Jasmin Mader, the 23-year-old who lives and trains in Innsbruck and has been competing at the national level in Austria for over a decade, won her first national all-around title at this weekend’s Austrian Championships in Vienna.

Mader, who turns 24 in December, had ten national titles under her belt, but the all-around title has always eluded her. She got closest last year, winning the bronze medal behind Lisa Ecker — who represented the country at the Olympics this summer and is currently taking a break — and Elisa Hämmerle, the latter of whom she was brought in to replace last-minute at the Olympic test event after Hämmerle suffered an injury in training, but this year was her lucky one, and she took home the gold with a 51.133 total after a mostly fabulous day, one of her best of the season.

In the all-around competition, Mader showed clean and confident work on all events but beam, where a fall and mistakes got her just an 11.333. But her FTY was excellent, and she showed great control on both bars and floor, giving her an edge over others who weren’t as calm in their work.

Following her all-around performance, Mader wasn’t quite as successful in event finals. She did get a couple of silver medals out of it, averaging a 12.95 on vault (where I believe she had a mistake, though I couldn’t find any video), and then getting a silver on bars as well with an 11.933 after a fall. She also had a fall on beam, placing fourth with a 10.033, and had mistakes on floor, placing fourth there as well with an 11.833, but I’d guess the all-around was what mattered most to her this weekend, and that was an easy win for her.

Bianca Frysak, 17, won the silver all-around medal with a 49.283 while first-year senior Tamara Stadelmann won bronze with a 47.317. Frysak actually had a great day everywhere but floor, and showed that with hit routines, she could actually be a pretty legitimate competitor for Austria in the future. Her difficulty is a bit low overall, about two points lower than Mader’s, and that definitely held her back from being able to contend for the title, but she had an especially impressive and solid beam, and I hope she’s able to continue to grow into a gymnast with bigger skills in the future. Austria tends to see its gymnasts peaking in their early 20s, with their last couple of artistic gymnasts both around age 23-24, so Frysak and some of the other younger competitors here absolutely are the future in this country.

Frysak actually went on to win two event titles on Sunday, getting gold on bars with a 12.067 and on floor with a 12.533, hitting both routines well to stand out among the other competitors. She also added two bronzes to the mix as well, averaging a 12.317 on vault and then getting a 10.7 on beam, reaching the podium in what was an overall messy final thanks to having one of the highest-difficulty routines.

Stadelmann, who just turned 16 and competed at Euros earlier this year, has even lower difficulty than Frysak, but she too had a relatively strong day, with beam the only routine that saw a large mistake. Even so, her 11.367 ended up the second-best score of the day, and she also posted the third-best on floor, so she should definitely continue as a Euros and worlds team threat in the future.

In event finals, Stadelmann walked away with the bronze on vault, tying Frysak’s 12.317, and silver medals on beam with an 11.4 and on floor, where she performed excellently for a 12.5. In the bars final, she unfortunately had a fall and placed fifth with a 9.833.

In fourth was the experienced senior Marlies Männersdorfer, who had falls and other issues on both bars and beam, though looked excellent on floor, earning the top score of 12.75 there. Her overall score was just a 45.967 due to the other mistakes, however, with her bars score just a 10.55 and beam only a 9.9. She only made the bars and floor finals, but didn’t medal on either due to mistakes on Sunday as well.

Katharina Puffer was fifth with a 44.0 also with falls on bars and beam, though she came back to win bronze on floor with a solid routine for a 12.167, Olivia Wasik had a rough day to place sixth with a 40.333, and first-year senior Beatrice Stritzl was seventh with a 39.617, though won the vault title averaging 13.283. A few gymnasts competed on a couple of events each, with Hanna Grosch getting the third-best score on bars with an 11.2 even with mistakes (she went on to win the bronze in finals with an 11.5), and Christina Meixner getting the fourth-best score on beam with a fall, a mistake she rectified in the final to win the title there with a 12.

In the junior division, Tamara Graf won the all-around with a 46.55 on what was actually a great day for her, while Selina Kickinger placed second with a 46.417 after mistakes on bars and beam. Kickinger actually has nearly four points higher in difficulty overall compared to Graf, including 5.0 start values on bars and beam, D scores that would impress even in the senior field. The difference, though, was that Graf’s lower-difficulty routines (she has only a 1.4 on bars and a 3.9 on floor, for example) made her much more capable of managing them in competition, as she posted some of the highest execution scores of the meet (including an 8.5 on bars!) while Kickinger’s skills may have been a bit too much for her. Both reach the senior level in 2017, and on a good day, Kickinger has the potential to be one of the best in the country, but here it seems she struggled bringing her routines to life, giving Graf the edge to win by one tenth.

In third was Alissa Mörz with a 44.967 for what was a hit day for her, and 12-year-old Christina Wegscheider placed fourth with a 44.034, falling on beam but overall showing incredible potential and a great level of difficulty for her age. Rounding out the top eight were Theresa Neudeck in fifth with a 43.633, Lorena Böhmberger and Nicol Wimmer tied for sixth with a 43.25, and Jacqueline Schaffer in eighth with a 43.15.

The vault title went to Mörz, averaging a 12.833, with Fabienne Kostelac placing second with a 12.783 and Neudeck placing third with a 12.75. Xenia Samstag, who competed only bars and beam in prelims, won the bars title with a 10.5 with a fall while Graf was the silver medalist with a 9.8, again showing incredible execution but being held back by her low difficulty. Katrin Palicka also hit her routine, winning the bronze with a 9.733, while Kickinger once again had a couple of falls and placed fifth with a 9.033.

Graf won the beam title with an 11.9 for her hit routine, with Kickinger getting the silver with an 11.267 and Wimmer getting bronze with an 11.167. On floor, Böhmberger won the title with an 11.6, Graf was the silver medalist with an 11.567, and Mörz won bronze with an 11.367.

Full results from Austrian Championships are available here.

Article by Lauren Hopkins