thiago_simoes

Both Asian and South American championships took place this weekend. First, about the Asian Championships: the level was a little lower than I expected. I don't understand why Oksana Chusovitina, Yeo Seo-jeong and Yang Hak-seong took part at the Korea Cup four days ago and skipped the Asian Championships. Some of the Chinese gymnasts did well, especially on men's and women's vault, and I was pleasantly surprised with Ahmad Abu-Al-Soud from Jordan winning vault pommel horse with a great score (14.9) that would probably place him among the finalists at the World Championships. It was also nice to see some guys throwing big difficulty (such as Aprizal on vault and Karimi on floor), and Keikha from Iran was solid. All the rest, though, was pretty average. Now, the South American Championships. On the women's side, Argentina had a very interesting team on paper, but when it comes to the real competition, they couldn't quite live up to their potential. Don't get me wrong: they earned four gold medals, including a team medal, and this is great, but they are capable of scoring a lot more. The results might have been enough for gold medals on this level, but they need to acquire more consistency. Dominici and Magistrati have a lot of potential, but both had many, many, many falls. The only really good event was vault (with a surprising bronze medal for Bolivia, totally deserved). On the men's side, Brazil dominated most of the events, but there's a lot of room for improvement until the Pan Ams. Very nice results for Peru and Uruguay, and I'm glad Fuenmayor from Venezuela is still alive and kicking. Colombia also had some great moments (Lugo on rings, Calvo on parallel bars and Sandoval on high bar) with lots of difficulty but the execution was not quite as good, so they had to walk away without a gold medal, unfortunately. Edit: The guy from Jordan won pommel horse, not vault.

Yes, I wonder how on earth something like that happened in the first place. Either way, even though the Mexican federation was the one to blame for sheer incompetence, I believe the gymnasts should not have been punished. They should have been able to keep the medal, then an extra set of bronze medals should be awarded to Canada. This way, no one would lose. I feel bad for the Mexican gymnasts who had to return their medals because of such a ridiculous problem caused by the federation itself.

You guys need to bombard the Mexican federation with messages on Facebook, Twitter, e-mails... This more than a simple misunderstanding: this is negligence. I've contacted the Mexican federation a number of times, and also PAGU (whose president is also from Mexico) and I've had a terrible experience. They have very bad PR and no transparency whatsoever. When I asked PAGU on Facebook to act more professional, they blocked my account. LOL. Such amateurs.

It doesn't make sense to not add her to the team. No one else has a realistic chance of an individual medal, and a team medal is very, very unlikely, with or without her. Has the team been decided? This is probably some Japanese level of dumbness when it comes to selecting teams.

Good news for Mexico: Moreno is back in action. She should easily get a medal on vault at the Pan Ams. Source: Here.

Oh, and I forgot to add: Mexico's biggest loss is not really Moreno, but instead Frida Esparza. Had she been healthy, she could help Mexico fight for the bronze medal with Brazil. If things stay like they are today, it will be Canada vs USA for the team gold medal, Brazil with a comfortable lead for the bronze medal, and all of the other teams fighting for sports 4-8. Mexico should place fourth, but I believe Argentina will be the biggest surprise at the Pan Ams and it will be very interesting to see where they will land.

I believe there is a big difference in quality between women's teams and men's teams. Women's teams: USA (even with a B team), Canada and Brazil (even without Rebeca Andrade) are among the 10 best teams in the world. Men's teams: USA has inexperienced gymnasts and none of them should even be selected for the World Championships. Brazil relies too much on gymnasts who are clearly out of shape (like Nory and Barreto), and Caio Souza is still injured, so I don't expect miracles for the Pan Am Games. Canada has a solid team but nothing really special. Maybe Brazil will finish among the top 10 at the World Championships, but I doubt it. 11th or 12th is a more realistic scenario, especially since our best all-arounders are doing terrible. There's no comparison to the women's event, really.

All of the teams are terrible. It's anyone's game.

Gold for the US Virgin Islands at the 2019 World Powerlifting Championships. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_world_championships_medalists_in_powerlifting_(women)

And a very good chance for both Fabian de Luna and Federico Molinari to challenge for an individual medal on rings. The US will send a very inexperienced team, and Canada doesn't seem to have anyone particularly strong on rings. Zanetti should not have problems to win gold (and I'm not exactly happy about that, since you guys know I never root for him), but silver and bronze will be very interesting.

With Rebeca Andrade out, things are completely different now, especially for Canada. This team is 99% sure to get at least a silver medal. Depending on who gets picked for the US team, I'd say there's a slim chance for gold. Also, in individual events, I expect Olssen and Black to challenge for gold medals, and Padurariu as well especially on beam. Very strong team. Not only the Pan Ams should be very successful with this team, but Olympic qualification is a breeze now.

Why not?

Yes, but as far as I know, religious temples are still allowed not to accept LGBT practitioners. Somewhat disappointing.

There was an American competing for Bangladesh in gymnastics at the 2012 Olympics. I remember he scored 15.000 in the parallel bars, and this must have been enough for a top 15 finish. EDIT: I was wrong. He scored 14.766 and placed 27th. Still huge considering he finished 134th on this apparatus at the 2011 World Championships.

When the men's team plays at the World Cup, classes are suspended in most schools. Not that the women's team is playing, I've not heard about schools suspending classes. By the way: what an awesome play leading to the second goal!

Rebeca Andrade will miss Pan Ams and the World Championships. She suffered a knee sprain and will need to undergo surgery. She will return to competition after eight months. I have no words to describe how devastated I am.

