Men’s TEAM FINAL recap

… a classic come-from-behind victory as top qualifier People’s Republic of China collapsed in the final moments of the competition.

Hashimoto Daiki, Kaya Kazuma, Oka Shinnosuke, Sugino Takaaki, and Tanigawa Wataru accumulated a golden score of 259.594 points after China erased a three-point advantage on Horizontal Bar, its final apparatus.

The USA was magnificent to edge Great Britain and Ukraine for bronze, its first Olympic medal in the men’s team event in 16 years. …

… gold was China’s to lose heading into the final rotation. Stellar routines from superstars like Liu Yang on Still Rings, Zou Jingyuan on Parallel Bars, and All-Around excellence from Zhang Boheng put them in a great position. Heading into the sixth and final rotation, China was still 3.2 points ahead.

Then came Horizontal Bar, where a botched dismount from Xiao Ruoteng erased some of China’s advantage and two falls from Su Weide ate up the rest of it, leaving a stunned China to accept silver. 

Daiki Hashimoto & Zhang Boheng

The two best in the sport are so respectful of one another.

It’s inspiring.

Here Daiki is calling for the Olympic Team Final crowd to settle down before China’s final routine on H Bar.

Japan, China, USA

Thriller.

Once again, Men’s Gymnastics is more unpredictable and exciting than WAG.

China was running away with the Olympic Team Title — then counted 3 falls on H Bar on the final apparatus.

Japan are Olympic Champions

The next drama was for the Bronze medal between Ukraine, USA, and GBR.

This was an excellent competition with comparatively few falls. But in the end — it was Stephen Nedoroscik sealing the deal on Pommels for the USA.

Credit to the entire American men’s program who’ve been working towards this goal since their last team medal in 2008.

Click through to see official scores.

Women’s qualification highlights

The United States and Italy went 1-2 as Simone Biles (USA) qualified in first place for three individual finals in a stellar return to Olympic competition.

Highly-touted USA looked right at home in Bercy Arena, notching the highest team scores on Vault, Balance Beam, and Floor Exercise as they accumulated 172.296 points, a whopping 5.4 points over a well-balanced Italian squad paced by Alice D’Amato and Manila Esposito.

The People’s Republic of China emerged from the peloton of contending nations to establish themselves as podium hopefuls on the back of a magnificent performance on Uneven Bars, the team’s traditional strength.

Brazil, Japan, Canada, Great Britain and Romania also made the eight-team cutoff for the final. …

Kaylia Nemour (ALG) one step closer to becoming Africa’s first Olympic medallist in Gymnastics. The 17-year-old earned the highest score of the day on Uneven Bars with 15.600, a score that comprised highest marks in difficulty (7.1) and execution (8.5).

Zhou Yaqin (CHN) delivered Balance Beam brilliance with a highly polished routine for 14.866 …

Two of the past three Olympic Balance Beam champions have hailed from China.

how is Kaylia Nemour so good on Bars?

Women’s Olympic AA qualification

Congratulations to these fantastic athletes who were able to put it together when it counted in the Olympic Qualification round.

You can scroll the official results page PDF.

FIG Live Scoring – Womens Artistic Gymnastics – All-Around QualificationDownload

Women’s Olympic TEAM qualification

  1. USA 172.296 Q
  2. Italy 166.861 Q
  3. China 166.628 Q
  4. Brazil 166.499 Q
  5. Japan 162.196 Q
  6. Canada 161.563 Q
  7. Great Britain 160.830 Q
  8. Romania 159.497 Q

9. Netherlands 159.096
10. Australia 158.964
11. France 158.797
12. South Korea 152.496

Olympic scores after 2 subdivisions

I’m distressed.

Too many falls. Too many injuries.

At one point it looked like Simone had injured her calf. …

Team After 2
USA 172.296
Italy 166.861
China 166.628
GB 160.830
Romania 159.497

AA
Biles 59.566
Lee 56.132
Nemour 55.966
Esposito 55.898
D’Amato 55.432

On the upside, Kaylia from France looks the favourite to win Gold on Bars. In France. While representing Algeria.

Past Olympic Champions Simone and Suni are through to the AA Final. Jordan Chiles had a fantastic day — but was narrowly knocked out by the 2 / nation rule.

Read Spencer’s LIVE BLOG.

celebrating at the Olympics

My gut reaction — as a former cranky old judge — to Ray Zapata celebrating after hitting Floor and qualifying for the Final was … too much for the Olympics.

I would prefer gymnasts do that after stepping down from the podium.

He had saluted the judges. No deduction.

Many disagreed. Many want to see more honest emotion from gymnasts at the end of their routine, even if still on the podium.

Here’s the argument for letting athletes show their emotions.