It’s Monday morning, so it’s time for me to let you all know what’s been on my mind the past week. This week will have some transfer talk but not until after some gymnastics. If you finish third in the country, you get to be first in Between the Columns.
GYMNASTICS THOUGHTS
1. What a season.
The Missouri gymnastics program has been on an upward swing, really since Shannon Welker took over the program, but claiming the highest national finish, not just in program history, but Mizzou women’s history, is a program changer.
There were a lot of seniors producing high scores throughout the Tiger lineup, especially Amari Celestine, Helen Hu and Jocelyn Moore, but there were also many underclassmen who made strong impressions in the team’s first ever national championship appearance.
I know we spend a lot of time here talking about the revenue sports, but the non-revenue sports bring a lot of excitement and school pride, too. And there’s less of the professionalism creeping in like there is with football and basketball.
Gymnastics has become one of the premier programs at Mizzou and I think there’s a bright future to come.
Also, the way the championship ended, with Mizzou jumping from fourth up to third on a review of a third-rotation routine, was both a lot of fun and a bit ridiculous.
This might just be me not knowing gymnastics very well, I’ve seen an explanation that video reviews aren’t done until after the meet has ended specifically to not slow anything down, which I get. But is it so hard to have a video crew of judges waiting to do reviews in the background during the event?
Emotions and tension play into an athlete’s performance and in a sport like gymnastics, being slightly too nervous can lead to disaster if you go into an event knowing you need to be essentially perfect vs. knowing you can put up your usual performance without sinking the team.
Those .3 points don’t seem like a lot for people outside of gymnastics circles, but they were enough to make the difference between a fourth-place finish and a third-place trophy.
I’m not saying it would have made a difference if the Tigers knew on the floor routine that they didn’t need to be absolutely perfect to not end fourth, and maybe even going in thinking it was already pretty much set took some pressure off, I don’t know what was going on in those competitors minds in that moment.
But it just feels like that could have been handled way, way better. ...
