thiago_simoes

Also worth noting is that a Filipino won a medal on vault. This is only the second ever medal for the Philippines, after a silver medal also on vault that goes way back to 2005.

Yes. A male gymnast finished fourth on Rings, which is a fantastic result given the level of the competition.

Aruna Budda Reddy won India's first ever medal at the Artistic Gymnastics World Cup circuit. Nice to see India's program reaching new heights after Dipa Karmakar's astounding success.

I've always been suspicious of Biles' Therapeutic Use Exemption, to be honest, but this is more of a pet peeve than anything. Still, I'm not a fan of hers. My heart goes out to her after the horrific situation she has been through, but this doesn't make me a fan of her style and her performances. But I digress. What really bothers me is how overscored American gymnastics are, to the point I simply don't want to watch big competitions anymore because the results never seem fair. Biles is just one of them.

This has been going on for some time now, but I believe it has not been talked about here, and it deserves its own thread so all the members can see how disgusting everything related to the subject is. Former USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar has been accused by 150 girls, over two dozen of them female gymnasts -- including four Olympic champions -- of sexually abusing them. Even when these girls were as young as 6 years old. The thing is: USA Gymnastics knew about this and did nothing. They offered former Olympic champion McKayla Maroney 1 million dollars in exchange for her silence. But now other girls have spoken. The International Gymnastics Federation and the International Olympic Committee remain silent on this subject. Statement by Olympic champion Aly Raisman about USA Gymnastics: https://www.vogue.com/article/aly-raisman-larry-nassar-usa-gymnastics-doesnt-care-about-abuse

Well, you somewhat contradicted your own criticism in the previous sentence.

What? Judo, Taekwondo and Karate are sports originated in Asia. Badminton and Table Tennis are a lot more popular in Asia. Long distance running in Athletics is all about African nations, and sprint running is all about the Caribbean. Then we have Rugby, which was won by a small nation from Oceania in 2016. Beach Volleyball and Skateboarding are pretty much dominated by the US and Brazil. It's time for you to realize that there are clear attempts for global integration at the Summer Olympics, but zero effort when it comes to the Winter Olympics.

Talk about misinformation (or just being a troll). The only countries in South America where you can seriously practice snow sports are Argentina and Chile. So, tropical nations should send their athletes to other countries because an event with global aspirations do not afford to contemplate realistic weather conditions all around the planet? This is not a matter about being evil, as much as it is about you being totally ignorant of the facts.

I wonder if it is the maintenance cost that scares some nations away from the idea of building an ice rink or a bunch of curling sheets, for example. But I agree that ice sports are, in theory, a lot easier to develop in tropical nations. Snow sports, on the other hand, remain impossible to perfect in some nations. I mean, it's not impossible for an ice rink to be built in, say, Brazil, but we just can't buy the Everest and ask for it to be delivered to Rio de Janeiro, you know.

1) As I said before, I would prefer the Winter Olympics never to happen, so I guess it's pretty clear I don't watch it. Tried my best to like it, but I just can't bring myself to. 2) Again, like I said before, the Winter Olympics are nothing but a lie, in my opinion. I'm sure a bunch of narrow-minded and delusional people organize the Winter Olympics, so it's not really surprising that the event is mostly ignored by half of the planet, even though it still seeks for integration (we all know it is a lie, but this is how things are branded).

Oh. My. God. This only proves my point: like I said before, it is the Olympic Games for the Northern hemisphere with Australia and New Zealand as glorified guests. In fact, the very first edition of the Winter Olympics in 1924 had no nations from Asia, Oceania, Africa and South America. Now, the Olympic movement aims for integration of all nations (not only nations from Europe). Considering this very important piece of information, the whole idea of winter sports being contested as part of the Olympic Games is a huge fallacy, in my opinion. The Olympic Games are supposed to integrate the whole globe, and the Winter Olympics look like a big, well-sustained and shameless lie, if you ask me. How can you seriously consider integration when 1 billion people from Africa, for example, are excluded when it comes to the Winter Olympics, for very obvious reasons? Not to mention large chunks of South America, Asia and Oceania. In my opinion, in order to keep things interesting for countries all around the globe, we need new ways to expand the program and give fair chances to other nations. As it is, you can call the event "international festival" or whatever you want, but when it comes to providing integration -- a very important point of the whole idea behind the Olympic Games -- it falls short. Why call it Olympics, then?

