Amanda Yap

Athletes competing in women’s artistic gymnastics from 30 countries set, matched, or broke records for their nations at the world championships in Jakarta, Indonesia, making history in the sport and inspiring future generations of athletes to follow in their footsteps.

View the complete list of world ranking records.

ALGERIA

After breaking every single one of Algeria’s previous world records in her world championships debut two years ago, Kaylia Nemour managed to return even stronger this year, breaking all four of her own records this time around.

Her biggest success in Jakarta came on the uneven bars, where she won the gold medal – a first for Algeria and for the entire African continent – and improved on her silver medal finish in 2023. She also won the silver medal on balance beam, where her second-place finish was an improvement from her previous 21st-place finish set in qualifications two years ago, and finished fourth in the all-around (an improvement from eighth place) and 23rd on floor (an improvement from 48th place).

AUSTRALIA

Kate McDonald impressed gymnastics fans when she qualified into the uneven bars final at worlds this year, and when she finished fifth in the competition, she broke Australia’s previous sixth-place record, originally set by Jacqui Dunn in 2001 and then matched by Daria Joura in 2006. Australian women have now finished in the top five in every final at the world level.

AUSTRIA

Though she didn’t break or match Gertrude Kolar’s silver medal record on vault, medals at worlds in 1950 were determined by the top scores from the all-around competition and not through separate finals, so Charlize Mörz made history as the first Austrian woman to qualify into an apparatus final at worlds!

She ultimately finished seventh on vault, which is the highest individual ranking in a final for the Austrians, and her 17th-place finish on floor set another record for that apparatus, breaking the one last earned by Tanja Gratt when she finished 31st in 2002.

BELGIUM

Lisa Vaelen competed three events at worlds this year, and she hit records for Belgium on two of them! In the vault final, Vaelen finished in fourth place, breaking her won sixth-place record from 2022, and on floor, her 10th-place finish in qualifications tied former teammate Nina Derwael‘s record set in 2019.

CAMEROON

Lisa Mebar and Moira Teneku made history this year as the first gymnasts to represent Cameroon at worlds! Mebar set four of the program’s records by finishing 48th on vault, 83rd in the all-around, 118th on the uneven bars bars, and 128th on beam, while Teneku snagged a record of her own by finishing 114th on floor.

CANADA

First-year senior Lia Monica Fontaine came into worlds this year as one of the top contenders on vault after winning medals on this apparatus at all five of her previous competitions this year, include gold at Gymnix and silver at the Pan American Championships. She ultimately picked up the silver medal in Jakarta, becoming the second Canadian woman to achieve this milestone after teammate Shallon Olsen first did it in 2018.

CHINA

With one of the most impressive routines of the entire competition, Zhang Qingying – who missed out on a spot on China’s Olympic team last summer – entered the record books by becoming the seventh Chinese woman to win the world beam title. She follows in the footsteps of Mo Huilan in 1995, Ling Jie in 1999, Fan Ye in 2003, Deng Linlin in 2009, Sui Lu in 2011, and Liu Tingting in 2018.

COSTA RICA

In her world championships debut, Marina Guevara managed to narrowly break a record for Costa Rica when she finished 93rd on beam in qualifications, an improvement from Mariana Sanchez‘s 94th-place finish in 2013.

CROATIA

Tina Zelcic is well known on the international scene for the work she does on beam, especially on the world cup circuit. This year, in her eighth year at the senior level, she showed one of the strongest routines of her career to finish 22nd in qualifications, breaking Tina Erceg‘s 27th-place record from 2009.

CZECHIA

With the Czech team a formidable presence in the 1990s and early 2000s, it’s been really difficult for any gymnasts to break into the record books over the past couple of decades. But this year, Olympian Sona Artamonova finally made it happen when she finished 12th on beam, breaking Pavla Kinclova’s 14th-place record from 1994 and marking the highest individual finish for a Czech gymnast since 2009.

FINLAND

Last month, Kaia Tanskanen debuted Finland’s first double double on floor at the Paris Challenge Cup, where she also won the first world cup medal for the Finnish women’s program. At worlds, Tanskanen narrowly missed the floor final, but made history with Finland’s highest-ever world championships ranking when she finished 11th on the apparatus in qualifications, breaking teammate Ada Hautala‘s 29th-place record from 2021.

Maisa Kuusikko, who broke the all-around record for Finland at worlds in 2022, only competed bars this time around, but she broke another record here by finishing 18th on this event, an improvement from Maria Skytta finishing 19th in 2002.

