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With the world championships just a hop, skip, and a jump away and—some of—the teams actually confirmed, today I’m looking at how the 24 23 (RIP Romania) women’s teams competing at worlds this year rank against each other.

The listed athletes are either confirmed as on their teams or are the best guess right now for countries that have not been selected/confirmed. Each gymnast’s score on each event is their average for the entirety of 2022. So take that for whatever you’d like.

1. UNITED STATES
Shilese Jones	14.357	14.244	12.969	13.477
Jordan Chiles	14.247	13.853	13.550	13.880
Jade Carey	14.697	13.605	13.357	13.522
Leanne Wong	14.400	13.767	13.367	13.600
Skye Blakely	13.967	13.300	13.210	13.326
	43.454	41.864	40.274	41.002	166.594
Leanne Wong for all-around I guess? You wouldn’t necessarily use these specific bold people on each event, but this gives a pretty solid impression of US vault strength and beam…questions compared to the international field, with room to improve on a number of these scores (Jones UB, Carey FX) on a hit day. Depending on how the team ends up, we should view the US women as pre-competition team gold favorites, but definitely not 2014-2019 level locks.
2. BRAZIL
Rebeca Andrade	14.542	14.687	14.200	13.900
Flavia Saraiva	14.050	13.533	13.710	13.592
Julia Soares	12.744	12.213	13.438	13.321
Lorrane Oliveira	11.767	13.403	12.528	12.734
Carolyne Pedro	13.153	12.526	12.319	12.700
	41.745	41.623	41.348	40.813	165.529
Brazil’s 2nd-place position here should tell us that a team medal is actually, truly, real-life possible for the Brazilian women this year because, even though these scores do reflect a completely hit day, none of them are out of the question and some of them can be improved upon.
3. CHINA
Tang Xijing	13.017	14.419	13.696	12.883
Ou Yushan	13.000	13.739	14.092	13.067
Zhang Jin	13.725	12.854	13.933	13.140
Luo Rui	11.533	14.639	14.083	13.133
Wei Xiaoyuan	12.912	14.750	13.333	12.683
	39.742	43.808	42.108	39.340	164.998
If this is the team of five China goes with, they’ll be top of the heap on bars and beam, with easily the best bars team and the highest beam scoring potential at worlds (should staying-on happen). What’s interesting here is that a team medal looks possible, but not definite, with Yurchenko full scores from Tang and Ou. Hit DTYs from Tang and Ou would boost China to a pretty solid silver medal favorite, but also…remember the Olympic team final. Do you risk it?
4. ITALY
Martina Maggio	13.786	13.725	13.736	13.668
Alice D’Amato	14.007	14.156	12.717	12.848
Giorgia Villa	13.275	14.218	13.130	13.225
Manila Esposito	13.330	13.448	13.082	13.058
Veronica Mandriota	13.686	12.627	13.095	13.138
	41.479	42.099	39.961	40.031	163.570
The injuries to Asia D’Amato and Angela Andreoli have dropped Italy’s score some, but the heartening sign here for the Italians will be that these scores clearly understate their ability in several departments (i.e. the overall scores for beam hits), so you could see a hit meet doing noticeably better than this.
5. GREAT BRITAIN
Jessica Gadirova	14.055	13.058	13.046	13.950
Alice Kinsella	13.653	13.367	12.650	13.196
Georgia-Mae Fenton	12.817	13.735	13.147	12.525
Ondine Achampong	13.972	12.862	13.252	12.700
Jennifer Gadirova	13.075	13.200	12.907	13.479
	41.680	40.302	39.445	40.625	162.052
The British team’s average scores this year check in a little bit behind the countries in the medal positions—but definitely still within the “if we hit and you don’t” margin.
6. JAPAN
Miyata Shoko	14.200	12.750	12.893	13.413
Yamada Chiharu	13.708	13.440	12.200	12.841
Sakaguchi Ayaka	14.060	12.233	13.026	13.186
Watanabe Hazuki	13.341	13.511	13.133	12.122
Fukasawa Kokoro	13.533	13.846	11.888	12.544
	41.968	40.797	39.052	39.440	161.257
For a pretty new, unheralded Japanese team, a 6th-place finish would be an extremely solid result. I’d consider a team final showing a victory.
7. FRANCE
Aline Friess	13.929	13.435	12.903	13.275
Carolann Heduit	13.763	13.141	13.033	12.822
Marine Boyer	13.281	12.450	12.970	12.827
Coline Devillard	14.240	10.950	11.967	11.575
M De Jesus Dos Santos		10.900	12.950
	41.932	39.026	38.953	38.924	158.835
For France, it’s really going to be down to the Melanie Factor. We haven’t seen her on all the events—or with all the hits—so far this year, but she is capable of bringing these scores up many points and getting France into the mix.
8. AUSTRALIA
Georgia Godwin	13.717	13.088	13.464	12.843
Kate McDonald	12.622	12.880	12.890	12.378
Romi Brown	13.279	13.483	12.022	12.430
Emily Whitehead	13.125	12.263	12.514	12.890
Breanna Scott	13.322	12.517	11.704	12.522
	40.318	39.451	38.868	38.255	156.892
I didn’t use Georgia-Rose Brown here because she doesn’t have any scores this year, but she’s on the traveling six and could be part of the five. It’s going to be a free-for-all for the last spot or two in team final, but keep Australia in mind. Australia’s team score at the Commonwealth Games would have been a close 4th at Euros.

