Angelina Melnikova with Vladimir Putin, President of Russia
After being banned from competing internationally since the Russia started a war in Ukraine in March 2022, the Russian gymnastics federation is officially back on FIG rosters as Olympic champion Angelina Melnikova is set to compete at this weekend’s challenge cup in Paris.
Melnikova and others were approved for neutral status in March of this year, though Melnikova’s inclusion on the list is a bit of a controversial decision as the athlete trains the Central Sports Club of the Army (CSKA), a military-funded sports club. Since receiving her neutral status, Melnikova has run for local office for the pro-government United Russia party and has shown support for the war on Instagram, and while all of this should have made her ineligible for neutral status, the FIG hasn’t gone back on its decision to allow her to compete.
In addition to the challenge cup marking Melnikova’s first international appearance since 2021, it’s also the first time she’ll compete at all in 2025, though she was the Russian all-around, vault, beam, and floor champion last year and should likely be in a good place to make several apparatus finals here.
The field is otherwise stacked with a lot of local and international stars in both the men’s and women’s fields, including 2024 Olympic bars champion Kaylia Némour, who has made history for Algeria over and over again and who lives and trains in France, where she is always one of the most beloved athletes on the stage.
The action in Paris will begin with qualifications tomorrow, September 13, while finals will be held on Sunday, September 14 at 1:25 pm local time. You’ll be able to stream finals via FIG TV, but unfortunately there won’t be any official streams for qualifications.
A full list of athletes expected to compete is below.
| ALGERIA | |
| Adam Cogat Youcef Semmani |
Louna Hamames-Moallic Sihem Hamidi Kaylia Némour |
| ARGENTINA | |
| Santiago Agostinelli Luca Alfieri Julian Jato Nahuel Martinez Santiago Mayol Daniel Villafañe |
Emilia Acosta Isabella Ajalla Fila Dalinger Lucia Gonzalez |
| ARMENIA | |
| Hamlet Manukyan | |
| AUSTRALIA | |
| Jose Caballero Marcus Casamento Aiden Frick Logan Owen Lachlan Smith |
Annabelle Burrows Breanna Scott |
| AZERBAIJAN | |
| Nikita Simonov | Daniz Aliyeva |
| BELARUS | |
| Yahor Sharamkou Aleh Tsiaselski |
Ulyana Kuzmenkova Alena Tsitavets |
| BELGIUM | |
| Glen Cuyle Nicola Cuyle Wouter Marx Luka van den Keybus Kilan van der Aa |
Lisa Vaelen Jade Vansteenkiste |
| BULGARIA | |
| Valentina Georgieva | |
| CANADA | |
| René Cournoyer Aidan Li Jayson Rampersad Kenji Tamane Samuel Zakutney |
|
| CHILE | |
| Josue Armijo Diego Espejo Luciano Letelier Ignacio Varas |
|
| COLOMBIA | |
| Angel Barajas Yan Zabala |
|
| COSTA RICA | |
| Marina Guevara Rachel Rodriguez |
|
| CROATIA | |
| Tin Srbic Filip Ude Mateo Zugec |
Mila Prpic Sara Sulekic Christina Zwicker |
| CZECHIA | |
| Patricie Makovickova Zuzana Slezakova |
|
| EL SALVADOR | |
| Grace Salomon | |
| FINLAND | |
| Robert Kirmes Joona Reiman Emil Soravuo |
Kaia Tanskanen |
| FRANCE | |
| Lorenzo Aymes (hors concours) Kevin Carvalho Pierre Cassam Chenaï Lucas Desanges (hors concours) Nicolas Diez Anthony Mansard Benjamin Osberger Lorenzo Sainte-Rose Melwin Touchais (hors concours) |
