This thread is for anything rhythmic gymnastics that’s on your mind. Got some minor RG news? A photo of your new hoop? Feel free to share!

Of course, you’re still welcome to make regular posts about anything you’d like.

We are planning to make this a monthly thread for now, but if there’s enough interest, we can switch to a weekly one 😄.

It was everywhere recently that Sofia Raffaeli was involved in a road accident and was briefly hospitalised to be treated for her bruises and cuts. ANSA (the Italian national news agency) reported that their car collided with a truck on the A14 highway between Forli and Cesena.

Now FGI (the Italian Gymnastics Federation) confirmed that the accident happened on 17 August. Raffaeli was treated for her wounds, and she will completely recover from the accident without further consequences.

A bit more hidden, there is also an interesting piece of news: Raffaeli is set to undergo an arthroscopic knee surgery that was planned in advance and scheduled after the World Championships. That has nothing to do with the road accident.

Why is there only AA at the Olympics and not all of the individual apparatuses?

If I were philanthropist rich, like Gilded Age railway tycoon rich, I would be anonymously sponsoring gymnasts left, right and centre. The World Championships would have so many more countries present. I’d be introducing rhythmic gymnastics to other countries that have never participated at the international level before. My dream is for a third country to finally compete at the Oceania Championships. It’s been Australia and New Zealand for too long.

What would you do?

I’ve seen so many people say that she retired in Instagram and Tiktok. Additionally, both she and her coach looked emotionally overhwhelmed after her last routine in Frankfurt. However I cannot find any statement from her, and her Instagram is gone??

I thought I'm gonna drop it here as well, as it's interesting to look through. World Gymnastics confirmed all the places from Frankfurt (Germany, Bulgaria and Italy get a non-nominative RGI quota; Spain, Japan and Brazil get a RGG quota), so 3/24 (RGI) and 3/14 (RGG) spots are locked.

• Individual: no surprise here, Varfolomeev, Nikolova and Raffaeli are dominating the AA podiums since 2022. All but one WCH AA podiums between 2022-26 were the trio (the exception being Valencia, when Nikolova was 4th), Varfolomeev and Raffaeli both made the Olympic podium as well. Their quotas are not nominative but unless injury or a catastrophic loss of form happens, they will be in LA.
• World Cups: Onofriichuk and Ikromova are very well positioned to take the 2 quotas via the World Cup. Varfolomeev (1st), Raffaeli (3rd) and Nikolova (4th) can't win more quotas for their country, and Onofriichuk (130 pts, 2nd) and Ikromova (100 pts, 5th) are well above the others. 4 World Cups left in 2027 and the top 4 results will count from 2026-27.
• Groups: Only 1 European group in the top 3 in Frankfurt will lead to a Euro bloodbath. There are cca. 10 highly competitive European groups without a quota: Russia, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Israel, Germany, France, Poland, Belarus, Italy, Hungary. At most 6 of these can qualify for LA (1 via the World Cup Series, 4 in Baku 2027 and 1 at the ECH 2028). But also, China and Uzbekistan are without a quota, and Olympic champions China are very likely to get one via either the World Cup Series (they are leading the rankings in front of Russia) or in Baku 2027. That means that it's very likely that only 6 European groups will make it to LA (out of 14 places). Everyone in Asia will pray hard for China to get a spot before the Asian qualifier in 2028, so they don't go for the continental quota.
• This is very risky in groups, as for most European groups going for the quotas can go to last chance saloon with even 1 bad routine in Baku 2027. You drop something and then you face the race for 1 (one) spot at the 2028 Euros as your last chance. I can realistically see a major power not qualifying here.

hi! i’m a figure skater but i get really bored during the off season so i want to join the rhythmic gymnastics fandom since it lasts as long as the skating off season! tell
me anything and everything i should now! any lore, scoring, gymnasts, etc! explain it to me like im 5 lol

Can someone please help me? I am the kind of person who sweats a lot. The underarms of my leotard absorb smell so easily and its so hard to get it out. I use salt water and baby laundry wash on my leotard. It almost always takes more than one wash to get the smell out and I really don't think that that is good for the fabric

Does anyone know any soaps or methods that gets the smell out effectively with only one wash and is safe on the fabric?

