Paul was 2004 Olympic AA champion - the men's team placed 13th at Aarhus Worlds and didn't qualify, they don't have the numbers to choose from like in USA women's gymnastics, they want him on the team. What about how Dominique Moceanu was treated - she wasn't even allowed to compete at Naionals and lost her appeal, saying that she did the requirements given to her and her coach - the women's gymnastics program has lots of girls to choose from. From Dominique: [quote]My situation exposed some unhealthy practices within the Elite Program. In my teens I was really kept away from the politics of decisions, I knew that

The goal is to have USA on the podium with a gold...like they said in those At&T blue room Behind the Team videos, the point for the individual coaches shouldn't be on their own gymnast but on getting the USA team the gold medal, winning, etc. You can watch them at: http://blueroom.att.com/sports/teamusa/home/index.php (topic is http://www.gymchat.com/messageboards/viewtopic.php?t=468 )

It's not new that gymnasts can petition in competitions, it can be viewed as an advantage and disadvantage on what percent this competition counts and what it gets combined with. But, yes, they are giving chances to competitors - better than not giving chances - they should show what they can do. They should have allowed Dominique Moceanu to compete at Nationals, and then decide what they want to do, who they want to put on the team. The women's program seems to have more politics than the men's, perhaps because there are more numbers in women's gymnastics than in men's gymnastics. Like in

Another thing that isn't fair - qualifying for the all-around or event final and then getting replaced by your coach for someone else who he thinks deserves it more or has a better chance of medalling. [quote]In the run-up to the 1996 Olympics, the world seemed to be Alexandra Marinescu's oyster. After winning the European junior title twice and helping her team to the gold medal at the 1995 World Championships in Sabae, Japan, she took a silver medal on the balance beam at the 1996 World Championships in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Coming to Atlanta, the blonde Bucharest native was expected to be a front runner for the coveted all-around title. She seemed to have it all- style, difficulty, the perfect body, the perfect age, the perfect gymnast. Only it never happened. Marinescu never even competed in the all-around competition in Atlanta despite having qualified to it. The Romanian team management decided to substitute her with team mate Simona Amanar, who went on to win the bronze medal. The same thing happened at the World Championships, held in the Swiss town of Lausanne a year later - Marinescu qualified to the all-around, only to be replaced by Amanar, who this time took the silver. "I am very grateful to Alexandra, " Amanar told the press in Lausanne, "because she let me compete and win this medal." Lausanne was to be Marinescu's last major competition as a back injury forced her out of the sport later.[/quote]http://www.gymworld.de/news/article/index0056.html