thiago_simoes

Estonia with a bronze medal and Turkey with a gold medal. And Hungary for the first time ever with a medal in the junior competition. Take Russia out of the picture and suddenly other programs rise to the occasion. Interesting trivia: 1) This is Turkey's first gold medal in gymnastics at the European Championships in any discipline. Previously, Turkey earned one silver and two bronze medals in artistic gymnastics, and one silver medal in aerobic gymnastics. 2) Estonia's bronze medal was only the second-ever medal in gymnastics at the European Championships for the nation in any discipline. Their first medal was earned in TeamGym in 1996! A 24-year gap between these two medals.

Yikes, what an awful group competition today. Only Israel didn't have major mistakes, and Estonia did pretty well for their level. Turkey had a huge chance of winning a medal, but unfortunately they were very nervous.

Weird. The official website seems to indicate that there will be an all-around competition, after all.

Today the competition was just half of the all-around event. The podiums will only be decided after tomorrow's events.

Sad news. Rest in peace. Respect for him. Mis condolencias a todos los hermanos y hermanas de Argentina.

A lunatic billionaire demanding democracy not to be validated... Who would have guessed, right?

I like it a lot, but there's a catch: FIG stated that from 2024 on, teams in AG will go back to the old format: 5 gymnasts per nation. Nobody likes this system where only 4 are allowed to compete at the Olympics and up to 2 extra gymnasts qualify through the World Cup series or the continental championships. With 5 gymnasts in each team, we would need to lower the numbers of teams to 10, and increase the total number of gymnasts to 4. Not really a tragedy, but this still puts into danger some traditional teams like Ukraine's men's team and Romania's women's team. But this is the best proposal given what the IOC wants for the Olympics, I guess.

I wouldn't be against it, but this means 3 extra quotas in men's artistic gymnastics. I thought this would reduce the number of countries competing, but instead this would increase the number of nations! There are 68 nations that would qualify at the World Championships alone, plus extra quotas for every continent. I'm not even sure there are 80+ nations with active male artistic gymnasts. I'm sure this would be great for nations like Namibia, Kuwait, Qatar and Sri Lanka, though.

On further revision, this system is slightly better than my original proposal: MAG: 40 (8 teams) + 60 individuals WAG: 40 (8 teams) + 34 individuals RG: 16 (8 teams) + 13 individuals TRA: 13 women + 16 men WAG 40 quotas: 8 teams (5 gymnasts) at the World Championships 8 quotas: World Championships - All-Around competition 12 quotas: World Championships - Event Finals (if quotas remain after EFs, give them to AA) 3 quotas: Top 3 gymnasts at the All-Around World Cup series 4 quotas: Overall winners in each apparatus at the World Cup series 1 quota: Host nation 1 quota: Tripartite invitation 1 quota: Asian Championships - All-Around competition 1 quota: European Championships - All-Around competition 1 quota: Oceania Championships - All-Around competition 1 quota: Pan American Championships - All-Around competition 1 quota: African Championships - All-Around competition MAG 40 quotas: 8 teams (5 gymnasts) at the World Championships 16 quotas: World Championships - All-Around competition 18 quotas: World Championships - Event Finals (if quotas remain after EFs, give them to AA) 8 quotas: Top 8 gymnasts at the All-Around World Cup series 6 quotas: Overall winners in each apparatus at the World Cup series 1 quota: Host nation 1 quota: Tripartite invitation 2 quotas: Asian Championships - All-Around competition 2 quotas: European Championships - All-Around competition 2 quotas: Oceania Championships - All-Around competition 2 quotas: Pan American Championships - All-Around competition 2 quotas: African Championships - All-Around competition RG 16 quotas: 8 teams (2 gymnasts) at the World Championships 3 quotas: World Championships - All-Around competition 3 quotas: Top 3 gymnasts at the All-Around World Cup series 1 quota: Host nation 1 quota: Tripartite invitation 1 quota: Asian Championships - All-Around competition 1 quota: European Championships - All-Around competition 1 quota: Oceania Championships - All-Around competition 1 quota: Pan American Championships - All-Around competition 1 quota: African Championships - All-Around competition TRA - Women 6 quotas: World Championships 1 quota: Best gymnast at the World Cup series 1 quota: Host nation 1 quota: Asian Championships 1 quota: European Championships 1 quota: Oceania Championships 1 quota: Pan American Championships 1 quota: African Championships TRA - Men 6 quotas: World Championships 3 quotas: Top 3 gymnasts at the World Cup series 1 quota: Host nation 1 quota: Tripartite invitation 1 quota: Asian Championships 1 quota: European Championships 1 quota: Oceania Championships 1 quota: Pan American Championships 1 quota: African Championships

