Individual AA qualifiers to Olympics

1 SARAIVA Flavia BRA
2 STEINGRUBER Giulia SUI
3 GODWIN Georgia AUS
4 VARINSKA Diana UKR
5 LEE Yunseo KOR
6 KOVACS Zsofia HUN
7 DOMINICI Martina ARG
8 MORENO Alexa MEX
9 FRANCIS Danusia JAM
10 KIM Su Jong PRK
11 HOLASOVA Aneta CZE
12 VIDIAUX Marcia CUB
13 HOLBURA Maria ROU
14 HAEMMERLE Elisa AUT
15 ALISTRATAVA Anastasiya BLR
16 ABDUL HADI Farah Ann MAS
17 MOHAMED Mandy EGY
18 SAVRANBASI Nazli TUR
19 MOKOSOVA Barbora SVK
20 MARTINS Filipa

 

On 12 and 13 October, the three highest placed eligible gymnasts (not already qualified in another way) in each apparatus final in Stuttgart will also book their Olympic tickets.

The specialists have another opportunity to qualify with the current Apparatus World Cup series that ends in March 2020. The four women’s and six men’s winners on each apparatus – a ranking decided by taking the best three results of each participant in the series – will be Tokyo-bound (on the condition that these gymnasts have not actively participated in the qualification of their respective teams).

There will be the possibility of gaining extra individual places for the competing countries via the 2020 All-around World Cup series – these will be available to the top three countries in this four-stage series running in March and April of that year.

The final qualifying opportunity will come at the continental championships in spring 2020 when there will be two individual places at stake for each of Africa, America, Europe and Asia and one place for Oceania.

Men’s World Championships – day 1 results

The most important 2 days — top 12 team qualification to Olympics 2020 Tokyo.

Here are the top 8 teams, so far. I’d say day 2 has more of the best teams including China and Japan, who are already booked for Olympics.

1. RUS 259.928
2. TPE 250.093
3. BRA 247.236
4. ESP 246.727
5. GER 246.508
6. ITA 245.966
7. FRA 245.127
8. TUR 244.652

https://twitter.com/russiangymstan/status/1180916971925323777

Some will be asking, who’s TPE?

That’s Chinese Taipei, a squad that none of the media predicted to qualify to Tokyo. They killed it in the very first session of day 1.

Russia was fantastic. China v Russia team final will be epic.

Spain and Italy had great performances. They’ll be celebrating.

Germany and Brazil had big problems on their first apparatus, then fought their way back into Olympic contention.

It’s a large, knowledgable crowd. The kind that cheers for great Pommel routines.

Click PLAY or watch it on Twitter.

Turkey will be disappointed. With a perfect meet today it was possible to finish top 12 at the end.

One of the few problems at this event is how FIG put together groups. Some have only 2 competitors. Some 7 gymnasts. That slowed down the competition. #FixIt

I’ll be commenting LIVE via Twitter @GymCoaching. And partnering this year with @kensleyanne Kensley Behel. We both will be guest MAG pundits on the GymCastic podcasts this week.

More LIVE coverage:

who predicted SPAIN would be going to Tokyo?

Roxana did.

World Championships BEGIN

Tokyo Olympic qualifications start with the ladies this time. The next two days will decide which 12 teams qualify. USA, RUS and CHN have already booked their tickets from Worlds last year.

I’ll be commenting LIVE via Twitter @GymCoaching.

More LIVE coverage:

What an honour to watch all these great gymnasts at one of their career peak competitions — Olympic qualification.

