thiago_simoes

Yes, I edited mere seconds before you posted this. No chance at all. is much stronger than the rest of the continent, and there's also with considerably stronger gymnasts even if has a complete meltdown.

Qualified nations: If host nation quota applies: might qualify through the World Championships if not qualified otherwise (see scenarios below) Next in line: Three extra quotas will be available at the World Cup and one quota for each continental championships. Now, we have some very interesting scenarios which could even lead to different nations qualifying through the World Championships: 1) Provided qualifies through the World Cup/European Championships, would be next in line and 2) If qualifies through the WCup/ECh, would be next in line and 3) If qualifies through the WCup/Asian Championships, then qualifies through the World Championships. Then, if and get quotas through the WCup/ECh and gets a quota from the Asian Championships, then could qualify through the World Championships. If this is the case, then there's no hope for to qualify through the World Championships anymore, I'm afraid.

Oh, good. Pazhava also has a small chance now that Salos is performing poorly (poor girl). We shall see.

I am furious right now. The presentations for group B in the all-around final have finished. The top 4 from this group secured an Olympic quota, and the gymnasts are from and . Vedenneva and Pazhava , two of my favorite gymnasts, missed out. I have no words to express how disappointed I am every time the results in this sport get "suspicious". Honestly, sacrificing Vedeneeva so the home gymnast (from Azerbajan) gets an Olympic quota is perverse. Now we need someone to screw up badly in group A, something Vedeneeva did not deserve to go through and which no one from group A deserves to go through either. Vedeneeva and Pazhava, two of the most artistic gymnasts in this sport, each in her own style, not qualifying to the Olympics because a group of judges believe a routine with a rather questionable Mortal Kombat song deserves the quota. Unbelievable.

finished way ahead of , so now even I started to doubt about Sri Lanka's chances of a wildcard quota. North Macedonia's gymnast lives and trains in Bulgaria, so it's easy to understand why she finished first. The Sri Lankan gymnast is actually Canadian. Lucia Castiglioni is the only one who was born in her represented nation among the top 3 nations eligible for the tripartite invitation. Whoever they choose, it will be a bittersweet choice for many reasons. As I predicted, no team medal for this time. Scores with ribbon were too low for their level, so took their chances and earned the bronze medal. was able to keep the high level until the very end, and I am very surprised with their performances.

From the point of view of a sovereignty of a nation, yes. But time and time again it has been proven that, as a sovereign nation, there is a lot of political involvement in sports, and if this is the route Iran wants to follow, no one should be surprised about the consequences. Another point: I'm always baffled when you repeat that the rest of the world doesn't know how things work in Iran when all the news we get from many different sources is that athletes are punished by the government, gay people are killed, women are forbidden to go to gymnasiums and stadiums watching men compete... Either the whole world is obstinate to spread fake news about Iran, or you really are trying hard cover the problems in your nation (or you are not aware of them). And if the judokas are allowed to compete individually, it's not really a tragedy for the sport, only for the nation as a political entity. Not that Iran didn't dig its own grave in this case, if all evidence is correct.

Of course. My bad. I thought this was the final result.

Since both Israel and Palestine are not officially recognized as nations by a bunch of other countries in the world, then maybe leaving both outside of these Games is not such a bad idea at all? At least Palestine didn't invade another territory and forced international recognition, so what remains of Palestine should be treated differently from what has become Israel. And let's not even pretend politics is not part of this, or that it should be left behind. Nations are, after all, political organizations and divisions. Israel cannot even coexist peacefully within the Middle East, ffs.

I would not be mad, really. I mean, women can't even watch sport events in your country. Maybe you're not aware how completely crazy this sounds to the rest of the world. What good does it bring to the world to have a country like this competing internationally? This is one of the many reasons why I never, ever cheer for Iran or support your athletes, despite all Iranians here being nice people. And I (kind of) understand you're disappointed, but there's no reason to abandon the forum. You guys should not blame people who are trying to force some sense into the managers of your sports federation.

Israel should never take part in these Games, but Palestine should be given a nod. Anyway, it's not that this is a super important competition, but it would still be nice for Palestine to be present in as many sport events as possible.

with gold in C&J! Wow!

The Slovenian gymnast competed for Russia a few years ago. She has always been among the top 8 Russians, so it's only natural she will qualify representing Slovenia (this year she won a bronze medal at the World Cup circuit and a silver medal at the Grand Prix circuit... She's fantastic). Serbia has no chance at all, unfortunately.

So Lebanon is not eligible? Bummer. I don't think the tripartite invitation would go to Europe, so I'm crossing out North Macedonia from this list. Sri Lanka will probably qualify instead, and one Arabic-speaking nation (Egypt) will qualify through the African Championships next year, so there's a bit of happiness for everybody.

Very poorly, unfortunately. Indeed. Among all nations, she is the one that deserves the invitation the most. Much improved over anything her country has shown in the past The Lebanese girl is not so far behind the Sri Lankan. Maybe we'll get to see an upset, who knows?

