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55 minutes ago, HartofDixie said:

Simone out if vault/bar finals.

 

Does this mean Mykayla is in the vault final?

 

Never mind, just found out the answer is yes.

Edited by CeeBeeGee
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Saw an article that said her ADHD prescription is illegal in Japan and that may be contributing to her difficulties. Also heard part of an interview she gave at some point about Nassir, that talked about how much she hates USAG, doesn't trust them and was looking forward to being done with them in 2020. I have to think she's stuck being around some of the same officials who didn't protect her and the other girls right now, and what an effect that could have on her mentally.

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I wonder what McKayla’s husband has to say about this. 🙄 After making that asshole comment about sending the wrong team and implying that they would’ve won Gold if McKayla had been there, now she’s in vault finals because Simone pulled out. 

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10 hours ago, Vermicious Knid said:

Saw an article that said her ADHD prescription is illegal in Japan and that may be contributing to her difficulties. Also heard part of an interview she gave at some point about Nassir, that talked about how much she hates USAG, doesn't trust them and was looking forward to being done with them in 2020. I have to think she's stuck being around some of the same officials who didn't protect her and the other girls right now, and what an effect that could have on her mentally.

IOC made a deal with Japan that all athletes approved for ADHD medication could bring it into the country. 

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(edited)
12 hours ago, Frisky Wig said:

I wonder what McKayla’s husband has to say about this. 🙄 After making that asshole comment about sending the wrong team and implying that they would’ve won Gold if McKayla had been there, now she’s in vault finals because Simone pulled out. 

I just started watching their blogs (as someone posted it on the other thread). I don't know much about this situration, but her husband seems like a nice guy who is support of her (so of course he will say she would have won as he is routing for her) and knows little to nothing about the sport.

Edited by blueray
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42 minutes ago, blueray said:

I just started watching their blogs (as someone posted it on the other thread). I don't know much about this situration, but her husband seems like a nice guy who is support of her (so of course he will say she would have won as he is routing for her) and knows little to nothing about the sport.

He's not.

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23 hours ago, Frisky Wig said:

Simone. I did find this article, though, so I'm guessing she was allowed to take it. Though maybe her coaches didn't get approval and she didn't have it with her? https://www.insider.com/simone-biles-adhd-meds-banned-japan-impacting-performance-2021-7

The article isn't true the source is Joe Rogan speculating. IOC made a deal with Japan to let athletes bring ADHD medication in for athletes who are approved to take it. 

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I find myself rooting for every American but Mykayla.  Assuming (and hoping) I won’t have to hear from her after this Olympics is over.

Edited by Crs97
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1 hour ago, Crs97 said:

I find myself rooting for every American but Mykayla.  Assuming (and hoping) I won’t have to hear from her after this Olympics is over.

I'm in the same boat. Adrade rightfully deserved the vault gold. She was superior in every way on both vaults except for the landing: better pre-flight, block, height, distance, and form in the air. 

I also am actively pulling against Brody Malone. 

Edited by DawnDavenport
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2 hours ago, DawnDavenport said:

I'm in the same boat. Adrade rightfully deserved the vault gold. She was superior in every way on both vaults except for the landing: better pre-flight, block, height, distance, and form in the air. 

I also am actively pulling against Brody Malone. 

The bummer of it is that, based on all eight gymnasts, Skinner really was the second best.  It was just a really uninspiring competition.😑🔫

I'm SOOOOOOOOOOO glad Rebecca got her gold, 99% because she's amazing...but 1% because it wasn't Skinner.

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WaPost opinion piece by Dominique Dawes: As a three-time Olympic gymnast, I applaud Simone Biles — and know the weight on her shoulders.

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U.S. gymnastics’ appalling culture has been felt at every level of the sport. Many coaches rule through intimidation and fear — and have been rewarded for it. They scream at practices that begin before sunrise and end after sunset. They bestow only scant praise, indulging instead in streams of criticism and looks of disgust.

