Subject: Olympic trial members

Sex: female
Age: 17
Gymnastics Level: 10/Elite

Hi, I was just wondering if you were invited or competed at an Olympic Trials does that automatically qualify you to classics or championships? Like if you make world team you’re qualified to both?

It is actually the other way around.  Elites, in general (though they may petition through), must requalify every year at one of the first two Elite meets of the season, like the Classic (named after whoever the current sponsor happens to be) to the Elite National Championships and perform well there to be considered for the Worlds or the Olympic Trials.  The World Championship and Olympic Trials are held after the Elite National Championships (again named after a current sponsor).  So both the World Championship Trials and the Olympic Trials always come after the rest of the regular Elite season and is not a qualifying meet for any of the other Elite meets, but rather the other way around.   Then, currently, they must go to camp at the ranch, where the real decisions about who competes are made, primarily by Marta Karolyi, but Steve Rybacki and Nastia Liukin are also on the “committee.”

If you want to read the whole selection procedure for this year’s World Championships, you can go to the USA Gymnastics web site and read about it here (pdf).

There should be questions about the way the selections are currently made as Elite gymnasts are required to “peak” for competition 3 -5 times in a little more than two months (depending on the number of camps) to qualify for Worlds or the Olympics and 5 – 6 times in a period of  if they make the Olympic or world team within a period of 5 months.

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