USA Camp Updates;

Kindly provided by KittyPie and Ingrid of the WWGym forum.

The format of the camp is as follows
-Yesterday and Today were training days.
-Tomorrow is an All Around competition
-Saturday, Marta will choose two events that she wants the gymnasts to perform on.
-The USA team will be announced between 7PM and 8PM central time on Saturday.
-The Team will fly to be on the Today Show on Sunday Morning for the "official" announcement.

• Make sure you watch for updates on the NBCOlympics webpage. They will be posting videos of the competitions Friday and Saturday.

And here are the gymnast updates;

-Samantha Peszek looked jittery at the beginning of practice, so bad it looked like she was coming down from a peak. She started getting into her own groove come the end of practice.

-Jana Bieger looks like normal, nothing standing out about her.

-Ivana Hong might have a knee injury. It's been reported that after dismounting from beam, she fell to the ground grabbing her knee.

-Shayla Worley is looking good again, she might indeed be the sixth member on the Olympic Team.

I'll post more whenever I find out more important information.

More Announced Teams Compared to My Predictions

April 27, 2008 is when I made these predictions on who I thought will make the Olympic team.
Of the teams that have been announced, the ones I got right are highlighted in blue, the wrong ones are in red. The corrections are made a line below in italics and in green.

USA
Nastia Liukin; Shawn Johnson; Alicia Sacramone; Shayla Worley; Jana Bieger; Chellsie Memmel
CHN
Cheng Fei; Jiang Yuyuan; Yang Yilin; He Kexin; Xiao Sha; Sui Lu
RUS
Yelena Zamolodchikova; Anna Pavlova; Yulia Lozhecko; Liudmilla Grebenkova; Ksenia Semenova; Anna Myzdrikova
ROM
Steliana Nistor, Sandra Izbasa, Gabreila Dragoi, Anamaria Tamarjan, Cerasela Patrascu, Daniela Druncea
Acatrinei, Grigore
UKR
Alina Kozich, Irina Krasnianska, Olga Sherbatykh, Dariya Zgoba, Anastasia Koval, Valentina Holenkova
ITA
Francesca Bennolli, Carlotta Giovannini, ?????, Vanessa Ferrari, Lia Parolari, Monica Bergamelli
FRA
Marine Petit, Cassy Vericel, Pauline Morel, Laetitia Dugain, Kathleen Lindor, ?????
Marine Debauve
JAP
Koko Tsurumi, Miki Uemura, Kyoko Oshima, Keiko Mukumoto, He Xuemei, Mayu Kuroda
Yuko Shintake, Yu Minobe
AUS
Daria Joura, Ashleigh Brennon, Lauren Mitchell, Shona Morgan, Olivia Vivian, Chloe Sims
Georgia Bonora
GER
Oksana Chusovitina, Kim Bui, Joeline Mobius, Marie-Sophie Hindermann, Katja Abel, Jenny Brunner
Anja Brinker, Daria Bijak
BRA
Ana Claudia Silva, Daiane Dos Santos, Jade Barbosa, Daniele Hypolito, Lais Souza, Khiuani Dias
Ethiene Franco
GBR
Beth Tweddle, Becky Downie, Hannah Clowes, Marissa King, Imogen Cairns, Laura Jones
Wheelan, Wing
PRK
Hong Su Jong, Hong Un Jong
CAN
Nansy Damianova, Elyse Hopfner-Hibbs
ESP
Lenika De Simone, Patricia Moreno
Patricia Moreno has retired since I made these predictions, however the Spanish team has not been announced.
CZE
Kristina Palesova
NED
Suzanne Harmes
SUI
Ariella Kaeslin

A-Score Totals.

Thanks to Sandra at GYMWORLD, Here is a list of projected A-Score totals for top AAers as of now.

1. 25.9 Steliana Nistor (5.8 7.1 6.9 6.1)
2. 25.8 Jade Barbosa (6.5 6.6 6.6 6.1)
2. 25.8 Shawn Johnson (6.5 6.2 6.9 6.2)
2. 25.8 Vanessa Ferrari (5.8 6.8 6.7 6.5)
5. 25.5 Daria Joura (6.5 6.4 6.5 6.1)
6. 25.3 Shayla Worley (5.8 6.7 6.9 5.9)
7. 25.2 Nastia Liukin (5.8 7.1 6.5 5.8)
8. 24.7 Beth Tweddle (5.5 7.1 5.8 6.3)
8. 24.7 Jiang Yuyuan (5.8 6.3 6.4 6.2)
10. 24.6 Ek. Kramarenko (5.8 6.6 6.5 5.7)
11. 24.5 Yulia Lozheco (5.5 6.0 7.0 6.0)
*Shawn and Joura with a Amanar, Nastia and Shayla with a DTY.

