So 2021 Worlds is looking like a shitshow

[Doug1233]

I was always against allowing the 2021 seniors to compete at the Tokyo Olympics.

Would Worlds 2021 have been better if the FIG had not changed the eligibility rules?

Of course, a Russian team without Listunova looks a lot different.

Did the FIG shoot themselves in the foot? IMO, it has essentially ruined the status of this years Worlds to a World Cup Challenger meet, at best.

Or wouldn’t it have made much of a difference? I guess, in the end, there weren’t too many 2005 seniors in Tokyo anyway.

 

[irichluck21]

There were only 3 2005 ladies
Verkest of Belgium, Listunova, and Stewart of Canada

Verkest made AA finals and significantly added to the Belgian team who made team finals and finished the highest team placement in history. Without her I am not sure they would have made team finals. Canada was 9th but they also had a 2005 gymnast (who ended up costing the team a spot in finals).

Listunova was obviously clutch for Russia in team finals. I don’t think they would have gotten the same scores from Gerasimova. Although based on Chiles FX score and Biles withdrawing, ROC would still win gold.

ETA- Russia’s score was 169.528 with Listunova. If you subtract her scores and replace them with Gerasimova’s qualification scores, Russia is at 165.461 so USA would have won even without Biles and with Chiles floor fall.

 

[Sasha]

Yeah, it’s a shitshow, but I’m feeling pretty “waddaya gonna do” about it. We’ve never had Worlds in the same year as the Olympics, a tour, and a pandemic; it was probably doomed from the start. I was actually surprised that they didn’t cancel Worlds once the Olympic delay was announced, it pretty much guaranteed a depleted field. But I’ll still take a depleted Worlds over no Worlds!

 

[ArnoldRimmer]

The FIG didn’t shoot themselves in the foot by allowing all seniors to be eligible for the Olympics. Quite the opposite, because it’s more important for the sport to have Olympics of the optimum quality than it is to get theoretically better champions at what is always the least important worlds there is. Although we are only talking about a couple of gymnasts anyway, as it turned out. The most important one being Listunova, who could’ve easily enough ended up being 2 per’d out of most finals even if she’d been excluded from the Olympics.

There is an argument that this worlds shouldn’t have happened. I thought for a while they might end up being cancelled. But I intend to enjoy them anyway.

 

[dweiss324]

I’m at the point where I’m definitely feeling like they should have been cancelled once Tokyo got pushed back a year.

On the flip side, if I’m like really drunk and squint my eyes, I can still almost kinda recognize this as a major(ishhh) gymnastics competition and it’s enough to remind myself that “oh wait, you like this sport”.

Just setting my expectations at rock bottom. Like, Mariana trench bottom. Gonna take a lot of popcorn and a lot of booze to make this one enjoyable.

 

[MRR]

I don’t understand the argument at all. First off, the FIG was in lockstep with 32 other sports granting eligibility to 2021 senior athletes, an inevitable decision for the vast majority of sports who had qualifier events delayed to 2021. You otherwise face the conundrum of whether athletes take part at World Cups/Continentals/whatever else they would normally compete at, and in gymnastics’ case, having a bizarre and overwrought qualification system made more complicated.

Listunova is obviously a loss here, and if you wanted to stretch you could add Blakely to the list, but gymnasts can be injured at any time. Andrade and Murakami forgoing AA, and USA/CHN having no Olympians in Kitakyushu, are irrelevant to the 2020ne age rule. It’s not even clear whether Murakami would’ve taken part if the Championship hadn’t been moved to Japan or held within months of the Olympics.

2017 was a shitshow and that wasn’t amidst a pandemic or postponement of an Olympics.

 

[ucrgirl]

In the US, I think the NIL rules had an impact. Girls on their way to NCAA could make money on the tour (and have fun post-Olympics) and that may have seemed like an opportunity they didn’t want to miss.

Maybe with an open COP (and high degree of difficulty) it not possible for athletes to peak that many times. They had to peak for Nationals/Trials, Olympics and Worlds. (Plus the next Olympics is only 3 years away.) Maybe if you had success in Tokyo Olympics and want to make it to Paris you need to sit this one out.

 

[onodian]

I know I’m going to make up my mind on how legitimate these worlds are depending on how much do I like the medallists, frankly. Not planning on doing it, but I know this: had Andrade won AA I’d be totally like “this is a perfectly normal worlds please stop diminishing her accomplishments”. Instead I will probably be constantly say things like: DiCello, AA world “champion”

 

[ArnoldRimmer]

The correct approach, I think.

We could actually end up with some pretty good quality podiums here, especially in the EFs. Can’t see much complaining if we get Andrade as the vault champion, Urazova bars, Li Shijia beam and Murukami floor, for example. Indeed, I expect those champions would be received with joy and hysteria. It’s the lack of depth that’s more the issue.