9. CANADA
Sydney Turner	13.074	12.910	12.658	12.462
Denelle Pedrick	13.783	11.872	11.617	12.789
Shallon Olsen	13.994	0	12.425	12.320
Ellie Black	12.913	13.647	12.747	11.850
Emma Spence	13.286	12.737	12.495	12.481
	41.063	39.294	37.900	37.732	155.989
Canada has a secret weapon in its quest to make the team final: the potential for real scores from Ellie Black on vault and floor, which we haven’t seen so far this year. A normal AA score from Black would bump Canada into the top 8.
10. SOUTH KOREA
Shin Solyi	13.254	12.750	12.713	12.879
Eom Dohyun	12.483	12.900	12.017	12.467
Yeo Seojeong	14.061	12.325	12.242	13.039
Lee Dayeong	12.763	12.667	11.833	12.467
Lee Yunseo	12.744	13.496	12.988	12.596
	40.078	39.146	37.943	38.514	155.681
Recall that South Korea defeated Japan at the Asian Championships earlier this year by nearly 3 points. They’re going to need performances more like that and less like the final trial in early September—when Lee YS had some misses and Yeo SJ withdrew—but South Korea should be considered among the legitimate team forces.
11. NETHERLANDS
Tisha Volleman	13.013	12.824	12.226	12.636
Sanna Veerman	13.314	13.040	12.115	12.313
Naomi Visser	13.113	13.702	12.492	12.753
Eythora Thorsdottir	13.450	13.167	12.189	13.123
Eve de Ruiter	13.000	10.833	11.011	12.467
	39.877	39.909	36.907	38.512	155.205
We’ll have to wait on the status of Sanna Veerman after she suffered an injury at the final trail because the team is really looking for a bars score from her. The surprise of the Dutch team is Eve de Ruiter, who jumped onto the squad after good beam and floor results at the final trial, so we could see her contribute to the team on those events even though her overall averages aren’t up there.
12. HUNGARY
Csenge Bacskay	13.350	10.707	11.150	0
Zsofia Kovacs	14.098	13.810	12.733	12.846
Greta Mayer	13.248	11.150	12.640	12.678
Zoja Szekely	12.800	13.247	11.267	12.067
Mirtill Makovits	12.233	12.643	11.721	11.682
	40.696	39.700	37.094	37.591	155.081
13. GERMANY
Emma Malewski	12.600	12.519	13.166	12.137
Pauline Schäfer	13.142	0	13.150	12.250
Elisabeth Seitz	13.107	13.917	0	0
Karina Schönmaier	13.163	12.428	11.272	12.356
Anna-Lena König	12.900	11.752	11.083	12.483
	39.412	38.864	37.588	37.089	152.953
It’s now a very depleted German team post-Euros that will likely be eyeing individual event success rather than a team result.
14. BELGIUM
Maellyse Brassart	13.116	12.546	11.683	11.814
Noemie Louon	12.878	12.629	12.028	11.861
Lisa Vaelen	13.619	13.517	12.525	12.946
Jutta Verkest	12.871	12.408	11.458	12.200
Nina Derwael	0	0	0	0
	39.613	38.692	36.236	37.007	151.548
We don’t have any scores from Nina Derwael this year, but if Belgium gets a full performance from her and some hits from some others who haven’t been hitting yet this year, we could see a dramatic jump.
15. MEXICO
Ahtziri Sandoval	13.944	13.411	10.400	10.750
Natalia Escalera	13.373	12.753	11.875	12.280
Paulina Campos	12.850	12.683	11.683	11.742
Cassandra Loustalot	12.566	10.566	12.800	11.766
Cinthia Ruiz	13.066	11.400	10.133	10.766
	40.383	38.847	36.358	35.788	151.376
16. ARGENTINA
Brisa Carraro	12.667	12.767	11.989	12.578
Meline Mesropian	12.900	12.433	10.367	12.167
Rocio Saucedo	12.489	12.000	11.811	12.184
Leila Martinez	12.400	11.733	11.033	11.800
Sira Macias	12.600	12.878	11.600	11.834
	38.167	38.078	35.400	36.929	148.574

