Arabian Punch Front

Photo Credit: Grace Chiu

The Rio Test Event team competition finishing over the weekend and what a competition it was! There was lots of excitement and heartbreak when the chalk finally settled. On the men's side, Germany was able to ward off evil pommel spirits (that landed them at the Test Event in the first place) to finish in gold medal position. They were followed by Ukraine who went from nearly 3rd in 2012 to nearly not in the Olympics in 2016. The team was able to rally led by a strong all around performance by Oleg Verniaiev. The Netherlands and France completed the list of teams that qualified a 5-member team to the 2016 Rio Olympics.

The women's competition was full of drama. To the surprise of no one and to the elation of the home crowd, Brazil finished in first place. They were followed by Germany, Belgium, and France who will all get the chance to bring a team to the Olympics. The great surge in this group of finalists has to go to Team Belgium and Team Switzerland. Belgium just missed on qualifying a team to the Olympics in 2012 and now they come with strong all arounders and event final worthy athletes. To top it off, they were missing some members of their team due to injury or forced medical retirement. Switzerland, though they finished in 6th, also deserves praise for nearly making it. They were one of the teams that most people ignored and they surprised with their performance and how close they were to qualifying.

There was a lot of sadness in this final. Australia finished in 5th place with a 218.428, 2.441 points behind France and a team spot at the Olympics. This score was an improvement from their score at Pacific Rims but still wasn't enough to qualify a team. Romania finished in 7th place with a 216.569, which was actually less than their Glasgow 2015 qualifying score. One could argue the worlds team contained Larisa Iordache and Laura Jurca and the test event team had Catalina Ponor and Ana Maria Ocolisan but was missing Iordache and Jurca. Who knows if that would have made a difference or if it would have been enough to qualify. We could hypothesize forever.

Now comes the tricky part: Australia, Switzerland, Romania, and Korea can send 1 gymnast to the Olympics. For South Korea, 2 of their star gymnasts were injured and it's unclear if they'll be back in time for Rio. Switzerland will most likely send Giulia Steingruber. Australia and Romania are in tough situations. Romania will most likely choose between Larisa Iordache and Catalina Ponor - both with hopes of balance beam and floor exercise finals. Iordache has the benefit of an all around final and chance at the podium though we don't know the extent of her injury and when she can be back to full training. Australia will basically have a battle of former Olympians. In my opinion, it will be between Larrissa Miller (FX), Georgia-Rose Brown (AA), Emily Little (AA, potentially VT though they likely won't make event finals if not upgraded). AA athletes Kiara Munteanu and Emma Nedov also deserve a shout out for finishing first of the Australians at Pacific Rim and the Test Event, respectively. And these are just the athletes we've seen. Lauren Mitchell is recovering from ACL surgery and is back training. She's been well enough to attend recent national team camps. Olivia Vivian also seems to be training (though I'm honestly still not 100% sure). They actually have a ton of options for who to send to Rio.

Both teams will need to really look at their systems. Both have had star juniors that haven't quite made it at the senior ranks. For Australia, it seems mostly to be due to injury. For Romania, there is an injury component but also "lack of motivation" and former stars and European medalists being exiled to Romanian gymnastics Siberia. Romania is truly lacking in depth, as evidenced by 2 injuries, Iordache and Jurca, collapsing the entire team structure.

Then there are coaching issues. For Australia, I really can't decide how to feel about Peggy Liddick. The Australians have accomplished some great things during her reign, Lauren Mitchell's floor exercise gold, Larrissa Miller making floor event finals at 2014 worlds. But they've also declined to the point of not making the Olympics. We typically think of Romania but the Aussies are also a team that relies on their veterans. There's nothing wrong with relying on your veterans, it's just a problem when there isn't much depth to replace them.

The Romanian coaching situation is a disaster. If anyone wants to update me on why Nicolai Forminte left in 2010, I'd love to hear it. Maybe I wasn't totally attuned to what was going on but I remember thinking it was weird they fired him. Sorry, we have a 2008 team and floor exercise medal, some worlds and European medals, but you're done. Thank you! It just really didn't make sense. Now he's back coaching the juniors and they're showing promise. Belu and Bitang are basically having an on-again off-again relationship with their coaching role. Apparently the girls asked for them back but then were injured so they did not get to coach much. It bothers me most that they resigned just before the girls left for Rio. I thought this was weird. I didn't think it was because they had very little faith in the athletes they were trying to coach to the Olympics.

The biggest comment that has resonated with me about this whole Romanian situation was on rightful 2004 Olympic AA Champion Andreea Raducan's facebook. "...We could have the fate of Ukraine." She reminds us of the greats Lilia Podkopayeva and Viktoria Karpenko. A country that once had such pride and talent that is no longer on the gymnastics map. That really struck a chord. Will Romania be the next Ukraine or will there be changes made? There's a lot of finger pointing now but I hope that the RGF and the coaches come up with a plan to develop the program otherwise this disaster is only just beginning.

