Aside from the last minute decision of the Indonesian government NOT to allow Israeli passport holders to enter the country, 2025 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships was an excellent competition.
I want to thank organizers and all the many, many volunteers for hosting a world class competition.
Without Simone, you might think the women’s competition a bit of a letdown. BUT Bars World Champion Kaylia Nemour has become the headline star already at age-18.
Sugihara Aiko (age-26) is our World Floor champion, not Simone Biles. And everyone is thrilled. She won bronze on Beam, as well, in likely the strongest Beam Final of all time. Only 2 falls.
It’s not all good news. The WAG Vault final was a disaster. And the AA Final was a mess.
Daiki Hashimoto is another Uchimura, winning his 3rd AA World title. The rivalry with Zhang Boheng makes for great sport.
Shinnosuke Oka should be co-equal challenging for the title. But he wasn’t near 100% in Jakarta, finishing fifth.
The singular highlight of Jakarta wasn’t Beam, but Men’s Vault. All agreed that it was the greatest final of all time.
Olympic Champion Carlos Yulo stuck one of the most difficult Vaults in the Code — with excellent form.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
Some, including myself, would have preferred Russian gymnast were still banned from Jakarta. Great gymnasts, but more pressure on the murdering dictator-for-life would be worth the cost of leaving them home.
I heard of no direct conflict with the Ukrainian gymnasts, so that’s a positive.
Certainly FIG has made clear that they want the AIN athletes competing. Their argument is that sport should be as separate from politics as possible.
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