What happened to Chinese WAG?

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Forgive me. I don’t have as much knowledge about the Chinese women’s program as some, but they really underperformed at Tokyo.

Are they in need of a shake up?
 

This post names the current 5 National Teams in China in order. Top team listed with is NT1, then NT2 follows and so on. Namely gymnasts from NT1-3 are selected to compete in major international events. Wang Qunce is head coach of NT1 and because of the political and social dynamics and all, WQ has the most sway in getting his gymnasts on major teams. NT2 also has a lot of influence–Beijing for one is included in NT2… NT3–not as much sway, despite having three Olympians this year in WAG. Zhang Jin and Lu Yufei were both undeniable <33, as was Fan with her locked in spot. Qiao Liang is the head coach of the WAG program as a whole.

Together WG and QL mismanaged the injured Ou Yushan. Ou injured her knee in Sept/Oct 2020 and looked to be in okay but maybe rushed shape at Nationals earlier this year. But then somewhere in between internal trials for the Olympic team, she hurt her feet(?) which prevented her from doing floor. She was attempting DTYs in Tokyo, but had to compete only the FTY. Taking best scores from Nationals and the first Trial, she scores 14.333 14.433 15.633 14.333 = 58.732. So there was logic to taking her–and I truly say her beam routine may be my favorite ever in the open-ended code when she hits–but she was not in the best competitive shape to be on the Olympic team and none of it is her fault. In Tokyo, Ou struggled with her Komova II transition and repeated her Maloney in both phases of competition in which she competed.

The team took a big hit with Li Shijia’s injury because Li had a DTY, EF-worthy bars, medal-worthy beam, and reliable enough FX. She too is from NT1.

Lu Yufei has been training a Kasamatsu 1/1 and showed it in podium training sessions and maybe some internal verifications too. The team hoped she’d do it in Tokyo, but she found the vault table not worn into enough and so she opted to do the Kas sans full. Lu also took out her triple full on floor in Tokyo. I’m assuming she was struggling with it. I think Lu’s TQ beam routine was scored with too strict a pen.

Tang Xijing only recently regained her DTY so it was a little unreliable. But she and Zhang Jin performed particularly well in TQ. Methinks they were collectively a little demoralized.

also, I like to think things are different with Qiao but

 
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