2026 American Cup Live Blog

She’s back! And different from before!

The mixed team American Cup is here, and I’m very interested to see how this goes. We have 8 teams in round 1, and everyone will do 2 MAG and 2 WAG routines, with the top 6 teams advancing to round 2.

The MAG events are floor, PBars, and high bar, and the WAG events are bars, beam, and floor. Individual athletes cannot repeat events in subsequent rounds, and if you advance through all three rounds, you have to cover all the events twice.

But other than that, super straightforward.

John, Sam, and Tim welcome us to Almost Vegas. I didn’t have Tim in the pool for Most Surprising Style Reveal.

So, we’re not even having the broadcasters describe the format? So…why are three of you here?

Tim says “we’ll definitely see Simone Biles” coming back to elite and that Suni is coming back too. Did you tell Suni that?

Alright so….let’s move it along.

Round 1

Petisco – BB – Spain – large wobble on loso mount, keeps it on – switch to switch 1/2, nice 180 positions – wolf double goes a little crazy, teeters around – bhs bhs loso, short and falls. She was off from the start. Side aerial, lean – split jump 1/2 from side is excellent. double pike, chest down, step. Rough opener. Just like the white wing dove.

Nuñez – PB – Mexico – peach – peach 1/2 – diam to front straddle, little hesitation up to handstand – tippelt, clean, waver up to handstand – double pike, hop. Hit.

Two routines, no scores, and a commercial. Yayyyyyyy.

Mostowfi opened floor for GB with 12.450. Petisco went 11.650 on beam. 13.350 PBars for Nunez.

We didn’t see Ke Qinqin on floor (thanks) but 12.950 for her.

Pease – FX – USA – double double tucked, bounce back OOB – double pike, stumble back, a couple steps – switch ring to switch 1/2, good positions in split – back 1.5 to rudi, bounce back – wolf double, over two turns, leans out of it somewhat – 2.5, step forward, legs crossed. 13.000. 5.5/7.6

11.000 BB for Boucas. Hashimoto 14.200 PB.

Moldauer – FX – USA – front full to double front, hop back – DLO, pikes down to land, bounce back – punch randi, chest down, hop – 2.5 to layout, little movement adjustment – huge struggle on double arabian 1/2 out, barely got it around and then bounce back hands down. 12.450

Looking back at Hashimoto’s PB now – peach 1/2 with a lean and hand placement – peach – nice makuts – front straddle and clean handstand – bhavsar, solid, up to handstand – tippelt, good handstand – double front 1/2 out, chest down hop back

Li – FX – China – front full to double front pike, step forward OOB – double double tuck, comfortable, small bounce back – punch randi, tries to hold stick so hard he leans forward past horizontal like an NCAA WAG freshman – 2.5 to 1/2, comfortable landing – double pike, love it, good landing

Roper – FX – GB – wolf 2.25 – double pike, little hop back, some chest position – front loso throiugh to double tuck, pulls it around, a little sluggish but gets it around – tour jete 1/2 to switch 1/2 to popa – switch 1/1, slightly under, hops around – 2.5 is a problem, under rotated and sits it down

Rotation 1 says, American Cup gonna American Cup. You can take a break for 6 years, but it’s still the beginning of March and everyone’s going to fall.

After 2 routines each
Japan – 27.500
China – 26.650
Mexico – 25.550
Spain – 25.450
USA – 25.450
Brazil – 24.000
Great Britain – 23.800
Philippines – 21.000

Six teams go through to the next round. Philippines probably going to be eliminated, as expected, but really not clear yet who is going to join them in the sadness corner. You guys, what if the US got eliminated in the first round.

Round 1, Rotation 2

Scott hits a PB to open for GB, hop back on double pike dismount. 13.050. Escudero got 13.000 on floor.

Zhang – UB – China – weiler to weiler 1/2 to pak, solid – maloney to tkatchev, close but hit – cast 1/2 with some body position – toe full is verrrrrry late, but gets it into FTDT, stuck. 13.850.

Bullock – BB – USA – full turn – bhs loso, little squeeze adjustment, hit – switch to split jump 1/2 to bhs, connected comfortably – switch 1/2, under split but secure – side aerial, comfortable – aerial, knee, leg up wobble – breaks connection into split jump, check – side somi and falls, second fall of the rotation for the US – 2.5 dismount, step to the side.

Leykin saved the competition for the US with a hit on PB, hop 1/2 on one hand – diam with tucking – stutz into stuck double front 1/2 dismount with some crazy legs and chest down. 14.000

Sam: “What grade is he in???”

Feel like he didn’t understand that the US team had the opportunity to do the funniest thing, and he kind of ruined it by hitting.

Nakamura – FX – wolf triple is around, balance check just standing there – back full and totally Grishinas, no element out of it – whip to double tuck, bounce up in place – switch – tour jete 1/2, hop – back 1.5 to front full, good one, just a small hop, bit of knees – drops out of Memmel after about a single turn – 2/1, leg separation, big bounce back. Someone had a case of the Americas. 11.600

Zhang – PB – China – makuts, solid – peach 1/2 and peach go crazy in form – double back to arms is good – healy, solid – double pike, bounce back. 14.000

Escalera gets 12.700 on floor, they’ll advance.

Plata – HB – Spain – tak 1/1, late – tak 1/2 is insane, late and legs and everything – cassina is very low, no chance to catch and falls – resumes with layout tkatchev, hit – hop full to DLO 1/1, good stick to finish.

Ruby Stacey saved GB with 13.200 on bars. They’ll advance.

Plata gets 11.700 and that’s enough.

Now we’ll see Stacey on bars – toe tkatchev 1/2 to yezhova, hit, leg separation – toe full, leg break to Chow to pak, hit – short hs on low – van leeuwen with leg break – blind to double front, cowboy, hop back. Nice.