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Olympic selection - men's medallists/top gymnasts not going
"Beijing Line-up Finalized, Favorites Sit Out" - http://www.insidegymnastics.com/content/show/newsarticle.aspx?articleid=222&zoneid=1 [quote]The wild card announcement confirms that three silver medalists from Stuttgart--Aljaz Pegan (high bar, Slovenia), Yuri Van Gelder (rings, Netherlands) and Krisztian Berki (pommel horse, Hungary)--will not be in Beijing. [/quote] FIG tried to fix this problem of the top gymnasts not going to the Olympics because their team didn't make it and their region is still being represented by the gold-winning athletes being guaranteed an Olympic spot - but maybe it should go through to the bronze or 4th place, so the top gymnasts do compete at the Olympics: [quote]The FIG actually amended its qualification procedures for these Games with specialist superstars like Pegan in mind, guaranteeing, for the first time, Olympic berths to gold-medal-winning athletes on each event, if their country had not already qualified any athletes by team placement. By that standard, 2005 world champ Van Gelder missed the Olympic cut, and a fantastic chance at an Olympic medal, by less than a tenth, finishing just .75 behind world rings champ Chen Yibing of China (16.7 to 16.625).[/quote] (typo: it's 0.075) [quote]All told, 11 men, all of whom were/are either event finalists at the 2007 World Championships or currently ranked in the top ten of the World Cup standings (as of 2/15/08), will NOT be in Beijing. That number includes three former world champions, four 2007 world medalists and one defending Athens medalist. That's almost a dozen legitimate medal threats shut out of what is supposed to be the sport's preeminent event. In addition to Pegan, Van Gelder and Berki, also MIA in Beijing will be... Regulo Carmon (Venezuela): Fifth on rings in Stuttgart and currently ranked 2nd in the World Cup standings. Vlasios Maras (Greece): The 2001 World Champ and silver medalist in 2006, he's currently ranked 2nd in the World Cup standings and was a finalist in Stuttgart. Ri Se Gwang (North Korea): The bronze medalist on vault in Stuttgart. Ri Jong Song (North Korea): Fourth on vault in Stuttgart. Philippe Rizzo (Australia): Currently ranked fourth in the high bar World Cup standings. Yevgeny Sapronenko (Latvia): The current Olympic silver medalist on vault and 3rd in the current World Cup rankings. Robert Seligman (Croatia): Currently ranked 6th on horse in the World Cup standings. Jeffery Wammes (Netherlands): Stuttgart high bar finalist, currently ranked 4th on vault and 9th on floor in the World Cup standings. Yernar Yerimbetov (Kazakhstan): Eighth on vault in the current World Cup standings. Filip Yanev (Bulgaria): Tenth on vault in the current World Cup standings. Also not currently on the roster, Wajdji Bouallegue of Tunisia, currently fourth in the World Cup floor rankings. (Bouallegue is a wild card alternate to the Games.) Though much has been made of Mexican favorite Elsa Garcia's absence on the women's side (Garcia was injured in Stuttgart and performed below expectations, missing the qualifying cut), none of the female event finalists from Stuttgart, nor any women currently ranked in the top ten of the World Cup standings on any event, is shut out of Beijing.[/quote] Who's going: [quote]QUALIFIERS TO BEIJING MEN FULL TEAMS (top 12 at 2007 Worlds): China, Japan, Germany, United States, Russia, Romania, Spain, Korea, France, Italy, Canada and Belarus TWO ATHLETES PER COUNTRY (teams 13-15): Ukraine, Switzerland and Great Britain ONE ATHLETE (16-18): Puerto Rico, Brazil and Greece INDIVIDUAL QUALIFIERS (based on 2007 Worlds performance, maximum of one athlete per country; Named, can NOT be replaced by another athlete from their country): Jordan Jovtchev (Bulgaria), Anton Fokin (Uzbekistan, Filip Ude (Croatia), Jose Luis Fuentes (Venezuela), Epke Zonderland (Netherlands), Martin Konecny (Czech Republic), Ilya Giorgadze (Georgia), Leszek Blanik (Poland), Mitja Petkovsek (Slovenia), Robert Gal (Hungary), Koen Van Damme (Belgium), Sascha Palgen (Luxembourg) and Samuel Simpson (Australia) FIG WILD CARDS (3, based on continental /host nation representation): Alexander Shatilov (Israel), Mohamed Serour (Egypt) and Jorge Giraldo (Colombia) IOC WILD CARD: Nashwan Al-Hazari (Yemen) INDIVIDUAL ALTERNATES (in rank order): Sami Aalto (Finland), Timur Kurbanbayev (Kazakhstan), Dmitri Trefilovs (Latvia), Manuel Campos (Portugal) And Luis Sosa (Mexico) WILD CARD ALTERNATE: Wajdji Bouallegue (Tunisia) WOMEN FULL TEAMS: USA, China, Romania, Russia, Italy, Great Britain, France, Brazil, Ukraine, Germany, Australia and Japan TWO ATHLETES: North Korea, Canada and Spain ONE ATHLETE: Czech Republic, Netherlands and Switzerland INDIVIDUALS: Stefani Bismpikou (Greece), Nastassia Marachkouiskaya (Belarus), Veronica Wagner (Sweden), Dorina Boczogo (Hungary), Natalia Sanchez (Colombia), Marisela Cantu (Mexico), Jop Hyun Joo (Korea), Marta Pihan (Poland), Gaelle Mys (Belgium), Tina Erceg (Croatia), Annamari Maaranen (Finland), Jessica Lopez (Venezuela) And Nikolina Tankoucheva (Bulgaria) FIG WILD CARDS: Vered Finkel (Israel), Sherine El Zeiny (Egypt) and Jelena Zanevskaja (Lithuania) IOC WILD CARD: Thuong Do Thi Ngan (Vietnam) INDIVIDUAL ALTERNATES: Ivana Kovacova (Slovakia), Adela Sajn (Slovenia), Luisa Galiulina (Uzbekistan) and Sidney Sanabria (Puerto Rico) WILD CARD ALTERNATE: Ursula Botha (South Africa) RHYTHMIC INDIVIDUALS TWO ATHLETES PER COUNTRY: Ukraine, Russia, Belarus, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Israel ONE ATHLETE: Kazakhstan, Canada, Spain, Greece, Austria, Poland, Korea and Estonia FIG WILD CARDS: Xiao Yiming (China), Odette Richard (South Africa) and Naazmi Johnston (Australia) IOC WILD CARD: Wania Monteiro (Cape Verde) ALTERNATES (one athlete): Uzbekistan, Italy and Georgia RHYTHMIC GROUPS QUALIFIED: Russia, Italy, Belarus, Belarus, Bulgaria, Spain, Israel, Japan, Ukraine, China and Azerbaijan FIG WILD CARDS: Brazil and Greece ALTERNATES: Poland and Switzerland WILD CARD ALTERNATE: Canada[/quote] (via gymnasticscoaching)
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