Whereas wanting again at previous photographs from the 2019 World Championships, I stumbled on a photograph of Simone Biles, Sunisa Lee, and Angelina Melnikova. It instantly dawned on me that every one three gymnasts within the picture at the moment are All-Round (AA) Champion making it a uncommon encounter of three legends who’ve obtained a gold medal in essentially the most prestigious occasion in ladies’s creative gymnastics (WAG).
The picture wasn’t simply an opportunity encounter, however a direct byproduct of Simone, Sunisa, and Angelina taking a conventional victory pose collectively after collectively profitable all three medals on flooring train on the 2019 World Championships. On the time solely Biles was an All-Round Champion. However on the 2021 Olympics Sunisa Lee would win an AA title, and Angelina Melnikova would do the identical later within the 12 months on the 2021 World Championships.
In WAG historical past it’s surprisingly uncommon on the Group-1 stage (World Championships and Olympics) to have three AA Champions share a podium. Previous to 2019 the one different time this actual state of affairs occurred was on the 1976 Olympics. Though there have been some “non actual” eventualities in different years.
1999 World Championships
One of many non-exact eventualities occurred on the 1999 World Championships when Andreea Raducan (Gold), Simona Amanar (Silver), and Svetlana Khorkina (Bronze) shared a podium on flooring. Svetlana is an undisputed AA Champion having received titles in 1997, 2001, and 2003. However Raducan received an AA title on the 2000 Olympics, just for it to be vacated and given to Simona Amanar.
Despite the fact that her medal was stripped, gymnastics followers overwhelmingly assist Andreea Raducan and imagine her vacated medal to be a historic injustice. To today Raducan is steadily handled because the true AA Champion of the 2000 Olympics inside the gymnastics fanbase although she doesn’t formally have this title.
Whether or not you’re a gymnastics fan who believes Raducan ought to be thought-about the actual 2000 AA Champion, or imagine Amanar is the actual 2000 AA Champion, that also leaves solely two AA gold medalists on this 1999 podium. However I imagine one of the best method to the 2000 Olympic AA controversy is treating it as a tie between Raducan and Amanar. Thus each gymnasts ought to be thought-about AA gold medalists together with Khorkina. Making this an instance of a podium with three AA Champions on it. Though treating this as a comparable instance has one large asterisk on it.
Technically talking, all three gymnasts had been topped AA Champions, the disclaimer is that solely two had been truly capable of maintain their titles.
1987 World Championships
Outdoors of 1976 and 2019, the closest instance of a podium having three AA Champions on it was beam finals on the 1987 World Championships. Aurelia Dobre took gold, Elena Shushunova took silver, and Svetlana Boginskaya received bronze. Shushunova received an AA title in a tie again in 1985 on the World Championships that 12 months, however she would go on to win an outright AA title on the 1988 Olympics.
In the meantime Dobre would win an AA title in 1987 whereas Boginskaya would win an AA title of her personal in 1989. Thus making these three gymnasts liable for three consecutive AA titles from 1987-1989. Nonetheless, the explanation why I label this a “non actual” state of affairs is as a result of there was a fourth gymnast on the rostrum. Ecaterina Szabo tied Boginskaya for bronze.
So whereas beam finals on the 1987 World Championships had three AA Champions on the rostrum, you possibly can’t technically say each medalist on this podium was an AA champion.
1976 Olympics
You need to go all the best way again to the 1976 Olympics to search out an actual comparability to 2019 the place a podium featured three gymnasts and all three had been AA Champions. In 1976 the culprits had been Ludmilla Turischeva, Nadia Comaneci, and Nellie Kim. Turischeva received her AA titles in 1970, 1972, and 1974. Nadia received her AA title on the 1976 Olympics and years later Nellie Kim would get her AA title on the 1979 World Championships.
So any podium that includes Nadia, Nellie, and Ludmilla would lead to a podium of AA Champions. On the 1976 Olympics the trio shared a podium on two separate events. The primary occurred within the All-Round itself when Nadia took gold, Nellie took silver, and Turischeva took bronze. It then occurred once more throughout flooring finals when Nellie Kim completed first, Turischeva second, and Comaneci in third place.
Within the roughly eighty years that top stage worldwide occasions had been being held in ladies’s gymnastics, the 1976 Olympics remained the one competitors to ever produce a podium of AA Champions. That was till the previous two seasons when the development repeated itself for the primary time in 4 many years due to Sunisa Lee, Simone Biles, and Angelina Melnikova.
