thiago_simoes

[hide] Third Round September 26th - September 28th, 2018 6 Nations, 2 Groups, the 1st and 2nd Nations from each Group will qualify for Semifinals Group I Date & Time (GMT +2) Nation 1 T1 T2 Nation 2 September 26th 2018, h. 17:00 Brazil 3 1 Russia September 27th 2018, h. 17:00 United States 2 3 Russia September 28th 2018, h. 17:00 Brazil 2 3 United States Group J Date & Time (GMT +2) Nation 1 T1 T2 Nation 2 September 26th 2018, h. 21:15 Italy 1 3 Serbia September 27th 2018, h. 20:30 Poland 2 3 Serbia September 28th 2018, h. 21:15 Italy 1 3 Poland [/hide]

This is exactly my point. I'm always confused when people consider that surnames are more important than living everyday in the country. In my opinion, blood ties mean nothing if you don't care about the history of a given nation, or if you don't even live there. Here where I live many Haitians have arrived in the last few years. To put it simply, they are considered foreigners even though they live here everyday (i.e, Brazilians believe that someday they will "go away", which I find quite unsettling because I see them the same way I see other Brazilian people and they should not just go away). The thing is: even though they are seen by most people as foreigners, their kids are indeed Brazilians, and I wonder what will happen in 20 years, when these kids will be old enough to challenge for medals at the Olympics or at the World Championships.

There are two thoughts I'd like to share about this opinion: 1) Having an Italian surname doesn't really make anyone related to the culture and traditions of Italy, at least not if they simply don't care about it; 2) Of course I understand you can only speak for yourself (i.e., you consider how Italian people see people from other parts of the world with an Italian surname), but I can't help but wonder about how those people with Italian surnames feel about their origins. I will try to summarize these points with my own story here: I have three surnames -- one from Spanish origins, one from Portuguese origins and one "generic" surname I was told was given by the church in the 1600s-1700s to people who were poor and did not know about their origins. So, I know that my father's family comes from Europe (Spain and Portugal) but my mother's surname indicates nothing about her family's origin. When I was a child, I was told stories of one of my great-grandmothers being Dutch and another one being a native Brazilian (indigenous) person. One of my great-grandfathers was a black man, I'm sure, since I'm a mixed-race person with dark skin, so I have African origins too. Now, I had absolutely no contact with Spanish and Portuguese customs, and even if I have European surnames, I don't care in the slightest about Spanish/Portuguese culture. I know my example is about Spain and Portugal, but there are many examples in Brazil about people with Italian surnames -- so, it's funny to see that there are still people in Italy who care about surnames and whatnot, since in Brazil most of us couldn't care less, to be honest. Of course there are people who try to find about their origins so they can try to earn an European passport and live in Europe, but we're talking about 1-2% of the people who have European surnames really caring about their origins here.