I remember walking on eggshells, feeling as if I were always letting someone down. My bowed legs were a deduction. My flat feet were a deduction. I started feeling as if I myself were a deduction.

Young gymnasts push through agony and sickness out of fear and compete in emotional and physical pain. We may smile for the cameras and offer politically correct sound bites, but this hides the fact that for many of us, true happiness and freedom are rarely felt.

 

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I feel really bad for McKayla, clearly the girl has been through a lot and USA Gymnastics failed her at every turn. This girl was in London with a concussion and broken nose, broken shins and a broken foot. Where are her parents to step in and say "enough"? She was only 16! She needed someone to stand up for her and say no.

However: a few things she says are questionable. She says in her event final that every girl was falling, which isn't true, and that two girls got carried off, which isn't true at all. She says one girl took 10-15 minutes on her vaults and fell on both vaults...but as far as I can remember nothing like that happened. No girls fell flat on their back and laid there crying. The event final is on Youtube, you can go and watch the whole thing. Honestly I don't know where McKayla is getting all this from. I know she was a traumatized teenager, probably compartmentalizing stuff while she was competing, and maybe this is leading to her embellishing her event final?

She has some real points about the events finals, however. Not letting the athletes warm up and stretching the competition out over several days seems to be quite detrimental. They should at least let them warm up.

Edited by Minneapple
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55 minutes ago, Minneapple said:

I feel really bad for McKayla, clearly the girl has been through a lot and USA Gymnastics failed her at every turn. This girl was in London with a concussion and broken nose, broken shins and a broken foot. Where are her parents to step in and say "enough"? She was only 16! She needed someone to stand up for her and say no.

However: a few things she says are questionable. She says in her event final that every girl was falling, which isn't true, and that two girls got carried off, which isn't true at all. She says one girl took 10-15 minutes on her vaults and fell on both vaults...but as far as I can remember nothing like that happened. No girls fell flat on their back and laid there crying. The event final is on Youtube, you can go and watch the whole thing. Honestly I don't know where McKayla is getting all this from. I know she was a traumatized teenager, probably compartmentalizing stuff while she was competing, and maybe this is leading to her embellishing her event final?

She has some real points about the events finals, however. Not letting the athletes warm up and stretching the competition out over several days seems to be quite detrimental. They should at least let them warm up.

I wonder if she just didn't get confused as to what occurred at which competition.  I expect all of the things she described have happened, just maybe not at the same meet.  People who are repeatedly traumatized emotionally or physically often do this; their mind just cannot accept that they watched these things in meet after meet and never quit.

The current situation at the Olympics, where NBC apparently decided that the athletes didn't need one-touch practice on the apparatus on the day of competition in order to streamline their coverage is reprehensible and needs to be  investigated and banned from any future event.  The safety and well being of the athletes has got to be the first, last and only priority.

Edited by Rootbeer
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24 minutes ago, Rootbeer said:

I wonder if she just didn't get confused as to what occurred at which competition.  I expect all of the things she described have happened, just maybe not at the same meet.  People who are repeatedly traumatized emotionally or physically often do this; their mind just cannot accept that they watched these things in meet after meet and never quit.

The current situation at the Olympics, where NBC apparently decided that the athletes didn't need one-touch practice on the apparatus on the day of competition in order to streamline their coverage is reprehensible and needs to be  investigated and banned from any future event.  The safety and well being of the athletes has got to be the first, last and only priority.

FIG should be investigated it is up to them. NBC can do what they want but they don't come up with the rules.

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Yeah, I don't know why NBC would care. They don't have to show the warmup if they don't want to. (But they show the podium training so I don't think a warmup would bother them much.)

1 hour ago, Rootbeer said:

I wonder if she just didn't get confused as to what occurred at which competition.  I expect all of the things she described have happened, just maybe not at the same meet. 

