An Emotional Day 1: Selection Camp

I tried to keep up the best I could on the goings-on of the selection camp during work today.

Goings-on:

• I feel absolutely terrible for Shayla, who broke her right fibula. And she wasn’t even my favorite; I always had this niggling feeling that she wouldn’t make the team…but I didn’t think it was going to come down to this. Her uncool coach is getting his comeuppance, but at a great cost to poor Shayla. I hope she can get through this mentally.
• Whiplash can’t stop Chellsie Memmel!! When NBC reported that Chellsie got hurt during her floor routine, I think the USA fans let out a collective scream of horror. Thankfully, it wasn’t anything else too bad. Although she only did balance beam at the camp, this isn’t 2004; if we lose Chellsie this time around, the USA can forget getting a gold medal. Get that, Martha?!
• Bridget had a good day, Nastia’s uneven bars sucked, Jana fell on her Tkatchev, Ivana and Corrie had an okay day, and Mattie could have done better. And Sam P. had better watch her back; if Bridget continues to vault her Yurchenko 2.0 well, Sam might lose some of her status on the Olympic Team.
• According to reports, Alicia had a lackluster floor exercise and broke 16.000 on balance beam, which is OMGWTF RLY OVERSCORE! but whatever…outside of competing, she seems to have spent most of the camp competition making the rounds and encouraging the other girls, most notably Mattie and Chellsie. The New York Times had a cute article about her.