#aimee boorman

[freifraufischer]

It's been a few days since the "announcement" of the GIGA Pro Gymnastics thing and I'd like to share some research and my lengthy list of questions about this project.

Let's start by saying that there is a document floating around that is marked confidential and proprietary. It's not long, it's an info graphic and appears to be aimed at investors or recruitment. I'm not sharing it. It does inform my questions.

Who Are These People?

First of all: The officers listed are Aimee Boorman as Co-founder and Chief Events Officer. Maura Fox as Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer. LaPrise Williams as Co-founder and Chief Marketing Officer. This is what I can find based on publicly available information:

The gymnastics community knows who Aimee Boorman is so I'm not going to detail her. She became a FIG Brevet judge in the last two years but is very junior. She's a category 4 judge meaning that except at the smallest FIG meets she is limited to things like being a line judge or a timing judge, this is not a slight. Everyone has to start as a cat 4 but that does mean she doesn't have a lot of experience as a judge.

Maura Fox has a linkedin which informs what I know about her. She was an executive for Time Warner leaving in 2009. Her last job there was as group vice president for consumer devices, cross platform, and strategy. She then ran her own consulting form for 10 years which her linkedin says ended in 2019. She's honestly the person I want to know the most about to take this project seriously or not. She says she's been involved in launching professional circuits in cycling and men's tennis. I'd like to find out what those ventures were to be able to assess the likelihood that this venture will survive. She then worked for some kind of media products group that I can't really get my head around for two years before going to work for GIGA. Her linked in identifies GIGA as having been founded in 2021. So they've had 2 years to build this... which frankly matches with the fact that I had heard about them recruiting potential athletes last year.

LaPrise Williams is a pediatric nurse who was the Baylor Acro and Tumbling coach for from 2011-2014. She later told the press she intended to file a Title IX complaint against the university but I have no idea how that worked out. She opened a gym in St Vincent and the Grenadines which identifies itself as the first gym in the islands. She is the Technical Director for the St Vincent and the Grenadines Gymnastics Association. Here is their facebook page. Now I'm going to put some context on the SVGGA here and I don't want anyone to think I'm disparaging them or her. There are many small federations in the world and this is one of them. It is very clearly a legitimate National Governing Body (NGB). At the moment they have no FIG licensed gymnasts in any discipline and Williams is the only FIG brevet judge from the federation in any discipline--she is a category 4 judge for WAG. The facebook activity for the fed runs:

post on June 4th of 2023 which is a repost from Williams' gym's instagram page.

on September 25, 2022 they changed their profile and header pictures

on January 25, 2020 they posted pictures of a team going to Manhatten Classic.

on June 16, 2019 a repost from an article from the Trinidad and Tobago Newsday about the Caribbean Gymnastics Championships which is very likely not a FIG sanctioned event.

All of this is to say this is a small, relatively inactive federation with limited resources and staff and I'm not entirely sure if much weight should begiven to her involvement in it for this project.

Who are the Sponsors/Who is going to pay the Athletes?

This is upfront going to be a lot of "I have no idea." Their launch material doesn't say. The document I've seen doesn't say and the fact that the thing has supposedly existed for two years without a sponsor lined up to be named at public launch is a little worrying to me.

The document describes a two tiered structure for the athletes with start fees and prize money for all (the initial start fee is $1500 to be paid to all gymnasts with GIGA paying for things like travel, hotel, meals, etc). The prize purse for the first year event is described in the low 6 figure range with mention of an All Around winner. I've seen no mention of teams so it appears to me that they're planning on this being an individual competition circuit (more thoughts on that later). I have seen no reference to insurance of any sort and the only medical related thing in the document is onsite massage, PT, and recovery aids. My major concern continues to be that these people are recruiting adult aged post-college athletes and all I can think is there will be many knees destroyed. And this is the United States... so look forward to some Go Fund Me for medical treatment in the future... It's notable that the European club leagues are all in countries with nationalized health care. Their document talks about career longevity for gymnasts but I'm not at all convinced they're promising an infrastructure for that.

