USA Gymnastics Names 2011 USA Women's World Championships Team

"You cannot send your most marketable athletes back to the minor leagues (compared to Worlds the Pan-Am Games are a minor league event) and expect something beneficial to come of it. "

Marketing does not win medals. The best team needs to be out there in order to have the best chance at medaling. If your most marketable athlete isn't the best athlete to help the team win, then she doesn't need to be on the team decreasing your chance of medaling.

"You're right. Sending Shawn to Worlds for purely athletic reasons is just crazy -- she is not doing elite-level gymnastics yet. Sending her to Worlds for business reasons, however, is quite sane. "

I don't know what you mean about Shawn not doing elite-level gymnastics yet. What are the girls she beat on bars and beam doing? She's elite and damned good. She's just not top three elite.
You're right about sending Shawn to worlds being a sane business decision. Regardless, I don't want to see her go to worlds for that reason. She'll get plenty of press for the sport by going to Pan Ams. No doubt the media will still play the Shawn card at Worlds anyway.

I really think this was the best team Matha could have picked that provides the highest scoring potential on each event. I realize Shawn has a lot of fans and I enjoy her gymnastics too but she is not at the skill level at this stage to be a strong contribuitor on any event in a team finals format. I like the Pan Am team I think it's great to see so many veterans and this will be a good meet to fuel there fire and give them motivation for next year. I also think its martha saying if you stay out of the camp process all year and then try to come in at the end and make a world or olympic team the odds are againist you. Just because you hit under pressure last year or the year before does not mean you will this year. My only complaint on these two teams is Wofford not being included. Pan ams would have been an amazing motivational assignment for her. How Martha ignores how strong of a bar worker she is and has the potenital to be is beyond me. Why does Martha hate this kid? I know she was injured at nationals but she could have even just done bars and beam at Pan Am's and its still about 2.5 to 3 weeks away. She's fantastic and yet ends up being alternate, she needs experience because with some upgrades on bars she has the ability to be in the top tier for bars.... so sad for her :(

I think this will be a good team, even though Shawn was my best pick. It seems like the team for the Pan Am's are all people who are trying to make a comeback for the Olympics. It's mostly veterans.

Oh, and what is a non traveling alternate? She stays home and comes if they need her?

OMG! What has Marta done?!

"Shawn Goes to Tokyo!" should have been a headline today.
America's darling is, after all, the face of gymnastics and one of the most marketable female athletes on the planet. You don't need psychic powers to see who NBC endorses.
That said, I think Dementyeva & Company will be making soy sauce of the Americans -- and not even Shawn will be able to stop that.

"Who wants to watch a bunch of 20 something year olds, the younger girls are so much more exciting. "

Some people don't think being younger necessarily makes a gymnast more exciting. Let me tell you, I was super excited to see Memmel come back and finish top five and Shawn hit her routines. It's not about age. It's about how good the gymnastics is.

** Maroney seems like a lock too (I forgot to mention her)

GJJ 2020: "This is the land where opportunity and lots of hard work and a dash of luck gets you somewhere. The current way of picking world and olympic teams is a drag and un-american. It opens it up to bribery, favoritism, etc. Very sad."

WELL SAID! And the fact that they were forced to keep everything at camp secret and saying "what happens at camp stays at camp" is a little creepy. Sounds like communism to me!!

I agree about the hand selection of gymnasts--Kelly Hill said it best in an interview when she said that they won in '96 without all these selection camps/hand picking of gymnasts. It takes the fun out of competitions because they don't mean anything--if Martha likes you, regardless of falling on every event, you are still in. Sad. And yeah totally odd about Nastia on the selection committee...

Maybe she doesn't have a sunny side.

This is the land where opportunity and lots of hard work and a dash of luck gets you somewhere. The current way of picking world and olympic teams is a drag and un-american. It opens it up to bribery, favoritism, etc. Very sad.

I wish politics was out and a good old-fashioned and FAIR way to chose the world team, A WORLD TRIALS, was in place. It is not only fair to the athletes but the fans!

Also USA doesn't complete in nearly enough elite meets around the world. Maybe too much is spent on the National Training Center and it's politico's instead of helping make priceless memories of competitions throughout the world available to these qualified athletes. To me, experience at various world meets is more valuable than making sure you are on Martha's sunny side.

Love Wofford and she has great difficulty on beam and bars, but she is very inconsistent. I can understand why she wasn't on the team. The World's team is a strong one, but it will be interesting to see how it fares against the Chinese, Romanians, and Russians. Don't think we have the depth to medal - but who knows. Also surprised that Li was on the team. She has strong bars but failed to consistently hit her routines at Classics or Championships. Seems like a gamble.

You don't have to be on the National Team, and Martha has probably already added Li and Sloan to the team. She has spots she can add at her descretion.

I'm actually offended that Martha put Shawn as an alternate for worlds and not Chellsie considering how prepared Chels showed up to Visas. BS. Just goes to show if Martha doesn't like your face you're not gonna be on the team...