(GYM) Gymnastics 2024 - 2025

Been meaning to tell you how pleasant it has been with your being here and participating as in the past. You always post something interesting that triggers thoughts that I'm not normally thinking. Mentioning Kennedy Baker just didn't come to my mind as something to report, but you mentioning it brought back all sorts of memories from Kennedy's time with UF. Thanks for being here.

 

Michigan State at UCLA in week 5 was one of the best meets of the weekend. Fox actually showed the meet to a national audience.

Going into the final rotation, UCLA was down .7. What happened to close the meet was nothing short of amazing. At UCLA, they call floor as theirs and have named the event "The Dance Party". The Bruins proceeded to put up amazing scores none of which I had any trouble with. The floor score of 49.800 easily has to be the best of the season. UCLA went from down .7 to winning by .1, 197.300 to 197.200:

Schedule

It's like the UCLA gymnasts get a shot of adrenaline before hitting the floor. It's contagious the way they feed off each other's performances. Jordan Chiles received a 10. UCLA was simply on fire.

All of this leads me to the slow start UF has gotten off to on floor. The average scores for UF must improve. By the time UF goes to OU on 2/21, I'd like to see the UF floor team on fire, not like unique UCLA, but on Gators fire.

 

Road to Nationals Top 5 Team Event Leaders:

Standings

Vault
1. LSU
2. Florida
3. Michigan State
4. Oklahoma
5. Kentucky

Bars
1. Oklahoma
2. LSU
3. Utah
4. Florida
5. California

Beam
1. Florida
2. Oklahoma
3. Utah
4. Oregon State
5. LSU

Floor
1. UCLA - The Dance Party
2. Oklahoma
3. LSU
4. Arkansas
5. California
12. Florida

 

College Gym News: The Dismount - Week 5

The Dismount: Week 5 - College Gym News

I 100% agree that Michigan State at UCLA turned out to be the meet of the week. What I didn't know as the network didn't make a big deal of it at the time is the meet as televised on Fox nationally was the first live women's gymnastics shown by the network. I suspect Fox has seen the light with the now very popular women's gymnastics sport:

Fox Debut Fits the Bill
All eyes were on the West Coast this weekend, as the marquee matchup between tightly ranked Michigan State and UCLA not only carried huge conference implications but put the sport on its back as live gymnastics made its debut on a new national network. It brought the drama, too, along with plenty of Friday Night Height’s action and anticipated returns to also highlight week five.

Meet of the Week
Michigan State at UCLA

Big Ten fanatics have had this meet circled as one to watch since schedules dropped, as the conference’s top two ranked teams went head-to-head and lived up to the hype. After Michigan State’s stellar and nation-leading vault rotation that featured four sticks got the Spartans out to a healthy midway lead, the Bruins stormed back on floor, notching an insane 49.800 and Jordan Chiles’ perfect 10 giving UCLA the walk-off win. Plus, it was a major milestone for the sport as the first live NCAA women’s gymnastics meet to air on Fox. We already can’t wait for this rematch come conference championship season.

 

What a 10 on floor is supposed to look like:



Jordan Chiles' 10 is right up there with past UCLA great Katelyn Ohashi which went viral in 2019:

 

Happy Birthday Skye Blakely:

 

Inspirational story of one of the best Special Olympics Gymnastics Champions in the world:

Chelsea Werner World Champion |

Chelsea Werner has proven all of her doctors wrong over the years. Gymnastics has changed her outlook on life.

 

Kennedy Baker will be on the call Friday night at Arkansas:

No. 2 Florida Returns to SEC Action Friday at No. 15 Arkansas - Florida Gators

This should be interesting. The meet is on the SEC Network at 7 PM ET.

Follow the action live:
SEC Network - action called Friday by Jason Ross Jr. and Gator All-American Kennedy Baker

 

If a frog had wings..........

From College Gym News Week 6 Mount & Predictions:

The Mount: Week 6 Previews and Predictions - College Gym News

Upset Alert
Florida at Arkansas
Friday, Feb. 7 at 7 p.m. ET | SECN

Prediction: 96.2% Florida, 3.8% Arkansas

The Gators are riding high after a big win over Utah and West Virginia last week. If they replicate that performance, it should be more than enough to secure the win. However, this meet carries much higher stakes for Arkansas, as it currently sits at the bottom of the SEC standings by average score. A disappointing showing against Oklahoma last week dropped the Razorbacks behind Alabama in the conference race. While there’s still time before NQS kicks in and the conference championships arrive, Arkansas will view this meet as a crucial opportunity to climb out of the ninth place “danger zone” and avoid being the team left out of the SEC championship in March.