Now, from here we have some deviations to do. I'm going to go through and add the rumoured upgrades I know about for each gymnast and add that to their A-Score total.

2. Jade Barbosa
Floor will rise three tenths if she adds the whip + triple and the chusovitina into her routine. 25.8 -> 26.1

2. Shawn Johnson
Bars should rise at least by one tenth from her tkatchev, and her floor will rise .2 tenths for a Whip + Triple inserted. 25.8 -> 26.1

2. Vanessa Ferrari
Vanessa has been rumoured an Amanar if she heals from her injury. 25.8 -> 26.5

5. Daria Joura
Daria has been shown to be training a Double Layout, which will add .1 on her FX score
25.5 -> 25.6

6. Shayla Worley
If Shayla upgrades from Tarasevich to a Randi with a layout, her A-Score will rise .2 tenths 25.3 -> 25.5

7. Nastia Liukin
I've heard Nastia has been training a bar routine of a 7.4 A-Score. If she does that, her A-Score will rise .3 tenths. 25.2 -> 25.5

8. Beth Tweddle
If Beth upgrades vault from a 1.5Y to a DTY, her A-Score will rise three tenths. 24.7 -> 25.0

8. Jiang Yuyuan
Jiang has been rumoured an upgrade to an Amanar, which will raise her A-Score by seven tenths. 24.7 -> 25.4

So, with those upgrades underway, here is the new list.

1) 26.5 - Vanessa Ferrari
2) 26.1 - Shawn Johnson
2) 26.1 - Jade Barbosa
4) 25.9 - Steliana Nistor
5) 25.6 - Daria Joura
6) 25.5 - Shayla Worley
6) 25.5 - Nastia Liukin
8) 25.4 - Jiang Yuyuan
9) 25.0 - Beth Tweddle
10) 24.6 - Ekaterina Kramerenko
11) 24.5 - Yulia Lozhecko

If everyone brings these upgrades to Beijing, I'll be expecting Ferrari as new AA-Champ. And you know what, I'm very happy with that. The reason why Ferrari has been so hated on is because she won 2006 with a fall, which happened to be the first World Championships since the new code has been debuted. If she would have won without a fall, I feel many more people would appreciate her than what they do.

*Dream Podium*
1) Jade Barbosa
2) Daria Joura
3) Shayla Worley
<3

Olympic Qualifiers

Happy New Years Eve Everyone! (Day to some people!)
The olympics are this year! 08-08-08!
To celebrate, here is the list of official Olympic qualifiers, excluding wild-cards since they haven't been chosen yet.

Full Teams
USA
China
Romania
Russia
Italy
Great Britian
France
Brazil
Ukraine
Germany
Australia
Japan

2 Gymnasts
North Korea
Canada
Spain

1 Gymnast
Czech Republic
Netherlands
Switzerland

Individual Gymnasts
Stefani Bismpikou [Greece]
Nastassia Marachkouiskaya [Belarus]
Veranica Wagner [Sweden]
Dorina Boczogo [Hungary]
Natalia Sanchez [Colombia]
Marisela Cantu [Mexico]
Hyun Joo Jop [South Korea]
Marta Pihan [Poland]
Gaelle Mys [Belgium]
Tina Erceg [Croatia]
Annamari Maaranen [Finland]
Jessica Lopez [Venuzuela]
Nikolina Tankoucheva [Bulgaria]
Vered Finkel [Isreal]
Sherine El Zeiny [Egypt]
Jelena Zanevskaja [Lithuania]

Sloan Fever!

Lately, there has been a craze going on about Bridget Sloan.
She was named alternate to the 2007 Worlds Team, but nobody really noticed her until the Good Luck Beijing Event. I totally blanked on her when making the "USA Pickle" post, so she deserves a post.

She can really do good in Beijing, especially being the 3rd floor worker;

She has nice bars, but needs to upgrade her combinations for her to be in Team Finals for bars. If she works on that, she could possibly be the missing puzzle piece USA has been looking for.

Lets Start Out With...

Chellsie Memmel
Yes, Chellsie Memmel.
The great American gymnast who won the 2005 World Championships All Around.
Is back.
With a phloof.
Most of everyone has already seen this
But if you haven't, I warn you its not for the faint-hearted.
Her new floor routine;

Its pretty much horrible. I apologize in advance if your ears were bleeding.
Anyway, its Marta to the rescue! She is making Chellsie get a new routine, because "it didn't get the reaction we wanted." I'm guessing she was expecting something good?

And seriously, Antiona Markov (i think thats her name, I'm too lazy to look), what happened?
Remember when you choreographed Allyse Ishino and Courtney Kupets' routines?
Remember how totally rad they were
Think back to those days
And actually choreograph something good for Chellsie. She is a phenomenal gymnast, and she deserves more than "I Love Rock & Roll" and arm-waving.