Reigning Australian all-around champion Heath Thorpe left off world championships team

Gymnastics Australia announced its men’s team for the 2023 World Gymnastics Championships on Wednesday, and one key name was notably missing from the roster: Heath Thorpe.

Thorpe, the reigning Australian all-around champion, is a two-time world team member, having served as an alternate for the 2018 team before making his debut at the 2022 event.

“I was pretty heartbroken and gutted when I saw I was not named to the team,” Thorpe told Gymnastics Now. “This has been the event I have been working tirelessly towards all year. I was hopeful that, given my recent results at the Australian Championships, where I won the all-around title and accumulated the most individual apparatus medals out of any MAG gymnast, as well as my results at the Oceania Championships, that I had put myself in a prime position for selection.”

Thorpe has been a force among the Australian ranks over the past couple of years, winning seven medals (five individual) at the 2022 and 2023 Oceania Championships and playing a key role in earning his nation a berth to 2023 worlds when the team competition at this year’s Oceanias came down to the final rotation. The 22-year-old won the national all-around title in May and was named to the world team selection pool soon after.

The pool also included James Bacueti, Tyson Bull, James Hardy, Clay Mason Stephens, Jesse Moore, Mitchell Morgans, and Vedant Sawant.

Bull, Hardy, Mason Stephens, Morgans, and Sawant were ultimately selected to the team. No reserve athletes were named at the time of the announcement.

After he was named to the selection pool, Thorpe participated in one Video Selection Activity (VSA), as outlined in Australia’s selection procedures.

“I participated in one more selection event (VSA #2),” Thorpe said. “I only competed pommel [horse] here but was super relieved and happy to have hit both days of routines and improved my score by over 0.6 when compared to my season’s best.”

Since winning the national title, Thorpe has documented his training across social media, showing potential upgrades on floor – his trademark event – and high bar that could bring his start value on both apparatus to a 6.0.

“I am completely healthy and in a really wonderful place with my gymnastics, both physically and mentally,” Thorpe said. “I have been working really hard since the Australian Championships to implement upgrades and finalize routine selections for the second half of the year.”

The 2023 world championships are the final chance for nations to earn a team berth (consisting of five athletes) to the 2024 Paris Olympic Games. The top 9 teams not already qualified – in MAG, that is China, Japan, and Great Britain – will qualify to Paris. Additionally, the top eight all-around athletes not from a qualified team and the top-ranked individuals in each apparatus final, also not from a previously-qualified team, will earn Olympic berths by name.

The Australian team that was selected to compete in Belgium later this year is heavy on event specialists. In fact, none of the event specialists train or compete floor or vault, meaning Australia will be unable to field a team score in qualifying.

Unlike how USA Gymnastics has done for past men’s team selections, Gym Australia did not publish any top scoring team scenarios or other analysis with its announcement, despite the selection procedures’ “primary target” for 2023 worlds being “Qualification of a Team for 2024 Paris Olympic Games.”

When asked if he appealed the decision, Thorpe told Gymnastics Now, “I am unfortunately not legally allowed to speak to this, but am hopeful that the selection process and findings are published in due course. “

In this case, not being selected to the Australian team isn’t just a moral blow – it reduces Thorpe’s Olympic qualifying hopes to just two individual opportunities next year: the 2024 Apparatus World Cup Series and 2024 Oceania Championships, with the latter banking on Australia having not already qualified its max of three individuals via worlds and/or the aforementioned world cup series.

“It is obviously a huge blow to my chances to qualify for the Paris Olympics,” Thorpe said. “The 2023 world championships are the biggest Olympic qualifier, so to not be afforded such an opportunity is really devastating and shattering. The all-around qualification method would have been my best chance given my recent upwards trajectory.

“I guess now all I can do is switch my focus to the world cups early next year (floor and high bar, specifically) as well as holding out hope that a spot will remain via the all-around at Oceania Championships in April or May. Obviously, this all depends on myself being selected for said events.”

While the world team decision is discouraging, Thorpe is hopeful for answers and closure in the coming weeks, and no matter what, he’ll be rooting for his Australian teammates when they take the floor in Antwerp from September 30 – October 8.

“I wish all my teammates nothing but success and health for their upcoming worlds campaign,” Thorpe ended on a positive note. “And I will be cheering them on from wherever I may be.”