Rebeca Andrade

A series of national competitions over the past few weeks have determined a number of Olympic squads, including the women’s teams for Brazil and Canada, the men’s teams for Germany, Switzerland, and Türkiye, and a couple of individual competitors who will fill non-nominative slots for the German women and Brazilian men.

Below, find out more about everything that went down across every competition that mattered. All teams are also included on our WAG and MAG trackers, which we’ve been keeping updated since the first NOCs qualified at world championships in 2022!

BRAZIL

Though some of the Brazilian athletes have competed occasionally throughout the season, the key meet for Olympic hopefuls was this weekend’s Brazil Trophy, a world cup-style competition where athletes had the chance to qualify for apparatus finals to focus on the events that had the potential to set them apart for both team consideration and individual medal contention.

Ultimately, though some of the athletes struggled a bit here, the WAG team was exactly what we expected, with all five members of last year’s silver medal-winning world championships squad named. Led by Rebeca Andrade, who competed on bars and beam here and won the gold medals on both, the team also includes Jade Barbosa, Lorrane Oliveira, Flavia Saraiva, and Julia Soares, with Andreza Lima and Carolyne Pedro serving as reserves.

Barbosa struggled in the beam final here, but topped the floor podium with a 13.333 in addition to taking the bars silver with a 13.2, while Soares won the silver medal on beam, though had a rare miss on floor, Oliveira finished just off the bars and beam podiums with scores of 12.7 and 12.467, respectively, and Saraiva, who qualified first on beam with a 13.767, ended up falling in the final to finish fourth with a 12.667. Pedro, meanwhile, won a pair of bronze medals with a 12.933 on bars and a 13.1 on floor, while Lima qualified into three finals with solid work in prelims, though chose to sit them out.

There were no top Olympic contenders in the vault final, which junior Larissa Machado won with a 12.817 average ahead of Nicole Bello with a 12.7 for silver and veteran Beatriz Lima with a 12.467 for bronze. Gabriela Rodrigues Barbosa won the bronze on beam with a 12.7, and first year senior Hellen Benevides Silva won the silver on floor with a 13.133.

The men didn’t qualify a team to the games, though Diogo Soares – who competed only on pommel horse here, taking the gold with a 13.3 – earned a nominative spot at worlds last year, and the team’s 13th-place finish guaranteed them a non-nominative individual berth, which was largely between high bar standout Arthur Mariano, floor and vault standout Yuri Guimarães, and all-arounder Caio Souza.

Mariano only competed on his key apparatus, and though he had a fall in qualifications, he still managed a 12.9 for fourth place to earn a spot in the final. He again had a miss there, finishing fifth with a 13.0. Guimarães also wasn’t perfect, though had a stronger overall meet than Mariano, performing mostly well on all six events in qualifications. He ended up winning the titles on rings with a 13.2 and on vault with a 14.6 average, while also winning the bronze on parallel bars with a 13.2 and just missing the podium after some mistakes on floor, earning a 13.1, down nearly a point from his 14.05 in qualifications.

Though Souza didn’t compete here, his performances at Pan Ams and in the world cup series were taken into consideration, though ultimately Mariano’s potential for a medal in Paris made him the most attractive option to the selection committee, and he was awarded the available spot while Souza and Guimarães were named the reserve athletes.

Also of note was former U.S. elite Vitaliy Guimaraes making his debut for his newly-adopted program here, winning the gold on floor with a 14.25 and the silver on pommel horse with a 13.15, in addition to finishing fourth on high bar. The other titles went to Bernardo Miranda on parallel bars and Diogo Speranza on high bar, while Luis Porto won silver medals on floor and vault, Leonardo Souza won silver on rings and high bar, Lucas Bitencourt won silver on parallel bars, and the bronze medals went to Felipe Bono on floor, Murilo Pontedura on pommel horse, João Perdigão on rings, Juliano Oliva on vault, and Francisco Barretto on high bar.

WAG results | MAG results

CANADA

Ellie Black

The Canadian national championships held at the beginning of June served as the final opportunity for athletes to earn spots on both the WAG and MAG Olympic teams.

On the women’s side, Ellie Black had earned an automatic spot thanks to her international performances in 2022 and 2023, so her bars, floor, and all-around titles here were just the cherry on top for her. The selection procedures stated that the top two all-arounders at nationals would also earn spots, but since Black had already qualified, this opened the door to the athlete next in line, so second-place Aurélie Tran and third-place Ava Stewart – who also won the beam title – were also added, while national vault champion Shallon Olsen was awarded a specialist spot, and Cassie Lee, who was 11th all-around, would round out the team.

