Alice D’Amato
A roundup of this week’s news, competitions, social media gossip, and more!
In the News
Alice D’Amato had surgery. After missing the first couple of Serie A competitions this season, Alice D’Amato took to Instagram to let fans know that she had a shoulder MRI performed and underwent surgery on her right shoulder last weekend. She hoped to avoid surgery and move forward with an easier road to recovery, but adds that her pain became overwhelming and she had no other choice. We hope she heals up well and that we can see her back on the floor soon!
The mass exodus from GAGE. Last month, USA Gymnastics terminated GAGE’s membership effective immediately due to allegations that coaches were not complying with the terms of their suspensions tied to claims of abuse. The decision prevented its athletes from participating in meets sanctioned by the governing body, which of course includes every major elite competition in the country.
Because of this, gymnasts who trained at GAGE have started finding refuge in other programs, including first-year senior Lavi Crain and her younger sister Vivi to World Champions Centre, Winter Cup competitors Annalisa Milton to Missouri Elite and Kaylee Sath to WOGA, and junior national team member Aulya Daniels to Liberty Gymnastics.
Leanne Wong, who graduated from the University of Florida last spring and has competed at the elite level with her NCAA program over the past few years, hasn’t been officially under the direction of GAGE coaches in a while, but she’s also updated her club affiliation. She’s now listed as being at Cincinnati Gymnastics, though the coaches listed on her bio are still her Florida coaches.
Radomyr Stelmakh set for Germany. Ukrainian Olympian Radomyr Stelmakh has been training in Germany since leaving his former national program, which has been frankly a mess on the MAG side since Paris, and while his international affiliation has been in flux over the past year, he is now officially recognized as a member of the German national team! The FIG has also approved his nationality change, but due to Ukraine opting to put a year-long hold on his status after his decision to switch, he won’t be able to represent the German team in FIG competition until March 2027.
Doha World Cup canceled. Last week, World Gymnastics announced that they have canceled the Doha World Cup, which was supposed to be the sixth and final competition of this season’s apparatus world cup series, due to the circumstances in the Middle East. The series will now only include five meets, and the Executive Committee has decided that now the highest three-point meet total – instead of four meets – will determine the qualifiers to world championships.
Competition Updates
Canada, USA win DTB Pokal Team Challenge titles. The Canadian women, led by Lia Redick with a 52.165 in the all-around, won the WAG team title at last weekend’s DTB Pokal meet, while the U.S. men’s team won the MAG title, led by Yul Moldauer in the all-around and helped out by specialists Kameron Nelson and Danila Leykin. There was a bit of confusion in the MAG all-around competition, with Moldauer originally awarded the title, though it turned out that his score of 82.250 was a tenth behind first-year senior Ojima Nao of Japan, who received an apology and recogntion a couple of days later.
In the WAG apparatus finals, Gabrielle Black of Canada won vault with a 13.483 average, Romane Hamelin of France won bars with a 14.000, Alyssa Guerrier Calixte of Canada won beam with a 13.300, and Lucy Stewart won floor with a 13.100, showing off absolutely gorgeous leaps as part of her beautifully executed routine. For the men, Timo Eder of Germany won floor with a 13.800, Jordan Carroll of Canada won pommel horse with a 14.733, Nelson won rings with a 13.733, Nazar Chepurnyi of Ukraine won vault with a 14.666 average (more than a point higher than the rest of the competition!), Moldauer won paralell bars with a 14.300, and Mert Efe Kilicer of Türkiye won high bar with a 14.200.
The junior team titles for both WAG and MAG went to the athletes from China, while Nakashima Kanon of Japan had the top WAG all-around score with a 52.332 and Long Houcheng of China was the best MAG all-arounder with a 79.100. In the mixed cup, the host team from Germany won the gold medal, ahead of Switzerland with the silver and Australia with the bronze. [WAG results] [MAG results]
Evans, Fraser crowned British senior champions. 2024 Olympian Ruby Evans won the first senior national all-around title of her career at this weekend’s British Championships, while Joe Fraser won the fourth title of his career after dominating the rest of the competition by nearly four points.