Random thoughts so far: 1) The tiaras worn by the Russians are tacky, overly pretentious and add nothing to their routines. 2) I'm not a fan of Ashram, but she deserved gold over Selezneva in hoop. But of course "weird" things always happen so Russians end up with the gold medal. 3) Israel in second so far in the team event is a big surprise. They still have their "weakest" performances to come with Telegina and Voronkov, but so does Italy with Maffei and Russo. Bulgaria and especially Belarus could benefit from this. Granted, Bulgaria has Vladinova to come (and she has been nothing but disappointing in the last few months) and Belarus has a team of three excellent gymnasts, so Belarus definitely has the edge over Italy in my opinion, provided they hit every single routine. But it will be close. 4) Griskenas ahead of Zeng? What? Griskenas even made it to a final! Very unexpected! 5) I am very surprised with Barbara Domingos from Brazil. 19.100 and 18.450 are huge scores for her level, and if she's lucky (like, extremely lucky) she could finish 24th and qualify for the final for the first time. Unlikely, but definitely not impossible at this point. 6) Angola, of all nations, has a competent gymnast: Luana Gomes. Nice to see their level has risen considerably. 7) Canadian competing for Sri Lanka, Anna-Marie Ondaatje, is doing pretty well. She is on the right track for the tripartite Olympic qualification. 8) Alissa Sadek from Lebanon is also posting very decent scores, and I honestly never heard about her. Is Lebanon even allowed to apply for a tripartite invitation? 9) There's an Egyptian gymnast also posting good scores. She's currently in 55th place, ahead of both Portuguese gymnasts, and Portugal invests considerable money in rhythmic gymnastics (they even hold one of the World Cup events), so it's surprising to see Egypt ahead of Portugal. 10) Even Australia now has a good gymnast sitting in 58th position! Rhythmics has truly become a global sport by now. I'm amazed!

Hard to say. In my opinion, she is really ill because her performance in Portimão was baffling (even though she won AA gold). But of course we can expect anything from Viner. Truth be told, she had no chance to reach the Olympics, and even her participation at the 2019 Worlds would have been nothing but a footnote for the Russian team. I don't think she would even be able to earn an individual medal. She should have gone the Vedeneeva route by choosing another country to represent (but to be honest I'm not sure Viner would allow her to do this).

Unbelievable. I'm at loss for words. He was such a nice guy. May he rest in peace.

Expected individual Olympic qualifiers: Dark horses for individual qualification: Expected group Olympic qualifiers: Dark horses for group qualification: Groups already qualified: Expected tripartite invitation:

Things are not so simple. I am a lot of different things: male, Brazilian, overweight, mixed race, agnostic, professor/teacher... being gay is one of these things. It's not the most important thing in my life, but it is something I'm very comfortable about being. Let's suppose we engage in a conversation and I decide to tell you about something my students did, or about one specific subject from a class I've taught. You'll immediately understand I am a teacher, and hopefully the conversation will go on without me explaining that I am a teacher; you will understand from the context and hopefully will not be pissed off by this specific information. Now, let's suppose you tell me about something your wife did, and then I tell you "my boyfriend did the same thing". You will probably understand at this point that I am a gay man, and if you live in a muslim nation, this will probably trigger someone who is eavesdropping (or maybe even you). However, since there's nothing wrong about me being a teacher, why must it be wrong when I say (or imply) that I am gay? Why should I suppress this information in a conversation when I would never omit from a conversation the fact that I am a teacher, if I believe this is relevant. It's brutal, but in order to be safe, I have to take extra care, especially when I am in a foreign country. When you are gay, you learn to be afraid of even the most trivial conversations in unknown territories whenever you feel threatened. You either have to 1) omit any information about your significant other, or your sexuality; or 2) be vigilant and completely rephrase your sentences on your mind before you speak them, if your sentence somehow refers to your (or one's sexuality or significant other). It sucks to speak about my former relationships by saying "person" or "significant other". I'm sure straight people would never be afraid to openly speak about their wives and husbands, but gay people always feel threatened whenever they have to speak up. There's another thing: not being "effeminate" doesn't make me any less gay. And I 100% support effeminate men, or butch women. Anybody lives however they want to live, and if this is how they chose to present themselves to the world, so be it. They should never ever be afraid of even walking outside on the sidewalk, and unfortunately these people are the number one targets, especially in ultra conservative societies. As a final point, why would I ever spend my hard earned money in a country full of conservative people who have specific laws against gay people and clearly do not like people like me? I would never.

Here: https://twitter.com/CordeliaGymFan

Huge score for Egypt's Ali Zahran on rings. He could even win a medal at the World Championships with this score! Also, Japan is on fire. They sent a bunch of unknown gymnasts and even so, some scores were well over 15. Fantastic!

I still don't get why you create suck a link between pedophilia and young girls competing. I know it may be harsh on their bodies both physically and emotionally, and that they may be forced to pursue other people's dreams, but pedophilia refers to sexual excitement towards children, and this has nothing to do with young girls competing in a sport. I mean, I understand your point, but if one wants to protect children from potential predators, one would lock children at home until they reach 18. It's important to discuss the effects of being a world champion at 11 on her mind, but maybe worrying about sexual predators being attracted to this sport is a bit too much.

With all due respect, I'm never ever going to visit a muslim nation. Not a chance. I know many muslims are nice people, but all it takes is one conservative muslim to make my life a nightmare once they discover I'm gay, and I fear for my life, so nope. Nope, nope, nope. I have my fair share of shitty protestants to deal with in Brazil. (PS: not all protestants are bad towards gay people, but in Brazil 90% of them are, and dealing with them is unbearable.)

Wait, what? While I agree that there should be an age limit for every sport, or no age restrictions at all (what pretty much makes the Youth Olympics an useless event, even more than it already is), what's the point between young girls competing and pedophilia?

Come to think about it, yeah, this could work if it's not taken too seriously as a sports event. I mean, drone racing and e-sports are a perfect fit for this kind of event, and if you add 3x3 basketball and parkour then there's a semblance of physical effort and it could gather fans from the best of both worlds.