2025 Worlds Draw and Named Rosters

[MaryClare]

It’ll be interesting to see if anything happens with post Olympic worlds going forward. Given how difficult it is to find a host and many well established gymnastics nations not filling all their slots

 

[ArnoldRimmer]

It’ll be interesting to see if anything happens with post Olympic worlds going forward. Given how difficult it is to find a host and many well established gymnastics nations not filling all their slots

Wouldn't rule it out, but also I think this is still a non-standard post Olympic worlds because the impact of the Olympic delay and short quad hasn't quite left us yet. It might look different next quad, should we get that far. The gymnasts at the moment are disproportionately those who got no proper downtime after Tokyo, since there's been fewer new seniors come through than usual.

It's interesting though how many European programmes and athletes seem to have taken the decision to go to a very full, new quad Euros but not worlds. When the new worlds qualifying regulations required a full continental team competition of sorts for 3 of the 4 years of the quad, I wondered if they'd become less significant than previously. It seems to have gone the opposite way entirely. Possibly some of that is due to federations wanting to get as many titles in whilst Russia are out, but I'm not sure that's all of it.

 

[MaryClare]

Wouldn't rule it out, but also I think this is still a non-standard post Olympic worlds because the impact of the Olympic delay and short quad hasn't quite left us yet. It might look different next quad, should we get that far. The gymnasts at the moment are disproportionately those who got no proper downtime after Tokyo, since there's been fewer new seniors come through than usual.

It's interesting though how many European programmes and athletes seem to have taken the decision to go to a very full, new quad Euros but not worlds. When the new worlds qualifying regulations required a full continental team competition of sorts for 3 of the 4 years of the quad, I wondered if they'd become less significant than previously. It seems to have gone the opposite way entirely. Possibly some of that is due to federations wanting to get as many titles in whilst Russia are out, but I'm not sure that's all of it.

I think a lot of it is down to athletes having longer careers and taking a year off after the Olympics. And for the same reason, new seniors are no longer ready to go.

How many first year seniors are we likely to see at worlds…

 

[RichardL]

I think a lot of it is down to athletes having longer careers and taking a year off after the Olympics. And for the same reason, new seniors are no longer ready to go.

How many first year seniors are we likely to see at worlds…

This makes a lot of sense to me. The post-Olympic Worlds used to be a big coming out party for the new seniors who were excellent juniors. We don't see much of that anymore. The U.S. is likely sending Wong as their top AA contender who has been a senior since 2019. Russia is sending Melnikova who was a 2016 Olympian. Visser debuted in 2018. Even Zhang Qingying has been to a Worlds (where she made the beam final).

 

[RedBirdie]

In fact, the US only has one new senior at selection camp, since Pease withdrew. Everyone else has been senior for at least a year.
Skye Blakely (2021)
Dulcy Caylor (2023)
Jayla Hang (2024)
Gabrielle Hardie (2025)
Joscelyn Roberson (2022)
Simone Rose (2024)
Ashlee Sullivan (2022)
Leanne Wong (2019)

 

[cats]

USAG hasn’t gotten a non-Tokyo eligible gymnast to actually compete in a World or Olympic final yet. Roberson and Rivera made teams but didn’t compete in any finals. Kind of shocking.

 

[Turtle88]

Feel for Hezly. It must be a very bad roll for her to miss worlds from it.

The guaranteed spot is now wide open! Hoping Hang or Pease step up and take it. I'd love to see the next generation be the core of this team.

Claire got injured too and has pulled out.

 

[Passion]

USAG hasn’t gotten a non-Tokyo eligible gymnast to actually compete in a World or Olympic final yet. Roberson and Rivera made teams but didn’t compete in any finals. Kind of shocking.

Didn’t Roberson originally qualify for the VT final in ‘23? She didn’t compete because she killed her ankle in TF, but I feel like it still counts that she qualified.

 

[Turtle88]

Woga ankle is the new woga back.

Something is going on though

They didn't get injured at the same time nor the same events.

 

[RedBirdie]

Didn’t Roberson originally qualify for the VT final in ‘23? She didn’t compete because she killed her ankle in TF, but I feel like it still counts that she qualified.

Yes, qualified 6th to vault finals. She then wrecked her ankle in warm ups for TFs, so never even competed in TFs.

 

[ArnoldRimmer]

I think a lot of it is down to athletes having longer careers and taking a year off after the Olympics. And for the same reason, new seniors are no longer ready to go.

How many first year seniors are we likely to see at worlds…

Definitely. However in a parallel universe where the Tokyo Olympics were held in 2020, there'd have been more scope for athletes to have a few months off after the Games and be back in time for worlds if they'd wanted. We're seeing quite a few athletes with exhaustion now, and injuries they never really got chance to rehab properly because we went virtually straight into a high octane year in 2022. Maybe more of them would've made it.

 

[daniTS]

Huh. Seems like no one wants to go to Worlds this year. I get that federations are focused on years with more at stake, but its a bummer to see so many unfilled slots.