Women's Team Competition
Place	Team	Score
1	Brazil	226.477
2	Germany	223.977
3	Belgium	221.438
4	France	220.869
5	Australia	218.428
6	Switzerland	218.336
7	Romania	216.569
8	South Korea	203.828

Men's Team Competition
Place	Team	Score
1	Germany	350.609
2	Ukraine	350.160
3	Netherlands	347.444
4	France	346.583
5	Romania	344.148
6	Spain	342.725
7	Belgium	342.534
8	Canada	330.626

The Pacific Rim Championships will take place this weekend in Everett, Washington, USA. Headlining this meet on the women's side is three time World All Around Champion Simone Biles who will make her debut in the Olympic year. She did not appear at earlier World Cup meets or at Jesolo to make sure this stellar gymnast peaks at the right time - the Olympic Games.

Biles said in an interview that she will unveil a new floor routine and also debut a new second vault - a Yurchenko half on, one and a half twist off named after Chinese gymnast Cheng Fei. Other than bars, the one gold medal that has evaded Biles has been on vault. Her execution is exemplary but difficulty has kept her away from the gold medal. Now, with this new vault, she is just as competitive as the previous gold medalists, if not more competitive given her exemplary execution.

BFF Maggie Nichols was named to the team but unfortunately was forced to withdraw due to a "minor knee injury." Ragan Smith was chosen to replace her. She will join Ashton Locklear, Aly Raisman, and Laurie Hernandez. The big surprise of the team was definitely Brenna Dowell. After what we were told was an exemplary training camp, Dowell had multiple errors on uneven bars, the main reason she was chosen for the team. Because of this, she did not compete at all in team finals. Dowell must have shown great promise to be chosen over Ragan Smith (initially) and Alyssa Baumann.

The format of Pacific Rim Championships is 6 athletes, 5 up on each event with 4 scores counting. In the Olympic Year, federations were allowed to bring teams of entire senior athletes. Australia will be bringing their Test Event team: Georgia-Rose Brown, Emily Little, Larrissa Miller, Rianna Mizzen (a new senior), Emma Nedov, and Emily Whitehead. Brown and Nedov to compete AA at test event with Little competing all but uneven bars. Presumably, the lineup should be similar for this meet.

Canada is also sending a senior team. They have replaced new seniors Rose-Kaying Woo and Meixi Semple with Worlds team member Audrey Rousseau and Worlds team alternate Madison Copiak. They are joining Shallon Olsen and Megan Roberts - 2 new seniors with lots to offer the Canadian team. Brittany Rogers, after just competing at NCAA Regionals for the University of Georgia, will compete elite routines at this meet. Kirsten Peterman also made the Canadian team, a surprise a bit like Dowell. Peterman had to beat out athletes like Sydney Townsend, Rousseau, and Copiak for the spot.

Other athletes to watch are the gymnasts from New Zealand who competed as junior gymnasts in the 2012 Pacific Rim Championships. This was shortly after an earthquake that destroyed their gym. Since then, the gym has been rebuilt, these juniors became seniors that have competed at the Commonwealth Games and Worlds. Courtney McGregor is currently the athlete chosen for the Test Event. She will be joined by Mackenzie Slee and Charlotte Sullivan.

Coverage information for Pacific Rim Championships can be found below. Times are Eastern (GMT-4.)
USA Gymnastics Youtube
Pac Rim Champs Website

(Click to enlarge)

Daiane Dos Santos of Brazil at the London 2012 Test Event

Photo: Getty Images

The Rio Test Event will take place on April 16-18 at the Rio Olympic Arena. This will be the last chance for gymnasts to qualify for the Olympic Games in Rio later this year. Not only is it a high stakes event and a great chance to give international experience and try out new seniors on a big stage, it is also a chance for gymnasts and coaches to scope out the arena, the Olympic Village, training halls, etc. It's a great time to start planning for the big trip - jet lag, climate acclimation, etc.

Teams that placed 9-16 at the World Championships in 2015 will have an additional chance to qualify. The top 4 teams at this meet will go to the Olympics. The other 4 teams will be able to choose one athlete to send to the Olympics. All other athletes competing at the Test Event, are vying for their spot at the Olympics.

On the men's side
Japan, China, Great Britain, Russia, USA, Switzerland, Brazil, and Korea have already qualified a team.
Rayderley Zapata (FX) of Spain, Harutyun Merdinyan (PH) of Armenia, Eleftherios Petrounias (SR) of Greece, Ri Se Gwang (VT) of North Korea, Marian Dragulescu (VT) of Romania, Oleg Verniaiev (PB) of Ukraine, Oleg Stepko (PB) of Azerbaijan, and Manrique Larduet (HB) of Cuba have already qualified to the Olympics as an individual.
Belarus withdrew as a team. This allows Belgium to bring a team of gymnasts to the Test Event and Belarus will bring 2 gymnasts instead.
Russia has already qualified as a team and is able to send 2 gymnasts but no gymnasts are on the nominative list.