Lee was a bit of a surprising choice given her lower standing and the fact that she did not finish in the top three on any apparatus, though her success on beam this year internationally – she won gold at Gymnix and also scored well in Jesolo – should help the team on that apparatus. Reserve spots went to fourth-place Rose Woo, fifth-place Sydney Turner, and seventh-place Emma Spence, all of whom are more well-balanced than Lee overall, but do not have quite the standout scores Lee is capable of on beam.

The men’s team is headlined by the top four all-arounders at nationals, including Félix Dolci, who also won the floor, parallel bars, and high bar titles, René Cournoyer, William Émard, and Samuel Zakutney, while Zachary Clay, who finished seventh and won the silver medal on pommel horse, rounds out the team.

There were no real surprises here, especially as the team’s other top pommel horse specialist, Jayson Rampersad, struggled at nationals. We did see the rise of Aidan Li, who won the pommel horse title, though given his lack of experience compared to Clay, I think the choice was correct between the two. Also winning titles were Chris Kaji on rings and Léandre Sauvé on vault, and I thought Kaji and Zakutney might be in direct competition for a spot, though Zakutney was a bit stronger as a whole, and can contribute at a higher level on parallel bars and high bar in addition to doing solid work on Kaji’s top events.

Ioannis Chronopoulos, who finished fifth all-around and third on pommel horse, will serve as the traveling reserve athlete for the men’s team.

WAG results | MAG results

GERMANY

Lukas Dauser

We saw two back-to-back competitions for the Germans in the lead-up to the naming of the Olympic athletes, including national championships held on June 8–9 followed by the final trial on June 22.

When Lukas Dauser won the national all-around title with an 82.765, what was already clear for the parallel bars star became even more so. There was a moment of terror when he was injured while competing on rings at trials, but thankfully he was medically cleared and named to the team alongside trials champion Timo Eder, who also won bronze in the all-around at nationals, Andreas Toba, who finished second all-around at nationals and went on to win the rings, vault, and high bar titles at trials, Pascal Brendel, who was fourth at nationals and fifth at trials, and Nils Dunkel, fifth at nationals and second at trials.

It’s a solid team of all-around talent with multiple strong options on every apparatus, though Dauser is the only one with real individual medal potential. It’s also a fairly strong pommel horse team, with Eder, Dunkel, and Brendel each scoring above a 14 on the apparatus at trials, and I think the largest potential scores they’ll leave behind are Milan Hosseini’s on floor and vault.

Hosseini will serve as an alternate, as will Alexander Kunz and Glenn Trebing, who finished third all-around at trials and consistently showed strong parallel bars and high bar scores. I thought Carlo Hörr and Felix Remuta might have factored in as well, but both were ranked relatively low in the all-around despite some solid apparatus scores here and there, and it seems like the selection committee was prioritizing more generalists in choosing who would go.

With the women finishing 13th at worlds last year, they ended up missing out on a team berth by about one tenth, a devastating result after a season full of injuries that held them back from outscoring teams they were usually capable of beating.

On a more positive note, both Pauline Schäfer and Sarah Voss earned nominative individual spots, with Schäfer qualifying through the all-around at world championships while Voss picked up the sole balance beam spot available at worlds. Additionally, having finished 13th, the NOC picked up a non-nominative individual berth as well, which brought some drama to the trial competition.

It’s always been clear that the two athletes vying for the non-nominative berth would be veteran Elisabeth Seitz, who missed worlds due to an injury last year and has only been able to compete bars this season, and first-year senior Helen Kevric, who likely would have been able to help the team qualify had she been age-eligible in 2023.

Both known for their prowess on bars, it seemed like the ultimate deciding factor for the spot would be the gymnast with the stronger potential to make the Olympic final and challenge for a medal, though I think Kevric’s competitive all-around program made her the more attractive option and I think it would have taken a truly next-level routine from Seitz for her to walk away with the spot. In addition to winning the national all-around title with a 55.500 and then the trials all-around title with a 55.532, Kevric also won the floor title and a pair of silver medals on bars and beam at nationals before going on to sweep all of the apparatus gold medals at trials, where she added upgrades on bars to defeat Seitz, earning a 14.8 while Seitz was second with a 14.6.

That final meet completely sealed the deal for Kevric, with Seitz named a reserve athlete along with Karina Schönmaier, who was third all-around at nationals behind Kevric and Voss in addition to finishing second at trials. Having upgraded her vaults to become internationally competitive this season, winning the silver medals at Jesolo and at the Varna Challenge Cup and finishing fifth in the European Championships final, I was glad to see Schönmaier recognized in this way, and think she’ll be key to the team’s future success in the coming quad.

