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
Sunisa Lee
Rebeca Andrade
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.
Photo: Listunova/Instagram
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