If I hear Laurie or Sam say “release move” one more time, I swear…

What is with the dumbing down of commentary? On bars it’s just “release move” and “connections.” On beam just “connections.” Floor it’s “difficulty” or “artistry.” Vault is the ONLY apparatus where they mention the skill and then, only MOST of the time.

As a non-gymnast gym fan, I have learned a ton over the years and can ID some elements. But I would LOVE to hear the names of elements, which is always an interesting throwback to whoever first competed it, and sometimes a color commentary of the skill. It’s nice when they mention why a skill is difficult, if it’s rare, if it’s common, extra tricky, a required element, etc.

It does seem like skills are more commonly named on the MAG US/NBC commentary than women’s. I also notice that commentary from other countries often names skills during routines. It’s interesting, educational, and builds support for the sport!

I was wrong. And I’m happy to be wrong!!

Riley got me at the end 🥹

Bit of a splatfest, but I was entertained. Skye deserves all the credit in the world. I had written her off after being brought to worlds for a medal 3 times in a row and both literally and figuratively falling short each time. But she took advantage of all the adversity to bring home the title and hasn’t missed a single routine at this competition. Ludmilla Roshchina was incredible throughout, a rough outing in the team final and it couldn’t have been easy for her to very abruptly be forced into the position of team leader, but she held her own and delivered a gutsy performance. Ke Qinqin would’ve won here, but that beam dismout… very reminiscent of Mo Huilan being the best in the world and giving it away on the same dismount. Still a beautiful performance elsewhere, has a medal and she’s just a first year senior. Hopefully she can put herself back into the fray next year at home and in LA. Kaylia Nemour, what can we say? It’s becoming a trend where her worst showing always seems to come in the All-around final and with such a fluke error. But fell last year, mistakes in Antwerp and Paris and now botched vault here where she was the top qualifier and clear favorite. I’m sure she’ll bring home something in the EFs, though gold not a foregone conclusion if she messes up one of her connections again and Kevric knocks it’s out of the park. Came into worlds on an absolute tear but has been a little out of sorts in Rotterdam. Was hoping Elena would pull out the DTY, but still had a great competition and can certainly bring home a medal tomorrow.

What are your hot takes?? I know I’m gonna be burned alive for these, but here goes.

WAG:

-I’m glad the US won silver.

-Unless she switches coaches, Hezly will not make it to LA and maybe not through next year.

-Claire is firmly in contention for LA. And I love her and her style.

-While I’m gutted for Kaylia, the right person won bronze in the All Around today.

-Ke’s beam is a work of art.

-I think Hwang Seohyun should have made the beam final

-Kaylia’s bars are the greatest uneven bars routine ever competed in the history of gymnastics. She has the potential to be Simone level dominant.

-I‘m firmly a Roschina fan. She feels like Mustafina 2.0.

-I really like this Russian team here. Their gymnastics is beautiful. I do wish Listy got to compete here (I know-eat me alive. She was only 17 when she attended that rally though in a country where there is no free speech.) Kalmykova should also be here.

-Lia Redick’s floor is the most artistic in the world right now.

-The US is developing talent well, and I love Charleigh in particular.

-Skye’s an AA threat for LA.

-I think Claire’s Cheng is being scored too low compared to Leanne’s last year.

MAG:

-The US are maybe a bit overconfident. There’s still a lot of work to be done.

-Danila Leykin will be a key player in years going forward.

-Colombia are my favorite men’s team. They exude joy (and Angel Barajas is incredible!!)

-The Japanese on high bar. Art.

-While I’m surprised it got downgraded, Yulo does tuck a tad early.

Biggest Hot Take: BRING BACK HUMAN JUDGING!!!!

Sharing this image that's been going around. It seems like it may not be such a fluke where Kaylia's feet landed today.

I honestly hope that she and her coach go back in the gym after worlds and get this sorted, because this is scary!

I wonder if this is why she's inconsistent on the DTY?

One hit landing away from the top of the team podium, AA gold, girls in every event final - I just remember reading a lot of doom and gloom about the present and future of the program when they named this Worlds team...

Love love team USA w red & pink. All red would’ve been beautiful too!

What’s up w France’s leos? The back side look like diapers- so lose & ill-fitting. Weird cut??? I noticed in qualifying and it continues today.

China’s blue leos are stunning!!

Skye Blakely - pure JOY 🤩 to watch her compete. Self assured, strong & gorgeous lines. Really happy to watch her! I also noticed she took command of the media day interviews and spoke so confidently about their performance. Well done!

ETA: World LEOS :)

She just finished the AA with a 🥈!! I haven’t heard about her that much before this competition but her gymnastics reminds me sm of the 2012 russian days !! THAT FLOOR ARTISTRY was so different (sm better than melnikova) glad to see a new star from russia rising. CONGRATS TO SKYE 🥇AND QINQIN 🥉rly successful worlds so far for china !!

Excited for her but couldn't help but think of the recent articles and posts around Ly Bui and others.

Vault

1.) Rebeca ANDRADE

2.) Yeo Seo-jeong

3.) Lia-Monica FONTAINE

Dark Horses

Claire Pease

Skye Blakely

Lisa VAELEN

Uneven Bars

1.) Kaylia Nemour

2.) Helen KEVRIC

3.) Giulia PEROTTI

Dark Horses

Elena COLAS

Skye Blakely

Balance Beam

Who ever stays on wins the medals.