Yup. I'd say Zanetti, De Luna and Molinari are one step ahead in the still rings. Maybe Caio Souza can spoil someone's party, or even Daniel Villafañe, but I wouldn't bet on it.

I don't, but the issue here is a lot more complicated. I don't exactly root for Palestine, but I support their right to exist as a nation. The reason I mentioned Palestine is because I never, ever, root for Israel, especially in gymnastics. From what I've read, judges (or whoever is responsible for declaring the death penalty) attribute nonexistent crimes to LGBT people so they can be killed. I wouldn't doubt it. Forging a murder, rape or any other serious crime just to kill someone for being gay is something I honestly expect from Iranian justice system. This is not to say Brazil is a safe haven for LGBT+ people. On the contrary: Brazil is the number 1 country in the world when it comes to murders of LGBT+ people. Protestantism in Brazil is getting stronger and stronger, and Brazilian Protestantism is as dangerous to LGBT+ people as any other radical religion.

Mostly Arabic-speaking nations thanks to religious issues, of course, though some nations in the Caribbean are also part of this list. But since the thread is about what nations we root for, there's no point in listing other nations for which I'll never root for.

Japan. I'm a Japanophile: I love the culture, the language (I've taken classes for three years), the cuisine, and of course I love video games (total Sega fanboy). Not really a fan of anime and manga, though I've been a fan of Saint Seiya/The Knights of Zodiac since I was a child. I also love it when smaller nations get medals in gymnastics. My current profile pic also shows support for Palestine, so it's easy to assume which country I'm never rooting for. Also, I don't ever root for Iran, though the Iranians here are great people and I really enjoy Iranian films. But as a gay man I can never root for a country where gay people are killed by the government.

[hide] Preliminary RoundJune 7th - June 20th, 2019 24 Nations, 6 Groups, the 1st and 2nd Nations from each Group and 6 best 3rd ranked Teams among all Groups will qualify for the Round of 16 Group A Date & Time (GMT +2) Nation 1 T1 T2 Nation 2 June 7th 2019, h. 21:00 France 3 0 South Korea June 8th 2019, h. 21:00 Norway 2 1 Nigeria June 12th 2019, h. 15:00 Nigeria 1 1 South Korea June 12th 2019, h. 21:00 France 3 2 Norway June 17th 2019, h. 21:00 Nigeria 0 2 France June 17th 2019, h. 21:00 South Korea 1 2 Norway Group B Date & Time (GMT +2) Nation 1 T1 T2 Nation 2 June 8th 2019, h. 15:00 Germany 2 2 China June 8th 2019, h. 18:00 Spain 1 0 South Africa June 12th 2019, h. 18:00 Germany 3 1 Spain June 13th 2019, h. 21:00 South Africa 2 0 China June 17th 2019, h. 18:00 South Africa 0 1 Germany June 17th 2019, h. 18:00 China 1 0 Spain Group C Date & Time (GMT +2) Nation 1 T1 T2 Nation 2 June 9th 2019, h. 13:00 Australia 4 0 Italy June 9th 2019, h. 15:30 Brazil 3 0 Jamaica June 13th 2019, h. 18:00 Australia 2 3 Brazil June 14th 2019, h. 18:00 Jamaica 2 1 Italy June 18th 2019, h. 21:00 Jamaica 0 5 Australia June 18th 2019, h. 21:00 Italy 1 3 Brazil Group D Date & Time (GMT +2) Nation 1 T1 T2 Nation 2 June 9th 2019, h. 18:00 England 0 0 Scotland June 10th 2019, h. 18:00 Argentina 0 3 Japan June 14th 2019, h. 15:00 Japan 2 0 Scotland June 14th 2019, h. 21:00 England 1 0 Argentina June 19th 2019, h. 21:00 Japan 3 1 England June 19th 2019, h. 21:00 Scotland 1 1 Argentina Group E Date & Time (GMT +2) Nation 1 T1 T2 Nation 2 June 10th 2019, h. 21:00 Canada 2 1 Cameroon June 11th 2019, h. 15:00 New Zealand 0 3 Netherlands June 15th 2019, h. 15:00 Netherlands 1 2 Cameroon June 15th 2019, h. 21:00 Canada 2 1 New Zealand June 20th 2019, h. 18:00 Netherlands 1 1 Canada June 20th 2019, h. 18:00 Cameroon 3 1 New Zealand Group F Date & Time (GMT +2) Nation 1 T1 T2 Nation 2 June 11th 2019, h. 18:00 Chile 1 4 Sweden June 11th 2019, h. 21:00 United States 6 0 Thailand June 16th 2019, h. 15:00 Sweden 4 0 Thailand June 16th 2019, h. 18:00 United States 3 0 Chile June 20th 2019, h. 21:00 Sweden 2 2 United States June 20th 2019, h. 21:00 Thailand 0 3 Chile [/hide]

Well, it works for me. I can watch a sevens match without losing interest, while I can't stand XV.

Many bad gymnasts and a handful of very good ones.

No Marta Pihan. Noooo.

I'm only interested in gymnastics events, of course, but I'm still baffled at the choices of the medal events. Only mixed pairs and women's group in acrobatic gymnastics? Why? Synchronized trampoline? A mixed group event in aerobic gymnastics, but no individual men's and women's events? Insane. Artistic and rhythmic gymnastics are not much better, either. One gymnast per nation, six nations in finals. This is just ridiculous. I like the idea of giving a bigger opportunity for smaller nations to get medals, but seriously, at least leave eight gymnasts in finals. I can't forget how dreadful it was to see Iridon from Romania winning a medal on the uneven bars after a fall. She's terrible on this apparatus, so how the hell did she win a medal? Even I can't get too excited about this event, honestly.