re: Why is Haleigh Bryant not on the U.S. Olympic team?

quote:

---

The routines seem much longer in olympic competition as well. The beam routines for example at a college meet are very short with only 2 difficult maneuvers on average.

---

Olympic routines are structured the way they are to get the highest start value possible as are NCAA routines. They each have basic requirements, but in NCAA, you meet the requirements and you have a 10 start value and are judged accordingly. If you do a routine that's watered down too much even if it meets requirements, you might get a deduction for not up to the level of competition.

Olympic routines are built with the requirements, but structured to add as much difficulty as the gymnast can do clealy to get an increased start value. That's why you see a 14.1 score or a 13.25.

Therefore, it's totally different routines you are training. Haleigh would need to take a leave from school to train for the Olympics with coaches that know the Olympic code and are focused on that. They need to participate in camps where they are invited to train and from that bunch are selected to compete in international events.

Because of all these things, she would need to want Olympics above all else and should have already taken a leave from LSU. She would have needed to train last fall and compete in the camps already, like Trinity and Suni did. Suni however, may be unable to compete and train due to the kidney disease she has.