Artistic Gymnastics at the Pan American Games 2019

[mrv86 3,240]

Another medal for Saraiva @thiago_simoes

 

And also another one for Mexico in parallel bars 

[mrv86 3,240]

And it's gold 

[vinipereira 3,460]

4 / 4 / 3 to top the medal table with our best performance ever in this sport.

 

Sadly, the women's team only managed to win those 3 bronzes, but that was expected after the many problems prior to competition.

 

[thiago_simoes 1,441]

Moors' gold on floor made history... for Brazil. 

I never thought I would see this in my life. I'm in shock!
 

 

[intoronto 6,420]

Ellie Black won a medal in every event, except the floor exercise in which she finished fourth. Wow.

[mrv86 3,240]

1 hour ago, intoronto said:

Ellie Black won a medal in every event, except the floor exercise in which she finished fourth. Wow.

 

I was hoping she could medal in all events, but she fell short by one, just like in Toronto. Still she may now be the best female gymnast of the Games history: 5 golds, 3 silvers and two bronze medals. Nice record.

[orangeman 2,285]

37 minutes ago, mrv86 said:

 

I was hoping she could medal in all events, but she fell short by one, just like in Toronto. Still she may now be the best female gymnast of the Games history: 5 golds, 3 silvers and two bronze medals. Nice record.

 

I know it'll be a tough job, but I hope her success carries on to Tokyo next year.  But let's first see what happens in Stuttgart.  

[mrv86 3,240]

Just now, orangeman said:

 

I know it'll be a tough job, but I hope her success carries on to Tokyo next year.  But let's first see what happens in Stuttgart.  

 

I hope so too... she deserves some Olympic glory.

[thiago_simoes 1,441]

This will be a long post. I'll write my impressions about the whole competition, but instead of commenting about every event, I'll comment about each country.

First, Canada. Their men's team is much, much improved from previous years and there's even a chance to qualify a full team for the 2020 Olympics if they tweak their performances here and there. I'm very impressed! Paterson did a very good job in the all-around competition, and Couroyer was mostly solid, but tiny mistakes cost him three individual medals. The women's team managed to perform well without Padurariu, and even with a number of mistakes they earned silver. Black was rock solid through most of the competition, Olsen is not on the level I expected her to be, and Moors performed the best routine in her life in the event finals.

The US decided to send a very inexperienced men's team to compete at the Pan Ams, and boy, did it show. No gold medals, "only" four medals out of 15 chances for a medal... I know they are still very young, but hopefully the US will learn and take this competition seriously next time. The women's team was the cream of the crop, except for Simone Biles, and while still extremely successful as a team, individual performances were less than optimal for what was expected. Not even close to a clean sweep of the medals, and both Wong and Hurd were extremely disappointing. McCusker was also not on the level everybody expected from her.

Mexico earned two surprising gold medals, and I guess no one was really expecting that. Good performances from de Luna and Núñez, but Corral is still recovering and rebuilding confidence. Still, I only expected a bronze medal for Mexico on rings, on a lucky day, but they greatly surpassed my expectations. The women's team was completely depleted of their biggest stars, and it shows.

 

Cuba was a big surprise. All of the girls from the women's team seem not to be healthy. I'm worried about the training conditions there. Still, Ferrera won a medal and I'm really happy with that because she has suffered a lot with injuries, so it's nice to have a medal now. Two extra bronze medals in men's events were totally unexpected, but this only shows that the potential is there, though, again, I'm very worried about the training conditions there.

I was not really surprised with a gold medal for Dominican Republic. I wrote about this possibility a number of times before, actually. The problem is that Nin Reyes misses his vaults more than he hits them, so I confess I was worried for a moment. Still, nothing to worry about. Great result form him. Guatemala had great performances with Vega and Palacios, and it's great for Vega to add another medal to his tally. Argentina finally earned a medal after 20 years, and I'm delighted with Molinari. Dominici was very impressive too, and in four years she will be ready to challenge for a medal, I'm sure. Magistrati is very, very, very talented, but she was not able to show it here completely. Once again, I hope that in four years she is ready to show it. Colombia earned two surprising bronze medals and this is probably more than they had hoped for.

Jamaica was impressive with Francis and Beckford, but since they competed for Great Britain before switching nationalities, their somewhat decent performances were to be expected. Costa Rica was a quiet achiever, qualifying gymnasts for both men's and women's all around finals. I'm very impressed with the female gymnast from El Salvador. She has a lot of potential! Bolivia was the biggest disappointment of the whole competition, especially because both girls are talented but both had very poor performances here. Peru did well to qualify for a number of finals. Their best chance was on vault, but Aguero made a mistake in qualifications and he must have been very disappointed. On pommel horse, I still can't believe Moreto fell twice and lost an "easy" medal for him. Lucky to qualify for the finals, very unlucky not to hit when it counted the most.

 

Last but not least, Brazil. I didn't expect much from the men's team, but in the end we got four gold medals. Unbelievable! And both Zanetti and Souza lost "easy" gold medals for them thanks to silly mistakes, but overall the experience was fantastic and I hope this means a new era for Brazilian gymnastics has finally arrived. Our women's team did well considering we lost Rebeca and Jade before the competition even started. Saraiva must be happy with three medals, but she lost other opportunities and overall I think she has lost steam compared to her almost impeccable form from 2016. Still, I have no words to express how happy I am with the number of medals achieved this year. This will go down in history as a very successful year and this is what matters.

 

Rhythmic gymnastics events begin in a few days. The US is expected to dominate individual events, and Mexico group events. I'm very excited and I hope everybody performs to the best of their abilities!

[intoronto 6,420]

Ellie Black will be the closing ceremony flagbearer for

Edited August 11, 2019 by intoronto