17. FINLAND
Maisa Kuusikko	13.283	12.809	12.540	12.371
Ada Hautala	12.917	10.508	11.397	12.380
Sani Mäkelä	13.311	11.996	11.500	12.350
Kaia Tanskanen	12.967	10.875	10.996	12.792
	39.561	35.680	35.437	37.543	148.221
18. SWEDEN
Tonya Paulsson	12.733	12.866	12.033	11.767
Emelie Westlund	11.816	11.758	11.811	11.133
Nathalie Westlund	12.644	13.216	11.700	11.980
Alva Eriksson	12.146	11.397	10.300	12.087
Malva Wingren	12.729	10.577	10.055	12.000
	38.106	37.840	35.544	36.067	147.557
19. SPAIN
Emma Fernandez	12.821	11.485	11.863	12.329
Lorena Medina	12.842	11.569	11.947	12.071
Paula Raya	12.838	12.253	11.278	11.979
Laura Casabuena	12.602	12.400	11.680	12.436
Marina Gonzalez	0	0	0	0
	38.501	36.222	35.490	36.836	147.049
Spain shouldn’t actually finish this low in real life, but the scores and consistency haven’t been there this year, and there are only four people’s scores to choose from so far (and no Alba Petisco).
20. TAIWAN
Ting Hua Tien	11.884	11.783	12.450	12.434
Mai Liu Hsiang Han	12.334	12.217	12.442	11.909
Lai Pin Ju	12.613	11.558	12.300	12.110
Chen Chian Shiun	11.850	10.900	11.950	11.325
Wu Sing Fen	0	0	0	0
	36.831	35.558	37.192	36.453	146.034
21. UKRAINE
Margaryta Kozlovska	11.617	10.968	11.938	11.525
Yulia Kasianenko	12.700	11.711	12.342	11.600
Valeria Osipova	13.011	11.342	12.017	12.089
Yelizaveta Hubareva	12.608	12.258	11.667	11.566
Diana Savelieva	0	0	10.300	11.666
	38.319	35.311	36.297	35.355	145.282
22. AUSTRIA
Jasmin Mader	12.333	11.733	11.405	12.442
Alissa Mörz	12.900	11.000	10.433	11.450
Selina Kickinger	12.244	12.236	10.333	11.742
Charlize Mörz	12.483	10.750	11.388	11.943
Berta Schwaninger	12.800	10.650	9.300	11.050
	38.183	34.969	33.266	36.127	142.505
23. EGYPT
Nancy Taman	12.800	0	0	11.800
Jana Mahmoud	12.789	11.278	9.850	11.960
Jana Abdelsalam	12.783	10.955	11.450	11.494
Jana Aboelhasan	12.311	10.489	10.863	11.650
Zeina Ibrahim	0	12.287	11.828	0
	38.372	34.520	34.141	35.410	142.443

With podium training beginning in 10 days and the competition in 12 days, the FIG has released an updated nominative roster for the world championship. So here’s what we learned:

• Kasahara Arisa is gone from the Japanese women’s team. Kasahara won the All-Japan Championship early this year and was 2nd overall at the end of NHK, securing herself one of the automatic spots on the team as part of the process that had originally excluded world beam champion Ashikawa Urara. Now, alternate Watanabe Hazuki (4th place AA after NHK) moves up a spot, and Ashikawa moves onto the traveling team of six by virtue of being the next gymnast who adds the most to a team score. Bringing Ashikawa’s beam into the actual team would indeed add more to the team score than Watanabe’s, but Watanabe also brings a bars routine in case you’re too scared of having to count Miyata—who can score well but is 1-for-4 on bars this year—which mitigates how much Ashikawa is adding.

