USA Gymnastics announced the field set for this year’s AT&T American Cup, to be held in Newark, N.J. on March 5.
In addition to the previously-announced American gymnasts Gabby Douglas and Maggie Nichols, the women’s field will include Lorrane Oliveira of Brazil, Ellie Black of Canada, Amy Tinkler of Great Britain, Tabea Alt of Germany, Carlotta Ferlito of Italy, Mai Murakami of Japan, and Tisha Volleman of the Netherlands.
All gymnasts set to compete have worlds experience with the exception of Alt, a first-year senior in 2016 who won the German junior national all-around title last year and the junior European beam bronze in 2014. She is expected to be a big help for the German program, and the American Cup will mark her senior debut.
Oliveira is the 2015 Brazilian national champion, Black is the 2015 Pan American Games and Canadian all-around champion, Tinkler is the 2015 British national champion and world team bronze medalist, Ferlito is the 2015 Italian national beam champion, Murakami was the silver medalist at the All-Japan Student Championships last year who stepped in as the second alternate at worlds and finished sixth in the all-around, and Volleman – the Dutch junior national champion in 2014 – helped her country qualify a full team to the Olympic Games at last year’s worlds, putting up hit routines on three events.
As always, you can expect tweaks and changes for this event straight up until the week before as athletes deal with injuries and other setbacks at this typically awkward early point in the elite season. But overall, while the American women should have a somewhat easy time battling it out for the top podium spots here, there could be quite a nice fight for bronze, especially between Black, Tinkler, and Murakami.
For more information and to purchase tickets to the American Cup, please visit the official event website.
Article by Lauren Hopkins
