What a great week of gymnastics. When we put together our ranking, top of mind is who will we put on our five-person team? This means some people might finish higher in the competition standings, but they don’t quite fit the team puzzle as well as someone lower who excels on certain events that can boost the overall team score. Spencer has done a great job this week explaining the variations of highest scoring team makeups as he swaps athletes to create roster permutations that would demonstrate strengths in different areas.
Simone has said at Classic she has traditionally aimed to be at 50%, at Nationals 80% and at Worlds/Olympics 100%. So when evaluating the performances at the Core Classic, we recognize there’s a lot of gymnastics we haven’t seen yet (just ask Jade Carey who only competed one event or Shilese Jones who didn’t participate at all). So when you see movement on the list this week, it’s mostly giving credit to athletes who showed a higher level of capability, rather than a reflection of poor performance from those who slid down (or off) our list. With that said… here’s our latest ranking.
Previous Ranking: August 1, 2023
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Previous Ranking: 1
Spencer: 59.100
Jessica: Even better than her last elite quad. Destroyed Listunova’s Russian Champs all-around score.
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Previous Ranking: 2
Suni’s beam at 2023 U.S. Core Classic showed there’s every reason to expect she’ll get back to champion level with consistent training time. In fact, her 6.2 D on beam with a watered down dismount was the same difficulty as her Olympic routine.
Such a great moment. #CoreClassic pic.twitter.com/ZIFrcvkOFC
— GymCastic (@GymCastic) August 6, 2023
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Previous Ranking: 6
Josc hit her Cheng, showed a 6.4 D score on floor and posted a huge beam score. Her uneven bars are irrelevant when looking at putting her on a team with this current crop of athletes. At Classic she finished in the top 3 in the other three events. The only other person in the top 3 on three events was Simone.
Joscelyn Roberson 👍👍👍 VT
@Josc_Roberson 🌺🌺🌺 pic.twitter.com/3FdsRYv0f6— Agi Meier W. 🦉 (@Aggi037) August 8, 2023
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Previous Ranking: 7
She wants it so bad! Skye is proving herself to be more than just a beam specialist. She has shown six routines between July camp and at Classic (skipping floor at both). All six routines have scored over 14.
What we’re not gonna do is forget how great @skyeblakely_ was at #CoreClassic!
This Bars routine took 🥈 and her Beam tied for third! We can’t wait to see her compete at Championships! pic.twitter.com/PrdDMSrIQN
— USA Gymnastics (@USAGym) August 9, 2023
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Previous Ranking: 5
No change. The reigning World silver medalist didn’t compete at Classic, but has shown the skills are still there online; and would still make our five person roster.
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Previous Ranking: 3
She seems to be lulling everyone into discounting her by only doing beam at Classic. She’d still be an alternate on our World team, at minimum. We know she has a lot more to show and lest we forget she’s an Olympic champion on floor and World champion on vault. In the last quad she showed she knows how to play the game.
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Previous Ranking: 4
Jordan is a clutch all-arounder, but she’s still working her way back to her previous elite form. She’s going to need to show consistency and difficulty at Nationals to fend off the likes of Skye Blakely moving forward.
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Previous Ranking: 10
She’s looking as good or perhaps better than her 2021 World silver medal all-around performance. Had she not flown off the mat on her beam dismount at Classic she would have scored around 55, which puts her in the mix as a top all-arounder in the world. As it were, she placed first for people not named Simone. We’re still trying to figure out how she fits on a five-person roster.
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Previous Ranking: N/A
We may have witnessed the birth of a new star at Classic with that performance. She matched Josc on floor and when you look at the math for a Worlds roster, her name appears on the highest-scoring team.
Jessica is also declaring Kaliya the second coming of Gabby Douglas.
Also, she was in Spencer’s top 20 last week.
We're still thinking about this @KaliyaLincoln Floor Routine!
With a score of 14.000, she won 🥈 on Floor at #CoreClassic! pic.twitter.com/ghE3RS6X0r
— USA Gymnastics (@USAGym) August 7, 2023
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Previous Ranking: 9
She’s the only non-Simone to win an event at Classic, posting the top-scoring bars routine. A routine making her important when considering various team make-ups. A routine that could win a medal on the World stage. She’s also $200 richer.
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Previous Ranking: 12
When considering an alternate for a Worlds team, you want someone who’s consistent. Between July camp and Classic Nola has hit 8 for 8, placing 5th at camp and 4th at Classic. She’s lacking the D of those in our top 10, but her floor deserves to be seen on the world stage.
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Previous Ranking: 11
Kayla did her job and got her qualifying score for Nationals. Now she needs to get the difficulty back before it’s too late. We’re a little worried that she’s reverting to skills that proved to be a strain on her body for her World bronze all-around performance.
Bars is stupid, am I right?#coreclassic pic.twitter.com/SsL3fajGHY
— GymCastic (@GymCastic) August 6, 2023
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Previous Ranking: 19
Katelyn had an excellent 5th place finish at Classic, besting some more heralded peers. Unfortunately, her all-around score isn’t high enough to break into a highest-scoring team.
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Previous Ranking: 8
When you watch Tiana do gymnastics you can see she has huge potential. At Classic, however, she was a little shaky and her lack of consistency slides her down the list. Her 5th place balance beam performance was a bright spot to appreciate.
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Previous Ranking: 15
She competed just two events at Classic: vault and beam. She struggled on beam, but almost cracked a 14 on vault. This is just Classic, so we’re excited to see what she shows at Nationals.
5
Previous Ranking: N/A
She placed 7th all-around, performed a great floor routine, but 13s aren’t going to be enough to make the big teams moving forward.
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Previous Ranking: N/A
Alicia is consistent, powerful, has great air form, and she’s good on uneven bars. Like Amelia, she needs to get those scores into the 14s.
1
Previous Ranking: 17
Myli didn’t compete at the Core Classic, but she turned some heads at the American Classic in July with a 14.250 on bars. That would have placed third amongst the Americans at the Core Classic (Melanie de Jesus dos Santos posted the highest score with a 14.850).
2
Previous Ranking: N/A
It was a great all-around performance at Classic, but Michelle lacks the difficulty to push the top tier athletes on this list.
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Previous Ranking: N/A
Obligatory Gabby because it’s Gabby.
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Honorable Mentions: Lexi Zeiss, Elle Mueller, Ashlee Sullivan, Dulcy Caylor, Trinity Thomas, Hezly Rivera, Levi Jung-Ruivivar
Power Ranking was composed with input from Jessica O’Beirne, Spencer Barnes, and Steve Cooper
CORRECTION: A previous version mentioned Kaliya Lincoln’s uneven bars at Classic. She did not compete bars and the reference has been removed.
lots of errors here. Kaliya Lincoln did not do bars at Classics. Joscelyn won vault not Simone. Jordan and Skye are not fighting for the same spot….
It looks like you’re doing a lot of reading between invisible lines to identify these “errors”. There is no mention of Kaliya Lincoln doing bars (comparing her to Gabby does not imply she did bars – it’s in reference to her extension/execution) Josc did win valut, and Simone had the highest single vault score although again nether of these are mentioned. It is mentioned that Josc was top 3 in three events (VT, BB, FX) and that Simone was also top 3 in three events (UB,BB,FX). And lastly Jordan and Skye competing for a spot is not erroneous – they could both be considered contenders for the number 3 AA position after Simone and Shi. It is a subjective statement – but hardly an error!
Jane, read the correction to the article they added above.
<3
A single error is not “lots of errors here” so I’ll maintain your comment was in bad faith