I don't think anyone was surprised by Hezly's ankle injury.
Yes elite gymnastics is a dangerous sport, yes some athletes are more prone to injury, but there is a clear pattern and this can't be dismissed as coincidence as it spans decades of injuries.
Safe sport / USAG should have done something years ago.
But come one. Who is still sending their daughter to a man with a track record like his? At a certain point it's also on the parents.
The adult athletes who choose to train with him, it's certainly a choice at this point.
It became one of the enduring moments of the 2024 Paris Olympics: Stephen Nedoroscik, glasses on, stepping up to the pommel horse on the biggest stage of his life after sitting on the sidelines for hours with one job — stay on.
Two minutes and dozens of dizzying turns later, Nedoroscik’s teammates lifted him in the air after securing the first team Olympic medal for the U.S. men in gymnastics since 2008.
The U.S. men had spent years on the outside looking in. While the American women racked up golds at the Olympics, team medals remained just out of reach for the men — fifth each time in 2012, 2016 and 2021. While women’s NCAA programs can sell out arenas, multiple schools have dropped men’s gymnastics at the varsity level, and boys teams at the youth level are harder and harder to find.
Still, after a string of fourth- and fifth-place finishes at World Championships, the U.S. men won team bronze there in 2023. A year later, they reached the team podium in Paris, their first at an Olympics in 16 years.
Now, the question is whether they can stay there.
The Artistic Gymnastics World Championships kick off in Rotterdam, Netherlands, on Saturday. This is the second World Championships since Paris, but there is no team event at worlds in the year following an Olympics. That makes this team competition the first on the international stage since the Paris Games. For the U.S. men, it’ll be their first chance to show that 2024 was not a one-off, but the start of a new era.
Stephen Nedoroscik’s memorable pommel horse routine put the U.S. men back on the Olympic podium in Paris, a standard the team now hopes to keep.Daniela Porcelli / Eurasia Sport Images / Getty Images
Only one member of the 2024 team will compete in Rotterdam: Frederick Richard, 22, who also won bronze in both the all-around and team event at worlds in 2023, and who is fresh off his first all-around title at the U.S. Championships in August. Teammates Asher Hong and Brody Malone are taking the season off, while Paul Juda retired after Paris. Nedoroscik failed to make the world team after falling on pommel horse at the U.S. Championships.
Instead, the U.S. will round out the team with vets who missed out on Paris, like Shane Wiskus, 28, a 2021 Olympian and 2024 alternate who finished second in the all-around at U.S. Championships in August. Patrick Hoopes, 24, won bronze on pommel horse at worlds in 2023 and will fill Nedoroscik’s role as event specialist. Kameron Nelson, 25, can post some of the hardest difficulty scores in the world on floor, finishing fourth in the event at worlds last year. Only one team member, Danila Leykin, 19, will be making his senior debut. The U.S. will especially look to him for scores on high bar and parallel bars.
Does anyone know why Hezly seems limited at PT?? Did she roll her ankle again?😣No tumbling in her floor routine, just a dance through. No vault. Looks to have purposely rolled out of her bars dismount. Mat on the beam for her series and just a layout on her beam dismount.
Awesome that the judge sentenced him to essentially a life sentence. He's 39 and got 90 years for being scum. (Creating videos of his female gymnasts undressing in Mississippi and sexually abusing gymnasts in Iowa.) But, seriously, WTF USA Gymnastics and SafeSport - what took them so long? Mississippi reported him in December 2017. But he was able to get a job at Chow's in the fall of 2018 and worked there until 2022. Supposedly some snafu on how the paperwork was processed. Then, once at Chow's, parents and gymnasts raised concerns and the other coaches there failed to report them to SafeSport - and promoted him instead - until a gymnastic went directly to SafeSport. Then it took three frigging years for SafeSport to change his status from temporary suspension (2022) to a permanent ban (2025) during which time he was able to find employment as a surgical tech because of bureaucratic paralysis at SafeSport - so nothing formal in a background check to show he's a sexual predator. Once would think that post-Nassar these systemic breakdowns would not be so horrifying!!!!
