Great Britain

With the MAG qualifications taking place tomorrow and Sunday, the team competition should be at the top of your must-watch list, both in terms of which eight programs will make the final as well as which three will be the first to earn spots at the 2028 Olympic Games.

Below, we break down the teams we expect to see in the final and challenging for the podium, the teams that could go either way, and those we don’t see making it this year.

NO QUESTION

The battle for gold will be between Japan and China. Shocking, I know! The two just went head-to-head last month at the Asian Games, where China brought a top-tier team to upset the host country for gold.

Japan will have a slightly stronger lineup in Rotterdam, however, while China lost star performer Zhang Boheng due to injury, so I’m giving the edge to Japan this time around and can see it ultimately not being as close as the two programs usually are, especially in qualifications. The combination of Olympic medalists Hashimoto Daiki and Oka Shinnosuke, balanced all-arounders Kawakami Shohei and Doi Ryosuke, and the best high bar worker in the world Maeda Fusuke will be really hard to shut down this week.

The real excitement here might actually be Great Britain or the United States upsetting China! The British depth right now is so incredible they’ve left behind several world class specialists, and the U.S. team is so well-balanced between veterans and newcomers as well as all-arounders and apparatus standouts. I still think it’ll be a challenge for either to beat China, let’s be clear, but both have the potential to do it, especially if they’re on the mark and China has any struggles. Either way, they’ll absolutely be the teams to watch in the fight for bronze, and I think it could be super close between them if they hit in the final.

I’m also not counting out Russia in this podium scenario, and think that while they’re not quite as strong as they were before the war, they have one of the most exciting newcomers in Arseniy Dukhno and I think will be capable of matching what Great Britain and the United States are able to do, though a weaker British team narrowly upset the Russians – with more or less the same team – for gold at Euros, so while I see Russia as a lock for the final, I do think the other top programs have more podium potential.

ON THE BUBBLE

Switzerland and Colombia are two of my favorite teams to watch for kind of opposite reasons, as the Swiss will put up some of the most beautiful gymnastics in the competition while the Colombians will show off some of the most daring routines across the board. I could’ve put both in my “locks” category, so I’m being a bit conservative here, but I do think the likelihood of both making it is higher than not and I’m psyched to watch both of them!

I’m not as confident about the others, mostly because there’s just a lot of teams capable of similar scores and it’ll simply come down to who hits and who does not. The Italian team is another favorite of mine, and they’ll have hands-down the most fantastic pommels rotation in the bunch, which could give them a healthy boost over teams that tend to struggle there.

Canada is coming off of golden upsets at both Pan Ams and the Commonwealth Games, so their momentum going into Rotterdam is insane, though I’m a little worried that not having William Émard on the squad will hold them back a bit. Kazakhstan has a lot of stellar routines but maybe not a whole package, which could make things difficult given how competitive this field is.

I feel similarly about Australia, which has the potential to make the final but also has some deficits compared to other teams that could hold them back, and then there’s Germany, which has a fantastic all-around combo in Radomyr Stelmakh and Timo Eder. The overall team consistency looked dire at trials, so I’m a little hesitant about them, but I feel like they somehow always end up surprising to make the team final and I never count them out.

PROBABLY NOT

Taiwan is the most confusing to me but I’ll throw them in this group because I truly don’t know what’ll happen for them, though I’m like…not super confident. They kinda bombed Asian Championships and only qualified to worlds by the skin of their teeth, and though they improved a bit in the Asian Games final, it still wasn’t great. Their lack of Chuang Chia-Lung – who was there for both of those meets earlier this season – is what has me pretty solidly as a “no” as there is no one really capable of replacing him at the same level, but at least we’ll have some great individual moments to root for!

Some of the other teams on my “no” list could actually shock me, so I’m not fully counting them out, especially when it comes to programs like the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Spain, and Hungary. I feel less certain about these teams than I do about those that I’ve rated higher, but I feel like you never know? I’m basing my opinion on other competitions this year, key players who are missing, and comparisons to other teams, but also I think all four of these are roughly on par with teams like Germany or Australia, so maybe they’ll prove me wrong!

South Korea would’ve been a bubble team for me, but with Ryu Sunghyun reportedly out of the competition, I can’t see it happening. The same goes for Brazil without Caio Souza! Oh, what could’ve been. Ukraine has Oleg Verniaiev back, but he’s not yet at his 2024 and earlier levels yet and their ranks are otherwise pretty depleted so I’m not feeling it for them at the moment.

Israel, Egypt, and Cyprus are probably the three I’m most confident will not make it, mostly because they lack the top-level depth that other programs have, though again, as with many other teams in this section, there will absolutely be standout moments from each, along with potential for individual finals from all three teams.

Article by Lauren Hopkins