The History of Italian Gymnastics: From Circus Acrobatics to Olympic Champions

Skye Blakely is the world all-around champion. The 21-year-old Florida Gator won gold at the 2026 World Championships in Rotterdam with 55.733, becoming the ninth American woman to win the world all-around title and the first since Simone Biles, and she did it on her own plan, without the Cheng. Liudmila Roshchina took a surprise silver and Ke Qinqin of China won bronze despite a fall on beam. Favorite Kaylia Nemour overran the springboard on her opening vault, landing on the safety collar, and fought back to finish fourth, while Claire Pease was one beam fall away from a medal. Our sleep-deprived reactions from inside Rotterdam Ahoy. This is the free 27-minute preview. The full 57-minute show is for Club Gym Nerd members. That's 30 more minutes, more than half of the show, including the international world peace officer, why press row cried for Skye Blakely, Claire Pease and Valeri Liukin's mirrored beam ritual, and your letters on Fujitsu and Skye's beam D score. Join Club Gym Nerd to hear it all. Want to try it first? The Worlds Coverage Bundle is 3 months of Club Gym Nerd for $14.99, no auto-renewal. GymCastic Live GymCastic Live in Rotterdam: Saturday, October 24, 7:00 pm CEST (10:00 am PT), with Bart Deurloo and Eythora Thorsdottir. In-person is sold out; stream it live from anywhere. GymCastic Live in New York City: Friday, December 4, 7:00 pm ET (4:00 pm PT), with Katelyn Ohashi. In-person and streaming tickets. Rotterdam World Championships coverage is brought to you by Sand and Sea Travel. Use code GYMCASTICWORLDS. Thank you to Gina Pongetti of MedGym for caring for Fact Checker. Chapters 00:00 Welcome to the women's all-around final 00:46 Skye Blakely is world all-around champion 03:20 Winning Worlds on her own plan 06:09 Kaylia Nemour's vault disaster 10:22 Ke Qinqin's beam is so good she can fall and still medal 11:33 Liudmila Roshchina's surprise silver 13:02 Claire Pease's beam fall 15:15 Skye, Florida and the college-elite path 18:37 Skye's four events 20:23 The world feed problem 21:33 Opportunity for comedy: Alena Glotova falls off beam twice 22:43 Best moment: Lisa Vaelen's straddle full 23:52 Ellie Black performs the beam rage away 24:46 A correction: Gina Pongetti and MedGym 25:51 Club Gym Nerd and GymCastic Live 27:11 Club preview: the international world peace officer 2026 World Championships Headquarters: every session in your time zone, every qualified team and gymnast. Episode page and show notes

Daiki Hashimoto won his fourth straight world all-around title at the 2026 World Championships in Rotterdam, by almost two points, with Yang Haonan of China in silver and Joe Fraser taking bronze, only Great Britain's third men's all-around medal at Worlds. Top qualifier and Olympic champion Shinnosuke Oka fell twice and still finished eighth, Arsenii Dukhno's medal run ended on high bar, and Illia Kovtun fell twice. Plus breaking news: former Stanford gymnast Kaien J-Spencer is suing Stanford, alleging his former head coach Thom Glielmi degraded and humiliated him, and the women's code that got updated in the middle of Worlds. Our sleep-deprived reactions from inside Rotterdam Ahoy. This is the free 23-minute preview. The full 57-minute show is for Club Gym Nerd members. That's 34 more minutes, more than half of the show, including Jessica's Uber conspiracy theories, Jake Jarman's interview, our women's all-around preview with Kaylia Nemour, Skye Blakely and Claire Pease, and your letters on China's beam and whether a fall should cost more than a point. Join Club Gym Nerd to hear it all. Want to try it first? The Worlds Coverage Bundle is 3 months of Club Gym Nerd for $14.99, no auto-renewal. GymCastic Live GymCastic Live in Rotterdam: Saturday, October 24, 7:00 pm CEST (10:00 am PT), with Bart Deurloo and Eythora Thorsdottir. In-person is sold out; stream it live from anywhere. GymCastic Live in New York City: Friday, December 4, 7:00 pm ET (4:00 pm PT), with Katelyn Ohashi. In-person and streaming tickets. Rotterdam World Championships coverage is brought to you by Sand and Sea Travel. Use code GYMCASTICWORLDS. Chapters 00:00 Welcome to the men's all-around final 01:14 Daiki Hashimoto wins a fourth straight world all-around title 02:09 Ex-Stanford gymnast sues over his former coach 04:25 The women's code gets updated during Worlds 06:14 Shinnosuke Oka's two falls 08:06 Illia Kovtun and four all-arounds in a row 09:02 Joe Fraser's Red Bull 09:42 Arsenii Dukhno's high bar fall 10:33 Noe Seifert's podium warm-up 11:23 Frederick Richard's not-so-secret girlfriend 12:13 Yang Haonan's silver 13:28 Joe Fraser's bronze and the baby celebration 17:30 Opportunity for comedy: frog on the windshield 18:27 Best moment: Camilo Vera goes for the Liukin twice 20:29 Join Club Gym Nerd and GymCastic Live 22:31 Club preview: the Uber driver's conspiracy theory 2026 World Championships Headquarters: every session in your time zone, every qualified team and gymnast. Episode page and show notes

