Russia Challenges US Women’s Gymnastics Crown as China Leads Worlds Qualifying in Rotterdam

ROTTERDAM — The most consequential week in gymnastics began with a statement nobody saw coming. A cobbled-together Russian team, assembled only days ago after three of its stars were denied Dutch visas, finished women’s qualifying at the 54th World Artistic Gymnastics Championships within a single point of the mighty United States on Monday — and with the final two qualifying subdivisions still to go, the sport’s great 15-year American winning streak suddenly looks vulnerable.

Russia, competing as neutral athletes, posted 163.662 points in the third-to-last qualifying session, trailing the United States (164.529) by just 0.867 points, according to reporting from USA Today’s Nancy Armour, who is covering the championships from Rotterdam Ahoy. Scoring grew more generous as the meet wore on — the Americans had competed in the very first subdivision — but the margin was narrow enough that the Russians will head into Wednesday’s team final as a genuine threat to dethrone the Americans, according to USA Today. Published qualifying tables showed China ultimately leading the field at 164.996, with the US second and Russia third, ahead of Italy (162.430) and Japan (161.630), according to The Sports Examiner and published results.

The stakes could hardly be higher. The top three teams in each team event qualify directly for the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles — the first home Games for the Americans in more than 30 years — while the remaining nine Olympic spots will not be decided until next year’s world championships, according to BBC Sport and USA Today. Beyond the team medals, 15 world titles are on the line across men’s and women’s apparatus, and the all-around finals will feature one of the most open fields in years.

A team built in a week

Russia’s road to Rotterdam was almost derailed before it began. Six days before qualifying, the Dutch government denied visas to reigning world all-around champion Angelina Melnikova, Viktoria Listunova and Anna Malnykova, citing security reasons, according to USA Today. It was the first time since 2019 that Russia had been able to send a full team to the world championships; the country’s athletes have been largely banned from international competition for more than four years following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, with those restrictions only now beginning to lift, USA Today reported.

With its two best gymnasts gone, Russia elevated alternate Milana Kayumova, added reserve athlete Elizaveta Us and brought in Aleksandra Anufrieva, joining Ludmila Roshchina and Alena Glotova. The last of them arrived in Rotterdam only two days before qualifying, in time for podium training on Friday, October 16, according to USA Today. What they produced in competition startled even the hosts.

Roshchina, a legitimate individual-title contender, finished third in all-around qualifying with 55.098 points, behind Algerian star Kaylia Nemour (55.999) and American Skye Blakely (55.465), according to The Sports Examiner. Glotova was seventh. As a team, the Russians posted the highest score of any nation on the uneven bars and outscored the Americans on the balance beam, and — critically — they did not have to count a single fall, USA Today reported. At least two routines had significant errors, including Kayumova’s on bars, where her counted score was roughly four-tenths below her normal output, USA Today noted.

It was, by any measure, a composed and confident performance under extraordinary pressure. “They did what they have been doing in training,” said Aliya Mustafina, the 2010 world champion who now serves as one of Russia’s coaches, through an interpreter, according to USA Today.

The Americans hold their ground

The U.S. women, for their part, survived a week that could easily have produced a collapse. Only one member of the squad, Skye Blakely, had ever competed at a team world championships before, and two-time U.S. champion Hezly Rivera was forced out of the competition roughly 24 hours before qualifying with an ankle injury, according to USA Today. With the team chasing an eighth consecutive world team gold — a run that stretches back to 2011 — the inexperienced group responded with poise: the Americans counted just one score below 13, a 12.966, and Blakely and Claire Pease qualified first and second into the all-around final at 55.465 and 54.432 respectively, with the Americans placing at least one gymnast in the top two on every apparatus, USA Today and The Sports Examiner reported.

“I’ve just been reminding everyone how ready they are,” Blakely said after qualifying, according to USA Today. “Practice has been going super well, so just encouraging them to stay positive, stay happy and remind them that they are amazing, their gymnastics is amazing.”

The rest of the American squad — Charleigh Bullock, Reese Esponda and Dulcy Caylor, the latter competing on beam only — helped secure a top-two qualifying position, according to The Sports Examiner. But the margins have compressed dramatically. Russia is the only team to have beaten the United States since 2010, USA Today noted, and the qualifying scores suggest the women’s team final on Wednesday, October 21, could be the most closely contested in a generation.

