gymnast from 81 countries

For the majority of gymnasts, Worlds is over. Tokyo was their Olympics.

In a very cool edit by the FIG TV media team, here are some of the guys who competed — who aren’t CHEN Yibing.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

… Gymnasts from 81 countries are involved in this competition. A great opportunity for countries, like Mexico, Thailand, Salvador or Mongolia …

under-age gymnast at Worlds?

Gabby Douglas.

… wait a minute. She’s old enough, barely. 🙂

Had Gabby Douglas been born 12 hours later, she’d be home in Iowa on Tuesday instead of anchoring the U.S. lineup on uneven bars at the world gymnastics championships.

Douglas, you see, was born on Dec. 31, 1995, making her eligible – barely – to compete at this year’s world championships while other potential stars at next summer’s London Olympics have to remain under wraps until January. …

Age represents more than a number in gymnastics

At the opening press conference, President Bruno Grandi answered a question on this point (from Nancy Armour), energetically.

He argued strongly that we should not have “children” at Worlds. To compete at this level, gymnasts should be old enough to take responsibility for their decisions.

I was impressed with his passion. He needs to be strong on this as that’s opposed by a large majority of coaches in the world, I’d say.

Stoica and Kim said exactly nothing at that press conference. As usual.

Happily there have been no rumours of under-age gymnasts in Tokyo.

5 ways to be an Olympian …

THE ALL AROUND tries to interpret complex FIG rules:

The total number of artistic gymnasts in London will be 98 for both men and women.

So, what are the 5 ways to get to be one of the 98 Olympians?

1) 12 WAG teams x 5 gymnasts = 60

2) individual apparatus medal winners in Tokyo (12 maximum – unless team already qualified) … some other stipulations

3) Host country – (1 maximum MAG now that GBR has qualified women’s team)

4) “Tripartite Invitations” (oft called ‘wild cards’, regionally based)

5) Best ranked MAG and WAG individual gymnasts from the test meet, not otherwise qualified.

… I’m slightly less confused after reading TAA – Olympic Qualification Begins in Tokyo

Thanks Albert Minguillón i Colomer, for that.

Recall that Yemen’s Nashwan Al-Harazi got a spot for Beijing. For WAG it was Sherine El Zeiny from Egypt.

Click PLAY or watch her Vault on YouTube.

Nations must apply for their athletes for the wild card spots, if any are available.

Recall that Trampoline did not allot a wild card for women in Beijing.

Sacramone surgery

Sounds like it went well. Achilles tendon repair is normally straightforward. It heals better than new.

Her guy, Bronco’s back-up Quarterback Brady Quinn flew down:

Best boyfriend award goes to @BQ9 for taking the red eye from Denver to be here for my surgery today…just another reason why I love him.

Twitter

They’ve been dating since November 2009.

who qualifies to the ‘test event’?

There’s much confusion regarding the new FIG Olympic ‘test event’ to be held in London, Jan 10-18th, 2012.

Considering that all these nations need plan and budget for a meet less than 3 months away, we’d best get the details soon.

THE ALL AROUND thinks this will be the list of nations invited for WAG:

Full Teams
Italy
France
Canada
Spain
The Netherlands
Brazil
Korea
Belgium

Individual Spots
Mexico (2)
Switzerland (2)
Ukraine (2)
Hungary (2)
Venezuela (2)
Uzbekistan (2)
Slovenia (2)
Greece (2)
Belarus
Israel
Guatemala
Czech Republic
Sweden
Poland
Austria
Croatia
Chile
Colombia
Hong Kong
South Africa
Vietnam
Slovakia
Turkey
Portugal
Singapore
Finland
New Zealand
Kazahstan
Argentina
Dominican Republic
Puerto Rico
Bulgaria

details – WAG gymnasts to the Test Event

Four teams qualify, but what individuals can qualify from there to the Games?

How many wild cards are available for London?

I’m still confused.

Komova the favourite on Bars

With He Kexin out. And Beth Tweddle out. …

I’m thinking this routine will win, despite the weak giant half before the dismount.

Click PLAY or watch it on Gymnastike.

http://www.gymnastike.org/embed/NjI2NTA5Nzc4?related=1

Watch more video of World Gymnastics Championships Tokyo 2011 on gymnastike.org

Beth’s not been consistent in training the last few days.

top 8 men’s teams 3-up, 3-count

Andy Thornton’s already calculated the scores if only top 3 had counted — as if it were Team finals — concluding:

… In Beijing, there was essentially one contender for gold, as the dominant Chinese went completely unchallenged. In Rotterdam, there were two, as Japan gave the Olympic champions a serious run for their money. In Tokyo, we’ve now got three, as the USA has now officially joined the party. …

American Gymnast – Surprise, Surprise…And A Sneak Peak At Men’s Team Finals!

(see Andy’s table below)

I’m predicting CHN, JPN, USA … RUS, GER

China will be better in team, I predict. They sometimes play games in prelims (e.g. Rotterdam) but didn’t seem to do so today.

USA had a good prelims. And could do it again, certainly. Horton will be even more motivated than usual, if that.

@J_Horton11

Can’t freakin wait to compete on Wednesday in the Team final! We are ready to fight to the end!

Everyone is assuming that Yusuke Tanaka will be back, but I’m not so sure. He definitely had a concussion and I’m hoping medical advice will eventually convince coaches to keep him out. That would hurt Japan.

… It’s going to be interesting.

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1

Japan

276.61

–

2

USA

274.109

2.501

3

China

272.260

4.35

4

Germany

268.401

8.209

5

Russia

266.995

9.615

6

Romania

266.503

10.107

7

Ukraine

264.502

12.108

8

Korea

264.408

12.202

men’s Worlds all-around finalists

I copied this from the dead tree version. Longines, for all their vaunted Swiss precision, is slow and useless, so far as I’m concerned.

FIG … please consider other Scoring partners.

Uchimura
Orozco
Leyva
Yamamuro
Purvis
Boy
Garivov
Kuksenkov
Nguyen
Martinez
Tommasone
Rivera
Koczi
Fokin
Belyavskiy
Kim S
Teng
Kim Sm
Dragulescu
Shatilov
Gonzalez Sepulveda
Stepko
Likhovitskiya
Bucher

R1 – Gafuik
R2 – Gomez Fuerts
R3 – Almeida Campos
R4 – Cappeli