Yesterday, the International Olympic Committee made recommendations to sports federations to allow Russian and Belarusian athletes to participate in international competitions with a number of conditions. It is on the individual federations to make specific decisions regarding which recommendations to adopt and how to ensure they’re followed. Among other things, the IOC recommended allowing only individual athletes and not teams, which means the Russian MAG and WAG teams are unlikely to compete in Paris. They have actually already missed the deadline that would allow them to qualify as a team ..read more

The Court of Arbitration for Sport has announced that Oleg Verniaiev’s doping suspension is reduced from four to two years. Oleg Verniaiev tested positive for meldonium in August 2020 during an out of competition doping test. He was notified of the test result in November 2020 and provisionally suspended which led him to miss the 2020 European Championships. In July 2021, Verniaiev received an official suspension for four years starting on November 5th 2020. First-time doping violations normally result in a two-year suspension if an athlete admits their fault. However, since Verniaiev claimed ..read more

In 2022, Igor Radivilov experienced probably one of the most challenging seasons in his career – his training was interrupted by the Russian invasion, he spent several months as a refugee in Germany, his native city Mariupol was heavily bombed and occupied by the Russian army, and his grandparents died during the bombings. He managed to persevere and won a bronze on vault at the World Championships but throughout the year, he was not sure he’d keep going: “The year 2022 was very hard for me, in all aspects. Regarding the sport, I managed to have good results. In the beginning of the year, my c ..read more

In 2011, Harutyun Merdinyan was the first gymnast to win a European Championships medal for independent Armenia – a bronze on pommel horse. This medal was followed by five more, including two golds. The last he won at this year’s European Championships – at 38 years old. Last week, Merdinyan also repeated his 2015 achievement by winning a bronze on PH at the World Championships. Armenia did not qualify a team to Euros but two more Armenian gymnasts, Artur Avetisyan and Vahagn Davtyan, made the rings final, and Artur Davtyan won gold on vault – the first gold at Worlds in the history of indepen ..read more

Finland’s Maisa Kuusikko became the first Finnish gymnast to compete in the all-around final. Not only that, but she finished in the 13th place after qualifying to the final in 29th. For the 17-year-old Kuusikko this was her second World Championships but last year, she only competed on bars and did not have a great competition. AND MAISA KUUSIKKO MAKES HISTORY AS THE FIRST GYMNAST FROM FINLAND TO EVER MAKE AN ALL-AROUND FINAL, WHERE SHE FINISHED 13TH!!!!!!!!!!!! — The Gymternet (@thegymterdotnet) November 3, 2022 She gained quite a lot of experience at international competitions, however ..read more

In 2017, Ellie Black won all-around silver at the home World Championships in Montreal. This year, she did not quite have difficulty and preparation to be a medal favorite in the final, so her main goal was to enjoy the competition and show the crowd good gymnastics: “I think I was the oldest one competing in the all-around tonight and to be fifth in the world is phenomenal. I think it shows that age is only a number and you can still improve and still be the top in the world. It was super special tonight, I was really happy with my performance. My whole perspective on this competition was to ..read more

Belgian Maellyse Brassart finished 30th in the qualification of the World Championships and initially did not make the all-around final. As the first reserve, she made the final when Flavia Saraiva (BRA) withdrew to protect her ankle. Brassart says she had mixed feelings about the situation: “I learned [that I was in the AA final] yesterday in the afternoon and I was very happy that I could be in the final. But I was also sad for Flavia because I wanted her to also be in the all-around final.” In the competition, she ended up in 15th place after scoring over a point higher than in the qualific ..read more

In 2017, Rebeca Andrade came to the World Championships in Montreal as one of the favorites for the all-around gold. Her second (out of three) ACL injury led to her withdrawing from the competition. Five years later she has finally become the World all-around champion. Andrade was in a league of her own at this competition – a clean performance would’ve ensured her gold because she had a lead of over a point in difficulty over Shilese Jones and Jade Carey who finished second and third in the qualification respectively. Andrade said about how the competition went today: “Everything always happ ..read more