Angelina Melnikova

Melnikova competed at the 2014 L'International Gymnix to win the team gold medal and all-around silver medal in Junior International Cup. She also placed second on uneven bars and third on floor exercise.[1] In April, Melnikova competed at the Russian National Championships which were held in Penza with her home team, the Central Federal District. Her team placed first with a combined total score of 267.966. Individually Melnikova had a strong showing placing first in the Junior Master of the Sport All-Around with a score of 58.300. She also won two other gold medals on beam and floor with scores of 14.700 and 14.167 respectively. She competed in the uneven bars final and placed seventh.[2] The results of these championships were used to help determine the gymnasts who would compete at the European Championships in Sofia and due to her strong performance Melnikova was selected for the team.

In May 2014, Melnikova competed at the European Gymnastics Championships in the junior division alongside teammates Maria Bondareva, Daria Skrypnik, Seda Tutkhalyan and Anastasia Dmitrieva. As a team they placed first with a combined score of 168.268. Melnikova then went on to win a gold medal in the all-around competition and on beam and a silver medal on bars behind teammate Skrypnik.[3]

Melnikova competed at the Junior Russian Championships in Penza, Russia on 1–4 April. She finished in 1st place with her team, then went on to take the silver in the all-around, 5th on the uneven bars, gold on the balance beam, and silver on the floor.

In September she performed at the Russian Cup. She was ineligible to compete due to her junior status, so performed as a guest. Her overall score of 57.234 was the highest of the competition, beating official champion Daria Spiridonova's score of 56.733.[4]

Melnikova competed at the Elite Gym Massilia meet in Marseille, France in November, taking the all-around title ahead of France's Marine Brevet and Romania's Diana Bulimar, and winning a silver team medal for Russia with teammates Daria Skrypnik, Evgeniya Shelgunova and Natalia Kapitonova. She qualified to the floor and uneven bars event finals, but counted falls in both events, leaving her in 6th and 5th place respectively.[5]

Melnikova (second from right) and the Russian team with their Olympic silver medals after the women's team final on 9 August 2016

On 18–20 March, Melnikova debuted in international competition at the DTB Pokal Team Challenge Cup where Team Russia won the gold medal. On 1–10 April, Melnikova won the all-around at the 2016 Russian Artistic Gymnastics Championships; as well as taking gold in balance beam, floor exercise and finished 5th in the uneven bars final.

In July, Melnikova was named to the 2016 Olympic team along with Aliya Mustafina, Maria Paseka, Daria Spiridonova, and Seda Tutkhalyan to represent Russia at the Summer Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. At the Olympic Games, she performed subpar, partially due to a strained hamstring suffered during podium training. In the qualifying session she fell off of the beam and again on floor, failing to qualify into the individual all around or any of the event finals as many expected her to. She improved upon her performance in team finals, competing all 4 events, but still counting a fall on beam. Her performances contributed to Russia's team silver medal.

Melnikova was named as team captain of the Russian women's national team starting in 2017, succeeding Olympic teammate Aliya Mustafina.[6] Melnikova started her season at the Russian National Championships in Kazan. Although she was expected to do well in the absence of Olympic champion Aliya Mustafina, as well as coming into the meet as the reigning national champion, she faltered throughout the competition on every event except vault, finishing 9th in the all-around. She also placed 3rd on vault and Beam, falling on the latter. Despite her poor showing at nationals, Melnikova participated in the 2017 Stuttgart World Cup in March, placing second behind Germany's Tabea Alt and ahead of the USA's Morgan Hurd. She then competed at the City of Jesolo Trophy, where she received three bronze medals in the team all-around, vault and floor exercise. Later she participated at the 2017 London World Cup. She competed poorly, falling on beam and floor with major mistakes on bars and vault. It was announced in April that she would attend the European championships as part of the Russian team, along with 2016 Olympic teammate Paseka, Elena Eremina, and Natalia Kapitonova. During qualifiers, she fell on the balance beam and uneven bars, and she did not qualify for the individual all-around, but she qualified for the vault and floor exercise final. During the vault, her form was not as good as the other gymnasts, resulting in her coming 8th. During the floor exercise final, she did a surprisingly clean routine which resulted in her winning the gold medal ahead of British gymnast Ellie Downie and Eythora Thorsdottir from the Netherlands.[7] Her score in the final (14.100) was the highest international score on floor exercise for the 2017 season thus far.

In August, Melnikova competed at the Russian Cup in Ekaterinburg, where she won the all-around ahead of Elena Eremina and Maria Kharenkova. She also placed first on the balance beam and third on vault and in the team competition.

After the Russian Cup, Melnikova was selected to represent Russia at the World Championships along with Paseka, Eremina, and Anastasia Ilyankova. In qualifications, Angelina competed the all-around, hitting her beam routine (12.600) but counting two falls and an out of bounds penalty on floor exercise due to a foot injury. Despite a low 11.166 on floor, she performed a clean Lopez and DTY (14.400) and hit her bars routine to qualify for the all-around final with a score of 53.132. Her uneven bars score, 14.966, was the fourth highest in the competition, but she was not allowed to advance to the final due to the two-per-country rule; both Eremina and Ilyankova scored higher, with a 15.100 and 15.066 respectively.

