MyKala leaving Utah to pursue 2020 Oylmpics.

[cjd1]

Her along with Megan Marsden leaving has me wonder how much this will effect the women’s gymnastics program. She did say if she doesn’t make the USA Team then she will return to Utah for her senior year.

[Johnny80]

I wonder if it has to do with the fact that she gets no love from the judges despite being one of, if not the best athlete in her sport. I’ve stated a million times that she is able to do things no other gymnast at the college level can do. She is definitely a fan favorite and I believe it’s impossible to psych her out. Best of luck to an amazing athlete.

[chinngiskhaan]

Or…. maybe she just wants to achieve her dream of being an Olympic gymnast? There doesn’t need to be any other reason.

[highlandute7]

Certainly can’t blame her. She has earned the right to do this and who knows, maybe she’ll be back. I would love to see her back, selflishly, but I hope she does make the 2020 team. Would love to see her in the Olympics. 

I would then bring her back to fill Megan’s position. She would be the perfect coach.

[GameForAnyFuss]

I feel like she’ll be back. She’s the best collegiate gymnast in the country but she doesn’t get the scores because she’s controversial. I feel like the USOC will want to avoid putting controversial gymnasts on the team – they don’t want to get jobbed on scores in the Olympics because of Mykala’s reputation. And also in the wake of the Larry Nasser thing they’re going to want to keep away from any hint of controversy, which means putting only squeaky clean gymnasts on the team.

Think it can’t happen? The same thing already happened to Mykala last time around.

[chinngiskhaan]

care to explain what makes her controversial?

[highlandute7]

I think it has to do with this article. There are probably others as well.

 

https://slate.com/culture/2019/04/mykayla-skinner-utah-red-rocks-ncaa-gymnastics-championships.html

[chinngiskhaan]

that article is a great read!

[GameForAnyFuss]

Yeah rather than stand there smiling and looking pretty when she gets jobbed on a score, she actually shows some displeasure. The USOC won’t stand for any independent thought from their gymnasts. She’ll get passed up for a spot on the team in favor of some other gymnast with lower qualifying scores because of “intangibles”, just like how it went down last time around.

[PlainsUte]

But if the US wants to win they need tangibles and intangibles.  I don’t blame them.  The way I read the situation MyKala was doing more difficult things in NCAA competition but not getting much scoring credit for them once she went beyond a certain level of difficulty.  That is a flaw in the system that does not exist so much in the Olympic scoring system.   So this should lead to her being less miffed.    I do think her coaches should have managed her routine better to max out NCAA scoring, and perhaps do better to manage her displays of displeasure, instead they apparently let her do her own thing.  Letting her show more difficult things in competition than it takes to max out NCAA scores may turn out to be good for her in the long term as Olympic success is going to carry more weight than NCAA individual success.  Good luck to her, but lets not pretend there is some conspiracy against her – kind of zoobish.

[GameForAnyFuss]

There’s no conspiracy and I never said there was. She’s a square peg trying to fit into a round hole. Now I think we all agree that the hole should be square, but it’s not. And she’s not trying to become a round peg, which is on her and her coaches.

So Utah and Mykala could be doing more to manage the situation, and that’s on them. But the NCAA is in the wrong here and everyone knows it.