    • Australia and Ukraine were unlucky to draw the first flight of 10. I don’t have confidence that scores won’t escalate over the two days.
    • Australia really looks back on the right track. They competed less difficulty than they train, looking to improve E-score. On vault for example, their landings were  fantastic. Fans down under had no streaming video nor TV coverage. That’s bad for the sport.
    • Belgium killed it. A terrific team performance, especially Bars. Led by the great all-arounder Nina Derwael, looks to me like they will qualify a full team to the Olympics.
    • Jade Vansteenkiste competed the best triple twist I’ve seen in a long time
    • Danusia Francis, now competing for Jamaica, likely punched an AA invite to Tokyo. It’s been a long road. I’m thrilled for her.
    • Aneta Holasova CZE is another I really enjoyed watching today. Great Floor.
    • Oksana Chusovitina fell on her second vault. And Beam. She’s at risk of not qualifying for Tokyo. That would be a disaster for both Gymnastics and the Oympics. She’s one of our best stories.
    • Milka Gehani from Sri Lanka had everyone raving. Best ever from Sri Lanka.
    • the team that surprised me most and best today was Egypt.  Gymnastics is booming in that nation. One double twisting Yurchenko. Great stuff on all 4 apparatus.
    • Big crowd. Especially for the Germany session. And they did not leave unhappy.
    • Both North and South Koreas were excellent. Some of the best form and technique in the competition. It was great to see them on the floor at the same time.
    • Stars of the day were Germany and France. Both fantastic, but France finished ahead and is gunning to challenge China and Russia for the podium. They could do it.
    • Mélanie scored 56.482 and is definitely a favourite for podium AA. Love her unique Bars construction.
    • Congratulations to Team Canada. Despite some injury problems, they pulled off another very good prelims performance. Good chance to qualify to the team final.
France

MyKayla Skinner is the alternate

From a one time controversial athlete, MyKayla has gained a huge fanbase — including myself — for this awesome and courageous comeback to Elite from NCAA.

She should keep improving and try for the Olympic team.

protesting on the podium

Věra Čáslavská made clear her opposition to the 1968 Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Tommie Smith and John Carlos were less subtle at those same Olympics.

In his autobiography, Silent Gesture, Smith stated that the gesture was not a “Black Power” salute, but a “human rights salute”. …

The american sprinters Tommie Smith,John Carlos and Peter Norman during the award ceremony of the 200 m race at the Mexican Olympic games. During the awards ceremony, Smith and Carlos protested against racial discrimination: they went barefoot on the podium and listened to their anthem bowing their heads and raising a fist with a black glove. Mexico City, Mexico, 1968 Mexico city, Mexico, 1968

In a perfect world we would keep politics and sport separate.

We don’t live in a perfect world.

On Nov. 1, Smith and Carlos will be inducted into the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Hall of Fame, an honor bestowed because of their “character, conduct and off-field contributions,” as well as their athletic achievements.

Nancy Armour – USA TODAY – Opinion: ‘We were wrong,’ as USOPC finally do right by Tommie Smith, John Carlos

It’s been 51 years since the USA expelled Tommie and John. Time to make it right.

related:

Hurd, Melnikova, Chen Yile – part 2

This documentary episode was posted before Morgan was named a non-traveling alternate for USA. You can see how competing 3 meets back-to-back did not work out for her.

Both Angelina Melnikova and Chen Yile did qualify to Worlds.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Russia could be banned from Tokyo 2020

Putin loves sport.

I suspect corruption in Russian Anti-Doping goes all the way to the top.

The World Anti-Doping Agency has given Russia 3 weeks to explain how multiple positive drug tests were deleted from a database during the agency’s investigation into the massive doping scandal that broke in 2016.

Why it matters: If Russia doesn’t comply, the country will likely be banned from next year’s Olympic Games in Tokyo. …

Axios

Laurie Hernandez for @Coke

Heart this.

1st World Urban Games – Budapest

An event so new it doesn’t yet have a dedicated Wikipedia page.

The inaugural edition of the World Urban Games is taking place in Budapest from 13-15 September 2019.

Six competition sports are featured, including non-traditional and emerging Olympic events such as 3×3 basketball and BMX freestyle park, (both already set for the program at Tokyo 2020 and breaking (provisionally included for Paris 2024).