Canadian Worlds Team

Following a two day test event, the Canadian team for the world championships in October was named. The team is as follows:

• Kristina Vaculik
• Dominique Pegg
• Talia Chiarelli
• Peng Peng Lee
• Mikaela Gerber
• Coralie Leblond-Chartrand
• Madeline Gardiner

Note: According to a comment on The Couch Gymnast from GML, Gerber is the alternate, despite being the only gymnast to hit 8/8 at the test event.

This Canadian team looks pretty strong to me. They did, after all, beat an Australian team at the Japan Cup that was made up of gymnasts who we will probably see at worlds. They can bring 4-5 5.3+ difficulty vaults to Tokyo, which could really help them, as they were 17th on vault last year and 13th/14th on the other events.

This team is pretty young and has limited experience on the world stage. They will need leadership from Vaculik, who is taking a year off from Stanford to help qualify her team to the Olympics. Another potential leader of this team, Jessica Savona, who injured her knee earlier in the summer, will unfortunately not be ready to compete in time for worlds.

Canada should have no problem finishing top 16, guaranteeing them a spot at the test event where the final four teams for the Olympics will be determined. With a 13th place finish last year, they can realistically hope for a top 12 finish, which could be a big confidence boost heading into the test event. While it is not completely out of the question, they would need to be nearly perfect and hope for lackluster performances from other teams for a top 8 finish. We have seen some upsets this season, with Canada (14th in 2010 prelims) beating Australia (6th) and Spain (18th) beating Great Britain (5th) and France (11th). It is very likely that positions 9-16 will shuffle around a bit this year, and then will change once again this winter at the test event.

Canada is one of the teams that will gain a lot of strength heading into the test event. In addition to the junior talents, Sabrina Gill and Victoria Moors, who will be eligible to compete, they may have a healthy Jessica Savona and a fully recovered Brittany Rogers in contention for the team. They have a whole lot of talent this quadrennium; they just need to put it together when it counts.

Here is a video of the team competing at the test event from gymnasticscanada: