For once, the Canadians carried Kyle Shewfelt.

With the backbone of Canada's team watching from a wheelchair with two broken legs, Edmonton's Brandon O'Neill, Halifax's David Kikuchi and their teammates made sure the Olympic floor champion will have a chance to defend his title in Beijing next summer. The Canadians were in fifth place with 357.700 points after qualifying Tuesday in Stuttgart, Germany.

Canada's David Kikuchi competes on the rings during a qualification of the Gymnastics World Championships in Stuttgart, Germany, on Tuesday.
(Michael Sohn/Associated Press)

There are still nine teams left to compete, including the Americans, but it only takes a top-12 finish to secure a spot at the Beijing Olympics.

"I don't think they were doing it for me, I think they were doing it for us," said Calgary's Shewfelt, who followed his teammates around the stadium. "This core group of eight, it's really tight. It's our 'A' team. They were doing it for us as a team. And next year, regardless of who that team is, it's going to be a strong team."

Canada still has a chance to finish in the top eight and make team finals for a second straight year. Of course, after the show China put on Monday, it looks like everyone else is tumbling for second. Or worse.

The defending world champions weren't at their best — some of their high bar routines were so sloppy they should have been wearing another country's uniform — but they closed with a spectacular show on still rings.

At 374.275 points, the Chinese are a whopping 3.550 points ahead of the closest thing they have to competition, Olympic champion Japan. They have 12.1 points on injury-plagued Russia, a gap so big the defending silver medallists would need to throw in an extra routine to catch up.

Canada never had designs on beating China. And after Shewfelt went down, the Canadians simply wanted to get there for next summer's Beijing Olympics.

Shewfelt is the reigning Olympic champion on the floor exercise and one of the world's best on vault, too. He gives Canada street cred, making the judges sit up and take notice just by walking onto the floor.

But he landed awkwardly while training a difficult tumbling move last week and broke the tibias in both legs. The injury isn't considered serious — though it's left a nasty-looking bruise of almost every colour in the rainbow — but it will be several months before he can train again, let alone compete.

That meant it was up to the rest of the Canadians to get him to Beijing.

'Huge blow'

"When we had Kyle, we were pretty sure that we'd make the Olympics," O'Neill said. "Then, when we lost him, we knew we had to make sure we were on our games to make the Olympics.

"It's obviously a huge blow," O'Neill added. "He's our team leader, an Olympic champion and his floor, vault and high bar scores are huge."

Closing their day on high bar and floor, the Canadians looked confident. O'Neill's tumbling passes were solid, his landings sure. And when his score of 15.525 was posted — ninth best on the event so far — the Canadians started celebrating.

"We're in. We figured after the session we needed to be fifth and we're standing fifth, so that's good," said Shewfelt, who was right there in the middle of the party. "Last year, we made team finals, so we were shooting for that. But really, it's all about a top-12 finish and making it to the Olympics."