Noélie Ayuso (hors concours) Lorette Charpy Romane Hamelin (hors concours) Djenna Laroui (hors concours) Morgane Osyssek Célia Serber Ming van Eijken |
| GERMANY | |
| Gabriel Eichhorn Lucas Kochan Tom Schultze |
Karina Schönmaier |
| GREAT BRITAIN | |
| Joe Fraser Cameron Lynn Remell Robinson-Bailey Alexander Yolshin-Cash |
Ruby Evans Jessica Gadirova Abigail Martin |
| HUNGARY | |
| Botond Molnar Zala Samu Zambori |
|
| ICELAND | |
| Agust Davidsson Dagur Olafsson Atli Valgeirsson |
Thelma Adalsteinsdottir Hildur Gudmundsdottir Lilja Gunnarsdottir |
| INDIA | |
| Tapeswaranath Das Harikrishnan Jayan Sandhya Jatin Kumar Kanojiya Tapan Mohanty Shayan Sharma Yogeshwar Singh |
Swastika Ganguly Bidisha Gayen Anoushka Patil |
| IRELAND | |
| James Hickey | Halle Hilton Maeve McGuinness Emma Slevin |
| ISRAEL | |
| Artem Dolgopyat Eyal Indig Ron Pyatov |
Lihie Raz Roni Shamay Yali Shoshani |
| ITALY | |
| Yumin Abbadini Thomas Grasso Carlo Macchini Gabriele Targhetta |
|
| JAMAICA | |
| Clayton Bell Matthew McClymont |
Alana Walker |
| JAPAN | |
| Endo Mikito Kaneta Kiichi |
|
| KAZAKHSTAN | |
| Ilyas Azizov Zeinolla Idrissov Nariman Kurbanov Assan Salimov |
|
| LATVIA | |
| Dmitrijs Mickevics | Anastasija Ananjeva Katrina Jurevica Marija Mihailova |
| LUXEMBOURG | |
| Quentin Brandenburger Ronan Foley Joy Palermo |
Céleste Mordenti |
| MEXICO | |
| Mauricio Cabral Emilion Canavati Carlos Garza Esteban Piña Javier Rojo Luis Valdes |
|
| MOROCCO | |
| Hamza Hossaini | Salina Bousmayo Nisrine Hassanaine |
| NAMIBIA | |
| Immanuel Kooper | Sureshni Andrew Anne-Leen Thorburn Jonie Thorburn |
| NETHERLANDS | |
| Loran de Munck Elijah Faverus Yazz Ramsahai Casimir Schmidt |
|
| NEW ZEALAND | |
| Ava Baddeley Keira Rolston-Larking Ingrid Sims |
|
| NORWAY | |
| Peder Skogvang Sebastian Sponevik |
Julie Erichsen Christine Kubon Juliane Tøssebro |
| PANAMA | |
| Ana Gabriela Gutierrez Alyiah Lide de Leon Karla Navas Tatiana Tapia |
|
| POLAND | |
| Nadia Majchrzak Natalia Pudelko |
|
| PORTUGAL | |
| Gabriela Alves Mafalda Costa Mariana Parente |
|
| ROMANIA | |
| Miruna Botez Bianca Visovan Sabrina Voinea |
|
| RUSSIA | |
| Angelina Melnikova | |
| SERBIA | |
| Petar Vefic | |
| SLOVENIA | |
| Anze Hribar Gregor Rakovic |
|
| SOUTH AFRICA | |
| Naveen Daries Zelmé Daries Buhle Nhleko Caitlin Rooskrantz |
|
| SPAIN | |
| Unai Baigorri Thierno Diallo Sergio Kovacs Rayderley Zapata |
Laura Casabuena Marina Escudero Laia Font Alba Petisco |
| SWEDEN | |
| Karl Idesjø Filip Lidbeck William Sundell |
Emelie Westlund Nathalie Westlund Jennifer Williams |
| SWITZERLAND | |
| Luca Giubellini Florian Langenegger Luca Murabito Noe Seifert |
Lena Bickel Anny Wu |
| TAIWAN | |
| Hung Yuan-Hsi Lee Chih-Kai Lin Guan-Yi Shiao Yu-Jan Tang Chia-Hung Tseng Wei-Sheng |
Lai Pin-Ju Lin Yi-Chen |
| UKRAINE | |
| Nazar Chepurnyi Ihor Dyshuk Vladyslav Hryko Bohdan Suprun |
Daria Chorna Viktoriia Ivanenko Diana Lobok |
| UZBEKISTAN | |
| Dildora Aripova Shakhinabonu Yusufova |
|
Article by Lauren Hopkins
The Gymternet 
Could you explain why the US chose not to send any athletes? I thought Donnell Whittenburg and Brody Malone were going.