On the women's side
USA, Russia, Great Britain, China, Italy, Japan, Canada, and the Netherlands have already qualified a team.
Hong Un Jong of PRK (silver on vault) and Pauline Schaefer of GER (bronze on balance beam) have already qualified to the Olympics.
The People's Republic of Korea has withdrawn their team from contention so only Hong will represent them at the Olympics. The 2 alternates will now attend the test event, Colombia and India.
USA, Russia, and Japan have already qualified as a team and are able to send 2 gymnasts each but no gymnasts are listed on the nominative list.

SCHEDULE
The event finals schedule is very interesting and not sure if it'll stay that way.

April 14	MAG Podium Training
April 16	MAG Team and AA Competition
10:30-13:00 BRT 9:30-12:00 EDT	Subdivision 1 (GER, MG 9, MG 1, MG 5, MG 7, CAN) MG9: COL, COL, JPN, JPN, GBR, GBR MG1: AZE, LTU, POR, ARM, AUS MG5: GRE, GRE, GRE, HKG, ARG, PRK MG7: ~~RUS, RUS,~~ SUI, SUI, CRC
14:30-17:00 BRT 13:30-16:00 EDT	Subdivision 2 (ROU, ESP, MG 2, FRA, MG 6, MG 4) MG2: TPE, TPE, HUN, BLR, BLR MG6: USA, USA, UZB, RSA, CZE, ALG MG4: KOR, KOR, PUR, PUR, BRA, BRA
18:30-21:00 BRT 17:30-20:00 EDT	Subdivision 3 (UKR, NED, MG 3, BEL, MG 10, MG 8) MG3: MEX, MEX, CHI, IRL, TUR MG10: ITA, ITA, NOR, CYP, NZL, VIE MG8: CHN, CHN, JAM, ISR, CUB, FIN
April 15	WAG Podium Training
April 17	WAG Team and AA Competition
9:30-11:30 BRT 8:30-10:30 EDT	Subdivision 1 (AUS, ROU, MG 5, MG 6) MG5: HUN, HUN, CHN, CHN, POL, POL, CRO MG6: COL, IND, BLR
13:00-15:00 BRT 12:00-14:00 EDT	Subdivision 2 (MG 4, MG 1, BRA, SUI) MG4: AZE, SVK, UKR, MAS, VEN, ARG, ARM MG1: GRE, GRE, NED, NED, GBR, GBR, UZB
16:30-18:30 BRT 15:30-17:30 EDT	Subdivision 3 (MG 7, MG 8, GER, KOR) MG7: ESP, ESP, SWE, SWE, CUB, TTO, NZL MG8: ~~RUS, RUS,~~ PER, POR, GUA, CHI, VIE
20:00-22:00 BRT 19:00-21:00 EDT	Subdivision 4 (BEL, MG 2, FRA, MG 3) MG2: CAN, CAN, SLO, IRL, ALG, JAM, ISL MG3: MEX, MEX, ITA, ITA, AUT, AUT, TUR
April 18	MAG and WAG EF
13:10-14:10 BRT 12:10-13:10 EDT	MAG FX, WAG VT
Awards
14:25-15:25 BRT 13:25-14:25 EDT	MAG PH, WAG UB
Awards
Break
17:10-17:40 BRT 16:10-16:40 EDT	MAG SR
Awards
18:00-18:30 BRT 17:00-17:30 EDT	MAG VT
Awards
18:40-19:10 BRT 17:40-18:10 EDT	WAG BB
Awards
Break
20:30-22:00 BRT 19:30-21:00 EDT	MAG PB & HB, WAG FX
Awards

LIVE STREAM
Updated Apr 14 - FIG will upload "52 minute highlight videos of both the individual and team competitions" for both MAG and WAG the day after competitions for both qualifications and event finals. Here's the link to the FIG Youtube Channel.