ICELAND

Not only was she Iceland’s top all-arounder at worlds this year, Hildur Gudmundsdottir also managed to break the program’s record on floor when she finished 54th in qualifications, breaking Tinna Odinsdottir‘s 59th-place record from 2013.

JAMAICA

Fresh off of her freshman season at Stanford, Alana Walker had a fantastic competition in her worlds debut, finishing an impressive 37th all-around in qualifications to break Olympian – and fellow NCAA standout – Toni-Ann Williams‘ 45th-place record from 2013. She also broke the record on bars, finishing 65th to improve on Williams’ 77th-place record, also from 2013.

JAPAN

After a decade of senior international competition, Sugihara Aiko finally became a world medalist when she got the bronze on beam in the last day of finals, and then only about 90 minutes later, she made history when she became the second Japanese world champion on floor, following in the footsteps of Murakami Mai, who won in 2017 and 2021.

MALAYSIA

Both of Malaysia’s competitors in Jakarta ended up breaking records this year! Bars standout Rachel Yeoh Li Wen finished 37th on her only apparatus of the competition, an improvement from Olympian Farah Ann Abdul Hadi‘s 68th-place record from 2019, while Yeap Kang Xian did great work to finish 46th on beam, an improvement from Li Yen Au’s 64th-place record from 1999.

MONGOLIA

In Mongolia’s first worlds appearance since 2015, first-year senior Anujin Gomboluudev managed to snag two spots on the records list! She finished 100th on the uneven bars and 107th on floor, breaking two records set by Davaszurenghin Ouintuya – 111th on bars and 133rd on floor – over 40 years ago in 1983.

NAMIBIA

This was an incredibly successful competition for Anne-Leen Thorburn, who broke every Namibian record in the program’s fifth appearance at worlds! All records were previously held by Olympian and NCAA athlete Gharde Geldenhuys, who set the standard in Namibia’s first worlds appearance back in 1997.

Thorburn’s updated records include 76th in the all-around (an improvement from 108th place), 87th on the uneven bars (an improvement from 125th place), 111th on floor (an improvement from 133rd place), and 117th on beam (an improvement from 129th place).

NEW ZEALAND

Jun McDonald made her worlds debut a big success when she finished 43th in the all-around, narrowly breaking Alice Barnett’s 44th-place record from 2005 and tying Christine Douglas’ 42nd-place finish from 1981 to co-own the top ranking on bars!

Meanwhile, veteran Georgia-Rose Brown, who switched from competing for Australia to New Zealand last year and quickly earned a spot at the 2024 Olympic Games, finished 44th on beam to break Belinda Castles’ 51st-place record from 2005.

NORWAY

In her world championships debut, Christine Kubon showed two solid vault runs to finish 19th on the apparatus in qualifications, breaking the 23rd-place record set by Selma Halvorsen in 2021.

PHILIPPINES

Olympian, NCAA national champ, and former U.S. elite Aleah Finnegan broke every single record for the Philippines at her worlds debut in 2023, and this year, she broke two of those records when she finished 15th on vault (an improvement from 18th place) and 67th on bars (an improvement from 73rd place).

Teammate Emma Malabuyo, a U.S. Olympic alternate in 2021 and an Olympian for the Philippines last summer, broke another two of Finnegan’s records by finishing 33rd on beam (an improvement from 38th place) and 33rd on floor (an improvement from 34th place).

The only previous record that still stands is Finnegan’s 32nd-place all-around finish from 2023, which Finnegan came just one spot away from matching this year (she was 33rd in qualifications here).

“RUSSIA”

Well, Russia as we know it is banned from competing internationally due to its aggressor status in the war against Ukraine. Some athletes from the Russian and Belarusian programs were able to obtain neutral status and are currently competing under the AIN designation for FIG-sponsored meets, so their results do not count toward their nations’ world records, and Russia-the-nation was not eligible to lay claim to any accomplishments this year.

But while Russia did not add a pair of first-place finishes to its record books, a Russian athlete did, so that’s how I’m going to talk about this situation. In her first international competition since 2021, Angelina Melnikova won gold medals in the all-around and on vault, marking the sixth gold medals for an athlete from the country of Russia – but not for the Russian program – for both.

In the all-around, Svetlana Khorkina won in 1997, 2001, and 2003, followed by Aliya Mustafina in 2010, and Melnikova in 2021, while on vault, the previous golds went to Elena Zamolodchikova in 1999 and 2002, Khorkina in 2001, and Maria Paseka in 2015 and 2017.

