The women’s all-around competition at the 2015 Pan American Games resulted in a gold medal for Ellie Black of host country Canada, who earned an overall score of 58.15 to secure the gold. The silver medal went to Madison Desch of the United States with a score of 57.45, while Brazil’s Flavia Saraiva took home the bronze with a 57.05.

Black vaulted her tsuk 1.5 and it was an awesome one. She came in right down the center and hopped just a tad over to her right, and had a ton of power with relatively clean form for an excellent 14.55. On bars, she had awesome work on her clear hip to Shang, her Jaeger to pak was no problem, she caught the toe on to van Leeuwen, and hit her layout toe-front half dismount very well for a 14.3.

Moving to beam, Black had a double spin to full spin with a check, though I loved the extra difficulty. Her front pike was excellent (none of that magical standing up out of it like yesterday!) and she nailed her bhs layout before also holding onto her bhs tuck full. The punch front tuck to wolf jump was excellent, and she nearly stuck her 2.5, an absolutely brilliant performance for a huge 14.95.

Finishing on floor, Black’s dramatic routine began with a 2.5 through to double tuck landed with a slight hop back. She nailed the front double full to front tuck easily, and she stuck her punch layout full to double pike like a queen in front of an uproarious home crowd to earn a 14.35 towards her 58.15 finish.

Desch performed a DTY to start looking very tight in her form and nearly sticking it, just hopping slightly to her left to bring in a 14.85. She performed a stalder half to Jaeger, a Downie, and a big Ricna to pak salto very well before hitting her Chow half, stalder full, and very clean full-in with a hop for a 14.5.

As one of the only top gymnasts without falls or errors, Desch was under a lot of pressure going onto beam. She performed her bhs bhs layout full, and didn’t fall but did bobble a bit and put her hands down, incurring a large deduction. She missed the connection from her front aerial to side somi, but had a clean double pike with a hop back, bringing in a 13.95.

She needed a 14.85 on floor to tie Black for the gold, making it a very difficult task for the American. She hit her double arabian with a step and then went out-of-bounds on her 1.5 to front double full. Her triple full had great rotation though landed with her chest down, and she finished with a solid double tuck to earn a 14.15.

Saraiva, last up on vault in the first rotation, had a very clean FTY for a fantastic 14.2. Moving to bars, she had a big piked Tkatchev, a Tkatchev to pak, and a clear hip to toe shoot. Despite over-arching on her toe full, she stayed right in the zone and hit her big clean full-in with a hop to earn a 13.8.

Saraiva hit her bhs loso loso to get off to a great start on beam, and then hit her roundoff layout with a big bobble, though she fought like hell and was able to hold onto it. There was a slight check on her switch ring, she hit her punch front tuck to wolf jump, and the front aerial front aerial side somi sequence was fantastic. Finishing with a powerful double pike with a step back, Saraiva earned a 14.4.

On floor, Saraiva opened with a 1.5 to front double full with a step, hit a strong tucked full-in, and then got the crowd clapping along to her adorably charming performance, had a great double pike, and hit her double tuck with a small hop for a big 14.65 to end her day with a 57.05…and she looked thrilled with that!

The USA’s Amelia Hundley‘s DTY was very strong and right down the center, though she did have some leg separation on her pre-flight and her body line wasn’t exactly straight throughout. She did come super close to sticking, however, and earned a solid 15 for her effort.

On bars, Hundley went for her awesome hop to Weiler half to Maloney, a Ricna to pak with leg separation, and a van Leeuwen. Unfortunately, her toe-on to messy toe full resulted in one of her feet smacking the low bar; though she came back with a solid full-in dismount, she earned just a 12.9. Editor’s note – Hundley fell on her first attempt at the Weiler half, but this was not shown in the broadcast.

She came back with fire on beam, hitting her front aerial to sissone, solid bhs loso loso, switch to split jump, punch front tck, side somi, full Y turn, switch side, and a very strong double pike dismount, nearly stuck to post a 14.1. The last to go on floor, Hundley opened with a an excellent double layout to split jump (though she did touch out-of-bounds). She stuck her piked full-in and her whip to double tuck, and then nailed her double pike to wrap things up with a 14.1 and a 56.1 overall.

Daniele Hypoloto of Brazil started in the rotation on bars with a clear hip to clear hip full to Tkatchev, a clear hip half to front giant full, bail to toe shoot, and a near-stuck double layout for a 13.15. Her beam included a switch ring to ring leap, nicely connected, a bhs bhs layout coming in a bit short but landed with no problems, a bhs loso with a check, a side aerial with a pause before the leap to side somi, a clean full L turn, a switch to wolf, and a solid double pike dismount for a 14.05.

Going up first in her rotation on floor, Hypolito began with a 1.5 to front double full landed right on the line before absolutely nailing her 2.5 to front layout. Her double tuck was excellent, and she hit her whip to double pike right on her toes, finishing with a big smile on her face with a 13.95. She finished on vault with a clean Yurchenko 1.5 with a step forward for a 14.1 to place 5th with a 55.25.

Isabela Onyshko of Canada’s FTY was clean with a step back for a 13.95. The step was a bit of a bummer after seeing her nail it cold in warm-ups! Her bar routine featured Maloney to clear hip full to Tkatchev done well,; her Hindorff to pak had the typically straddled legs on the latter and then she came in much too close to the low bar, catching with her shoulders and needing to pause for a moment before finishing with a van Leeuwen and cowboyed double front for a 13.2.

Onyshko began beam with a solid bhs bhs layout, a front aerial to illusion half with a check, a side aerial, switch to gainer layout, and a cowboyed double tuck dismount, a relatively strong routine for an even 14.0. On floor, she opened with a tucked full-in with just a step back before hitting her 1.5 through to cowboyed double tuck, Memmel turn to full pirouette, and stuck double pike for a 13.9 to finish her day with a 55.05 for 6th place.

Sofi Gomez of Guatemala got everything started for the women on vault, showing a very clean and near-stuck DTY for a 14.65. She was a little off-center and tucked her knees a bit as she came off the table, but overall it was a solid set.

On bars, she hit her toe full to Maloney, to clear hip to Ray to Gienger, all connected very well but then she over-arched on some handstands and had to take extra swings, ruining the flow of the routine, sadly. Then on her Jaeger, she looked like her timing was way off in addition to coming in too close to the bar, basically landing it with her butt on the bar before falling. Her bail to toe shoot was fine, and she hit her full-in dismount with a slight hop, though she earned just an 11.8.

Gomez was able to put bars behind her as she moved to beam, hitting her bhs tuck full with a slight check before performing a switch to switch half, side aerial to split leap, side somi, front aerial to sheep, lovely switch side, and ending with a hopped back double pike for a 14.4. She finished on floor with a stuck tucked full-in, a triple full, a 2.5 to punch front tuck landed a little low but she stood up out of it with no problems, and a double pike with a hop to end with a 13.45 for a 54.3 total, good enough for 7th place.

On bars, Ana Lago of Mexico performed a somewhat messy van Leeuwen, giant full to Gienger with leg separation, clear hip to pak with leg separation, Maloney, front giant half and a full-in dismount with a hop to earn a 13.5, a good start for her despite the mistakes. She had a nice front aerial, bhs loso, lovely leaps, and a nice double tuck dismount for a 13.05.

Lago earned scores of 14.05 on vault, 13.05 on beam, and 13.25 on floor, a very solid day for her to finish 8th with a 53.85.

The Pan American Games continue tomorrow and Wednesday with event finals.

Article by Lauren Hopkins