Hello, and welcome to Gymnastics Insider!
The Asian Championships (results) are in progress, giving us a delightful look at what Team China has been up to. In short, they look awesome.
The team final, all-around final and event quals all took place across one day of competition, so there’s already much to discuss.
China won the team competition with a massive 168.498, five points ahead of silver medalists Japan. China were the hosts, so they put their best foot forward here, with a truly impressive team that was almost guaranteed gold. For an apples to oranges comparison, the United States won the Pan American Championships with a 161.628.
South Korea rounded out the podium, and North Korea came in fourth to qualify a team to worlds.
From team China, Ke Qinqin had a dominant performance, winning the all-around with a 56.299, followed by Zhang Qingying (55.666). Ke is a first-year senior and the senior all-around national champion so, needless to say, this is very promising for her. She’s in second on bars (14.400) as well, thanks to a clean routine and a near-stuck DLO dismount.
Du Siyu leads bars with a 14.700 for a routine that had small errors but was jam-packed with difficulty, including a FTDLO.
But beam was the highlight for China. Ke started off with a couple of nervous wobbles, but mostly hit, including her beautiful switch ring leap + bhs stepout + stag ring jump series. Her massive 14.933 there was eclipsed only by Zhang, who earned a 15.333 to qualify to the final in first, fitting for the world beam champion.
Zhang’s movements were confident and flowed together nicely, and the routine was nearly error free. She was initially given a 6.4 D score, but an inquiry bumped it up to a 6.7.
Japan’s Nishiyama Misa (54.799) came in third, fresh off her dominant performance at the NHK Trophy at the ripe old age of 15. She had a great day, the highlight of which for me was her first pass on floor, which has left me cross-eyed: a whip half into a front double twist into a front tuck.
Finally, on vault, it was all about the Koreas.
Yeo Seojeong of South Korea (14.266) leads the field, though we didn’t get to see her in quals, as she had the absolute nerve to vault during China’s beam rotation.
An Chang Ok of North Korea did an Amanar, but it was one of those where it feels like she was surprised to hit the floor. It needs work (and height). She also did a Cheng, which had some form in the air but a stronger landing for a 13.966 average.
Oksana Chusovitina once again did not get the memo that she is 51 and qualified to the final in seventh (13.099) with a tsuk full and a front handspring half.
I wish I had more clips for you, but that’s all we got from official channels. Lauren at The Gymternet has details on how to follow the rest of the competition. Event finals are this weekend, with vault and bars held Saturday and beam and floor on Sunday.
Ohashi to return at American Classic
Viral sensation Katelyn Ohashi announced that she is returning to elite competition at the American Classic, a shocking and wholly unexpected piece of news that I keep thinking I just dreamed.
The last time Ohashi competed at the elite level was in 2013, when she won the American Cup. Her last gymnastics meet was the 2019 NCAA Championships.
She’ll compete today at the American Classic, along with Jade Carey. The competition — a nationals qualifier — will be held at 9:45 a.m. CT (juniors) and 1:30 p.m. CT (seniors) and will be streamed on FlipNow.tv.
NCAA rewrites eligibility rules
This past week, we learned that NCAA Division I eligibility rules have been thrown out the window and replaced by a brand new system.
Student-athletes now have five years of eligibility, with very few exceptions. The clock starts when they enroll or when they turn 19, whichever comes first. Redshirting is officially a thing of the past.
Any student-athletes who are currently in their final year of eligibility won’t get another year. The rules go into effect in the fall of 2027. Anyone who is already competing or is enrolling before that time will be allowed to use the new rules or the prior rules, whichever is most beneficial to them, but they can’t redshirt.
I have no crystal ball, but a few things could happen here. A lot more student-athletes are about to get masters degrees. Also, this might discourage gymnasts from delaying college or trying to do elite at the same time. Finally, I wonder if they’ll be more likely to compete through injuries. Time will tell.
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Pan American Championships
The Pan American Championships concluded this week with event finals (full results). Here are some quick hits:
First and foremost, Rebeca Andrade won vault with a 14.266:
She had just a step on the DTY and a larger step out of bounds on the Lopez, but it was good for gold. Maybe it’s the auto-translate, but the Brazilian federation’s Instagram posts about Andrade are absolutely unhinged in their devotion and I’m here for it:
“IT’S GOLD! THE CHAMPION IS BACK, MY FRIENDS!!! LONG LIVE BRAZILIAN GYMNASTICS! LONG LIVE NATIONAL SPORT!”
Meanwhile, Claire Pease added to her medal collection with a bronze on vault (13.916). She had a bit of a rough showing on bars; she got stuck on an inbar turn and then had a big step on her ridiculous dismount, a double front half (12.566).
Then, she came back to win floor with a lovely set. Her landings were much better than we saw earlier in the competition for a 13.833:
Now Pease heads home for some well-earned R&R. Just kidding, I’m sure she’ll be doing standing fulls into a pit of concrete blocks while a PT looks on in horror.
Simone Rose won silver on bars with a solid set, punctuated by her laid out full in (13.333). She also took beam silver thanks to a tie breaker (13.700). Rose was awesome here. She looked so poised and confident, and aside from a step on the landing, this was a really strong set.
Canada had some redemption (revenge?) routines here after subpar performances in the all-around. Aurelie Tran earned bars gold with a 13.533. She hit when it counted with a clean set, gorgeous lines and just a step on the landing.
Meanwhile, Lia-Monica Fontaine nearly beat Andrade with the same set of vaults (14.249). Her Lopez was awesome, but her DTY had some visible form errors and she eventually took silver.
Isabella Ajalla of Argentina qualified to the beam final in eighth but was clutch in the final, winning it with a 13.700.
More shenanigans
Tiana Sumanasekera has officially changed her nationality to Sri Lanka.
Have some Sanne Wevers:
Fresh off a vacation in Belize, Simone Biles showed up to a meet in Argentina to hug some young gymnasts and sign autographs. Tag yourself, I’m the girl who’s fully sobbing:
In other heartwarming news, Sunisa Lee was spotted supporting Special Olympics gymnasts:
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