Chinese gymnasts are likely to miss Melbourne World Cup

As a result of the novel coronavirus outbreak, Australia has imposed a travel ban on foreign citizens who visited China in the past 14 days. Since the outbreak is still progressing, it is very likely that the ban will not be lifted by February 20th, the first day of the Melbourne World Cup.

On the women’s side, the Olympic qualification chances would not be affected by missing just this competition, as China listed Ou Yushan, Guan Chenchen, Qi Qi, and Zhou Ruiyu, who do not yet have any points from the World Cups yet and would have likely been sent there more for the experience. Fan Yilin, who already has the perfect 90 points on bars, was not on the nominative list for Melbourne. On the men’s side, You Hao who is currently in second place in points on parallel bars and rings was also not on the nominative list. Weng Hao and Liu Yang each have 90 points on their respective apparatuses (pommel horse and rings) and were slated to compete at Melbourne, so, in their case, they will miss a chance to prevent other gymnasts from gaining the coveted 90 points.

Overall, even if China does not compete at any more Apparatus World Cups this year, they still have a chance of qualifying a nominative spot on both women’s and men’s sides.

However, the situation might be direr when it comes to the All-Around World Cups. Zhang Jin and Deng Shudi are currently listed as the Chinese gymnasts for the American Cup. The US has also imposed a travel ban on all foreigners who traveled to China in the past 14 days. If the ban stays in place until the American Cup on March 7th, it will mean the Chinese gymnasts will not be able to compete. The results of all four AA cups count towards the final score and only three nations will be able to get a nominative spot this way (three for MAG and three for WAG). Thus, missing even one event will almost surely mean no nominative spot for China. If they will miss more than one (in case UK, Germany, or Japan will also declare travel bans), there will be no chance to win a spot.

Epidemiologists are predicting that the peak of the outbreak can fall on April or May which may also potentially affect China’s ability to participate at the Asian Championships (May 2-5) and win a continental spot.

Meanwhile, according to Gymternet China blog, most of the national team gymnasts are continuing their training as usual, except in face masks:

It’s unlikely the chn gymnasts can make it to the Melbourne World Cup and American Cup due to the travel bans. Meanwhile gymnasts in Hubei (including Shang Chunsong) are unable to conduct their training amid the virus outbreak. Everything is quite uncertain at this stage.

— 体操光年 (@chngym) February 1, 2020

Only the gymnasts in Hubei province, the center of the outbreak, cannot currently train and are under quarantine. Part of the national team including Chen Yile, Ou Yushan, Liu Tingting, and Guan Chenchen were at a camp at Guangzhou during the beginning of the outbreak. While Guandong, the province where Guangzhou is located, is not under a lockdown, there are several hundred confirmed cases of coronavirus in the province. Traveling to Beijing in order to return to the national training center could potentially mean the athletes would be placed under a 14-day quarantine and would not be able to train during that time.

It is potentially possible for the core Chinese national team to leave for a prolonged camp abroad in a country that has not yet banned travel from China. In that case, they would be able to attend international competitions. However, it would be a costly enterprise and they would need to train in a foreign country for weeks and maybe even months without a chance to go home until the outbreak passes.

This article was compiled with the help of @chngym. Follow the account on Twitter for your latest news on Chinese artistic gymnastics!