thiago_simoes

It took Bolivia and Paraguay 68 years to get a gold medal at the senior Pan American Games. Now both got gold medals in the inaugural edition of the Junior Pan American Games. Amazing!

I didn't expect a gold medal for Brazil in artistic gymnastics, so it was a nice surprise. We have basically zero chances of a gold medal in rhythmic gymnastics and trampoline, so this gold medal was literally the best thing that could have happened to Brazilian gymnastics in this competition. I'm very disappointed with the overall level of the girls. Even the US girls are nothing to write home about. They're marginally decent, but given how bad everyone else is -- except for Tran who unfortunately got injured -- the US girls had an almost perfect run here. Brazil had a terrible group of girls, with only Andreza Lima with slight chances of reaching our senior team. Mexico and especially Argentina had lots and lots of mistakes, but at least the Mexican girls seem promising. Argentina has bad luck, unfortunately, because their best gymnasts are all 13 years old and they will only be able to become "adults" in 2024. The problem is that the qualifying period for the Olympics will end in 2023...

Not bad considering Cuba is trying hard here and Colombia is heavily boosted by home soil advantage. Seriously, any place in the top 10 is respectable since , and are always eager for medals, and is starting to wake up and investing more in sports.

Yaaay, a bronze medal in Archery! Now we got medals in all of my favorite sports! Amazing!

Medals for and in artistic gymnastics. Now, that's not something you see every day. First medal ever for Costa Rica and first medal since 1979 for Peru. That's impressive!

Peru was robbed of a gold medal in gymnastics. There's no way the US gymnast deserved first place after almost falling off the pommel horse on his dismount.

Gold for !!! How awesome is that?

LOL. There's a very small group of dedicated fans who gather information about these young gymnasts. Junior women compete from 13 to 15 years of age, and we get to see them at the continental events. For example, the 13 yo Argentinians competed at the Pan American Championships. I'm surprised that they were not allowed to compete here because they are much better than the rest of the Argentinian, Brazilian and Mexican girls who did compete here. But, to be honest, Brazil's best junior gymnast is Helen who is also 13, and is much better than any of the 14 and 15 yo girls who represented Brazil here.

Argentina, Brazil and Mexico all had terrible performances in women's artistic gymnastics. Argentina had the worst day of them all, though. It's going to be USA for the gold medal, Brazil with the silver medal and Mexico with the bronze medal. It's a little unfair because 13 year-old girls were not allowed in this competition, and Argentina's best girls are all 13 years old. Bummer.

The streaming was terrible and I barely was able to watch more than 5 minutes of the men's artistic gymnastics competition, but it was exciting following the scores alone. Silver is a better result than what I expected for Brazil, and it looks like without Richard the US is not really the favorite for all the gold medals in the event finals, after all.

The commentators on Brazilian TV were rooting for the Peruvian for the silver medal in skateboarding. LOL, he's a STAR here in Brazil.

LOL, she's 22. Rebeca Andrade is also 22 and it would be completely CRAZY to even think about her competing at the "junior" Pan Ams.

I'm very disappointed with artistic gymnastics apparatus finals on Sunday and Monday. Seriously, who in their right minds thinks it's okay to host AG finals on MONDAY?

Aurélie Tran in women's artistic gymnastics. Now, that's impressive. It's going to be gold, silver and bronze to the USA and Canada in all of the individual events. For the team event, I predict USA with the gold medal, Argentina in a comfortable position for the silver medal and either Mexico or Brazil with the bronze medal.

Boa. Não entendo nada da modalidade, por isso pergunto algo bem básico mesmo: o que conta pra que a pessoa faça uma boa série? Como os movimentos são julgados? Existe uma espécie de código de pontuação, como nas ginásticas artística e rítmica? As séries precisam ser no ritmo da música ou vale qualquer coisa? Existem movimentos proibidos?

It's still not as bad as I thought. I mean, he mentioned in his defense that he has an adenoma, a tumor which produces cortisol, and he has never taken any forbidden substances. If he proves his point, and this is a big if, I can see his ban being reduced or even maybe nullified. I have no idea if there were similar cases before and how these were judged, but in my mind if it's proved that it was a tumor with no fault whatsoever of the lifter himself, then banning him would be pretty harsh. Anyway, a different point is that, if he ever returns to weightlifting, I don't think he's going to represent Brazil again. He lives in the USA, he doesn't plan to come back to Brazil and the only reason he represented Brazil is because the government paid him lots of money. When he was provisionally suspended, the funding was cut and it would be hard for him to get it back until everything has been proved.

