thiago_simoes

Fist: I follow the sport quite closely, so I know what I'm writing about. I've followed Chusovitina's carrer for the last ten years, so I have a pretty solid idea about her motivations, and I know about her son and his illness. I was very clear when I said I do not judge her reasons for "changing countries like gloves" (on your words), but I will not turn a blind eye for what she does. I like her, I support her as an athlete, but I don't like it that she changes nationalities all the time. Second: I did not choose culprits. I don't care if this is her problem, FIG's problem, Germany's problem or the IOC's problem. What I'm saying is: the fact that she is allowed to do this is highly questionable and it seems unfair to me that anyone (not only her) can step up and change nationalities so easily. Yes, this is a much bigger problem thanks to countries like Azerbaijan or Turkey, but many countries -- directly or indirectly -- benefit from such a thing. Again, I'm pointing out a fact, and I'm not making any sort of "harsh judgment". I might not approve something like this, but her reasons are hers, not mine, and I don't care why she does that. Still, I can't help but feel like this is not right. Once again, I don't care about who should "solve" this problem. I'm not trying to come up with solutions. I'm just pointing things out. MODERATED PART

I like the idea of gymnastics distributing wild cards, but FIG should be consistent in ensuring more nations get to benefit from the experience at the Olympic Games. This is the third time in the last four editions that the wild card in rhythmics goes to Cape Verde. What's the point? They are not investing in rhythmics at all for a long time, but somehow they are rewarded more often than not. Other than athletics, swimming and gymnastics, I like the idea of handling wildcards in weightlifting, boxing and wrestling. Wild cards in taekwondo seem like an exaggeration. This makes the competition weaker, and the point should be getting the best of the best in sports with few participants. The risk for the wild card athletes of getting a RSC because their opponents are much better than they are is huge.

This is the most mistake-free medal table I could find and they credit the medal to Serbia. The original source of the mistaken information was Sport123, which credited the medal to Yugoslavia. I don't think he represented Austria.

Just a side note about a mistake that had not been corrected for 105 years: in 1911, Stane Vidmar won a medal at the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships. The medal is credited to Yugoslavia almost everywhere in the internet. Some sources credit it to Slovenia. But Vidmar represented the Kingdom of Serbia, since there was neither Yugoslavia nor Slovenia in 1911. Now we know that Serbia, Croatia and Slovenia all have at least one medal at the World Gymnastics Championships. The world seems fair now.

I promised I would never reply to you ever again, but this comment is just so awful that I have to say you are an ignorant person for mocking a serious case of leukemia. Being sarcastic about a devastating illness is absolutely disgusting, and I don't care if I get banned for saying this. I was talking about Chusovitina as an athlete. The whole ordeal with her son has nothing to do with this. Chusovitina won a medal at the 2006 World Championships, so she was NOWHERE near retirement or in bad shape when she moved to Germany. She has never really been loyal to any country, so I wouldn't be surprised if she decides to compete for, say, Azerbaijan at this point, even though she said she will retire this year. In 2008, earning a medal for Germany would give her a lot more money than earning a medal for Uzbekistan. She knew that and she needed the money, so she switched countries. I don't judge her reasons, but the fact that she could just go back to Uzbekistan now that she is nowhere near the medal stand anymore makes it rough to see naturalized athletes as "normal citizens". They are citizens as long as they pay their taxes, but once they decide to move back to their country of birth, they are not "normal citizens" anymore.

I can't find the dates of the King's Cup Sepak Takraw World Championships. The championships are usually held in the first half of the year, but the Sepak Takraw federation is a joke when it comes to communicating about their events. Any news about the dates?

It baffles me that Qatar and Azerbaijan (and now Bahrain) are easily attacked for having many naturalized athletes, but still people turn a blind eye to countries like Germany, Great Britain and even Israel and the United States. If you take Oksana Chusovitina (artistic gymnastics) as an example: she competed for Germany in 2008 and earned a silver medal, but now she's back to Uzbekistan. It does look to me that she was paid to compete and earn a medal for Germany, and now that her job is done and she can't earn medals anymore, she's back to her country of birth. I know there is an "official" version of her competing for Germany because she decided to, with no money involved at all, but this is hard to believe in. Things like this make me think that it doesn't really matter why an athlete decided to compete for another country; they are still foreigners competing for another nation and it will always kind of look like cheating to me, especially because they can always represent their country of birth once they become too old or not good enough to earn medals anymore. I'm still upset that some people are always pointing fingers to Azerbaijan or Qatar, but still they are so laid back on this issue when it comes to a select number of countries. I'm aware that Azerbaijan and Qatar blatantly buy athletes, but some other countries also do this, just not in a blatant way, and still get away with it.

