We’ve not heard much about the defending Olympic Champions.
Uncle Tim weighs in:
No matter how you present the statistics, the Chinese men have dominated the past 5 World Championships.
… It looks like China will be sending a relatively inexperienced team to the World Championships.
The country’s current list consists of Zhang Hongtao, Zhou Shixiong, Lin Chaopan, You Hao, Liu Yang, and Zhang Zhongbo. Of these gymnasts, Zhang Hongtao has the most international experience, having won gold on pommel horse in 2009. …
The first championships of the Olympic cycle for the discipline bring together 103 Individual gymnasts and 28 Rhythmic Groups from a total of 56 different nations and representing all continents at Kiev’s Sports Palace. …
Recall that FIG tried to discipline Rhythmic judges.
August 22 – Natalia Kuzmina, President of the Rhythmic Gymnastics Technical Committee, has claimed there is an ulterior motive behind the recent spate of disciplinary action against officials in the discipline as the sport’s world governing body “is trying to discredit rhythmic gymnastics from the list of Olympic sports”.
Speaking to insidethegames, the Russian who was elected in October last year to cover the current Olympic cycle claimed everyone is “appalled” at how the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) has treated senior figures in the discipline, including how it launched action against attendees at a series of judges’ courses based on “unproven and ill-grounded allegations”. …
From what I’ve “heard”, cheating on the new cycle judging exams was blatant.
Many impossible scores.
Judges know about impossible scores.
A NY Times article confirms what’s stated in the link above: that an appeal tribunal dismissed FIG sanctions against rhythmic gymnastics judges. The accused will keep their brevets.
We’re waiting on an official statement from FIG itself.
Gymnastics Coaching.com 