Jesenia Schäfer reportedly injured her foot during training on Wednesday and is now replaced by Pach.
What a tough experience for Schäfer, hope she recovers well and is proud of herself nonetheless
Due to limitations regarding how many links I can upload in a post, please see the comments section for links to the methodology, score trackers, and earlier previews.
Please let me know if y'all notice any errors in any of these previews and I will be sure to correct them. Since the "realistic max" captures a gymnast's best scores of the quad on every event, it is designed to be a measure of each team's scoring potential rather than a closest-to-the-pin estimate of a team's actual score at Worlds. Based on results last quad, a team score within 2 points of a team's "realistic max" can be considered to be a very good performance.
In a change from earlier previews, the below metrics rankings and write-up now assume that Russia/WG2 will compete with a team of Roshchina, Glotova, Kayumova, Us, and Anufrieva.
South Korea - the Team
Intended difficulty: T-13th, Realistic Max: 12th
Overview
At the 2022 and 2023 World Championships and the Paris Olympics, the South Korean team consisted of the same five gymnasts. A new quad yields a new team composition; Tokyo and Paris Olympian Yeo Seojeong is joined by Shin Solyi and Lee Yunseo, two of her Paris teammates. World Championships debutante Lim Sumin and second-year senior and beam phenom Hwang Seohyun are the team’s newcomers. Although this team’s scoring potential is a bit lower than the group of teams that figure to be at the team final cutline, South Korea is part of a sextet of teams that could surprise and make the team final if two or more of Italy, Russia, Canada, Brazil, France, or Great Britain have qualification woes. Even if South Korea does not make the team final, it could earn two individual medals as it builds for trying to qualify a team to the Olympics for the second consecutive quad at next year’s World Championships.
Vault
At the Tokyo Olympics, Yeo Seojeong earned bronze by successfully landing her eponymous vault in the event final. Since last quad’s comeback after that accomplishment, she has opted to reduce her twists from two to one-and-a-half and has competed an excellent front handspring Rudi as her primary vault. With a great double-twisting Yurchenko as her second vault, Yeo can be considered a medal favorite in the apparatus final. She figures to have a slight difficulty disadvantage against Rebeca Andrade (if Andrade competes the Cheng) and Claire Pease, but should have a difficulty advantage against the rest of the field. If Andrade does not compete her Cheng, Yeo will be very competitive for gold due to the typical cleanliness of her vaults. After Yeo’s standout vaults, the rest of the vault lineup is a bit weaker. Shin Solyi, Lim Sumin, and Lee Yunseo all have full-twisting Yurchenko vaults and will be the other three gymnasts competing on this apparatus in the qualifications. Shin Solyi’s and Lim Sumin’s full-twisting Yurchenko vaults are typically stronger than Lee Yunseo’s, so the former duo would compete in the team final alongside Yeo if South Korea were to advance.
Uneven Bars
This event is the “let’s not and say we did” apparatus for South Korea. Lee Yunseo unfortunately has been a bit inconsistent on bars this year and scored below a 13 for two of her three Asian Games routines. On paper, Hwang Seohyun has the team’s highest-difficulty routine, but she has not come close to hitting it in her two attempts this year. Shin Solyi, Yeo Seojeong, and Lim Sumin all have lower-difficulty routines and South Korea will likely opt to use all of them in qualifications and two of this trio’s routines to join Lee in a potential team final lineup.
Balance Beam
Competing a thrilling back handspring to tucked-full combination, Hwang Seohyun is a medal contender on this event, which is South Korea’s highest-potential event relative to the field. Lim Sumin had a couple of routines that scored into the 13s at Asian Games and should also be a lock for South Korea’s beam lineup. Yeo has earned a 5.8 difficulty at domestic competitions, but has not reached the heights of her best domestic routines on an international stage. Her routine is probably still worth a dice roll in qualifications since, unlike Hwang on bars, Yeo has hit a couple nice beam routines this year. Lee and Lim both have routines with very similar scoring potential and their entire all-around programs also are similar in scoring potential, so the fourth routine in qualifications is a tough choice.
