News and USA upgrades

Pretty old news by now but Chellsie Memmel has officially retired. Chellsie is a certified judge and is due to be married next summer, but is in excellent shape throwing very hard tumbles during the tour, so expectations were that she might try to continue. However, I think she would have had such little hope of making any team, so that coupled with the toll gymnastics has taken on her is enough to call it a day. Her 2003 worlds performance, 2005 AA win, 2006 single-handed team silver medal and 2008 Olympic Trials floor exercise will live on- what a legacy.

Simona Amanar has given birth to a baby girl, who she intends to be a gymnast. Just about elegible for the 2028 Games!

McKayla Maroney has one cast off- the one from the tour injury, and a few weeks left on the other one. Then rehab, then back to the gym.

It has emerged that Li Yiting was injured during the Asian Artistic Championships, the reason behind her underpar performance. She has proved herself quite a few times in internal competitions, so expect to see her form a part of pretty much every team.

The upgrades for Lexie Priessman are phenomenal. Not sure whether these are competition ready, in the works, or in the pipeline. They are slated to include a second vault with Tsukahara entry, a shaposhnikova 1/2, piked Tkachev and piked stalder hecht on bars, front pike and an acro line of BHS-BHS-laid out full-BHS on beam (WOW I will take that even with the inevitable fugly form) and a full twisting double layout and 1 and a half into tucked full in on floor. Crazy stuff. Amelia Hundley, Mary Lee Tracy's other most promising gymnast other than Lexie, also apparently has upgraded all 4 events, but no details that I have seen. Unlike Lexie she has another year to wait as a 2014 senior. Simone Biles also has crazy upgrades listed but as they are not from a source like Lexie's- which are from an interview with her and one with Mary Lee Tracy her coach, I will leave it.

Elite Gym Massilia is underway. Canada have already done extremely well, I am most looking forward to videos of the Russians and Chinese, as well as the individual performances of Victoria Moors, Eythora Thorsdottir and Chantysha Netteb. Mei Jie, a lovely gymnast will not be competing as her visa did not arrive in time, sadly.

The team from Deva unsurprisingly won the event at the recent Romanian Nationals. Although the AA was not contested, Andreea Iridon continues to impress by having the highest AA total. Asiana Peng, Silvia Zarzu and Laura Jurca also had strong performances. Videos are starting to emerge, I'll probably dump my favourites from Massilia and this in one post.