I think this is the best place for me to ask this question, instead of posting on the retirements thread. According to Brazilian news, Fernando Reis informed the IWF that he will retire from the sport. The news mention that this will exempt him from taking any more anti-doping tests but, and that this is not set in stone because he can still revert this decision and resume training. My question is: is this a common "tactic" for lifters to skip being tested? Is this something that other lifters usually do when they want to take a break and resume training later? I don't think Reis will be back, especially because he's 31 now and I expect his ban to last for at least 4 years, and I simply don't see how he could go back to the sport at 35/36. But I'm still curious about whether this is commonly used by athletes for not being tested or not.

Rebeca foi a primeira mulher a conseguir mais de uma medalha numa mesma edição dos Jogos Olímpicos. Primeira pessoa, entre homens e mulheres, a conseguir mais de uma medalha numa mesma edição do campeonato mundial. Campeã olímpica e campeã mundial no mesmo ano. Infelizmente a Rayssa "falhou" no momento mais importante da carreira. Pra mim, nem deveria ter sido indicada. Martine/Kahena mereciam mais a indicação. O prêmio feminino é da Rebeca sem sombra de dúvidas. Agora, o prêmio de Atleta da Torcida vai fácil, fácil pra Rayssa. A popularidade dela é incontestável. No masculino, pra mim, é empate técnico. Eu não daria o prêmio pro Isaquias porque ele decidiu não ir pro mundial. Ítalo merece mais pela expressividade em ser o primeiro campeão olímpico do surfe na história e por ter seguido firme na WSL, apesar de ter perdido pro Medina.

So, on Facebook the organization of the event mentioned that the start lists for gymnastics are ready, but didn't provide any links. The sheer incompetence of PASO/PanAm Sports is nothing new.

I'm starting to notice people are getting more and more excited about the Brazilian athlete here in Brazil, and I've even read somewhere people saying she has enough potential to finish in the top 8 at the Olympics, thus surpassing our historical best result -- a ninth place completely out of luck in snowboard cross in 2006.

This is a reminder that every medal counts. Gilberto Lemus crying on the podium at the 2021 Pan American Weightlifting Championships after getting a C&J medal. This is his first medal at the Pan Am Championships after 10 years trying hard to get one.

I'm not a fan of the upcoming code of points either. The reinclusion of an artistic score doesn't do much to change things since difficulty will still play a big role in the final score. Even Bulgaria had to drastically alter their routines losing a lot of charm and artistic value so they could focus on higher difficulty and win the Olympic gold medal. Bulgaria is still miles ahead of Russia in artistry, but their routines were even more beautiful when choreography was explored more than difficulty. The way I see it, with the return of the artistic score, I wish we could have split routines in groups: one artistic routine and one technical routine. Maybe one free, open routine could be added too, and an all-around event with the sum of the three routines. In theory, the artistic presentation should enable countries like China, Uzbekistan and Mexico to win medals at the World Championships. The way things are now, not even traditional nations in this sport, like Ukraine, can win medals at the World Championships anymore! Also, I would like FIG to return with the 4 Continents Championships. There are great gymnasts from USA, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Japan, China, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, North and South Korea who have no chance of winning medals at the World Championships despite huge improvements.

Bulgaria Olympic champions, Harnasko world champion and now Italy's group world champions. I absolutely HATE this code of points, but after suffering through it for 5 years, we finally were rewarded with the most deserving groups and individuals finally getting a gold medal.

And Brazil also sneaked into a final with the group! I know that for the next 20 or 30 years we'll probably not even come close to get a medal at the World Championships in this sport, but I'm really excited now to see both an individual gymnast and the Brazilian group at the biggest world stage this sport has to offer, besides the Olympic Games, of course.

Yes! This is a huge problem too. It's not too bad in weightlifting, for example. While there's a panel of judges in weightlifting, it's still possible to win a medal coming from group B. We've seen that at the last Olympics, denying a medal for Albania. But in rhythmic gymnastics the evaluation a lot more subjective and bias is definitely a problem when it comes to the smaller programs. I don't think Raffaelli could realistically fight for a medal in the all-around in a competition with both Averinas and Harnasko on fire, but a top 6 finish is still well within reach. But coming from group B, that would be highly unlikely even if she kills it.