Chris Cameron has had the year of his life. 2010 Big Ten All-Around Champion … 2010 Big Ten Floor Exercise Champion … 2010 Big Ten Gymnast of the Year … member of the 2010 NCAA champion squad … 2010 NCAA All-Around Champion … earned two All-America honors at the 2010 NCAA championships (rings and p-bars)…2nd on floor and pommel horse and 3rd on p-bars and in the all-around at the 2010 Winter Cup…1st with the USA team and on pommel horse at the 2010 Pacific Rim Championships…3rd with the USA team at the 2010 Japan Cup. Is “2010 world team member” next on the list?
I definitely think it’s possible. Not only has this been his major breakout year at the NCAA level, but his international results this year have been extremely promising as well. Cameron is a guy who is very clean and solid, with his greatest strengths being on pommel horse and rings, followed by floor and p-bars. Isn’t that EXACTLY what we need? Let’s take a look at some of his gymnastics to see what he might bring to a USA world team:
Chris Cameron all events 2009 (from a slideshow by his parents…videos start at 53 sec.):
Okay not the music I’d pick for gymnastics routines…but what a talent! Remember these routines were from LAST year, before he had all of the accomplishments I listed above.
Chris Cameron Pommel Horse 2010 NCAA Championships (starts at 2:55)
The new Artemev on pommel horse! This is the big reason why I feel he has a great shot at the world team. Not only is he awesome on pommel horse, but he seems quite consistent and very aggressive…AND he won this event at a big international meet, the Pacific Rim Championships. I absolutely love the flair work – really gives him a unique and exciting routine, and leaves almost no room for deductions when you do them that well. He has been showing a 6.2 D-score and can easily score in the 15-range. We should welcome that on our team ANY DAY.
Chris Cameron Innovative Pommel Horse Routine 2009
WOW…what a cool sequence! I don’t know if he’s competed that routine or not, but that was some really neat stuff. His flairs are out-of-this world good.
Chris Cameron Rings 2010 NCAA Championships
We could use him here too! His D-score has typically been around a 6.0…pretty strong, but what’s most impressive are his positions, clean form, and overall look. He could put up a 15 here as well.
Chris Cameron P-Bars 2010 Winter Cup
His D-score here is just a 5.8, but again…he’s so clean he’s hard to ignore. We’ve probably got enough on p-bars already, but he’d be a solid backup option for at least the prelims at worlds. Perhaps he’s adding some difficulty here as well.
He’ll DEFINITELY be one of the big names to watch for at USA’s, which are now less than two weeks away. The events he’ll need to excel on are pommel horse and rings…if he’s solid both days on those two events, look out for the world team – he may be the perfect match for Team USA. Although his D-score on floor (6.0) is nowhere near Steven Legendre, it is certainly a safer and more reliable routine…he’s not likely to miss on his flair work or his roll-out skills on the first two passes. If he’s solid on floor and p-bars too, it will only help emphasize his dependability as a team member and the value he could bring to team USA under pressure.
Without doing numerical analysis, my first impression is that I think we’re set on PBs and hope we have a tougher 3rd FX. That said, he has all 6 as “decent” and PH and rings outstanding. He definitely seems to be trying to go with clean and high scoring, so seeing the overall numbers vice D score only is important to give him a fair shot.