In the early morning of July 19, Beijing time, the Chinese gymnastics women's team arrived in Paris. Counting the men's team that arrived the day before, all members of the Chinese gymnastics team have begun to prepare for the sprint at the training base near Paris.
At the Tokyo Olympics three years ago, the Chinese gymnastics team won three gold medals in individual events. This time in the Paris Olympics, the whole team will strive to defend their title in the dominant individual event, and hope to make a breakthrough in the men's team event. Lu Bin, deputy leader of the Chinese gymnastics team, previously said that the team's goal in the number of gold medals in this Olympic Games is "at least not worse than the previous one".
There are advantages for both men and women
At the Tokyo Olympics, Liu Yang won the gold medal in the men's rings. In this Olympic cycle, Liu Yang still maintained a good form. In Antwerp last October, he won the gold medal in rings for the first time in nine years. At the team selection competition at the end of April this year, he won the first place with a set of highly completed movements. Liu Yang previously said that he hoped to continue to improve his completion score under more difficult movements. Looking ahead to the upcoming competitions, the 30-year-old is full of confidence, "My goal is to win the Olympic title, and I hope that I will continue to grow and write a new chapter in the Olympic arena." ”
Zou Jingyuan, who won the parallel bars gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics, has also maintained his form well this Olympic cycle. Last year, he won parallel bars gold medals at the Asian Games in Hangzhou and the Universiade in Chengdu. In this year's team tryouts, he completed a difficulty score of 6.9 and scored a total score of 16.166. Zou Jingyuan said before going to the Paris Olympics that he would definitely aim to defend his title in parallel bars.
The women's team's dominant events are all "young players in charge". The 17-year-old's victory in the uneven bars at her debut World Championships last year gave her confidence to do well at the Olympics. Qiu Qiyuan's uneven bars set is difficult and well-completed, and although she is not very old, she is very calm on the field. In a previous interview, Qiu Qiyuan confidently said that as long as he can completely smooth down and stabilize the difficult movements, he hopes to achieve good results in the Olympic arena.
The 19-year-old finished runner-up on the balance beam at the World Championships last year and won the event at the World Cup in Cottages this year. Three years ago, Guan Chenchen won the gold medal in this event at the Tokyo Olympics, and Zhou Yaqin will defend the glory of the Chinese team in Paris.
Looking forward to the men's team to regain the gold medal
"The goal of all of us is to win the team championship, and that's what keeps me going." Before leaving for Paris, Liu Yang said. The last time the Chinese team won the gold medal in the men's team at the Olympic Games was at the 2012 London Olympics. This time, in addition to Liu Yang and Zou Jingyuan, there are also 2021 World Championships individual all-around champion Zhang Boheng, Sun Wei, who is good at all-around, and Tokyo Olympics individual all-around runner-up, Beijing team veteran Xiao Ruoteng is in charge. If you want to win this gold medal, the Chinese team must give full play to the advantages of Liu Yang and Zou Jingyuan in rings, parallel bars and other strengths on the one hand, and on the other hand, strive to have no shortcomings.
Xiao Ruoteng believes that the lineup of the Chinese men's team has not changed much from the last Olympic Games, and experience will be a major advantage for the team. Zou Jingyuan believes that the Japan team's complete set of moves is difficult, complete and has a high success rate, and the Chinese team needs to adhere to its own characteristics in the competition, "We will definitely compete with the Japan team in the men's team event at the Paris Olympics and will not back a step." ”
The opponent is just as strong
As Zou Jingyuan said, the Japan team does have a certain advantage in the men's team event. In the past two Olympic Games, the Japan team has won one gold and one silver in this event. Japan's 23-year-old Daiki Hashimoto is one of the strongest athletes in the men's all-around, having won two gold medals in the individual all-around and horizontal bar at the last Olympics. At last year's World Championships in Antwerp, Daiki Hashimoto won the gold medal in the individual all-around. One variable is that Daiki Hashimoto withdrew from Japan's domestic Olympic trials in May this year due to a finger injury, and only qualified for the Paris Olympics by "escort". However, Japan players such as Shinnosuke Okana, Suzuma and Tanigawa also have good strength and experience in tournaments, and even if the main players have injury concerns, their overall strength should not be underestimated.
In the women's event, United States star Biles, who withdrew from several events at the Tokyo Olympics due to psychological problems, made a strong comeback. At last year's World Championships, she not only won gold medals in the individual all-around, floor exercise, and balance beam, but also led her teammates to win the women's team championship. Zhou Yaqin was second in the balance beam competition by 0.1 points.
Qiu's biggest opponent on the balance beam is Algeria's Nemur, both of whom have completed a 7.2-point difficulty set this year. Qiu said Nemur's set of moves was cool and difficult, but she was confident of beating the formidable opponent.
Source: Beijing Daily Sports
Reporter: Zhao Xiaosong