Tate costa: No Guts, No Glory
That 32 D score was sitting out there like a mountain just waiting for someone to climb it. So Tate Costa climbed it.
Do I think someone did something “wrong” by ascending this peak? No I do not.
Do I think this rule is a good idea? More about that later.
When on hiking vacations, I look for the hardest possible hike that won’t actually kill me, just to see if I can. So I get it.
Like Spooky Canyon in the Grand Staircase National Monument. It’s supposedly a “family friendly” slot, like a 32 D score would be a “family friendly” D score for Zhang Boheng. Whatever family this was referring to, I was not part of it.
I fit through the sign. Just. So I went for it. A lot of it was dark, with climbing over and under boulders and navigating drop-offs. One part was supposed to have a rope to climb down. That rope was gone.
I got stuck. Not to put too fine a point on it, my butt was wedged into a narrow curlicue type thing. I was trying to move my foot into position to step down onto a rock below, and my backside wasn’t cooperating with getting into position. The canyon hike is one way, so if I stayed in there too long, traffic would start to back up. Would Search and Rescue have to come in there with soap and water and get me out (this is actually how it’s done)? My sister was far enough ahead of me I couldn’t see her, but I could hear her. “This is crazy. I’m NEVER doing this again!” With the help of my brother-in-law, I managed to wriggle out and continue on, but not before I let out a string of $#%#@!!%%*!!!!!.
The biggest problem with activities that push the limits is sometimes people get hurt. Luckily I (like Tate) was fine.
But it wasn’t pretty. At all. Not unlike day 1 of Championships.
D score isn’t everything!
Notice that on day 2, Tate lowered his D score by 2.4 points and gained 9.9 points in total score.
There was some consternation over this event, to be sure. The winners in life are the people who find the optimal path to their goals and are willing to take risks. However, the winners of gymnastics competitions are the people who get the most points, and the E score is part of those points.
Simply having a D score goal treats the problem as one of addition, when the goal should be optimization of the balance of D + E to get the highest total score.
There was some discussion of this by the men’s program, as seen below:
My unsolicited opinion is that keeping a minimum D score is fine, but stipulate that the athlete achieve a total score of within a point or so of the lowest AA score that makes the team outright.
In the meantime, I’ll be cheering for Tate.
I’ve gotten through some crazy hikes, like Picacho Peak , where I needed a “brotherly shove” to get up the cable section. I’m also terrified of heights, but I just kept moving forward.
Once I figured out “hey, I can actually sort of do this”, it’s motivation to keep improving my fitness so I can do these hikes and more without assistance (not to mention with less risk and suffering).
Costa added 18 skills in like a month. Who knows where he can go now that he knows what’s possible?