ROSTER

WAG		MAG
IOC	Name	IOC	Name
USA	-	JPN	Chihiro Yoshioka
RUS	-	CHN	Sun Wei Liao Junlin
GBR	Becky Downie Gabby Jupp	GBR	Brinn Bevan Nile Wilson
CHN	Zhang Jin Gong Kangyi	RUS	-
ITA	Giorgia Campana Lara Mori	USA	Jake Dalton John Orozco
JPN	-	SUI	Marco Rizzo Kevin Rossi
CAN	Isabela Onyshko Victoria Kayen Woo	BRA	Sergio Sasaki Arthur Zanetti
NED	Lieke Wevers Sanne Wevers	KOR	Hansol Kim Wonchul Yoo
BRA	Rebeca Andrade Jade Barbosa Daniele Hypolito Lorrane Oliveira Flavia Saraiva Carolyne Pedro Milena Theodoro	GER	Lukas Dauser Andreas Bretschneider Marcel Nguyen Philipp Herder Andreas Toba Ivan Rittschik Helge Liebrich - alternate
FRA	(Camille Bahl - alternate) Marine Boyer Marine Brevet Loan His Anne Kuhm Louise Vanhille Oreane Lechenault	FRA	Samit Ait Said Kevin Antoniotti Guillaume Augugliaro Julien Gobaux Cyril Tommasone Axel Augis Zachari Hrimeche
BEL	Axelle Kinckaert Julie Croket Laura Waem Rune Hermans Gaelle Mys Senna Deriks Cindy Vandenhole - alternate (Nina Derwael)	NED	Michel Bletterman Bart Deurloo Frank Rijken Casimir Schmidt Jeffrey Wammes Epke Zonderland Anthony van Assche - alternate
GER	Tabea Alt Leah Griesser Pauline Schaefer Sophie Scheder Elisabeth Seitz Pauline Tratz Maike Enderle - alternate	UKR	Oleg Verniaev Igor Radivilov Vladyslav Kryko Maksym Semiankiv Illia Yehorov Andrii Sienichkin
ROU	Diana Bulimar Ana Maria Ocolisan Catalina Ponor Dora Vulcan Silvia Zarzu Andreea Iridon - alternate Maria Holbura	ESP	Nestor Abad Joel Plata Adria Vera Alberto Tallon Rayderly Zapata Ruben Lopez Andres Martin - alternate
AUS	Georgia-Rose Brown Emily Little Larrissa Miller Rianna Mizzen Kiara Munteanu Emma Nedov Alexandra Eade - alternate	ROU	Alexandru Andre Ursache Cristian Ioan Bataga Vlad Cotuna Andrei Muntean Marian Dragulescu Marius Berbecar Daniel Radeanu
KOR	Jeong Hee Yeon Kim Chae Yeon Kim Ju Ran - alternate Lee Eun Ju Lee Go Im Lee Hye Been Yun Na Rae	CAN	Rene Cournoyer Mathieu Csukassy Scott Morgan Anderson Loran Jay Hugh Smith Jackson Payne Kenneth Ikeda
SUI	Caterina Barloggio Thea Brogli Nicole Hitz - alternate Ilaria Kaeslin Laura Schulte Stefanie Siegenthaler Giulia Steingruber	BEL	Maxime Gentges Jimmy Verbaeys Daan Kenis Bram Louqije Siemon Volkaert Dennis Goossens Florian Landuyt - alternate
ESP	Claudia Colom Ana Perez	BLR	Dzmitry Barkalau Andrey Likhovitskiy
HUN	Zsofia Kovacs Noemi Makra	COL	Jossimar Calvo Javier Sandoval
POL	Gabriela Janik Katarzyna Jurkowska-Kowalska	ITA	Ludovico Edalli Matteo Morandi
~~PRK~~	-	GRE	Vlasios Maras Eleftherios Kosmidis
MEX	Ana Lago Alexa Moreno	PUR	Luis Revera Andres Perez Gines
SWE	Emma Larsson Jonna Adlerteg	HUN	Botond Kardos Vid Hidvegi
AUT	Lisa Eckerle Elisa Haemmerle	TPE	Chen Chih-Yu Lee Chih Kai
GRE	Argyro Arfrati Vasiliki Millousi	MEX	Kevin Cerda Daniel Corral
VEN	Jessica Lopez	CUB	Randy Leru
POR	Ana Filipa Martins	ARM	Artur Davtyan
UZB	Oksana Chusovitina	CRO	Filip Ude
CUB	Marcia Vidiaux	HKG	Shek Wai Hung
SLO	Teja Belak	CHI	Tomas Gonzalez
TTO	Marisa Dick	POR	Gustavo Palma Simoes
PER	Ariana Orrego	NZL	Mikhail Koudinov
GUA	Ana Sofia Gomez	CZE	David Jessen
JAM	Toni-Ann Williams	TUR	Ferhat Arican
TUR	Tutya Yilmaz	CYP	Marios Georgiou
ARM	Houry Gabeshian	NOR	Stian Skjerahaug
MAS	Farah Ann Abdul Hadi	LTU	Robert Tvorogal
ALG	Farah Boufadene	FIN	Oskar Kirmes
NZL	Courtney McGregor	IRL	Kieran Behan
BLR	Kylie Dickson	AZE	Petro Pakhnyuk
ARG	Ailen Valente	RSA	Ryan Patterson
VIE	Phan Thi Ha Thanh	UZB	Anton Fokin
AZE	Marina Nekrasova	ISR	Alexander Shatilov
SVK	Barbora Mokosova	JAM	Caleb Faulk
UKR	Angelina Kysla	VIE	Pham Phuoc Hung
CHI	Simona Castro	ALG	Mohamed Abdeldjalil Bourguieg
IRL	Ellis O'Reilly	CRC	Tarik Soto
CRO	Ana Derek	ARG	Nicolas Cordoba
ISL	Irina Sazonova	AUS	Michael Mercieca
COL	Catalina Escobar Gomez	IND	alternate
IND	Dipa Karmakar	SVK	alternate
RSA	alternate	DOM	alternate

Bookmark this page and keep checking back for updates as they become available!

