Just announced on International Gymnast:
The International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) has reduced the number of gymnasts on an Olympic team from six to five, the federation announced Friday.
The decision comes as part of the FIG's new Olympic qualification procedure, proposed by the Executive Committee and accepted by the FIG Council at its meeting last weekend in Cape Town, South Africa.
According to the FIG announcement:
"In the future, two events will serve as qualifying events: the world championships organised the year preceding the Olympic Games and pre-Olympic events.
The number of gymnasts in a team will be reduced from 6 to 5.
All medallists will be qualified for the Olympic Games."
The FIG also has cancelled the biennial World Cup Final, last held in 2006. The federation has struggled to find a host for the World Cup Final on several occasions.In addition, the FIG announced that as of Jan. 1, 2009, all gymnasts will need "licenses" to participate in international competition.
So it's official, I guess. They really could have found another way to allow medalists to qualify to the Olympics, even if their country didn't qualify a full team and have less athletes at the competition without damaging the team aspect of the sport.
In addition, the FIG announced that as of Jan. 1, 2009, all gymnasts will need "licenses" to participate in international competition.
What the fruit does that mean? They have visas, passports, and birth certificates, forged or not. Now they need another form of identification?
BTW, there is no mention about how the team format will change yet. 5-3-3 just won't cut it. It had better be something that truly utilizes the team, like 5-5-4 or 5-4-3. And I still advocate a constant in team format in prelims and team finals. Nothing like 5-5-4 in prelims and 5-4-3 in finals.
Full roster with accompanying article here.
Exciting prospects:
- the return of Ashley Priess, aka, America's Olympic Uneven Bars Hope
- Randi Lau, the Hawaiian wunderkind who trained at WOGA but did not qualify for Nats last year and is now back in Hawaii
- The world can finally see these rumored upgrades from Ivana Hong that her camp has been so tight-lipped about
- Shawn Johnson's new floor routine ('bout bloody time)
- The official American Amazing Race to Beijing begins and everybody is on tenterhooks hoping that nobody (especially the locks) gets injured
UPDATE:
Here's the draw.
Bruno Grandi is running for reelection. Unopposed. Fantastic.
Y'know, if his job has good health insurance, I'd totally go for it.
According to Gymmedia.de (translated from German to English by Ingrid on WWGym), the FIG Executive Council voted to reduce the team size from six members to five. It still has to go in front of the FIG Membership and be approved or vetoed, but from what I hear, they usually never go against the EC. This could possibly go into effect for the 2009 Worlds (though aren't the Worlds the year after the Olympics EF-only).
Now what benefits could this possibly bring to gymnastics competitions? The only reason this was done was so more spots would be open for previous World medalists to get Olympic spots, but I'm sure there could have been a better solution than further damaging the team aspect of gymnastics.
The number of people on a team didn't necessarily need to be changed; it was the format that needed to (and keeping the format constant in a major competition; having 6-5-4 in qualifications and 6-3-3 in finals is ridiculous and detrimental to countries without a lot of depth). The format should have been changed to 6-5-4, 6-5-5, 6-6-5, or 6-6-6 if you wanted to be sadistic. Something to make it a team final, not *the star of the team* and friends.
Are they really trying to get rid of the team aspect when that is what has taken precedence over the AA in recent years? Specialists have become so ingrained already that I don't see the AA become as important as it once was again (at least, not soon).
And really, the team final is what fills the most seats, the AA second.
Since USAG is not posting information yet, these are tidbits from the gymn boards (thanks to various peoples).
AA Results:
1.) Ivana Hong (YUSH!)
2.) Ashley Priess
3.) Chellsie Memmel
4.) Mattie Larson
Darling (not a typo, actually her name) Hill is supposedly injured, but there is no confirmation yet. A-Sac made her three events her bitches, including a 16+ on BB.
Gymn.ca had this to say about the Canadian reps:
Emma Willis of Bluewater Gymnastics club was the top Canadian all-around gymnast at this week’s friendly international competition in Houston, Texas. Willis scored 55.95 after hitting all for events to rank 8th in a field of gymnasts representing the United States, Canada, Germany, Columbia, Italy, and Venezuela. Also competing in the all-around for Canada were Sydney Sawa (10th) and Catherine Dion (13th). Aisha Gerber competed two events only (vault and floor) while Alyssa Brown competed all events but floor. Competition was to conclude today with apparatus finals, with each Canadian planning to compete on two events. This friendly competition was held at the conclusion of a week long training camp.
Nothing about EFs yet and those are what will really tell us anything. This blogger wishes to know about Ivana Hong's upgrades and especially her bar routine, especially since she recently said that she's taken out her signature German giant to reverse hecht because she was getting killed for that.
