Junior competitions are always a blast because you just see a ton of talent and potential and you don't have everyone scrambling to prove their worth on a major team. Here are a few juniors who made me take notice for the first time in St. Louis- so no Maile types who we've all known forever.
Riley McCusker
It seems weird to be putting the silver medalist here, but how many people knew she existed before this season? I was taken aback to realize she'll be a senior next year- holding her from elite until this year seems to go very much against Maggie's strategies with Laurie, Jazzy, and Ari Agripides. I love how she has a different style from your stereotypical MG Elite- not as showy, it seems to me. I think she could be very much a Maggie type who turns senior the first year of the quad and than just keeps building. Her foundation she has now is beautiful, and I'd love to see her take on a role as an elegant type in the US.
Sunisa Lee
Her floor is what really caught my eye in St. Louis. I love her DLO and her choreography showed tons of promise! Her bars also have nice work. I'd love to her continue to develop in the next two years before she turns senior in 2019, because she totally has the talent and lovely style.
Madeline Johnston
Madeline caught my eye on bars, which is interesting because they were super low-scoring with only a 4.8 D score, but that's actually pretty similar to Kyla Ross and Morgan Hurd's D scores their first years as elite. What surprised me is she only got an 8.0 E score both days, seeing as she seemed quite clean to me. Especially day 2, that seems low to me.
Sloane Blakely
She's another one who has fairly simple routines at this point but just looks polished. Beam especially is where she stood out to me as one who didn't have the flashiest routine, didn't even have necessarily the steadiest performance, but looked comfortable in an elite competition setting. She didn't hit her acro series either night, and as a back tuck+back tuck series, that just seems to be begging not to be credited (also, thumbs up to you, USAG judges, for not just crediting everything attempted or ignoring a completely missing CR for once and actually encouraging gymnasts to change composition that's not working for them- keep this up), but overall she just seems way more confident than I expect from a new junior.
Lauren Letzsch
Lauren's floor is fabulous and honestly reminds me more of what you'd expect from a Russian junior than a stereotypical American junior- she has that look of Russian juniors who've been around the top scene their whole lives. She also, like Sunisa, has an awesome DLO and I love her twisting connection! Sealing the "you look like you're a Russian junior" deal is her fabulous double L+Memmel turn connection. She definitely had some rough spots on other events, but she does some nice work and I'd like to see it built upon.
Cameron Machado
Cameron really shows promise across the board. She has about middling difficulty everywhere, which is perfect for her since she's a 2019 senior, and her execution and presentation really is quite polished, setting her up well. Like I said, she really has talent on all four events, which makes me hope she'll emerge as a balanced (and stylish) AAer.
Also, I mentioned her in my Classics/Euros bullet post, but I'm gonna give Tori Tatum a bit of an extended mention here as well. I just love her style and line. Beam is unfortunately rather a thorn in her side, but she has two more years on the junior level to build confidence there and she really is just lovely on the other three events. She ups the standard junior vault difficulty a bit with a 1.5 twister, and it is gorgeous.
Anda Butuc is a 2000-born from Romania. She is following with a new Romanian trend of beautiful long lines and elegance and made beam finals at Euros in Sofia. She's just beautiful to watch. Her difficulty is lower, so she hasn't been able to really make a name for herself with Jurca and Iridon in the 2015 class on which Romania is pinning its hopes. I really hope she can upgrade a bit, and at least be an option to fill in should some of the seniors leave between 2015 and Rio.
Floor is where Anda caught my eye. This music has been taking the elite world by storm, and Anda was right ahead of the trend! I love her interpretation. It is right in perfect harmony with the music and is nicely sassy and playful. She has really great quick movements, and especially makes good use of quick leg movements. She manages to combine the jazzy music and sassy choreography with her beautiful elegance to make a unique and eye-catching aesthetic. She lacked a little bit in her projection, but it was great for a 13-year-old.
Anda went with a more mature style for 2014 with Spanish guitar. You can see here where her difficulty is lacking. Her two middle passes are a 3/2 twist and a double twist. Her coaches need to either upgrade or change the approach to the routine for difficulty. She had a great regal air for the routine, and I like the bun with the style! Her lines are lovely and are nicely on display in this routine. She's gone more dramatic and has really been able to take on the maturity.
At the Comaneci Invitational at the beginning of 2013, Anda's bars reflected Romania in general on the event. No release move, a B dismount, a routine consisting almost entirely of Stalder variations.... She looked to be just the next in a long line of poor work on the event which earned Romania's most legendary gymnast the first perfect ten on an Olympic stage.