In December, Melnikova competed at the Voronin Cup where she finished first in the all-around, ahead of Viktoria Komova.

At the start of the season, Melnikova was named to the Stuttgart, Birmingham, and Tokyo World Cups; however, she was pulled out of the Tokyo World Cup in favor of teammate and first year senior Angelina Simakova. Melnikova started off her season at the Stuttgart World Cup, where she finished fifth after botching her pirouetting elements on uneven bars, falling off the balance beam, and under rotating her piked full in on floor exercise. However, a week later at the Birmingham World Cup, she was able to improve on her performances, managing to get her pirouettes on bars without losing swing, avoiding a fall on beam, and managing better landings on floor. Her performance was good enough to win the meet, finishing ahead of USA's Margzetta Frazier.

In April, Melnikova competed at the 2018 City of Jesolo Trophy, where she claimed a gold medal with the Russian team, ahead of Italy and Brazil. On vault, she won a silver medal; on bars, she claimed a bronze, behind teammate Anastasia Ilyankova and USA's Ragan Smith. On beam, she won another bronze, behind the American first-year senior Emma Malabuyo and Smith. She also finished fourth in the all-around, behind Malabuyo, Smith, and Ilyankova, and fifth on floor exercise.

Melnikova competing at the 2018 European Championships

A week later Melnikova competed at the Russian National Championships. On the first day of competition she earned a silver medal with the Central District team and qualified to the all-around and all four event finals. Several days later, after scoring 14.466 on vault, 14.433 on bars, 13.300 on beam, and 13.566 on floor exercise, Melnikova won the gold medal in the all around ahead of Angelina Simakova and Viktoria Komova. In the event finals, she earned a silver on vault with a 14.049 average, behind Viktoria Trykina and ahead of Tatiana Nabieva; gold on bars with a 14.266, ahead of guest competitor Irina Alexeeva and Komova; gold on beam with a 13.466, ahead of Ksenia Kamkova and Polina Fedorova; and gold on floor with a 14.500, ahead of Simakova and Alexeeva. Melnikova's routines were changed and upgraded prior to the competition to better fit her physical abilities. On beam, her bhs+bhs+layout series was replaced with a bhs+loso combination. On floor, her troublesome piked full in was replaced with a front tuck+ro+bhs+double tuck combination pass, and her double Arabian was swapped for a full twisting double layout.

In late June, Melnikova competed at the Russian Cup. She was originally only going to compete uneven bars and balance beam due to nagging injuries, but later decided to compete all-around, where she finished first despite a fall on balance beam in qualification and a watered down floor routine.[8] She also finished first with the Central Federal District team in the team competition and in the uneven bars final. Melnikova did not compete in the remaining event finals due to her knee injuries.[9]

In August, Melnikova competed at the European Championships in Glasgow. Together with her teammates Simakova, Alexeeva, Lilia Akhaimova, and Yuliana Perebinosova, she earned a gold medal in the team event. While Russia qualified into the team final behind France after a shaky qualifications performance, the team hit 12 out of 12 routines in the final to decisively win the title.[10] In event finals, she placed second on vault behind Boglárka Dévai of Hungary, third on uneven bars behind defending champion Nina Derwael of Belgium and Jonna Adlerteg of Sweden, and sixth on floor exercise.

On 29 September, Melnikova was named to the nominative roster to compete at the 2018 World Championships in Doha, Qatar alongside Akhaimova, Alexeeva, Mustafina, and Simakova.[11] On 17 October, the Worlds team was officially announced and was unchanged from the nominative team.[12] During qualifications Melnikova qualified to the all-around in fifth place and to the floor exercise final in third place. Russia also qualified to the team final in second place.[13] During team finals Melnikova competed on vault, uneven bars, and floor exercise, helping Russia win the silver medal.[14] In the all-around final, Melnikova finished in fifth place, just a tenth of a point behind silver medalist Mai Murakami of Japan, 0.034 points behind bronze medalist Morgan Hurd of the United States, and 0.001 points behind fourth-place finisher Nina Derwael of Belgium.[15] She was later awarded the Longines Prize for Elegance alongside compatriot Artur Dalaloyan.[16] She finished fourth in the floor exercise final, only 0.033 points behind bronze medalist Murakami.

In mid-November Melnikova competed at the Arthur Gander Memorial in Chiasso, Switzerland. She placed fourth in the 3-event all-around behind Jade Barbosa and Flavia Saraiva of Brazil and Eythora Thorsdottir of the Netherlands.[17] She then competed alongside countryman Nikita Nagornyy in the Swiss Cup, a unique mixed pairs event. After advancing to the final in first place, they won the silver medal behind German pair Elisabeth Seitz and Marcel Nguyen.

