Four reasons to watch a Winter Cup without Gabby Douglas — Behind the scenes at national team camp

That was the sentiment heard ’round the gymternet Thursday, when Gabby Douglas announced that she had tested positive for COVID-19 and would have to withdraw from this weekend’s Winter Cup. 

Winter Cup is always a bit of a mixed bag. It’s the first meet of the elite season, so there’s some excitement around seeing favorites return to the podium and new seniors debut. But it’s also the first meet of the elite season, so it’s sometimes a bit messy because no one peaks for Winter Cup.

This year, though, the meet was hyped as Douglas’ return to competition for the first time since the 2016 Olympics. We’ve seen the training videos and heard Douglas talk about her reasons for returning to elite gymnastics (“I’m still a competitor at heart”), but we hadn’t seen it all come together. Now it will be another month or two before we do.

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But there are other compelling reasons to watch Winter Cup. Here are a few, in no particular order. 

There’s also the Nastia Liukin Cup! This meet, for the country’s top level 10 gymnasts, streams live on Sunday. If you want to catch future NCAA stars on the come-up, watch the Nastia Liukin Cup.

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Other gym news

The Balance Beam Situation gives you the Week 7 wrap-up and NQS standings, the Week 8 schedule and links, and, of course, the GIFs.

College Gym News delivers Week 7’s questions, comments and concerns; the Week 8 preview; the beam connections that judging columnist Rhiannon Franck would not have credited; and the leotard rankings.

The FIG released the Olympic draw for team qualifications. 

Jordan Chiles did a great interview with The Athletic this week (paywall). 

Kaylia Nemour posted the quad’s highest bars score at the Cottbus World Cup this week. Suni Lee’s response? “Wow, wow, wow.” 

The AAI Award nominees were announced this week. This is frequently referred to as the “Heisman Trophy of gymnastics”; we prefer to call the Heisman the “AAI Award of Football.” (Either way, the award honors the nation’s best college gymnasts.)

Selena Harris did a great interview with the Los Angeles Times after her 10 on vault last week (paywall). 

A third HBCU is starting a women’s gymnastics program! Wilberforce University in Ohio will debut its team next season. 

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Five at The IX: Behind the scenes at national team camp

In advance of Winter Cup, USAG posted this six-minute video with some behind-the-scenes footage from this month’s national team camp.