- Feb 3, 2021
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I might have a change of heart as the week goes by, but seeing these results, I’m not sure that this event really can be fairly called a “World” Championships.
So many of the athletes are just not up for competition at this point. An enormous number of top athletes on both the men’s and women’s side just didn’t want to come. And the problem is not just at the highest levels. Some federations decided not to send teams and some sent very, very limited teams. (Brazil sent only Andrade, for example.) Women could qualify to the AA final with a 12.2 average across four events. We’ve never seen something like this before.
Speaking of Andrade – I just saw that Andrade didn’t do floor, and I had no idea she was doing 3 events. A little under 13.7 would have put her in the lead in the AA. A little under 12.4 would have kept her in second (ahead of Wong). She could have tumbled a double tuck, chucked a front full, and done her beam routine on the floor and gotten that score. I read somewhere that she said she was listening to her body, so I am wondering if she has a real injury or if she just didn’t value the AA title enough to go for it. (She did a floor at the Brazilian Champs a couple weeks ago.)
If I were into conspiracy theories, I would say that there was a deal between Andrade and Melnikova, because, really, it’s Melnikova’s to walk away with at this point.
What to do? After decades of post-Olympics Worlds have weak AA fields and limited participation, I wonder if FIG should accept things, scrap the AA, focus on apparatus, and maybe add in some kind of specialized team competition – maybe a joint men and women showdown, to make the event unique and interesting during the “post-Olympic recovery” year when results don’t matter as much to almost everyone.
Share your thoughts!
So many of the athletes are just not up for competition at this point. An enormous number of top athletes on both the men’s and women’s side just didn’t want to come. And the problem is not just at the highest levels. Some federations decided not to send teams and some sent very, very limited teams. (Brazil sent only Andrade, for example.) Women could qualify to the AA final with a 12.2 average across four events. We’ve never seen something like this before.
Speaking of Andrade – I just saw that Andrade didn’t do floor, and I had no idea she was doing 3 events. A little under 13.7 would have put her in the lead in the AA. A little under 12.4 would have kept her in second (ahead of Wong). She could have tumbled a double tuck, chucked a front full, and done her beam routine on the floor and gotten that score. I read somewhere that she said she was listening to her body, so I am wondering if she has a real injury or if she just didn’t value the AA title enough to go for it. (She did a floor at the Brazilian Champs a couple weeks ago.)
If I were into conspiracy theories, I would say that there was a deal between Andrade and Melnikova, because, really, it’s Melnikova’s to walk away with at this point.
What to do? After decades of post-Olympics Worlds have weak AA fields and limited participation, I wonder if FIG should accept things, scrap the AA, focus on apparatus, and maybe add in some kind of specialized team competition – maybe a joint men and women showdown, to make the event unique and interesting during the “post-Olympic recovery” year when results don’t matter as much to almost everyone.
Share your thoughts!
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