Sure, I know. Winter time in Rio is like summer time in a number of countries. Maybe some indoor sport, I guess? I know this sounds weird, maybe ridiculous, but take handball or volleyball for example: does it really matter if it's summer or winter when the sport is being contested? They play it indoors, so the weather makes no difference at all. Why do these sports have to be contested at the Summer Olympics, though? But I now this sounds crazy for some people, so I will not take this any further. And I don't really follow winter sports, but I'm sure that there must be something, anything, that does not heavily rely on ice or snow. If all winter sports have to depend on ice or snow, a lot of nations would be excluded, and isn't it the purpose of the Olympic Games to integrate people from all over the planet?

So is modern pentathlon, and we all know no one wants it on the Olympic program. I was kind of joking when I said there should be no Winter Olympics (though I would not miss the event, really). I know it is important to have a dedicated event for winter sports. I'm just worried about how accessible these sports are to the rest of the world. Winter season in Brazil is not the same as winter season in Norway; though it sometimes snows in some cities in Brazil during winter, it's not like we'll be ready to host cross country skiing competitions anytime this millenium. Either the program should add sports that can be practiced in tropical nations during winter as well, or it will forever be the Olympic Games for the Northern hemisphere (with Australia and New Zealand as glorified guests).

In my opinion, these are ridiculous looking sports as well. I like rhythmic gymnastics, but I know it looks tacky as hell, especially when gymnasts from Spain perform their routines. The Summer Olympics program could seriously be reduced to make things more interesting. I mean, who on their right mind could say synchro swimming, trampolining and rhythmic gymnastics add anything to the program? Same old countries winning medals, boring routines that no one understands... I'd rather have extended team events in artistic gymnastics (team vault, team floor exercise, team pommel horse, and so on) than watching synchro swimming or trampolining, to be honest. And as a gay man, even I have to say wrestling has nothing exciting about it (take this comment any way you wish ). As for the Winter Olympics, it might be nice for people who grew up watching these events and have people from their countries fighting for medals, but as a Brazilian the only reason I have to watch the Winter Olympics is entertainment. And there's no way I find ski jumping entertaining, for example. Just a bunch of people doing the same thing over and over again with almost impossible to notice differences. To make things worse, they are awarded a score. What the hell? Makes no sense at all for someone who watches it only for entertainment. Sometimes I think some sports were only added to the Winter Olympics program because they absolutely had to add something or the program would be "empty".

Yes, this is a big problem for people who do not live in Japan, China, Europe or North America. I mean, some sports are nice to watch, but other sports just look stupid. Take luge, skeleton, moguls and ski jumping, for example. I wonder why they added such ridiculous looking things to the Olympic program. Curling also looks very weird at first, though I admit it is nice to watch once you understand what's going on (although it takes too long to finish a match, which eventually gets boring anyway). Not to mention that Figure Skating is too hard for anyone to really understand how scores are calculated, and there are always accusations of unfairness and bribed judges, which is everything the Olympics should not deal with. The same thing can be said about rhythmic gymnastics, I know. Adding new sports to the program would hardly make things more exciting, in my opinion. Bandy? Nope. Ice stock sport? This would be great for Brazil (only winter sport in which Brazil has won a medal at the World Championships), but no. We have curling already. Winter triathlon? This sounds weird. Mountain biking on snow is just something out of nightmares, in my opinion. As it is, there is very little I enjoy watching, and I could seriously live without the Winter Olympics.

