Great Britain holds off Romania to finish on top after Rotation 1

Women’s artistic gymnastics at the Paris 2024 Olympics kicked off with the first of five subdivisions in the qualification round. Subdivision 1 featured a rising Romanian team as well as the Tokyo team bronze medalists, Great Britain.

Romania - a team that was once a dominating force in women’s gymnastics but had not qualified a full team to the Games since London 2012 - held the lead for most of the competition. However, a challenging final rotation on uneven bars left the team three points behind Great Britain when all was said and done (160.830-159.497).

Great Britain took an early lead after starting the competition on vault. In her rookie Games, Ruby Evans performed an Amanar vault, which led to a rotation-high 14.200. Alice Kinsella, one of the team veterans and leaders, opted for a Yurchenko double twist instead of the upgraded Amanar she showed in training (13.933).

Romania started the competition on an event it's known for – the balance beam – showing shades of the old Romania with difficult routines and confidence throughout. The rotation was led by Sabrina Mancea-Voinea (14.000) and Ana Barbosu (13.533).

After the first rotation Great Britain led Romania by 1.167 points, but Romania closed the gap and took the lead with a strong showing on floor in the second rotation. The Romanians were able to capitalize on a rough uneven bar rotation from Great Britain, which saw falls from Evans and Kinsella, as well as a near fall from Georgia Mae-Fenton on her dismount. The highlight of the rotation by far was 2019 World uneven bar silver medalist Becky Downie (14.666), who couldn’t contain the emotions after nailing her routine.

"I felt relieved (laughs)," Downie said after the competition. "There was a lot of emotion but I was like, 'It's just adrenaline, you're going to be fine.'"

Leading up to the Tokyo Games, Downie’s brother passed away the night before Olympic Trials were set to begin. As a result, Downie did not compete. British Gymnastics delayed the selection process in order to give Downie a fair chance, but she was ultimately not selected for the team – a decision Downie felt could have been caused by speaking out against the culture of abuse in British Gymnastics in 2020.

Paris 2024 marks Downie’s first trip back to the Games since Rio 2016.

Going into Rotation 3, Romania held a slim lead of 0.167 over Great Britain.

Romania did well on vault, with all four gymnasts posting scores above the 13 mark. Barbosu posted the highest score of the rotation (13.800) for her first vault. Great Britain survived the balance beam, but it wasn’t enough to overtake Romania going into the final rotation. Romania extended its lead to 0.800.

It all came down to Great Britain on floor and Romania on uneven bars in the final rotation.

Uneven bars isn’t known to be a strength of the Romanian team and in the end, it was the event that relinquished its lead after Subdivision 1. Andreea Preda only posted a 10.933 while Lilia Cosman posted a 11.333

For Great Britain, Fenton went out of bounds twice, but in the end the team had done enough to move into the lead. Abigail Martin led the rotation with a 13.266.

Great Britain and Romania will now have to wait until the end of Subdivision 5 to learn who will advance to the team final.

Alexa Moreno of Mexico, who is competing in Paris as an individual, is targeting event finals on vault. Moreno opened with a Rudi, which she landed with her chest down and a step back (14.166). Her second vault was a Tsukahara full with just a step back, which should bode well for her event final chances. Moreno is a world bronze medalist from 2018.

Eight teams will advance to the team final, the top 24 individual gymnasts (only two per country) will qualify for the all-around finals, and the top eight individual gymnasts (only two per country) will qualify for the event finals.