Following the French national championships this weekend, the team for London was named, with a few surprises... Here are the gymnasts who punched a ticket to the games.
Women's team
Age 18
Strength: Bars
Previous experience: 3 time world team member (2009-2011), 4th all-around and 3rd on vault at the 2009 worlds. She won silver on bars at the olympic test event where she also helped the French team qualify in 3rd to the games. She has one of the more difficult bar routines in the world and could easily make event finals, but she is and has always been a bit inconsistent on her showpiece event.
Marine Brevet
Age 18
Strength: Floor
A 2 time member of France's world championship team (2010, 2011) Brevet was 2nd on floor and 7th on balance beam at the olympic test event.
Anne Kuhm
Age 16
Strength: all-around
A new senior this year and helped the team qualify to the olympics with an all around score of 55.257 at the test event in London. She was also 5th all-around at the 2012 European championships in Belgium and is likely to be a familiar face for Team France for a few years to come.
Aurelie Malaussena
Age 19
Strengths: Beam and vault
Also a 2 time world team member (2010, 2011) and member of the French national team since 2006. Malaussena was 21st all-around at the 2011 worlds in Tokyo.
Sophia Seseri
Age 16
Strength: Floor
Seseri competed at the 2011 worlds and 2010 youth olympic games in Singapore. At the 2012 European championships she scored 14.333 on vault and 14.200 on balance beam in the qualifying competition.
Alternate: Valentine Sabatou
Age 16
Strenths: vault and bars
Sabatou competed for France at the 2012 Europeans, scoring 13.533 on bars and 13.133 on floor in qualifying. She was 8th on floor (13.325) at the 2012 world cup in Doha.
Men's Team
France's men have a lot of setbacks to come back from following a disasterous performance in Belgium and severe injuries to several of their 2012 olympic hopefuls.
Yann Cucherat
Age 33
Stength: Parallell bars (6th at the 2000 and 2004 olympic games)
Cucherat has already competed in 3 olympics. He was also 8th on high bar in event finals at the 2008 games in Beijing. He won bronze on P Bars at the 2005 world championships.
Gael Da Silva
Age 28
Strengths: Vault and High Bar
4 time world team member ('06, '07, '10, '11). Da Silva was 3rd on floor at the recent world championships in Montpellier (15.166) making up a bit for the team's disaster in the team final.
Danny Rodrigues
Age 27
Strength: Rings
Rodrigues was 5th on rings at the 2008 olympics. He was 4th on rings at the 2012 olympic test event.
Hamilton Sabot
Age 25
Strength: Paralell Bars
A member of the 2008 olympic team, Sabot was 4th on paralell bars and 5th on high bar at the 2012 Europeans in Montpellier.
Cyril Tommasone
Age 25
Strength: Pommel Horse
Tommasone was the silver medallist on pommel horse at the 2011 world championships in Tokyo
Alternate: Pierre Yves-Beny
Age 29
Strength: Rings (6th at the 2004 olympic games)
Headshots from the French gymnastics federation website.
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