It's nice to have Panama in gymnastics. Isabella Amado is a good gymnast and she will represent her country in the best possible way. Valentina Brostella is also quite decent. I hope they decide to invest some money now because Brostella has what it takes to qualify on her own in 2020 if she improves on the Uneven Bars. Crovetto is a nice choice as well. Cape Verde in Rhythmics again? It's not that they don't deserve it. It's just that Angola could benefit a lot more from this quota if they were given it...

Just a random fact that I've just noticed: if my calculations are right, Evgenia Kanaeva was awarded the 1,000th Olympic medal in gymnastics at the 2012 edition in London.

Greece has been on the brink of not qualifying for years now. Finland should be rewarded for the fantastic job they have done recently. But maybe I'm asking for too much. Things have been extremely fair until now.

In Artistic Gymnastics, Nekrasova (who didn't qualify) is from Russia, and both Stepko and Pakhnyuk are from Ukraine. They have a male gymnast in trampoline who is from Russia as well. He won the bronze medal at this year's European Championships. Anna Pavlova, who won a medal for Azerbaijan at the European Artistic Gymnastics Championships, is also from Russia. Aliya Garayeva, their best individual rhythmic gymnast who retired in 2012, was also born in Russia. This should be forbidden.

A much better routine with clubs and hoops for Brazil! Too bad our 5 ribbons routine has been changed from the previous year and the girls are not comfortable when performing this routine yet.

Nekrasova from Azerbaijan is still ahead of Malaysia (by 0.001, unfortunately). I didn't know Costa Rica is not allowed to apply for a quota. The Panamanian girls are better choices. Brostella won a bronze medal at the 2014 Pan American Sports Festival, and Amado two won medals at the 2012 and 2013 South American Championships.

Don't forget Costa Rica (Tarik Soto Byfield) and Malaysia (Farah Abdul). Costa Rica is sending only 3 people to the Olympics according to Wikipedia. Byfield qualified to the Test Event and is fifth reserve for the quota. In women's artistic, I think Cayman Islands will get the quota. FIG even stated in an official document that they were proud a gymnast from Cayman Islands made it to the Olympics (Youth Olympics, in 2014), and I think they could make this statement again (this time in the "big" Olympics).

GRE and BRA do not have enough difficulty to challenge for the gold medal. Or even for a medal at all, I think.

Yes! India is set for gold on women's vault at the Test Event!

Dipa's second vault was great in qualifications as well. I wonder if she can get a medal at the 2017 World Championships. This would be outstanding! She deserves a world medal! Maybe she can attend to the 2017 Universiade... Does anybody know if she is on college?

.Cummins (the South African girl) is the best athlete of the African continent right now. South Africa would be crazy not to accept this quota. Now, talking about quotas... I don't get it why the official document presented by FIG states that only Edalli is eligible for Italy. If we cross Edalli out of the list for some reason, the first available option would be Morandi! And Morandi has a much bigger chance of getting into a final than Edalli.

Who is the second qualifier for Africa? The girl from South Africa who was the second best athlete from the continent at the 2015 World Championships?

O'Reilly has qualified! Amazing! Congratulations, Ireland!

Shen needs 12.400 on floor and vault. This should be easy, even with a fall.

Sazonova was born in Russia. She earned a medal with the Russian team at the 2011 Universiade, but it was clear that she had no chance to go to the Olympics if she stayed in Russia. Marina Nekrasova of Azerbaijan was also born in Russia, but she never achieved anything important in her carrer, really.

Farah Abdul deserved a better fate. She's a good gymnast, but she had a terible day. There's a chance she gets the quota through invitation, though. Tarik Soto (Costa Rica) could get the invitation in Men's Artistic, Farah Abdul (MAS) in Women's Artistic and Adisa Bjelic (BIH) in Rhythmics. This would be fair.

It's not IMPOSSIBLE, but very, very close to it. Only a miracle would make Romania qualify as a team.

60 gymnasts qualify as a team 4 individuals from teams that didn't qualify 2 from Africa 1 from the tripartite invitation Oceania will already be represented by Australia, so no quotas needed 33 countries competing for 31 quotas if Brazil and Germany qualify a full team. I think Derek is safe. Now that I think about it, it's not impossible for Ireland to score above 50.8, so BLR and COL might be the ones who will not qualify after all...