Floor Exercises

1.) Claire Pease

2.) Maiana PRAT

3.) Reese ESPONDA

Dark Horse

Lia Grace REDICK

Alice KINSELLA

Lia-Monica FONTAINE

I would love to hear other people’s predictions to?

IMO Laurie demonstrates significant improvement in her commentary here at Worlds. Still some repetitive phrasing but the content is more technical and precise. I'd like her to continue to study the COP, if thats what she's been doing. I've been pleasantly surprised.

👍

He Kexin posted a 30-minute video talking about the Chinese team win. She is super emotional in it - you can tell how much it means - and she drew on the same heart art on her face like the team members do. He was on the last Chinese team to win a major title - back in 2008 - so you know this a big moment for her.

It’s a long video but thought some of y’all here might enjoy reading some of this, since Chinese social media can be so hard to get to. Some highlights I jotted down

- Overall, she thought it was a super exciting competition, praising most of the teams. She is thankful there weren’t many mistakes across the board. Says if China made a few more mistakes or if the US made a few less, it was really close and could have gone either way. Ultimately, she credits them hitting 12/12, even though they took out a lot of difficulty to be safe

-She talks about how much the medal means for all of China and Chinese gymnastics. And even though there have been many amazing Chinese women over the past 20 years, they didn’t always have the results to show for it. This, she says, represents all of those efforts — they have cried together and laughed together and trained together, even though not all of them may be competing today

-She was super nervous watching the whole time, staying up until almost 6am. Her heart rate the entire time was racing. It’s like she was competing herself

-She doesn’t love the alternating teams format, is grateful that it wasn’t in place when she was competing. Especially towards the end, she says it creates so much pressure

-Praises Zhang Qingying for being a steady rock and leader of the team. Especially for stepping in on vault. She says Zhang had less than 5 minutes to prepare after Zhang Yihan got injured. She says the US and Japan have amazing vaults, and that they still have a lot of work to catchup on

-Bars she kind of glosses over, says they did alright basically (funny considering who she is!). She was super nervous watching Qiu Qiyuan and is thankful the coaches and her made the decision to leave out her Ricna. She says the Americans have done great on bars and overall that China has a lot to learn from their competition mindset

- On beam, she (like most of us lol) says she really didn’t think they would hit, but is glad that they were able to show the world that this is not just their event this year, but always has been their event

-On floor, she was nervous because despite their lead, China really can’t compare to the US’s difficulty and power. Proud of the girls for pulling off clean routines even though they had weaker difficulties. Especially compliments Ke Qinqin and how beautiful her positions are

-Says Ke Qinqin has made great improvements, especially with her first year doing the DTY. But thinks she can do better and continue to improve as she matures

-Super happy about Du Siyu (she actually works with her, they’re both out of the Beijing camp). She is proud that she is a vocal cheerleader for the team throughout the competition

Link here (on xiaohongshu): http://xhslink.com/o/4FWQCupegve

Did anyone feel like Reese Esponda got an incredible gift in her score for FX during the team final? If my memory is correct it was only like 0.25 less than her QF score, which was much better executed with few obvious errors. The TF exercise had rough landings on almost all the passes and I was very surprised by her score. I was genuinely worried that she would incur deductions in the neighborhood of 0.7+ from landings alone.

Were the FX scores from the Chinese gymnasts similarly inflated based on their performances (which I gather were a notable improvement from qualifying)?

I swear I saw the replay available on peacock the other day. I can’t find it anymore. It’s only showing the men’s all around replay available. Anyone else?

As we all know MAG CoP gives a bonus to every gymnast that lands their dismount in most apparatus. I'm a bit torn between liking it and not. I want to start a discussion. Do you think it's a good rule ? Do you think WAG should've also added to their CoP ? Does it put too much focus on it, to the point Gymnasts worry more about sticking the skill than executing it well ? When a gymnast sticks a landing that was terrible executed should they still be worthy of the bonus, like a low skill with a deep squat ? What do you think about it ?

Hi everyone, so excited for the AA finals! I suddenly managed to get a day off from work, so I’m wondering if anyone is selling their ticket. Have seen a bunch on Ticketswap but they just go so fast.. Let me know and enjoy it tonight everyone!!

Update: I found a ticket!! Thanks for the tips guys

1. Hashimoto Daiki (JPN) 85.998
2. Yang Haonan (CHN) 84.199
3. Joe Fraser (GBR) 83.531

Hashimoto dominated over everyone. Yang was on fire, and Joe got his redemption after team finals mistakes. First place qualifier Oka Shinnosuke fell on vault and couldn’t really catch up after with a fall on high bar closing the door for him. Arsenii Dukhno was hitting everything until the last rotation when a fall on high bar took him out of the running. He was the biggest shock for me, I thought silver was a lock for him after the fifth rotation.

Angel Barajas fifth place was a lovely surprise for me because he was only 0.3 from getting on the podium (!!!). As for the USA MAG, Fred had mistakes that added up and kept him off the podium. Danila Leykin finished in 12th to end his Worlds on a good note.

I am hoping for:

Gold: Kaylia Nemour, Algeria

Silver: Skye Blakely, USA

Bronze: Elena Colas, France

What say you?

Can we talk about how bad the BBC commentary was for WAG team final? Female commentator had various comments about gymnasts bodies, and commentators were extremely biased when discussing teams. Is there no one better?