I have so many fantastic memories from the 2017 World Championships that I don’t even know where to start! It was my first time going to a Worlds, and one of the most exciting things was just seeing the gymnasts in real life. I chatted with Yvonne Tousek and Cristina Bontas (both super friendly!), and got my picture taken with Daniela Silivas, Dominique Moceanu, Ekaterina Lobaznyuk, Amy Tinkler and Brittany Rogers. We saw sooooo many gymnasts roaming the stadium too…everyone from Marian Dragulescu to Ragan Smith on crutches to Svetlana Khorkina.

Here are some of my favourite things from the Montreal Worlds, in no particular order:

I loved the dramatic music and the way each gymnast was introduced with a burst of dry ice (is that what that was?!) and 10 flames. Poor Weng Hao (CHN), Artur Dalaloyan (RUS) and Zou Jingyuan (CHN) didn’t get the flames because they were standing too far off to the side, and no one wants to see a gymnast get singed eyebrows.

Nadia Comaneci (ROU) was interviewed on stage each of the four days of finals (she even did her famous floor pose!), and Max Whitlock (GBR) came out on the floor on the final day to talk about winning Pommels. The organizing committee definitely kept the crowd entertained, not only with the fun intros, but also by having the “present cam” and by having the audience vote for their choice of “rotation” music.

I think I have a new favourite! Elena Eremina (RUS)! She is such a beautiful gymnast, and she looks cheerful and sweet. I never paid much attention until I saw her on YouTube looking overjoyed that teammate Angelina Melnikova had won floor at the 2017 European Championships…a final she herself was also competing in. It’s great she came away from her first Worlds with a silver and a bronze, but I would have preferred to see her win Uneven Bars!

Oksana Chusovitina (UZB) was absolutely amazing on Vault. She competed a layout front full (a bit piked) and a Tsukahara-1.5 with among the best form seen in the final. I wish she could have snuck in for a medal. Similarly, the very enthusiastic Jorge Vega Lopez was phenomenal and it would have been cool to see him bring some hardware back to Guatemala.

Zou was unbelievable on Parallel Bars. He has absolute control over his body and has mastered this event. He and Oleg Verniaiev (UKR) ended up miles ahead of a strong field of finalists. I was also thrilled to see Hidetaka Miyachi (JPN) on High Bar. His double-twisting layout Kovacs is out of this world!!! It was such a shame when he missed the tucked version….

Kenzo Shirai (JPN) was on fire!!! He is absolutely phenomenal on Floor and Vault. His twisting is indescribable; his quadruple twist looks like a triple, his triple-twisting Yurchenko looks like a double…and he does it all with immaculate form (and a smile on his face! OK, not really). He won Floor by a margin 1,100 times greater than the margin by which he won Vault.

It was fun seeing the Twitter exchange between Morgan Hurd (USA) and JK Rowling!

Surprise medallists…at least, surprises to me! Tim Srbic (CRO) nailed his full-twisting double layout to stand atop the High Bar podium. Almost, not a huge shock, but it’s always kinda cool when a newby like Hurd steps up and wins gold (in the All Around , no less!). I breathed a sigh of relief when Mai Murakami (JPN) finally got a gold medal after ending up in 4th in the All Around AND on Beam.

Brooklyn Moors (CAN) totally deserved the Longines Award for Elegance. What a gorgeous floor routine, complete with a Podkopayeva mount.

Yul Moldauer (USA) was a picture of consistency. He’s such a neat and tidy gymnast. I love Shirai, but I would have been cool with Moldauer winning the Longines Award.

Whoa – only 2 gymnasts managed to score in the 13s on Beam in the All-Around finals: Tabea Alt (GER) and Eremina. And by that, I mean that the 13s were the HIGHEST scores!

Nina Derwael: Belgium’s first medal! She’s been scooping up Uneven Bars medals at various meets for years now, so it as great to see her win bronze at her first World Championship!

Ellie Black (CAN) was a total crowd favourite. It was deafening in the stands before, during and after each of her routines. For her to finish 2nd AA (just 0.1 out of 1st!) was thrilling for the home crowd.

DISAPPOINTMENTS:

This didn’t turn into the Kohei Uchimura (JPN)-Oleg Verniaiev (UKR) showdown that I was hoping for. I can’t even describe how sad I was when I heard that Uchimura was injured and I realized I wouldn’t see him compete in Montreal. I didn’t even see him in the stadium, and he was the one I was most excited to see. 🙁

All the other injuries: Larisa Iordache (ROU), Ragan Smith (USA), Yang Hak Seon (KOR), Vanessa Ferrari (ITA)….  It’s so sad when that happens after all their hard work (not to mention the severe thinning of the field when top contenders are forced to withdraw).

Russian David Belyavsky’s heartbreak on High Bar was awful; the Men’s AA was truly a highlight – a real nail-biter! It was so sad for all the gymnasts who fell, especially Randy Leru (CUB) who looked devastated after he sat down his gorgeous double-twisting double layout off High Bar in the event final. It was also a major bummer for his teammate, Manrique Larduet, to come away from these Worlds without a medal.

I wanted to see Lieke and Sanne Wevers (NED) (I did see them in the crowd a few times!), Eythora Thorsdottir (NED) and Catalina Ponor (ROU), but unfortunately they didn’t make finals.

Weng’s Pommels was simply sublime, but a slight glitch on the dismount and a lower D-score was enough to leave him in 6th. It was kind of fun booing with everyone else when his score came up and we realized he was not in the medals.

(Oh! The video doesn’t do the routine justice. In real life, his body line was gorgeous…here, it just looks REALLY GOOD.)

So all in all, it was a great meet and I had an amazing time with my sister in Montreal. We left the city with fabulous memories. I hope another competition of this calibre come to this corner of the world in the near future.