thiago_simoes

Junior: Luísa Helena (she placed seventh at the Pan Ams) Senior: Flávia Saraiva (though Rebeca Andrade is coming back) I knew Luísa Helena would place behind the Americans and the Canadians, but placing behind two three Argentinian gymnasts was a tough pill to swallow. The money invested in Luísa Helena was huge. In the end, she is out of shape (for a gymnast), performing low difficulty and behind three gymnasts from a nation which does not invest nearly as much in gymnastics. Unacceptable. Kudos to Argentina, of course, but shame on Brazil for allowing this to happen.

qualified girls in women's artistic gymnastics. The US did not try to qualify, despite winning the all-around title at the Pan Am Championships. Panama had an outstanding competition placing two gymnasts among the best, but they cannot qualify for the YOG because both gymnasts were born in 2004, and only gymnasts born in 2003 can qualify. Stupid, stupid, stupid rule. Poor Panama.

Thank you! Once more a disappointing competition for female Brazilian gymnasts. I knew their level was a lot lower compared to the girls from 2014, but their results are much worse than I expected.

I think that only all-around is competed. Probably we'll have Baldassari with gold, Agiurgiuculese with silver and Aleksandra Podgorsek (Slovenia) with the bronze medal. Not sure if Axelle Jovenin (France) or Polina Berezina (Spain) have the nerve (and the talent) to challenge for a medal, but we will see.

Your rhythmic gymnasts are amazing. All three of them earned medals at the FIG World Cup series, which is something VERY hard to achieve for a gymnast who is not from Russia, Belarus, Ukraine or Bulgaria (and more recently Israel).

8-10 being very optimistic, but I believe that in the end we'll get 4-6. Not sure about our judo and swimming team, but our gymnasts are not nearly as strong as they were in 2010 (Arthur Nory, who didn't get a medal at the YOG but earned a bronze medal at the 2016 Olympics) or 2014 (Flávia Saraiva, 1 gold medal and 2 silver medals).

I'm amused with Greenland hosting the event.

Fair enough, but they knew where the competition was going to be staged, so there's no excuse for not preparing their athletes. I mean, they can't just send the athletes to a competition and hope for the best, wishing they don't pass out after they did not have adequate training under the circumstances they would have to face during competition.

Temos o nosso Steven Bradbury!

I'm all in for a new champion (Japan and Iceland are my sentimental favorites, as well as any team from Africa). But I voted for Brazil because I jinx every team I vote for, and I want Brazil to lose as soon as possible so people can forget about football and keep our focus on improving the political situation around here.

[hide] Preliminary Round June 14th - June 28th, 2018 32 Nations, 8 Groups, the 1st and 2nd Nations from each Group will qualify for the Round of 16 Group A Date & Time Nation 1 T1 T2 Nation 2 June 14th 2018, h. 18:00 (GMT+3) Russia 5 0 Saudi Arabia June 15th 2018, h. 17:00 (GMT+5) Egypt 1 1 Uruguay June 19th 2018, h. 21:00 (GMT+3) Russia 1 2 Egypt June 20th 2018, h. 18:00 (GMT+3) Uruguay 6 0 Saudi Arabia June 25th 2018, h. 18:00 (GMT+4) Uruguay 2 3 Russia June 25th 2018, h. 17:00 (GMT+3) Saudi Arabia 0 4 Egypt Group B Date & Time Nation 1 T1 T2 Nation 2 June 15th 2018, h. 18:00 (GMT+3) Morocco 0 4 Iran June 15th 2018, h. 21:00 (GMT+3) Portugal 2 2 Spain June 20th 2018, h. 15:00 (GMT+3) Portugal 4 0 Morocco June 20th 2018, h. 21:00 (GMT+3) Iran 1 3 Spain June 25th 2018, h. 21:00 (GMT+3) Iran 1 2 Portugal June 25th 2018, h. 20:00 (GMT+2) Spain 6 1 Morocco Group C Date & Time Nation 1 T1 T2 Nation 2 June 16th 2018, h. 13:00 (GMT+3) France 2 1 Australia June 16th 2018, h. 19:00 (GMT+3) Peru 1 3 Denmark June 21st 2018, h. 16:00 (GMT+4) Denmark 4 1 Australia June 21st 2018, h. 20:00 (GMT+5) France 2 0 Peru June 26th 2018, h. 17:00 (GMT+3) Denmark 1 3 France June 26th 2018, h. 17:00 (GMT+3) Australia 2 1 Peru Group D Date & Time Nation 1 T1 T2 Nation 2 June 16th 2018, h. 16:00 (GMT+3) Argentina 1 0 Iceland June 16th 2018, h. 21:00 (GMT+2) Croatia 2 1 Nigeria June 21st 2018, h. 21:00 (GMT+3) Argentina 3 2 Croatia June 22nd 2018, h. 18:00 (GMT+3) Nigeria 2 2 Iceland June 26th 2018, h. 21:00 (GMT+3) Nigeria 1 1 Argentina June 26th 2018, h. 21:00 (GMT+3) Iceland 1 2 Croatia Group E Date & Time Nation 1 T1 T2 Nation 2 June 17th 2018, h. 16:00 (GMT+4) Costa Rica 1 3 Serbia June 17th 2018, h. 21:00 (GMT+3) Brazil 2 0 Switzerland June 22nd 2018, h. 15:00 (GMT+3) Brazil 2 1 Costa Rica June 22nd 2018, h. 21:00 (GMT+2) Serbia 3 2 Switzerland June 27th 2018, h. 21:00 (GMT+3) Serbia 0 2 Brazil June 27th 2018, h. 21:00 (GMT+3) Switzerland 3 1 Costa Rica Group F Date & Time Nation 1 T1 T2 Nation 2 June 17th 2018, h. 18:00 (GMT+3) Germany 3 0 Mexico June 18th 2018, h. 15:00 (GMT+3) Sweden 2 0 South Korea June 23rd 2018, h. 18:00 (GMT+3) South Korea 1 3 Mexico June 23rd 2018, h. 21:00 (GMT+3) Germany 3 1 Sweden June 27th 2018, h. 17:00 (GMT+3) South Korea 0 3 Germany June 27th 2018, h. 19:00 (GMT+5) Mexico 2 2 Sweden Group G Date & Time Nation 1 T1 T2 Nation 2 June 18th 2018, h. 18:00 (GMT+3) Belgium 4 0 Panama June 18th 2018, h. 21:00 (GMT+3) Tunisia 0 5 England June 23rd 2018, h. 15:00 (GMT+3) Belgium 4 0 Tunisia June 24th 2018, h. 15:00 (GMT+3) England 7 0 Panama June 28th 2018, h. 20:00 (GMT+2) England 1 1 Belgium June 28th 2018, h. 21:00 (GMT+3) Panama 1 2 Tunisia Group H Date & Time Nation 1 T1 T2 Nation 2 June 19th 2018, h. 15:00 (GMT+3) Colombia 3 1 Japan June 19th 2018, h. 18:00 (GMT+3) Poland 0 1 Senegal June 24th 2018, h. 20:00 (GMT+5) Japan 2 2 Senegal June 24th 2018, h. 21:00 (GMT+3) Poland 2 2 Colombia June 28th 2018, h. 17:00 (GMT+3) Japan 2 1 Poland June 28th 2018, h. 18:00 (GMT+4) Senegal 3 2 Colombia [/hide]