Evans earned a 53.350 in the all-around to edge out Ruby Stacey, who won the silver with a 52.650, while Shantae-Eve Amankwaah won her first senior national medal with a 51.800 for bronze. In appartus finals, Evans won floor, English champion Abi Martin, who had a rough performance on bars and finished a shocking ninth all-around, won the vault title, Becky Downie made a statement with a 14.600 to win bars, and Alia Leat won beam with a 13.350, though the big news on this apparatus was the return of Alice Kinsella, who gave birth to her first child last summer. Her performance on beam here was the first time we’ve seen her in competition since Paris, and she managed to look strong enough in prelims here to earn a spot in the final, where she finished fourth.
Fraser’s 84.500 in the all-around made him completely unbeatable in this field, though the battle for the rest of the podium was solid, seeing Jonas Rushworth win the silver with an 80.900 and Jake Jarman get the bronze with an 80.550. Winning the apparatus titles were Jarman on floor, Reuben Ward on pommel horse, Harry Hepworth on rings, Sol Scott with an upset over Jarman on vault, and Fraser on parallel bars and high bar.
Helena Finc won the junior WAG title with a 49.350 and the aspire title went to Ifeoluwa Akinlabi with a 47.550, while the junior MAG titles went to Zakaine Fawzi (U18), Lucas Scully (U16), and Kaydn Jackson (U14). [WAG results] [MAG results]
Unni & Haralds Trophy. This annual international invitational in Oslo saw a trio of Norwegians on the senior podium, including Christine Kubon with a 49.900 for the title, while Keisha Lockert won the silver with a 49.666 and Serina Kvaestad won the bronze with a 47.316. The junior medalists included Lauren Kelly of Ireland with a 45.316 for gold, Ameli-Mari Solli of Norway with a 44.433 for silver, and Stella Rajkovic of Sweden with a 43.683 for bronze.
In the MAG competition, Sebastian Sponevik won the senior title with a 76.050, ahead of Norwegian teammates Peder Skogvang with a 75.650 for silver and Phillip Lieske with a 71.050 for bronze, while Frederik Davies-Vaneetvelde of Ireland won the junior title with a 72.350, ahead of Aleksander Mellingen of Norway with a 72.050 for silver and Noah Støvne-Bjørnsen of Norway with a 70.500 for bronze.
Upcoming Meets
City of Jesolo Trophy. Many top senior and junior WAG programs will be present at Jesolo this weekend, including the United States, China, France, Spain, Argentina, Belgium, Germany, and Romania sending teams to compete alongside their Italian hosts. Other countries sending individuals include Canada, Australia, Malta, and Poland.
The first day of competition happens Saturday, March 28, with the juniors competing at 9 am local time, while the seniors go up at 3 pm, and apparatus finals will be held on Sunday, March 29, at 3 pm. You can stream the competition live and for FREE on SportFace, and you should be able to access live scores on GymResult. You can find a mostly complete list of international athletes set to compete here, while the Italian team is named here.
1st Bundesliga (MAG). The first MAG edition of Bundesliga takes place this Saturday, with a total of four matches happening in Germany throughout the day, including SC Cottbus against TG Saar, Siegerländer KV against KTV Koblenz, StTV Singen against TuS Vinnhorst, and KTV Straubenhardt against TV Schwäbisch Gmünd-Wetzgau. I don’t see any links for streams on the official Deutsche Turnliga website, which is where you can usually spot them if available, though you should be able to follow live scores there.
Must-See Content
Lia Monica Fontaine is a beam queen. Here’s a sped up but fabulous video of Canadian world vault medalist Lia Monica Fontaine training a double turn to switch half to to straddle jump on beam. I’m obsessed.
Harry Hepworth committed to the bit. And here’s a video Harry Hepworth falling short on his piked handspring double front half at nationals this weekend, though I respect the way he truly commits to the landing, even though it happened completely off the podium. Give him the stick bonus!
Article by Lauren Hopkins
The Gymternet 