World Championships 2014

2014 World Championships sadly just recently came to a close. But fortunately it ended up being a fantastic year for Team USA!!!! USA brought in a total of 10 Medals!!!! Below I will spotlight some of the Highs and Lows of Worlds. Coming Soon: Gymnast Spotlights for some of Team USA's most notable athletes at these worlds!

Highs

Simone Biles and Kyla Ross go 1 and 3 in the All Around Finals!

The Women's Team comes home with GOLD

The Mens Team comes home with BRONZE

LOWS

Sam Mikulak misses out on All Around Medal

Ashton Locklear, Jake Dalton and Mykayla Skinner narrowly miss podium on Uneven Bars, Floor, and Floor

Event Finals (Pac Rim) Gymnast Spotlight

                 Event Finals for the Juniors finished up and the USA took home 6 Medals! Which included 3 GOLD and 3 Silver!!!!!!! Event Finals for the Seniors finished up as well and USA took home 6 Medals!!! Which included 3 GOLD, 2 Silver, and 1 Bronze!!!!!! I have chosen ONE for each discipline to Spotlight!

VAULT- Bailie Key

Bailie Key impressed on Vault when she won the Gold Medal. She was chosen because she was the only gymnast from the USA to win a gold on Vault and performed excellently. An honorable mention goes to Nia Dennis who won the silver medal. 

BEAM- TIE Kyla Ross & Norah Flatley 

 Because both Norah and Kyla are two of my favorite Gymnasts, I couldn't choose between the two as they both performed excellently on beam and won the gold!!! Both of their routines were hit with only minor mistakes. I must say too me they were some of the most enjoyable routines to watch. Congrats also Elizabeth Price who got Bronze in the Senior and Bailie Key who got Silver in Juniors. 

BARS- Elizabeth Price 

Elizabeth Price took home the Gold on bars by almost quarter of a point over Teammate Kyla Ross. Performing consistently with a high difficulty Elizabeth clinched the Gold with ease. Honorable Mentions go out to Bailie key who also got Gold (But has already been spotlighted twice) and Kyla Ross who took home the Senior Silver. 

FLOOR- TIE Elizabeth Price and Bailie Key

 Because both Elizabeth and Bailie have already been spotlighted once and both won the gold I found it was most fair to give both of them the spotlight. I'm sure your tired of hearing them be spotlighted but they did kinda dominate the Pac Rim competition. Both of them brought elegance as well as powerful tumbling to their routines which helped them clinch their 4th Gold Medal of the competition. An honorable Mention goes to Kyla Ross who surprisingly earned Silver despite qualifying in 7th Place. Congrats Girls.



Our Final Medal Count for EACH GYMNAST was as follows:

•                    Elizabeth Price- 4 Golds, 1 Bronze
•                    Kyla Ross- 2 Golds, 3 Silvers
•                    Peyton Ernst- 1 Gold
•                    Bailie Key- 4 Golds, 2 Silvers
•                                             Norah Flatley- 2 Golds
•                                             Nia Dennis- 1 Gold, 2 Silver 

Pacific Rim Competition Results, and Spotlight

                 The 2014 Pac Rims Competition ended and was a very successful meet for America, who took Team Gold as well as All-Around gold in both Juniors and Seniors! Heading in to Event Finals, we have 2 Gymnasts who qualified for each and every event, excluding the Senior Vault, which had no USA Qualifiers. So it will be exciting to see how Event Finals turn out. But for now, we will do our Spotlight of the Athletes of the Meet (for Team and All Around). For this meet our Spotlight for the team and all around competition goes to:

Senior- Elizabeth Price

       

Elizabeth Price blew me away while I was watching the team and all around comp. She won the Senior All Around Title but not only did she win it she won by OVER A FULL POINT. She also qualified for three event finals! She hit 4 for 4 and did an overall excellent job! Great job Ebee! You killed it! 

Junior- Bailie Key

Bailie Key also impressed big time! Hitting 4 for 4 Bailie won the all around with ease and also qualified for ALL FOUR EVENT FINALS!!!! And has a chance to medal in all 4! If she does she will walk away from pac rims with 6 Medals!!! Congrats Bailie on absolutely killing it! 

Check in later to see which gymnasts will be spotlighted for each Event Final!

Survey Time!

Hey Everyone! I started a new poll on the right of my blog! Vote for your favorite Fierce 5 Member! The winning member will either get the next spotlight or a photo collage! VoTe VoTe VoTe!

