2020 American Cup

A watershed event'
After facing a crisis of confidence, Hurd could have crumbled. Instead, she set to work almost immediately after returning from September's U.S. World Selection Camp, determined to make every moment count.

"I feel like I've just been in the gym like all the time, working so hard," said Hurd. "I go in and basically exhaust myself to the point where I'm like crawling out of the gym and I don't even want to drive home."



Her coach agrees.

"She’s been going all out. She doesn’t want to miss a day," said Glazounov. "She doesn’t want to leave without accomplishing the daily workouts that are scheduled. She’s working very hard."

That work has clearly made an impression, even before Saturday's victory.



"We saw it at the training camp last week," said Tom Forster, U.S. women's national team high performance coordinator. "She was a new person, even her body language. She owned the place."

Hurd finished second at that camp, behind Simone Biles, the four-time Olympic and 19-time World champion, who has set an untouchable standard in the sport both at home and abroad.



That second place verification, coupled with her American Cup win, send a clear signal to Forster.

"I think this was a watershed event for her really. This was her opportunity to state who she is as an athlete, not to be ignored," he said "I think she felt ignored for not making the world team last fall. You never know how the athletes are going to handle that.

"Some get really sad, and it kind of crumbles their self-confidence," he continued, "and others get really mad and do something about it. That’s exactly what she did."

The news broke while Konnor McClain watched “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire.”

When the movie started, the U.S.’ top 15-year-old gymnast was on a four-year Olympic plan, preparing for when she would be old enough for the Games in 2024.



By the end — or the point she stopped to check social media — McClain came to believe she became age-eligible for the Tokyo Games in 2021. She would have one year to prepare to compete against the nation’s best (and world’s best) gymnasts for, potentially, a spot on the U.S. Olympic team. Three years earlier than expected.

“Just to make it to the Olympic Trials would be such an accomplishment, especially for her being young,” her mom, Lorinda, said by phone on Thursday. “Making it to the trials would be great and keeping that 2024 path on track. This all made it a little hard because we were on a slow pace. We were working for 2024, so this kind of threw a wrench in our spokes. I think that’s her goal right now, see if she can hit the trials.”

The International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) has had a rule since 2000 that female artistic gymnasts must turn 16 or older in that year to compete in the Games (and now for world championships in all the non-Olympic years). When the Tokyo Olympics were postponed until 2021, the FIG faced a decision: Keep the Olympic field under 2020 terms, or let those turning 16 in 2021 into the fold.



“I’m glad I’m not making the rules because I don’t know the right decision,” NBC Olympics analyst Nastia Liukin said before the decision was announced. “I don’t know if there is a right decision.”

The FIG made an announcement Thursday afternoon. While the release didn’t explicitly say it, the gymnastics community interpreted it to mean that the younger gymnasts are eligible for the Tokyo Games.

“I just got on Twitter for some reason, and I saw,” McClain said by phone Thursday. “I was like, oh my gosh, is this true? I told my parents, and I told my sister, get on Twitter right now.”

“I was very surprised,” McClain’s mom said. “I thought they were going to leave it for her to be ineligible and keep the rules as they were.”

If recent history holds, the move should impact the makeup of the U.S. Olympic team. A USA Gymnastics spokesperson said Friday that the organization is reviewing the FIG announcement and can follow up this week regarding how it affects Olympic team selection.



At least one woman who turned 16 or younger in the Olympic year made the last 10 U.S. Olympic teams. That includes Kyla Ross, the 2011 U.S. junior all-around silver medalist who made the 2012 Olympic team. And Laurie Hernandez, the 2015 U.S. junior all-around champion who made the 2016 Olympic team.

The 2019 U.S. junior all-around champion, Kayla DiCello, turned 16 on Jan. 25 and would have been eligible for an Olympics in 2020.

McClain, who turns 16 on Feb. 1, 2021, was runner-up to DiCello at junior nationals, and is among a few rising juniors now on the radar (including Skye Blakely, who was fourth at junior nationals).

The deeper field should make it more difficult for older gymnasts to make the most competitive Olympic gymnastics team in the world.