Below we have part 2 by Ele recapping the senior and event final competition! If you missed Part 1, you can read it here.

The senior competition was less balanced in terms of winners, but in no way less exciting. The American gymnasts did not come to play games, and neither did Brazil or France. These two teams will soon be competing at the Rio Test Event to try and qualify a full team to the Olympics, and this was an important chance for them to test their level of preparation. Italy completed the roster of the competing teams, though with a heavily limited lineup of Ferlito, Carofiglio, Campana, Leolini, Mariani, and Ugrin, due to a long list of injured or recovering gymnasts (Ferrari, Fasana, Rizzelli, Busato, Marongiu, and Mori) and with Meneghini competing at the Stuttgart World Cup at the same time as the Jesolo competition. The US easily managed to win the team competition by a huge 13 points over silver medalist Brazil. Third place for Italy, who managed to lead over France thanks to a solid floor rotation, and fourth for France, who still posted fantastic bars and beam scores.

It was overall a very exciting competition, full of surprises and breathtaking moments. One of them was definitely Aly Raisman’s fall on her Amanar vault. She didn’t look convinced on this apparatus during warm-up and when the time came to compete, she sat it down. At first she looked put off and disappointed, but after a few words from her coach Mihai Brestyan, she quickly got herself together, like the champion we know her to be, and proved herself on every apparatus, making two finals, and winning a bronze (beam) and a gold (floor) medal on the following day. Some people read a lot (possibly too much) into this fall, claiming that it could jeopardize Aly’s spot on the Rio team. Personally, I think that this actually proved the opposite: mistakes happen all the time, but Aly is an experienced gymnast who knows this and knows how to not let a mistake influence her overall performance. The fact that she managed to leave that fall behind speaks louder than the fall itself, and Martha Karolyi seemed to agree while speaking to Aly at the end of day 2.

Gabby Douglas had yet another stellar competition, hitting all of her routines with great confidence both on day 1 and 2. She and Aly were fan favorites at Jesolo and the crowd cheered the loudest for them out of all the competitors, and Gabby’s stuck passes in her floor routine had everyone clapping and shouting at the top of their voices. She won the all-around competition and also won a silver medal on bars and a bronze medal on floor. Ever since her comeback, she has not taken a single false step, and this is a very important aspect that Marta will definitely keep in mind while drafting the perfect Rio team.

First year seniors Ragan Smith and Laurie Hernandez had a fabulous competition as well, showing that young age and relatively little experience mean next to nothing when you have confidence, skills, artistry, and a great deal of talent on your side. They respectively won silver and bronze AA. Ragan also won silver on floor and beam, while Laurie won gold on beam and silver on vault. Ragan has a new floor routine on a theme from The Addams Family and it is the perfect balance of cute and sassy. It is extremely entertaining, smartly choreographed, and executed with a great deal of attention to every detail. The tumbling is difficult and performed with precision, but what makes this routine stand out among so many others is Ragan’s ability to “sell” it so well. The audience already loved her as a junior, and this performance only reinforced those feelings. Everyone was clapping and enjoying the originality of her movements (you could even see Ragan’s teammates performing parts of her choreography alongside her while waiting for their turn). The audience was extremely excited after day one when they realized she had made floor EF, which meant they could watch her lovely routine a second time!

Everyone on team USA had a really good competition overall, including Ashton Locklear, winner of the UB EF gold medal and whose extremely precise lines left everyone speechless; Mykayla Skinner, whose execution has improved remarkably on all four events, excelling on VT where she secured herself a gold medal; Emily Schild, a gymnast who in a way flew a bit under the radar before this competition, where she came out with a very valuable and very well executed UB routine (very similar to teammate Locklear’s) that allowed her to make EF over other US gymnasts; and new seniors Sydney Johnson-Sharpf and Emily Gaskins, who despite not standing out on any particular event, still posted solid scores that would benefit any team in the world (but sadly, not the USA team, given their current insane depth).

It was really cute to see Brandy Johnson, Sydney’s mom and coach, beside her daughter, encouraging her and giving her last minute advice and hugs. All the coaches in general, and Marta most of all, paid very close attention to the girls and some, like Kim Zmeskal, literally went through the routines at the same time as their gymnasts, if only with their head and expression.

Team Brazil showed a very high level of preparation on all four apparatuses, thanks to the stellar AA performance of Flavia Saraiva who managed to end up in fourth place. She hit her difficult beam set with ease, she hit her upgrades on uneven bars, including her pretty piked jaeger, and she enchanted the audience with her new upbeat floor routine that she performed with her usual grace and flow. When I first heard that she had changed her previous music and choreography, I was a bit sad because I thought nothing could compare to the cuteness of that routine. But then I saw this new one and was sold from the start. She is an incredible performer and the Rio crowd is going to go absolutely crazy for her when she executes it at the Test Event and (hopefully) during the Olympics. But most importantly, Flavia whipped out her brand new double twisting Yurchenko on VT, a very important upgrade for her and her team, especially in view of the upcoming Test Event. She didn't get much height on the table (probably also due to her own limited height), but her form was absolutely neat and she landed it with no problems, for a huge 9.250 in execution.

