At the 2026 World Championships in Rotterdam, Japan won the men’s team final with 251.928 points, ahead of Russia and China. Daiki Hashimoto added the all-around title with 85.998 points. The top three teams in the final also earned five quota places each for the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles. Beyond the podium, there were plenty of standouts and setbacks in the men’s competition.

Standout: Business as Usual for Hashimoto and Zou

Hashimoto Daiki (all-around) and Zou Jingyuan (parallel bars) won their fourth and fifth individual titles, respectively. Both cruised to victory on their events, winning by large margins against few real challengers. Zou is already the most decorated parallel bars worker in history, and this latest all-around title puts Hashimoto within striking distance of Uchimura’s six all-around titles.

Setback: A Rough Worlds for North America

Neither Team Canada nor Team USA met expectations. Team Canada not only missed the team final but finished 13th, which, if repeated in 2027, would mean no team spot in Los Angeles. No Canadian athlete qualified for an event final, and only one, Sam Zakutney, made the all-around final. While the USA did qualify for the team final, the team finished sixth, its lowest placement at a world championship in 20 years. The team suffered multiple falls from multiple athletes, plus numerous smaller errors that kept the reigning Olympic Bronze medalists from challenging for a team podium. Frederick Richard’s floor title was a great silver lining, and pommel horse specialist Patty Hoops never faltered. However, both teams' performances were reminiscent of squads of the late 2010s, where struggles with consistency held them back.

Standout: The Team Formerly Known as Russia

Russia… well, errr… World Gymnastics Group 2 athletes competed as a team for the first time since the 2019 world championships. The team was young and inexperienced, and the Dutch government was hesitant to grant visas to the athletes, delaying the arrival of the gymnasts to the competition. Despite this and the years of being barred from international competition, the Russian training system has not lost its ability to produce top world-level gymnasts who can win medals. The team won silver, qualifying Russia (or whatever name we will call them) to the ‘28 Olympics. Both all-arounders finished in the top 8, Russian gymnasts qualified into every event final except pommel horse, and two athletes took home event-final bronze medals. While countries continue to debate their policies on letting Russian athletes enter their borders for meets, the Russian training system has continued basically uninterrupted.

Standout: A Young Colombian Team Makes History

It wasn’t entirely surprising after a 240+ score at the 2026 Pan Ams, but Team Colombia earned the first team finals qualification in the program’s history. They did it mostly on the backs of their two star all-arounders, Angel Barajas and Camilo Vera, who both qualified for the all-around and high bar finals. Both have a lot of difficulty and are exciting to watch. All of Colombia’s athletes are under 21, and their eighth-place team finish gives this young squad valuable experience. They’re well positioned to keep improving and push for an Olympic team spot.

Setback: Ukraine Struggles Amid War

From team finalist at the 2024 Paris Olympics, Ukraine fell to 21st out of 24 teams in Rotterdam. Nazar Chepurnyi led the team, finishing fourth in his best event, vault. The team has suffered from top athletes leaving for other gymnastics federations and from the continued hardship of training in a war zone. Before the 2026 European Games in August, Chepurnyi wrote in frustration on social media that the Ukrainian sports ministry had not given any support for housing, transportation, or food, and that the German gymnastics federation was paying his training costs. After surviving a Russian missile attack in September that killed two people and injured 25, Olympic rhythmic gymnast Viktoriia Onopriienko said, “I hate that because of Russia, Ukrainians are forced to live in constant fear for their lives. I hate that we have to learn to survive instead of simply living.”

Standout: Armenia’s Event-Specialist Strategy Pays Off

Team Armenia has put emphasis on individual event performances over team or all-around results. They didn’t qualify a team to the 2026 championships, yet they were the third-winningest nation at the competition, bested only by China and Japan. All four Armenian athletes, Artur Davtyan, Artur Avetisyan, Mamikon Khachatryan, and Hamlet Manukyan won an individual medal, and two of them, Davtyan and Manukyan, became world champions on vault and pommel horse, respectively. They did not have the highest difficulty scores in any of the finals, but they performed incredibly clean routines. Manukyan earned an execution score of 9.4 on horse and Davtyan averaged 9.55 execution score across his two event final vaults.

Setback: A Breakthrough Award with Little Breakthrough

The two all-around champions, Hashimoto and Blakely, were also given the inaugural “LI-NING Breakthrough Award.” World Gymnastics says the award is “given to male and female gymnasts who have overcome challenges to deliver outstanding performances on the World Championships stage.” It doesn’t directly replace anything, but from 1999 to 2019, two gymnasts received the Longines Prize for Elegance after each World Championships. That award sometimes went to top all-arounders, but just as often it went to gymnasts who won no medals yet still impressed with their finesse and performance. Not to diminish this year’s winners’ achievements, but giving the all-around champions yet another honor feels a little redundant.