From FIG: “The IOC informed in a letter relating Olympic Games 2024/Paris that gender equality will be in all disciplines among the participants. The question arises how gender equality is calculated within the disciplines of the FIG. Each discipline by themselves or all together (MAG/WAG; RG; TRA). WAG does not want to reduce their quota places. WAG wants to have the same quota as MAG.” By the way it's written, it looks like the IOC sees Gymnastics as one sport with several disciplines, pretty much like Aquatics. There's already gender equality when it comes to the number of podiums: 4 in WAG + 2 in RG + 1 in trampoline = 7 6 in MAG + 1 in trampoline = 7 In order to achieve an equal number of individuals across all disciplines, WAG absolutely needs to lose quotas. Also, the following changes would have to occur: 1) RG groups must go. 2) A new RG team event would have to be created, with 2 gymnasts per team 3) Teams in AG would need to be reduced to 8 Then, I see this happening: MAG: 40 (8 teams) + 58 individuals WAG: 40 (8 teams) + 24 individuals RG: 16 (8 teams) + 18 individuals TRA: 16 women + 16 men I don't see how this improves things in any way. In fact, this would drastically reduce the number nations competing. But if they want gender equality, this is what could be done right now. Of course, these are just my ideas, and there's also a chance that men's rhythmic gymnastics will be pushed forward (although, right now, it's almost non-existent around the world). Either way, this could be a huge problem for rhythmic gymnastics.

Today, Latvia earned their first-ever medal in women's artistic gymnastics and Austria got their first-ever gold medal at the World Cup/World Challenge Cup circuit. But I am thoroughly impressed with Serbia. Some of the scores were quite decent, especially on parallel bars and horizontal bar. If they keep up improving like this, in a few years they might be a real threat at the World Championships. Last time Serbian gymnasts performed so well internationally was in 2006, when Milos Paunovic earned a bronze medal on vault at the 2006 Maribor World Cup. No medals this year, but Serbians still left a lasting impression here, no question about it! And, of course, I am very impressed with Matvei Petrov. His only medal at the World Cup was earned in 2010 when he still competed for Russia. He decided to retire and become a coach in Czech Republic, and the owner of the gym where he coaches is Albanian. He was asked to represent Albania and then maybe he could go to the Olympics with a wild card, and not only he's the favorite for the wild card, he got a medal in an official FIG competition representing Albania. Really, this is the best story of 2020 so far. I'm really happy for him.

I was right.

I was confused at first, but the 2021 European Championships might still happen before May, so there's still chance it will serve as the continental qualification for Europe. If the 2021 Championships is held later than May, then Ukraine will officially qualify in the group competition and Ekaterina Vedeneeva will qualify as an individual. This opens up two quotas, one for the US group and one for Salomé Pazhava from Georgia.

I get what you're saying, but there are dozens of other summer sports. Besides, it doesn't look like the guy is even remotely interested in getting an Olympic medal, and he shouldn't be blamed because the country doesn't work toward getting more international recognition in summer sports. If a nation like Trinidad and Tobago can get Olympic medals for 6 straight Summer Games with a population of under 1.5 million people, Austria should be able to achieve this too. They have way more people and way more money to spend. Of course, their focus is on Winter Games, but then again, I don't see how and why Thiem should be blamed for this.

It's not like he has ever cared for the Olympics, so he's not losing sleep over Austria ending up with zero medals. And by the way things look, none of the sports officials in Austria are losing sleep either.

One of the line judges was startled when Rublev smashed his racket after losing the first set, and the first thing I thought was "ok, I won't be surprised if she fakes a mental breakdown too at this point".

Yes, you're right. In the end, they're just about the same thing, though. FIG just decided to keep the name World Cup for their category A events, while their category B events were all renamed to World Challenge Cup. Even on their website they list the results for the WC and WCC under the same label. Why create a new and exciting event while they could just split the World Cup circuit and rebrand half of it as a new competition? Typical from FIG to take the easy way out.

