Artistic Gymnastics 2020 Tokyo Olympic Review

Men’s Team all-around

Japan led the qualification event, edging out China by just under 0.2. Russia qualified just behind with the United States and Great Britain looking just outside of touching distance. Two rotations into the final and it was the big three battling for gold. Russians had a slight edge over Japan, with China in third but the United States and Great Britain were keeping pace. At halfway, after three rotations, Great Britain had improved into fourth, with the first three remaining the same. A strong parallel bars round for Russia saw them extend their lead. China had overtaken Japan and were now separated by less than half a point with the United States and Great Britain both playing catch up. Heading into the last round Russia led, with the three separated by 1.3. The United States and Great Britain were further back, without a serious chance of medalling. In the final round, Nakita Nagornyy scored 14.666 handing Russia the gold by 0.103 ahead of Japan. Behind them, China won bronze ahead of Great Britain and the United States.

🥇Russia 🇷🇺

🥈Japan 🇯🇵

🥉China 🇨🇳

Men’s Individual all-around

Qualification was led by Daiki Hashimoto (Japan), scoring an 88.531. More consistent but without the high scores, was Nikita Nagornyy (Russia), who qualified in second with an 87.897 ahead of Xiao Ruoteng (China) on 87.732. In the opening rotations, it was Hashimoto who led, scoring 14.833 on the floor ahead of Ruoteng and Caio Souza (Brazil), tied with Sun Wei (China) and Takeru Kitazono (Japan) in third. The second rotation saw Hashimoto score 15.166, the best score so far of the day ahead of Wei at 14.966 and Ruoteng at 14.700. On the third rotation, Lukas Dauser (Germany) scored 15.400, whilst Adem Asil (Turkey) scored 15.133. At halfway, Ruoteng led with 43.933, ahead of Wei on 43.532 and Hashimoto on the same score. Kitazono again returned a high score, scoring 15.066 on the parallel bars. Both Wei and Nagornyy scored 14.900 in the fourth rotation, whilst Sam Mikulak (United States) scored 14.966. After four rounds, it was still Ruoteng leading on 58.633 ahead of Wei on 58.432, Nagornyy on 58.265 and Hashimoto on 58.232. Nagornyy scored 15.400, taking him closer to Ruoteng who scored 15.366 as Hashimoto scored 15.300. Joe Fraser (Great Britain) landed his best routine yet to score 15.133. In the final rotation, Ruoteng went first and scored 14.066 leaving the door open for Nagornyy who could only score 14.366. Hashimoto scored 14.933 to bring the gold medal home, with a total score of 88.465.

🥇Daiki Hashimoto 🇯🇵

🥈Xiao Ruoteng 🇨🇳

🥉Nikita Nagornyy 🇷🇺

Men’s Floor Exercise

Artem Dolgopyat (Israel) led in qualification with a score of 15.200. Just behind were Nikita Nagornyy (Russia) and Ryu Sung-hyun (South Korea), who had the highest difficulty score. Rayderley Zapata (Spain) was the other gymnast to score over 15 in qualification. Nagornyy was first on the floor in the final and tried the triple back, he managed it but stepped off the floor. No doubt affecting his score, he was given 13.066. Zapata scored a 14.933 to put himself in pole position. Dolgopyat landed the same score, but the higher execution gave him the edge. Ryu Sung-hyun (South Korea) became only the third man to score over 14 and go third. Xiao Ruoteng (China) closed the gap on the front two with a 14.766 to take bronze.

🥇Artem Dolgopyat 🇮🇱

🥈Rayderley Zapata 🇪🇸

🥉Xiao Ruoteng 🇨🇳

Men’s Pommel Horse

Three men tied in qualification for the pommel horse, all scoring 15.266. The three were Lee Chih-kai (Taiwan), Rhys McClenaghan (Ireland) and Kohei Kameyama (Japan). Alec Yoder (United States) was the other gymnast to score over 15.000, with Max Whitlock (Great Britain) in fifth. Whitlock went out and heaped pressure on the field with a 15.583. David Belyavskiy (Russia) scored 14.833 to move into the silver medal position at halfway. A 15.400 saw Chih-kai improve into silver. Kazuma Kaya (Japan) was next into a medal position with a 14.900. McClenaghan fell on his run, leaving him outside the medal positions. Kameyama was the final man with a chance of beating him, but did not manage to break the medal positions.