China are world team champions for the first time since 2006, ending the United States' run of seven straight titles by two tenths in the women's team final at the 2026 World Championships in Rotterdam. Japan won its first world team medal since 1966. We break down the beam rotation that decided it, the downgrade that cost Skye Blakely, Dulcy Caylor's beam and big floor, Claire Pease's Cheng and 56-point all-around, and why the Fujitsu D-scores belong on the live scoreboard. Plus France in fourth, a rough night for WG2 and Italy, the broken floor that was really the podium, and lunch with Jay Clark. Recorded live from inside Rotterdam Ahoy. Want more? Club Gym Nerd members get this episode ad-free, plus daily Worlds shows with extra time, weekly live Behind The Scenes and the full archive. Join Club Gym Nerd. GymCastic Live GymCastic Live in Rotterdam: Saturday, October 24, 7:00 pm CEST / 10:00 am PT, with Bart Deurloo and Eythora Thorsdottir. In-person is sold out; stream it live from anywhere. GymCastic Live in New York City: Friday, December 4, 7:00 pm ET, with Katelyn Ohashi. In-person and streaming tickets on sale. Rotterdam World Championships coverage is brought to you by Sand and Sea Travel. Use code GYMCASTICWORLDS. Limited time offer: make healthy eating simple. Get Huel with 15% off online with code GYMCASTIC at huel.com/GYMCASTIC. New customers only. Thank you to Huel for supporting our show. Chapters 00:00 China are world champions; U.S. silver, Japan bronze 01:41 How China broke the U.S. streak 04:22 Skye Blakely's beam and the D-score surprise 07:43 Chasing China on beam 10:31 Japan's first team medal since 1966 14:15 Show us the Fujitsu D-scores 17:42 The broken floor was the podium 19:36 Ellie Black's vault warm-up near miss 21:17 Moment of the day: Morgane Osyssek's floor 23:23 Club Gym Nerd and GymCastic Live 25:28 China's gold, rotation by rotation 31:07 Huel 33:27 Team USA's silver: vault, Claire Pease's Cheng, the bunnies 37:37 U.S. floor and the all-around outlook 40:36 WG2, Italy and the double-pike curse 44:30 France in fourth 47:16 Lunch with Jay Clark and the FIG judging system 50:20 Canada and Brazil 54:42 Japan's Fujitsu award and the podium 57:41 Live Q&A: Fact Checker update, all-around picks, France, the U.S. men 1:10:16 Wrap Show notes and links · 2026 World Championship Headquarters