It's possible. The thing is, if she's putting this all in a book like she said, then stuff like this needs to be accurate, or people will start to doubt everything she's saying.

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44 minutes ago, choclatechip45 said:

FIG should be investigated it is up to them. NBC can do what they want but they don't come up with the rules.

Is there a source for this, or is it just speculation that keeps getting repeated so often it now seems true? 

It makes no sense for NBC to want this.  First, I as a viewer find the warmups interesting.  To fill in the time, they could have Tim try to describe what Nastia is wearing that day.  Or they could briefly jump to another event because, you know, it's the Olympics and there's plenty of other stuff to show. 

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Well, and NBC's actual broadcast of event finals is so edited down that it wouldn't matter if there's a warm-up or not because it can be edited out and only a few routines are even shown anyway; it's not like they air the event finals live.  It would make the livestream longer, but the people who'd actually watch the livestream wouldn't care.

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50 minutes ago, Quilt Fairy said:

Is there a source for this, or is it just speculation that keeps getting repeated so often it now seems true? 

It makes no sense for NBC to want this.  First, I as a viewer find the warmups interesting.  To fill in the time, they could have Tim try to describe what Nastia is wearing that day.  Or they could briefly jump to another event because, you know, it's the Olympics and there's plenty of other stuff to show. 

It's in several different media reports, but I haven't seen it confirmed by NBC or FIG or the Tokyo games officials.  Although NBC edits their primetime footage drastically, their livestreaming is not edited and happens in real time.  They show each competitor, wait for the score and then on to the next.  They have a commercial break and then the medal presentation for the most recent event.  That is a change, too, in that the venues used to wait until all of the different competitions being held at that time/venue are completed and then do all the ceremonies in sequence.  NBC nixed that for these event finals, apparently figuring the medal ceremony gave time enough to get everyone in place for the next apparatus and saved showing a bunch of medal ceremonies back to back.

With one touch warm ups, each athlete would get 30 seconds, I think, to work on the specific apparatus.  With 8 athletes per apparatus, that would mean 4 minutes of warmup with time between each competitor to get set up, in position, etc.; so probably 10-15 minutes when all was said and done. Apparently, NBC felt that was too much 'dead' time and didn't want it to spend the time filming it or having its crews spend the extra time waiting for the practice to end.  

Here is one article from SI:

https://www.si.com/olympics/2021/08/01/gymnasts-one-touch-warm-ups-tokyo-olympics-suni-lee

Edited by Rootbeer
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1 hour ago, Quilt Fairy said:

Is there a source for this, or is it just speculation that keeps getting repeated so often it now seems true? 

It makes no sense for NBC to want this.  First, I as a viewer find the warmups interesting.  To fill in the time, they could have Tim try to describe what Nastia is wearing that day.  Or they could briefly jump to another event because, you know, it's the Olympics and there's plenty of other stuff to show. 

It is definitely up to the FIG. I don't know if NBC cares or not. 

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2 hours ago, Rootbeer said:

The current situation at the Olympics, where NBC apparently decided that the athletes didn't need one-touch practice on the apparatus on the day of competition in order to streamline their coverage is reprehensible and needs to be  investigated and banned from any future event.  The safety and well being of the athletes has got to be the first, last and only priority.

NBC doesn’t have that kind of control particularly when the olympics are in other countries. Most of the articles are written from an American perspective so there are focusing on NBC but there are a lot of networks involved worldwide. 

A few olympics back NBC tried to get either gymnastics or figure skating moved so that it could air live in the US and were flat out told no. If there is not warmup for media reasons is not just because of NBC. Just based on their coverage, I can’t see NBC having a problem with warmups since they just cut to other events or commercials for that stuff. 

Edited by Guest
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31 minutes ago, Dani said:

NBC doesn’t have that kind of control particularly when the olympics are in other countries. Most of the articles are written from an American perspective so there are focusing on NBC but there are a lot of networks involved worldwide. 