Artistic gymnastics will finally be back. The first and last official event in FIG's calendar after start of the COVID-19 pandemic is the Szombathely World Cup, which will be held from October 2 to 4. Gymnasts from the following nations are set to compete: This could realistically be Albania's best shot at a medal in international competition with Matvei Petrov (especially on the pommel horse). Not many big names are going to compete. Filip Ude (Croatia), Marian Dragulescu (Romania) and Igor Radivilov (Ukraine) are former Olympics medalists and the most well-known gymnasts here. Boglarka Devai (Hungary), Teja Belak (Slovenia), Tin Srbic (Croatia) and Robert Seligman (Croatia) are also kind-of-big names.

And the British gymnasts did it again: another round of accusations about things that are hardly shocking. This time, Ellie Downie accused a nutritionist of making her feel bad because the woman advised her to lose weight. She mentioned she started having body issues, especially after the nutritionist asked her to send pictures on a daily basis showing her progress on her diet. Honestly? The British girls are really, really pissing me off.

More accusations, now from two female British gymnasts. Most of the accusations seem almost ridiculous, like being given controlled portions for meals and feeling pain from stretching. I mean, if you're gonna complain about these things, then change sports, go to modern pentathlon or something. However, one of the girls complains about being slapped and this is serious, of course.

I love how many diacritics are present here.

This is what happened to Daniela Druncea from Romania. Mediocre gymnast, nothing special about her, then all of a sudden she became a medalist in rowing at the 2016 Olympics.

Point 1: Look at the scandal where Bulgarian coaches were accused of abuse by Swiss gymnasts. Then, the gymnastics federation on Bulgaria, who had absolutely nothing to do with the training in SWITZERLAND, released an official note stating that they believe in the coaches and not in the Swiss gymnasts who accused them. Now, if the gymnastics federation of Bulgaria acts like that regarding a program in a different country -- which they have no involvement with and know nothing about -- it's not hard to imagine what measures they would take to cover up suspicious things in Bulgaria itself. Of course the gymnasts will say everyone is wonderful and whatnot, but let's not forget that Tsvetelina Stoyanova attempted suicide in 2016. The writing is on the wall here, seriously. Point 2: You see, most of the top nations can safely rely on new talents and their top gymnasts are under 20: just look at Ukraine with Nikolchenko, Belarus with Salos and Harnasko, and Israel with Zelikman, Voronkov and Telegina -- all of them are 19 or younger, and all of them won medals at the latest World Championships. Bulgaria is the only nation with a minimum of relevance to keep sending older gymnasts to the World Championships. I commend this, but I can also see this is a problem when the rest of the world can create great new gymnasts while Bulgaria cannot. I mean, Bulgaria had no medals with individual gymnasts at the 2019 WC. This means that not only younger gymnasts are not good enough, now even the older gymnasts are not good either. Do you really think Bulgaria has someone better to send to the WC?

In my opinion, it's even worse in rhythmic gymnastics, but you're right: this sport is toxic when it comes to how training is conducted all around the world. There are a number of reasons for that: 1) Most coaches learned to coach the Soviet way. 2) In some countries, physical violence and emotional abuse are seen as efficient ways to discipline athletes, and these countries usually thrive in gymnastics. 3) There's huge pressure for traditional programs to keep their results. 4) Similarly, smaller programs feel that if they don't come up with a miracle, funding will be cut, so they put three times more pressure on gymnasts for good results. 5) Age-requirements in women's artistic gymnastics are ridiculous. While in men's artistic gymnastics the boys are allowed to compete in senior events when they are 18 or older, in women's programs girls turn senior when they are 16. It's terrible because 13-14 year-old-girls are supposed to perform very hard skills and their bodies are not ready for that, so the coaches push them above their theoretical limits, and either the girls snap, the coaches snap, or both. In rhythmic gymnastics all of these points are 10 times worse because the number of countries that are relevant is very small, funding is nearly non-existent, basically only post-Soviet nations are relevant (and Bulgaria, a country which some coaches are equally toxic), and gymnasts over 20 are almost universally seen as past their prime.