Djenna Laroui
A roundup of this week’s news, competitions, social media gossip, and more!
In the News
Djenna Laroui ready to represent Algeria. The 2023 French all-around champion Djenna Laroui has spent the past decade representing her country at the highest of levels, including at European Championships, world cups, and a number of other international meets. After missing out on a number of top teams, however – including world championships in both 2023 and 2025 and the Olympic Games in 2024, for which she served as a reserve athlete – Laroui has made the decision to begin representing Algeria, following in the footsteps of Olympic champion Kaylia Nemour.
Laroui kicked off her Algerian career this past weekend, earning a number of gold medals at national championships, news which quickly spread throughout the gymnastics community and prompted Laroui to announce on Sunday morning that she was officially changing her nationality with World Gymnastics (which has since been approved). She said that while it was a “great honor” to represent France over the years, competing for Algeria has always been in the back of her mind. “I knew that one day I would change my sporting nationality…I simply did not know when,” she wrote. “Today, the opportunity arose, and I chose to take it.”
Unfortunately, her decision sparked a lot of negativity from both fans and former teammates, who call this a “betrayal” and sparked a “hate campaign” on social media that resulted in Laroui hiring a lawyer, who promised to file a criminal complaint against those participating. “These repeated and widespread actions go beyond the bonds of sports criticism and constitute a serious attack on her dignity,” said lawyer Nabil Boudi in a statement, also hinting at racism related to Laroui’s Algerian origins.
U.S. WAG program sets new ‘automatic qualifier’ rules for worlds team. In a decision that was absolutely related to Dulcy Caylor taking advantage of a number of mistakes from top contenders to win the all-around at last year’s U.S. worlds trials and earn an automatic berth onto the worlds team, the U.S. women’s program has put new rules in place for this year’s trial meet to ensure that this never happens again.
For what it’s worth, I think Caylor is a fabulous athlete, and she proved at trials that she was the best when it counted. While her performance in qualifications at worlds wasn’t quite as strong as her selection meet results, she still managed to make the all-around, beam, and floor finals, the most finals out of any U.S. athlete. However…had she not won trials, she would not have been among my top eight athletes to earn one of those four spots, so I get why the U.S. WAG program is getting rid of the “top all-arounder at trials gets to go no matter what” rule and instead focusing on more of a cumulative approach.
This year, the selection committee will use a weighted system, ranking athletes based on their combined all-around score from nationals (40%) and their all-around score from the selection meet (60%). The top two athletes under this updated ranking will automatically make the worlds team, which if applied last year would’ve pinned Leanne Wong and Joscelyn Roberson as the automatic team members, with Caylor instead ranked third.
U.S. Olympic Trials coming to Louisville. USA Gymnastics announced that the 2028 U.S. Olympic Trials will be held in Louisville, Kentucky! The city has hosted the Winter Cup over the past couple of years, but instead of being at the convention center, the trials will be held at the KFC Yum! Center. As a person who got stranded in Louisville due to a snowstorm after this year’s Winter Cup I’m slightly traumatized, but got to know and love the food and beverage options on Whiskey Row very well and think that area will be a great vibe for trials.
Competition Updates
World cup series champions decided in Osijek. This year’s world cup series wrapped up in Osijek this past weekend after five competitions held over the past couple of months. The end of the series means we now know the winners of each apparatus for the 2026 season, and we also have the rankings in place for specialists hoping to qualify to world championships – though these won’t be official until after continental championships wrap up in August.
