The FIG has released the nominative rosters every nation submitted for this month’s (!) world championships, so now it’s time for us to tear them to pieces. Not really. But also kind of.
Who’s on these nominative rosters? Who should be on the final team? Who actually is on the final team? What expectations should you have for those teams at worlds? I’ve got you covered.
For the nominative rosters, nations were able to submit six names (five team members and an alternate). In most cases, the person listed last on the nominative roster of six is the intended alternate, which I have noted in parentheses. But, these are only nominative rosters, so don’t freak. These things will change, and in some cases they really need to.
I have also included a peak scoring chart for each team using the same principles from the National Team Rankings (but occasionally reaching back further in time to get scores if necessary).
United States
Nominative: Simone Biles, Morgan Hurd, Riley McCusker, Grace McCallum, Kara Eaker (Shilese Jones)
Having already dispensed with the Jade Carey drama, let’s move on to what the actual, real-life US team could and should look like in Doha.
The gymnast benefiting the most from Carey’s self-removal is Grace McCallum. Without Carey, the US is left looking for a team final-worthy vault and floor score to supplement the main three. McCallum’s 14.000 on floor from Pan Ams and her perfectly acceptable DTY seem to set her up as the likely choice to fill that role. It’s not a given—others can get bigger vault scores and what happens on floor at the selection camp will be vital, but for right now, McCallum seems like the front runner, as is reflected in the nominative roster.
Kara Eaker’s abilities on beam have also kept her in the forefront of the conversation—this McCallum-Eaker team is probably also what I would select based on what we’ve seen so far. The complication: Biles, McCusker, and Hurd are all quite good on beam, so bringing an extra beam score from Eaker may not be viewed as the most pressing addition to the team, especially because she’s much more likely to go lower-mid-14s than into the 15s the way she did at that one elite qualifier. Eaker needs to be more than a tenth or two ahead of Hurd’s beam score at the selection camp to keep this spot.
Meanwhile, a vault lineup of Hurd, McCallum, Biles would score well, but isn’t a fully OMGWHAAAA vaulting team the way we’ve come to expect from the US. That’s why we’ll still have to keep on eye on whether Jordan Chiles is busting out her Amanar consistently (or even if Shilese Jones’ DTY proves a multi-tenth improvement over the others, that could be significant). If Chiles has that Amanar, I’d take that over a beam routine.
There’s also the Ragan Smith wildcard. If she got foot-replacement surgery since nationals, she’s capable of changing presumed lineups on beam and floor, which could upset both the McCallum and Eaker spots. Still, exactly nothing can be assumed in that regard right now.
| UNITED STATES – 176.917 |
||||
| Simone Biles | 15.600 | 14.850 | 15.200 | 14.750 |
| Morgan Hurd | 14.650 | 14.700 | 14.100 | 13.850 |
| Grace McCallum | 14.667 | 14.533 | 14.300 | 14.000 |
| Riley McCusker | 14.350 | 15.000 | 14.550 | 13.600 |
| Kara Eaker | 13.700 | 13.550 | 15.100 | 13.767 |
|
176.917 |
44.917 | 44.550 | 44.850 | 42.600 |
China
Semi-official: Du Siyu, Zhang Jin, Chen Yile, Liu Jinru, Liu Tingting (Luo Huan)
If China intends to bring Du Siyu to worlds over Luo Huan (both appear on the nominative, but Luo is listed last), I would count that as a mild surprise because Du hasn’t really been in the main group lately. Both gymnasts are capable of gigantic scores on bars, of course, but Du’s new advantage may be her difficulty. She added a Downie to the beginning of her routine to bring her D up to 6.4 at Chinese Individuals, which now compares quite favorably to Luo’s 6.0 from Asian Games.
Luo, however, has still recorded better overall scores this year than Du because of execution. Luo’s other argument is beam, where she can score quite well even if it’s a little scary. We’ll see if that comes into the decision at all. If China feels really good about Chen Yile, Liu Tingting, and Zhang Jin on beam, the team may not need to bring someone else with a beam score.
So, too many bars workers. #ChinaProblems
The rest of the team seems locked and necessary. China has very limited options for floor and needs all three of Liu Jinru, Chen Yile, and Zhang Jin to compete there as well as on vault. Liu Tingting has been starring on bars and beam for great scores since coming back, and that makes for a clear four team members
Neither Liu Jinru nor Zhang Jin bring a TF bars score, which is why the fifth member the team must guarantee a huge bars score and (perhaps) provide backup options on other events. It’s a risky team because China cannot afford any kind of injury to one of its VT/FX workers, but there isn’t really a safer option for selection. With such limited floor routine numbers, they have to go for risky.
| CHINA – 170.733 | ||||
| Chen Yile | 13.800 | 14.400 | 15.000 | 13.400 |
| Du Siyu | 13.300 | 14.400 | 13.400 | 12.750 |
| Zhang Jin | 14.550 | 12.450 | 14.500 | 13.300 |
| Liu Tingting | 13.650 | 14.850 | 14.600 | 0.000 |
| Liu Jinru | 14.400 | 12.150 | 10.350 | 13.533 |
| 170.733 | 42.750 | 43.650 | 44.100 | 40.233 |
Russia
Nominative: Irina Alexeeva, Lilia Akhaimova, Angelina Melnikova, Angelina Simakova, Aliya Mustafina (Daria Spiridonova)
I mean, it’s Russia, so we barely ever know what’s going on, but this team seems likely. It’s basically the same squad that performed so successfully in the Euros team final, except with Mustafina in place of Perebinosova. Mustafina, of course, can deliver her big bars score and hopefully will have a beam routine that the team can use—as long as she has decided to deign to succumb to the concept of an acro series.
It tells you everything you need to know about Russian beam that even with Mustafina’s acro series travails, I still trust her more than any other Russian on beam. Mustafina is always an upgrade (for us as a public, if nothing else), so this team seems like a solid call to me. In general.
Russia will miss the bars score from, say, Ilyankova. Or, say, Komova. Irina Alexeeva is good on bars and will keep Russia among the best-scoring teams there, but it’s not the same. Also, Spiridonova is the alternate? Valentina things? I didn’t even know that was still an option. Spiridonova has not been among the top scorers this year and hasn’t hit 14 on bars since 2017.
Like the Euros team, this group is loading up on vault and floor with its best possible roster on those events, bringing a good bars lineup but not the very best the nation has to offer, and then…beam is beam.
This beam team is scary, but no beam team Russia could come up with would be any less scary. I don’t absolutely hate this team, is what I’m trying to tell you, even if I also maintain that Komova was unnecessarily shunned from a squad she could absolutely have helped on bars and beam. Continue reading Strong Opinions About Every Single Nation’s Worlds Team