Did this only happen to Brazilian athletes? Or did these things mostly happen to Brazilians? I saw the picture where Gui Lin (table tennis) looked like she would pass out at any moment, and it makes me think that maybe our athletes are not trained to face harsh conditions, because they always seem to be affected by altitude when they go to Bolivia. I mean, I can imagine how hard it is, but if things are hard for Brazilians, they are hard for everyone else. It makes me think that maybe some of them are just slacking off (not Gui Lin, of course). You know, sometimes Brazilian athletes just blame it on anything else but themselves. I remember Daniele Hypólito mentioning she had a terrible day during qualifications at the 2012 Olympics because her brother fell on floor the day before and she was too worried about him. Funny thing is that her brother had a perfect day in 2016 and she fell on floor the next day. Ugh. Not to mention Fabiana Murer and three Olympic disasters where she was the one to blame, but she put the blame on the poles, the wind...

My thoughts, exactly. If the Games are based on geography (countries surrounding the Mediterranean Sea), then there's a limit of nations one can expect to compete. When you consider including other nations based on similar characteristics from a cultural perspective, there's always the risk of defeating the original purpose of the competition and adding fuel for more nations to try and join the event in the future.

In 2014 we had great competitors in gymnastics. Manrique Larduet, Jorge Vega, Tommy Ramos, Daniel Corral, Jossimar Calvo on his peak form, Jessica Lopez, Ana Sofia Gomez, Elsa Garcia, Alexa Moreno and Yessenia Ferrera (before she got injured). Rhythmics was only good because Cynthia Valdez competed, but still nothing really special. Since I only care about gymnastics, I expect nothing from this competition this year, unfortunatly. Most (if not all) of the gymnasts are far from their glory days. I hope they prove me wrong, but this will probably be the worst event of the year in gymnastics, which is quite sad considering how awesome it was in 2014.

I'm only interested in the rhythmic gymnastics competition, though I will also watch artistic gymnastics because I have nothing better to do. Any list of gymnasts available?

It's nice for athletes to earn something, but I believe gold medalists should receive a lot more. Curious thing: Aruna Reddy from India earned a bronze medal on vault at the Melbourne World Cup stage in artistic gymnastics this year, and the governor of her state paid her the equivalent to US$ 540,000.00. Diego Hypólito has won 69 medals at different World Cup stages according to his Instagram page, so imagine how rich he would have been if he lived in India.

