Kind of disgusted she is allowed go to trials.

I agree with everything else but gabby was so overscored that she won't beat jordyn outside of the us. Gabby is at her peak now and jordyn isnt- seeing as she is a lock she can well afford to hold off on peaking.

[StarsAreFixed]

Wow British scores are sooo much lower than US scores! In fact, stingy. Russian scores seemed alright-ish. Russia on beam is going to be the most nerve-wracking rotation of all in TF. So much perfect execution of hard skills, and then falls and huge wobbles on leaps and turns, SIGH.

I think Komova will pull out her amanar in London. Hers used to be quite near. I also think Musty will, which is bad news for everyone because it looks horrendous and is dangerous. Grishina is still a lock. Paseka has done herself out of her 'vault specialist' role after that performance. I'm now going to go with Musty, Komova, Grishina, Sidorova and Inshina. Grishina and Komova better stay on that beam! Bars will be awesome- 2 7.0 sets! Floor has gone downhill, won't beat USA or Romania on it, vault will be below USA and much on a par with Romania, beam will be on a par with USA but below Romania and bars will beat the two solid. It will be interesting. Alternates are tough to pick, they're really not as deep as you would think. Afan, Bebelo..can't think of another! Maybe Paseka though she's a huge risk now. Damn it, why didn't Pavs and Demy make the cut??

British championships were pretty interesting! Lots of gross leotards...Beth taking tips from WOGA and Nastia of all people, that horriffic nude-mesh one some of the girls were wearing in different colours..bleugh. Love Beth's bars, even though she missed the connection and watered down the dismount. She will bring it all to London. Her choreo still leaves a lot to be desired on floor..if she looked more confident it would help. She needs to watch Aly and Jordyn on floor on repeat- it doesn't stop them. I KNEW Rebecca Tunney had it in her! I hope the NBC trio were watching that, they totally wrote her off in a humiliating way after she had a meltdown on beam at SCAM. Jenni Pinches has come on in leaps and bounds. Hannah is still a definite lock. Imogen wins the veteran fight over Becky I think. Poor Danusia not having a great comp, she is going to be so awesome at UCLA but I wouldn't put her on a tem with beam falls and useless on floor. Awesome floor, but the tumbling is far too easy.

Tweddle, Whelan, Tunney, Pinches, Cairns. Alt: Rippin, Francis, Downie

US team remains the same. Sick of hearing so much crap about Nastia and Alicia being locks...as if. Nobody adds a bigger scoring advantage than Maroney, even more so if Gabby ends up looking skittish and Aly is used on vault in her place in TF. Maroney may not pull out full difficulty in all of her routines at Trials, but she still deserves that spot, will be fine by Olympics.

[MePlusYouXx]

Is Imogen cairns in the Olympic 2012 team?? I've met her you see xx


This was posted from The Student Room's iPhone/iPad App

[StarsAreFixed]

She is indeed. It was a slightly controversial choice actually because Becky Downie was favoured for it- but she is still recovering from an injury and Cairns was more on top of things so they took her instead.

Team Finals are on Tuesday, Qualifications (for team and everything else are this Sunday). GB will qualify- but haven't a hope of medalling there. Attention will be on Beth Tweddle- who has a good chance of medalling on bars, but you'll see Imogen competing too.

[StarsAreFixed]

(Original post by StarsAreFixed)
Anybody follow this? I've gotten obsessed with it in the last year, so amazing to watch.

What team do you think will win in the team final?
Who do you want to take the all-around? Wieber? Komova? Mustafina?
Will Beth Tweddle win the bars final? Bearing in mind her upgraded routine didn't score very high when she competed in recently.
Now that there are only 5 spots per team, who do you want to see on the American team, seeing as they have an absolutely massive pool of talent?

I want Murakami Mai to take the all-around, she's not brilliant on bars but has huge difficulty elsewhere. Failing that, Aliya Mustafina/Yao Jinnan/Gabrielle Douglas.

McKayla Maroney for vault final, Tweddle or Jinnan for bars, Komova or Mustafina for beam and Anastasia Grishina for floor.

USA will take team final, followed by Russia.

US team- Wieber, Raisman, Ross, Maroney and Douglas. I don't want to see returning athletes like Sacramone, Liukin, Johnson or Bross take the place of any of these.

I know I'm quoting myself, but how things change in 3 months! Mai Murakami did not even make the Japanese team, so won't be in the all-around. Yao Jinnan is struggling with injury. Musty could take it especially now Iordache is very unlikely, but Komova is probably the most likely. Gabby still a huge favourite..but I've totally gone off her.

Maroney will still take gold despite her injury and concussion a while ago. Tweddle unlikely to get gold- maybe. Kexin, Komova and Mustafina all favourites there. Komova and Musty likely to lose to Ponor and Iordache on beam (Iordache very likely to compete beam EF) and Grishina is a total outsider in the floor final now.

USA and Russia are neck and neck for TF now...althougn Russia have either a 1.2 or 0.5 difficulty lead over USA (Musty amanar vs DTY), they're more likely to headcase.

I got the US team right!