🥇Max Whitlock 🇬🇧

🥈Lee Chih-kai 🇹🇼

🥉Kazuma Kaya 🇯🇵

Men’s Rings

Eleftherios Petrounias (Greece) led qualification with a large execution score to total 15.333, ahead of Liu Yang (China) on 15.300 and Samir Ait Said (France) on 15.066. You Hao (China) was the first to lay down a big score in the final, of 15.300. His teammate Yang went better with a 15.500. The following three gymnasts could not get over 15. Petrounias was always going to be most likely to put a score worthy of competing and he scored 15.200 to put him in bronze position.

🥇Liu Yang 🇨🇳

🥈You Hao 🇨🇳

🥉Eleftherios Petrounias 🇬🇷

Men’s Vault

There were joint leaders in qualification with both Shin Jae-hwan (South Korea) and Artur Davtyan (Armenia) scoring 14.866. The top seven were only separated by 0.166. It was a good opening vault by Adem Asil (Turkey) scoring 15.266. The second vault, was less impressive as he misjudged the landing, totalling 14.449. Nikita Nagornyy (Russia) scored 14.833 in his first vault and totalled 14.716. Davtyan

scored 14.800 and 14.666 to take the lead. Jae-hwan went into first with scores of 14.833 and 14.733. Denis Ablyazin (Russia) would tie him scoring a total of 14.783 but Jae-hwan won due to his higher execution score meaning Ablyazin secured another Olympic silver.

🥇Shin Jae-hwan 🇰🇷

🥈Denis Ablyazin 🇷🇺

🥉Artur Davtyan 🇦🇲

Men’s Parallel bars

In the qualification event, Zou Jingyuan (China) stood out with a 16.166 ahead of Lukas Dauser (Germany) on 15.733. In the final, Ferhat Arican (Turkey) opened with an impressive 15.633, only for Jingyuan to go ahead with a 16.233. You Hao (China) went in third with a 15.400. Dauser scored 15.700 to take silver.

🥇Zou Jingyuan 🇨🇳

🥈Lukas Dauser 🇩🇪

🥉Ferhat Arican 🇹🇷

Men’s Horizontal bar

Daiki Hashimoto (Japan) was the only gymnast to score above 15 in qualification, scoring 15.033 ahead of Milad Karimi (Kazakhstan). Karimi likely cost himself any chance of a medal with a fall in the final. Instead, Nikita Nagornyy (Russia) scored 14.533 to take the lead. Tin Srbic (Croatia) went first with a 14.900 before Hashimoto took the lead, and the gold, with a 15.066.

🥇Daiki Hashimoto 🇯🇵

🥈Tin Srbic 🇭🇷

🥉Nikita Nagornyy 🇷🇺

Women’s Team all-around

After the first round, Russia led with 43.799 ahead of the United States with 42.732 and France on 41.399. Russia opened up the lead on the second rotation, with a score of 88.498 leaving them well ahead of the United States on 85.998 and Italy on 83.031. More concerning, however, was the news that Simone Biles was out of the team final, leaving her participation for the rest of the competition in doubt. After the following rotation, the United States had put the pressure on, now only trailing by 0.800. The battle for third had started to heat up with Italy on 124.530 ahead of Japan on 122.548 and Great Britain on 122.331. In the final rotation, Russia pulled clear to earn a final score of 169.528 ahead of the USA with 166.096. Great Britain took bronze with a score of 164.096, coming back from seventh at halfway.

