Uchimura Kohei, Nastia Liukin headed to G7 meeting in Hiroshima

Olympic all-around champion Uchimura Kohei of Japan and Nastia Liukin of the United States will take part in the upcoming G7 meeting in Hiroshima, Japan, next month.

The duo will be among of 10 current and former gymnasts who hope to bring a message of peace to the meeting, according to International Gymnastics Federation president Watanabe Morinari.

"It is an opportunity for the sporting world to make an appeal for 'No more Hiroshimas, no more Nagasakis,'" said Watanabe, according to Kyodo News. "Considering the current state of the world too, it is a duty of the sporting world to raise voices hoping for world peace."

Uchimura won all-around gold at back-to-back Games at London 2012 and Rio 2016, while Liukin’s golden moment came at Beijing 2008.

Other gymnasts set to be part of the event include world floor champion and three-time Youth Olympic Games gold medallist Giarnni Regini-Moran of Great Britain, world and Olympic medallist Murakami Mai of Japan, and Germany's Olympic all-around silver medallist Marcel Nguyen of Germany.

Grace McCallum could return to competition at NCAA Championships

Tokyo 2020 Olympic team silver medallist Grace McCallum could return to action next week at the NCAA Championships in Ft. Worth, Texas, after a mid-February knee injury sidelined her during her sophomore campaign for the University of Utah.

McCallum injured herself attempting a Yurchenko one-and-a-half vault, a new element for her in the 2023 season.

“Everything is day-to-day with Grace,” said Utah head coach Tom Farden, according to the Salt Lake Tribune. “I feel like I have an obligation to have as many ready on each event as we can. If Grace is an option on bars or beam, we’d look at that. ... I’m going to prepare all the athletes we have available and let them do their job.”

McCallum’s Utes qualified to the NCAA Championships after winning the Los Angeles regional on 1 April. It’s their 47th consecutive qualification to the event.

From the vault…

This week, we take a look back at Team People's Republic of China on the balance beam at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia. The squad earned a team total of 39.099 on the event, led by matching 9.800 marks from Ling Jie and Dong Fangxiao.