• A Canadian women’s roster shakeup has seen Commonwealth bronze medalist Emma Spence move onto the team in place of national champion Rose Woo. So now that’s the US champion, the European champion, the All-Japan champion, and the Canadian champion out of worlds. Spence is probably the better like-for-like replacement for Woo than the listed alternate Laurie Denommée (Spence adds a few more tenths to the team score than Denommée), so I wouldn’t be too surprised to see Spence move all the way onto the team.

• The German women have made their team official with Elisabeth Seitz, Pauline Schäfer, and Emma Malewski joined by Anna-Lena König and Karina Schönmaier in the wake of Kim Bui’s retirement and Sarah Voss’s injury (and Seitz having only competed vault and bars so far this year). Schönmaier’s Yfull got the highest vault score at Germany’s worlds trial, and König’s 12.733 was the highest floor score, which are largely the results that got them onto the team, but we’ll probably see quite a bit of both of them at worlds given the event limitations of everyone else.

• The Belgian women have also made their team official with Nina Derwael, Maellyse Brassart, Noemie Louon, Lisa Vaelen, and Jutta Verkest as the five and Ylea Tollet as the alternate. We have not seen Derwael compete since the Olympics (she was a late scratch in Paris), so podium training should be interesting.

• The British have now placed Poppy-Grace Stickler in the alternate position rather than Ellie Downie, who was listed as the alternate on the first roster.

• Italy has added Caterina Cereghetti as the 6th member of the team, replacing the injured Angela Andreoli, though an official team announcement has not yet been made following this weekend’s national championship. There’s not really anyone left who would contribute counting scores to the D’Amato/Maggio/Villa/Esposito/Mandriota team even if one of them goes down, so the alternate positions is sort of…who wants a tripppp?

• Paulina Vargas has been replaced on Mexico’s team of six by Valentina Melendez. Switching out Vargas with original alternate Cinthia Ruiz only costs the team a couple tenths (and Ruiz can increase the vault score a little), so this shouldn’t change overall expectations much.

• Nicole Diaz of Puerto Rico will take the all-around qualifier spot vacated by Tyesha Mattis.

• Malva Wingren replaces Maya Staahl on Sweden’s team of five. I was a bit surprised to see Staahl on the original team because the addition of Wingren adds more than a point to the potential team score. We’re all surprised and glad Sweden is actually sending a full-size team.

• Rings specialist Ali Zahran has appeared on Egypt’s updated team in place of this year’s African pommel horse silver medalist Abdelrahman Abdelhaleem.

• The Chinese men have moved Asian champion and 2021 PBars bronze medalist Shi Cong onto the squad in the 6th position, replacing national floor silver medalist Su Weide. Both are still part of the traveling training squad with a final decision yet to be made. The Chinese women’s team remains unchanged with Tang Xijing, Wei Xiaoyuan, Zhang Jin, Ou Yushan, and Luo Rui as the five and He Licheng as the alternate, but all six and Sun Xinyi still remain in the mix.

• Yunus Gündogdu has been added to Turkey’s team in place of Kerem Sener. Gundogdu’s best asset is that he could provide a rings score in the absence of the injured Ibrahim Colak, though Turkey’s team plan will basically be to get everything they can out of Önder, Asil, and Arican.

• Iran’s Mahdi Ahmad Kohani is out of the men’s all around, replaced by Lais Najjar of Syria who was the next in line from the Asian Championships.

• Ireland’s Ewan McAteer is now in the all-around, replacing teammate Daniel Fox who had originally qualified. McAteer was one-per-country-ed out of the worlds spots at Euros.

A. US selection camp

Today, USAG released the roster for the women’s world championship selection camp, at which 11 athletes will contend for the five team spots and one traveling alternate position on the worlds team.

