Gymnastic news #22 - Tokyo or bust

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AxelAnnie

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I read that the women (from somewhere) are wearing full body suits rather than the scandalous leos.
 

Sylvia

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FiveRinger

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The Downies were safe on the team until the Gadirovas came along. Alice Kinsella is a lovely gymnast who has done nothing wrong, but she has long been rumoured to benefit from political support because her coach is the BBC commentator and her husband, who is the subject of multiple ongoing complaints from former gymnasts, heads the selection committee and is a national coach.
There has been some internal animosity against Becky Downie because she only competes two pieces and isn’t super consistent. Some feel Kinsella and Morgan “deserve” the spot more as they do AA. The snag is that Becky does represent GB’s best medal chance as even the Gadirovas will have to hope for other’s mistakes since they have low start values. Alice is a very unlikely medalist.

Christine Still, probably wanting to lobby for a Kinsella selection, dropped on the live euro broadcast that Alice had won a trial. The gymnasts are strictly banned from disclosing trial results (a whole other issue) so this didn’t go down well with other gymnasts on the team and their families.
Gymnasts were supplied with equipment to train on of the same type that will be used in Tokyo, but the trials will be held on gymnova apparatus, a type that Becky is known to struggle with.

Becky appears to feel this is a personal attack on her chances. A lot of people who know the dynamics of BG are not surprised as it fits with the ongoing concern regarding political support for Kinsella. Kinsella trains on gymnova equipment and since her UB routine is a safe one, equipment changes don’t effect her so much anyway.
This saddens me. We've questioned some of the American teams sent in the past, but it usually comes down to who can win the most medals. If Becky has the best shot, then she should go. It makes me mad when the trials are harder than the actual event. I hope Becky gets just mad enough to compete well at trials and eliminates any doubt anyone would have in sending her. Not to say that the other girls don't deserve it, but this is playing dirty unnecessarily. Having the trials on equipment that is different than what will be at the Games? That's totally counter-productive.
another disturbing book about the Karolyis:

My only question is that if it is true, why does Nadia continue to defend Bela and Marta? So many girls could have been saved from the abuse of the Karolyis had she spoken up. I've always wondered how it was that Nadia, Mary Lou, and Kim Z were the only ones who weren't "abused" by the Karolyis in some way. A large number of their gymnasts have spoken out already. At this point, it's not a secret.
 

ilovepaydays

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Shenanigans aren’t new to Olympic selection/qualification. For 2016, there were some Belarusian gymnasts who were trying to qualify for Rio and they got sidetracked by Nellie Kim getting citizenship for these two random Americans and one of them ended up qualifying for Rio for Belarus.

I don’t want this to get into too much of a political discussion, but I can understand why the gymnasts who were already on the Belarussian team were upset. Apparently, neither of the American girls had ever been to Belarus, speak the language, or even had family ties to the country. In the linked article, one of them even said, “I don’t really focus on what flag I’m representing. I just want honestly want to do what I do, do what I love, and see how far I can go.” I can see how that quote would have upset some people.
 

FiveRinger

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Shenanigans aren’t new to Olympic selection/qualification. For 2016, there were some Belarusian gymnasts who were trying to qualify for Rio and they got sidetracked by Nellie Kim getting citizenship for these two random Americans and one of them ended up qualifying for Rio for Belarus.

I don’t want this to get into too much of a political discussion, but I can understand why the gymnasts who were already on the Belarussian team were upset. Apparently, neither of the American girls had ever been to Belarus, speak the language, or even had family ties to the country. In the linked article, one of them even said, “I don’t really focus on what flag I’m representing. I just want honestly want to do what I do, do what I love, and see how far I can go.” I can see how that quote would have upset some people.
Yes, there's something wrong with that. But Nelli has never been much for rules...:D
 

millyskate

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Alice's club, Park Wrekin, has posted a clarifying statement and all the trials scores. These indicate that the only 2 gymnasts who haven't majorly struggled at trials are Jessica Gadirova and Alice Kinsella.

To put these very low scores in context, one must remember that gyms were closed in the UK including for elite athletes for much of the winter and people have been training in their back gardens. They've only had a handful of weeks to prepare.

They seem to confirm Ellie Downie is struggling with an injury as is Jennifer Gadirova, and Becky hasn't yet hit a routine at trials.
 

Rob

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Shows what a disaster FIG accomplished with the 4 person team and all the complex rules on who could qualify as a specialist. Britain could not take advantage of Becky’s scores in 2019 and still have her try to qualify as a specialist. With a 5 person team, there is room for a specialist and the 4 AA athletes.
 

millyskate

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Yes, it's a tough call. If Jessica Gadirova had finished top 3 at Euros in qualifying rather than in the final, I think she would have secured an extra spot for GB. It wouldn't really matter which gymnasts are "on the team" v competing as singles, because GB is just not in the running for a team medal. They might as well make up their team of 4 specialists, and doesn't even really matter if they don't have 3 gymnasts to go up on each piece.
The whole funding of the sport depends on winning medals here, and it's a lot of pressure on the potential medallists each time. Alice has won a beam gold at europeans but her SV is just not competitive on the world stage. On beam literally anything can happen (after all Pauline Schaefer won once with a fairly conservative routine!) but the likelyhood of 15 gymnasts failing to hit their routines and Alice hitting hers seems fairly remote.

