re: Remove

In college, everyone is on the same playing field. Doesn’t matter if you are a former elite or a level 10: everyone is scored the same and rewarded based on their consistency and execution over the difficulty of the skills. Difficulty adds bonus points, but at the end of the day, everyone, if they have all the required skills in their routines, is scored out of a 10.0 (aside from vault which has different max scores depending on which vault a gymnast does). When it comes to the elite world (Olympic and World Championship level) At least in the United States, gymnasts have to qualify for that level of competition by doing a qualifier and showing compulsory (proof of mastery of all the required basic skills that make up a routine) and optional (additional high level skills that you have learned and plan to compete) skills [OTHERS WHO ARE MORE KNOWLEDGEABLE ABOUT THE SPORT THAN ME PLEASE CORRECT ME IF I’M WRONG ABOUT THIS OR MISSING SOMETHING]. From there, you need to go to a series of Championship meets within the states in order to qualify for the US Championship meet, which qualifies you for the Olympic Trials. After the trials, the selection committee chooses who will represent the US at the olympics based on the results of the previous meets. That’s why someone like Laurie Hernandez at 16 got to represent the USA in Rio. While elite gymnasts tend to be at their peak when they’re 16-18 in terms of skill level and health, age is not the only thing that determines who qualifies, hence why it is so competitive in this country to get to the Olympics and why not everyone even gets the opportunity to qualify