While Anda's bars still are not the best on the junior level, they are a world of improvement from last year's. She shows much smoother work ad has included a much greater variety of skills and types of elements into her repertoire. She had a nice toe-on full on the low bar and has included two Jager variations. She has upgraded from her double tuck dismount, as well. While it's still a double pike and needs to be upgraded in order for her bars to be a legitimate option for a major Romanian team spot, the rest of her improvements on bars make me think she just might be able to do it for her debut on the senior stage.
Anda's lines translated well on beam, as every other event. In 2013, Anda showed the typical Romanian pedigree on beam. I like some of the unique skills, such as the gainer bhs into the bhs-loso and the switch+aerial. Her little low to beam cartwheel is also so gorgeous! Her work had a very smooth look to it.
Anda's beautiful aesthetic on beam is still her glorious trademark. I really like the addition of the Onodi+split jump+wolf jump. It's a very pretty connection and adds some dynamism to her work. Unfortunately, her dismount is still not a D value. Getting adequate difficulty will always be the problem for Anda. She has kept the unique work she had on this event which makes her a lovely standout and is still performing it absolutely beautifully.
Anda's elegance is keeping with a Romanian trend in their juniors which is wonderful. She has beautifully performed gymnastics which will always keep her a favorite in my book. Unfortunately, her difficulty is not really high enough to put her in the top tier of Romanian competitors. I am aware that I may have to enjoy watching her in videos on YouTube at smaller meets, but I'm okay with that. I just really love her work.
The US, of course, has a fair army of talented young ones, but of course there are those you just notice the first time you watch and you can't keep your eye off of. For me, there are two of these gymnasts in the ranks of American juniors: Ragan Smith and Christina Desiderio.
Ragan Smith
For all the gymnasts who have been compared to Shawn Johnson since 2009, Ragan is the only one who actually evokes that comparison to me. Ragan is just totally adorable but also has the power in her skills and is especially strong on beam and floor. Her switch to Texas Dreams this year has proven beneficial in many ways, and I really think she has the potential to be a very successful and balanced all arounder.
I first came across Ragan after Classics last year when the gymternet's collective ears pricked up at the sound of the "Puttin' on the Ritz" cut formerly used by Ksenia Semenova and we dug up her floor from the endless posted videos.
Admittedly, it wasn't a love-at-first-sight reaction for me. I thought she was cute, but I didn't think she was too much of anything special. But something about her kept her name niggling at the back of my mind, and the more I watched, the more I enjoyed what I saw.
Bars is definitely her weakest event, but Ragan has made great strides here and I really think she has it in her to have bars viable for strong all around performances. Her bars last year had a LOT that had to be worked on, most prominently very labored swing and dead hangs. She also was unable to make it through a set without some sort of major errors in the US elite season.
While bars is still a problem area for Ragan, she's had some great improvement this year. Her swing has improved by leaps and bounds, and KZB has done a great job of capitalizing on her better work with Stalder variations. I'd like to hope she can add Chow and/or Maloney variations in her work. She still had big problems at P&Gs, but at Classics she had a clean set which was able to bring in a 13.650, her best bars score of her elite career (so far).
Vault saw a big upgrade for Ragan this year as she began vaulting a DTY. Her FTY from last year was certainly problematic, with loss of leg form and piking at her hips.
Her DTY was chucked at Classics and she fell to her knees, but at P&Gs definitely saw improvement. Day one was still fairly scary with it barely brought around, but day two's was much improved. That 9.00 E score was still fairly fishy, but her position in the air, leg form, and chest position on landing were all much improved. I'd like to see more attention given to that block, but I trust KZB with this one.
Beam is one of Ragan's specialty events and she could do great things. Her beam from Classics last year was incredibly steady and she had power and ability oozing out the entire routine. She lacked some amplitude in her dance skills, but she had nice position. She lacked some refinement everywhere, but she had all the goods for great beam work. She did well enough to score over 14.000.
Under KZB, Ragan's beam has only improved. She gained a lot of that polish she lacked last year while still having all the risk. Her beam followed Ragan's trend of improving throughout the season to earn a career high on day two, 14.550. She still had great confidence and steadiness, but her new skills provided some blips for her. I would like for her to go back to her nice switch half instead of the switch ring. Her sheep jump had definitely improved, though, and I am looking forward to her future beam work.
Floor is where Ragan really sparkles. I personally prefer her interpretation to Semenova's, but Semenova did compete in the 10-skills-count-for-your-D-score era. Her floor has very creative and engaging choreography and it suits her perfectly. As I said above, floor was where Ragan first slipped into my radar in 2013. The best performance of this routine last year was P&Gs day one, when she received 13.800 and had a very strong performance. Her tumbling lacked air time and amplitude, but her power was evident.
