South American Games 2018

[thiago_simoes 1,425]

Some comments and trivia about gymnastics.

 

With the medal earned after the group all-around event, Argentina is the only nation in South America to have earned at least one medal in all of the events in gymnastics in the history of the South American Games. This includes trampoline, which was first competed this edition, and Argentina won two medals here. Amazing feat.

 

Also, Argentina had a ridiculous increase in medals in gymnastics. For example, Argentina got zero medals in women's artistic last edition, and now they earned a medal in every event, including a gold medal, and against the A team from Brazil. Also an amazing feat.

 

This was the most diverse edition ever when it comes to medalists in rhythmic gymnastics. Five nations (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Venezuela) earned medals.

 

This edition marks the debut of trampoline, so the Olympic program in gymnastics was fully replicated here (and expanded with six extra events in rhythmic gymnastics). In the future, I hope for three more events: team event in rhythmic gymnastics and men's and women's synchronized trampoline. Also, I don't understand why Aerobic Gymnastics has never been competed, since it is a very important discipline in South America. 

 

Scores throughout the different events were very weird. They were a little lower than they were supposed to be in artistic gymnastics and ridiculously low in rhythmic gymnastics. Some routines in rhythmics would have gotten up to 3 or 4 more points in international competition, I suspect. This is insane.

 

Peru must be somewhat disappointed with the results. They have invested a lot of money in gymnastics, and I thought they had a medal in the bag on men's floor, and a gold medal guaranteed on men's vault. In the end, no medal on floor and just a bronze medal on vault, behind Brazil and Uruguay. Speaking of which, Uruguay got their first medal ever at the South American Games in gymnastics. I knew they had enough potential for a medal, but I also knew it would be pretty hard to actually get one. Turns out it wasn't so much. Great achievement for the nation.

 

Finally, I'm happy that my predictions for Brazil (15 gold medals and 25 medals overall) were greatly surpassed (19 gold medals and 33 medals overall), but I'm also kind of sad because I thought we would have had a lot more competition for the gold medals. It's not so nice when one single country earns most of the titles in a competition, so I would have liked a little more diversity. But I hope this makes the other nations train hard to beat our gymnasts. It's great for South America to have as much competition as possible.

 

Edited June 7, 2018 by thiago_simoes

[vinipereira 3,421]

  On 6/7/2018 at 3:00 AM, thiago_simoes said:

We're just one gold medal behind Colombia, which is quite surprising considering more than half of our athletes are either newcomers or athletes I had never heard about in my life.

It's also nice to see Brazilian athletes getting medals in sports in which we're usually pretty bad, such as Diving and especially Field Hockey. 

Expand  

 

That bronze in Field Hockey made me more happy than most medals Brazil won here.

 

[konig 1,509]

Well, 8-0 the final of the women field hockey..........the real final was with Chile in semifinals.

[dcro 10,210]

Randomly tuning in just to see commentators getting crazy over Bolivia winning a medal in women's 4x100m relay. A medal for Bolivia in this event, how? Did everyone else got disqualified?

[thiago_simoes 1,425]

  On 6/7/2018 at 6:38 PM, vinipereira said:

 

That bronze in Field Hockey made me more happy than most medals Brazil won here.

 

Expand  

 

Yes! I'm still looking for a video of the match (especially the penalty shoot out), because I'm sure it was a blast to watch.

And the gold medal in Diving after all the drama at the Olympics really made my day. I was critical of Ingrid and even called for her to quit the team after that sex scandal (she can have sex with whoever she wants, but locking her teammate out at the Olympic village was really a dumb thing to do), but what a way for her to redeem herself.

 

Edited June 7, 2018 by thiago_simoes

[konig 1,509]

  On 6/7/2018 at 9:08 PM, dcro said:

Randomly tuning in just to see commentators getting crazy over Bolivia winning a medal in women's 4x100m relay. A medal for Bolivia in this event, how? Did everyone else got disqualified?

Expand  

Only 3  countrys participating: Venezuela, Bolivia and Peru........they have a SURE medal there.

[vinipereira 3,421]

Brazil managed to win a bronze medal in the 4x100m men's relay with a "improvised" team that included an athlete from the 400m event and another from decathlon.

 

We would also participate in the 4x100m women's relay with a long jumper, but I guess they didn't try. I think only 3 nations have participated and that's a little ridiculous?

 

[thiago_simoes 1,425]

  On 6/7/2018 at 9:42 PM, vinipereira said:

I think only 3 nations have participated and that's a little ridiculous?

 

Expand  

 

I totally agree. If you can't get five countries to participate in any event, cancel the event.

A similar thing occurred at the Asian Trampoline Championships this year. Only three athletes competed on the women's individual trampoline event: two from India and one from the Philippines. The two Indian trampolinists are so bad that even the Bolivian trampolinists at the SAG were better than them. And given the final score, the trampolinist from the Phillipines managed to execute one skill out of ten, fell off, and got a bronze medal. Three gymnasts with a ridiculously low level, maybe the lowest I've ever seen in international competition, got continental medals because no one else wanted to participate. Then, why not just cancel the whole thing?

 

Edited June 7, 2018 by thiago_simoes

[thiago_simoes 1,425]

Colombian players seem to be angry and play dirty on women's volleyball. One of the players just smashed the ball against the face of the Argentinian player and she never apologized. Just like their men's football squad, I can't ever cheer for them.

[konig 1,509]

Tomorrow for the miracle of the third position in the medal count: Pelota Vasca can give 3 golds tomorrow and we need at least one more to have the same of Venezuela, like our athletes loves the silver medals, Argentina will be ahead only thinking in four golds.......another athletes will obtein the silver.