Notes about the predictions: Arkansas has struggled with consistency on bars and beam, hovering around 49 in most meets this season. If the Razorbacks can hit season highs of 49.300 on both events, their win chances improve to 26%. Achieving those season highs while also outscoring Florida on at least one of those events turns this matchup into a 50/50 contest.

 

Don't know Daniel Rothwell, but he has posted a terrific article on Victoria Nguyen on College Gym News:

Victoria Nguyen’s Comeback: How She Found Her Confidence at Florida - College Gym News

I'm posting part of the article here so be sure to take the link to the full article. It has an outstanding picture of Victoria too:

Injury after injury, Victoria Nguyen was losing faith in herself. After competing all-around just once during her freshman year at Georgia, Nguyen injured her ankle early in the season, keeping her out of the vault and floor lineups for the rest of the year. The following year she injured her other ankle, once again hampering her ability to contribute. Following her sophomore season at Georgia, Nguyen entered the transfer portal and was picked up by a strong Florida team. Unbeknownst to her, this move started her journey of returning to her all-around potential and regaining the confidence she had lost during her time with the GymDogs.

Heading into her junior year at Florida, Nguyen was recovering from her injuries. The mental stress that came with the physical setbacks kept thoughts of self-doubt in the back of her mind. But with more competitive lineups to make, Nguyen knew she had to spend time during the summer rehabbing not only to get stronger but also to have a real chance of seeing competition time.

Even in her elite gymnastics days, Nguyen described herself as “fragile” and wanted to make sure she could be physically prepared for the season. She made a plan and worked closely with her strength coach and athletic trainer to do extra physical therapy and rehab three days a week. “It was an interesting time because, during my elite days, I never did any strength conditioning with weights and stuff, but I think doing that has just helped my overall strength,” she said.

After making progress over that summer between sophomore and junior year, the foundation was set for Nguyen to rebuild her confidence. “I really tried to work on my self-confidence, and my coaches and teammates really helped support me, and I think that made a huge difference,” she said.

Head coach Jenny Rowland was excited about the prospects of Nguyen’s work ethic and motivation. In phone calls prior to her transfer, they had talked about how bars and beam would be the main events she trained, and while vault and floor could be a possibility, they were mostly an afterthought.

Read on at the College Gym News link above.

 

Reposted by Dr. Sam from ESPN:



Trinity Thomas is on the call Friday night in the Kentucky at Oklahoma meet. She will also be on the ACC Network on Sunday calling the Clemson at North Carolina meet.

If you need a reason to watch the Wildcats at the Sooners, having Trinity on the call should do the job nicely.

 

Good article on Skye Blakely - picked up going through Dr. Sam:

https://www.olympics.com/en/news/skye-blakely-on-return-to-elite-competition-exclusive-future

The article focuses on Skye's long-term goal of wanting to make the LA Olympics Team in 2028. She may return to elite competition this summer but puts her health as #1 on her list before that possibility. She wants her health back in full and wants it to stay that way. I'm thinking returning to elite competition is inevitable, but along the lines of what Leanne Wong did doing both college and elite. Skye will be a senior in 2028, so I don't know if that puts her in or out of the UF 2028 season.

Skye does discuss the 2025 UF season. If health permits, she hopes to add balance beam as the season progresses. All around is out of the question this season.

Just seven months after an Achilles injury dashed her hopes of making the U.S. squad for the Paris Olympic Games, gymnast Skye Blakely has her sights firmly set on LA 2028.

The 20-year-old, who was a member of two gold medal-winning U.S. teams at the World Championships, quickly reframed her injury to focus on the future.

“It was definitely devastating in the moment, knowing just how hard I’d worked to get to that point and how ready I was and felt,” Blakely told Olympics.com this week. “So, having such an unforeseen… injury was super devastating and heartbreaking.

“But knowing that I was so ready and had a great chance of making that team just made me remember that I don’t want to give up on the dream that I already had for myself,” she continued. “Knowing that I was that close – I don’t want to give up.”

She has already returned to competition on the uneven bars as a freshman at the University of Florida and says adding balance beam may be possible later in the season.