Floor Exercise
South Korea’s realistic max on this apparatus includes a score from Hwang; she has not competed floor since May and may not be used on this apparatus. Even if Hwang does not compete floor in qualifications, the team’s scores are tightly packed on this apparatus and therefore South Korea’s team score would be relatively unimpacted. Because the team’s scores are so similar, all-around choices may play a major role in the floor exercise lineups.
All Around
South Korea’s lineup choices in qualifications are very complicated. In 2023, recognizing the cruciality of optimizing its team score for Olympic qualification, South Korea smartly only had two all-arounders compete to maximize its team score in qualifications and the bet here is that South Korea would replicate that approach. Although she did not compete in the all-around in 2023, Yeo Seojeong seems to be a sensible all-around choice in qualifications since she both has the team’s highest potential AA score and her intended beam difficulty could make her worth using on that event. Lim Sumin has a good argument to do the all-around in qualifications since she can outscore at least one of her teammates on every event. If South Korea opts to have a third gymnast compete on all four events in qualifications, Lee Yunseo could be an option if the team forgoes Shin’s higher floor difficulty. Two South Koreans could make the all-around final with well-hit days, but any mistakes could put the gymnasts’ all-around final hopes in jeopardy.
I will be doing two versions. One if Hezly is pulled out of competition, and one if she is not. I think she should be pulled out of competition, and that it is unsafe for her to compete. Nevertheless, there will definitely be lineup changes. What do you all think?
So I follow both on instagram and they have been in NL last week and are doing clinics in Istanbul right now. That seems like a crazy weird timing if you're head coach of a team going to worlds right now.
Lieke also posted she is excited to go to Rotterdam and watch the Dutch team in qualifications. Nothing about the Spanish team.
Anton still has head coach of Spain in his bio, but I'm wondering if something happened? Seems like a very short career as headcoaches, to me.
Due to limitations regarding how many links I can upload in a post, please see the comments section for links to the methodology, score trackers, and earlier previews.
Please let me know if y'all notice any errors in any of these previews and I will be sure to correct them. Since the "realistic max" captures a gymnast's best scores of the quad on every event, it is designed to be a measure of each team's scoring potential rather than a closest-to-the-pin estimate of a team's actual score at Worlds. Based on results last quad, a team score within 2 points of a team's "realistic max" can be considered to be a very good performance.
In a change from earlier previews, the below metrics rankings and write-up now assume that Russia/WG2 will compete with a team of Roshchina, Glotova, Kayumova, Us, and Anufrieva.
Argentina - the Team
Intended difficulty rank: 10th, Realistic Max Rank: 14th
Overview
Throughout these previews, the next tier of teams below the team final cutline has been characterized as a quintet of Germany, Spain, South Korea, the Netherlands, and Australia. Upon reviewing Argentina’s nominative roster, it was an oversight to exclude the Argentinians from this group. Finishing in 24th at the 2023 World Championships, Argentina brings an entirely new and much-improved team to World Championships this year. Isabella Ajalla impressed at the Pan American Championships, improving her all-around score by over three points compared to her performance as a first-year senior in 2024. Second-year senior Emilia Acosta had a breakout performance at the South American Games, winning vault gold and putting together a consistent all-around performance. Julieta Lucas is a first-year senior and brings a high-difficulty uneven bars routine and the highest all-around potential of any team member. Lastly, Sira Macias and Mesropian were both on Argentina’s 2022 World Championships team and are returning this year. It is worth noting that Argentina named six gymnasts to its team without specifying the alternate; the assumptions is that the aforementioned five gymnasts will be in the lineups and Rocio Saucedo will be the alternate. Due to the strength of her teammates, Saucedo would not have a top-three potential score on any apparatus.