A few olympics back NBC tried to get either gymnastics or figure skating moved so that it could air live in the US and were flat out told no. If there is not warmup for media reasons is not just because of NBC. Just based on their coverage, I can’t see NBC having a problem with warmups since they just cut to other events or commercials for that stuff. 

NBC actually has convinced the IOC to change around swimming and gymnastics times. They did it in 2008 when Michael Phelps was ratings gold and the US was expected to have a big medal haul in gymnastics. Dick Ebersol even convinced the IOC to wholesale move the Beijing Olympics from September to August because Americans' attention in September is focused on the NFL. There may be a lot of networks involved, but NBC is paying more to broadcast the games than any other network.

If the article is paywalled for you, here are some relevant portions:

Quote

But the Sydney Games, which took place in late September, were not doing especially well in the ratings. Juan Antonio Samaranch ... visited the NBC broadcast center and observed that the ratings were not what NBC had hoped. He asked Mr. Ebersol if there was anything he could do to help.

“Not for these Games,” Mr. Ebersol said he told him. But he wanted to plant another thought. “I believed China was going to win the bid for 2008,” he said. And he had heard that China planned to bid based on dates similar to Sydney. He asked Mr. Samaranch if China could move the dates of its bid four weeks back into August.

“If you’re into September, you’re going to lose a big percentage of your male viewers,” Mr. Ebersol said. “There’s N.F.L. coverage on Sundays and Mondays, and college football is now on four or five nights a week. All of that goes away if you start in mid-August.”

...

The $894 million that NBC paid for the American television rights was already in a Chinese bank, Mr. Ebersol noted. But the I.O.C. has an intense interest in assuring that its American TV partner has a success with the Games, he said, because American television money accounts for more cash for the I.O.C. than all the world’s other broadcasters combined. (By contrast, he said China paid $17 million for its television rights, while selling $400 million worth of ads.)

...

The scheduling shift to prime time was very much a personal victory for Mr. Ebersol, who first broached it during a conversation with Jacques Rogge, the president of the International Olympic Committee, in the summer of 2001. Mr. Rogge, just named to the position, flew to the United States to speak with American Olympic officials, and on his way back to Europe made a stop at Mr. Ebersol’s home on Martha’s Vineyard.

“We took a long walk around Edgartown,” Mr. Ebersol said. On the walk, he explained how critical swimming and gymnastics were because they kicked off the competition and they were the sports of most appeal to the audience the Olympics counts on for success: women. Mr. Ebersol said that Mr. Rogge was sympathetic, but said he would do nothing that might harm the performance of the athletes.

“I pointed out that the swimmers are normally up at 5:30 a.m. to train, and in previous Olympics they had swum their heats in the morning,” Mr. Ebersol said.

Mr. Rogge eventually got the support of the swimming and gymnastics federations for the schedule. Many months later, long after Mr. Phelps was advised, the move was formally announced.

Having Mr. Phelps on board with swimming for gold at 10 a.m. Beijing time gave Mr. Ebersol a formidable line of defense against anyone who suggested that the schedule tailored for American television would prove detrimental to the athletes and some Australian swimming officials did just that.

“Michael and his coach told them: ‘Anyone who is among the best in the world should be able to swim any time of day,’ ” Mr. Ebersol said. He added, “It was really all about Australian television wanting to get swimming into their prime time.”

 

But I agree that it would be stupid for NBC to argue against a warmup for the gymnasts. Hell, they show the warmups for figure skaters, kind of, and note what jumps they're practicing and stuff. They wouldn't show full gymnastics warmups in an edited primetime package; if something notable happens in a warmup they might show it and say, "Look, this gymnast is attempting her Cheng" or whatever.

