So, let's get onto the highlights of the 2015 American Cup!
Results:
1. Simone Biles (USA)- 62.299
2. Mykayla Skinner (USA)- 57.832
3. Erika Fasana (ITA)- 56.633
4. Jessica Lopez (VEN)- 56.365
5. Ellie Black (CAN)- 56.132
6. Vanessa Ferrari (ITA)- 55.731
7. Emily Little (AUS)- 55.165
8. Natsumi Sasada (JPN)- 53.733
9. Claudia Fragapane (GBR)- 52.532
1. Simone Biles
Obviously, we all knew Simone was going to win this before the competition even started. The question was by how much. She won by nearly 5 points, the biggest margin of an American Cup. Simone started the day off on vault, where she executed a gorgeous Amanar for a 16.033. Her landing was near perfect, with only a tiny hop. That was definitely a well deserved score. Next, she went onto bars, which I guess you could consider her "weak" event, but honestly, she has no weak event at this point. She started with her Weiler half to Maloney, a toe full to a Tkatchev, she upgraded to a huge Tkatchev to Pak Salto, she catches it beautifully. She dismounts with a stuck full in for a 15.200. Then she went to beam, where she had another beautiful routine. She started with a wolf 2.5 turn, which looked somewhat shaky, but she covers it up well. She does her jumps well, especially her pike. A nice front aerial to split jump, but a little shaky again. She sticks the BHS LOSO LOSO. Side Aerial. Her leg comes up on the switch to switch half leap, but she saves it. a nice back pike and punch front. She dismounts with a full in and hop forward. Not her best beam routine, but still gets a good 15.066. She finishes the day off with her floor, my favorite event of hers. She still has the same choreography as last year, but she said she will be getting a new routine by the summer, maybe after Jesolo. She mounts with a huge, upgraded double layout full out and a hop back. She makes it look so easy. She adds a split jump connection after the Biles (DLO half out). A double double as her third pass, as usual making it look easy. She ends with a full in and a hop back. I love her so much on this event, and she is capable of much bigger tumbling passes. She started with a huge 6.8 start value and scored a 16.000. So yeah, I guess you could Simone is an okay gymnast.
Watch her floor routine here!
2. Mykayla Skinner
By now, you should know that I love Mykayla Skinner. I was so happy when I found she was going to be competing here. I'm not going to deny that her form isn't the best, but she's a hard worker and knows she needs to work on it. Which she has! She didn't look the best at this competition, but it's early in the season for the US girls. I think she'll definitely improve as the season goes on. Skinner started the day on vault, where she played it safe with a Yurchenko double. During podium training, she was having a hard time with her cheng, completely missing her hand on the block causing a scary crash. Her DTY was beautiful however, scoring a 15.100. Next, she moves on to bars, which is by far her worst event. But this was much improved from podium training, and I think it could possibly the best bar routine I've seen her do. She opens with an upgraded Maloney to pak salto with some leg separation. After falling on it in podium training, she catches her van Leeuwen nicely with some form issues. She does a huge blind half to toe full to a Tkatchev, and a great toe on to Ray. She dismounts with a stuck full in. You can tell she was happy with that one! Her beam was a little rough, but she manages to bring in an okay score. She starts with a BHS tuck full twist and has a huge wobble on it, and barely manages to save it. But props to her for saving that! She messed up her switch half in the air, but lands it. A little low on her punch front. A very nice switch leap to back pike. She had a solid side aerial, full turn, and Split jump to wolf. She dismounted with a nice double back for a 13.533. She finishes the day on floor for a nice 14.933. After crashing her Moors (double twisting double layout) in podium training, she lands it solidly here. Her second pass, a double double was landed nicely. Her 1.5 to 2.5 was done well, I hope to see her upgrade to a triple eventually. She dismounts with a full in and lands it very low, but doesn't sit it down. Overall, Mykayla had a much better day than we've seen from her in podium training, but definitely has room for improvement later in the season. I still love her though.
Watch her bar routine here!
3. Erika Fasana
Erika is an Italian gymnast, who competed in the 2012 Olympics. To be honest, the only Italian gymnast I ever paid much attention to was Vanessa Ferrari. But Fasana definitely caught my eye at the American Cup. She had an exceptional performance at this competition, finding her way onto the 3rd place podium. She's a beautiful gymnast, especially on floor. I don't think many people expected her to place here, but she did, and I'm happy for her. She began with a Yurchenko double on vault, and although it's not as clean as others, she puts in good effort. Her legs weren't very tight and a little bent, and she landed with bent knees and a step back. She scored a 14.533. On bars, she had several leg separations and missed handstands, but she keeps pointed toes on pretty much every skill. She hit a nice Ray and nailed her double layout dismount for a 13.900. Her beam was fantastic, but not a very high score due to a low start value. She hit a nice BHS layout, switch leap to back tuck, full turn, side somi, and a front aerial. She dismounted with a clean double pike and a little step for a 13.800. Her floor routine was phenomenal for a 14.400. She opens with a great double layout, making it look easy. Her full in was stuck, and she nailed her double pike. I'm definitely excited to see more of Erika in the future!
Watch her floor routine here!