At the same time, it is tough on gymnasts who've been training the AA and don't have the choice to do otherwise, and can't focus on building the difficulty on a single piece. Who knows there Alice would be on beam if she trained just 2 pieces.
 

Coco

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It's also shaping up to be a cluster in terms of selling the "team's" selection and performance to casual fans back home. Gymnastics at the Olympics is set up as a team event. The new format of only having 4 gymnasts really forces teams to take AAers, unless you want to risk missing team finals or being dead last in team finals. If you take specialists on your 4 gymnast team, you really do risk that, or risk having them go on a piece they don't regularly train and possibly injure themselves, just so that specialist can have a chance in finals. It will put an enormous strain on the specialist, imo, because the media will be like, we could have entered a team but specialist here wanted a shot at a medal.

Having the trials on equipment that won't be used in the Games is just bollocks. And I hope I used that word correctly in honor of our Brits.
 

VGThuy

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I never understood the 3-up 3-count thing either. I mean it did make things exciting in both Team Finals (and having all teams that qualified for team finals compete at the same time in that back-to-back format) and in team selection when the team had 6 members, but I still hate it. 6-5-4 seemed like a good compromise to have AAers and reserve two slots for specialists to me. Of course, I would love to go to 6-6-5 or even 7-6-5 again. I guess it helped keep things competitive due to many countries losing depth around the time it was implemented.
 

millyskate

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Yes - I do think that smaller teams has opened the way for medalists from far more countries and that’s amazing. Like for like, a routine from a top 3 team still gets a score 0.2 or 3 higher than a similar one from a small team gymnast so having fewer gymnasts to beat really has opened the door for other nations and developed international interest in the sport. The scoring disparity isn’t for the household names - for example Nina Derwael will score her worth - but for the newcomers. A strong Russian or US gymnast will score well from their first year on the team whereas small team gymnasts need to earn their dues. The idea of small teams is to allow small programs to be competitive, and it has really worked if you look at the distribution of medals these past 15 years.
I find the comps much more interesting now I know a French or GB gymnast can win a medal and will do fairly regularly - not to mention one from Belgium or Croatia or the Philippines. And when the big teams make mistakes, sometimes a smaller team even wins a team medal.


But four feels like a step too far, especially for the men who have 6 pieces to cover.
Countries regularly scrapped their best gymnasts in TF anyway to rest them. Now they might actively avoid the TF as they might see it as a waste of energy.

This year for the women Team China is looking amazing and team Russia is looking good too, so the rest of the world will not really be interested in trying I suspect. (Presuming the US has gold locked)
 

haribobo

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CHINA

As a reminder, 2019 World teams and results there-
MEN-
Deng Shudi-15th AA QR
Lin Chaopan- 5th Floor, 6th HB
Sun Wei- 5th AA, 6th PB
Xiao Ruoteng- Bronze on Floor, 4th AA, 4th PB
Zou Jingyuan- 4th Floor
Alt- You Hao

WOMEN-
Tang Xijing- Silver AA
Liu Tingting- Silver on Beam, 7th Bars, 6th AA QR
Li Shijia- Bronze on Beam, 9th AA
Chen Yile- 4th QR BB
Qi Qi- 5th Vault
-----------
Also reminder - 2020 Nationals
Women Medalists

AA
Liu Tingting, Wei Xiaoyuan, Qi Qi

VAULT
Qi Qi, Yu Linmin, Liu Jinru

BARS
Fan Yilin, Cheng Shiyi, Liu Tingting

BEAM
Guan Chenchen, Wei Xiaoyuan, Liu Tingting

FLOOR
Qi Qi, Wu Ran, Lu Yufei

Men Medalists
AA
Sun Wei, Xiao Ruoteng, Deng Shudi

FL
Deng Shudi, Wang Haoran, Zhou Caisong

PH
Zou Jingyuan, Xiao Ruoteng, Wang Junwen

RI
Liu Yang, Lan Xingyu, You Hao

VT
Huang Mingqi, Qu Ruiyang, Chen Yilu

PB
Wu Xiaoming, Zou Jingyuan, You Hao

HB
Ji Lianshen, Lin Chaopan, Xiang Bagenqiu
--------
OK, on to current day-

Chinese Nationals 2021
Videos, photos, and results here-

Qualifying - Women - Top 3 in each event

FLOOR QR
Ou Yushan 14.133
Lu Yufei 13.933
Zhang Jin 13.766

BEAM QR
Li Shijia 15.4
Sun Xinyi 15.2
Zhang Jin 14.9

BARS QR
Fan Yilin 14.966
Lu Yufei 14.8
Li Shijia 14.766
Wei Xiaoyuan 14.766

VAULT QR
Liu Jinru 14.333
Yu Linmin 14.183
Deng Yalan 14.166

AA QR
Li Shijia 57.698
Lu Yufei 56.932
Zhang Jin 56.598

MEN

HIGH BAR QR
Lin Chaopan 14.866
Zhang Boheng 14.466
Hu Xuwei 14.466
Deng Shudi 14.466