Edited by Minneapple
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6 minutes ago, Minneapple said:

NBC actually has convinced the IOC to change around swimming and gymnastics times. They did it in 2008 when Michael Phelps was ratings gold and the US was expected to have a big medal haul in gymnastics. Dick Ebersol even convinced the IOC to wholesale move the Beijing Olympics from September to August because Americans' attention in September is focused on the NFL. There may be a lot of networks involved, but NBC is paying more to broadcast the games than any other network.

If the article is paywalled for you, here are some relevant portions:

But I agree that it would be stupid for NBC to argue against a warmup for the gymnasts. Hell, they show the warmups for figure skaters, kind of, and note what jumps they're practicing and stuff. They wouldn't show full gymnastics warmups in an edited primetime package; if something notable happens in a warmup they might show it and say, "Look, this gymnast is attempting her Cheng" or whatever.

Didn't they show Aly fall during her floor warmup during team final in 2012? I've definitley seen them show when a gymnast has a bad warmup. 

I am surprised NBC didn't convince anyone to move Gymnastics so they could show it live like they did in 2008.

Edited by choclatechip45
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2 hours ago, choclatechip45 said:

Didn't they show Aly fall during her floor warmup during team final in 2012? I've definitley seen them show when a gymnast has a bad warmup. 

I am surprised NBC didn't convince anyone to move Gymnastics so they could show it live like they did in 2008.

Hey, the 2012 team final is on YouTube! Just started watching it, lots of nostalgic fun as I avoid work lol. And guess what, they're doing commentary...over the warmups. Will update to let you know if they show Aly warming up on floor lol.

As for why gymnastics isn't live in primetime anymore, maybe NBC thought it could be a big anchor to get people to their apps and website if they showed it live on those platforms.

Eta: They did show the floor warmups as the commentators blabbed over the footage, and they did show Aly falling basically on her head (she was OK, obviously). LOTS AND LOTS OF BLABBING from Tim and Al and Effie.

Edited by Minneapple
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On 8/2/2021 at 1:52 PM, Rootbeer said:

With one touch warm ups, each athlete would get 30 seconds, I think, to work on the specific apparatus.  With 8 athletes per apparatus, that would mean 4 minutes of warmup with time between each competitor to get set up, in position, etc.; so probably 10-15 minutes when all was said and done. Apparently, NBC felt that was too much 'dead' time and didn't want it to spend the time filming it or having its crews spend the extra time waiting for the practice to end.  

Here is one article from SI:

https://www.si.com/olympics/2021/08/01/gymnasts-one-touch-warm-ups-tokyo-olympics-suni-lee

That article says the rule has to do with making a clean broadcast, but the rule is made by FIG. According to Slate they actually wrote in the meeting notes of the FIG Council in 2010 that the warm up "undermines entertainment quality."

So the thinking is about TV, but it isn't NBC's rule. NBC shows at least part of the warm up for Team and All-Around even when they aren't airing things live. I'm sure they would find a way to deal with it. 

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I just re-watched the coverage of the women's balance beam.  It was so good to see Simone so happy about ending the week on a positive note, earning her seventh medal after taking care of herself, with the support of her team mates, and with her support of them in return.  Her statement about mental difficulties being "something you can't see" was moving to me.  Best wishes to her.

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If you want to watch Rhythmic Gymnastics this weekend (not sure if/when NBC will air)

Rhythmic Gymnastics Individual AA qualifying

Round 1: https://stream.nbcolympics.com/rhythmic-gymnastics-individual-all-around-qualifications-part-1

Round 2: https://stream.nbcolympics.com/rhythmic-gymnastics-individual-all-around-qualifications-part-2

Rhythmic Gymnastics Group AA qualifying

https://stream.nbcolympics.com/rhythmic-gymnastics-group-all-around-qualification

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1 hour ago, irisheyes said:

Good article from Slate about how USAG needs to burn it all down and rebuild. 
 

https://slate.com/culture/2021/08/usa-gymnastics-tokyo-olympics-nassar-reckoning-biles.html

The article doesn't have a lot of solutions and doesn't listen to a lot of athletes complaints. I agree with the premise yes athletes well being should not be at the cost of medals. For example she said they should put the monthly camps on hold, but most of the athletes have said they like the improvements? Simone said in some of her pre olympics press she felt less prepared by the national team staff yet the author wants less preparation.  