Lets Talk About the Fierce 5

       We've all been anticipating seeing all 5 of many of our favorite gymnasts compete again, but will we ever see that happen? Well, heres what I think,

        We already know about Kyla Ross, definitely the one most desirous to get back into competing, i'd say because she proved herself the least out of the 5 Members. Kyla was chosen to be on the team in 2012 because of her consistency, not because she was expected to individually medal. Due to this, Kyla got right back into the gym after the olympics in the hopes she could have more individual success. Kyla competed all of 2013 and has continued into the 2014 season.

        We know quiet a bit about Mckayla Maroney, but due to the fact that she hasn't competed, or been to any training camps this season, our information is getting clouded. We know that she missed one training camp due to her gyms biggest meet that same week. And another one due to an injury. With this information its safe to assume that Mckayla will be back for Championships this year. Mckayla just recently won the 2013 World Vault Title, proving that she is still the best vaulter in the world. Her receiving the Silver in 2012 is what I believe, the main factor driving her to continue competing.

         The next gymnast we know quiet a bit about is Aly Raisman. Out of the next three Gabby, Jordyn, and Aly, Aly is the one who I'd say is the most likely to return in 2014. While Aly was originally planning on being ready for the US Classics this year, she decided she would take it slow and is now planning on attending the post World Championships training Camp in October of 2014. We can definitely expect to see her in the 2015 season competing if no injury occurs. 

        Gabby Douglas is the one who we know very little about, in terms of her gymnastics plans. We know that she recently left her gym in Des Moines and is no longer training with Chow (sad face). She is now training in Los Angeles CA. There's pretty much no information on when she plans to return. But we do know that she is training, so with that information it's safe to say, she will eventually return.

UPDATE: GABBY DOUGLAS HAS RETURNED TO TRAINING WITH CHOW IN IOWA!!!!!!  SHE IS EXPECTED/PLANNING ON BEING READY FOR THE 2016 GAMES!!!!!!!

         Jordyn Wieber, Jordyn was originally planning on returning LAST YEAR, but then decided she would go to UCLA and be an assistant coach for the women's gymnastic team. Jordyn trains at their gymnastics facility there. But we don't know when she plans on returning to elite gymnastics or if she will return. But we do know she originally planned on returning in 2013.

     
     

Gymnast Spotlight of the Week: Mckayla Maroney

           Mckayla Maroney is my favorite Gymnast currently, which is why I chose her for my first ever gymnast spotlight. Many people have called Mckayla sassy, a sore loser, a sucky gymnast, a choker and many more. But I don't agree with any of those titles. First off I would just like to bring up the fact that even with a major fall, Mckayla STILL GOT A SILVER MEDAL. Any other gymnast if they fell would be off the podium for sure, but she is SO talented that she can have a huge mess-up and still medal. Besides this, I believe that the way she acted after the loss was very justifiable. Throughout the while year before the Olympics everyone knew that Mckayla would win the Vault Title if she landed on both feet, and she knew it too. But then she went and competed and made a mistake on a vault she hadn't hit in a 100 tries. Wouldn't you be disappointed? But rather then focus on her short comings, here is a list of Mckaylas' major accomplishments:

• Vault Finals Gold 2011 and 2013 World Championships
• Team Gold 2012 Olympics
• Vault Silver 2012 Olympics
• 2nd All- Around 2011 Nationals
• Floor & Vault National Champ 2013
• 6th Place All- Around Qualifications 2013 World Championships
• Vault National Champ (Senior) 2011 and 2012
• Creator of the "Not Impressed" Face
• And SOOO much more!!!

        Do you have any requests for our next gymnast spotlight? Comment Below! 

JESOLO 2014:

        First off, way to go every USA Athlete that competed in Jesolo! Mykayla Skinner seriously proved herself in Jesolo, there were of course mistakes, but she proved she could handle her difficulty on both floor and vault! Mckayla Maroney definitely is gonna have some competition with Mykayla on the stage now. Which speaking of Mckayla, why is she not competing?! Well, the obvious reason is that, well, she's injured, just like pretty much every other Gymnast. But anyway. Another athlete of very notable mention would be Norah Flatly! (AKA mini Shawn Johnson) Her expertise on Beam earned her gold in the Beam Finals, in her very first international competition! Watching her definitely reminded me of Shawn Johnson, which comes without surprise as they are both Coached by Chow. Without surprise Kyla Ross and Bailee Key both clinched the all around title, both performing consistently as they always do. Also worth mentioning, on the Senior Side, USA clinched all around spots 1-6, and 8. On the Junior Side, USA clinched 1-3, 5, 6, and 8. Its safe to say USA dominated.