When Martha left two-time world champion Hollie Vise off the 2004 Olympic team after Hollie fell at a selection camp, I was upset. When Martha made Alicia Sacramone, who fell twice in Beijing and cost the U.S. the gold, team captain, I was very upset. Alicia should not even have made this team, much less been named team captain. Martha's camps are supposed to let her see he is showing readiness, and Alicia was most definitely not ready. But what made me absolutely furious is what she did to Anna Li at the 2011 Worlds in Tokyo.
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| The Couch Gymnast |
Let me explain: The team of six was chosen, which included Alicia Sacramone. Anna Li was brought along as an alternate because of her superior bars. Even though Anna had the potential to greatly help the team score and stop them from having to use 3 quite bad bar routines (Jordyn Wieber scored the best on the team for goodness sake!) Martha chose to put Alicia on this team. Who promptly showed up to Podium Training, ruptured her Achilles's tendon, and flew straight home. I understand she was hurt but if she wasn't even able to stick around long enough to support the team and watch then Anna Li should have been added immediately! She should have been added even if Alicia was able to stay and cheer! But Martha chose not to add Anna to the team so that useless Alicia could keep the spot. Martha risked the team gold, which the girls managed to win by some miracle, by competing 3 struggled bar routines rather than putting Anna Li in a perfectly available spot. Ridiculous! What would Martha have done if one or two of the five remaining gymnasts had gotten injured during the competition? And then, to rub salt in Anna's wounds, Martha forced her to go onto the podium and accept the sixth medal on behalf of Alicia.
I can only imagine what a horrible feeling that must have been to go up onto the podium and accept that medal for Alicia, AFTER sitting through the competition watching Jordyn's and everyone else's horrible bars. I cannot believe that Martha would stop this poor girl from earning her first and very likely ONLY world medal so that Alicia can have her TENTH!
If this is not how it went down at worlds then let me know, but to the best of my knowledge this is exactly what happened and even though it happened last October it still makes me fume. I would like to hope that Alicia at least let Anna keep the physical medal but I doubt that happened.
Supposedly the reason Martha did this was because she hates Shannon Miller for being better than Kim Zmeskal, and she wanted someone, who just happened to be Sacramone, to beat Shannon's record of the most world medals.
If all this makes you as angry as it does me, here's a picture of Nadia and Bart both looking sexy AF to make you feel better.
Alicia DID NOT cost the team the gold medal. GEEZ! Can this girl not get a break! Alicia was pretty much a lock for the team- she'd earned her place!
ReplyDeleteTeam USA lost by 2.375 and Alicia's falls plus out of bounds, incomplete elements, and loss of bonus cost us at least that much. I am not saying she is the only person who made any mistakes, but she definitely made the most and in my opinion someone else on this team would have certainly helped the USA get a higher score, and most likely win.
DeleteAlicia lost the team 1.8 points, 2 points at the most.
DeleteShannon Miller also earned a World Medal in absentia. No need to hate on Alicia.
BTW Anna Li was also injured at that time. She said that if she was needed, then she would go and perform. But Alicia was only missing from floor, beam and vault- NOT the uneven bars.
ReplyDeleteYeah I know that Alicia doesn't compete bars, but no bar specialists were included on the team so that there would be a spot for Alicia instead. With her out, Martha should have added Anna to the team if she was at all capable of competing, because of how bad the others are on bars.
DeleteUh, Anna had a torn stomach muscle in Tokyo- and was a risk. Also, that is my photo of her, so would you mind putting acredit on it. Thanks, Brigid McCarthy
ReplyDeleteShannon competed in compulsories and earned that medal. Alicia was in a different Country.
ReplyDeleteMarta is bitter that Shannon Miller was not trained by her and over shadowed her gymnasts at both the 92 and 96 Olympics.
Alicia helped cost the team the Gold medal but people forget that Cheng Fie fell off beam too so if she had not Alicia falling would have made no difference
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