Granted Slate also complained about how NBC put so much pressure on Simone yet they wrote an article calling her the greatest ever. 

Edited by choclatechip45
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I agree with having a completely independent investigation. Who knew, when did they know, and what did they do?  Also, there needs to be a centralized system so these abusive coaches can’t just bebop from gym to gym. I don’t know what systems USAG has in place to train coaches, but they need something to ensure that athletes don’t feel like they have to starve or train injured. 

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7 minutes ago, irisheyes said:

I agree with having a completely independent investigation. Who knew, when did they know, and what did they do?  Also, there needs to be a centralized system so these abusive coaches can’t just bebop from gym to gym. I don’t know what systems USAG has in place to train coaches, but they need something to ensure that athletes don’t feel like they have to starve or train injured. 

Yes they should absolutely have an independent investigation, but the part that concerns me is the author is claiming Tom's camps are the same  as Martha's camps which would mean Simone would be lying and well Simone hasn't been silent when it has come to USA Gymnastics and that concerns me.

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The author of the Slate piece (and all of their articles on gymnastics) is Rebecca Schuman, who shows up in "Golden" touting the typical line of "the USA team is so dominant, they will inevitably win the gold medal and even the C team would win" and now appears to be trying to distance herself from that.

I read her pieces because I enjoy reading about gymnastics but overall I've never come away thinking that her work is especially knowledgeable and well-researched. I doubt she actually talked to any of the gymnasts before writing this latest piece.

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6 hours ago, ombelico said:

The author of the Slate piece (and all of their articles on gymnastics) is Rebecca Schuman, who shows up in "Golden" touting the typical line of "the USA team is so dominant, they will inevitably win the gold medal and even the C team would win" and now appears to be trying to distance herself from that.

I read her pieces because I enjoy reading about gymnastics but overall I've never come away thinking that her work is especially knowledgeable and well-researched. I doubt she actually talked to any of the gymnasts before writing this latest piece.

Yeah, I was going to say that I've read her gymnastics articles before on Slate and have found them to be pretty insufferable; she acts like she's very informed, but she's really just a blowhard who seems to parrot what others say without actually doing any real investigative work.  She's basically a loudly yapping Pomeranian.

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Here's an interview with Lilia Akhimova:

Interesting comments about diet, living in the Village:

Quote

Q: Your team was one of the first to move into the Olympic village, right?

A: When we came, there were already many people there. But, out of Russian athletes, I think, we were actually one of the first teams. It felt like a big family, like we were united – all the countries and sports were together.

Q: Was everything fine in the everyday life?

A: Yes. The girls from our team all lived together – six people in a three-bedroom apartment, two people per room. It’s not a five-star hotel but everything was well-organized. Food was diverse and tasty. There were dishes from different cuisines to try. The Japanese always have the highest level of organization.

Q: Surely you’re on some diet. Were you able to adhere to it in the situation where you couldn’t order special dishes?

A: There isn’t any specific diet. Each girl keeps track of her weight on her own. Overall, there was a large variety of dishes. And there were many foods we’re used to. So, in that sense, there weren’t any difficulties.

Q: Female figure skaters get weighed before every practice and might not be allowed to train even because of a few extra grams of weight. How is it in your sport?

A: We don’t have anything like that on the senior national team. Personal coaches generally watch [the nutrition] of younger girls because they’re going through puberty and it affects their weight. But I’ve never seen coaches being harsh about it. Coaches always try to explain calmly why it is needed and how to deal with it. I’m 24 years old, I’m way past puberty, so I watch my weight on my own.

 

Edited by Lady Whistleup
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