healthnut

So BUMMED for Flex, geez three years in a row at the same obstacle. I was happy for Digangi and for once, he didn’t get WWWA’ed. My heart also broke for Barclay. Hasn’t she gotten up that warp wall before in a previous Vegas appearance? What was up with Najee? Says he’s been spaced out all year...strange. His fall was the biggest shock of the night for me. So clearly we aren’t having more than one woman finish Stage 1 this year, I don’t believe they would have two or more in one night and zero the first night. Best bet is definitely Jessie Graf, but maybe Alyssa can pull it off again, too. I’ll be really disappointed if we don’t get at least one and then they’ll probably figure out some way to give women a safety pass, too, just to try to get someone on Stage 2.

Jeri was 14th, like Sandy would’ve qualified under the previous Top 15 rule.

Flex has a track background, specifically heptathlon. And she’s definitely not short, at 5’7”, she’s one of the taller female ninjas. Not sure about Michelle Warnky’s background. Actually, only three made it: Dan Yager, Karson Voiles, and Jessie Graf.

Terrible episode. If Najee and Joe Marovsky can’t get to the ninth obstacle, it’s too damn hard. I would’ve liked to have seen if Drew could do it. So, we have four Vegas episodes this year. I guess that’s good maybe we won’t get so many fast forwards of Stage 2, although if they all fall on Wing Nut Alley anyway then it will be a lot like this episode. Please let next week be better, these last two episodes have been a real drag.

Crazy enough Simone did the triple twisting double back she’s been working on at podium training but she did a double twisting double back dismount off the beam!

If you have not checked out the Talking with T-Bird series they’ve been airing this summer, I highly recommend it. They’ve interviewed Gretchen, Helen Glover, Sean, Kelley Goldsmith, Judd, Scout.....it’s been really fun.

They are splitting up the 15 episodes, they plan to air 10 episodes this year and the last five next year, I’m annoyed.

In my perfect ANW world, the show would run two nights a week, one for the qualifiers and one for the finals, it would take six weeks to get through the pre-season instead of twelve and it would negate this stupidity of pretending they run the finals six weeks later. So this was the region Geoff fell in, I wonder if that’s why the course design was so upper body intense, they were expecting Geoff to be on it. Certainly would’ve liked to see him on it.

After two relatively easy courses, this course was way too hard. Too many upper body obstacles, did they really think anyone was going to get past that ninth obstacle? They had a similar obstacle a couple of years in OK City, again after the flying monkey bars and it was only one ascent and I believe only Tyler Yamaguchi finished that obstacle. So why make it more difficult when no one could finish it before? As for the women rule, I’m glad the women are improving and it should get to a point where women who make it up the warped wall don’t make it to Vegas. The issue comes from LA finals and especially Atlanta, where you have women who don’t make it up the warped wall and get to go. I’ve always felt that people who get farther on an obstacle should get credited over people who just get there faster. It does seem like they are going to have an odd number of people running in Vegas, but I believe that’s been the case since they’ve had the women’s rule.

The women killed it in this region, finally! It’s been such a drag this year with only Tianna making it to the back half and that after falling on the second obstacle. Again, like Atlanta, this course didn’t seem too hard. I’m shocked no one boinked their head on the Snap Back. This Power Tower continues to be underwhelming. Did Thomas Stillings run this year? Did I miss him?

I watched the US Classic highlights, I don’t know why NBC/Olympic Channel haven’t posted the event on YouTube like they do the others, they only posted a version with no commentary which was quite boring to watch because they never gave any scores. It’s going to interesting to see who makes the team next year. Of course Simone is in, and I imagine Morgan is a lock. Grace and Riley seem to be in good shape but I wonder if they’d like to have one more good vaulter or bar specialist.

Regan Smith was definitely a highlight, I’m surprised she didn’t make the team on the 100m though considering she killed the relay. Simone was fantastic in her individual events and Lily and Caleb were amazing all around. This mixed medley relay is going to be nuts to watch next summer. I guess we don’t have any real standouts in the IM events right now. Poor Katie. At least she’s got tons of experience to rely on, she’ll be fine next year and that loss in the 400m will probably light an even greater fire, but she’s definitely going to have a full plate. Wish the best for Nathan Adrian and his cancer fight.

Anyone been watching the World Championships this year?

I thought the ninth obstacle was pretty easy, I don’t recall anyone failing. I also don’t remember people having issues with traction on the last obstacle last year, which I still hate, by the way, because I fear someone’s head getting stuck...or worse. Poor showing for the women, I guess I need to start ninja training, I live in Tennessee so I’d probably be in this weaker region. When they were in Atlanta two years ago, the biggest name was Britney Reid.

I prefer they spread the women out, it made me so mad the first year they had the top 2 women rule and Michelle, Flex, and Alyssa were all in the city.

First time tuning in this season, I LOVE Laurie Ann from Making the Band days and I even watched her short-lived reality show on E! I think she’s a welcome addition and certainly a vast improvement over Paula and Maddie and whoever the young chick was, I forgot. I liked that they showed a lot of the routines. I agreed with all the eliminations, the two solos were very underwhelming.

I was thinking they broke up Isabel & Aaron to leave room for Aaron/Emily but they went and made Isabel pregnant. Unless she’s going to pull an Olivia Pope, I guess this leads to the, getting back together and a marriage proposal. I’ll pass. Mars’s wife running for Senate is just completely unrealistic. Was their a point to him having an affair? I don’t know if they should have a S4 either, I’m torn. I never watched The West Wing so I don’t know if the comparison is good or bad.

I’m glad they know far enough in advance to tie up any loose ends. I really can’t be bothered to care about most of these characters anymore, just let Conner and Oliver be happy, that’s all I ask.

She ran in LA and flamed out early. She went on second obstacle but she still made the women’s top five so she’ll be in the finals.

Can’t blame them for killing Hannah, there was just no need for her after season one. Am I supposed to care about Aaron & his girlfriend? Because I do not.

I’m a definite Aaron/Emily shipper but I didn’t get to enjoy that at all! A random hookup and he cheats on Isabel, WTF.

Shen & Zhao Nutcracker Program (2004) Alexei Yagudin Man in the Iron Mask Alexei Yagudin Gladiator Savchenko & Massot 2018 Olympic Free Yuzuru Hanyu 2018 Olympic Short Davis & White Bollywood (2006)

It seems like they changed the arch of the mega wall. I’m always afraid someone is going to get hurt, I don’t really like three attempts. The power tower is a good idea but with almost all of the big name ninjas going for the mega wall, it hasn’t been super exciting. How far did Abby Clark make it? Did they show her run? If so, I missed it.

I was really pulling for Maggi to make it to the wall, she was so close. I really didn’t love the coconut obstacle construction, that swing thing at the end was really weird. So we still haven’t seen Jesse, Flex, Alyssa, Michelle, Megan, Rachel Goldstein, or Casey Rothschild, seems like the first three qualifiers didn’t have a lot historically strong women so some of these ladies are going to get the short end of the stick.

I’ve been watching on Hulu and having so much fun. I’m pretty far into S6 but I’ve come to the episode where Lindsay defends the Hannibal Lector wannabe and I know this is the point where the show goes off the rails. When it originally ran I always felt like Richard Bay’s murder was the turning point in the show. Watching it back now years later, I think the real mistake was putting Lindsay and Bobby together. Some of their storylines were just about giving their relationship some kind of adversity and it took away from the show. Also, all of the client is really guilty or client is really not guilty twists got to be predictable and annoying.