USA Men’s Gymnastics is Booming!
I can’t tell you how excited I was when I first looked at the roster for the men’s Winter Cup, which is taking place right now as I’m typing. First of all, the return of Sasha Artemev (assuming he stays healthy enough to compete this time) is extremely exciting. The return of Kevin Tan, who many would have assumed would have retired after Beijing, is an interesting story as well. I’ll also be very curious to see how Jonathan Horton handles himself after his somewhat disastrous world championships, and knowing that he’s about to face a stacked men’s field at the American Cup in one month. One really interesting story will be who our top all-arounders end up being at this competition – assuming all of the top guys compete everything of course.
Jonathan Horton must have taken an awkward blow when Tim McNeill stepped up and outperformed him at the world championships. McNeill shocked everyone in London by placing 7th in the all-around and 5th on pommel horse, looking amazingly composed and confident in his first world competition. He just recently moved to the Olympic Training Center to train with Vitali Marinich, obviously signaling he’s very serious about continuing to represent the USA throughout this quadrennial. A Horton-Mcneill rivalry could help create something our country has been missing for a long time, and it could be particularly engaging since both are slated to compete in next month’s American Cup and will likely be in near peak form.
But could someone else upset both of them? I think Danell Leyva would have the best shot, and after getting some worlds experience and a near-medal on high bar, his confidence is undoubtedly rising very quickly. I think he is very close to being ready to challenge for our top all-around spot; whether it happens at this competition or even this year remains to be seen. Let’s see if he unveils any new high bar skills at this meet, like his full twisting laid-out Tcatchev.
I’d be shocked if Artemev was ready to challenge for the top all-around spot, and in fact I’d be shocked if he actually competes the all-around. But it sure would be awesome to see him up there with those guys, helping push all of them to be at their very best.
Another big story is the two surprises on the roster – POWER TUMBLER Kalon Ludvigson and Cuban gymnast Charlie Tamayo – both of whom have some incredibly exciting stuff. Could Tamayo become the male version of Annia Hatch? Add to that the presence of recent world team members Steven Legendre and Jake Dalton, along with a host of college stars and some great junior talent like John Orozco, and this is bound to be the best Winter Cup in history.
The thing that actually excited me the MOST about this competition was to see that there were 127 total gymnasts on the roster! This has to be the biggest Winter Cup ever, and the first (I believe) to require THREE preliminary sessions. And at a time when we can hardly find 15 healthy female elite gymnasts to go out and actually compete in a competition, that number is absolutely staggering. Granted, the women don’t HAVE a national competition that combines juniors and seniors like the men do at the Winter Cup (I brought that idea up at last year's USA's when the senior women’s numbers were pathetic for the 5th year in a row)…but I still think it’s safe to say that USA men’s gymnastics is, in a lot of ways, much more exciting than the women’s.
I think the third preliminary session is starting, so I’m off to check out the scores!