[hide] Second Round September 21st - September 23rd, 2018 16 Nations, 4 Groups, the 1st Nation from each Group and 2 best 2nd placed Nations between all Groups will qualify for the Third Round Group E Date & Time (GMT +2) Nation 1 T1 T2 Nation 2 September 21st 2018, h. 17:00 Netherlands 2 3 Russia September 21st 2018, h. 21:15 Italy 3 1 Finland September 22nd 2018, h. 17:00 Netherlands 3 0 Finland September 22nd 2018, h. 21:15 Russia 3 2 Italy September 23rd 2018, h. 17:00 Russia 3 0 Finland September 23rd 2018, h. 21:15 Italy 3 2 Netherlands Group F Date & Time (GMT +2) Nation 1 T1 T2 Nation 2 September 21st 2018, h. 17:00 Brazil 3 1 Australia September 21st 2018, h. 20:30 Belgium 1 3 Slovenia September 22nd 2018, h. 17:00 Australia 2 3 Belgium September 22nd 2018, h. 20:30 Slovenia 2 3 Brazil September 23rd 2018, h. 17:00 Slovenia 3 2 Australia September 23rd 2018, h. 20:30 Belgium 1 3 Brazil Group G Date & Time (GMT +3) Nation 1 T1 T2 Nation 2 September 21st 2018, h. 17:00 United States 3 1 Canada September 21st 2018, h. 20:40 Bulgaria 2 3 Iran September 22nd 2018, h. 17:00 Iran 3 0 Canada September 22nd 2018, h. 20:40 Bulgaria 1 3 United States September 23rd 2018, h. 17:00 United States 3 2 Iran September 23rd 2018, h. 20:40 Bulgaria 3 1 Canada Group H Date & Time (GMT +3) Nation 1 T1 T2 Nation 2 September 21st 2018, h. 17:00 Serbia 2 3 France September 21st 2018, h. 20:40 Poland 3 0 Argentina September 22nd 2018, h. 17:00 Serbia 3 1 Argentina September 22nd 2018, h. 20:40 Poland 3 2 France September 23rd 2018, h. 17:00 France 3 1 Argentina September 23rd 2018, h. 20:40 Poland 2 3 Serbia [/hide]

As expected, the US dominated the women's team final, even with a B team. The real surprise was Brazil posting a big score. We were just a couple of tenths below the score Russia achieved at the European Championships, and that means we might even challenge for a medal at Worlds (one can dream, I guess). Mexico got bronze, but we didn't get to see how the girls performed because the broadcast mostly showed Brazil and the US. Overall, i'm very pleased with the results. This might very well have been the best ever performance by a Brazilian team in international competition. Not even our 5th place at the 2007 Worlds or our 1st place at the 2016 Olympics Test Event had such brilliant performances. I'm also surprised because we had live streaming during the whole meet. This happened in 2014, but in 2016 and 2017 there was virtually no coverage at all of the Pan American Championships, so I was a little worried that we would not get to see the performances. I'm hopeful for full coverage at the Pan American Games now.

The men's team final was surprising. The US youngsters won gold with solid routines, and no one expected that because this was the C team from the United States. For them to walk away with the gold medal ahead of the solid team from Cuba and the experienced team from Colombia was a big upset. Speaking of which, Colombia moved from sixth place from qualifications to the silver medal position. Brazil won bronze even after a disastrous rotation on pommel horse. I expected bad results on this apparatus, but not THIS bad. Lucas Bittencourt scored 9.6 (this is pretty much like receiving an F in gymnastics) and another Brazilian gymnast fell from the apparatus. All of the other routines were rock solid, which is good for us, but they need to improve their scores on the pommel horse as soon as possible. Cuba had a very disappointing finish, placing fourth, after placing first in qualifications. They had to count fall and a big hop in their last routine, and that made them lose the bronze medal by 0.134. Poor guys.

Out of curiosity, I decided to research about when nations got medals at the World Championships for the first time and these are the results: 1963: and Soviet Union 1965: Czechoslovakia 1967: East Germany 1971: 1973: 1975: and West Germany 1987: 1992: 1997: 1999: 2007: 2011: 2014: In comparison, the World Cup series shows a lot more variety, especially in recent years. This is the timeline showing when nations earned medals for the first time at the World Cup: 1983: and Soviet Union 1986: 1990: 2000: 2002: 2004: 2006: 2008: 2009: 2010: 2011: 2012: 2013: 2015: 2016: 2018:

I'm somewhat torn about what to think about the World Championships. In a way, we had a big number of surprises and it made the sport feel a little bit exciting again, but when we look at the list of nations that earned medals, nothing is new under the sun. I really thought Estonia had a chance of getting a medal, or maybe even France, China or Finland on a very crazy day. But nope. All of the unexpected things that happened here only favored the same old nations. Nice to see Belarus getting a medal, nice to see Ukraine showing they are not dead, nice to see Japan getting a medal for the third WCh in a row, nice to see Bulgaria and Italy with gold, nice to see Italy also with a team medal and two individual medals... But these are all traditional nations in this sport, and when only athletes from traditional nations achieve medal results, even though these results were not really expected, I feel like the sport is not actually moving forward as it should. Oh, well. As a final note: HUGE kudos to Mexico for finishing 9th in the group all-around and 9th on the mixed apparatus routine. This is the best result of a Latin American nation since 2002. Congratulations to the medalists and let's hope for more surprises next year.

