Other

As the year comes to a close, many TV stations, YouTube channels, podcasts, blogs, publications, radio stations,... publish their compilations on the best moments of the year that is just ending, whether it's the most noteworthy news, historical events, songs, movies, TV shows,... you name it. In the sports category, those lists are no doubt populated with the greatest achievements in the most popular sports, but we rarely see any addressing gymnastics, not unless they come from a website dedicated exclusively to gymnastics. As an example, Scorum doesn't even have a Gymnastics category, though Fantasy Sports, Betting, and Poker (just to name a few examples) can be found under the category list. That goes to show that gymnastics still has a long way ahead to get to the status of other popular sports. At the beginning 2022, there was a major event that totally change the fate of many gymnasts and teams and even some competitions. The first major international competition took place on February 24th, in Cottbus (Germany), with athletes from the Netherlands, Spain, Ukraine, Belarus, Slovenia, and many other countries. That same day Russia launched a military invasion of Ukraine, and the FIG (International Gymnastics Federation) had to come up with some quick measures to protect the athletes: All FIG World Cup events planned to take place in Russia and Belarus were canceled; the Russian and Belarussian national flags could not be displayed, and the Russian and Belarussian anthems could not be played at any FIG-sanctioned events until further notice. It should be noted that Russia could not compete as such due to a previous ruling by the FIG due to the 2015 doping scandal, so they had to compete under RGF (Russian Gymnastics Federation). The Doha Cup, on March 2nd, was dominated (in the women's category) by RGF, Ukrainian, and Uzbekistan gymnasts. The uneven bars final saw 2 RGF gymnasts finishing in the 1st and 2nd position and a Ukrainian gymnast was 3rd. During the medal ceremony, Daniela Batroni, from Ukraine stepped up on the 3rd step of the podium wrapped in a Ukrainian flag, put her bronze medal around her neck, step down, and left the podium; a minute later, the Russian gymnasts, Mariia Minaeva and Viiktoria Listunova, came to the podium, Minaeva was wearing the Russian uniform with all the logos and emblems covered, while Listunova was wearing an unbranded uniform; they put their medals around their necks themselves and listened to a fragment from Pyotr Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No.1 (which was played instead of the national Russian anthem since 2020). The floor final had a similar outcome, with Minaeva finishing 1st, Batroni 2nd and, Dorina Boeczoego from Hungary, with the Ukrainian and Russian not sharing time at the podium. On March 4th, 2 days into the competition, the Fig issued a new ruling prohibiting Russian and Belarusian gymnasts to participate in FIG competitions, effective from March 7th. However, before the ruling was effective, during the parallel bars podium, Russian gymnast Ivan Kuliak displayed a pro-war symbol, a Z, on his chest, in clear violation of the Fig rules, while he stood on the podium next to Illia Kovtun, the Ukrainian gymnast who won the event final. Doha would be the last international event with Russian and Belarusian athletes, which meant a loss for gymnastics fans, who would not get to see some of the best gymnasts in the world compete, but, at the same time, it opened the door for other nationalities, that had a chance to medal not only in the team competition, but in the all around and event finals at the European Championships, and later in the year, at the World Championships. This is mostly what this video is focused on, on those nations that shined this year internationally in women's gymnastics.