The team was also helped by the comeback to international competition after a bad injury of Rebeca Andrade. She did not compete on floor, but her clean lines and her great power were remarkable. Sadly she counted a fall on bars during event finals, to which she had qualified with a beautiful 14.6, or she could have probably challenged for a medal, but this is not surprising after such a long time away from competition, and this is all good experience for her before her future, more important, assignments.

All the gymnasts in team Brazil had beautiful performances, including veteran Jade Barbosa and second-year senior Carolyne Pedro, who scored in the 13s everywhere. Daniele Hypolito was not as solid and reliable as usual, but still hit an important 13.750 score on bars. Sadly, Lorrane Oliveira did not get to compete, probably for some minor pain, but she was sitting with the audience, supporting her team with loud cheers.

Despite the unusual lineup, team Italy performed generally well. Enus Mariani had a fall on bars, which prevented her access to the final on her favorite event, but was otherwise solid everywhere else and showed a lot of confidence and dance moves in her new floor choreography.

Desirée Carofiglio, debuting here as a senior, showed her beautiful double front pike (Dowell) and double front tuck on floor, two very difficult and unusual skills for an Italian gymnast, a team that usually does not favor front tumbling. She had falls on beam and bars (where she landed her beautiful double front dismount though), but delivered a nice 14.550 on vault, with her 1 ½ Yurchenko. Her lack of experience was an issue, and it is why it is so important for her to compete internationally, especially in view of the next quad.

Tea Ugrin had barely recovered from a fever, and for this reason she was not in perfect shape. She downgraded her floor tumbling, opening with a double pike, but showed her new choreography to the music of Let It Go, from the Disney movie Frozen, which was very much appreciated by the audience and her teammates. She hit a clean UB routine, where her inbars looked beautiful, but sadly she fell on her dismount during EF. Hopefully she'll be able to get back in shape soon, as she is scheduled to participate in the Rio test event together with Lara Mori.

Both Alessia Leolini and Giorgia Campana had a clean competition with no falls, but their D scores on the low side compared to their teammates need some upgrading in order for them to be more competitive.

The most successful Italian gymnast of the competition was predictably Carlotta Ferlito, who ranked 8th in the AA, first among the Italians. She performed her 1 ½ Yurchenko with a much better form than in past competitions, and national team coordinator Enrico Casella mentioned that the DTY she has been working on for a while is now ready and she'll soon show it in competition. Her bars were mostly clean, just like her difficult beam (she only had a deduction for a low landing). On floor, she finally managed to complete her stunning Mustafina turn, and amazed once again the audience with her engaging choreography. She is one of the most popular Italian gymnasts and the crowd went crazy for her routines.

The following day she was supposed to compete on three event finals (FX, VT, BB) but she announced on Twitter that she had withdrawn from FX and VT due to exhaustion. She had in fact competed two weeks before at the American Cup, where the time zone change had taken a toll on her, and then had an intensive team camp in view of the Jesolo meet, after which she traveled straight to Jesolo. Keeping up such a high level of training for almost a month is not easy, and this is why she and her coaches decided to just have her compete on her favorite event. Carlotta is a professional athlete and when she went up on beam she hit all of her skills with confidence. However, looking at her face, it was clear that she did not feel she was on top of everything as she normally does. She looked very tense and it took her a longer time than usual to set up for each skill and series. She was also wearing her “unlucky” leo, aka the one she wore during Italian nationals last year and with which she counted three falls in the AA, making her lose the title of national champion that ended up being Tea Ugrin’s.

When the time came for the dismount, she completely missed her footing on the last back handspring, getting next to zero push from the beam itself to go into her double pike dismount. Everyone who knows a little bit about gymnastics immediately knew this was going to end up really badly. She still went for her double pike and landed it in the worst way possible: right on her neck. The time basically froze as the audience and everyone in the arena fell completely silent. She was resting on the mat, face down, holding her neck with her hands, and not moving. Only after a while she started crying really loudly and her coach and other people started crowding around her. They put a brace around her neck and carried her away to a stretcher and after a while she was taken to the local hospital to have a CT scan and an MRI.

