For those who do not understand how the team was put together, here are some answers. First of all, this is not the only meet that was taken into consideration. The US nationals, where Douglas was 4th and Kocian was 5th, were part of the equation. Combining the 2 meets, they are still 4th and 5th. In the preliminary team round, there will be 4 gymnasts on each event. In the finals, there will be 3 on each event. Biles, Raisman, and Hernandez were givens, but Raisman is very weak on the bars, meaning Kocian, who has the best bars routine in the USA takes her place. Kocian can do other events as well, but not at Douglas's level. For the 5th person, it is either Locklear with the big bar routine, but NO OTHER EVENTS, or Douglas, who can do a world class bar routine and fill in on every other event. If someone gets hurt, Douglas is crucial.
Unlike track and field and other timed events, the selection committee is also watching practices to see who is most consistent.
Skinner, Smith and Nichols do not have the bar routine to fill the hole in that event, and again, their combined scores between the 2 meets were lower than Douglas's.
Karolyi has been masterful at this, and I believe she has made the correct decisions again. If this was strictly on top all around scores from the 2 events, you still get the same results.
Unlike track and field and other timed events, the selection committee is also watching practices to see who is most consistent.
Skinner, Smith and Nichols do not have the bar routine to fill the hole in that event, and again, their combined scores between the 2 meets were lower than Douglas's.
Karolyi has been masterful at this, and I believe she has made the correct decisions again. If this was strictly on top all around scores from the 2 events, you still get the same results.
9
It is hard to understand how a good writer like Juliet Macur produced this shallow piece. This team is one of the most diverse ever with Laurie H. being the first Latina in decades. The politics of the selection could have been a column on its own. Gabby Douglas got named because of her prowess on the bars but that is a big risk for Karolyi. How did the other girls feel - the ones who finished above her in the standings? Were they not made available to reporters? There was no deadline here - the paper had no coverage in the print edition today so the writer had a good long time to produce this column. I don't get it.
12
The US Olympic gymnastic Selection Committee seemed to highlight all that is wrong with sports. The Committee seemed to completely ignored the results of the "Olympic Trials” and handed Gabby Douglas a spot on the team over several young ladies clearly who outperformed her.
They rationalized that they wanted to use her for the uneven bars, but Ashton Locklear is better on bars, and was has consistently outperformed Douglas, so that does not appear to be the real reason. They tried to make it sound like Douglas had an off meet, but hasn't been impressive in other recent meets either.
The question I have is why? Was it because Douglass's name will improve the ratings and bring in more money? Was it to help Simone Biles, by preventing Ally Raisman from doing bars and having a shot at the all around title? Why did they do it?
Honestly, I know she has worked hard, but I am surprised that a great champion like Gabby Douglas even agreed to accept a place she did not earn. I am sure she is going to hate answering questions from the press about how she felt about taking a place on the team away from one of the three young women who beat her.
My heart goes out to the young ladies who went to the "Olympic Trials", finished near the top, and were unfairly passed over anyway in a sport that seems to be more about who you know than what you did in the gym.
They rationalized that they wanted to use her for the uneven bars, but Ashton Locklear is better on bars, and was has consistently outperformed Douglas, so that does not appear to be the real reason. They tried to make it sound like Douglas had an off meet, but hasn't been impressive in other recent meets either.
The question I have is why? Was it because Douglass's name will improve the ratings and bring in more money? Was it to help Simone Biles, by preventing Ally Raisman from doing bars and having a shot at the all around title? Why did they do it?
Honestly, I know she has worked hard, but I am surprised that a great champion like Gabby Douglas even agreed to accept a place she did not earn. I am sure she is going to hate answering questions from the press about how she felt about taking a place on the team away from one of the three young women who beat her.
My heart goes out to the young ladies who went to the "Olympic Trials", finished near the top, and were unfairly passed over anyway in a sport that seems to be more about who you know than what you did in the gym.