An open all-around race

The individual finals promise their own drama. Nemour, the Paris 2024 uneven bars gold medallist, led all-around qualifying and has a realistic chance to become the first African gymnast to win a world all-around title, according to BBC Sport’s championship preview. On vault, Brazil’s brilliant Rebeca Andrade — a four-medal winner at the Paris Olympics including floor gold — led qualifying at 14.533, ahead of Korea’s Yeo Seojeong and Pease, according to The Sports Examiner. Andrade is competing at a major global championship for the first time since her Paris triumph, BBC Sport reported.

In the men’s competition, Japan topped qualifying with 254.529 points, ahead of Great Britain (251.460), Russia (249.162), China (247.493) and the United States (245.961), which counted falls on three of six events in what USA Today called a sloppy session but still advanced to the team final. Japan’s Daiki Hashimoto — reigning Olympic and world champion — is chasing a fourth consecutive world all-around title, according to BBC Sport. The men’s team final, the first medal event of the championships, takes place on Tuesday, October 20, with the women’s final on Wednesday, the men’s all-around on Thursday, the women’s all-around on Friday, and event finals across the weekend of October 24–25, according to USA Today.

Great Britain, fourth at both the most recent Olympics and Europeans, is led by multiple major medallist Alice Kinsella, competing just 13 months after becoming a mother, while Commonwealth Games gold medallist Ruby Evans is part of a team hoping to land an Olympic berth, according to BBC Sport. More than 400 gymnasts from 84 nations are competing in Rotterdam this week, with the championships carrying extra weight because of the Olympic qualification places, BBC Sport reported.

Analysis: Why It Matters

This championship is about far more than medals. It is the first genuine glimpse of what the road to Los Angeles 2028 looks like — and the first signal that the post-Paris gymnastics order may not simply repeat itself.

Start with Russia. Whatever one thinks of the politics — and the visa denials, the “security reasons” cited by the Dutch government, and the slow unpicking of the international bans are all deeply political — the sporting story is remarkable. A nation that has been shut out of full-team competition since 2019, stripped of two of its three biggest names a week before the meet, and forced to promote reserves into its lineup, produced the best bars rotation of any country and pushed the Americans to within 0.867 points. That is not a fluke of judging; it is evidence of a programme whose depth survived exile.

There is also a pointed irony here. The visa controversy was supposed to cripple Russia; instead, it may have simplified its task. The replacement athletes arrived with nothing to lose and everything to prove, and under the three-up, three-count pressure of the team final — where every fall is counted — that fearlessness could be an asset. The Americans, meanwhile, carry the weight of expectation: an eighth straight title, a home Olympics on the horizon, and a squad whose inexperience was papered over by Blakely’s steadiness in qualifying but will be tested under final-round pressure.

The qualification race is where the long-term significance lies. Only three teams per gender punch their LA28 tickets this week. For powers like the US, China and Japan, qualification is a formality. For nations on the bubble — Brazil, France, Italy, Canada, the Netherlands — this week is effectively the Olympics themselves. A single fall in the team final could mean a year of waiting. That is why qualifying was fought so hard: every tenth of a point carried a consequence.

The individual storylines matter too. Nemour’s bid to become Africa’s first world all-around champion would be one of the sport’s great breakthroughs, widening gymnastics’ map in a way the Olympic movement desperately needs. Andrade’s return reminds us that the sport’s biggest stars still define its biggest stages. And Hashimoto’s chase for a fourth straight all-around crown would put him in the company of the all-time greats.

But the headline fight is clear: can anyone beat the Americans? Russia has done it before — it remains the only nation to have done so in 15 years — and this week it has its best chance in half a decade. The qualifying gap is less than a point. The final is on Wednesday. And this time, Russia believes.

What to Watch Next

1. Men’s team final, Tuesday October 20: Japan start as favourites, but Great Britain and Russia are within striking distance, and the US will be desperate to clean up its qualifying mistakes.
2. Women’s team final, Wednesday October 21: The main event. The US defends its streak against Russia and China; the top three all secure LA28 berths.
3. All-around finals, October 22–23: Nemour vs. Blakely vs. Roshchina in the women’s final is the must-watch session; Hashimoto chases history in the men’s.
4. Apparatus finals, October 24–25: Andrade on vault and floor, the Nemour–Roshchina bars battle, and 15 titles decided across the weekend.
5. The Olympic qualification picture: Which bubble teams — France, Brazil, Italy, Canada — lock in LA28 spots, and who faces a nerve-shredding wait until 2027?

Sources

• USA Today: “The US women hear footsteps. Russia is coming for their gymnastics crown” (Nancy Armour, Rotterdam)
• USA Today: Live women’s qualifying updates from Rotterdam
• The Sports Examiner: US women lead Russia in Worlds qualifying
• BBC Sport: World Gymnastics Championships — GB stars compete for Olympic places