It was a really scary fall and even her coach looked shaken when he informed the press of the situation. The girls who had to go up next on beam tried their best not to watch any of the happenings. Aly Raisman, Ragan Smith, and Laurie Hernandez kept warming up and going through their own routine to keep themselves “in a bubble” and trying to prevent the external world from penetrating and weakening their mental focus. This was effective as all of the remaining competitors hit their routines cold, including Enus Mariani, who had to go up right after this commotion and whose dismount was exactly the same as Carlotta’s. Resuming the competition after such a scary event was hard, and everyone kept waiting for news of Carlotta’s, but the show must go on, and so it did. Luckily, everything took a turn for the best and Carlotta’s medical exams did not show anything seriously wrong with her, not even her foot. Her neck was just sore and so was her ankle after hitting the beam in an awkward position, but hopefully she'll be back to full health in no time.

Witnessing such a scary event in first person was really hard and it seriously makes you realize how dangerous this sport can be and how incredibly good elite gymnasts are at what they do. They are so careful and train so perfectly that 99% of the times they make you forget about the dangers, but then an episode like this happens and the whole perspective suddenly shifts. On a different note, one that is considerably less important than Ferlito’s health, all team Italy supporters can't help being extremely grateful that Italy already qualified a full team to Rio during the Glasgow World Championships, because if they had to undertake the test event right now, against the high level teams that will compete this year, counting all of these injuries plus Ferlito’s, things would look extremely difficult.

The amount of concern Carlotta’s fall raised throughout the gymnastics world and especially her competitors during the Jesolo meet was, in a way, very heartwarming to witness. Once recovered from the initial shock, the audience cheered for her the whole time while she was being taken care of and carried out of the arena. She also received an overwhelming number of messages from fellow gymnasts, including a tweet from Aly Raisman herself, wishing her a speedy recovery on behalf of the whole team USA. Such sportsmanship displays are always lovely to see.

Before the Jesolo competition I had doubts about whether or not the French team had what it takes to qualify for Rio. Now I have even more respect for them and I can appreciate even more what a great competition the Test Event will be. They started out on bars, where they posted a series of amazing scores, all of them in the high 13s, with the sole exception of Camille Bahl who is a VT/FX specialist. Loan His scored the highest and proceeded to gain a bronze medal during EF, the only non-American who was capable of making a podium and thus preventing the US from making a clean sweep. The team was also very solid on beam, where new senior Marine Boyer scored an impressive 14.850 with a confident routine. Also remarkable was the AA performance of Marine Brevet, first ranking French gymnast who finished her competition in 10th place. Her lowest score of the day was a 13.450 on floor, so overall she had a really good day.

Speaking of floor, the team in general seemed to suffer on this event. No one had a higher D score than 5.2 and despite delivering mostly clean routines, this prevented them from reaching a higher team total. Lack of difficulty aside, Oréane Lechenault’s routine was really original and entertaining to watch. In her floor choreography she impersonates a puppet doll, replicating its mechanical and jerky movements in a very different and enjoyable way. Her leaps were also well executed and she had a lovely presence and smile.

Camille Bahl did not have a stellar day, counting a fall on both floor and vault, two events where the team was counting on her to lead. This does not bode well for her imminent future in the national team, especially since new senior Juliette Bossu (who was not at Jesolo), has a lovely floor with considerable difficulty and, if healthy, could challenge for a spot on the team.

At the end of the meet, on both days, the audience literally crowded around the barriers to get an autograph or a picture with the gymnasts. A lot of them had flags or handmade posters and their level of excitement was comparable to that of someone trying to get the attention of a movie star which was very cute to see. This goes to show how much the sport of gymnastics has grown in Italy in terms of popularity. The American gymnasts were the main focus of course, especially Gabby Douglas and Aly Raisman, whose presence at Jesolo has become something of a ritual. They were happy to comply, under the watchful eye of Marta Karolyi, who only allowed them a limited time with the fans, as their bus was already set to depart. Ashton Locklear, Emily Gaskins, and Laurie Hernandez were among the ones who spent more time signing autographs, for the utter joy of many young girls. Among them were also many of the junior gymnasts from Italy and Finland who had competed in Jesolo too, and who approached the seniors with the same level of deference as any “regular” person in the crowd.

Overall this meet did not disappoint the high expectations. It was packed with excitement, surprises and, most importantly, excellent gymnastics, and definitely raised the bar for the next few months leading up to the most important meet of the year: the Rio Olympic Games.

Thank you, Ele, for the wonderful recap. You can follow her on tumblr at elisaminimeneghini!

To recap Jesolo, we have Ele of elisaminimeneghini who was in attendance. Here's her perspective on the junior performance.

This year’s City of Jesolo Trophy has been one of the most anticipated competitions of the year and it definitely didn’t disappoint the expectations. The opening ceremony reminded everyone that this is the Olympic year, through a really well choreographed metaphor of the gymnasts from all over the world striving to reach Olympic glory, in the form of five girls dressed in the colors of the Olympic rings and dancing around row upon row of gymnasts wearing the green, white, and red colors of the Italian flag, and flag bearers carrying the flags of the nations taking part in the Jesolo Trophy. It was really dramatic and emotional, the perfect opening chapter for a high-level competition.

