Thoughts on American Cup
Now that I’ve had a little time to let things roll around in my head and to see the videos that weren’t shown in the second half of the stream.
Men
I can’t say a ton on the men’s side, because I know very little about most of their events. I feel badly that Kato and Sun had such bad days, especially Sun--I fell in love with his gymnastics last year and was really looking forward to seeing him again. I believe Deurloo’s painful-looking fall has been adequately covered and gif’ed.Â
I don’t see much conversation about Akash Modi, but he had a really nice day here. Solid, consistent gymnastics that looked good all around. Between today and Winter Cup, he is having a very nice start on his elite year.
The race was obviously between Oleg and Yul. Oleg is probably the better gymnast here, but Yul is peaking for nationals whereas Oleg is starting his season, and mistakes on PB and a painful looking vault gave it away. Yul and his hair had a very well deserved win here.
The most exciting thing about the men’s competition for me was that Yul and Akash both went 6/6. The lack of consistency on the men’s side has been a pebble in my shoe for years, and I like seeing these younger guys bringing it.
Women
Firstly, I hope Tinkler’s injury isn’t too serious. She was having a bit of a scrappy meet in general, and I hope they just pulled her from floor in a better-safe-than-sorry measure.
It was a rough meet all around. Volleman, Whitehead, and Xui all had rough outings that I hope are mostly due to it being early in the year and early in the quad. Xui actually didn’t have a catastrophes, she just doesn’t have the difficulty--but I believe this is also her first serious all around competition as well? We’ll see.
Teramoto and Bui looked like the beautiful veterans they are. Teramoto’s silver was well earned, and Bui just barely finished off the podium. They’re both long sentimental favorites of mine, and it was good to see them doing what they do so well.
McCusker. No denying she had a really, really rough day. Her DTY needs work, period. It’s not scary, but it’s not good. The bars fall looked like a fluke--her PT bars were very nice indeed--and then she didn’t quite have her head back in the game for the pak, resulting in the second major error. Beam actually looked good up to the end, but it was a terrifying end. Her right foot slipped off the left side of the beam on the BHS going into her dismount, so she was already way off on the second BHS and her left foot came off entirely. She is very lucky she wasn’t seriously injured. Her floor wasn’t perfect--I suspect there was a reason we didn’t see it in PT--but I am immensely proud of her for getting back up there and having a strong floor rotation. However, I do hope she was assessed for injury first. Also, I was NOT expecting “This is Halloween” for her floor music, and it’s my new favorite thing.
Fall on her full aside, Smith had a pretty good meet. Vault was scrappy, bars were as good as they get for her (I just don’t really like her bars. I’m sorry). Her beam was good, though, fall aside, though I am VERY glad she didn’t go for the Patterson. The DLO on floor looked much better than it did in PTO, but her double arabian always scares me. Regardless, it was a well deserved win for her.
Finally, Melanie de Jesus dos Santos. Fabulous, simply fabulous. I had actually called the podium as Smith-Teramoto-Bui when I saw she had snuck into third. Beautiful gymnastics, beautiful form, just needs a little more difficulty. I’m sorry she missed Rio, but I’m very, very glad she was here today.
Final Thoughts
American Cup is always rough. It’s so early in the season and so out of the way for most of the world. I cannot get used to seeing all these scores in the 12s and 13s though. Even mentally adding the .5 back to all of them, these were not good scores. There were a lot of painful looking mistakes and scary skills being thrown, and I’m never okay with that. Rough, sure. It’s early, and things still need practice and polish. But if it’s scary, if it’s painful, it shouldn’t be competed.
The real winners today? Without a doubt, Yul Moldauer’s hair and Riley McCusker’s floor music.