PBARS QR
Zou Jingyuan 16.133
Du Yixin 15.2
You Hao 15.166

FLOOR QR
Xiao Ruoteng 14.7
Zhang Boheng 14.666
Deng Shudi 14.566

POMMEL HORSE QR
Weng Hao 14.833
Lu Chongcan 14.533
Xiao Ruoteng 14.433

RINGS QR
Liu Yang 15.166
Wu Jianfei 15.000
Lan Xingyu 15.000

VAULT QR
Huang Mingqi 14.916
Liu Yang 14.483
Xiang Xudong 14.450

AA QR
Zhang Boheng 87.397
Xiao Ruoteng 87.366
Deng Shudi 84.93


There will be 2 more qualifying events before Olympics
 
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millyskate

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@Karina1974 I haven’t clicked on your link but I’m not sure inciting others to view a person’s clothing under the lens “look what this person is wearing it’s inappropriate “ is ever helpful or necessary - or indeed using the word “disgusting “ to describe a female young athlete - is healthy or right.
 

Karina1974

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@Karina1974 I haven’t clicked on your link but I’m not sure inciting others to view a person’s clothing under the lens “look what this person is wearing it’s inappropriate “ is ever helpful or necessary - or indeed using the word “disgusting “ to describe a female young athlete - is healthy or right.

She's about an inch away from her leotard turning into a frontal g-string. I hope she didn't have a reverse Hecht in her bar routine, or half the audience would have been getting a free show.

Wearing a leotard in a public competitive event that is small enough that the crotch is in danger of splitting the woman's labia is most certainly disgusting.
 

haribobo

Why is summer so hot omg
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2021 CHINESE Nationals FINAL AA SCORES (score =QR+FINAL)
May 6-7, 2021

WOMEN
GOLD Lu Yufei 113.6
SILVER Zhang Jin 112.5
BRONZE Li Shijia 112.5 (2019 World team)

Tang Xijing 112.0 (2019 World team)
He Licheng 110.3
Ou Yushan 110.1
Wei Xiaoyuan 109.3 (2nd AA in 2020)
Luo Rui 109.3
Guan Chenchen 109.2
Qiu Qiyuan 108.2

Others-
Qi Qi- 12th (3rd AA in 2020, 2019 World team)
Liu Tingting- did only UB (1st AA in 2020, 2019 World team)
Chen Yile- did all but UB (2019 World team)
Shang Chunsong-18th (2016 Olympic team)

MEN
GOLD Xiao Ruoteng 174.0 (2019 World team, 2nd AA in 2020)
SILVER Zhang Boheng 173.3
BRONZE Lin Chaopan 171.2 (2019 World team)

Sun Wei 170.4 (2019 World team, 1st AA in 2020)
Zou Jingyuan 170.4 (2019 World team)
Deng Shudi 168.5 (2019 World team, 3rd AA in 2020)
Lan Xingyu 166.5
Yin Dehang 165.3
 

centerstage01

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Looks a lot better than some of the skankier photos I've seen of Katelyn Ohashi's leos.

What the flipping hell was she thinking????? This is disgusting:
This isn't Ohashi's fault. Blame UCLA and whoever supplies their leotards for making them too small. Universities need to put their collective feet down to the NCAA and tell them to give their athletes uniforms that actually fit.
 

Karen-W

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This isn't Ohashi's fault. Blame UCLA and whoever supplies their leotards for making them too small. Universities need to put their collective feet down to the NCAA and tell them to give their athletes uniforms that actually fit.
I thought each university handled it's own uniform needs for its athletes and sign contracts with athletic gear manufacturers (ie UO is well-known for its Nike ties, less well-known is that Oregon State also works with Nike, and some colleges have contracts with Under Armour or Adidas, etc).
 

millyskate

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What a horribly sad thing to happen, with such cruel timing too. The Downies have always been such a close family.
 

4rkidz

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This isn't Ohashi's fault. Blame UCLA and whoever supplies their leotards for making them too small. Universities need to put their collective feet down to the NCAA and tell them to give their athletes uniforms that actually fit.
Same with beach volleyball, the women complain as uniforms are purposely provided too small.
 

skatfan

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Looks a lot better than some of the skankier photos I've seen of Katelyn Ohashi's leos.

What the flipping hell was she thinking????? This is disgusting:

Huh? I see someone in a team Leotard that isn’t fitting great - but not the awful term you used. If one looks at the photos on that page, she usually looked fine. It’s helpful to remember that most of these photos are of her in team leotards - and she has a big caboose.
 
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