thiago_simoes

FIG released a statement on their website about introducing changes to the qualification system for 2024. I hope that the first change is that only nations not qualified otherwise would be eligible for a quota at the Oceania Championships. Seriously, this has mostly been Australian Championships with two "invited" guests from New Zealand: one in women's trampoline and one in men's artistic gymnastics. It's almost a miracle that New Zealand managed to qualify a male gymnast, in the end.

I don't get it. Technically, the Italian singer is pretty bad. The song is catchy, but Switzerland definitely should have won.

Apparently, jumps ahead of for the fourth best non-qualified time in the 4x100 medley relay. I didn't see that coming!

Brazil's time is actually 3:45.52 from the latest trials.

First full team announced: Women's team: Murakami Mai, Hatakeda Hitomi, Hiraiwa Yuna, Sugihara Aiko. Ashikawa Urara earned an individual spot.

Such a pointless "continental" event woth only two nations participating, and very questionable results with Australia qualifying ahead of New Zealand by 0,1.

Nope. He wouldn't have missed the chance to put "Olympic champion, 1976" in his signature.

I believe his father is a Brazilian. He went to the US to work as a coach and decided to live there. EDIT: Yes, I was right. Besides, I found a newspaper article with very nasty charges against him. Ouch. I'm curious about the results of the investigation.

Ok, this is turning into a monologue, but here we go. The lists of gymnasts who will participate at the Pan American Championships have been released. No big surprises here, but with the nominative lists I can at least make a slightly better prediction. Women's Olympic quotas: 99,99% chance 50% chance 40% chance Rebeca Andrade is the clear favorite here, but since everybody else from Brazil but Flávia Saraiva is also eligible for the quota, only a major upset would prevent Brazil from obtaining one of the quotas. I expect Magistrati to get the second quota, but maybe López might surprise and contend for the spot. Now, for the medals in event finals, I expect Dominici and the aforementioned gymnasts to earn most, if not all, of the medals. The other ones with a chance of getting medals are Pena, Campos, Palacios and Santi. I was impressed with the girls at the 2019 Pan American Games. I sincerely hope they qualify to one of the finals. It's a shame will not participate. I know Danusia Francis has already qualified to the Olympics, but she could win a medal here. Bummer. Men's Olympic quotas: 95% chance 40% chance 40% chance 10% chance Whittenburg should qualify easily, but Bock and Guimaraes could also surprise. Anyway, it's safe to assume that one of the quotas will go to the US. For the second quota, at least on paper, it should be a fierce battle between Sepulveda and Calvo. Soares has an outside chance, but he would have to perform on the same level he performed at the 2020 American Cup. Basically, a perfect competition and no mistakes. Mayol would need major mistakes from the other gymnasts to have a chance. Not sure if any of the guys can surprise. The event finals should be interesting with lots of gymnasts fighting for the medals.

I just noticed that. But thanks for replying. I thought you had mistakenly attributed the flag from Austria for Martirosyan for a moment.

How come Martirosyan could qualify ahead of Minasyan and Aleksanyan? And even if he could, why would he choose a weight where he has no chance of a gold medal? Oh, never mind. Just noticed this one is from Austria. My bad.

Apparently, Ellie Downie chose not to go to Tokyo. She was a contender for a vault medal and the current World bronze medalist on the apparatus. Her brother passed away last week. He was only 24. Becky Downie will still participate at the British trials in June. Poor girls. They are so strong, each in her own way.

Wait, did I get it right? Even if Japan has qualified in other weights, they still get one extra host nation quota? In gymnastics, it doesn't work like this. For example, each nation is able to qualify up to two rhythmic gymnastics. Japan qualified one gymnast through the world championships, and if they want to have another gymnast, they have to try and qualify through the world cup series. The host nation quota was then reallocated to the next eligible gymnast through the world championships. What a crazy system in weightlifting.

There are some big changes to the Code of Points for the 2022-2024 cycle. I'll go through the most important changes in the women's code of points. 1) All vaults were reduced in difficulty value. This means that scores on vault will not be ridiculously higher compared to the other apparatus anymore. Other than that, the level of difficulty remains consistent with the current code of points. For example, a Double Twisting Yurchenko went from 5.4 to 5.0, and a Produnova went from 6.4 to 6.0, so the 1.0 point difference between the vaults remain. Basically, the final vault scores will be lower, but it's still a fair change, even though in practical terms it makes almost no difference. 2) Turns are not required on the balance beam anymore. Gymnasts can perform rolls or flairs instead. 3) It looks like turns from the same "family" can be performed only once in each routine. For example, currently gymnasts can perform a triple turn with the leg up, a double turn with the leg up and a single turn with the leg up, and all three of them will add points to the difficulty score. Now, they can only perform one of these elements in each routine. This directly affects . 4) There are new connection values, which won't make much of a difference to the casual viewer but will slightly increase the score of some gymnasts, provided they add more skills in sequence. Not much room for bigger scores, though, but still nice ways to explore the talents of each gymnast. 5) The execution panel has been expanded to 7 judges. This is looking more and more like figure skating at this point. If in practical terms this means that will stop receiving unrealistic scores, I'm down for it. But I highly doubt so. Also, no more reference judges at the Olympics. I suppose this applies to the men's code of points as well, and in theory we won't see oddities like Jovtchev qualifying to the still rings final in 2012 after judges disagreeing about his score, and the reference panel basically throwing him into the final.