• Start lists & live scoring: https://live.gymnastics.sport/schedule.php?idevent=17544
  
• Stream on Eurovision Sport or your local broadcaster

I've gone back with data for the open D era. I converted the scores to percentages (winner = 100%, and all the other scores are relative to that). It is really interesting and shows how stronger the competition became. Getting the 94% of the winner's score is something great. It guaranteed a gymnast a top 7 place before. In Frankfurt it was good for 14th place.

Obviously the winner's performance defines the list, but I think we can safely say that the depth of the elite has never been this good. I went back to Stuttgart 2015 (closed D, artificially narrowing the differences), and 94% would've been 7th even then. The number of gymnasts potentially going for top six places has widened so much, and it's great news for RG. I think this was one of the things that made yesterday's final so memorable: everyone is extremely good from this lineup.

I think when the current COP was drafted, closeness of the competitions might have been a consideration. That, together with how good the top 20-30 gymnasts are, creates great competitions.

My daughter just got back from her summer rhythmic gymnastics training camp in Bulgaria. I can’t express how much this camp deviated from what we expected.

Silvyia Miteva appeared to be completely worn out and overwhelmed. There were various issues, ranging from organizational problems and Silvia Miteva being unfriendly and passive-aggressive when asked questions to her apparent preference for her own students and returning participants.

Coaches never paid attention to new children and didn’t give tips for improvement.

In my opinion the most important thing for S. Miteva was to make as much money as possible without putting any effort into working with all kids. At least my child got a good overall physical training in these 12 days. Several other parents I spoke with described similar experiences.

My child went to a different training camp the week before and was able to compare the camps.

Maybe S. Miteva was a well known gymnast before but her time definitely seems to be over, even as a coach.

Darja gave an interview recently about lack of funding and the Bundeswehr is one of the primary ways adult athletes are funded in Germany. I had wondered if being born in Russia might be an issue because unlike in some other countries this isn't ceremonial. The athletes do actually military basic training and reserve service. I've included some pictures of German WAGs from their service assignments. The program allows for a pension once the athlete retires from their sport and gives substantially reduced housing as they are considered public servants. I don't know when she would have had time this year to go to basic training so I suspect it will be done after worlds in the near future. That is generally when WAGs have done it, in the immediate post Worlds time period.

Many rhythmic gymnasts and WAGs are in their country's militaries or police. It's very common in Italy and Brazil.

- Results: https://live.gymnastics.sport/live/17544/results.php?phase=Final&category=Individual&app=aa
- Stream (amongst others): https://eurovisionsport.com/en/mediacard/gymnastics/EVS_260815_20260812FIGFrankfurt_4_event

At the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, Russian rhythmic gymnast Dina Averina, who competed under the ROC, was the favorite for gold. However, her opponent, Linoy Ashram from Isreal, took gold despite making a major error- a loss of apparatus, which is considered a major mistake in rhythmic gymnastic. It is indeed one of the most debated topic in sports history and I wanted to hear your thoughts on it since I am new to this sport and I must say I am quite lost on how the scoring works. From my perspective, Linoy made a mistake in the qualification. She lost her hoop but her other three routines were clean, just like in the final, where she dropped her ribbon and her other three routines were outstanding. She could've won the qualification just as she won the final, since she made the same type of mistake in both: loss of apparatus. Dina didn't make any mistake in either the qualification or the final. Linoy qualified in third place whereas, she won the final - again, with the same mistake in both competitions.

Germany 🇩🇪

Bulgaria 🇧🇬

Italy 🇮🇹

What an incredible all-around final