In March Melnikova competed at the Russian National Championships where she placed second in the all-around behind Angelina Simakova.[18] She won gold on the floor exercise, silver on vault and balance beam, and bronze on uneven bars. As a result, she was chosen to compete at the 2019 European Championships alongside Simakova, Maria Paseka, and Anastasia Ilyankova.[19] Later that month Melnikova competed at the EnBW DTB-Pokal Team Challenge in Stuttgart. She won silver in the team final behind Brazil and in the individual all-around behind Brazilian Rebeca Andrade.[20]

Melnikova competing at the 2019 European Championships

At the European Championships Melnikova qualified to the all-around final in first place, uneven bars and floor exercise finals in second place, and vault final in sixth place. She won bronze in the all-around final behind Mélanie de Jesus dos Santos of France and Ellie Downie of Great Britain.[21] She placed fifth in the vault final and won the silver medal on uneven bars behind compatriot Anastasia Ilyankova.[22] The next day, she competed the most difficult routine in the floor exercise final and won the bronze medal behind the defending floor exercise champion Mélanie de Jesus dos Santos and Eythora Thorsdottir of the Netherlands. This third medal tied her with de Jesus dos Santos as the most decorated female gymnast of the championships.[23]

Melnikova at the 2019 European Games

In May it was announced that Melnikova would compete at the European Games alongside Aliya Mustafina[24] (later replaced by Anastasia Ilyankova)[25] and Aleksandra Shchekoldina.[26] During qualifications she finished first in the all-around and third on vault and balance beam, qualifying to those three event finals. Additionally she finished eighth on floor exercise and was the first reserve and finished sixth on uneven bars but did not qualify to the final due to teammate Ilyankova scoring higher.[27] During the all-around final Melnikova won gold, finishing ahead of Lorette Charpy of France. The following day Ilyankova had to withdraw from the uneven bars final due to an allergic reaction and Melnikova replaced her.[28] During event finals Melnikova won silver on vault behind Slovenian Teja Belak, gold on uneven bars, and silver on balance beam behind Nina Derwael of Belgium.[29]

On July 9 it was announced that Melnikova would be featured in a year-long documentary series on the Olympic Channel titled All Around, alongside American Morgan Hurd and Chen Yile of China, which will follow their journeys and training leading up to the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.[30]

In August Melnikova competed at the Russian Cup. After two days of competition she placed second in the all-around behind junior national team member Vladislava Urazova.[31] On the first day of event finals Melnikova won silver on vault, finishing behind Lilia Akhaimova and won bronze on uneven bars behind Daria Spiridonova and Urazova. She later withdrew from the floor exercise final, citing health reasons. Shortly after the conclusion of the Russian Cup Melnikova was named to the nominative team for the 2019 World Championships alongside Akhaimova, Spiridonova, Anastasia Agafonova, Angelina Simakova (later replaced by Maria Paseka),[32] and Aleksandra Shchekoldina.[33] This announcement made Melnikova the only Russian gymnast to be a member of all three world championships teams during the 2017-2020 quadrennium.

During qualifications she helped Russia qualify to the team final in third place behind the United States and China. Individually Melnikova qualified to the all-around in fourth place behind Simone Biles and Sunisa Lee of the United States and Mélanie de Jesus dos Santos of France, the uneven bars final in eighth place, and the floor exercise final in third place behind Biles and Lee. Despite Valentina Rodionenko's, the head coach of the Russian women's gymnastics team, low expectations for the team,[34] they won the silver medal in the team final with Melnikova contributing scores on all four apparatuses.[35]

During the all-around final Melnikova finished with a score of 56.399, earning the bronze medal behind Biles and Tang Xijing of China. This was Melnikova's first individual medal at a world championships.[36] She recorded the third highest score of the day on floor exercise behind Biles and Lee and the fourth highest balance beam score behind Biles, Tang, and Flávia Saraiva of Brazil and tied with Canadian Ellie Black and Li Shijia of China.[37] During the uneven bars final Melnikova performed a clean routine and earned a score of 14.733, finishing fourth behind Nina Derwael of Belgium, Becky Downie of Great Britain, and Lee. The following day, she competed in the floor final and earned the bronze medal behind Biles and Lee.

In late October Melnikova competed at the Brabant Trophy where she was partnered with Ivan Stretovich. They finished in second place behind the team from the Netherlands composed of Sanna Veerman and Bart Deurloo.[38] In December she competed at the Tokyo International Cup in Aichi, Japan where she won gold on vault, uneven bars, and balance beam and placed seventh on floor exercise.[39]

In mid January it was announced that Melnikova would compete at the Italian Serie A competition as part of the Lissone LAG club.[40] Later that month it was announced that she would compete at the Stuttgart World Cup taking place in March.[41] The Stuttgart World Cup was later canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany.[42] In late September it was announced that Melnikova would be competing at an upcoming competition in Hiroshima to take place in November alongside Lilia Akhaimova (later replaced by Aleksandra Shchekoldina), Elena Gerasimova, and Yana Vorona.[43] While at the Friendship & Solidarity Meet she was on the Friendship team and they placed second. While individual titles were not being contested, Melnikova scored the highest all-around total with 56.700 and recorded the highest uneven bars and floor exercise scores and the second highest vault and balance beam scores behind American Shilese Jones and Zhang Jin of China respectively.[44]