The junior all-around competition that took place on the morning of Saturday 19th featured 4 super-star level juniors from the USA: Jordan Chiles, Emma Malabuyo, Gabby Perea and Trinity Thomas. The first three girls had already competed just a few weeks earlier at the Gymnix junior competition in Canada, and, as per everyone’s predictions, they did not disappoint this time either.

Jordan Chiles delivered a really solid performance across all the apparatuses, breaking the total AA score of 58.2 (over two points higher than the silver medalist). The highlight of her competition was definitely her Amanar on vault (which also allowed her to win gold on VT EF the following day, being the only junior capable of this difficult vault). A lot has been said about her performing such a high difficulty element while still being a junior, and I saw her crash it a few times during warm up, making the whole crowd take sharp intakes of breath. Therefore, when her time to go came, I was really nervous. But there was no need to be at all, as she landed one of her best vaults so far, with a nice block, great form in the air, and an upright landing, for a huge 15.7 score. Simply beautiful.

Both Emma Malabuyo and Gabby Perea (respectively, silver and bronze AA medalists) had a very good competition, with Emma being rock solid especially on bars and beam, where she wowed the audience with her lovely lines and flexibility. Her consistency on these events helped her secure a silver medal on bars and a gold medal on beam.

Gabby Perea also delivered a fantastic UB routine, where she qualified in first place for the event final with a 14.65 (event in which she won a gold medal on the following day during EF), and she probably would have reached second place AA if only she had hit beam like she is capable of doing. During her routine on this event, she nailed her tuck standing full and her gorgeous layout, but then she sadly missed her footing while landing after her switch ring leap, straddled the beam, and miraculously prevented herself from putting her feet down, thus not counting a fall. It was really impressive to see her fight so hard and succeed to remain on the apparatus and the audience really appreciated her effort. Despite this mishap, she still scored 13.6 on beam, allowing her access to the final, but once again she had a mistake on her switch half and this time she counted a fall. That was unfortunate, as her beam is probably one of the hardest and she would have had no problem winning gold had she hit, but she is still very young and I am sure this experience will help her gain more confidence and perfect her set.

Trinity Thomas completed the US junior lineup and she was definitely the less experienced gymnast on the team. This led her to make a few mistakes on bars and beam, but her floor was really entertaining and her high D-score (5.8) coupled with her clean form and high tumbling helped her qualify for finals where she won the gold medal. In the AA she ended up in fifth place, because precious Ana Padurariu from Canada outscored her finishing up in 4th place helped by an absolutely fantastic beam routine that scored 14.850, with a 6.1 D-score. The highlight of Padurariu's routine was the triple acro series featuring a side-aerial to two layout step-outs which was really solid during AA but which she sadly fell on during EF. Her floor was also really enjoyable and nicely performed, with her lovely smile making everything look way more effortless than it really was.

The first Italian junior in the final ranking was 2003 born Giorgia Villa. This young gymnast is a very promising all-arounder and it is a shame for Italy that she will not be age-eligible for the junior European Championships, later this year. She and Martina Maggio were in the same rotation as the American girls and you could definitely tell they were both in awe of them and terrified to go up after them on the apparatuses. They tried not to look at the super talented US gymnasts before their turn, probably to avoid losing confidence and staying concentrated, and this makes Giorgia’s performance even more impressive. She especially impressed on uneven bars, where she executed a mostly clean 5.7 D routine (a really great start value for any Italian gymnast, let alone a junior), that allowed her to qualify for the final where she placed third, right behind Perea, Chiles and Malabuyo (the latter two tied for silver).

Speaking of the junior Italians, Martina Maggio was undoubtedly the most successful of them all. She had a great day, qualifying into three finals where she proceeded to secure three medals (silver on VT and BB, and bronze on FX). Her beam is lovely and solid, she recently upgraded her vault to a Yurchenko 1 ½, and her floor choreography is sassy and capable of engaging the audience. She was born in 2001 and, barring injuries, she’ll have no problems making the junior Euros team.

All the Italian juniors showed promising routines, even though some of them made mistakes that prevented them from accessing to the finals. Elisa Iorio has a difficult 5.8 D bars routine, and Martina Basile has a lovely double Arabian on floor, a Yurchenko 1 ½ and a layout to two feet on beam. Last but not least, Francesca Noemi Linari hit all of her routines, making three EFs and ending up in fourth place on beam.

It was lovely to see the young gymnasts from other countries as well. Helene Schaefer (Pauline’s sister) from Germany looks really promising and with her clean work she went home with an important bronze on beam. Canadian Jade Chrobok has lots of potential on VT (where she earned a bronze) and FX. The young Slovenian and Finnish girls still need some time to be competitive, but it was still great to see them taking part in an important international competition and see how ecstatic they were to be there. All the juniors in general looked very star-struck looking up to the seniors (especially the Americans) and patiently waited at the end of the competition for them to sign their autographs and take pictures with them, just like all the other gym fans in the audience. It was really heartwarming to see!

Stay tuned for the senior recap!

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