Today, as we hurtle ever closer to worlds, I’m checking in on the best scores on each apparatus recorded in 2022*. Across all four of these top-10 lists, China owns 14 scores, the US has 13 scores, Gadirova Britain has 6 scores, Brazil has 4 scores, Italy has 3, and Hungary has 1.
*Only worlds-eligible gymnasts are included.
Armed and not to be trusted with this information, it’s time to play a little game called What Is the Best Possible Worlds Team You Could Pick Using Anyone From Any Country? We’re still workshopping the title. Seems long-ish.
The highest-scoring team one could come up with is this one (using single-vault scores because that’s what team is):
| Rebeca Andrade | 14.700 | 14.967 | 14.433 | 14.000 | |
| Shilese Jones | 14.550 | 14.850 | 14.250 | ||
| Konnor McClain | 14.400 | 14.800 | |||
| Luo Rui | 14.967 | 14.650 | |||
| Jessica Gadirova | 14.600 | ||||
| 43.650 | 44.784 | 43.883 | 42.850 | 175.167 |
Now, if this were real life, I’m not sure that I would trust that Gadirova 14.600 from British as real and would also consider Jade Carey for that position on the team to deliver a floor score and improve the vault total by several tenths. A team with Carey in place of Gadirova also goes into the 175s.
In fact, a “light a candle and hold on for dear life” team with Jade Carey and Sun Xinyi joining Andrade, Jones, and Luo comes in only a tenth behind the previous team.
| Rebeca Andrade | 14.700 | 14.967 | 14.433 | 14.000 | |
| Shilese Jones | 14.550 | 14.850 | 14.250 | ||
| Sun Xinyi | 14.850 | ||||
| Luo Rui | 14.967 | 14.650 | |||
| Jade Carey | 14.800 | 14.050 | |||
| 44.050 | 44.784 | 43.933 | 42.300 | 175.067 |
Luo Rui delivers the best combination of bars and beam scores, though by only a little more than a tenth over Tang Xijing, whom you might also consider for having more realistic events, even though her floor wouldn’t be used on a best-in-the-world team.
Wei Xiaoyuan’s world-leading bars score doesn’t really get her into these five because the bars scores from Andrade, Jones, and Luo are very close to her, and they all have at least one other event.
For reference, the highest-scoring team you can come up with that doesn’t include Rebeca Andrade would be at 174.682, which would include Jones, McClain, Tang, Luo, and either Carey or Gadirova (both the same score). The top team that doesn’t include Shilese Jones would be at 174.882 and would include Andrade, Gadirova, Carey, Luo, and Tang.
So anyway, this was a very productive use of time and I’m pretty much the same as a doctor.
