Around the Gymternet: James Hall Retires, Romania’s a Mess, U.S. Elite Qualifiers Begin

James Hall A roundup of this week’s news, competitions, social media gossip, and more! In the News James Hall retires. James Hall, a 2020 Olympian for Great Britain who helped his team to two world championships medals in 2015 and 2022 along with the European team title in 2022, announced his retirement today at the age of 30. “Every athlete deserves to go through the sport and when they get to the end, whenever that may be, to feel how I do about my career,” he wrote. Congratulations, James, and best of luck for what’s next! Nicolae Forminte is coaching the Romanians again. Former head of the Romanian program Nicolae Forminte is back at the head of the Romanian WAG program following the resignation of Corina Morosan, which came in the wake of how she handled the drama surrounding Camelia Voinea’s abusive coaching and behavior toward other athletes. The program had great success under Forminte in the 2010s, disintegrated after his departure in the lead-up to 2012, and began to show promise again when he returned with his Deva-trained juniors post-2016, though he kinda dropped the ball and was dismissed due to the team’s poor showing going into 2020. Now 69 and a known abuser, he’s not exactly an inspired choice, especially after Morosan coached the team to its most successful quad in over a decade. And Voinea gets to continue doing whatever she wants! A mess. Kittia Carpenter fired from Buckeye. Longtime elite coach Kittia Carpenter – most known for coaching Gabby Douglas in the lead-up to the 2016 Olympic Games only to be dropped for her assistant in the most dramatic fashion AT the U.S. Olympic Trials – was once again made redundant, this time by Buckeye Gymnastics, where she began coaching in 1986. The gym sent an email to parents informing them that both Carpenter and Charlie Tamayo, a 2003 world vault medalist who defected to the U.S. during the Anaheim competition, were let go due to a Safesport investigation. The gym’s president doesn’t seem to believe the allegations against either coach, and basically admits to firing them mainly to avoid bad publicity for the club, so he must’ve learned a lot from the fallout after Al and Armine Fong were suspended despite actively coaching for years whilst under investigation. Apparently Carpenter was still judging at a recent U.S. national team camp per Instagram so… *gestures wildly* We will never learn. First U.S. WAG national team camp of the season. Speaking of the U.S. national team camp, the first one for WAG happened last week, and included 2025 Pan Am champion Gabrielle Hardie , junior world championships medalists Charleigh Bullock and Caroline Moreau , and U.S. Classic silver medalist Simone Rose . Will Elena Colas stay in France? Despite doing the absolute most for France over the past two years of her junior career, the French federation refused to allow Elena Colas ‘ Avoine coaches to travel to a training camp in Martinique , so Colas –...

Preview: ~500 words