4
Gabby Douglas finished second behind Biles in the All-Around at the World Championships last year, a huge accomplishment for any gymnast let alone one just coming back to the sport after a year hiatus. Yes, Ashton is consistently better on bars, but she is a bars specialist while Gabby competes in all the events. Karolyi had already picked one bars specialist in Kocian, who was also a world champion. With the new Olympics format, she needed to be able to have another gymnast who was not only great on bars, but could be counted on for great scores in other events in case it was needed, particularly in the qualifying rounds where 4 girls compete and 3 scores count. Karolyi is focused on winning the team gold and she put together the best team (in her estimation) to do that. Simone, Gabby, Madison, and Aly were on the team that won gold at the 2015 World Championships and with the addition of the talented Laurie Hernandez, she believes they can win again.
7
Yesterday, I was wondering why Gabby Douglas was selected over 2 other young ladies who actually beat her at the trials? Today I see that Gabby Douglas announced her look-alike Barbie Doll from Mattell. Can you say corporate sponsorship? The other young ladies must be crushed today - they now see that the deck was stacked against them.
13
The women who were picked all had a top-three score in one or more of the four exercises. Gabby scored in the top three for bars, the weakest event for Team USA. Her ability to get top scores on bars was deemed important for team gold and rightly so.
11
She and Madison, who finished even lower overall in the trials, were chosen primarily due to their strength on bars. This is the weakest area for the US team and the weakest event for the top three finishers at the trials. Just taking the top five finishers would not have resulted in the strongest team for the US.
10
Disgusting, disgraceful article that places most of the focus on crying, makeup & sparkly leotards instead of on what incredible athletes this young women are. Most of these women are doing skills that most men can't do, but no, the NY Times can't acknowledge that at all.
This article was about as bad as NBC's coverage of the trials was...too many commercials & way too much time wasted on still shots of gymnasts, especially Douglas just standing around; wonder how many routines we didn't get to see?
This article was about as bad as NBC's coverage of the trials was...too many commercials & way too much time wasted on still shots of gymnasts, especially Douglas just standing around; wonder how many routines we didn't get to see?
33
Agree 100% with Carrie and Laura. What a sexist piece. Waterproof mascara? Really? There's a saying in gymnastics: if it were easy they'd call it football. Going forward, please focus on the athletics. And by the way, the male gymnasts cried harder (John Orozco anyone?) but I don't recall your pointing it out ad nauseum.
35
I agree that this article doesn't need to focus on tears, but just FYI, the gymnasts themselves made a huge point of the need for waterproof mascara (with Aly Raisman tweeting requests for recommendations in the days leading up to Trials).
Since 2 of the 3 comments posted so far complain about the emphasis on crying, let me pose a related question: since these are talented athletes, why is the sport marketed via sparkly, ultra-tight leotards, and all the makeup and waterproof mascara? The male gymnasts compete in looser garments, and I don't think the women athletes in any other Olympic sport treat makeup as a requirement in the same way. Perhaps if women's gymnastics was treated more as a legitimate sport (which it certainly is), with more emphasis on the athletic ability and less on the appearance of the competitors, it would get the type of coverage the previous posters want it to get. (Incidentally, I could ask similar questions about why the women beach volleyball players are required to wear bikinis while their male counterparts play in shorts and singlets, or why the women track athletes run in what are essentially two-piece bathing suits while their male counterparts don't wear speedos, but rather, again, shorts and singlets.)
46
I've noticed in the past couple of Olympics that women's beach volleyball receives an inordinate amount of TV time in proportion to the number of participants nationwide. Could it be an assumption on the part of NBC that video footage of scantily clad women will bring in the male viewers more than other sports?
9
My thoughts exactly. I was wondering the same thing about the women' bikinis and the men's long shorts, when I watched the track and field try outs last week.
The female gymnasts are phenomenal athletes. They should be able to dress like athletes.
The female gymnasts are phenomenal athletes. They should be able to dress like athletes.
9
I am always surprised at the gymnastic qualifying and not really sure why they hold it if the rankings at the end of the meet don't matter. There were other gymnasts that finished above Douglas, but they were pushed aside. Perhaps its just a TV money grab and little made for TV drama.
