As we get closer and closer to the Olympics, NBC released the first three episodes of its series “Golden: The Journey of USA’s Elite Gymnasts” on its new streaming service, Peacock. Unlike most of the NBC gymnastics pieces from over the years, these episodes take a more serious angle. In short, the episodes are far from “The Ranch” documentary from 2016.
Join us as we recap each episode. If you’d like to watch along, the episodes are available here with a free Peacock account.
In episode three, we start with clips of young gymnasts training. Katelyn Ohashi gives good insight into how as a kid, gymnastics is fun, but once you switch to elite, it can become grueling and painful. There’s a pretty gruesome clip of some bloody, chalky fingers in there, too.
Laurie and Jenny are trying to figure out if they’re choosing the National Team at the National Team Camp. We start hearing about what “camp” is and why it’s important. Right now, they’re 11 days from it.
MyKayla Skinner and her husband are talking about how she’s allowed to take two days off most weeks. MyKayla mentions that under Martha, she never would have been allowed a day off. Ah, so here’s where we start talking about the Karolyis.
We get clips from that old Channel 13 Eyewitness News story of the Ranch, which I’ve probably seen on YouTube at least 15 times. Katelyn and MyKayla talk about how terrible camp was under Martha. To drive home the point, Katelyn mentions how she used to try to find ways to get injured before camp so she wouldn’t have to go.
We’ve all seen this at least five times, right?
Like any stressed-out teen, Konnor is coping with the aftermath of Winter Cup by rearranging/redecorating her room. I’ve never felt more seen.
Despite Konnor’s performance at Winter Cup, she is feeling “stressed, annoyed, mad, sad—anything but happy really.” She’s stressed about having to make National Team.
Here is Konnor, representing every teen girl ever.
Norah Flatley is with Laurie, and Laurie said when they first made the National Team they were like refrigerators because they were “just ice.” I appreciate that metaphor, and man did I miss this friendship.
Ice is a pretty good way to describe juniors. No emotions, cold and melts (or burns out) pretty fast.
Morgan’s elbow stopped straightening or bending, so she’ll need surgery on it again. Here, we get a little more Morgan history. She touches on what it was like being adopted and not knowing anything about her birth family. Slava talks about what she was like as a young gymnast and her winning the 2016 world championships. She’s candid about the fact that she doesn’t know who she is without gymnastics, even asking Siri: “Who is Morgan Hurd?” Siri responds with a list of Morgan’s gymnastics accomplishments.
We get some of MyKayla’s history in gymnastics. They focus on how in 2016 she placed fourth, but still didn’t make the team. Listen, I’m sure it’s terrible to place fourth and be an alternate, but I still stand by the fact that having Gabby Douglas (and Madison Kocian) on the team made sense mathematically. MyKayla does apologize for retweeting the Tweet with herself Photoshopped over Gabby. They talk more about her Utah career as well.
Even ignoring the moral or ethical implications of MyKayla retweeting this, the photoshopping here is just bad.
As Suni Facetimes Morgan, we hear that Morgan won’t be able to go to camp. Suni keeps telling Morgan to stop training completely because she keeps injuring herself in the same place, which is a pretty good point. They also fight about what leotards Suni should wear. We also get a little sneaky bit of info about Morgan’s college plans—at least at this point in the year—when she tells Suni that whether or not she goes to college depends on if she makes the Olympic team.
Now we’re at National Team Camp. The pressure of the camp seems to be getting to the athletes, and many of them seem to have trouble landing or catching skills. Tom mentions that “we’re going to find out who’s doing the work at home.” I don’t really think that’s fair because gyms in the Northeast were closed a lot longer than others, but I’ll ignore it.
Morgan is putting together a sign for a Stop Asian Hate rally. She talks about the struggle of representing a country that has so much conflict. She’s a little scared of backlash from USAG if she goes to these rallies, but doesn’t think it should be an issue. She’s also a few weeks post-op and should be able to straighten her arm next week.
Camp seems to be going better today, but Konnor is still struggling with endurance on bars.
Morgan’s going to New York City for the rally. Four years ago, I could never imagine a documentary focusing on what a gymnasts does outside of training, let alone a camera following them all the way to New York City for a rally about racism and Asian rights.
It’s the last day of camp, and they’re naming the National Team. MyKayla and Suni both make the team, but Konnor and Laurie don’t; however, they still get invited to the May camp.
READ THIS NEXT: “Golden” Episode 2 Recap
Article by Katie Simons
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