A/N: Bit of mixed media here!

Article by Lauren Hopkins

It wasn't the day anyone expected, especially not after the debut of the "we got this" T-shirts. But the competition wasn't about messing up. It was about getting redemption.

Of the 20 gymnasts who competed, most had falls or big mistakes. But most who made those mistakes came back with brilliant performances. Fighting back from mistakes is a big part of competing in gymnastics, and frankly, it's something every gymnast needs to prove at some point. Why not do it at nationals? How you come back from a disaster performance or a fluke fall says a lot about a gymnast as a competitor. Can you put it behind you and kick butt? Or do you get stuck in the moment and continue the drama?

Let's start with Simone Biles. The back-to-back world champion leads after day one by over a point with a score of 61.1 after a relatively weak beam set and a shocking fall on floor. Beginning on beam, the curse of the wolf turn struck. Though she normally has one of the only solid wolf turns in the U.S., a loss of control on her 2.5 spin led to a couple of small wobbles and a hop on the dismount, and she looked pissed when she left the podium. She's not used to messing up, so when it happens, it's obviously going to set her a little on edge.

But none of that came through on floor. At first. She looked back and ready to kill it, nailing her first three passes, including a perfect double double. And then she crashed the tucked full-in, her final pass. It wasn't a bad fall, probably just a miscalculation. But it was still shocking because Biles doesn't fall on floor. She's human, it happens to everyone, but floor has been so easy for Simone always, it was just jarring to see it happen (though in the end it wouldn't even really matter, as her score of 14.9 would be a dream score for anyone else).

Vault was then the litmus test for her ability to come back from disappointment and she passed with absolute flying colors. Sticking her beautiful and powerful Amanar, Biles managed a 16.25, earning a 9.85 execution score from the judges, easily the highest score of this quad. She also had the one-tenth stick bonus added to her d-score but it didn't even matter. She was so far ahead, and more importantly, used the disappointment and frustration from falling on floor to light a fire for vault, where she was able to hit one of the best Amanars of all time. She capped off her night with a fabulous bars set, leaving us wondering what on earth was going on in the first two rotations.

Aly Raisman had a similar flub on her bhs layout series, which she connects to a split jump. With a low landing on the layout, she continued launching up into the jump but couldn't get it under control and had to take the fall. "I can't remember the last time I fell on beam in competition," she said after. "I went through the rest of the routine not thinking about anything because I didn't want to remember what had just happened."

But Raisman moved to floor and hit the best routine of her comeback, and possibly even one of the best of her career. She hit her huge opening 1.5 through to double arabian to front layout, a Dos Santos to a stag, a double layout, and her coolest upgrade, a double pike to split jump half, which actually looks like a mistake at first but is a super cool upgrade and really makes her stand out. Her 15.550 was definitely deserved, and watching her on this event with the crowd clapping along is absolutely incredible. It feels like 2012 all over again.

On vault, she went for the Amanar and had a step out and off the mat, and then she went on to hit a relatively clean bar routine, earning a 14.15, which is pretty much a typical Aly bars score. Her feet were pointed on her Tkatchev, which was awesome, and it's awesome that she's actually pretty consistent there, especially when people assumed she wouldn't bother with bars in her comeback.

Then we had Jennifer Jareau. She started out on beam, and after an absolutely incredible set, looked poised to have a fantastic night. And that she did, moving to floor where she finally put her double double successfully to her feet. Her floor routine was so good in fact, that I started wondering if she might give Simone a little run for her money this year. She had her successful double double, followed by a double layout, which was a near stick, followed by a double Arabian tucked, and capped off with a full-in. It's quite rare these days to have girls who close off with a pass harder than a double pike, and I think Simone and JJ are the only two from the US to currently be doing so.

From floor, she moved to vault, where she put her Amanar, that had also been giving her trouble, right to her feet. Considering she sat this vault at Jesolo a few months ago, it was quite impressive. Then she performed her second vault (I'm still in shock, Jennifer Jareau, a second vault, really?), a Lopez, which was actually very clean and well executed.

Then came bars. Oh boy.

After such a stellar day already, it seemed as though we all believed bars would be no different. But we were very very wrong.

The first half of the routine was actually fantastic, but it was a near miss on her catch on her piked Tkatchev that set the tone. Immediately following, she went in for her straddled Tkatchev... and was so close on her catch that she actually smashed her face into the bar, before hitting the mat. There was blood everywhere and people were yelling, but surprisingly, JJ was actually ok. A little bruised, but largely ok, and she showed up at the media event following the meet sporting an impressive bruise across the middle of her face, but wearing a smile nonetheless...

The second night of Nationals had gone much better than the first. Simone had, as expected, clinched her third straight all-around title, as well as taking the vault title as well. Floor would have also been hers for the taking, had it not been for the fall on day one. As it turned out, both Aly and JJ had scored higher than her over the two days of competition, and so Simone had had to settle for bronze.

Dealing with a little residual pain, JJ had matched her three great performances from night one with four great performances on night two. Thought to be a shoo-in for all-around silver, her unfinished bars routine and subsequent low score from the first night meant she'd had a lot of ground to make up, and as it so happened, she'd only just scraped in for the bronze, with Maggie Nichols ahead of her for the silver. However, she had added her sixth straight national beam title to her glowing resume, as well as silver medals on vault and floor.

But the best part for her was that she had been named to the national team and earned an automatic berth to the selection camp for Worlds in a few week's time.

Now, it was just time to get everything cleaned up and consistent for Worlds.