🥇Russia 🇷🇺

🥈 United States 🇺🇸

🥉Great Britain 🇬🇧

Women’s Individual all-around

Simone Biles (United States) led qualifying with a big gap of 0.332. However, she rocked the Olympics by withdrawing from the competition due to her mental state, leaving a wide-open contest. Rebeca Andrade (Brazil) took advantage in the first round, opening with a 15.300, whilst Jade Carey (United States) scored 15.200. Back in third was Angelina Melnikova (Russia). Melnikova closed that gap with a 15.900 in round two, but it was Sunisa Lee (United States) and Nina Derwael (Belgium) who stood out, with scores of 15.300 and 15.266. That meant at halfway, Andrade led Lee ahead of Melnikova, Vladislava Urazova (Russia) and Derwael. The third rotation was less explosive. It was Roxana Popa (Spain) and Mai Murakami (Japan), scoring 14.600 and 14.533 respectively who led the way. Entering the final round Lee led with 43.733, with Urazova on 43.566 and Andrade on 43.532. Urazova scored 13.400 on the floor, her final discipline taking her to 56.966. Melnikova took the lead with a 13.966 to score 57.199. A 13.700 took Lee back into the lead, totalling 57.433 with Andrade the one main danger. She could only score 13.666 to put her in silver medal place.

🥇Sunisa Lee 🇺🇸

🥈Rebeca Andrade 🇧🇷

🥉Angelina Melnikova 🇷🇺

Women’s Vault

Of course, this was another event, all about Simone Biles' (United States) withdrawal from the final, having qualified first. Behind her in qualification were Jade Carey (United States) and Rebeca Andrade (Brazil). Mykayla Skinner (United States) opened the final with a 14.916 average score. Andrade's opening vault scored a 15.166 and then a 15.000 vault left her leading on 15.083. Carey entered as the favourite but it was an uncharacteristically poor vault after a poor run-up. She scored 11.933, ruling her out of gold. Yeo Seojeong (South Korea) scored 15.333 on her first vault. A poor landing on the second vault saw her overall score down at 14.733, which put her in bronze medal position.

🥇Rebeca Andrade 🇧🇷

🥈Mykayla Skinner 🇺🇸

🥉Yeo Seojeong 🇰🇷

Women’s Uneven Bars

Nina Derwael (Belgium) led qualification with a 15.366, ahead of Sunisa Lee (United States) with 15.200. It was the four Russians who followed, with Anastasia Ilyankova (Russia) and Angelina Melnikova (Russia) being the two who made the final. Lee led off in the final with a 14.500, after poor execution. Derwael took the lead with a 15.200. Ilyankova went into second with a 14.833. Melnikova struggled, not even putting herself in a position to medal.

🥇Nina Derwael 🇧🇪

🥈Anastasia Ilyankova 🇷🇺

🥉Sunisa Lee 🇺🇸

Women’s Balance Beam

Guan Chenchen (China) had a massive edge in the qualification of 0.600. The biggest story heading into the final, was that Simone Biles (United States) would compete in the final. Tang Xijong (China) took the lead with a 14.233. Next up was Biles, who scored 14.000 despite it looking to many observers like a better score. Sunisa Lee (United States) saw a wobble cost her a medal position. Chenchen, the sixteen-year-old, scored 14.633 to take gold.

🥇Guan Chenchen 🇨🇳

🥈Tang Xijong 🇨🇳

🥉Simone Biles 🇺🇸

Women’s Floor Exercise

Simone Biles (United States) qualified in second but withdrew from the final. The leader was Vanessa Ferrari (Italy), but the top seven were separated by 0.166. A 14.366 from Jade Carey (United States) put the pressure on with brilliant tumbling. Jessica Gadirova (Great Britain) followed into second with a 14.000. Angelina Melnikova (Russia) split the pair with a 14.166, before Ferrari took her turn. The 30-year-old went into second with a 14.200, a lower difficulty score costing her compared to Carey. Mai Murukami (Japan) also scored 14.166 to join Melnikova in bronze.

🥇Jade Carey 🇺🇸

🥈Vanessa Ferrari 🇮🇹

🥉Mai Murukami 🇯🇵

🥉Angelina Melnikova 🇷🇺