Colombia not qualifying a team is the biggest shock of the competition so far. Kind of a bad day for Brazil, despite Flávia being amazing on beam and floor, and the team finishing second. Canada seemed to be underscored, especially on floor. Mexico was a big surprise because I expected virtually nothing from them, and they walked away with a bronze medal on bars and a nice chance to earn a team medal tomorrow (though I'd bet in Canada for the bronze medal). Kudos to Argentina (fourth place is an spectacular result), Puerto Rico (they qualified a full team, yay) and Costa Rica (very good gymnasts). Medalists:

Not exactly. "Traditional" wealthy people support Geraldo Alckmin or even João Amoedo (a bank owner). Bolsonaro is supported by those who are racist, misogynistic and against LGBT people. He is pro-military and many people mask their prejudices by saying they support him because he supports the military, but this is bullshit. These people just want black people to remain poor, women to remain as servants inside of their own houses and LGBT people to die. Brazil can be an extremely disgusting place sometimes, and now even our sports teams are utterly disgusting...

This picture shows two Brazilian players showing the numbers 7 and 1 with their fingers, and this has been attributed to supporting presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro (voting number 17) in the upcoming presidential elections. The catch is: Bolsonaro is very outspoken against LGBT people (besides being openly racist and misogynistic). There are black players on the team (one of the two players showing support is black) and, historically, volleyball has been considered the favorite sport of gay males in Brazil (and we have plenty of rumors about closeted gay players on the national team). The national volleyball federation decided to forbid any political manifestations after the picture was taken, but the damage is too big to cover it up now. All I want now is that this team loses all of the matches. Bunch of retards.

Top 8 teams are The medalists are being announced as of now, but I think I got them all right and posted the results on Wikipedia.

Good question. I believe they should perform on all apparatus (12 routines) to even be considered a team. This is why Uruguay's men's team performed on all apparatus, despite scoring abysmally low on the pommel horse. Sad news: Haley de Jong got injured and there's no time to send an alternate gymnast to compete, so Canada will need to perform with only four girls. I'm completely sure there's no way this will hurt their chances of qualifying a full team for the Pan American Games, but I'm not so sure about a medal anymore. On an absolutely brilliant day, Argentina could challenge for the bronze medal now.

Yes, but I remember that Brazil sent three gymnasts to the London Olympics and they counted as individuals. Even if all of them wanted to perform on all apparatus, they would still count as individuals. At the Olympics, a team consists of 5 gymnasts, 4 of them perform on a given apparatus in qualifications, and the 3 best score counts (5-4-3 format). It looks like the organization decided to stretch things a bit for the Pan Ams. Uruguay only performed with three male gymnasts and they did indeed count their scores as a team score. So, it means that the Dominican Republic will also count as a team.

My predictions for the top 8 teams: Men's teams: USA, Colombia, Canada, Brazil, Cuba, Argentina, Peru and the eight team is hard to predict... maybe Puerto Rico or Mexico. Women's teams: USA, Brazil, Canada, Argentina, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Colombia and Cuba. Also, I strongly believe Dominican Republic will not count as a women's team. There must be 4 to 5 gymnasts to compose a team according to FIG's rules.

Nice! Thank you! One gymnast from the Cayman Islands competed at the 2015 Pan American Games. She even made it to the all-around final!

Artistic gymnastics, rhythmic gymnastics, judo, swimming... and the fifth sport is hard to choose because I don't really care about anything else. I voted for volleyball, but only because I was a huge fan of volleyball when I was a small kid and a teenager, but I don't really follow much of what's going on nowadays in this the sport. Diving and trampoline are surprisingly not among my favorites, even though I watch the replays later.

