thiago_simoes

qualified in men's artistic gymnastics. I'm shocked with Colombia failing to qualify both in men's and women's artistic gymnastics. At least they qualified in rhythmics. Chile failed to qualify in all four disciplines so far (acrobatics, rhythmics, men's artistic and women's artistic) and it is highly unlikely they will qualify in trampoline. This is surely going to increase tension between the two competing gymnastics federations in the country, which in turn could cause disastrous results for current gymnasts. And what a huge accomplishment for Costa Rica to qualify a gymnast in women's artistic gymnastics. Granted, they qualified because the US chose not to use their quota and Panama was not allowed to qualify one of their gymnasts according to the rules, but it is still huge for Costa Rica to place ahead of Colombia, for example.

You guys are disappointed with Argentina? Really? Argentina was a lot better than I would expect, and people I know were skeptical about their performance and said they would lose the first match, so I was expecting the worst, to be honest.

Argentina is a lot stronger than many would have thought. I expect them to challenge for the title. Also, good result for Islandia, especially since they didn't crumble under pressure in the final minutes.

I knew about "fica" because I watched an interview with singer Mafalda Minnozzi (she's moderately famous in Brazil and she speaks Portuguese quite well) and she said she brought her parents to visit Brazil once and the first thing that was said to them was "fica a vontade" (literally "stay as you wish", but it actually means "make yourself home"). I can imagine they have a bad opinion about us and our fascination about "fica". Also, we use the word "figa" in Brazil to refer to the gesture of putting your thumb between your index and middle finger. I was told this gesture is quite obscene in Italy, but in Brazil it means a way to superstitiously protect yourself against curses and bad luck (and it was appropriated by African-Brazilian religions as a way for one to protect oneself from bad things).

Yeeeesss! Guaranteed gold medals for Italy (and probably all silver medals too) And more chances for Aleksandra Podgorsek to earn a historical medal for Slovenia.

Yay! Nice award! Thanks!

I can't believe I got the score absolutely right for the first match. I hate football, so maybe the secret for doing well in a prediction contest is hating the sport. I love gymnastics and I didn't do so well at the prediction contest for last year's world championships...

I was reading the list of topics and the national thread of Slovakia had the sentence "Cesta do Tokia" added to it. Then I remembered that in Portuguese we usually say "cesta" (literally: basket) when someone scores (one, two or three points, it doesn't matter) in basketball. This made me curious about other languages, since there might be different or unique terms related to sports and we have people from all over the world here, so I would like us to share what we might know. As a side note, it's amusing that in Portuguese the name of the country Peru refers to both turkey (the animal, not the country) and a penis. Their slogan, "arriba Perú", is sometimes understood by Portuguese speakers as "rise up, cock".

Here.

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.