Olympic Specialist Qualification

Figured we might as well give it its own thread. Not just for U.S. discussion, although that will likely dominate given the circumstances. But it’s an interesting topic overall. What other top teams might try to qualify specialist via World Cups and who would they be? What gymnasts not from the Big 3 teams could potentially earn a nominative spot? Etc.

There is a decent general FAQ about qualification spots from the FIG here:

http://www.fig-gymnastics.com/public...0FAQ%20ART.pdf

And for the record, each country is only allowed to qualify 1 nominative spot through the World Cup series. If 2 gymnasts from the same country qualify on different events, the tie breaker is as follows:

“Maximum of One Quota Place per NOC and/or Athlete Qualifies on More than One Apparatus
In case of more than one (1) quota place per NOC or if an athlete qualifies on more than one
apparatus, the following procedure will apply to determine which quota place will be earned:

1. The highest average World Cup points on the respective apparatus from all competitions
attended in the series prevails
2. If they remain tied, the best average rank on the respective apparatus in the Qualifications of
all competitions attended in the series prevails”

Full tiebreak rules can be found here:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folde...NqMRVIpJU0hH8A

Interesting to note that it says the tie breaker is the highest average World Cup points from ALL competitions attended in the series, not just the top 3 competitions, which is what wins you the spot in the first place (if I’m reading that right).

My remaining question is, what do they mean when they say “World Cup points”? Do they mean the actual scores they received? Or do they mean points received based on a World Cup ranking system that assigns a certain total of points to an athlete based on their placement? (I hope it’s the latter, because that is more fair)

Olympic Specialist Qualification