Anastasiia Bachynska

After four long days of qualifications, the finals are set for the Youth Olympic Games, and it’s been quite the battle between Ukraine’s Anastasiia Bachynska and Italy’s Giorgia Villa!

These two came into the competition as the ones to beat, and they absolutely didn’t disappoint in Buenos Aires, leading the all-around final in first and second – just a tenth separates the pair – while also making all four event finals, Bachynska leading floor while Villa leads vault and bars.

In addition to topping the all-around competition with a score of 54.066, Bachynska, who won the Youth Olympic Games qualifier for European gymnasts in June, is in the top two on all four events going into the finals after an incredible weekend.

Beginning on floor, Bachynska hit a clean double arabian to open her routine before also hitting a tucked full-in, double pike, and stuck double tuck, earning a 13.3 to take the lead after the first day of competition. She came back with a tidy and near-stuck Yurchenko 1½ to add a 13.9 to her all-around total, and then followed it up with a gorgeous FTY to qualify to the vault final in second place with a 13.816.

Bars is usually Bachynska’s trickiest event, but she had no problems here, hitting her stalder to Maloney to Pak very well at the start before also catching her van Leeuwen, toe full to Tkachev, piked Jaeger, and high double tuck dismount for a 13.466. It’s not the most difficult routine there, and she struggles with a few ankle separations and short handstands, but overall it was one of the better bars sets I’ve seen from her, and she surprised to qualify second on the event, ahead of several gymnasts with historically stronger routines.

Finally, Bachynska took to beam yesterday with a lovely set that featured some gorgeous connections, including a front handspring to front tuck, switch leap to switch half, front aerial to jump series, and switch leap to side aerial. Aside from some minor checks, it was a fantastic set, and she capped off her final qualifications routine with a double tuck, earning a 13.4 to qualify second into the final.

Villa is perhaps the top talent in Buenos Aires right now, which makes Bachynska’s lead all the more exciting for her, but a lower-than-expected beam score held the Italian back from topping the field, putting her in second with a 53.966.

With the disadvantage of going early in the day on beam, Villa was pretty hammered by the judges, but her routine was actually quite strong aside from some nervous mistakes throughout. With large wobbles on most of her skills as well as a few form issues, she was awarded just a 12.333, though it was absolutely one of the better routines in the field and I’m sure she’ll be able to improve on her skills – and her score – in the all-around and beam finals.

Otherwise, Villa was fabulous, qualifying second on floor with a 13.133 for her tucked full-in, front double full, triple full, and stuck double tuck to finish. Her D score was a bit lower than expected, and I think it’s because her triple ended up being a little short and may have been credited as a 2½, but she had the highest E score in the field and will be a threat for gold here in the final.

Leading on vault and bars, she’s also the biggest gold threat on these two events. The only gymnast in the field competing a DTY in qualifications, Villa has an impressive lead here, with a 14.083 her average score after she landed the DTY with her chest just slightly forward for a 14.4 and then sailed through a gorgeous FTY for a 13.766. And on bars, her jam-packed set – with the highest difficulty in the group – earned a 14.1, putting her nearly a point ahead of the rest of the gymnasts. Aside from minor technical issues, she had no problems with her routine in qualifications, catching her Ricna to Pak to Maloney to stalder half to Ezhova with ease before then also hitting her Chow to bail to toe shoot, toe half to front full, and full-in dismount to finish strong.

Tang Xijing of China also had a fantastic week, qualifying third all-around with a 53.274 with a really impressive set of routines that helped her also reach every event final but vault.

Of course, the most impressive piece for Tang was beam, where she reached a 13.8 with a fall. With a difficulty of 6.2 and some of the strongest beam technique in the world, Tang has the potential to dominate this field, and the fall barely counted against her thanks to everything else looking so brilliant. Opening with a layout stepout mount, Tang also nailed her impossibly good layout series, a switch leap to split ring jump to Korbut, a switch ring leap, a split ring leap to back handspring, and a front aerial to stag ring jump with literally almost zero mistakes before then sticking her double full. She unfortunately slipped on her side aerial, of all things, but again, the rest was so perfect, the fall almost didn’t matter, giving her a four-tenth lead to put her first going into the final.

On floor, Tang got docked quite a bit in her D score, because like Villa, her triple wasn’t credited. But because Tang also has a 2½ in her routine, she thus technically performed the 2½ twice, essentially making her actual 2½ not count, which is a shame, as the routine was lovely. Aside from being less than a quarter underrotated on that opening triple, she was super tidy in all of her tumbling, with great control on her 2½ to front tuck, a clean and near-stuck double tuck, and a lovely stuck double full to finish.

Vault isn’t a great event for Tang, but she got through her FTY well enough to maintain a strong all-around standing (and she was less than half a tenth away from making the vault final!), and she fought through a mistake near the end of her bars set to take an E-score hit, though she still finished third on the event with a 13.333. Aside from the mistake (she arched over a simple blind change near the end of her routine which broke her swing before she could regain control), she looked solid, hitting her Maloney to Pak, van Leeuwen, one-armed front pirouettes to a piked Jaeger, and a big double layout dismount with a step.