[hide] First Round September 9th - September 18th, 2018 24 Nations, 4 Groups, the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th Nations from each Group will qualify for the Second Round Group A Date & Time (GMT +2) Nation 1 T1 T2 Nation 2 September 9th 2018, h. 19:30 Italy - - Japan September 12th 2018, h. 17:00 Dominican Republic 3 1 Slovenia September 12th 2018, h. 20:30 Belgium 2 3 Argentina September 13th 2018, h. 17:00 Dominican Republic 2 3 Japan September 13th 2018, h. 21:15 Italy 3 0 Belgium September 14th 2018, h. 17:00 Japan 3 1 Slovenia September 14th 2018, h. 20:30 Argentina 1 3 Dominican Republic September 15th 2018, h. 17:00 Belgium 3 1 Slovenia September 15th 2018, h. 21:15 Italy 3 1 Argentina September 16th 2018, h. 17:00 Japan 1 3 Belgium September 16th 2018, h. 21:15 Dominican Republic 0 3 Italy September 17th 2018, h. 17:00 Belgium 3 1 Dominican Republic September 17th 2018, h. 20:30 Argentina 3 0 Slovenia September 18th 2018, h. 17:00 Japan 2 3 Argentina September 18th 2018, h. 21:15 Italy 3 0 Slovenia Group B Date & Time (GMT +3) Nation 1 T1 T2 Nation 2 September 12th 2018, h. 14:00 France 3 0 China September 12th 2018, h. 17:00 Netherlands 3 0 Canada September 12th 2018, h. 20:30 Brazil 3 0 Egypt September 13th 2018, h. 17:00 Egypt 1 3 Canada September 13th 2018, h. 20:30 Brazil 3 2 France September 14th 2018, h. 17:00 China 0 3 Netherlands September 14th 2018, h. 20:30 France 3 0 Egypt September 15th 2018, h. 17:00 Canada 3 1 China September 15th 2018, h. 20:30 Netherlands 3 1 Brazil September 16th 2018, h. 17:00 China 3 1 Egypt September 16th 2018, h. 20:30 Netherlands 1 3 France September 17th 2018, h. 17:00 Egypt 1 3 Netherlands September 17th 2018, h. 20:30 Brazil 3 0 Canada September 18th 2018, h. 17:00 China 0 3 Brazil September 18th 2018, h. 20:30 Canada 1 3 France Group C Date & Time (GMT +2) Nation 1 T1 T2 Nation 2 September 12th 2018, h. 14:00 Cameroon 0 3 Tunisia September 12th 2018, h. 17:00 Australia 0 3 Russia September 12th 2018, h. 20:30 United States 3 2 Serbia September 13th 2018, h. 17:00 Australia 0 3 United States September 13th 2018, h. 20:30 Cameroon 0 3 Serbia September 14th 2018, h. 17:00 Australia 3 1 Cameroon September 14th 2018, h. 20:30 Russia 3 0 Tunisia September 15th 2018, h. 17:00 Serbia 3 0 Tunisia September 15th 2018, h. 20:30 United States 3 2 Russia September 16th 2018, h. 17:00 Cameroon 0 3 United States September 16th 2018, h. 20:30 Serbia 3 0 Australia September 17th 2018, h. 17:00 Russia 3 0 Cameroon September 17th 2018, h. 20:30 Australia 3 2 Tunisia September 18th 2018, h. 17:00 United States 3 0 Tunisia September 18th 2018, h. 20:30 Serbia 2 3 Russia Group D Date & Time (GMT +2) Nation 1 T1 T2 Nation 2 September 9th 2018, h. 20:30 Bulgaria - - Finland September 12th 2018, h. 17:00 Iran 3 1 Puerto Rico September 12th 2018, h. 20:30 Cuba 0 3 Poland September 13th 2018, h. 17:00 Puerto Rico 1 3 Poland September 13th 2018, h. 20:30 Iran 3 0 Bulgaria September 14th 2018, h. 17:00 Finland 0 3 Cuba September 14th 2018, h. 20:30 Bulgaria 3 0 Puerto Rico September 15th 2018, h. 17:00 Cuba 1 3 Iran September 15th 2018, h. 20:30 Poland 3 0 Finland September 16th 2018, h. 17:00 Puerto Rico 2 3 Finland September 16th 2018, h. 20:30 Cuba 3 2 Bulgaria September 17th 2018, h. 17:00 Cuba 3 1 Puerto Rico September 17th 2018, h. 20:30 Iran 0 3 Poland September 18th 2018, h. 17:00 Finland 0 3 Iran September 18th 2018, h. 20:30 Bulgaria 1 3 Poland [/hide]

