Viktoria Listunova
I’m going to have a full preview coming up later this evening that goes into how I see things playing out for the women and men at European Championships, which begin tomorrow in Switzerland, but for now, you really just want to know who has a chance at qualifying an Olympic berth, right? Right.
For a refresher, there are two continental berths open for both WAG and MAG. A federation that has already qualified a full team through to the Olympic Games is eligible to earn non-nominative berths (meaning the federation owns it, not the specific gymnast who earned it here), while an individual from a federation that has not qualified a full team is eligible to earn a nominative berth (meaning the gymnast owns it). Note that to earn a non-nominative berth, the athlete can’t have competed as part of the team that qualified to the Olympic Games, which is why for Italy, Alice D’Amato and Giorgia Villa are not eligible, while Vanessa Ferrari and Martina Maggio are.
Also good to know? The top two eligible athletes in all-around qualifications will earn the spots, so it might not be that we see the outright first- and second-place gymnasts qualify. For example, if the top 1-6 all-arounders are all athletes who aren’t eligible, then the first eligible athlete ranked 7th all-around in qualifications will qualify into the first Olympic berth, and so on. Oh, and one more thing – both berths could end up being nominative, both could end up being non-nominative, or we could have one of each – there’s no rule here!
With no further ado, based on the athletes listed to compete all four events on start lists for tomorrow’s WAG qualifications, this is who will be eligible, as well as not eligible (either because they’ve already qualified individually or as part of a team, or because they’re not competing all four events here), to earn Olympic berths. We’ll have MAG posted as well, once their official start lists go live.
*Megan Ryan is technically eligible because she hasn’t yet earned an individual berth to the Olympics, but as the first alternate for a 2019 World Championships individual all-around berth, she is likely to end up competing in Tokyo with the news that North Korea is planning on withdrawing. However, because her replacement spot hasn’t been officially awarded by the FIG, she should still be eligible here.
| ELIGIBLE FOR NON-NOMINATIVE | |
| Vanessa Ferrari (Italy) Jessica Gadirova (Great Britain) Elena Gerasimova (Russia) Carolann Heduit (France) Phoebe Jakubczyk (Great Britain) Viktoria Listunova (Russia) Noémie Louon (Belgium) |
Martina Maggio (Italy) Emma Malewski (Germany) Amelie Morgan (Great Britain) Sheyen Petit (France) Vladislava Urazova (Russia) Jutta Verkest (Belgium) |
| NOT ELIGIBLE | |
| Jonna Adlerteg (Sweden) Argyro Afrati (Greece)* Anastasiya Alistratava (Belarus) Kim Bui (Germany) Lara Crnjac (Slovenia)* Alice D’Amato (Italy) Margaux Daveloose (Belgium) Ana Derek (Croatia) Fien Enghels (Belgium)* Gabriela Janik (Poland) Alice Kinsella (Great Britain) Tijana Korent (Croatia)* Zsofia Kovacs (Hungary) Angelina Melnikova (Russia) Barbora Mokosova (Slovakia) |
Marina Nekrasova (Azerbaijan) Sara Peter (Hungary)* Lihie Raz (Israel) Elisabeth Seitz (Germany) Josephine Sørensen (Denmark)* Giulia Steingruber (Switzerland) Giorgia Villa (Italy) Naomi Visser (Netherlands) Tisha Volleman (Netherlands) Sarah Voss (Germany) Lieke Wevers (Netherlands) Sanne Wevers (Netherlands) Jennifer Williams (Sweden)* Christina Zwicker (Croatia)* |
*Technically eligible to earn either a nominative or non-nominative berth, but is not listed to compete four events.
Article by Lauren Hopkins
The Gymternet 
Even though this qualification process is crazy and in some ways hard to follow, I will say it makes the lead up to the olympics really exciting. As more spots are award led named and unnamed, it makes the team selection of 4 exciting too as countries start putting together their teams. I’ve really missed gymnastics this last year and I feel like the next 4 months is going to be unbelievably exciting.
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Like the format of awarding spots at continentals. I wish they would keep this one aspect; using the olympic year Euros for a few spots (even if just two or three spots to federations with no teams).
The rest of the qualification system is a mess!
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I believe next quad they’re using continental championships as qualifiers to worlds, if that plan ends up sticking…which should add to some excitement! I love making continental meets mean something, because while I feel like Euros is often a huge and celebrated event, the others are barely given a glance (aside from Pan Am Games years where they’re covered as part of a wider multi-sport Games and not just as a gymnastics-only championships often held in a tiny gym). Pan Am Championships have always been low-key, Asian Championships and African Championships never get any love, and Oceania Championships didn’t even EXIST, so giving a bit more weight to them all by making them Olympic qualifiers is making a big difference…especially in a non-COVID year when things are back to normal.
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Yeah, I think it got especially messy with COVID and maybe there were a lot of little things they could have changed to simplify the format initially, but I love having multiple qualifiers instead of just worlds for teams and the test event for a few more teams + individuals. It spreads things out a bit more and makes it more fun to follow world cups and continental meets!
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Shouldn’t Eli Seitz and Kim Bui be listet under “not eligible”? They should be competing tomorrow in Sub 4.
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Yes! I accidentally deleted a bunch from that list while formatting, I had to add Melnikova back in as well, but you’re correct!
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Can the Russians get the last 2 spots? Or is it one per federation max?
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It’s one per federation!
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The photo of Listunova is crazy …
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I love it.
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Oh no! Did I miss her on the list, or did Giulia Steingruber pull out of Euros?
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She should have been on there under “not eligible” but it looks like when I was formatting that list I lost a few of the names that were on it!
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I haven’t really kept up with qualifying rules this quad, but is there any other way Larissa can get an Olympic spot other than a nominative one here? Like will there be a test event or something?
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No this is her only chance. She’s lucky she has euros to attempt, the other continental championships may not happen which would eliminate chances for a few others In a similar situation.
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I thought Vanessa might be out due to apparatus world cup qualification, or did she not get that? (I remember there was some uncertainty over how they’d re-rank after Jade Carey was ineligible on floor.)
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Also, what would happen if Megan Ryan won a spot (I know it’s probably not going to happen, but still) and then North Korea followed through and she got the alternate spot instead?
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If Meg were to win and accept a spot here, she would no longer be the alternate, so the second alternate – Maria Kharenkova for Georgia – would be next in line to take over for any gymnast who withdraws. However, Maria is currently injured (Achilles rupture), so I’m not sure if she would be able to accept, in which case it would go to the next person down the line based on 2019 worlds qualifications, and so on.
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No, Vanessa isn’t likely to get the world cup spot…it hasn’t been decided yet, but Lara Mori is currently leading for the floor spot outside of Jade. Vanessa is looking really good for making the Italian team outright, though!
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Those concerned about the Olympics might take heart from an international competition just completed (in mid-April) successfully in Japan. Figure skating’s World Team Trophy was held before a live audience in Osaka.
Every other seat was kept vacant, and the spectators wore masks, but the event went off as planned,
not watered down. [PS Team Russia won, Team USA 2nd.]
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