This is one of the very few names in weightlifting I recognize from randomly reading news about the sport in Brazil. She seems to be talented, but she's apparently still very young and needs a lot more time to mature. It would be good if she could have some kind of Olympic experience now, so she can better prepare for the future.

This has been bugging me for a while. I don't understand why the number of athletes has not been reduced in any significant way. In my opinion, it would be very important to guarantee that the athletes who will attend the games will be monitored 100% of the time. Can they monitor ten thousand people? I'm not so sure. Some athletes will find a way to get out no matter what. Just remember what Lochte did in Rio. Some, if not most, will find a way to have sex. Ten thousand people is A LOT to deal with. Why not make compromises?

Seriously, what the hell was that? It's a global pandemic. Yes, I understand that Japan has not always made the best decisions, but I'm pretty sure 80% of the rest of the world would have dealt with this situation with much, much worse consequences. Japan is hosting a big event at the worst possible time and they have no responsibility about the events that led to the pandemic. Besides, of course they have to focus on their own nation and worry about the safety of the citizens. The Olympic Games, at the end of the day, are just fireworks and flashy lights. Yes, we love them, we love sports, but we don't need them to happen right now. It would be great, of course, but not absolutely necessary!

No, not official. FIG will apparently only release a statement in June, after the continental championships end and a decision about the Doha World Cup is made -- i.e., if it will happen or not.

Yeah, I'm afraid so. I hope Elsa Garcia recovers in time. She could make things a lot more interesting. But she needed time to polish her skills and being injured seriously affects her chances of improving her execution. I strongly believe one of the women's quotas is going to . Rebeca Andrade is very strong right now, and Jade Barbosa, Christal Bezerra and Lorrane Santos have enough potential to qualify even if something bad happens. The other quota will probably either go to Magistrati or Lopez. I have no idea how Lopez is doing, so I bet Magistrati will get it. Even if Lopez is back to her old form, Magistrati could very well give her a run for her money. I hope we can add Elsa Garcia to this picture.

Qualified gymnasts: Vedeneeva: 35+50+50 = 135 Tashkenbaeva: 45+45+40 = 130 --------------------------------------------------- Fighting for the last quota: Pigniczki: 40+40+25 = 105 Maximum score Pigniczki can still achieve: 130 Verdes: 30+20+45 = 95 Maximum score Verdes can still achieve: 125 Oiwa: 50+18+0 = 68 Maximum score Oiwa can still achieve: 118 Polstjanaja: 0+35+30 = 65 Maximum score Polstjanaja can still achieve: 115 --------------------------------------------------- Gymnasts who scored points but have no chance of qualifying anymore: Kita: 18+0+20 = 38 Kelaiditi: 0+0+35 = 35 Mailat: 0+30+0 = 30 Berezina: 25+0+0 = 25 Adilkhanova: 0+25+0 = 25 Fetisova: 20+0+0 = 20 Tuncel: 0+16+0 = 16

Qualified gymnasts: Vedeneeva: 35+50+50 = 135 Tashkenbaeva: 45+45+40 = 130 Fighting for the last quota: Pigniczki: 40+40+25 = 105 Maximum score Pigniczki can still achieve: 130 Verdes: 30+20+45 = 95 Maximum score Verdes can still achieve: 125 Oiwa: 50+18+0 = 68 Maximum score Oiwa can still achieve: 118 Polstjanaja: 0+35+30 = 65 Maximum score Polstjanaja can still achieve: 115 Eliminated gymnasts: Kita 18 0 20 = 38 Kelaiditi 0 0 35 = 35 Mailat 0 30 0 = 30 Berezina 25 0 0 = 25 Adilkhanova 0 25 0 = 25 Fetisova 20 0 0 = 20 Tuncel 0 16 0 = 16

He's not eligible for the tripartite invitation. So he either scores 15.334 or more at the Doha World Cup or he's out.

The qualifications already count as all-around final. I'm strongly believe this is the highest any gymnast from Africa has finished in the all-around at the World Cup series, and not only that: maybe this is the best ever finish from any gymnast from the Southern hemisphere. FANTASTIC result!

So, it looks like Vedeneeva and Tashkenbaeva did enough to qualify. This means that the WCh quota now goes to Pazhava. There's one quota left and Japan could have qualified today, but Oiwa might have blown her chances. Besides, the Japanese federation sent two gymnasts to this competition expecting to contend for the quota, but it kind of backfired. Only the first 18 gymnasts are allowed to earn points for the Olympic qualification ranking; Kita finished 18th and Oiwa finished 19th. This means that Kita earns 20 points that will be good for nothing, while Oiwa earns zero.

Disappointing news. The logical explanation for this decision is that Stewart is too valuable for the team competition, so Canada is afraid to send her to Brazil because, well, covid. No other Canadian gymnast eligible for a quota would have been able to qualify, anyway. Canada has a serious problem with the depth of the team right now, unfortunately. Of course, Black and Steward are incredible, and if Olsen and Moors return in time for the Olympics, the team will be quite strong, but currently the options are very limited.