Great Britain’s Amelie Morgan had a relatively drama-free meet to qualify fourth all-around with a 52.232 in addition to making all four finals. Aside from a fall on her side aerial on beam, where she still managed to place eighth with a 12.233, she looked incredibly strong and tidy here.

She had the cleanest vaults in the bunch to qualify fourth, and she might be saving her DTY – a recent upgrade – for the final to give her a better shot at a medal there, and she also looked sharp on bars and floor, qualifying fourth on both of these as well, and she’ll have medal potential on both as well as in the all-around final if she does well in the coming days.

Though European junior bars champion Ksenia Klimenko was hoping for a top-three finish here, she didn’t have quite the meet she was hoping for. Though she started out with lovely work on floor, qualifying third there thanks to clean tumbling and leaps even if some of her landings were a little off, she put her hands down on her weak FTY on the second day of competition, which held her back to 11th place at the halfway point.

Bars is normally where Klimenko can pick things up, but she had some uncharacteristic leg form issues early in the routine and then missed the Gienger out of her Maloney, getting just a 13.266, though with hands-down the best technique in Buenos Aires, she still easily made the final, qualifying in fifth place. I didn’t see her beam, but she qualified third there with a 13.1, getting a 7.6 E score, which either means she fell in an otherwise perfect routine like Tang, or had a nervous but hit routine like Villa. #BeamProblems

I was thrilled to see Emma Spence of Canada qualify sixth here with one of the best overall international competitions I’ve seen from her. With a 51.015 in the all-around, Spence was calm and consistent in all of her routines, and she made every final but bars, qualifying third on vault with a solid Yurchenko 1½ and stuck FTY, in fifth on beam with a solid set, and in eighth on floor with a personal best international score of 12.533. She doesn’t have some of the difficulty that the top competitors here came in with, but that didn’t hold her back at all, and I hope she can end up contending for a medal or two in the finals this weekend.

Emma Slevin of Ireland also had a mind-blowingly impressive meet, coming pretty much out of nowhere to put up the best performance of her career to qualify seventh into the all-around with a 50.666. It’s pretty much the best result the Irish women have ever had internationally, and to top it off, she made every final but floor, an incredible feat that she should be thrilled about. I hope she’s just as solid in the finals, but no matter what, just accomplishing what she made happen so far in Buenos Aires is huge for her and for her country. Qualifying 12th for one of 17 spots in June was a huge deal for Ireland, so to see her improve even further to reach multiple finals is beyond incredible.

Rounding out the field of those who qualified to the all-around final are Lisa Zimmermann of Germany in eighth with a 50.399, Kate Sayer of Australia in ninth with a 49.932, Csenge Bacskay of Hungary in tenth with a 48.398, Ada Hautala of Finland in 11th with a 48.357, Tonya Paulsson of Sweden in 12th with a 48.132, Ana Maria Puiu of Romania in 13th with a 47.532, Lee Yunseo of South Korea in 14th with a 47.365, Camila Montoya of Costa Rica in 15th with a 47.364, Alba Petisco of Spain in 16th with a 47.265, Zeina Ibrahim of Egypt in 17th with a 46.998, and Egle Stalinkeviciute of Lithuania in 18th with a 46.966.

Of these, I was surprised to see Lee end up so low in the rankings after she’s done so well internationally otherwise, but she had a slightly disastrous beam routine as well as a fall on floor and a weak vault, so she can definitely improve on her qualifications performance in finals to contend for the top eight, if not for a medal. She also made the bars final with a clean performance, so she’ll have room there to show what she can do.

Zimmermann, who was basically Germany’s third choice for this spot, ended up out-performing what most thought she was capable of to make the vault final in addition to qualifying as first reserve for the bars, beam, and floor finals, which is kind of a bummer to see her get so close but just miss out, though it’s still better than I expected so it’s kind of bittersweet in that way.

Additionally, Sayer qualified seventh in both the vault and floor finals, Bacskay qualified fifth into the vault final, Paulsson qualified to the bars final in eighth place, and Puiu reached the beam final in sixth place.

The biggest happy surprise was definitely Montoya, who like Slevin is taking her country to the next level just by being here, so making a final like this is just the cherry on top. Costa Rica has done fantastic work over the past couple of years to become more relevant in continental competition, and this is another incredible step for them, especially as they hope this quad to finally qualify a gymnast to the Olympic Games. Montoya was also on one of the combined teams that won a medal here, and getting to call herself a Youth Olympic Games medalist is going to feel just as good as making that individual final.

It’s probably surprising to not see the competitors from Japan, Brazil, and Mexico reach the final, but all three countries have the bulk of their junior talent in 2004 and later, which just highlights the problem with meets like this that allow for gymnasts born in just a single year. Many countries struggle with junior depth in general, but limiting to a single birth year makes it even harder to find viable options.

Still, Chiharu Yamada of Japan started out strong and looked better than I expected we’d see her look, and though she placed just 21st in the all-around to miss that final, her work on floor was great, and she qualified into that final in sixth place.

Full qualification results are available here. The women’s all-around final will take place tomorrow, October 12, at 5:04 pm local time (4:04 pm ET). You can watch live on the Olympic Channel.

Article by Lauren Hopkins