WAG How many Elite athletes in the US

[munchkin3]

I was talking with a friend and we were talking about elites. Mostly about how hard it must be for a young lady to make it there. We were laughing about how hard it is for our own daughters to 'get' the BHS on beam, or the G-G-LO on bars.....giggle..elite girls have a different talent all together.
then we wondered how many girls make it to elite....and how many there are currently in the US.
Anyone know?

 

[rjb123]

I have no clue. I have always wondered about those girls- did they go into gymnastics as a level five or whatever and say "I am going to be an elite gymnast!" or is it something that just sort of was a natural progression and they reached a point where it was clear that they COULD do it. You see so many people who say "my kid is going to be an elite" and I wonder- do the elites really think that from the start? Or does it look different in reality.

 

[munchkin3]

I dont know.......what i do know is.... 'elite' girls look completely different than 99% of gymnasts in the gym. They dont look like the L8s or L9s or 10s......
i think there is a very special quality from the time they are little......I have seen 2 kids, one boy (who is in the top 5 in the US) and the other a girl........no one comes CLOSE to her in our gym (i live around lots of competitive programs including ours).....

they listen different, they correct different and have a VERY fast learning curve.

 

[flowerchild]

Different body awareness... Also, you just look at them in the lower levels and you can tell, the ones with the potential.

Then, you have to be aware of the incredible sacrifices these kids make for their sport, and the kids have to be willing to do that. And the families do, too.

If you think that you make sacrifices your your gymmie's sport right now, you have no idea.

 

[bogwoppit]

Well there are elites and then there is the national team. Only a handful of the girls who make the national team will ever compete for their country.

National Team -https://usagym.org/pages/athletes/womenList.html

As you see this is a very select, and strong group of gymnasts.

Then there are the International Elites, both junior and senior. If they are good enough they might be selected to join the National Team. Many girls qualify asa elite, but never get on the National Team.

You can look on meetscores.com to see the results of both the qualifiers to elite and then classics and P&G championships. That way you will see how many girls attempt to qualify elite, how many do and then how many are actually strong enough to make it to champs. The score for champs is higher than the score for elite.

 

[munchkin3]

That's what I meant bog......how many make elite qualifiers, and can call themselves elite?
I understand the extreme difficulty going from elite to national team both Jr./Sr.....we are only talking about 20 girls.
I'm curious to know how many are qualified elite athletes.....does this include hopes, or is that completely separate?

 

[Gymmommy71]

Didn't the movie "Stick It" say there was something like 200?

 

[ZJsMom]

It's less than 100 girls. There are probably different ways to define "elite," but if you count those who have made the score to qualify for classics, I think it's around 60-70.

 

[BachFlyer]

Here is the link to the USAG elite qualification chart:
https://usagym.org/PDFs/Women/ElitePre-Elite/15elitechart.pdf

To compete in the Classic, you need a 35+ compulsory score and also an optional score of 53+ for Seniors or 51.5 for Juniors for AA competitors (note there are ways to qualify on less than 4 events). Looks like in 2015 there were 37 Juniors competing, and 20 qualified Seniors in the AA.

Here is the link the the 2015 Secret Classic results on mymeetscores, sorted with Juniors first and then Seniors: http://www.mymeetscores.com/meet.pl...&teamid=&teamname=&gymnastid=279968&orderby=4

To move on to P&G, you need at Classics a 54.0 AA for Seniors (plus some other automatic qualifying conditions for past competitors) or 52.5 for Juniors. Top 6 Jrs and Srs from Championships make National team, plus up to 8 other spots which are selected. In 2015, only 21 Juniors and 7 Seniors qualified with their score from Classics. There were others competing, event specialists or current National Team members I think.

Here is the link to 2015 P&Gs, sorted same way:
http://www.mymeetscores.com/meet.pl...&teamid=&teamname=&gymnastid=279968&orderby=4

All in all, there were only 57 girls listed as competitors at Classics, and 47 girls competing at P&G!

 

[bogwoppit]

All in all, there were only 57 girls listed as competitors at Classics, and 47 girls competing at P&G!

....and most of those girls will never have a chance to compete for the USA. It is a very tough road to hoe, and very few get to National Team. The depth of talent is the US is incredible. There are many elites that would be hugely better than girls who go to worlds for other countries. In fact some of them do represent other countries.

 

[poodlemomma]

Just commenting on the kids who "have it", I have seen two that could make it. But not only do they have to have that kind of body awareness, trainability. learning curve, they also have to have the right place and right parents. The one girl is in a gym that will NEVER get her there. The other was so burnt out by her parents' ambition that I don't see her continuing once she is older and can argue back with her parents. The child is NEVER happy. So it is a very difficult road to get to Elite.

 

[Deleted member 14190]

It will be interesting to see what happens in the next 4 years because a big crop of Jr's is on it's way. The developmental camps are in full swing at the ranch!

 

[Ali'sMom]

Our gym currently has two girls on the elite path. One has been invited to developmental camp twice since summer. She's 10, and if she could quit school to stay in the gym, she would. She eats, breathes, lives gym. If she doesn't burn out, the general consensus at our gym is that she will make it (this is moms talking, not people who "know stuff"). It's tiring to us other moms seeing how much their lives center around gym. I cannot even imagine!
We're all supporting her and look forward to some day seeing her make it