Oksana Chusovitina
The first world cup of a brand-new Olympic quad kicks off today in Cottbus, Germany, where a small but mighty roster of athletes is expected to compete.
Back for the first time since last year’s world cup circuit is the legendary Oksana Chusovitina, who turns 50 this year but is showing no signs of slowing down as she attempts to make her ninth Olympic Games after missing Paris in 2024.
Also notable in the women’s field is 2024 Olympian and last weekend’s Welsh national champion Ruby Evans, who is joined by Welsh teammate Emily Roper and former U.S. elite Charlotte Booth representing Great Britain, while world cup favorites Teja Belak and Tjasa Kysselef are together again for Slovenia, and both Kasahara Arisa and Yamada Chiharu should do big things for Japan.
The men’s field has a super exciting Armenian group. Led by two-time Olympic medalist Artur Davtyan, the squad also features his brother and 2024 Olympic teammate Vahagn Davtyan along with Artur Avetisyan and a pair of first-year seniors, Mamikon Khachatryan and Hamlet Manukyan, both of whom made history on the junior circuit and could be in the medal mix here.
Japan also boasts a great team, featuring Minami Kazuki, Kawakami Shohei, and Sugimoto Kaito; for Great Britain, we’ll see standout specialists Courtney Tulloch, Joshua Nathan, and Jonas Rushworth; 2024 Olympian Ahmad Abu Al Soud of Jordan is back to prove himself a pommel horse warrior once again; and though Ukraine is going through some internal shakeups causing a couple of athletes to jump ship, Nazar Chepurnyi is still onboard and will lead a pretty young and experienced group that also includes Vladyslav Hryko, Yehor Perepolkin and Rodion Shkuratskyi.
The action in Cottbus will begin with qualifications today and tomorrow at 4:30 pm local time both days, while finals will be held Saturday and Sunday at 2 pm. Live scores are available via Sportlicht, and you can stream finals via Sport Deutschland.
A full list of athletes expected to compete is below.
| ARMENIA | |
| Artur Avetisyan Artur Davtyan Vahagn Davtyan Mamikon Khachatryan Hamlet Manukyan |
|
| AUSTRIA | |
| Manuel Arnold Askhab Matiev Martin Miggitsch Gino Vetter |
Bianca Frysak |
| AZERBAIJAN | |
| Murad Agharzayev Rasul Ahmadzada Nikita Simonov Ivan Tikhonov |
Daniz Aliyeva Nazanin Teymurova |
| BELGIUM | |
| Noah Kuavita Kilan van der Aa |
|
| CHINA | |
| Zhang Kexin Zhang Yihan Zhou Yaqin |
|
| CROATIA | |
| Erin Bakran Sara Sulekic Christina Zwicker |
|
| CYPRUS | |
| Sokratis Pilakouris | |
| GERMANY | |
| Milan Hosseini Alexander Kunz Daniel Mousichidis Tom Schultze Dario Sissakis |
Silja Stöhr Lisa Wötzel |
| GREAT BRITAIN | |
| Joshua Nathan Jonas Rushworth Courtney Tulloch |
Charlotte Booth Ruby Evans Emily Roper |
| INDIA | |
| Tapeswaranath Das Harikrishnan Jayan Sandhya Jatin Kumar Kanojiya Lakshya Sharma Shayan Sharma Omkar Shide |
Nishka Agarwal Ritu Das Karishma Protistha Samanta |
| ISRAEL | |
| Eyal Indig Ilia Liubimov Ron Pyatov |
Lihie Raz |
| ITALY | |
| Lorenzo Bonicelli Edoardo de Rosa Stefano Patron Niccolò Vannucchi |
|
| JAPAN | |
| Kawakami Shohei Minami Kazuki Sugimoto Kaito |
Kasahara Arisa Yamada Chiharu |
| JORDAN | |
| Ahmad Abu Al Soud Zaid Al Khalidi Ahmad Habeeb Ahmad Salameh |
|
| KAZAKHSTAN | |
| Ilyas Azizov Zeinolla Idrissov Milad Karimi Dmitriy Patanin |
|
| LATVIA | |
| Ricards Plate | Katrina Jurevica |
| LITHUANIA | |
| Robert Tvorogal | |
| NETHERLANDS | |
| Amine Abaidi Loran de Munck Elijah Faverus Jermain Grünberg |
|
| NORWAY | |
| Julie Erichsen Christine Kubon Keisha Lockert |
|
| POLAND | |
| Kacper Garnczarek Sebastian Gawronski |
Maria Drobniak Wiktoria Grzesikiewicz Nadia Majchrzak |
| PUERTO RICO | |
| Nelson Guilbe Jose Lopez Francisco Velez |
|
| SLOVENIA | |
| Luka Bojanc Kevin Buckley Anze Hribar Toni Kastelic Beno Kunst Gregor Rakovic |
Teja Belak Lucija Hribar Tjasa Kysselef Vita Prijanovic |
| SPAIN | |
| Unai Baigorri Daniel Carrion Thierno Diallo Sergio Kovacs |
|
| SWEDEN | |
| Luis Il-Sung Melander William Sundell |
|
| TAIWAN | |
| Chiou Min-Han Chuang Chia-Lung Lin Guan-Yi Shiao Yu-Jan Yeh Cheng |
Lai Pin-Ju Lin Yi-Chen |
| TÜRKIYE | |
| Ahmet Burak Ekici Mert Efe Kilicer Mehmet Ayberk Kosak |
Naz Aktürk Bilge Tarhan |
| UKRAINE | |
| Nazar Chepurnyi Vladyslav Hryko Yehor Perepolkin Rodion Shkuratskyi |
Marianna Kiniuk Diana Lobok |
| UZBEKISTAN | |
| Rasuljon Abdurakhimov Ravshan Kamiljanov Abdulaziz Mirvaliev |
Oksana Chusovitina |
Article by Lauren Hopkins