There is a second section of this document that talks about headliners and the things they can negotiated for as individuals. So some gymnasts will be paid appearance fees--which I should stress I think is perfectly normal.

Why is it hard to figure out if these people want to be a professional league or a media platform?

Because they want to be both. They want hold to meets and stream content to fans as well as sell access to the athletes for fans experiences. It looks like kind of standard VIP meet and greet kind of things from what little detail I've seen... you pay money to meet the athlete for say 30 minutes with a group of other fans. I've done this kind of thing for television actors. It's fun. But it's also by it's nature not something a lot of fans can afford.

They also want to build a library of content that is essentially athlete interviews presumably the access of which they can sell in whatever the subscription package of their multimedia platform is. It's all pretty vague so we'll have to figure out what it means when their products actually launch.

For now my main concern is why did they announce this in June without a date or location or a format for their first competition?

Lingering Questions...

I have so many... aside from the ones I've touched on above. They talk about how this hasn't been done before. It has. The most successful attempt at launching a pro-gymnastics competition circuit was in 1997-98 in the post Atlanta Olympics hype. They used a modified NCAA code and the meets were aired on CBS. I don't need them to talk about the previous two attempts (except maybe don't claim to be the first) but I really hope they are aware of them at the very least to find out why they didn't last. I fear that they either didn't do that research or they assume because it was 20+ years ago that their multimedia platform makes them so different that it doesn't apply.

What the heck is the meet structure here? They talk a LOT about the successes of NCAA gymnastics but at least the materials I've seen seem to suggest that they don't plan on having teams. Teams are a key part of building fan support in both NCAA and the European club leagues. I still don't think you can model a US league based on those European leagues mostly because they are build on a lot of routines from junior gymnasts and this project seems to be entirely about post-NCAA age careers. That's in addition to my medical insurance and liability insurance questions.

What is USAG's involvement in this? My fear is "they don't want USAG's involvement". See the launching of new professional sports leagues in a country often depend on how much support and buy-in they have from the NGB. One of the major differences between the currently running National Women's Soccer League and earlier defunct attempts is buy-in from USA Soccer. And I promise you that US Soccer is no more popular then USAG. I'm also informed by the fact that playing conditions for a lot of NWSL teams have been pretty bad (let's not touch the sexual harassment issues within teams). One team was playing on a home field that had holes in it and couldn't afford to pay for their players shoes. Gymnastics equipment is extremely expensive. Millions of dollars just for the competition apparatus. Are these people buying it? From who? Are they going to transport it around the country? Are they going to host it in a central location so they can store the equipment locally or rent it from a specific source? So many questions.

What code of points are they using? US developmental program--you know the one whose code of points you have to buy and isn't publicly accessible without paying for it? Some modified version of the above (like NCAA)? If they're riding the coat tales of NCAA I somehow doubt they're using the FIG code which will make it somewhat harder for non-US/Canadian athletes to be involved. What difficulty expectations will there be? How are they going to handle judges? How are they going to assure fans and athletes that judging will be fair given how much money they are saying is in the prize purses and that they're setting up a two tiered "everyone" and "headliners" compensation structure?

Conclusions:

I'm highly skeptical of all of this. I'm worried about what seems to have been a premature information free public launch. Their website and materials seem amateurish to me and I just can't get my head around the idea that they launch this publicly with no sponsors named.

I'm not at all convinced that these people know how or why European club leagues work, why previous attempts at this in the US have failed, what a lot of the appeal of NCAA gymnastics is, or that they have the experience necessary to do any of this.

[targetstudy]

Simone Biles Biography, Age, Height, Net Worth, Medals, Weight, Daughter

Simone Biles is a famous American artistic gymnast. She is known as one of the greatest gymnasts of all time in America. She won maximum gold medals whenever she participated in vault and floor.

Biles is the 10th female gymnast and 1st from America who won a world medal on every participation in gymnastics game. Biles has not won medals only she won many other awards from the American government such as the Presidential Medal of Freedom, Laureus World Sportswoman of the Year, Comeback of the Year, etc.

Some Facts About Simone Biles

At the time of Simone’s birth, her mother was struggling with drug addiction, and Simone and her sibling were sent into the childcare system.

Simone’s maternal grandparents, Ron and Nellie Biles (stepmother), eventually adopted her to their home in Texas.

Simone started showing interest in gymnastics at a young age. She started gym training at the age of 6 years older.

Simone started her gymnastics training at the age of 8 years older with Aimee Boorman coach.

Read More: Simone Biles Biography, Age, Height, Net Worth, Medals, Weight, Daughter

[gymnasticscoaching]

Aimee Boorman book in 2025

You can pre-order now. I'm so incredibly proud and honored to have helped one of the greatest coaches of all time to share her story. @Salto_Coach thank you for entrusting me with helping craft your story. You are so real & raw, resulting in an incredible book!🫶🏼Pre-Order Nowhttps://t.co/F6XnaxRaAw— Steve Cooper (@socaljourno) July 3, 2024

[my-random-fandoms]

She actually seems like she's over gymnastics as a whole. I get it she came back because she felt like she had something to prove. But she hasn't really seemed to me like she loves the sport since about 2018. She has all this pressure,internally and externally, to go out there and show off and "silence the haters."

Of course I'm impressed by her triple double and the YDP. Everyone should be, and if it makes her happy, I'm glad she stuck around to get those skills.

I also get the feeling that it's the Landis pushing difficulty over form. (based partially on Josc's devolving form since moving to WCC) I'm sure Aimee Boorman wasn't a perfect coach but i wonder how different Simone's career would have been if she had remained the elite coach at WCC. I wonder if Simone would have been a happier gymnast.

i don't wanna be rude and i don't wanna diminish her impressive and numerous accomplishments but it really does feel like simone rests on her laurels and it makes her gymnastics really not compelling for me to watch. she obviously doesn't really care about pointing her toes or bettering herself in that regard, all of her floor dance seems very apathetic and lazy (her last bit of choreo where she just waits on the floor until the "oh!" and she does her ending pose is sooooo lazy like at least do a little roll or something so you're not just sitting there and waiting for the music cue, is that not some sort of artistry deduction?), and it really doesn't look like she even tries on the landings of her tumbling passes because she knows no matter what she's going to win (lots of stupid foot shuffles and half steps that are unnecessary and preventable deductions.) i really don't want to be a hater and i want to reiterate that i am not contesting her unbelievable skill but her gymnastics has lost my interest simply because it doesn't really seem like she's trying anymore and it doesn't feel passionate to me at all

[twoflipstwotwists]

think what you will of Aimee’s current life choices but it’s pretty discrediting for Tim & Nastia to say that the Landis brought Simone to where she is now

[gymfanconfessions]

“Was it common knowledge that Aimee Boorman is coaching the Dutch team? Am I just slow?”

[gymnastics2008]

Biles. Is. Back.

[the-peregrina]

The movie version of Aimee is so much closer to the reality than the movie version of Chow

[tutyayilmazz]

I mean, who could've seen that coming honestly?

Y’all in 2016: Aimee Borman is the best coach of all time and Simone Biles is living proof! 

Y’all after Simone came back better than ever with a different coach while Aimee sold diet products on IG: 

[freifraufischer]

Since this is supposedly an announcement (for whatever value that has)... I am going to post the rumors have I've heard them.

Since this is announced I might as well say what the rumors I heard were...

I first started hearing about this in October 2022. Aimee Boorman and Gabby Douglas' name was attached. As it was described to me Boorman got idea while she was with the Dutch program after seeing the European professional leagues. There were a few other names mentioned who either were 2023 graduating NCAA gymnasts or who had graduated in 2022.