WAG national results | WAG trial results | MAG national results | MAG trial results

SWITZERLAND

Noe Seifert

The Swiss men had quite the busy month, competing a total of four times in 10 days between a pair of Olympic trial meets in Magglingen on the 13th and Lenzburg on the 15th followed by two days of national championships in Biel from June 22–23.

In the end, we saw a very young team named, led by Noe Seifert, who won the first trial competition in addition to becoming the national all-around champion. Also making it were Matteo Giubellini, who topped the all-around podium at the second trial competition and won the silver at nationals, where he also won the rings, parallel bars, and high bar golds; his brother Luca Giubellini, who won floor and pommel horse titles at nationals and also showed excellent vault scores; Florian Langenegger, who was third all-around at all three meets; and Taha Serhani, who consistently earned scores of 14+ on vault, parallel bars, and high bar throughout the series of competitions.

The squad is a super strong and balanced one with lots of potential for success at both the team and individual levels. The list of reserves includes two-time Olympian Christian Baumann along with Andrin Frey and Moreno Kratter.

On the women’s side, there were no decisions to be made, with the program’s sole Olympic qualifier coming via the all-around at worlds last year, where Lena Bickel picked up a nominative spot after finishing 39th in qualifications.

With her focus on Paris, Bickel didn’t make her first 2024 appearance until the Koper Challenge Cup a few weeks ago, where she won the gold on floor with a 13.3, and at nationals this weekend, she took the all-around title with a 50.250, similar to her worlds score last year. Though not a top contender for any finals in Paris, she looks strong and ready in the lead-up and should make the Swiss program proud.

WAG national results | MAG trial 1 results | MAG trial 2 results | MAG national results

TÜRKIYE

Emre Dodanli

Last but not least is Türkiye, which will make an appearance with a full team at the Olympic Games for the first time in history this summer, and solidified its members at nationals held from June 21–23 in Antalya.

The team is pretty much as expected, with all of the program’s regulars represented here, including all four 2020 Olympians Ferhat Arican, Adem Asil, Ibrahim Colak, and Ahmet Önder, along with newcomer Emre Dodanli, this year’s national all-around, floor, and high bar champion who trains in the U.S. at the University of Oklahoma and made his senior international debut at worlds last year, helping the team qualify to Paris.

Mehmet Ayberk Kosak also had a strong national competition, finishing second in the all-around less than a point behind Dodanli while winning the pommels title on top of a few other apparatus medals, though with all of the returning Olympians on this squad, it was always going to be an uphill battle for him and anyone else not part of the core four, especially with Colak finally back from injury.

In addition to Dodanli and Kosak’s apparatus titles, we also saw Asil win rings ahead of Colak as well as vault with a 14.534 average, while Kerem Sener surprised to win the parallel bars title with a 14.133, a few tenths ahead of Arican, who struggled in the final but still managed a 13.7 for silver.

The Turkish women did not qualify any athletes to the Olympic Games this year, unfortunately, with Bengisu Yildiz coming closest in the all-around at worlds last year, where she finished 72nd in addition to being ranked 21st on vault in this year’s world cup standings. Sevgi Kayisoglu was also close, ranking sixth on floor and 16th on uneven bars at the world cups and 86th in the all-around at worlds.

The women’s national championships have also not yet taken place, though Kayisoglu had the top all-around score at the club championships in April with a 50.633.

Results

WHO’S NEXT?

This coming weekend, the U.S. Olympic Trials will determine both the WAG and MAG teams for the United States, which should of course be one of the most exciting announcements of the season given the teams’ successes at worlds last year and the potential for medal hauls in Paris.

Both France and the Netherlands held national championships this month, but on the WAG side, neither will name teams until after the first weekend of July, when France will compete in a friendly meet while the Netherlands will host its final trial competition. We’re also expecting the Dutch men’s team to come shortly, along with the Spanish men’s team, with Spain’s national championships also held over this past weekend.

Still up in the air is the Romanian women’s team, which should come in the aftermath of this coming weekend’s international RomGym Trophy in Bucharest, which the Hungarian federation is using to decide between Zsofia Kovacs and Zoja Szekely for the program’s non-nominative berth. And finally, the Italian national championships will be held from July 5–7, with both the women’s and men’s teams expected immediately following the action.

Article by Lauren Hopkins