So, I was in traffic all the way from Washington DC to Philadelphia yesterday. It took me nearly four hours to get there because of that. I was planning to stop at home for half an hour, and to get there half an hour early, but I ended up getting to Philly about fifteen minutes before the start of prelims for the Olympic Trials!

So here was how it went:

Who/What Impressed

1. Shawn, Nastia, and Chellsie: These girls are rock solid. They looked great everywhere. Nastia stuck her vault, one of the best she’s ever done, same with floor. Shawn was her normal self, running through her crazy routines easily. The Amanar looked a little underrotated, but I was way in the eaves so it was hard to tell for certain. Her bars looked great (she got a 15.7, with “a little help from her friends” if you know what I mean). Chellsie was a huge crowd pleaser. She absolutely blows me away. She just can’t be stopped, she is a total freak of nature in the best possible way. I am thrilled to see her back so solidly. Her bars looked great, her floor was great, a few tiny things on beam, and a solid if safe Y-1.5. These three gals are looking great. They’d just better not peak too early.

2. Mattie Larson’s floor: that was amazing! I would love to see her taken to the Olympic just on the strength of her entertaining, fun, lovely floor routine. Could it happen? It depends on how the puzzle pieces fall into place.

3. Floor overall: almost everyone looked really good on floor. It was fun to watch.

4. The crowd: everyone was really supportive, with big cheers for Nastia, Shawn, and Chellsie. Darling Hill got some major cheers, too, as a hometown girl.

5. Jana looked solid as a rock as usual. She is probably still frustrated by her scores–she isn’t getting much “help from her friends”, but she still showed her remarkable consistency. Her bars scored better than Worley and Bieger . . .

What Did NOT Impress

1. The huge field: it seemed absolutely crazy to have so many girl there. What was the count, eighteen? Twenty? Most of these girls won’t get within a nautical mile of the Olympic team, so sad as it seems, it was just not necessary to have them there. It made the competition VERY long–of course, the long scoring delays were the culprit, but the number of competitors didn’t help.

2. Shayla Worley and Bridget Sloan: They’re both going to have to do a lot better if they’re going to make the team for bars. Shawn beat them both, and so did Jana Bieger. That is VERY bad news for them. Shayla had a bad day all around, and so did Bridget.

3. Out of bounds: It was a Jannsen-Fritsen floor disguised as AAI, but does that excuse all of the out of bounds? That was the BAD part of the night on floor.

4. Alicia Sacramone: Sad to say, she was shaky on floor and beam. She looked great on vault, and I can’t see her being left behind, but she needs to pull it together on floor if she wants to help the US in team finals and maybe get a medal on floor.

5. The traffic: It sucked. Solid, all the way from DC to Philly. Barf.

The Olympic Picture

It looks like the US had a definite weakness on bars. Shayla or Sloan are really going to have to pick it up majorly or the US is going to have a massive deficit on bars. Jana is solid but she can only give a good score, not a great score. Nastia, Shawn, and Chellsie look to be absolute locks along with Alicia. That leaves two spaces–whoever can pull it together on bars will be going. If that person is Shayla, then there’s room for a good DTY–Ivana’s? Sam’s? Someone else? Or maybe, if it’s Sloan and she has her DTY up to snuff, there’s room for either a solid all-arounder ala Hong or a floor specialist ala Larson. The picture is still not entirely clear. And I have a feeling it won’t be clear until the team is named.