None. Let's make another Summer Olympic Games and we're set.

Preview After a very boring year, here is hoping for 2018 to be better. Apart from the World Championships and the World/Challenge Cup stages, we will have lots of other international tournaments this year: South American Games, Commonwealth Games, Pan American Championships, Youth Olympic Games, Asian Championships, Mediterranean Games, European Championships and a lot of Grand Prix events. Russia is expected to dominate the sport once again, with Bulgaria, Israel and Belarus trailing right behind. Georgia and Italy also have some great individual gymnasts. Spain, Ukraine and Azerbaijan will need to improve their game after a slow year in 2017. The United States, Brazil, China and Hungary could achieve good results as well, but are mostly dark horses in international competition right now.

Preview On the women's side, Simone Biles (USA) will return to competition in time for the World Championships in late October, and she will be a very important asset for team USA since their performance at the last World Championships was not nearly as dominant as before. Larissa Iordache announced that she will not take part at the World Championships in order not to hurt her chances to qualify for the Olympics (there are some really stupid rules for olympic qualification in gymnastics). The top 3 nations at the team event will qualify for the Olympics, and there is a huge chance that the US, Russia and China will be the top 3 countries. Exciting new senior gymnasts this year are Gabby Perea (USA), Maile O’Keefe (USA), Emma Malabuyo (USA), Adeline Kenlin (USA), Ana Padurariu (CAN), Martina Dominici (ARG), Fabiane Valentin (BRA), Chen Yile (CHN), Li Qi (CHN), Denisa Golgota (ROU), Valeria Saifulina (RUS), Angelina Simakova (RUS), Varvara Zubova (RUS), Mana Oguchi (JPN), Ayaka Sakaguchi (JPN) and Nora Feher (HUN). Also worth noting is that Paraguay will finally have a senior gymnast in like forever (over 20 years, I guess), named Carla Torres. On the men's side, I do not know much, but I expect Japan to keep their unquestionable dominance, with China right after them. As on the women's side, the top 3 nations at the World Championships will qualify a full team for the Olympics. The third spot for the men's team event seems to be quite open at the moment. Russia, Great Britain, the United States, Germany and Ukraine could challenge for a medal. Brazil, Switzerland and the Netherlands are dark horses. Looking forward to Italy, France, Canada and Spain improving their program. In 2015, 2016 and 2017 we had huge surprises in individual events, so here is hoping for more surprises this year. I'm not familiar with new senior gymnasts, but on the men's side new seniors do not really challenge for medals internationally. Male gymnasts usually fight for medals only at their early twenties, while new seniors will be 18 this year.

I've been absent because I got pretty depressed after so many injuries. No Smith, no Downies, no McCusker, no Iordache, no Andrade, and then Ferrari and Hak-seon also got injured... Pretty depressing competition overall. Congratulations to the medal winners. This is all I'm saying. I just want to forget this championships has ever existed, to be honest.

So, does that mean that speaking (or not speaking) a language does not truly define one's nationality? Oh, I'm surprised. Who would have thought about this? About the US women, Raisman and Douglas only came back to competition in late 2015, In artistic gymnastics, countries have to qualify for the World Championships immediately before the Olympics. So, this means that both Raisman and Douglas took a long time off and had other girls to work their asses off while they did nothing. Then, magically, they decided to compete again and made the team. The poor girls who worked hard in 2014 got nothing. At least Williams is doing all her work herself.

Alexia Paganini qualified for Switzerland. She is a US based skater. Her native language is English and she speaks some German. I'm eagerly awaiting for @dcro to come back here and post about his dissatisfaction with Paganini for not speaking fluently Italian, French and Romansh, three languages that are also spoken in Switzerland.

This happens all the time. Don't blame Williams for only performing when it counts. The American women do this all the time in Artistic Gymnastics and I haven't seen anyone complaining about it.