7
I believe in gymnastics, team competition is every bit as important (if not more). So you pick the gymnasts according to how they would contribute to the team. You want to spread the point so that if everyone in the team are great in the floor routine and not so great on the balance beam- you'd include a gymnast that excels on the balance beam. Which means you might have to exclude a great all around gymnast that's not so hot on the balance beam.
13
As Mike said, it's math and you want to spread out the points for a team win. Each of the the gymnasts that was picked had a top-3 score in one or more event (bar, beam, floor, vault). Gabby Douglas is consistently top-3 in uneven bars. In fact she often #1. For this reason she was picked.
8
Juliet,
You are a good journalist but this is a terribly sexist horrible column. Focusing on tears infantilizes these global athletes. Biles' is doing things on the vault that defy logic. You mention she may win five gold medals but you do not say in what or why or in any way account for anything except tears. Beneath your usual good level. I guess you don't know much about gymnastics. Maybe the NYT should hire a stringer for the games? The journalistic coverage needs more "get in shape" training than AR or Gabby did.
You are a good journalist but this is a terribly sexist horrible column. Focusing on tears infantilizes these global athletes. Biles' is doing things on the vault that defy logic. You mention she may win five gold medals but you do not say in what or why or in any way account for anything except tears. Beneath your usual good level. I guess you don't know much about gymnastics. Maybe the NYT should hire a stringer for the games? The journalistic coverage needs more "get in shape" training than AR or Gabby did.
43
Thanks for writing, Laura.
Sorry you didn't appreciate that the women weren't crying out of weakness, but that they were crying because they had succeeded in one of the toughest sports out there. It was their chance, finally, to exhale and release their emotions. As for the great Simone Biles, I wrote this column about her last month, and another in February, with more to come in Rio. You can find my other Olympic gymnastics coverage, from 2004 on, online.
Sorry you didn't appreciate that the women weren't crying out of weakness, but that they were crying because they had succeeded in one of the toughest sports out there. It was their chance, finally, to exhale and release their emotions. As for the great Simone Biles, I wrote this column about her last month, and another in February, with more to come in Rio. You can find my other Olympic gymnastics coverage, from 2004 on, online.
11
Noted, but I find it hard to believe that a column about male athletes would have been pitched this way.
8
I appreciate quite a lot, including your usual good reporting. But this article is terrible and should not have been printed. Re-read it and you will see what I mean: all about the tears and nothing about the sport.
If you still do not see why this essay was beneath your usual level, send it to the public editor, along with all the other comments. Maybe then you will be helped to see why publishing this was a big mistake. The selection of the team was a MAJOR story. Picking Gabby was complicated and a lot of people are confused about why that decision was made. You completely missed that story - -check any major sports site today and you will recognize what a missed opportunity this was. And not to mention John O's tears? C'mon. As far as I know, you identify as a woman, but that does not exempt you from sexism.
If you still do not see why this essay was beneath your usual level, send it to the public editor, along with all the other comments. Maybe then you will be helped to see why publishing this was a big mistake. The selection of the team was a MAJOR story. Picking Gabby was complicated and a lot of people are confused about why that decision was made. You completely missed that story - -check any major sports site today and you will recognize what a missed opportunity this was. And not to mention John O's tears? C'mon. As far as I know, you identify as a woman, but that does not exempt you from sexism.
11
I can't be the only person reading in disbelief that the sole reporting on the US women's gymnastics trials is focused on women crying. Good grief. These are some of the most talented and accomplished athletes in the world. This piece does them a great disservice.
39
If the author is correct, and I believe she is, in saying that the tears at the Trials were "no surprise," how it is that they became the main theme of the article? Setting the obvious and insulting trope of the weeping woman aside, the article is so relentless in its insistence on tears that it could serve nicely as a thesaurus entry for "to cry," including, "to shed tears", "to weep", and "to soak with tears." One is left with the impression that the competitors had to be treated for dehydration after the ceremony, and the constant reiteration of tears was, for me, not only irrelevant but downright boring.
The tedium of tears along with fact that the article concluded with the saccharin image of world-class athletes enveloped in a sparkly rainbow with emergency waterproof mascara left me too tired to cry.