What a day! I ran around Tokyo, somehow mastered both the trains and the subway, and got to spend 12 hours watching the best gymnasts in the world work out in the training halls which the FIG has kindly opened up to the media. 

 

Before I get my much-needed sleep, here are a few quick thoughts for you from today's training. 

 

Most impressive team of the Day: Team USA women. By far. The American girls look extremely fit and were very solid today on all 4 events. Jordyn Wieber looks the best I have seen her and was near perfect in every turn she took. The level of intensity at which the US trains set them apart from any other team. Highlights included Gabrielle Douglas on bars where she stuck every dismount she threw, Aly Raisman on floor - just watch these first 2 tumbling passes! And Jordyn Wieber on beam. McKayla Maroney did not have a great day, struggling on beam and sat down her amanar vault once before hitting it the second time. She did well on bars and her 3.5 twist on floor is just incredible. Anna Li did not train today. She only did conditioning and took one turn to just feel out the bars but did no skills. She does not appear to be injured. 

 

Now on to the defending World Champions - Team Russia. The Russians were very underwhelming today, especially all around favorite Viktoria Komova. Throughout the workout they looked tired and defeated. They stared out their day on bars throwing big skills with mostly exquisite form but just couldn't manage to consistently hit a full routine. They went on to beam where things got worse. I did not see Komova make a full routine and looked to be in tears at one point. She is really, really lovely in person though. I hope she gets it together, mostly for the sake of an exciting all around competition! 

 

Moving on to floor, the Russians showed a few new floor routines including a fun jazz routine for Anna Dementyeva. I did not see them vault. There were definitely some bright spots but overall was not impressed by this team today. But Russian fans, don't despair! This is exactly how they looked a few of the days in Rotterdam before winning last year's World Team title. They're definitely not a team who competes like they train. 

 

The final group of the day was Britain, France, and Japan. The British look great and Beth Tweddle's new bar routine is just amazing. I love watching her train because she never warms up bars, she just goes, and throws crazy routines like this! The British went through their events like in mock meet fashion which is why I have many videos with the team, and they look ready to go. 

 

The French looked great on floor, sticking a few double layouts but struggled on bars. Youna Dufournet is back and she is throwing the def! She made one and missed one that I saw.  

 

The Japanese looked alright. Bars is definitely their standout event. Rie Tanaka stuck a couple yurchenko 1.5 vaults. 

 

The Italians made the team final last year but may be in trouble here in Tokyo. They were beautiful on beam and had decent difficulty on bars but struggled to put it all together. 

 

Spain, on the other hand could sneak into the top 8. They looked pretty solid across the board and had high-energy floor routines. 

 

Eye Catching Gymnast of the Day: Dorina Boczogo of Hungary. She doesn't have huge difficulty but is so beautiful to watch. I got a video of her on beam. She also has a great floor routine with a double front second pass. I'm excited to see how this team fares. There is quite the mix of skill level in the group, clearly lacking depth, but there is some great potential. American Level 10 gymnast from Texas Austin Sheppard has joined the team this year due to dual citizenship and threw some great double twisting yurchenkos today. 

 

My biggest regret of the day: missing the Chinese and Romanian teams. Big bummer. Good thing is this is only day 1 and the training hall will be open for the next couple weeks. 

Official podium training begins tomorrow (Monday) at 11:30am Tokyo time and we'll get our first look at the competition arena. There will be 2 full days of women's podium training. Noteworthy teams scheduled for tomorrow include: Romania, Venezuela, Australia, Canada, and the Netherlands. 

Watch all videos from today's training here.