I asked the people telling me these rumors if they were aware that the most prominent of European leagues make up most of their routines using junior age gymnasts. I never went through and counted by I'd be willing to bet 80%+ of DTL Bundesliga routines in the first division are juniors. Anyway I was told that they were specifically only recruiting in a post NCAA age range which will make this .... fundamentally not like Top 12 or DTL or Series A really.

There were assertions that they already had financial backing but the people I was talking to didn't know who. That they'd already been recruiting among NCAA athletes. I asked about medical and other insurance and the rumors contained no details about that.

I was told they wanted to to launch before the build up to the 2024 Olympics so they could ride the publicity.

At the time I was told no one knew where Simone Biles fell in this (is she involved is she not involved and if there were thoughts on how a come back to elite from her that either did or did not involve this league would impact the publicity they expected to get).

[mohinimeansillusion]

“Geno Auriemma and Aimee Boorman shared the honour as National Olympic Coach of the Year, while Adam Bleakney was recognized as National Paralympic Coach of the Year. [...] Boorman, meanwhile, served as the Rio 2016 head coach for the women’s artistic gymnastics team and as personal coach to four-time Olympic champion Simone Biles. Under Boorman’s direction, the Rio 2016 squad became the first to defend its gold medal in the team competition and the first team to win back-to-back Olympic golds since Romania did so at Sydney 2000 and Athens 2004. [...] Boorman also guided Biles in becoming the most decorated American gymnast in history with 19 career World Championship and Olympic medals.At Rio 2016, Biles became the first American gymnast to win four gold medals at a single Games. [...]  Gymnastics' Kim Zmeskal-Burdette was also honoured as Developmental Coach of the Year, while Tom Miller was named Volunteer Coach of the Year for his speed skating work.”

[nanningbee]

CONCEPT:

Vanessa Atler replacing Aimee as Simone’s comeback coach. I would violently die so hard. Act now and Aimee and Vanessa will co-coach Simone for one low, low price. Sure this will probably never ever happen but don’t take a crap on my wild dreams please thanks.

[aurelia-dobre]

Imagine having the audacity to make a brand out of "positive coaching" and earn money and publicity through it when you have attended the Karolyi camp as a coach and never spoke up against that culture

[thehonoraryamerican]

I’m watching this video by Supergymmie and I absolutely love how, alongside the amazing gymnastics, she’s (and I’m assuming Supergymmie is a girl because I don’t actually know for sure who’s behind the channel) captured such sweet moments from the Rio Games. I’m going to go ahead and list them all (in case you can’t/don’t have time to watch the video), because it’s just so beautiful. Truly the spirit of the Olympic Games.

- Sophie Scheder crying when she won bronze on bars (the music here really hammers it home and made me tear up)

- Simone waving to the crowd after her final routine of her Olympic Games

- Sophie smiling when Aliya kissed her gold medal

- Amy grinning at Simone showing the camera that she’s won four gold medals

- Simone beaming as Sanne kisses her gold medal

- Tears from Sophie on the podium and Amy after the floor scores were finalised; really shows how much these unexpected medals meant to these girls.

- Catalina giving Sanne a long hug after the beam final

- Marine Boyer being a cutie and waving either at a camera or someone in the audience

- Aly and Simone hugging/waving to the crowd after the AA

- Houry Gebeshian kissing the beam

- Aly in tears after her AA floor exercise (still crying over this)

- Houry Gebeshian kissing the bars

- Simone and Aimee crying when Simone won the AA

On another note; for some reason, this video really shows how incredible Simone was over everyone else BUT, also lets me marvel at the freaking HEIGHT Aly gets on her double pike Arabian!!

[twoflipstwotwists]

Simone and Aimee at selection camp! (x)

[gymfanconfessions]

“Aimee Boorman did a good job pacing Simone, and I don't think she gets enough credit for that. She was more consistent last quad, and didnt need the difficulty as much as she does now. I think many other coaches would have selfishly pushed Simone over the edge to satisfy their ego. Aimee however always looked after Simone's interest. So kudos to her for that.”