Hello, and welcome to Gymnastics Insider!
The top story from this week is Katelyn Ohashi, who made her return to elite competition at American Classic after nearly a decade away (full results).
Tatum Drusch won the competition with a 53.700, followed by Jade Carey (53.050), who launched her own comeback here, and Zoey Molomo (52.700). But the real winner here was our stone-cold hearts, as Ohashi made her semi-surprise return with a 13.150 on beam and an 11.500 on floor.
Ohashi looked a little nervous on beam at first; she bent her knee on her switch mount, followed by a wobble on her front aerial that may have cost her a connection. The highlight was her arabian — it takes a year to set up for, and she landed low, but damn did she break the beam. The rest of the routine was good, capped off with a tucked gainer full.
Her floor was basically an exhibition, with a D-score of 4.0. Carey’s return was also a success, featuring a 14.250 on vault for a clean DTY with a hop back. She looked like she had enough height to keep twisting into oblivion.
Her Lopez went similarly: it looks way too easy for her.
Overall, there’s a lot of work to be done for these two to get back to fighting shape, but it’s still very early in the season, and at the moment I just hope we can see both of them at nationals. Carey qualified, along with Drusch and Molomo, but Ohashi did not.
Which brings us to U.S. Classic, which will take place July 17-18.
The roster has been released; it includes Skye Blakely, Charleigh Bullock, Ohashi and Leanne Wong. As 2025 worlds team members, Wong and Blakely have already qualified to nationals. As for the rest of the athletes, they’ll need to earn a 52.500 in the all-around, a 39.600 on three apparatuses, or a 26.800 on two apparatuses to qualify.
Russian Championships
Russian Championships are underway, and while it’s difficult to find official info, some scores and videos are trickling in thanks to Reddit and International Gymnast. The all-around quals results are a bit tepid, with not much action above 14.
Viktoria Listunova just did bars and beam, competing this excellent bars set for a 14.800:
(https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1634201821465021)
That orphan half turn kills me each and every time.
We also have Anna Kalmykova on beam and Lyudmila Roshchina’s bars. More on this next week.
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Asian Championships
The Asian Championships (results) concluded with event finals last weekend, and everything happened in accordance with prophecy.
The most important thing for you to know is that China’s beamers are out of control. Zhang Qingying and Ke Qinqin went 1-2 on beam, with a 15.266 and a 15.100, respectively. Zhang’s routine was pretty much identical to her set in quals, in that it was nearly perfect in every way. Give her all the medals please.
Qiu Qiyuan won bars with a 14.833. She filled in for Ke Qinqin in the final; Qiu was clearly the top bar worker on this team but fell in quals, so she Gutsu’d her way in. Her routine is so fun to watch. She improved on her quals performance, mainly by not falling on her laid out jaeger:
Du Siyu came in second with a 14.400, with a just a step on the FTDLO landing.
Yeo Seojeong of South Korea predictably ran away with vault with a 14.349:
North Korea’s An Chang Ok earned a 13.949 for a Cheng landed with her chest down and an Amanar that she once again twisted into the ground, taking a large step to the side.
Zhang Yihan earned one of the top scores on floor this year in event finals, scoring a 14.066 to win gold with a powerful performance. Her double double is excellent, and she followed up with a triple twist to punch front tuck that had leg form in the air. She finished with a full-in and a double tuck stuck cold.
China is coming for those worlds medals, you guys.
More news
The German Gymnastics Federation is not happy about European Gymnastics’ decision to let Russia and Belarus back into the club. In a letter sent to the EG president, they propose meeting up and establishing new rules just for European Gymnastics (mainly, letting Russians compete neutrally), in a way that doesn’t interfere with the worlds qualification process. Ten other European federations co-signed the letter.
Sarah Brown has been named the first head coach at Texas State gymnastics. Brown was Penn State’s women’s gymnastics head coach beginning in 2018.
Elena Colas’ coach Marc Chirilcenco is officially moving to Qatar, with the expectation that several gymnasts will come with him. Colas will stay in France.
Athlete updates
Ana Barbosu chatted about life at Stanford and says she decided not to compete internationally this year. She also says the whereabouts violation was due to a busy schedule, and that she has nothing to hide.
As for the bronze medal case between her and Jordan Chiles, it has successfully moved back to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, according to one report. However, it looks like the Romanian side doesn’t have the funds needed to move forward with the case.
I gotta say, it’s not cool that a judging/clerical error has resulted in countries having to shell out funds for a medal, especially if they can’t afford it. As for the official record books, I wasn’t even sure who is officially the bronze medalist until I read this article, so what does that tell you? There will always be an asterisk, no matter what happens here.
On the two-year anniversary of the 2024 Olympic Trials, Shilese Jones reflected on the moment she tore her ACL and her meniscus, which she calls “one of the hardest moments of my life.” Moreover, she says she didn’t get the support she needed from “head leadership.” She said: “Those words never came, and that silence broke me even more.” I’ve reached out to USA Gymnastics for comment.
Rebeca Andrade talked to Olympics.com about the time she took away from the sport, and says she’s done with floor. She’s working on bringing back beam, but is taking time away from bars to reconstruct her routine.
Riley McCusker shared a couple training videos on the socials; please come back, Riley.
Five at the IX: Katelyn Ohashi GRWM
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