I'm starting to wonder why Canada hasn't announced their team. The selection event happened about 10 days ago now.

I think Deanna Hong posted on her story that Ellie Black was going to bring her a PWHL jersey to Indonesia that Deanna couldn’t have shipped directly, so I think she is going one way or the other?

 

[Denn]

Definitely. However in a parallel universe where the Tokyo Olympics were held in 2020, there'd have been more scope for athletes to have a few months off after the Games and be back in time for worlds if they'd wanted. We're seeing quite a few athletes with exhaustion now, and injuries they never really got chance to rehab properly because we went virtually straight into a high octane year in 2022. Maybe more of them would've made it.

This really made me think.

I am inclined to agree it, but I also think that post-Olympics worlds have had depleted fields before. Is it really just exhaustion of the returning athletes? Or is it (also, in addition to exhaustion) a lack of benefit of competing?

Maybe that's okay — and, like @MaryClare seems to be hinting, maybe post-Olympics worlds needs to change somehow... or be replaced with some other kind event?

 

[ArnoldRimmer]

This really made me think.

I am inclined to agree it, but I also think that post-Olympics worlds have had depleted fields before. Is it really just exhaustion of the returning athletes? Or is it (also, in addition to exhaustion) a lack of benefit of competing?

Maybe that's okay — and, like @MaryClare seems to be hinting, maybe post-Olympics worlds needs to change somehow... or be replaced with some other kind event?

There's definitely other times they've had depleted fields, even excepting 2021 which was a unique case. And the times when the fields were strongest have often been when they've featured multiple athletes who had a disappointing Olympic year, like in 01 and 05. I think this must be the worst ever, but it's not new.

There's also even some predecent for athletes peaking earlier in the year for 'lesser' competitions rather than worlds. Russia did that in 2013. So that isn't new either.

I also worry they're going to have a lot of empty seats at this, since the sport isn't huge in Indonesia and they were so late with tickets. And that might have an impact down the line.

 

[FrolovasDoubleLayout]

I was told that Canada was sending Black, E., Black, G., Fontaine and Olsen - which is interesting, since they only named two to the nominative registration.

 

[makam]

It is also interesting that ncaa is also sucking away some of the talent we otherwise might expect to see.

 

[cats]

Didn’t Roberson originally qualify for the VT final in ‘23? She didn’t compete because she killed her ankle in TF, but I feel like it still counts that she qualified.

To be clear, I’m not trying to insult the younger seniors or diminish Josc or Hezly. I do think that keeping an athlete healthy all the way through the end of Worlds is part of the challenge that coaches and the National Staff have to meet, and it’s strange and notable to me that it hasn’t happened yet. Certainly the NCAAers hanging on is a factor in who makes teams, and hopefully it just means that more athletes will hit their international stride during or after college instead of high school. But it is weird!

 

[IratePanda]

I think 2005 and 2013 were very good post-Olympic Worlds, but maybe they were outliers. In 2005, we had the Liukin-Memmel rivalry, plus Cheng Fei's breakout performance on V. 2013 had tons of starpower--Biles, Ross, Maroney, Mustafina, Huang Huidan, and Yao Jinnan.

I personally loved 2009 because of Deng Linlin's beam gold, but the rest of the competition was pretty lackluster.

2017 and 2021 were non-events, AFAIC. Yay Fan Yilin and Wei Xiaoyan, I guess?

I dunno. Just musing here. One option might be to eliminate post-Olympic Worlds altogether and have more World Cup events, or low-stakes team events (along the lines of Jesolo). Or maybe AA events with a round-robin elimination format modeled on tennis. Make the competitions fresh and interesting while acknowledging that it's a transitional year.

 

[ArnoldRimmer]

I think 2005 and 2013 were very good post-Olympic Worlds, but maybe they were outliers. In 2005, we had the Liukin-Memmel rivalry, plus Cheng Fei's breakout performance on V. 2013 had tons of starpower--Biles, Ross, Maroney, Mustafina, Huang Huidan, and Yao Jinnan.

I personally loved 2009 because of Deng Linlin's beam gold, but the rest of the competition was pretty lackluster.

2017 and 2021 were non-events, AFAIC. Yay Fan Yilin and Wei Xiaoyan, I guess?

I dunno. Just musing here. One option might be to eliminate post-Olympic Worlds altogether and have more World Cup events, or low-stakes team events (along the lines of Jesolo). Or maybe AA events with a round-robin elimination format modeled on tennis. Make the competitions fresh and interesting while acknowledging that it's a transitional year.

05 I feel is hard to call because the general standard wasn't too high, but the top gymnasts there really had a stormer. There's a big drop off in quality.

 

[IratePanda]

05 I feel is hard to call because the general standard wasn't too high, but the top gymnasts there really had a stormer. There's a big drop off in quality.

True. It was also the first year of the open-ended COP.