Things are going slowly lately...

Today, I was supposed to be writing about the Nationals, but things did not go as planned by CBG. The delay of the competition was a cold news. To make things worse, there is still not a new date for the Nationals. The gymnasts who will compete at the World Championship in October are to be selected during the Nationals. The deadline for the submission of the names of the gymnasts is September 9. CBG does not have much time left and, at this rate, they should either transfer the location where the Nationals will take place or just pick the gymnasts they are planning to send to the Worlds anyway and pray they make the right decisions.

In other news, according to this article, Laís Souza and Daiane dos Santos decided not to take part in the 2009 World Championships. Not only that, but they are are not planning to compete at any other competition this year. They say in the article that their priorities are set at the 2011 World Championships and the 2012 Olympics, so they will take the time off to recover from injuries and tighten their routines.

It is good to hear that Laís is not exactly planning to retire as of yet. I just hope they can keep going until the next Olympics.

CBG decides to postpone the Nationals

Sad news. CGB has decided that there is no guarantee of safety for the athletes in Porto Alegre thanks to the massive outbreak of swine flu in Argentina. Since Porto Alegre is geographically close to Argentina, CBG has decided to delay the Nationals to an indefinite date, or at least "as soon as the environment becomes safe for gathering the Big Brazilian Gymnastics Family" (corny, but that is how CBG is).

At least the delay gives more time to Daiane and Jade to recover. While Jade is slowly recovering from her hand injury, Daiane is recovering from a recent surgery on her knee. She is currently in the process of choosing a new music for her floor routine. Rumors are that Daiane is currently considering the Indian music Chori Chori Hum Gori Se for the routine. Also, in a recent interview for a TV show, she said that she is also considering including the Dos Santos I (double arabian pike) in her routine.

Who is going to London this year?

With the Brazilian National Championships taking place later this month, we can begin to speculate who is going to make it to the World Championships in October. After the Nationals, one "new" athlete will join the permanent team and CBG will be able to finally choose four girls to represent Brazil at the World Championships.

I would say Ethiene Franco is a lock for the team. Ethiene is not particularly strong in any specific apparatus, but her routines are solid and relatively difficult. This makes her a perfect candidate for being Brazil's best All-Arounder now that Jade Barbosa can not compete on every piece of apparatus anymore. As the team is now, I guess that the other three spots would probably be taken by Ana Claudia Silva, Khiuane Dias and Bruna Leal.

But there is one spot left on the team and both Jade and Daiane are going to compete at Nationals. Probably one of them will take the last spot and also make it to London as well. I bet on Daiane, since she is working hard to return to form. Earlier this year, she stated: "I want to go to London. (...) This is my objective, my dream". Good luck to her. If she makes it to London, Daiane is Brazil's best shot at a medal. The gymnast is a floor specialist and won the world title in 2003 at this apparatus. Can she make history again, six years later? We hope so. But first she has to secure her spot on the team.

At the men's side, Diego Hypólito is also a lock. I guess the other three spots will be taken by Artur Zanetti, Mosiah Rodrigues and Vitor Rosa. Sergio Eras will probably be the alternate. But this is just wild speculation and we still have a long way to go until October.

Two new gymnasts make it to the "permanent team"... only one spot left

In recent Olympic cycles, the Brazilian Gymnastics Confederation (CBG) decided to adopt a selection process where they test a handful of girls around the country and make some of them part of the "permanent team", that is, a small, restrict group of gymnasts who are going to represent Brazil in official competitions. In theory, the "permanent team" is composed by the best gymnasts of the country.

After the Beijing olympics, CBG decided to dismiss the old team in order to create a new one from scratch. In January this year they started to recruit new girls for the team. Until last week the girls recruited were Ethiene Franco, Bruna Leal, Khiuani Dias, Anna Carolina Cardoso, Janaina Silva, Ana Claudia Silva, Priscila Cobello, Nadhine Ourives and Daniele Hypolito. According to this article, this week CBG has added two more new gymnasts to the team: Harumi de Freitas and Leticia Costa. Since the team is restricted to 12 athletes, there is only one spot left. As you can see, there is no sign of olympians Daiane dos Santos, Jade Barbosa and Laís Souza. That probably means that only one of them will make it to the team.

Laís Souza is rumoured to retire soon thanks to ongoing problems with injuries, and I feel sorry for her because she is one of my favorite gymnasts. But I am seriously shocked by the fact that either Jade or Daiane would probably be left out. Either CBG has gone completely crazy or they are planning to remove one of the selected gymnasts from the team. Daniele Hypólito has been extremely criticized after a disastrous performance at the recent Universiade 2009. Is she also planning to retire? Or is CBG forcing her out of the team? We will find out soon.

Welcome to Brazilian Gymnastics

Hello. My name is Thiago and I am a huge fan of Gymnastics. Artistic Gymnastics has become a huge success in Brazil thanks to incredible world class gymnasts like Daiane dos Santos and Diego Hypólito. However, outside of Brazil very few people know about Brazilian gymnasts other than these two athletes. This is the main reason why I decided to create this blog: to make people around the world aware of Brazilian gymnasts and celebrate incoming (and also past) victories of Brazilian athletes. Initially, I plan to publish only news about competitions where Brazilian gymnasts take part in, but I may talk about gymnasts from other countries as well if there is any kind of relevant news about them. I hope you all enjoy the blog and I am open to suggestions. I am also sorry if I commit any mistake, but English is not my native language (it is Portuguese, since I am Brazilian after all). Also, I am not a coach or professional in gymnastics, so bear with me if I make any mistake refering to an element or value of a routine. Thanks for coming here and welcome to Brazilian gymnastics!