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I thought so as well! I’m not sure, maybe they just want to focus on training and not travel to Paris just to then have to travel so soon to Jakarta?
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Money 🥰
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if I’m correctly: Ukraine didn’t compete because of Russia competing.
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So are they going to withdraw from World’s too?
Makes me think of the several EU countries saying they will boycott the 2026 Eurovision song contest if Israel is allowed to compete. Seems strange to take away opportunities from people for their/other country’s actions.
Even if an individual holds a position that you disagree with imagine how they come to their opinion, sometimes through heavily curated and censored media content, not to mention societal context. Strange times.
¯_ (ツ)_/¯
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Correct! They ended up withdrawing.
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Strange when I hear people simultaneously suggest Russian “neutral athletes” shouldn’t be allowed to participate but are fully behind, or silent, on Israeli and other athletes competing and supporting their governments that are breaking international laws in the most gruesome of ways. The spirit and tradition of the Olympics is built upon disengaging from these types of debates, it’s a shame that is being lost by FIG and others. Not suggesting Lauren is doing that, but I hear it a lot.
That all said, Gelya’s qualification scores were not nearly as competitive as 2021, but maybe she’s holding back and will offer more by Worlds. Here, she has a good chance at medals anyway and qualified in VT/BB/FX finals.
Live scoring is here: https://gym.swisstiming.com/2025/Artistic-17873/en-us/Default
If Kaylia Nemour repeats her 15.366 routine today I’m going to lose my mind – she is beyond dominate on that apparatus.
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I also don’t think Israeli athletes should compete, BUT think the reason there hasn’t been as much outrage is sadly because there aren’t really any Palestinian athletes competing on the world stage in most sports, so they don’t have as much of a voice. Russia was still competing at the start of the war in Ukraine, BUT it was because athletes – like those at the world cup where Ivan Kuliak wore a Z on his chest – spoke out and said they did not want their aggressors competing alongside them. I think the international governing bodies for most sports realized that with so many outspoken Ukrainian athletes, they had to take action, and then ultimately, so did the IOC. Sadly it’s not the same with Israel because there hasn’t been the same level of outrage…and the same goes for Azerbaijani athletes still being allowed in competition with Armenians (ESPECIALLY here as the FIG is in bed with AZE gymnastics and lets them host a literal Olympic qualifying meet which ARM athletes cannot attend), Chinese athletes still being allowed in competition with Taiwanese, American athletes still being allowed in competition with basically every number of countries for which they’ve been an aggressor nation…it’s actually great that Ukrainian athletes were listened to relatively quickly after the start of the war, and I wish that other athletes’ concerns were taken as seriously but I fear that they do not occupy such a large space internationally as the Ukrainian athletes do and it’s harder for them to take a stand that would result in action.
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Random Question- But are the US World Selection Camp, to pick the team, going to be streamed anywhere or is it going to be private?
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I believe it will be apaid stream on FlipNow? Someone feel free to correct if wrong.
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She should not be allowed to compete, same as the Israelis gymnasts, but for me especially Melnikova because she is pro putin and pro war. It is a big shame the FIG gave her permission, I will NOT support her. I know she won’t care.
Very bad taste by the way to post a picture with her and putin… are you really that daft?
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I posted a photo of her and Putin to show her connection to Putin because I literally agree with you lmfao.
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