Day two of 2014 P&Gs was the best performance of her floor routine. She scored 14.650 for her dazzling routine which had great tumbling and musicality. Her performance has improved by leaps and bounds since last year. She's also done some big upgrading and has been able to harness that power into big tumbling with great amplitude.
Ragan is a tiny little pocket rocket but also has some really nice style. Texas Dreams has really helped channel her talent more efficiently into great skills and routines. Ragan's cuteness is what caught my eye at first, but she has a ton of talent and potential. Her charisma and charm makes her a fan favorite, and her power makes her a standout. Beam and floor are incredible for her, her vault can be great for her, and I know she has bars in her if she can keep working with her strengths. Ragan just has to keep cleaning up and she could be something incredible.
Christina Desiderio
In case you haven't been able to tell by the way I bring her up whenever US juniors are the topic, Christina is one of my favorite. In terms of pure ability, Christina is right at the top of the sizable junior pack. She has power, swing, and a great arsenal of skills. The one problem that clouds Christina's performance is her mind. She is wildly inconsistent, which culminated in her heartbreaking bars routine on day two of P&Gs. If she can get her mind under control, Christina will be a force to be reckoned with. Plus, she trains at one of the nation's top gyms!
Christina first slipped onto my radar last summer when I was watching videos of the juniors from the US season looking to scope out the talent, if you will. It was a much more love-at-first-sight reaction than I had for Ragan, and I knew I'd found a special gymnast.
Beam was where Christina first caught my eye. Unfortunately, Christina had issues with that event every competition in the season this year. She fell every time she competed in Classics and P&Gs, on her layout, sheep jump, and switch ring.
However, she still has some great skills and lots of good work. Beam is definitely her strong spot in terms of skill, and she could be absolutely great.
Her beam from Classics last year was unbelievable. She had impressive difficulty and nary a waver in sight, which shows she does have the confidence she needs, she just has to find it. Her work is beautiful and light- her jump series especially looks like she's being pulled up from the beam by strings. And her wolf turn work is some of the best!
Bars is generally Christina's lowest-scoring event, and unfortunately she is largely remembered there for her disastrous final routine of P&Gs this year which left her visibly devastated, but she has some good work there, especially her super high Tkatchev. She needs a good deal of cleaning up and has been unable to score higher than the low 13s, but Parkettes does have a pretty good record on bars.
Her bars day one of P&Gs this year definitely looked to be the best she's done so far to me. Her Tkatchev, if anything, looked higher and her form looked better than last year as well. Her only real problem was a flat transfer to the high bar, but it certainly didn't result in a dead hang. Her difficulty is a bit low, and I definitely think there is room to upgrade. I trust that she can put up solid bars routines next year and that what happened day two of P&Gs isn't representative of her typical bar work.
Vault saw a big upgrade for Christina this year when she joined the Junior DTY club. Christina had a really nice FTY which was nicely flighted. Her form wasn't perfect and had some leg separation and a little bit of piking, but it was a very solid vault and there were no major issues.
Her DTY definitely looks serviceable and I think she has good vaulting in her future. Her first two attempts were fairly underrotated and she landed with a very low chest. On day two of P&Gs, she fixed that problem well and in fact overrotated a bit. She just needs to figure out the right amount of power she needs to give her vault.
Like Ragan, Christina has lots of charisma on floor. She also has a really good amount of power, and her tumbling shows it. Her floor last year was relatively unexceptional in terms of skill level, but she still had a long three years before becoming a senior. All of her tumbling was good and powerful and clean, and she really enjoyed her performance. Also, while I HATE that a random aerial can fulfill the tumbling requirement, hers looks really cool.
This years floor routine is one big party. I love it! She also has done some good upgrading, including a big double layout! Her form is really good except for her 2 1/2 twist. She also has great amplitude on her leaps and a beautiful double turn. Her best performance of her new routine was day two of P&Gs, where she scored a super 14.450. Her routine is really entertaining, and it fits Christina so well!
I'm still weeping inside for that bars routine, because she was doing her best of 2014 all the rest of day two. Christina has what it takes, I know it! Confidence is all she needs. Her power is great, and her swing on bars is right where it needs to be. All her work is light and beautiful, but she's really powerful too, which is great. Her form is generally lovely, and she can work a crowd. Christina is a total package gymnast, and I only hope next year will see her stronger than ever!
