The Secret U.S Classic Report

Because this blog is really an excuse for me to write uneducated stuff about gymnastics, lets take a quick look at the big stories coming out of the Secret U.S Classic, which took place at the Sears Centre Arena in Chicago Saturday night.

Kyla Ross: Queen of the Bars

Ross was the overlooked member of the Fierce Five last summer in London. Marta Karolyi selected Ross, the youngest member of the squad, to essentially do two things in London: hit on bars and beam in team finals. The Californian performed well where she was needed and has an Olympic gold medal to show for it. However, Ross sort of got lost in the shuffle because she didn’t win the all-around title (Douglas), rebound from a widely viewed disappointment (Wieber), become the emotional leader of the team (Raisman) or embrace her role as the unimpressed faced vaulting dynamo (Maroney). Sometimes you just get overshadowed. It happens.

No one was overshadowing Ross last night in Chi-town. Even with an uneven performance on floor, Ross comfortably took home the Classic title over Peyton Ernst and Brenna Dowell with a combined total of 58.650. The 16-year-old showed her class on bars, obtaining the highest marks of any gymnast on that apparatus with a 15.400. She’s definitely the favorite to win the US Championships in August and should be the leader of the squad that travels to worlds (which has no team event) in Belgium this October. I give her massive props for getting back on the horse after London and performing all four events at this competition. She’s a great gymnast.

McKayla Maroney is still really good at vaulting.

I don’t want to sound dramatic, but I still can’t believe Maroney lost the Olympic vault final. From a marketing perspective, she probably couldn’t have made a better mistake. She embraced that now infamous post-event facial expression and transformed herself into a star. What people forget is that Maroney already had turned in a star making performance in London. Her vault in team finals was one of the greatest pieces of gymnastics I’ve ever seen. When Maroney vaults, I feel the same way I feel when LeBron is charging down the lane to jam the ball home. It’s the anticipation of immense power combined with graceful precision.

Long story short, Maroney returned to competitive gymnastics last night and vaulted out of the gym like she always has.  She only competed on floor and vault, but claimed in a pre-meet interview that she’ll have all four events ready for nationals. I hope she sticks around until Rio because she deserves to be remembered as an Olympic vault champion. Best I’ve ever seen.

Uhhhh, Who’s Next?

The year after an Olympics is a weird time in gymnastics. It normally takes a little time for the previous year’s Olympians to sort out if they want to continue on and that makes looking towards the future difficult. In the US team’s case, Gabby Douglas is not competing this year, Jordyn Wieber is sending out mixed signals about her return and it looks like Aly Raisman will be back nations. Obviously, Ross and Maroney have returned to competition, but the Classic did give US gymnastics fans another look at what's beyond the Fierce Five. 

2012 US junior national champion Lexie Priessman won the floor title in Chicago. First year senior Simone Biles, who broke out at this year’s American Cup, didn’t put on her greatest performance, but displayed hints of the immense potential she possesses. Ernst and Dowell put on workman like performances to grab high finishes, which was nice to see. Both look like they will compete in college instead continuing as elites until 2016. It’s honestly silly to try and predict who from this group will still be around in 2-3 years, but it was nice to see the best of the US competing against each other again. The future looks bright and the US Championships will be very interesting come August.