2020 Men's Artistic Gymnastics Team Final (Monday, July 26, 2021)

[MRR]

Nagornyy totally improvised his FX for the win:

 

[tempest]

Also, Max doe not seem like someone who’s about to win another Olympic pommels title.

agreed but doesn’t he usually wait and bust out his best effort in EF(or am I confusing him with someone else?)

 

[Gymfan93]

Well, that was exciting!
Hopefully AG tomorrow can be as close, whoever comes out on top in the end.

 

[Big_rock_show]

That was an intense competition! I love seeing emotion from the gymnasts, too.

Don’t slay me for asking this, but Is it suspicious that Artur’s Achille’s is holding up only 3 months post-surgery? Especially since the doping that Russia was in trouble for was the drug that speeds up recovery time? It just seems almost impossible that he’s doing what he’s doing.

 

[JDB]

He’s clearly on a PED-assisted recovery. My intuition is HGH but there are other possible drugs for recovery and injury healing.

 

[ArnoldRimmer]

The other and more straightforward possibility is that the injury was exaggerated.

 

[Doug1233]

Wouldnt that easily show up in a drugs test?

 

[Doug1233]

I remember seeing the barani punch double full , and then the triple full down the side, and thinking WHAT!? who does that!!

Did it raise his D Score?

 

[JDB]

Wouldnt that easily show up in a drugs test?

RUSADA’s out of competition tests are pretty easy to pass. And all athletes are currently off drugs to ensure they pass in competition tests.

 

[tsarinajen]

His qualifying scores were 6.2 and 8.866 on floor.
His team final 6.2 and 8.466.

 

[RedBirdie]

And, the drug testers are always chasing the dopers. You can’t know what to test for until there’s actually something to test. Entirely possible that something new is out there that isn’t on the radar of the testing side of things.

 

[mnesiptolema]

Why are drugs that heal injuries / speech up recovery banned? Isn’t that just medicine?

I also wonder whether there is going to be rather closer scrutiny than usual of his drug tests because what he’s done just seems… humanly impossible.

Edit: not making any accusations, we don’t have enough info either way. I won’t jump to “must be doping” without evidence and ArnoldRimmer’s suggestion is much more straightforward.

 

[cats]

This is an interesting article:

https://www.medicineatmichigan.org/web-exclusives/2016/february/medsport-studies-hgh-acl-repair

Based on that - and I am in no way qualified to talk about medicine or doping - it sounds like it has potential to be a major quality of life improvement for people with injuries, and the sort of thing that would reasonably qualify for a TUE for an athlete who had surgery, if the studies go well.

I’m not accusing Artur of anything either, but it is always really interesting to see the shades of gray in things that are always placed in such black and white ethical terms.

 

[tempest]

I’m just amazed by his recovery, I could barely walk 3 months after my achilles rupture and just watching him has made my achilles hurt lol

 

[tsarinajen]

On Artur’s Instagram, he’s showing some of this therapy he was doing in May. It’s supposed to take the strain off the Achilles while working on endurance. Also from his Instagram it looks like he was only in a boot a couple weeks.

And remember, he went against doctor’s advice.

 

[Alinxz23]

That was one of the most exciting gymnastics meets I have seen the pressure really started to get to the top 3 teams by the 4th rotation. I’m really happy for Russia but part of me is wondering if they really reported on Artur’s injury correctly I am hoping they went about this the right way but his recovery time is dubious.

 

[ArnoldRimmer]

I feel the same, though tbf I’m no expert in Achilles tendon injury and recovery. And I can also see why people wouldn’t trust Russia, since they’ve done absolutely nothing to earn any benefit of the doubt on drugs related issues. If it does turn out he was taking a banned substance to aid recovery, a Russian athlete doing that wouldn’t be remotely surprising. I just think, if someone is taking the view that this story doesn’t add up, it’s not like any of us have seen his medical notes.

 

[rlayt]

Random thoughts.

Up until floor it was a great competition for the USA guys. I think 4th was the best they could have done. Too bad they didn’t keep it up and ended in 5th. Yul better get those hops out before EF.

Brody peaked at Nationals and Trials I think.

Who will be going back to training after a vacation? Most are probably continuing. I wonder if the USOTC guys are able to work or what sponsorships they get based on being there?

Sam is pretty worn out I guess and I know he’s retiring. I wonder what his future plans are besides marriage.

 

[QuietColours]

I believe Yul’s said he wants to try for 2024

 

[RAFIKI]

That was such an epic TF and I’m really happy with the result. I love the gymnastics of the winning team, particularly happy for David. Nikita improvising two floor passes is legendary.

My Mum text me to say my Dad watched the whole thing because it was so close and exciting. He is in no way a gymfan so it sucked him in good and proper. It’s fantastic for the sport to have three teams doing such incredible gymnastics. GBR couldn’t have done any better than 4th without it being a nightmare competition so good for them. Didn’t see much of UKR/SUI but it seems like (with the exception of GER FX) it was a very high standard across all teams.

FWIW I agree with AR that a successful defense for Whitlock is not looking likely. I want Rhys to win anyway so I’m not massively bothered by this, the media will be though. Max did his 7.0 D today and scored in the 7s for execution. I hope he hits in EF for silver /bronze behind Rhys.