I put together some pre-worlds all-around rankings to get a sense of who is truly in contention for medals this year. This uses the peak score earned on each apparatus during 2021, so these totals should in no way be treated as predictive. What with domestic scoring and getting to ignore all the bad ones, these scores are way higher than what we’ll actually see at worlds. But hopefully what the list does is provide a sense of the hierarchy and likely contenders heading into competition, which starts in less than a week. I know.
World Championships All-Around Rankings
| VT Peak | UB Peak | BB Peak | FX Peak | TOTAL | ||
| Rebeca Andrade | BRA | 15.400 | 15.100 | 14.000 | 14.066 | 58.566 |
| Vladislava Urazova** | RUS | 14.666 | 15.100 | 14.500 | 14.066 | 58.332 |
| Angelina Melnikova | RUS | 14.733 | 15.066 | 13.733 | 14.433 | 57.965 |
| Li Shijia** | CHN | 14.066 | 14.766 | 15.400 | 13.466 | 57.698 |
| Leanne Wong | USA | 14.800 | 14.150 | 14.450 | 14.233 | 57.633 |
| Kayla DiCello | USA | 14.833 | 14.600 | 14.050 | 14.050 | 57.533 |
| Murakami Mai | JPN | 14.900 | 14.266 | 13.900 | 14.366 | 57.432 |
| Wei Xiaoyuan | CHN | 13.366 | 15.166 | 14.500 | 13.800 | 56.832 |
| Luo Rui | CHN | 13.366 | 14.766 | 15.133 | 13.366 | 56.631 |
| Qi Qi | CHN | 14.400 | 13.466 | 14.133 | 13.866 | 55.865 |
| Alice D'Amato | ITA | 14.750 | 14.700 | 13.300 | 13.100 | 55.850 |
| Hatakeda Hitomi | JPN | 14.100 | 14.600 | 13.566 | 13.566 | 55.832 |
| Yana Vorona** | RUS | 14.366 | 13.800 | 14.433 | 13.166 | 55.765 |
| Carolann Heduit | FRA | 14.600 | 14.100 | 13.500 | 13.550 | 55.750 |
| Naomi Visser | NED | 13.625 | 14.533 | 13.767 | 13.667 | 55.592 |
| Maria Minaeva | RUS | 13.666 | 14.500 | 13.466 | 13.633 | 55.265 |
| Georgia-Mae Fenton | GBR | 14.375 | 14.075 | 13.450 | 13.225 | 55.125 |
| Zsofia Kovacs** | HUN | 14.500 | 14.500 | 13.233 | 12.800 | 55.033 |
| Hiraiwa Yuna | JPN | 14.333 | 13.466 | 13.600 | 13.466 | 54.865 |
| Asia D'Amato | ITA | 14.550 | 13.933 | 13.133 | 13.166 | 54.782 |
| Vera Van Pol | NED | 14.500 | 13.633 | 12.900 | 13.550 | 54.583 |
| Pauline Schäfer** | GER | 13.933 | 13.425 | 13.950 | 13.100 | 54.408 |
| eMjae Frazier | USA | 14.400 | 13.200 | 13.000 | 13.700 | 54.300 |
| Konnor McClain | USA | 14.700 | 13.150 | 14.000 | 12.150 | 54.000 |
| Rose Woo | CAN | 13.600 | 13.700 | 13.400 | 13.200 | 53.900 |
**Athletes either have been announced as not competing the all-around or did not compete all four events at the final trial/most recent meet.
As the Olympic silver and bronze medalists, Andrade and Melnikova are bestowed with obvious pre-meet favorite status, status that is solidified by Russia’s announcement that Urazova will do only select events at worlds and Minaeva will instead compete the all-around (but also it’s Valentina, so who knows what will really happen).
After pulling out of Olympic selection with injury, Li Shijia is back for worlds, though she competed only bars and beam at National Games, which may indicate limited contribution here. We’ll see. At her best, Li is the highest AA scorer on this Chinese squad, but I also don’t imagine she’d have full difficulty back on vault, even if she does compete all four apparatuses. National Games champion Wei Xiaoyuan is likely situated at the best AA bet for China, though with Wei, Li, and Luo all having very similar scoring strengths, it could go any which way depending on the day. Qi Qi’s peak is also close to the other three, but I assume she’ll be competing just VT/FX here, and then it would be between Li and Luo as to who gets to do the all-around with Wei, versus who is just UB/BB.
The US should have at least one medal contender in the all-around in DiCello, and whether they have two will depend on Leanne Wong’s competition status. If she does the all-around, which of course she should, she would be right there with DiCello—assuming a hit meet (….) that is. But, we’ll have to see what the US team does with the lineup spots considering that Frazier finished second AA at the trial, ahead of Wong.
For now, these rankings tell us that the six favorites to qualify in the lead group for the all-around final would be Andrade, Melnikova, Wong, DiCello, Murakami, and Wei, and I think that’s a pretty solid reflection of who the top competitors are here. And while Andrade and Melnikova would be medal favorites, with Andrade a pretty comfortable gold medal pick at this point and Melnikova a tentative second place, the race for bronze would be verrrry open, with a nice opportunity presenting itself for Murakami in particular at a home world championship.