ROC Viktoria Listunova Had Enough Scores In Tokyo To Become The Olympic All Around Champion

Did you know that ROC Viktoria Listunova could have been the Olympic all-around champion in Tokyo? Listunova, who went to Tokyo as the fresh...

Did you know that ROC Viktoria Listunova could have been the Olympic all-around champion in Tokyo?

Listunova, who went to Tokyo as the freshly crowned European all around champion, was among the top medal contenders at 2020 Olympic all around competition.

Unfortunately, the first day of the Olympic women's gymnastics, which serves as the qualification to all finals, was not her day as she was not able to advance to the all around final after finishing in sixth place behind teammates Angelina Melnikova and Vladislava Urazova.

As per the FIG rules, no more than two gymnasts per country can advance to any individual finals.

Listunova's all around score was only two tenths less than Urazova's.

However, the Russian gymnast was able to show her true potential during the team final.

Listunova competed on three events. She had the highest scores on balance beam and floor exercise in the team final competition, scoring 14.333 and 14.166 respectively.

She also had the third highest score on the uneven bars, which was a 14.900.

Adding her vault score from the qualifications (14.300) to the scores she earned on the other three events from the team final competition, Listunova gets an all around score of 57.699, which would have been enough for her to clinch the all around gold medal.

US Sunisa Lee won the all around title in Tokyo with a total score of 57.433. In the qualifications, she had a score of 57.166.

US Simone Biles, who topped the all around scoring board in the qualifications, had a total score of 57.731.

Biles later withdrew from the all around final citing mental health concerns. 

The Olympic all around silver medalist Rebeca Andrade received an all around score of 57.399 in the qualifications and 57.298 in the final.

Viktoria Listunova

	Vault	Uneven Bars	Balance beam	Floor exercise	Total
Qual	14.300	14.766	13.866	14.000	56.932
TF	Did not compete	14.900	14.333	14.166	-

Sunisa Lee 

	Vault	Uneven Bars	Balance beam	Floor exercise	Total
Qual	14.333	15.200	14.200	13.433	57.166
AA Final	14.600	15.300	13.833	13.700	57.433

Rebeca Andrade

	Vault	Uneven Bars	Balance beam	Floor exercise	Total
Qual	15.400	14.200	13.733	14.066	57.399
AA Final	15.300	14.666	13.666	13.666	57.298

Listunova contributed to her team's first Olympic gold medal win since the 1992 Olympic Games.

Individually, she qualified to the floor final where she finished last after stepping out of bounds on her first tumbling pass and falling during her second.

Being born in 2005, Listunova was originally not eligible to compete in Tokyo. She was only able to compete there after the postponement of the Olympics to Summer 2021.

Written by Gigi Farid