SINGAPORE

The biggest breakout star of the entire competition in Jakarta was Amanda Yap, a first-year senior whose international experience includes a handful of continental championships – she won the silver medal on beam as a junior last year – and that’s literally it.

At worlds, Yap stunned with the best beam routine of her career to earn a spot in the final, the first time a Singaporean athlete has qualified to an individual final at worlds and something so unexpected, even she had already left the country to return home for her school exams!

Thankfully, she made it back in time for the final, where she had another excellent routine to finish in sixth place, the best ranking for any Singaporean athlete at the world level and breaking Nadine Joy Nathan‘s 64th-place beam record from 2018. She also had the top all-around performance for Singapore in history, ranking 47th in qualifications to break Nicolette Lim‘s 55th-place record from 2013.

SLOVENIA

Olympian Lucija Hribar returned for her sixth world championships this year, and broke two of her own records in the process! She made history as the first Slovenian gymnast to qualify for an individual final when she earned a spot in the all-around, with her 20th-place finals ranking breaking her 36th-place record from 2022, and she also finished 22nd on bars, a big improvement from her 39th-place finish from 2017.

The other record-breaker for Slovenia was Zala Trtnik, who finished an impressive 13th place on beam in qualifications, just missing out on a spot in the final and smashing Tjasa Kysselef‘s 44th-place record from 2009. As a cherry on top, 13th is one of the best individual finishes for any Slovenian athlete at worlds, second only to Teja Belak‘s 11th-place vault finish in 2013!

SOUTH AFRICA

I was actually shocked to not see Caitiln Rooskrantz at the top of any charts for her program, but that changed this year with two record-breaking apparatus finishes for her! In Jakarta, Rooskrantz was 21st on the uneven bars, breaking Zandre Labuschagne’s 37th-place record from 2002, and she was 31st on beam, breaking Ursula Botha‘s 35th-place record, also from 2002.

SOUTH KOREA

One of the most anticipated routines at worlds was first-year senior Hwang Seohyun on beam. This year’s South Korean and Asian champion on the apparatus with one of the highest difficulty sets in the world, Hwang unfortunately had a fall in qualifications, but she’s so good, she still managed to finish in 15th place, tying the record Lee Heekyung set in 1992!

SRI LANKA

Nuyara Fernando ended up breaking two of Sri Lanka’s records at worlds this year, both previously held by Olympian Milka Gehani from 2023. The first-year senior finished 80th in the all-around, an improvement from Gehani’s 109th-place finish, and 109th on the uneven bars, an improvement from Gehani’s 150th-place finish.

SYRIA

In Syria’s second appearance at world championships, 26-year-old Seema Tello – who told reporters that life in her home country is only just starting to get back to normal in the wake of war, during which her gym was bombed – was the first gymnast from her program to compete on floor, where she finished 113th to set the record. She also competed on vault, but is unranked there as she only competed one vault instead of two.

THAILAND

Both of the Thai athletes saw some great success in the program’s fourth appearance at worlds, with the pair breaking all of the country’s records this year!

Sasiwimon Mueangphuan put up Thailand’s best-ever rankings when she finished 30th on floor (smashing her own 97th-place record from 2022) and 31st on vault (demolishing Lanna Apisukh’s 162nd-place record from 1995), and she also finished 76th on beam, breaking her own 87th-place record from 2022.

Meanwhile, former SCSU gymnast Thantida Ruecker also broke two of Mueangphuan’s records from 2022, finishing 69th in the all-around (an improvement from 97th place) and 113th on the uneven bars (an improvement from 132nd place).

TÜRKIYE

While uneven bars has traditionally been Türkiye’s weak spot internationally, they’ve been improving In recent years, and in Jakarta, Ceren Biner had a steady routine to finish 43rd in qualifications, breaking teammate Bilge Tarhan‘s 52nd-place record from 2021.

VENEZUELA

Most of Venezuela’s records are going to stay put for a long time thanks to the legendary three-time Olympian Jessica Lopez setting a pretty impossible standard, especially in the all-around and on bars and floor. However, the program has never had an athlete compete two vaults before and remained unranked on that apparatus until Jakarta, where Alejandra Cedeño became the first Venezuelan woman to attempt to earn a spot in the vault final, finishing 45th.

Article by Lauren Hopkins