Hello everyone, and welcome back to Gymnastics Insider!
The World Challenge Cup series has begun this week in Varna, Bulgaria.
The redheaded stepchild of gymnastics competitions, this series gets a lot less attention than the apparatus cups. That’s probably because there’s less at stake: no worlds spots up for grabs based on these results, only cash, trophies and bragging rights.
There will be five events held throughout the summer and fall, including Varna: Tashkent, Uzbekistan (May 21-24); Koper, Slovenia (May 28-31); Szombathely, Hungary (Sept. 18-20); and Paris (Sept. 26-27), which the federation calls “the grand finale.”
Like the apparatus cups, these competitions only have qualifications and event finals. Also like the apparatus cups, athletes earn points based on their placements at these events. Each gymnast’s best three finishes will be used to determine rankings, and event winners will be named at the end of the series.
Unfortunately, information about these competitions is scant. Even more unfortunately, this is something we’ve come to expect from World Gymnastics — the federation’s news post about Varna doesn’t even say when it is. And there is very little coverage on social media.
As for finding competition details yourself, you have to click through the site to find nominative rosters, which are downloadable; MAG and WAG gymnasts are mixed together. Same with the event schedule — it’s buried in the World Gymnastics website, and you have to download it to access.
Meanwhile, my computer groans under the weight of my downloads folder.
I’ve reached out to World Gymnastics about this and have yet to hear back. But it’s funny that a lack of information is something we’ve come to accept as part of the reality of being a gymnastics fan. One happy side effect is that fans have essentially taken over as gym journalists. This is my journalism origin story, so I suppose I should be thankful.
Anyway, in lieu of a proper preview from our friends at WG: The Varna Challenge Cup finals start today at 2:43 p.m. local time with vault and bars, and tomorrow for beam and floor.
At the moment, Mara Slippens of the Netherlands leads on vault with a 13.233; Diana Lobok of Ukraine leads on bars and beam with a 13.200 and 13.600, respectively; and Grace Davies of Great Britain is ahead on floor with a 13.000.
The competition will air on Eurovision Sport, and you can find live scores at Elevien.
Next up, Oksana Chusovitna gets her very own competition at Tashkent later this month. The nominative roster only has 35 WAG names on it, so we’ll see who shows up.
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More elite news
Romania’s Ana Barbosu has been provisionally suspended for whereabouts failures. Per ITA rules, athletes who are part of a Registered Testing Pool must complete unannounced out-of-competition testing. They must provide their daily location and availability for testing (whereabouts), or face consequences, including suspension. Barbosu says she intends to appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. In an Instagram story, she wrote that “this situation has nothing to do with prohibited substances.”
Jade Carey will make her comeback at American Classic, held June 25-28.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) no longer recommends that federations exclude athletes from Belarus from competition, citing “the ever-increasing complex realities and consequences of the current geopolitical context.” Russian athletes remain banned.
A fire destroyed Lynx Gymnastics Centre, where the Gadirova twins once trained.
CNN founder and Goodwill Games creator Ted Turner died this week. Turner founded the Goodwill Games in 1986 in response to Cold War-era Olympics boycotts. Five summer events were held before the event was cancelled in 2001.
In response to Turner’s death, gymnastics Redditors are sharing their favorite Goodwill Games moments. Mine is when Dominique Moceanu took all-around gold in New York City in 1998. Moceanu’s all-around talent was overshadowed in Atlanta, partly because she was injured at the time. In 1998, she finally had the opportunity to top the world with an incredible performance.
NCAA news
We are knee-deep in transfer season: There are 82 athletes in the transfer portal (including those who have already matriculated), which closes May 13.
Notably, Joscelyn Roberson visited Florida, and Ondine Achampong moved from Cal to Stanford. Judging from her statement, Achampong’s breakup with Cal was not amicable.
Here is the transfer log courtesy of College Gym News, which is also tracking transfer movement here. By CGN’s numbers, transfers have absolutely ballooned in the past decade, going from 12 in 2017 to 88 in 2024 — the highest number of transfers so far.
Good luck to the recruiting teams in their mad scramble to decorate hotel rooms before the transfer window closes.
In coaching news, BYU has a new head coach, Natalie Broekman. Follow Greg Marsden on Bluesky for more updates.
“Becoming Caitlin Clark” is out now!
Howard Megdal’s newest book is here! “Becoming Caitlin Clark: The Unknown Origin Story of a Modern Basketball Superstar” captures both the historic nature of Clark’s rise and the critical context over the previous century that helped make it possible, including interviews with Clark, Lisa Bluder (who also wrote the foreword), C. Vivian Stringer, Jan Jensen, Molly Kazmer and many others.
Five at the IX
This 1998 Dominique Moceanu clip from Extra has everything you want in a late-90s interview: Beanie Babies, oversized tees and a massive computer.
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