The WAG champions this season include Teja Belak of Slovenia on vault with a combined total of 63 points, Kaylia Nemour of Algeria on bars with 72 points and on beam with 80 points, and Anna Kalmykova of Russia on floor with 55 points. The MAG champions include Yahor Sharamkou of Belarus on floor with 71 points, Zeinolla Idrissov of Kazakhstan on pommel horse with 75 points, Artur Avetisyan of Armenia on rings with 75 points, Nazar Chepurnyi of Ukraine on vault with 80 points, Angel Barajas of Colombia on parallel bars with 85 points, and Tang Chia-Hung of Taiwan on high bar with 90 points, the only perfect score this year after Tang won gold in Baku, Antalya, and in Osijek. [Complete WAG Rankings] [Complete MAG Rankings]
Rankings aside, Osijek was also obviously a competition in its own right! In the women’s field, Karina Schönmaier of Germany won vault, Yang Fanyuwei of China had a stunning set to win bars, Manila Esposito of Italy overcame some minor issues to win beam, and Elena Colas of France upset two of the strongest tumblers in the field to win floor after previously getting a pair of silvers on bars and beam in her world cup debut. [WAG Results]
For the men, Artem Dolgopyat of Israel returned to narrowly win floor, Hamlet Manukyan of Armenia outshined an incredible group to win pommel horse, Liu Hengyu of China won rings, Harry Hepworth of Great Britain showed top difficulty to win vault, Barajas was at the top of his game to win parallel bars, and Tang put up one of the most difficult and stunning performances of the season to win high bar. [MAG Results]
Upcoming Meets
All-Japan Championships. Japan’s national championships begin on April 16 in Takasaki and feature two days of preliminary competition (WAG on Thursday, MAG on Friday) followed by finals on Saturday for WAG and Sunday for MAG. The full schedule and competitor lists are available on the federation’s website, which is where you’ll also find result PDFs after each session. The competition will also stream live, though there’s a cost, and there are live scores available via Seiko.
South American Youth Games. This multisport event held in Panama City will feature three days of gymnastics competition, with many top junior-level athletes in South America expected to compete – registered nations include Argentina, Aruba, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Panama, Peru, Uruguay, and Venezuela.
The first round of competition will last over two days, with the men competing floor, pommel horse, and rings on April 16 and the remaining events on April 17, while the women compete vault and bars on April 16 and their remaining events on April 17. This round acts as the all-around and team finals while also determining the qualifiers for apparatus finals, which will be held on April 18. Live results are available through the Panama 2026 website, and you can stream the events through Time Brasil TV’s YouTube.
Icelandic Championships. Ármann hosts Iceland’s national championships this weekend, with all-around competition on April 18 and apparatus finals on April 19 at 1 pm local time both days. Reigning champions Atli Valgeirsson and Thelma Adalsteinsdottir are both set to compete among other standouts including Lilja Gunnarsdottir, Nanna Gudmundsdottir, and Agnes Suto on the WAG side and Dagur Olafsson, Lukas Ragnarsson, Jon Gunnarsson, and Valgard Reinhardsson on the MAG side. The competition will air live on RÚV, though it looks like that’s on television only and no stream, but you can follow live scores on Sport Event Systems.
Italian Serie A. The third Serie A meet in Italy’s league season takes place in Terni on April 18, with the A1 group beginning at 2:25 pm local time. You can watch live on SportFace, and live scores will be available on LiveGym.
Bundesliga. Also in league competition this weekend is the third MAG session for Bundesliga, with several meets held throughout Germany on April 18. This weekend will feature Cottbus vs. Schwäbisch Gmünd-Wetzgau at 4 pm in Kolkwitz, Siegerländer KV vs. Vinnhorst at 5 pm in Kreuztal, Singen vs. Straubenhardt at 6 pm in Singen, and Koblenz vs. Saar at 6 pm in Koblenz, with all times listed local. The DTL info page will have live scores along with additional information and generally also lists streams when available – right now it looks like the Koblenz match will be streamed!
Hanspeter Demetz Memorial. This year’s Hanspeter Demetz Memorial will be held on April 18 in Innsbruck, featuring junior and youth competition for both MAG and WAG athletes. There’s not a lot of information on the event page, but we’ll be sure to update with results!
Must-See Content
THE THORPE! Australia’s Heath Thorpe had his straddle jump full added to the MAG code of points in Osijek floor qualifications last week! The jump counts towards the balance requirement and is rated a B, too low a value to officially be named “The Thorpe” but of course that’s what we are all committed to calling it for eternity.
THE BARBOSA! Another element was named in Osijek after Brazil’s Gabriela Rodrigues Barbosa successfully hit a stalder front pike half dismount in bars qualifications, which the WAG technical committee rated a C. We stan an innovative queen!
The Gymternet 