You guys! I’m here for men’s podium training! And I’m going to write about it! Aren’t you proud of me? I’m so proud of me. I’m basically Abraham Lincoln (Kerry Perry studied him you know, that’s how she knows about leadership).

I love that Rhys didn’t even walk out for the intros. He’s like, “pommel horse isn’t for ROTATIONS guys. Chill.”

Keeping an eye on Lee Chih Kai here in the first rotation, who got through his entire Flare Fest beautifully like an event medalist until he spun himself off like a top before his dismount and fell onto the mat like a crab dropped by a pelican. But also men’s PT so he wasn’t trying to save it. Got back up and completed a real dismount.

Very impressed by looking at the Italians. I mean their floor routines. That.

Andrey Medvedev just bailed out of a double front vault and sat it. Follows with a good double front pike, step back. He’s been hit and miss with that vault so far.

I love how many people in both the men’s and women’s are saluting in their podium training because of practicing but are saluting in the opposite direction of the actual judges who are actually sitting here.

Nicola Unlucky spending the most time working PH of the Italians, and Shatilov is spending a lot of time on PBars. He fell on a pirouette on his main set so he’s working more pieces right up until the end.

Artem stuck a double double layout of HB in this third rotation. Shatilov his a HB set after that with just a crazy-leg Kolman but everything else was solid.

Lodadio looks very nice on rings and just stuck a double double dismount. Not sure that it’s breaking news, but Italy looks excellent on rings after looking…um…so…on pommel horse.

OK, rotation 4 is here and Rhys just did the most lovely routine. And you know, Steele is no slouch on PH either. We’ll see if Rhys goes some more or if he’s just like, “Welp, that was the one, nailed it.” I’m figuring we’ll see a lot more int he next 20 minutes.

WELL THAT WAS WEIRD. Dolgopyat just tried to do a pass (triple double I’m assuming) and clumped down right onto his side and walked off the podium. Still sticking around but something stung.

Meanwhile, Rhys came up and did another fully hit set.

OK Dolgopyat is finally going for real now after that weird side-landing when he tried the first time. He’s short on his triple double and a couple other landings, but it got more comfortable as he went. He got through it and is fine but will need better landings in comp.

Rhys did a third routine, not quite as pristine, hesitated up to dismount in this one.

Dolgopyat went back up and is doing pieces, looking more comfortable with each turn. Annndd…then he sat down his 3.5 combo. He’s not going to be thrilled with this floor workout.

Rhys gets up at the end to do another dismount combo after not being thrilled with the one on the previous set.

The thing about men’s podium training is that when you fall you have to roll around on the floor for a second and then be dead and stop your routine.

I think it’s mean that Olympic qualification is making Shatilov do all the events.

Milad Karimi has a fall on this third pass of his set. Redoes it at the end of the rotation successfully.

You know, we’ve had a lot of “eh, I’m falling” moments in this first subdivision, but overall the guys are taking this a little more full-routine seriously than the reputation of MAG podium training.

The floor of this arena is basically a massage train at the end of every rotation. #myeverythinghurts

Ludovico Edalli hops off HB in the 6th rotation looking like his everything hurts, but could also just be MAG PT. Carlo Macchini put up a strong one when he finally went. Now they’re doing some tricky boys and having full falling all over the place.

Kurbanov for Kazakhstan had a bit of a “pretty, pretty, pretty, NOPE” of a session on PH.

The Italian men are fascinated by analyzing and comparing their bulges in these white pants as they try to take team photos before leaving. Boys.

Just going to point out that it is taking these twinks much longer to get through with the “taking pictures in front of the event logo” portion of the day than it did the women’s teams the last two days.

Subdivision 2

Berki is here walking out with the team, even though we’ve heard he’s not going to compete.

There’s a German song they keep playing in the arena, and I swear the chorus is “Auntie Carol saves the fish.”

Sofus did a whole floor routine and didn’t do anything silly, so why am I even here?

Julien Saleur has some fiiiiine one-arm pirouettes on high bar. Looks like they’re also going to make Cyril do HB. Or at least warm it up. He showed two nice Tak elements and then was like BYE.

Never mind about Sofus not doing anything silly. He gave us crazy face when he just fell on pass toward the end of the rotation.

Nikita Simonov not doing a ton on rings, very MAG PT. Just getting up and being like, “I know what rings are” and then getting off.

Watching Cyril Tommasone warm up PH. He starts with his “this is me doing it with bad form” full entire routine with legs apart.

10 minutes later he does his full routine and it’s loverly.

Now that everyone else is done, Vecsernyes will take his turn on HB. Or I thought. He keeps doing like a single giant and then hopping off.

He finally does a full routine at the very end and his Cassina was crazy pants but he caught it and got through a full hit set with a stuck dismount. Nice. Worth the wait.

Samir Ait Said opening rings by going through a spotted set with his coach up on a block, goes through that a couple times and only does a real partial routine at the end of the rotation.

If you don’t fall on at least three vaults in podium training, you aren’t trying. What I’m saying is the French are showing us a lot of sat down double fronts and seem unbothered. Samir in particular cannot get this double front.

Subdivision 3

It’s Russia time. The Russians are starting on floor. Nagornyy strong triple back in the pre-routine pass work. Dalaloyan’s hair a little floppier this week. You know, the important observations.

Good full or nearly full routine from Dalaloyan, just little hops.

Abliazin goes through punch randi, open doubel back – sits down a front full to double front third pass. Oof. Tries a 3/1 final pass and falls again. Not ideal, Denis.

Poliashov is getting a chance to work through a routine – good solid landings until that 2.5 final pass which he nearly sat down.

I missed the first 3-4 minutes of this rotation, but I haven’t seen Belyavskiy up on the podium at all. He’s in his jacket down on the floor. Stretovich was up there at the beginning but finished early. Just saw Nagornyy do individual passes, but they all looked excellent.

Randy Leru is working his Liukin on HS, crazy but caught – a hit routine.

Manrique is going on HB – falls immediately on a layout tkatchev. I was warned that he does not look fully Manrique, and that is correct.

Stretovich, Dalaloyan, Belyavskiy, and Nagornyy are up on the podium warming up PH here in the second rotation.

Initial work, Dalaloyan keeps getting progressively more piked before being like FML and popping off.

Stretotich so controlled and Nagornyy just went through a fab full set. That little bit of pike that he always has, but otherwise great. Belyavskiy also showed a strong set. and SOOOO long. Got just a touch sluggish in the second half but otherwise on track.

Jorge Vega Lopez looks like he’s still doing timers on vault, but they’re crazy high.

Manrique’s floor was better than his high bar – nice control landing that difficulty in the first half, second half the landings got quite short.

Arican is going on PB now – he pauses for 150 years on every handstand but the routine looks nice – finishes with a stuck double front 1/2 out. Awesome.

Vega Lopez just did the highest handspring randi that looks like a handspring 50. Landed quite hunched over and deep, however. But so high.

He does it again and it’s better than the previous one. Chest a little higher with a bounce back.

He does his Kas after that and it was fab. Nearly stuck.

In rotation 3, Russia is bringing Nagornyy, Dalaloyan, Abliazin, and Stretovich up onto the podium for rings.

Dalaloyan’s holds were a littel brief for my taste, but a good routine.

You guys the Dutch women are also out here PRACTICING THEIR INTRODUCTION right now during this men’s PT subdivision. You guys. It’s SO extra. I’m in heaven.

Anyway, distraction over. Russia is really good at rings.

Nagornyy starts the vault rotation with an excellent Dragulescu.

Abliazin tried a Tsuk double pike and it did not go great, sat it down

Dalaloyan is working lower difficulty on his early vaults while the others are already going for their big Ds.

Abliazin works a second Tsuk double pike that he lands…basically…with a lunge back.

Dalaloyan just splatted a Shewfelt. He and Abliazin are not having a great vault time.

LOL Nagornyy’s little vault run prance.

Onder put his hands down on his second pass on his full floor routine attempt. That routine was kind of a bust.

Now I think Dalaloyan just did a DTY and he’s talking to himself about it.

Stretovich has been very “I did my one routine and it was fine, so bye” and then Dalaloyan and Abliazin are having vault breakdowns and going 400 times.

Onder redoing some of his iffy passes from his first time around, and they are better in isolation.

In rotation 5, we have Tomas Gonazlez on floor, who didn’t have his best first pass landing, and by that I mean that everyone he has ever done is perfect and how dare you. The rest of it was truly excellent as always.

Stretovich stuck his double front 1/2 out in a stellar PBars.

Jorge Vega Lopez with some very strong landings in his routine, especially his full-twisting DLO that was beautiful.

Nagornyy is hiving such a high level podium training.

Belyavskiy, who has only done a couple events today, is up on PBars and it was truly excellent, super precise in his vertical positions and stuck dismount.

Dalaloyan has been Mustafinaing it a little bit in this podium training, but he just went up and stuck a great isolated dismount on PB.

Just realized that I don’t think I’ve even seen Petrounias on the floor during this Greek rings rotation.

Poliashov getting his chance to do PBars and it was pretty solid. A bit of a hestiation on one rail and then short on his dismount with a hop. Still kind of salty that he’s the alternate.

Let’s move to the final rotation. Stuck double double layout for Stretovich after a strong routine. He has enjoyed a nice, calm, efficient, and hit day of podium training. No drama.

Dalaloyan’s Cassina looked niiiiice. That was a really solid HB routine. Good way to finish a day that had moments as unkempt as his hair.

And now that Belyavskiy has gone through cleanly, I can say that this is a remarkably drama-free HB rotation that would be a miracle if it were repeated in competition.

Really stellar rings routine from Colak.

Manrique has some moments of 7 million hand placements on PBars, but quite a bit of that routine had shades of Good Manrique.

Subdivision 4

The final subdivision of PT for the day is the Germany/Spain/Brazil session, which will be fascinating in the real competition for its TF/Olympic qualification implications.

Couple crashed vaults for Spain to start, including Zapata on a tsuk double pike. Abad hit a nice one, though.

Nory did a beautiful HB and had 50000 body language interpretations of it obviously. Barretto smoothly through, just a bounce back on his DLO 1/1 dismount he won’t enjoy.

Dauser has a few struggles with elbows and handstands early in his PBars routine, but a pretty solid dismount. He worked it out as he went.

Nory put up a very clean floor routine here in the 2nd rotation- very solid landings, only small hops on the first and last.

Zanetti fell on his opening punch double front pike and nearly fell on his double front, and then bounced OOB on his third pass with his hand down, and now it looks like he’s stopping at looking at his wrist. Unclear if it’s an actual injury or men’s PT stuff. He keeps looking at his wrist, though, which would not be ideal for rings.

Nory and Caio Souza looked good on floor but everyone else is struggling.

This QAT/JOR/ESA vault rotation has been scary.

Zanetti is back out there trying floor again and it looks better. Landed his DLO 1/1 successfully this time, though he’s still short and bouncy on quite a bit.

On to rotation 3, a really nice showing on HB from Joel Plata, good amplitude on his releases. Ali Zahran working his rings routine in pieces, an event final contender.

Can you tell I’m kind of passing out? 11 hours of men’s podium training will do that to you. Souza and Zanetti looking excellent on rings.

LOLOLOL Nicolau Mir just did the most checked-out floor routine I’ve ever seen – he got halfway through a press handstand and then just was like BOOO and dropped out of it and walked into the corner, did his final pass and then continued walking right off the podium on his landing lunge. It was truly special.

Zapata did follow him with a strong routine, though. One of his good-landing-control ones after being a little too bouncy in the individual pass work.