4. Jessica Lopez
Lopez is another beautiful gymnast to watch, and veteran of the sport at 29. Coming into this competition, she was definitely a threat for second place. Before the American Cup, she had won two medals at the Glasglow and Stuttgart World Cups. She started off with a lovely Yurchenko double, landing a little low with a step forward, for a 15.000. Bars is a strong event for her, with a 6.5 difficulty value. She has huge releases including a Piked Tkatchev to pak salto, Tkatchev to Gienger, and straddle Jaeger. She dismounted with a clean double front and tiny hop forward for a 14.933. She has enormous potential on this event, she just needs to clean up her form, and point her toes. Unfortunately her beam didn't go so well, and she fell on her opening series, a BHS BHS layout. The rest of her routine went well, with only a few minor wobbles. But she was supposed to do a 2.5 twisting dismount, but only ended up doing a double with a hop back. She scored a 13.166. Her floor routine could've also been better, but she put up nice efforts for a 13.266. She opened with a messy triple twist, hit a nice double pike, Rudi with a hop back, and dismounted with a decent 2.5. She didn't have the competition she's capable of, but she still performed nice routines. No matter what though, I will always love Jessica, and her leo was gorgeous!
Watch her vault here!
5. Ellie Black
I love Ellie, always have, and always will. She's probably my favorite Canadian gymnast, next to Victoria Moors. I was very happy when she accepted her invitation to compete at the American Cup. Earlier in the season, she came in second place at the Glasglow World Cup, and could've potentially threatened for the silver medal here too. She opened the competition up with a beautiful 1.5 layout tsuk vault, and a stuck landing for a 14.566 She was definitely happy with that performance. Bars didn't go as planned and she unfortunately had a fall on her clear hip to piked Takatchev for a 13.000. But she hit a nice straddle Jaegar to pak salto to switch kip. She nailed and stuck her very unique dismount, a toe front layout half. I love watching her on beam, but she sadly had some major wobbles, but managed to stay on, scoring just a 14.266. She had a nice BHS layout for her 1st flight series, and just a small wobble on her BHS tuck full twist though. Her floor routine was great, and I love her tumbling. She started off with a stuck 2.5 through to double back, a step on her front handspring double twist, and she ended with a lovely punch front full to a double pike, scoring a 14.300.
Watch her beam routine here!
6. Vanessa Ferrari
I've talked about Vanessa on here before, and there is just something about her that I love. Like Lopez, she is another Veteran of the sport at 25. In 2006, she won the All Around at the World Championships, and since then she has just gotten better. She started with a Yurchenko 1.5, getting nice height, but unfortunately had bent knees, and a messy landing for a 14.133. Like her teammate, Fasana, bars is not her forte, but she puts in good effort for a 13.966. She hit a nice Ono to a straddle Jaegar, and a good full in dismount with a hop. On beam, she mounted with a unique Planche, had a decent roundoff layout with her leg up, her jumps were pretty clean for the most part, and she dismounted with a messy double pike for a 13.866. My favorite event to watch of her's, would have to be floor, but even this routine was weak for her. She started with a double layout out of bounds, a messy landing on her full in, a hit double back, and fairly clean double pike for a 13.766
Watch her floor routine here!
7. Emily Little
Unfortunately, I didn't much about Emily going into this competition. But she is a 2012 Olympic gymnast for Australia, and after London she took some time off, but decided to make a comeback. Her difficulty is still too low to compete with this field of gymnasts, but overall she had a nice competition. She opened the competition up with a very nice Yurchenko double for a 14.766. On bars, she hit a nice straddle Jaeger, but had to muscle up in a handstand, she stayed on though. Her double layout dismount was good, with a hop back, for a 13.166. She hit a very nice beam routine including a BHS LOSO, front aerial to sissone, and good 2.5 dismount for a 13.633. On floor, she had a stuck piked full in, a full in landing out of bounds, a 1.5 through to double with a hop back, and nailed her double pike dismount for a 13.600
Watch her beam routine here!
8. Natsumi Sasada
Natsumi is another gymnast without the difficulty to compete with the rest of the field. But, she definitely has potential. She is coming off a 3rd place finish at the WOGA classic a few weeks ago. She started with a clean Yurchenko full and a step back for a 13.833 on vault. She had another lovely bar routine, including a unique combination of a Jam to straddle Jaeger for a 13.500. She had a very clean beam routine for a 14.200. She hit a nice roundoff layout, punch front, side aerial, and a double pike dismount with a step. Unfortunately, she had a fall in her floor routine, and scored just a 12.200. She sits her 1.5 through to full, a hop on her double back, a nice double twist, and dismounts with a low double pike. She may not have the difficulty currently, but she definitely a gymnast to look out for!
Watch her beam routine here!
9. Claudia Fragapane
Oh Claudia... Poor Claudia... I love Claudia, she is one of my favorite gymnasts to watch. Unfortunately though, this competition did not go as planned, and she had a couple falls. It is still early in the season, and she has time to work on polishing her upgrades though. In fact, she placed 2nd at the English Championships this weekend! She started her competition off with a clean Yurchenko double with a hop back for a 14.633. Bars is where she counted her first fall, unfortunately. She started with a nice toe half to Piked Jaeger, but fell on her church, which she had been missing in podium training. She finished off fairly clean with a few form issues, but a great double layout dismount for a 12.633. Claudia went to beam, and had a very good routine, besides a big balance check on her side aerial. But she hit a very lovely BHS layout and and awesome standing full twisting back tuck! She dismounts with a hop on her double pike for a 13.500. Floor, which is usually her best event, in my opinion, is where things went very wrong. Hard to believe she's still walking after the hard landings her ankles had to endure. She brought in just a 11.766 after sitting down multiple tumbling passes. She opened with a double layout full and lands it very low. She sits her arabian double front, she was very short on her triple twist, but managed to stay standing, she dismounts with an unfortunate double layout that she basically crashed. But on the bright side, she still rocked her new floor choreography and had a gorgeous leo on!
Watch her vault here!
