Rick, you’re daughter seems to be an extraordinary young woman giving you much to be proud about. I hope her coach is aware of the caliber of person he has in her. Please convey my best wishes to her.
On another note, I will clarify what some of the others are referring to in so far as their lack of enthusiasm regarding Hannah’s results.
The school of thought, which originated in former USSR and eastern bloc Europe, that a youngsters results aren’t too much to get impressed by, or hopeful over, is rooted in the fact that the majority of the time the results are so far off the Olympic world bests that they don’t really matter.
This is because those who show some talent relative to their young peers and specialize too soon, along with over intensify/volumize their efforts, often fail to achieve the the same results at the level that counts with respect to Olympic ambitions.
This is the big distinction between what constituted the former Soviet bloc, and current China, and what we’re familiar with here in North America, and the west in general.
The Soviet era yielded East against West; athletes as a political weapon.
Immeasurable resources were directed towards creating multiple sport science subdivisions, coaching education, talent identification, research and development and so on specific to the biodynamic and bioenergetic structure of all Olympic disciplines.
The general attitude and pressure’s impressed upon the athletes was deeply rooted in their representing their Nation and in certain Eastern bloc countries, and certainly the current China, anything short of a gold medal was viewed as a disgraceful and shameful effort and subsequent reflection upon that nation.
Alternatively, over here, most of the population isn’t even aware of many Olympic disciplines and westerns tend to celebrate the fact that someone is even participating in the Olympics; whether or not they can actually compete at the world level coming in at a very distant second because they’ll be cheered on regardless.
The Soviets didn’t even stress true ‘competition’ until the athletes:
1st- showed a predisposition for high results in that particular discipline
2nd- were performing at the level that began to approach national/Olympic qualifying standards
This is why competition and specialization over there began at distinct ages which corresponded to success in different disciplines (ergo gymnastics specialization occurred the earliest due to the fact that young teens can win gold at the Olympic level whereas T&F events weren’t specialized until much later because the medalists are in their 20s)
Over here, ‘selection’ is as pedestrian as it gets. Morphobiomechanics isn’t even an available skill set to coaches at the developmental level and as a result SO MANY athletes are incorrectly selected for various sports; and then we glamorize youth competition and force early specialization to boot. It’s a disaster.
So well meaning yet uninformed parents and coaches alike are misguidedly, relative to Olympic potential, enthusiastic about youngsters who demonstrate excellence, not relative to the Olympic standard, but relative to their young peers.
So while the youths participation and results are emotionally gratifying to coaches and parents- they often mean nothing relative to their likelihood of standing on the podium at the Olympics in the future.
The issue is deeply rooted in psycho-social factors as well as the obvious physical preparatory ones.
It really comes down to the fact that Americans are wreckless, and in my view borderline criminal, with their efforts to glamorize youth competition and force early specialization.
I suspect that much of what you are seeing exchanged here in this thread is related to the fact that while Hannah’s results are exceptional relative to her peer group- there is not enough concrete evidence to support the notion that she may end up being an Olympic champion.
Those that are unimpressed by her current abilities are clearly of the mind that it doesn’t matter unless it strongly correlates to eventual world class results at the highest levels of competition.
My thoughts are that Hannah is an exceptional young talent and it would behoove her to stay the course in a fashion consistent with long term thinking.