Are China still in the big three?

[Passion]

She would probably need to be added to the National team, move back to Beijing, and train with a new coach since hers left in 2016. I haven’t seen any indication that she is interested in doing that.

Her scores so far this competition:
Quals: 11.600, 12.200, 12.500, 13.150
TF: 11.800, 11.450, 13.000, 13.050

She’s been scoring mid to low 13s on floor domestically every year since she retired from the National Team in 2017. She’s not newly doing any better than she has been doing for the last few years.

ETA: I’ve spent the last hour digging around for new info on her just in case anything changed; she left Hubei team and wasn’t even training gymnastics for most of 2022 so she could catch up with classes. She took up parkour as a hobby and had a part time job. She just came back to gymnastics in the last few months training for this competition. She posted that her goal for 2023 was to get better at parkour. She has injuries and is always in pain. She struggles a lot with UB. She wants to graduate so she can go to school to become a physical education teacher.

 

[cats]

“I’m in pain all the time so I took up parkour” is… pretty hardcore.

 

[makam]

“Falling off the uneven bars was fun and all, but falling off buildings, that’s where i wanna be!” -Shang Chunsong, probably.

 

[MaryClare]

I think China will dominate Parkour as it comes fully into the FIG fold. There’s whole cities that are just empty buildings

 

[IratePanda]

A potential cottage industry there!

 

[JoseM]

Perhaps China is still in the Big Three, considering that Team China is a very strong team. China is highly strong and competent in gymnastics. In gymnastics, China is one heck of a big challenge to the USA.The only true problem that I see with China is that they fiddle with the gymnast’s ages. China is still very strong in gymnastics, but they had better watch out for Great Britain. The British are rising stars in gymnastics, a challenge to China, and can make China take a step down. I would not be surprised if Great Britain makes the Big Three, and I would not be surprised if Great Britain wins Team Olympic Gold at Paris 2024. As strong as China is in gymnastics, they must watch out for Great Britain.

José M.

 

[Doug1233]

The last Chunsong bar routine I saw she didn’t even have a high to low transition.

 

[Doug1233]

Random thought - why do the Chinese never do Tucked Fulls on beam?

 

[YurchenkoLoop]

Shang Chunsong just did round-off + back full last week. Wu Wenli, Liu Xuan, Cheng Fei, Guan Wenli, Yao Jinnan, Guo Fangting, Wu Jing, Qi, Qi have also done back full tucked

this spreadsheet is awesome. Some tabs are apparatus-specific and list various difficult skills and all the gymnasts who have competed each, with video links. Created by twitter users @sui_luwu and @yaojinnan

chn gym WAG database

ABBR list of prominent chinese gymnasts that designates which quad they turned senior elite 2021 - 2024,2017 - 2020,2013 - 2016,2009 - 2012 Deng Xue,邓雪,DX,Guizhou,2021,Chen Xiaoqing,陈小青,CXQ,Hunan,2017,Lou Nina,楼妮娜,LNN,Zhejiang,2013,Chen Chuyan,陈楚言 Li Yanan,李亚楠,LYN,Beijing,2021,Liu Jingxing,刘景行,L...

docs.google.com

 

[Doug1233]

Liu Xuan

She did a Tuck Full?

Wu Wenli, Liu Xuan, Cheng Fei, Guan Wenli, Yao Jinnan, Guo Fangting, Wu Jing, Qi, Qi

To be fair, no-one knows half of these Chinese gymnasts.

 

[YurchenkoLoop]

No one knows Amanda Jetter but she did one. AND an Arabian!

 

[Doug1233]

No one knows Amanda Jetter but she did one. AND an Arabian!

I mean, my question still stands lol. There were probably more gymnasts doing tucked fulls at the 2015 US Secret Classic than there have been in the history of Chinese WAG.

 

[YurchenkoLoop]

How many Russians have done a tucked full, post USSR dissolution? I can think of Grishina, otherwise I’m stumped

 

[blake]

Of the top of my head, 3. Skinner, Douglas, and Smith

I mean, when you’ve perfected the back layout on beam the way China has, why bother with a much riskier element for, what, potentially 1-2 tenths more in SV?

 

[Hatsumomo]

And frankly, if it isn’t Douglas-level, why bother?

 

[MaryClare]

Anna Kovalyova, Irina Kryuchkova, Lidia Sidorova, Alyona Donodina, Nadezhda Chikhireva, Nailia Mustafina.
Khorkina’s was supposedly laid out. Russia have always favoured the Arabian salto, which China (and Romania) seem to have completely avoided.

 

[IratePanda]

Guan Wenli had a very nice Arabian ca. 2009, and Qiu Qiyuan just added one to her beam routine.

 

[tempest]

Khorkina’s was supposedly laid out.

She actually competed the skill a few times but most were not successful

 

[blake]

Guan Wenli had a very nice Arabian ca. 2009

From a front aerial! And she did a back 1/1 in combo.

 

[irichluck21]

Spencer’s analysis on China keeps them up there int he medal hunt, but as we know China could challenge for team gold or complete fall apart as we have seen most recently.

China​

When it comes to the straight-up scores, China might not be quite as far into the grave as it would have seemed based on watching vault at nationals.

Using the same approach as with the US—but with average scores from Chinese Nationals instead of average scores from Pan Ams—you get a very similar total for China’s best team option.

VT	UB	BB	FX
Qiu Qiyuan	12.675	14.778	14.183	12.875
Ou Yushan	12.925	13.525	14.167	13.083
Zhang Qingying	13.094	12.800	14.378	13.283
Wei Xiaoyuan	12.850	14.483	13.200	12.650
Huang Zhuofan	0	14.500	0	0
38.869	43.671	42.728	39.241	164.599

Even if we assume that the US score zooms up when adding all the people back this summer, this team score for China compares very favorably against the other top contending teams in the world right now, and China will hope to augment this group with increased difficulty or health from some of the top veterans later in the year. (A person can dream?)

The problem for China is that we have seen this play so many times before. A super-amazing bars and beam team that looks like it should have the scores to overcome somewhat anemic vault and floor rotations, and then they show up to worlds, someone falls on beam, and the whole house of cards comes down because the entire plan was beam.

The lone competitive vaulter from nationals was Yu Linmin—who won the vault title easily thanks to her Tsuk double full—and she would make up a team score almost identical to the one above if put in place of Huang or Wei, which is something to consider seriously. But that does not solve the familiar travail of, how many gymnasts with unusable floors can you put on the same team without inviting apocalypse?