The following gymnasts earned a nominative spot through their placement in the all-around during the qualification round of the 2023 World Championships. Kaylia Nemour (ALG) After problems with the French Federation, Kaylia began representing her father’s country, Algeria. France lost, big time, with the switch. Kaylia was the World silver medallist on bars and is a contender for an Olympic medal in Paris. With her nationality change, overnight, Africa became a continent with gymnastics medals. Pauline Schafer (GER) Germany did not qualify a full team for the first time in a long time. But the ..read more

When asked to mention a gymnast named Kate, most likely the first name to pop into a fan’s mind is Kate Richardson since she was the most famous “Kate” in the gymnastics world. Kate Richardson was born on June 27, 1984. Favored by the previous age-rules that allowed gymnasts turning 16 in the Olympic year to start competing in the senior ranks a year earlier, she attended the 1999 World Championships where she finished 19th all-around. At the Olympics in Sydney she was 15th while at the 2001 World Championships she was 16th. At the 2001 World Championships, she crossed paths with another Kate ..read more

1. One of them was a World Bars Bronze Medallist: (Katie Heenan,2001) 2. One of them was Canada’s first ever Olympic Finalist: (Kate Richardson, 7thFloor, 2004) 3. Two of them competed at the 2001 World Championships: Heenan was the bronze medalist on bars while Richardson was 16th all-around. 4. Two of them are barely known. Katie Teft (watch her beam mount) and Katie Kivisto (watch the rare skill in her beam routine) 5. One was Australia’s 2018 Youth Olympic representative: Kate Sayer 6. Two of them were in the same 2018 Australian Pacific Rim Team and medalled. Kate Sayer junior bronze beam ..read more

1. After placing second on vault in Cairo & Cottbus, Valentina Georgieva (13.799) won gold ahead of North Korea’s An Chang Ok (13.783). An Chang Ok went out of bounds in her Cheng; it made the difference. 2. Karla Navas repeated her bronze on vault from Cottbus (13.733) 3.Fourth place finisher Dipa Karmakar was right behind Navas with a 13.716. As you can see all top four places finished within thousands of a tenth from each other since they all scored in the 13.700s. 4. The complete opposite from the bars final where Kaylia Nemour scored a 15.433 which was over a point ahead of second pla ..read more

The Cool Facts from the first World Cup of the Olympic year. 1. North Korea’s An Chang Ok perfectly stuck her Cheng for easy gold with a 14.233. 2. Valentina Georgieva (Bulgaria) and Pranati Nayak (India) scored the same 13.616 average to place 2ndand 3rdrespectively. Both had a 13.800 and a 13.433 vault. Georgieva’s execution was in the lower 9s with 4 something vaults while Nayak had execution scores in the high 8s with vaults of 5 something. In the end, the tie-breaker favored Georgieva because of her higher execution. 3. Valentina Georgieva’s first competition since tearing her ACL at the ..read more

World Floor Final Review After sustaining an injury prior to the all-around final, Jessica Gadirova withdrew from all the event finals she had qualified for; on Floor, she was the defending World Champion and qualified second to Simone. After her withdrawal, the first reserve was called up and it was her teammate Alice Kinsella who had a 5.6 D-score in qualification but in the final had a downgrade to a 4.9 after her triple full was not credited. Plus on her second pass the 2.5 to front full she gave such a big step to the side that for a moment we thought it would turn into a fall. Her final ..read more

Beam Final Review 2023 World Championships The three-time World beam medalist, Pauline Schaefer-Betz could not add another medal to her tally. From the start it went bad, she hesitated in her split leap mount and was unable to connect to her next skill, a leap which lacked amplitude. However, her biggest mistake was when she missed her switch ring and fell onto the beam. The rest of the routine was solid, including the Schaefer skill but she also counted an overtime deduction of 0.1 for a total of 12.800. Pauline was not the only one to fall, Shilese Jones dismounted her double pike to her han ..read more

The bars final was a 9-final gymnast, just like vault, but without the drama. The reason there were nine gymnasts was because in qualification Elsabeth Black and Lorette Charpy tied for 8th with the same D (6.0) and E (8.133) score. When ties happen with the same D and E score they are not broken. In the actual final, Elsabeth Black (5.7 D-score) was 8thwith a 13.800 while Lorette Charpy (6.1 D score) finished 9th with a 12.933. Lorette fell while attempting a 1.5 turn on the high bar. With a 6.0 D-score, Noami Visser and her original combination of Ricna to mixed grip to Ezhova. Her 14.166 le ..read more

Going into the all-around final Simone Biles was the absolute favorite, after all, she has won the title every single time she has competed. In 2018, she even won despite falling twice and still had room to spare with a victory margin well above a point. This time, her vault, the Cheng, was the only event to break the 15 mark with a 15.100. All her other scores were in the 14s, even on Floor, because at the end of the routine, she tripped before starting a leap sequence. She did not fall, it was just an awkward moment, but the D-score was lost as she did not perform the intended leaps. Her 58 ..read more

Until Russia is back in action the team final will always be slightly less competitive since Russia is always expected to fight for a top-three finish along with the United States and China. The United States arrived with Simone Biles back in action and ready to secure team gold with her gigantic D-scores. China qualified 3rd but as always hoping they could actually stick to a top-three finish in the actual final. Sandwiched between them the World Silver Medallists from last year, Great Britain. While the qualification were the United States 1st, Great Britain 2nd and China 3rd, the situation ..read more