thiago_simoes

I'm craving some roasted turkey now! Congratulations, Italy!

Yes! Italy! Almost there!

Turkey 25–13 Italy. Unbelievable. Both Brazilians and Italians seem to be extremely tired from the previous match. This whole thing was set up for Turkey to win, at this point.

The Italian girls have to win! I will never get over Turkey with a world title for Vargas and Karakurt if this were to happen. I don't even want to THINK this might ever happen.

I can't believe how badly the Brazilians played after the 13-13 tie in the 5th set. Of course Italy was the favorite to win, and deservedly so, but the Brazilians had the no emotional control in the last two points and the Italians were as cold blooded as one can be. Congratulations. Well deserved victory for Italy.

It's been a while since I last posted, but here I am once again. I was diagnosed with COVID (for the very first time) the day before the event began, so I was scared I would not be able to attend, but I knew I had to go. I attended from Friday to Sunday, I wore a mask all the time and I had a very hard time with the lack of air conditioning during the ribbon routines, but otherwise it was okay. The Brazilian fans were very supportive of Nikolova, Raffaeli, Varfolomeev and Onofriichuk. I did not hear anyone booing these gymnasts and they all mentioned they had a great time. Of course, online fans are a completely different group of people altogether and I'm aware some of them had horrible things to say about Ukraine, and I apologize for this unacceptable behavior. I do not support this behavior in any way and I do not think anyone has the right to attack other countries just because things didn't go their way. Anyone who has read anything I posted here in the last 10 years know that my biggest dream was a medal of any kind for Brazil at the World Championships or the Olympic Games and I'm overjoyed I was able to witness this happening right in front of my eyes. And not only once, but twice. Hopefully this marks a new era in Brazilian rhythmic gymnastics. I'm excited for the future but whatever it is that might happen, I'm very proud of our girls and I can't state how happy I am that my dream came true. The audience was very supportive. The only time I heard people booing was when Ukraine went ahead of Brazil in the balls and hoops final, but this was quickly dismissed... Still, totally unacceptable. And the boos were directed towards the judges, not the gymnasts. I follow this sport quite closely, and right before Ukraine started the routine, I knew they would challenge for the gold medal, so it was not a surprise. I knew it would be a four-way battle between China, Brazil, Spain and Ukraine, and one of these countries would not win a medal. But most people did not know much about the sport and, of course, this caused some inconveniences. I'm very ashamed that Movimento Verde e Amarelo, a group of Brazilian supporters, were allowed to bring drums and trumpets to the stands. I can't stand them and they do not represent me or anyone who is a serious fan of rhythmic gymnastics. Anyway, I hope everybody who came here had a good time. I'm sure Germany will host an even better event next year and hopefully Brazil will still be able to challenge for more medals. Time will tell. But let me not get too greedy. I'm already very happy with the way things are.

It's actually feasible, but of course that would be demanding and I don't think anyone would seriously consider setting up the stage for this when only one set of medals is awarded. However, not allowing gymnasts to compete on the apparatus they want all the way is unfair and it kind of makes the whole thing seem pointless (I mean, even more pointless than it already is).

I don’t get why gymnasts are required to compete on specific apparatuses. Why not let them perform on all of them during qualification, then simply total their top three scores? That would give a fair snapshot of their strengths. In the elimination rounds, let each gymnast choose which apparatus to perform on, just once per apparatus. Simple, strategic, and far less complicated.

I'm very late to the party, but I have to say that The Seed of the Sacred Fig is a great movie. I love Iranian movies and this is definitely in my top 5 (along with A Separation, The Salesman, Holy Spider and About Elly).

Tough luck for Argentina. They were amazing but Brazil had the best goalkeeper.

Yes, but definitely not "a lot of". Anyway, the rules are completely broken for allowing 7 girls from one single country to qualify for a final. If they keep doing this, this sport will become unwatchable.

Every single Olympic medalist from 2020 and 2024 competed in this final.

It looks like Sabrina Voinea challenged Barbosu's medal at the Swiss Federal Court. Here we go again...

The thing is: FIG did nothing. The CAS is the entity responsible for changing the results and FIG merely had to accept their sheer incompetence being exposed. FIG was forced to change the results, and pushing for another change is just not wise at this point. There's nothing that can be done about Voinea's score since her coach did not challenge it when she had the opportunity after the score was displayed. Even the CAS final report released today mentioned this. If FIG had a choice, you can bet they would never have changed the results.

So, it looks like the final appeal was denied and the US cannot challenge the results anymore. Now, Romanian officials, instead of keeping their mouths shut, are trying to push for a 3-way-tie which would give Chiles a bronze medal and, conveniently, would give Voinea a medal too. Let's be honest: Romania is very lucky to have this medal. I've never seen the FIG being held accountable for their own mistakes, so this is a big victory for Romania. Now, it's time to move on instead of trying to change the final result once again.