The floor broke again. A Dutch gymnast flagged the corner of the floor during the men's team final at the 2026 World Championships, nine years after Bart Deurloo did the same in Montreal. Japan won the world team title despite late falls, the Russian team competing as WG2 took silver and China held on for bronze, while Great Britain's medal hopes came apart one error at a time. Plus when the FIG will update its equipment standards, a final that ran past 10:30 at night, and robot judges catching every out-of-bounds. Our sleep-deprived reactions from inside Rotterdam Ahoy. This is the free 18-minute preview. The full 42-minute show is for Club Gym Nerd members. That's 24 more minutes, more than half of the show, including Fact Checker's note from the KLM crew, Japan in depth, Team USA's women's team final lineup, the U.S. men in sixth and our women's team final preview. Join Club Gym Nerd to hear it all. Want to try it first? The Worlds Coverage Bundle is 3 months of Club Gym Nerd for $14.99, no auto-renewal. GymCastic Live GymCastic Live in Rotterdam: Saturday, October 24, 7:00 pm CEST (10:00 am PT), with Bart Deurloo and Eythora Thorsdottir. In-person is sold out; stream it live from anywhere. GymCastic Live in New York City: Friday, December 4, 7:00 pm ET (4:00 pm PT), with Katelyn Ohashi. In-person and streaming tickets. Rotterdam World Championships coverage is brought to you by Sand and Sea Travel. Use code GYMCASTICWORLDS. Chapters 00:00 Welcome to the men's team final 01:00 Japan wins the world team title 02:01 The floor breaks again 04:09 When will the FIG update its equipment standards? 06:16 Russia, not Russia, and the missing headshots 07:17 Great Britain's heartbreak 09:57 China holds on for bronze 11:16 Too late at night to compete 12:32 Robot judges and the out-of-bounds epidemic 13:31 GymCastic Live in Rotterdam with Bart Deurloo and Eythora Thorsdottir 14:11 Switzerland and the last-rotation falls 15:55 Join Club Gym Nerd for the rest 17:25 Club preview: the arena's location tag 2026 World Championships Headquarters: every session in your time zone, every qualified team and gymnast. Episode page and show notes

When beams attack. Great Britain counted a full beam meltdown and missed the team final by less than two-tenths, Flávia Saraiva's vault got Brazil in, and Kaylia Nemour leads the all-around even with mistakes. China survived a rare bars disaster to qualify first, the Russian team competing as WG2 is third with its B team, and Skye Blakely held on to a bars final spot. Our sleep-deprived reactions from inside Rotterdam Ahoy after day two of women's qualification at the 2026 World Championships. This is the free 25-minute preview. The full 51-minute show is for Club Gym Nerd members. That's 26 more minutes, more than half of the show, including the hair dryer story, a Fact Checker update, and every subdivision in depth: France, Sanne Wevers' last routine, Canada's floor secret and Brazil. Join Club Gym Nerd to hear it all. Want to try it first? The Worlds Coverage Bundle is 3 months of Club Gym Nerd for $14.99, no auto-renewal. GymCastic Live GymCastic Live in Rotterdam: Saturday, October 24, 7:00 pm CEST (10:00 am PT), with Bart Deurloo and Eythora Thorsdottir. In-person is sold out; stream it live from anywhere. GymCastic Live in New York City: Friday, December 4, 7:00 pm ET (4:00 pm PT), with Katelyn Ohashi. In-person and streaming tickets. Rotterdam World Championships coverage is brought to you by Sand and Sea Travel. Use code GYMCASTICWORLDS. Chapters 00:00 Welcome to Rotterdam, day two 01:23 Breaking news from the Spanish federation 02:55 Kaylia Nemour leads the all-around 08:45 China qualifies first 12:06 Flávia Saraiva saves Brazil 14:18 Russia, not Russia, in third 15:34 Great Britain's beam meltdown 16:47 Becky Downie delivers 18:36 Biggest surprise: Skye Blakely makes the bars final 19:48 Opportunities for comedy 21:08 Best moments: Hillary Heron and the Thriller 23:18 Join Club Gym Nerd for the rest 24:45 Club preview: the hair dryer story 2026 World Championships Headquarters: every session in your time zone, every qualified team and gymnast. Episode page and show notes