Gymnastics World Championships: Five things we learned for Paris 2024
With six teams earning their spots at the Olympic Games, here are key takeaways from Liverpool
Artistic Gymnastics
With just over 20 months to go until Paris 2024, the picture in artistic gymnastics is becoming clearer as six teams (three men, three women) earned their trips to the Games at the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships 2022 in Liverpool, England.
As the chalk dust settles from Liverpool, we look back at what the competition taught us and what it means for Paris.
READ MORE: Have a look at the final medal table.
U.S. women still reign supreme
The women of Team USA silenced any doubts that they're still a force to be reckoned with in the world of gymnastics, capturing their sixth-straight team gold medal with ease.
That they did it with neither seven-time Olympic medallist Simone Biles or Tokyo 2020 all-around gold medallist Sunisa Lee, both of whom have yet to make known their future competitive plans, was all the more impressive.
Their victory came from a mix of veterans in Olympic floor champion Jade Carey, team silver medallist Jordan Chiles and 2021 world all-around silver medallist Leanne Wong, and world debutantes Shilese Jones and Skye Blakely.
"It's just the beginning for Team USA," Chiles told Olympics.com in an exclusive interview after the vault final. "We're going to keep going out there, staying strong, striving and thriving for a lot of things that I know that we have in us. So it's definitely going to be huge when '24 comes around."
Battle for women's team silver, bronze will be intense
The women's team final in Liverpool was an intense battle for second and third place behind the dominating Americans.
In the end, it was Great Britain and Canada reaching the podium, but a number of teams were just a few routines away from the medals podium.
Take Japan, for instance. They seemed almost assured of bronze until their final competitor on the uneven bars came off the apparatus twice.
Italy also had consistency problems of its own, with team leader Martina Maggio suffering surprising falls in their opening rotation on the uneven bars.
Fourth-place finishers Brazil were hampered by an injury to two-time Olympian Flavia Saraiva in the qualifying round that limited her to just the uneven bars in the team final.
All told, it means a very bright and interesting future for the women's team event as Paris nears.
Never count out the People's Republic of China
After a tough performance during the qualifying round in Liverpool, it looked like the men's team final might be a runaway for Japan.
Instead, the People's Republic of China surged far ahead of their first day performance as Japan faltered.
It was a gold medal reminiscent of their victory at the 2012 Olympic Games in London where the squad finished sixth in the prelims, only to dominate the medal round by four points.
Lesson learned: never count them out.
Rebeca Andrade just gets better
Seven years after Brazilian gymnast Rebeca Andrade made her senior international debut, she continues to make history for her nation.
Her all-around gold medal here was the first for Brazil and just the second in the event at the Worlds (Jade Barbose took bronze in 2006).
The 23-year-old had asserted herself as the world's best female gymnast ahead of the competition, and made good on it when it counted most. It's her latest history-making moment after she won Brazil's first women's Olympic gymnastics gold medal last year at Tokyo 2020, capturing the vault title. She was also the first South American ever to win an Olympic all-around medal when she finished behind American Sunisa Lee for silver.
Andrade's triumphs come through immense struggles as the ever-talented gymnast tore her ACL ligament in 2015, 2017 and 2019.
Hashimoto and Zhang deliver in next chapter of rivalry
Ahead of the worlds, many hoped for an exciting battle between reigning all-around Olympic champion Hashimoto Daiki, 21, of Japan and 2021 world all-around champion Zhang Boheng, 22, of the People's Republic of China.
The duo did not disappoint, in what is shaping up as one of the sport's most compelling rivalries ever.
A year ago at the Worlds in Kitakyushu, Zhang prevented Hashimoto from added world gold to his Olympic title by just 0.017 in a thrilling final.
In Liverpool, it was once again an intense affair with Hashimoto claiming the gold medal by less than half a point.
Look for this back-and-forth to continue all the way to 2024.