I prefer ranking countries by total number of medals, so in my world Argentina finished third. Even though they lost in number of gold medals to Venezuela, in my opinion Argentina's performance left a much bigger impression than their performance in 2014. I'm happy with Bolivia finishing in the top 10, and with a gold medal on the final day to close the Games perfectly. I'm also surprised with Argentina losing the gold medal in Modern Pentathlon to a duo of youngsters from Brazil. It's great to see this sport is not dead in Brazil after the retirement of (one of my favorite athletes ever) Yane Marques.

Man, don't take this personally. I'm attacking your dirty players, not your nation as a whole. Get a grip and grow up.

If I counted everything right, Argentina will need to win 3 gold and 1 silver medals in 4 possible chances. Modern Pentathlon is always hard to predict who is going to win, but you guys have Iryna Khokhlova, so I would say a silver medal, at least, is almost a guarantee. I hope Pelota Vasca gives your nation all the gold medals you need. And congratulations to Colombia for finishing first on the medal table both in number of gold medals and total medals. I don't get it why we sent our best athletes in sports like artistic and rhythmic gymnastics, canoeing, field hockey, diving and artistic roller skating, but completely ignored volleyball, beach volleyball, football, water polo and futsal. Also, swimming and athletics were largely composed of newcomers or b-class athletes, and even table tennis was sort of a letdown with Hugo Calderano being left out.

Pois é... Que coisa estranha. Não sei se tem algo a ver com a edição passada da Copa, com o clima político terrível ou se o pessoal simplesmente cansou da seleção brasileira (duvido muito, mas vai que). Eu torço mais do que nunca na minha vida pro país perder e voltar pa casa o mais rápido possível. Ganhar a Copa seria um prato cheio para desviar a atenção da política, e Deus sabe o que poderia acontecer em outubro.

Colombian players seem to be angry and play dirty on women's volleyball. One of the players just smashed the ball against the face of the Argentinian player and she never apologized. Just like their men's football squad, I can't ever cheer for them.

I totally agree. If you can't get five countries to participate in any event, cancel the event. A similar thing occurred at the Asian Trampoline Championships this year. Only three athletes competed on the women's individual trampoline event: two from India and one from the Philippines. The two Indian trampolinists are so bad that even the Bolivian trampolinists at the SAG were better than them. And given the final score, the trampolinist from the Phillipines managed to execute one skill out of ten, fell off, and got a bronze medal. Three gymnasts with a ridiculously low level, maybe the lowest I've ever seen in international competition, got continental medals because no one else wanted to participate. Then, why not just cancel the whole thing?

Yes! I'm still looking for a video of the match (especially the penalty shoot out), because I'm sure it was a blast to watch. And the gold medal in Diving after all the drama at the Olympics really made my day. I was critical of Ingrid and even called for her to quit the team after that sex scandal (she can have sex with whoever she wants, but locking her teammate out at the Olympic village was really a dumb thing to do), but what a way for her to redeem herself.

Some comments and trivia about gymnastics. With the medal earned after the group all-around event, Argentina is the only nation in South America to have earned at least one medal in all of the events in gymnastics in the history of the South American Games. This includes trampoline, which was first competed this edition, and Argentina won two medals here. Amazing feat. Also, Argentina had a ridiculous increase in medals in gymnastics. For example, Argentina got zero medals in women's artistic last edition, and now they earned a medal in every event, including a gold medal, and against the A team from Brazil. Also an amazing feat. This was the most diverse edition ever when it comes to medalists in rhythmic gymnastics. Five nations (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Venezuela) earned medals. This edition marks the debut of trampoline, so the Olympic program in gymnastics was fully replicated here (and expanded with six extra events in rhythmic gymnastics). In the future, I hope for three more events: team event in rhythmic gymnastics and men's and women's synchronized trampoline. Also, I don't understand why Aerobic Gymnastics has never been competed, since it is a very important discipline in South America. Scores throughout the different events were very weird. They were a little lower than they were supposed to be in artistic gymnastics and ridiculously low in rhythmic gymnastics. Some routines in rhythmics would have gotten up to 3 or 4 more points in international competition, I suspect. This is insane. Peru must be somewhat disappointed with the results. They have invested a lot of money in gymnastics, and I thought they had a medal in the bag on men's floor, and a gold medal guaranteed on men's vault. In the end, no medal on floor and just a bronze medal on vault, behind Brazil and Uruguay. Speaking of which, Uruguay got their first medal ever at the South American Games in gymnastics. I knew they had enough potential for a medal, but I also knew it would be pretty hard to actually get one. Turns out it wasn't so much. Great achievement for the nation. Finally, I'm happy that my predictions for Brazil (15 gold medals and 25 medals overall) were greatly surpassed (19 gold medals and 33 medals overall), but I'm also kind of sad because I thought we would have had a lot more competition for the gold medals. It's not so nice when one single country earns most of the titles in a competition, so I would have liked a little more diversity. But I hope this makes the other nations train hard to beat our gymnasts. It's great for South America to have as much competition as possible.

We're just one gold medal behind Colombia, which is quite surprising considering more than half of our athletes are either newcomers or athletes I had never heard about in my life. It's also nice to see Brazilian athletes getting medals in sports in which we're usually pretty bad, such as Diving and especially Field Hockey.