thiago_simoes

Melnikova went from best Russian all-arounder through the year to third best all of a sudden. What a HUGE score for Mustafina! This is unbelievable. Anything over 9.0 in execution is just crazy. And what a surprise to see no Russian will probably make Beam finals! Yilmaz from Turkey is hanging on in third right now, and she will need some luck with the Wevers sisters from the Netherlands, all of the US girls, Schaffer from Germany, Boyer from France, Black and Olsen from Canada, and Flávia Saraiva from Brazil still to come, but she definitely has a clear chance to make it to the finals. Fingers crossed.

Yay for Zambia! Here's hoping for a medal!

Tutya Yilmaz from Turkey scored 14.5 on the Balance Beam and will probably make it to the finals! What a huge, huge, huge surprise! Way to go!

About men's qualifications: It was very exciting to see some unexpected performances! I didn't expect much from the United States, but they were great while some of the favorites got way behind really fast. The most surprising thing was, of course, Uchimura not qualifying in first to the all-around final. But we all knew Veriayev could make it to the top if he had a good day. Besides, Uchimura clearly underperformed, but I would not be too shocked now if he somehow loses the gold medal in the all-around this time. Larduet was a huge disappointment, but he still made it to a couple important finals. Getting a medal in any of the finals will be a lot harder than I originally thought, though. I'm glad Tomás González made it to vault finals, even though Sasaki missed the cut. Vault finals will be unpredictable, and aside from Ri and Ablyazin being early favorites for gold and silver, literally anyone could snatch a medal. Floor finals will also be exciting, and High Bar should provide some excitement as well. The other finals will be slightly boring, with only 4 or 5 gymnasts with a real chance of getting a medal. The all-around competition will probably be my favorite event at the Olympics, since many great gymnasts made the cut despite some bad performances here and there. Kudos to Georgiou from Cyprus for making the cut. After being eliminated from two finals at the Youth Olympic Games (unfair when it comes to a personal point of view, but according to the rules), he made it to the finals at the big event. It's really heartwarming to see he was rewarded. Also, I wish a speedy recovery to Samir Ait Said from France. It was so scary to see his broken shin bone hanging on from his leg, but he took it like it was nothing. What a brave man. He deserved to be on the Rings final, and it's really unfair that he injured himself after qualifying.

Sad. She also decided not to start on the uneven bars. I hope she performs on beam and floor so her Olympic experience will not be a completely wasted one. She deserves better.

Archery and cycling have never been popular in Brazil and everybody knew that way before the Olympics were awarded to Rio. It might be somewhat surprising to some people that the swimming finals were not too crowded, but with no Brazilians with a chance to get a medal at the pool yesterday, it was not really a huge shock. And with all due respect, but do people really expect that a football match where, say, Fiji plays gets crowded in Brazil? I can't see how on Earth this would be possible, unless the whole population of Fiji decided to come watch the matches (and I still suspect there would be some empty seats nevertheless ). In the end, I think Rio will not see as many empty seats as in Athens, but we will see.

2015 Team Final - Japan 270.818, Brazil 259.5772016 Olympic Qualification - Japan 269.294, Brazil 268.078 Brazil did a great job.

Netherlands finished the team competition ahead of last year's world championships finalists South Korea. What a great surprise! Congratulations!

https://live.fig-gymnastics.com/schedule.php?idevent=6405

I'm really shocked and utterly pleased. I can't believe we are performing this well. It's unbelievable. Unvelievable!

Brazil currently one point behind World Champions Japan in team competition right now. I'm in shock!

Zanetti had a "low" score. I think he will barely make it to the Rings final, if he makes it at all. There's a chance he will miss the cut.

The start lists were finally made available. https://live.fig-gymnastics.com/schedule.php?idevent=6405

On paper, she is the best suited for bronze thanks to massive difficulty on all fronts (6.3 on vault, 6.5 on the uneven bars, 5.9 on the balance beam, 6.1 on floor). Problem is she might never go for full difficulty (though she said she will) and even if she does, she will need to stay focused in order to hit every routine. If she hits, she will get a medal. We will see.

No one can beat Biles. I never said that. I said that Hernandez is the best gymnast behind Biles. All the other girls are fighting for silver and bronze. Funny thing is, Douglas and Raisman can seriously screw up and walk away without a medal in the all-around competition. I still think that the US gymnasts will finish 1-2 no matter what, but Hernandez is the second best here despite what political maneuvers they are trying to achieve. Germany has made an Interesting choice when selecting Scheder and Seitz to compete in the all-around. They score so high on the uneven bars that it should compensate for the score they get on floor. Schafer should really concentrate on beam, which is her best chance of a final.

1) Hong (if she lands her new vault without a fall) 2) Biles 3) Paseka 4) Steingruber 5) Chusovitina 6) Olsen Moreno, E. Downie, Karmakar, Miyakawa, Wang, Thanh and Lee Goim will fight for the two spots left in the event final.

Oh, no. She deserves to have a great competition after so much bad luck over the years. Fingers crossed and I hope she can still perform clean routines. Also, Hernandez will apparently not perform in the all-around, which is clearly a political decision so Douglas can get attention in the final (after all, she's the defending champion, though she will not come close to the gold medal this time) or even Raisman gets a redemption story (she placed fourth in 2012). Either way, Hernandez is the superior gymnast at this point, only behind Biles, and it's really disgusting that the US will aim for drama with Douglas or Raisman, instead of worthy performances by Hernandez.

I'm so proud now that the ceremony is over. Everything was beautiful (except the acting president, who did not deserve to be there... corrupt pig).

Do you mean the start lists? Not yet, but they will soon be available here: https://live.fig-gymnastics.com/schedule.php?idevent=6405

This blog states that Russia has broken the rules by replacing Ignatyev by the alternate gymnast. Even though the author says it does not really matter at this point, if Russia miraculously wins a medal, all hell will break loose and the team will probably face many attempts of other teams trying to disqualify Russia after the competition is over. This is getting ridiculous.

Men's competition: AA: Uchimura, Verniayev, Larduet TF: Japan, China, Great Britain Women's competition: AA: Biles, Hernandez, Andrade (one can dream, but I seriously think she could be a contender) TF: United States, China, Russia

@LowerSaxony is correct. In qualifications, it doesn't matter if three or four gymnasts perform on each apparatus. Even if only three gymnasts perform on a single apparatus, this is still valid for the team score. So, basically we have: Qualifications: up to four gymnasts can perform on each apparatus, but only the three best scores count. Team finals: only three gymnasts can perform on each apparatus and every score counts.

I'm not sure, but I think it doesn't make much of a difference. Russia's ambitions in the men's team event should be aiming for a bronze medal. Gold and silver are set for Japan and China, while Great Britain and the United States are more likely to fight for the bronze medal, with Ukraine as a dark horse. Right now, I think Russia is even behind the dark horse level.

Nice work! I still think we'll end up winning 27 medals or more. It will depend on a lot of factors, but it's definitely possible. I'm a lot more curious, however, about the number of gold medals the Brazilian athletes will earn. Anything less than 3 gold medals would be a total disaster, but I'm not too confident we will reach 6 gold medals or more. This is just too much for the level our athletes are displaying right now.

It's hard to explain. It's not like everybody knows what Modern Pentathlon is, but she's generally well-known and people like her because she's usually graceful and lovely in interviews, and has lots of charisma. She's from the Northeastern part of Brazil, and this region is the poorest area of the country. People from the Northeastern zone see her as a role model, and there was a strong voting campaign there to let her win. I'm very pleased she won. I was rooting for her.