06-28-2021, 10:37 AM
This article explains it: https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/ol...story.html
In short, the governing body's then-President, Bruno Grandi, pushed for the smaller rosters as a way to do two things: (1) give smaller countries a chance to compete against bigger, deeper countries; and (2) reduce the influence of event specialists on the overall team outcome. His theory was that with smaller rosters, gymnasts would be incentivized to be proficient on each apparatus, so you couldn't have a roster with three solid all-around gymnasts and then fill out the roster with specialists for each apparatus.
Grandi has since retired, and the sport will go back to five-gymnast teams for the 2024 Olympics.
In a weird quirk, the US women's gymnastics team will send six gymnasts to Tokyo, but only four will compete as part of the team event--two gymnasts will compete in the individual events only. (The US earned one individual spot for the women, and Jade Carey earned another spot based on her own performance.) That complicated process for getting extra spots is part of why gymnastics is scrapping the model and moving back to a simpler 5-person team.
In short, the governing body's then-President, Bruno Grandi, pushed for the smaller rosters as a way to do two things: (1) give smaller countries a chance to compete against bigger, deeper countries; and (2) reduce the influence of event specialists on the overall team outcome. His theory was that with smaller rosters, gymnasts would be incentivized to be proficient on each apparatus, so you couldn't have a roster with three solid all-around gymnasts and then fill out the roster with specialists for each apparatus.
Grandi has since retired, and the sport will go back to five-gymnast teams for the 2024 Olympics.
In a weird quirk, the US women's gymnastics team will send six gymnasts to Tokyo, but only four will compete as part of the team event--two gymnasts will compete in the individual events only. (The US earned one individual spot for the women, and Jade Carey earned another spot based on her own performance.) That complicated process for getting extra spots is part of why gymnastics is scrapping the model and moving back to a simpler 5-person team.