Excitement rises in the battle for a ticket to Paris
Second and deciding Olympic qualifier for men’s and women’s artistic gymnastics in Rüsselsheim on 22/06/2024
Things will be getting exciting in Rüsselsheim: the German Gymnastics Association coaching team still has six starting places to award for the Olympic Games in Paris. Five of these are for the men, who have already qualified for Paris as a full team following the 2023 World Championships in Antwerp; for the women, there is one remaining Olympics tickets up for grabs, as two of the three individual spots available to female German gymnasts have already been claimed. These went to Pauline Schäfer-Betz (KTV Chemnitz) and Sarah Voss (TZ DSHS Köln).
After strong performances by world champion on the parallel bars Lukas Dauser (TSV Unterhaching) and 2021 European Championships silver medallist Andreas Toba (TK Hannover) in the first Olympics qualifier at the Finals, both gymnasts are definitely going into the Rüsselsheim event as favourites. Men’s head coach Valeri Belenki puts things into perspective, without making any predictions: ‘We have a second qualifier and then we will be making a decision.’ The exciting question is what Belenki will be taking into consideration during the qualification process. Is it the team’s potential in the team competition, or individual athletes’ hopes for medals and final places – or both?
The women only have one Olympics place remaining. The only thing clear is that one person is out of the running: Emma Malewski has had to withdraw from competing in Rüsselsheim due to a cartilage injury in her right shoulder, which the 2022 European champion has been struggling with for several weeks. Three athletes have already met the final criteria for Paris, so are the top contenders for the remaining starting spot. This will be an exciting competition, in particular between German record champion Elisabeth Seitz (MTV Stuttgart) on the uneven bars and teammate Helen Kevric (MTV Stuttgart), also on the uneven bars and the all-around, as well as newly crowned German champion on the vault Karina Schönmaier (TuS Chemnitz-Altendorf).
The list of all competitors in the artistic gymnastics second Olympics qualifier can be found here.
Tickets for the event are available here.