tumbling, tramp, diving, acrobatics, circus, cheer, dance, martial arts, X sports … and more
Bach still feels it’s too early to cancel or postpone Tokyo.
Click PLAY or watch it on Twitter.
Though — as of March 18 — FIG and IOC remain fully committed to the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, they will most likely be postponed, I believe.
Best would be to postpone for one calendar year, despite many costs and complications.
Worst would be to cancel.
Round Lake in Russia is still open. But the USOTC just closed.
Some of the American men are training alone at Bart Conner Gymnastics which is shut down for regular classes.
It’s unfair to ask aspiring Olympians to put themselves at risk during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Read this Washington Post article (paywall) for a summary of options:
related – Japan’s Olympic Committee deputy head Kozo Tashima has contracted COVID-19 after recent travels to Britain, the United States and the Netherlands.
IOC rules out staging Tokyo Olympic Games behind closed doors.
As much of the sports world goes dark in an effort to limit the spread of the coronavirus, the International Olympic Committee looks to be the outlier. It has insisted for weeks, and continues to do so, that it plans to go ahead with the Olympics and Paralympics as scheduled.
“The International Olympic Committee confirms its full commitment to the success of the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020,” IOC president Thomas Bach said Thursday …
… there are still 19 weeks until the Tokyo Olympics …
There’s no telling what conditions will be like in July. Or even late May, which is when the IOC would have to make the call …
Here’s the FIG announcement.
We can anticipate the Tokyo World Cup being cancelled, as well.
As expected, if some of the top contenders cannot compete the qualifying World Cups, alternative ways to qualify to Tokyo should be considered.
Adding MORE athletes would be wonderful. I suspect this will end up not being the way the remaining spots are decided.
At just 11 years old, Syrian table tennis whiz Hend Zaza is poised to be the youngest competitor at the 2020 Summer Olympics.
Unsurprisingly, she will go down in history as one of the youngest Olympians of all time. …
Click PLAY or watch a teaser on YouTube.
https://twitter.com/gymnastics/status/1235699703465078784
You can watch the entire episode here.
I often have trouble getting those videos to play.
Nikita Nagornyy and Lilia Akhaimova who were supposed to represent Russia at the American Cup on March, 7 have announced on their Instagram accounts that Russia will withdraw from the competition due to coronavirus fears. …
Earlier, Angelina Melnikova was not allowed by the national team to participate in a Serie A competition in Italy. …
Valentina Rodionenko officially confirmed that Russian gymnasts also withdrew from the Tokyo World Cup. …
Chinese gymnasts were not allowed into Australia to compete the Melbourne World Cup. Iranian gymnasts did get in.
Certainly the World Cup Olympic qualification system is blown out of the water. FIG must revisit the qualification system and make a decision on alternatives.
https://twitter.com/russiangymstan/status/1233356796791836677
https://twitter.com/LubaBaladzhaeva/status/1233379596118171651
If you (like me) are still confused about American assignments following Winter Cup, those were decided by MPC on Saturday, February 22st.
In the minutes the stated objective of the AA World Cups is to “earn +1 for Olympic Games with top 3 finish cumulative results from American Cup, Stuttgart, Birmingham and Tokyo Cup.”
Motion: Assign Shane Wiskus to Wild Card position at American Cup (with Sam Mikulak)
… Assign Yul Moldauer to Stuttgart AA World Cup.
Assign Brody Malone to Birmingham World Cup.
Assign Sam Mikulak to Tokyo Cup.
Read the minutes.
That decision was unanimous.
Apparently there were no updated, published documents giving direction to the committee, a big oversight on the part of USAG MPC.
Poor planning.
Very poor communication.
Fixing this should be job #1 for new USAG Men’s Vice President Jason Woodnick.
As USAG has declined to comment on the issue publicly, the best coverage I’ve heard was by Kensley Behel on GymCastic podcast episode 413.
Kensley attended Winter Cup and has been in direct communication with USAG.
Ashikawa is the first gymnast to get a second world cup beam win in the 2018-2020 series! One more win and the series is hers.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
Gymnastics Coaching.com 