The Pan American Championships were concluded today. As expected, Canada dominated the competition with four gold medals and making it to the podium in every event except for women's trampoline team. The biggest surprise of the meet was Argentina, with three gold medals and seven medals overall. Gymnasts from the United States, Brazil and Mexico also earned medals. Overall, the competition was underwhelming. One of the events, in special, was terrible: the women's trampoline team event. The US got a gold medal because they did not have major mistakes. Argentina had very simple routines which would never challenge for a medal, but since everybody else but the US girls faltered, they got silver. Mexico got bronze even after a terrible score from one of their gymnasts. It was really bad.

I believe we'll get 5/6 medals overall, a bleak prospect compared to 6 gold medals/13 medals overall in 2014. In 2014 we had three medals in gymnastics, but this time we have absolutely no chance in women's artistic gymnastics (not even a miracle) and a very, very low chance of a bronze medal in men's artistic gymnastics. Other than that, we have to rely on the usual sports: beach volleyball, judo, swimming and futsal. I believe we have outside chances in equestrian and table tennis, and who knows what might happen in athletics, boxing and cycling. But you're right, our medal chances will be very low.

Off topic, but thumbs up to India for decriminalizing homosexuality. LGBT people all over the world are proud of this decision.

Brazil will send 81 athletes, a smaller number compared to 97 athletes in 2014. Full list of athletes (names of the sports are in Portuguese) here.

The Pan American Championships will begin next week and some teams and individuals have been announced. Men's artistic gymnastics Argentina: Federico Molinari, Daniel Villafañe, Nicolas Cordoba, Santiago Mayor, Julian Jato Brazil: Francisco Barreto, Luis Porto, Caio Souza, Leonardo Matheus, Lucas Bitterncourt Canada: Rene Cournoyer, Zachary Clay, Cory Paterson, Darren Wong, Samuel Zakutney Colombia: Jossimar Calvo, Javier Sandoval, Didier Lugo, Andres Martinez, José David Toro Peru: Luis Pizarro, Jimmy Figueroa, Jesus Moreto, Arian León Prado, Daniel Aguero USA: Cameron Bock, Spencer Goodell, Riley Loos, Kanji Oyama, Genki Suzuki Women's artistic gymnastics Aruba: Rebecca Spellen got injured and will miss the championships, unfortunately Argentina: Ayelen Tarabini, Martina Dominici, Agustina Pisos, Camila Klesa, Mayra Vaquie Brazil: Rebeca Andrade, Jade Barbosa, Flávia Saraiva, Lorrane Santos, Thais Fidelis (alternate: Daniele Hypólito) Canada: Jade Chrobok, Laurie Denommée, Haley de Jong, Sophie Marois, Ana Padurariu Panama: Ana Laura Wong, Victoria Castro USA: Jade Carey, Kara Eaker, Shilese Jones, Grace McCallum, Trinity Thomas

Congratulations to Argentina. Well deserved victory.

Brazilian players can't serve. This is ridiculous. Argentina deserves the title.