Check out the poll results at the bottom of the blog. 

 

In 6 days, USA Gymnastics will name the women's team for the 2011 World Championships in Tokyo. Until then, all we can do is speculate. 

 

The athlete who drew by far the most attention at the 2011 Visa Championships was Shawn Johnson. 

 

Her presence on Team USA at Worlds would be great for the event, and great for USA Gymnastics in that she would draw more media and fan attention to Tokyo, but it's not necessarily the best thing for Team USA. 

 

Here's why:

 

Yes, Shawn Johnson is a 2008 Olympic Gold medalist and a former World All Around Champion. But, as of now she is not back to full strength. Her difficulty scores today are far from what she threw in Beijing which included a 2.5 twisting yurchenko vault, a double twisting double layout uneven bars dismount, a standing full twisting back flip on beam, and a double twisting double back on floor, to name a few. All of the above skills were missing from her routines at the 2011 Visa Championships in August, her second competition since 2008. 

 

She has mentioned she hopes to bring back a few of these skills but says her double double and triple twist on floor are likely out of the question due to the risk of re-injuring her knee as she is still coming back from the February 2010 ACL tear. 

 

To her credit, she made drastic improvements in the quick 3 weeks from the CoverGirl Classic (where she made her comeback official on 2 events) to the Visa Championships. If she keeps improving at that pace, she should be valuable to Team USA for London 2012 if not Tokyo 2011. 

What do you think?

 

----UPDATE----

Shawn's road to Tokyo just got even more challenging. On Tuesday, she slipped off the beam during practice in Iowa. The final diagnosis is a sprained foot. The injury is not season-ending, just very bad timing. 

“Even though (the injury) isn’t a big deal,” Chow said, “it’s very painful and Shawn will have to work through the pain again. The doctor said it could take 10 days to totally recover, but we don’t have 10 days.” Full story here. 

Shawn and the girls return to the Karolyi Ranch tomorrow for the final selection camp. 
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Other contenders for spots on the 2011 USA World Team and the 2011 Pan American Games team are:

Jordyn Wieber, McKayla Maroney, Alexandra Raisman, Alicia Sacramone, Mackenzie Caquatto, Sabrina Vega, Chellsie Memmel, Gabrielle Douglas, Anna Li, Bridgette Caquatto, Bridget Sloan, Jessie DeZiel, McKenzie Wofford, Brandie Jay, and Hallie Mossett.

The team will be officially announced on September 21st. Stay tuned to Gymnastike for the announcement. Until then, who do you predict to be on the USA World team? 

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POLL RESULTS AS OF 9/21: