National Championship – Schedule and Links

April 13, 2021 balancebeamsituation 39 Comments

And so we arrive at nationals. Three more competitions to decide the 2021 champion. Friday will bring us both of the national semifinals, from which the top 2 teams at each advance to Saturday’s team final, which will be live on free TV in the US for the very first time. So take that, hockey and golf.

Let’s get to the schedule. In addition to TV broadcasts, each competition will have the four-event view and specific event streams on ESPN3. I always use the four-event stream because it’s best for live blogging, but I know that’s too much stimulation for a lot of people.

Friday, April 16	Scores	Stream
1:00pm ET/10:00am PT – Semifinal I [1] Florida [4] Michigan [5] Cal [8] Minnesota	LINK	ESPN2 4-event VT UB BB FX Spanish
6:00pm ET/3:00pm PT – Semifinal II [1] Oklahoma [3] LSU [6] Utah [7] Alabama	LINK	ESPN2 4-event VT UB BB FX Spanish
Saturday, April 17	Scores	Stream
3:30pm ET/12:30pm PT – Team Final	LINK	ABC ESPN3 4-event VT UB BB FX Spanish

The team final on ABC will be broadcast live on TV for anyone in the US. There will also be access on ESPN3 for those who have been able to watch ESPN3 competitions in the past.

The semifinals on ESPN2 will be broadcast live on TV and can also be streamed online at the link provided for those who have a log-in from a TV provider subscription that gets ESPN2, which is all of them.

All remaining streams will be on ESPN3 and may be streamed on WatchESPN for those who have a log-in from an internet service provider.

Here is the rotation order for the semifinals and individual athlete assignments. All the individual titles are awarded on Friday based on scores at the semifinals only.

Stuff and Nonsense

Things Are Happening – April 9, 2021

April 9, 2021 balancebeamsituation 46 Comments

A. European Championships

Against all odds, the European Championships appear to be happening. And kind of soon!

This is the final opportunity for European athletes to secure Olympic spots, and in keeping with the theme, something strange is happening! Those Olympic spots (2 each for MAG and WAG) will be awarded based on the AA standings from qualification, rather than from the all-around final. OK great?

The FIG lovvvessss basing very important things on qualification, and it’s so counterintuitive. Isn’t the final supposed to be…like…the final?

I was against this at first because it’s just so weird, but I do kind of get it. Kind of. The idea here is to make sure everyone has a chance to get the spot. So, for example, Italy has a nominative team of Villa, Alice D’Amato, Maggio, and Ferrari. Villa and D’Amato competed as part of the Italian squad that qualified a team to the Olympics and are therefore ineligible to earn an additional Olympic spot for Italy at this competition. If Villa and D’Amato were to make the all-around final, then Italy wouldn’t have anyone eligible to get an Olympic spot. By basing things on qualification, Maggio could theoretically get in there and get a spot for Italy even if she places behind ineligible countrywomen like Villa and D’Amato. (With no temptation to fake-injury-scratch someone from the AA final.)

On the other hand, this does bring the eternal conundrum of score-rising through the qualification day into effect. At this meet, athletes from a single country don’t all compete in the same subdivision, and with different countries being assigned different subdivisions through the draw (Russia and Romania WAG have spots in the final subdivision, Great Britain and Italy do not), you haven’t necessarily created the most even playing field possible.

Regardless, the favorites to get the two spots on the women’s side at this point would be one of the Russians (limit one per country, and Listunova, Urazova, and Gerasimova are all in the hunt) and Larisa Iordache. But it’s going to take a hit meet. So it should be an exciting lengthy-qualification-day.

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