At the risk of raining on Argentina’s parade, it would still be a major surprise to see Argentina advance to the team final. Like its peer teams, Argentina would first need a couple of poor overall performances from teams with higher scoring potential. Secondly, Argentina is reliant on a few inconsistent routines, particularly in its uneven bars and balance beam lineups, and seems to be one of the teams most likely to fall well short of the “realistic max” on qualifications day. This context, however, should not take away from the amazing year that Argentina has had already in comfortably qualifying a team to World Championships and hopefully Argentina can continue to build on the massive strides it has made this year.
Vault
With three Yurchenko 1.5’s in its qualifications lineup, including two excellent ones from Ajalla and Acosta, Argentina’s vault lineup is an area of relative strength. Argentina’s “realistic max” incorporates Lucas’ solid Yurchenko full, which has outscored Macias’ best Yurchenko 1.5. Expect Mesropian to sit out this apparatus in qualifications; Lucas has much stronger execution on her full and much stronger all-around potential. Both Ajalla and Acosta have competed two vaults this year, but do not appear to have enough difficulty to make the event final.
Uneven Bars
In qualifications and a potential team final appearance, Lucas, Macias, and Mesropian would compete. Lucas and Mesropian have difficult routines, while Macias’ best hits have scored similarly to her teammates’ due to her superior execution when she hits. Unfortunately, hitting for all three gymnasts is a bit of a question mark. Macias hit two of her four routines this year, Lucas is three for five and Mesropian is a one-hit wonder (in three routines). The fourth routine in qualifications is up for debate; Acosta has much higher difficulty and scoring potential than Ajalla, but Ajalla is Argentina’s second-best all-arounder. Without Olympic team qualification on the line for Argentina this year, the bet here is that Ajalla competes on bars in qualifications so that she can attempt to qualify for the all-around final.
Balance Beam
In a reverse of bars, the qualifications lineup decision for Argentina on beam is straightforward, but the hypothetical team final lineup choices are complex. Ajalla, Acosta, Lucas, and Mesropian have the highest difficulty scores and overall scoring potential on beam, so expect Macias to sit out this rotation in qualifications. Ajalla and Lucas are certain to compete in a hypothetical team final lineup, but Mesropian and Acosta have similar overall scoring potential and perhaps qualifications could serve as a tiebreaker for the hypothetical third team final spot. It is hard to imagine any Argentinian qualifying for an event final spot, but given the unpredictability of beam, Ajalla’s beam is probably Argentina’s best shot.
Floor Exercise
With identical 5.3-difficulty routines, Ajalla, Acosta, and Lucas are the intended counting routines in qualifications and would compete in the hypothetical team final on floor. Macias would be the fourth qualifications routine. Ajalla’s routine features combination tumbling passes and complex ring dance elements. Despite having a low landing with multiple steps on her double pike at the Pan American Championships event final, she still managed a 13.2 overall and 7.9 execution score, so she may be incurring fewer artistry deductions than many gymnasts. Lucas’ routine features upbeat music and is fun to watch.
All Around
Lucas’ scores are essential on all four events and she would qualify to the all-around final with a hit day. The bet here is that Ajalla also has the opportunity to compete on all events in qualifications, but Argentina could put Acosta up in the all-around instead since she has the higher scoring potential on bars. Either Ajalla or Acosta could qualify to the all-around final with successful qualifications days, but any major mistakes could prevent them from qualifying.
Does anyone know what is happening to Cal’s coaching staff and the program as a whole? There was a cryptic post saying thank you for the last three years to Coach Ziehn, but he is still listed on the website as a current coach. A post about Renato Deza hired as an assitant coach, he came up from a junior level gym in the area. There was a thank you and good luck on your next endeavors post to Coach Bailey. For National Coaches Day they had head coach del Castillo, Deza and the trainer but no Ziehn and Bailey. What is happening over there?