Selection Camp Roster

Skye Blakely

Jade Carey

Jordan Chiles

Amelia Disidore

Addison Fatta

Shilese Jones

Katelyn Jong

Nola Matthews

Marissa Neal

Leanne Wong

Lexi Zeiss

In addition to Konnor McClain’s withdrawal announced last week, this roster also confirms the absences of Zoe Miller (back) and Kayla DiCello (Florida), both of whom would also have been in serious contention for the worlds team if available.

Also missing are national team members Levi Jung-Ruivivar and Elle Mueller, and we can assume they must have declined positions at this camp because…they’re on the national team, and camp is what the national team does. It’s surprising not to see Jung-Ruivivar here after she just competed in Szombathely 30 seconds ago.

So it’s a pretty sparse group, but unlike the US men’s selection which intentionally limited the size of the size of the roster and didn’t invite some theoretical options, the women’s roster seems to be…just the ones who are left standing.

The selection competitions are held October 21 (7:00pm ET) and October 22 (5:50pm ET) and streamed on FlipWallet. We’re probably entering the fray with a default team in mind of Jones, Chiles, Carey, Wong, and Blakely, with the traveling alternate position totally up for grabs—or even a fifth team spot if someone in the five botches the competition.

B. Italian Championships

The injuries keep piling up for the Italian team. Following the European Championship injury to Asia D’Amato, now Angela Andreoli has withdrawn from this week’s national championship with an injury, putting additional strain on the Italian worlds team that for most of the year looked like a major medal favorite.

In better news, Giorgia Villa returned to the all-around on day 1 of nationals, and Alice D’Amato added back beam, which she had not competed yet in 2022, a critical development for an increasingly depleted team.

Classifica finale della Gara 1 di Artistica Femminile nel Campionato Assoluto nazionale italiano#gymnastics #artisticgym #Italgym pic.twitter.com/mlX9FSNtT4

— GINNASTICANDO.it (@ginnasticando) October 12, 2022

It now seems obvious that nominative roster members Manila Esposito and Veronica Mandriota will round out the team of five for Italy since there’s no one else very close to them. Alice D’Amato, Maggio, and Villa will have to do almost all the work in every phase of the competition at worlds, but there’s also still a need for someone to step in on vault and floor. Even though Villa is now back on those events, it’s not for the highest difficulty—and probably an unnecessary strain to have her do a bunch of vault and floor numbers at worlds so soon after bringing those events back. Esposito’s scores on day 1 of nationals were encouraging in that regard.

Overall, the absence of both Asia D’Amato and Angela Andreoli drops Italy from 2nd to 4th in terms of average scores in 2022, now behind the US, China, and Brazil. Still, the margin behind China and Brazil is not large, and neither of those these teams are exactly known for their amazing hit meets in critical team situations lately, so Italy will continue to entertain the possibility of a team medal this year despite the injuries, even though it’s going to be harder now. At the same time, this also brings the remarkably intact British team and a Melanie-d France closer to the medal pack as both teams now have a clearer pathway to pounce for a top-3 finish.

Broadcast notes for tomorrow’s women’s AA final (turns out no VPN required):

INTERNATIONAL GYMTERNET if any of you are interested in Ita nats it will be broadcast at the link
No stream for QFs on the 12th (wag) and 13th (mag)
14 october 8.15 pm local time WAG AA
15 october 3.50 pm local time MAG AA
16 october EFs at 3 pm local time https://t.co/IvkrnJzynI

— ale ♡ (@iordikachu) October 9, 2022

C. Worlds Teams

The second team registration window closes on Friday at midnight, so hopefully on Monday we’ll get a big update on worlds teams (because some of those currently registered teams are definitely not happening).

Still, we do have a confirmed team from Brazil, which is the expected five of Andrade, Saraiva, Soares, Oliveira, and Pedro. Christal Bezerra is the alternate, and it’s sort of either-or between her and Pedro, a spot that will probably only be asked to contribute a team final vault, where they have very similar scores for Yurchenko fulls. In her corner, Pedro did have a much better South American Games this week and is the more reliable option if you need her to, say, go instead of Flavia on bars. Of note, the men’s team does not include ringifier Arthur Zanetti, while the confirmed Swiss men’s team does not include Christian Baumann, both of whom were on the original nominative lists.

Until the next roster update!