Diana Varinska

Varinska turned 16 in 2017, which qualified her to compete in the senior division of competitions. She began her senior career at the Baku World Cup. She competed only on the uneven bars, qualifying in first place to the final. In the finals, she took the gold medal with a 13.933.[8]

The 2017 European Gymnastics Championships saw Varinska compete only on the uneven bars in qualification. She scored a disappointing 12.766 and failed to qualify into the final.[9]

In May, Varinska competed in the Osijek Challenge Cup, held in Osijek, Croatia. She competed on the uneven bars, beam, and floor exercise in qualifications. She qualified into the beam and floor finals, but did not place, coming in 7th on beam and 4th on floor.[10]

In June, a video of Varinska's bars routine at the Ukraine Cup, an internal Ukrainian competition, emerged online. Fans were excited by its difficulty and good execution, but noted Varinska's tendency to falter in competition did not guarantee her success on the world stage at the World Championships, to be held in Montreal, Canada.[11] However, she still competed well at these championships, qualifying to the uneven bars final and placing sixth with a clean routine. She hit all of her bar routines throughout the competition.

Throughout the beginning of 2018 Varinska competed at multiple FIG World Cups, winning gold on uneven bars, balance beam, and floor exercise in Osijek.[12] In August she competed at the European Championships where she helped Ukraine finish fifth in the team competition; however she failed to qualify to any individual event finals.[13]

In October Varinska represented Ukraine at the World Championships in Doha. The Ukrainian team finished 20th in the team qualification. Individually Varinska finished 37th in the all-around qualification and 14th on the balance beam and therefore did not qualify for any event finals.[14]

In March Varinska competed at both the Baku and Doha World Cups as well as the Stella Zakharova Cup. The following month she competed at the European Championships where she qualified to the all-around final in fifteenth place. During the final she improved her ranking and finished in seventh place.[15]

In June Varinska competed at the second European Games where she qualified to both the all-around and balance beam finals. During the all-around final she won the bronze medal behind Angelina Melnikova of Russia and Lorette Charpy of France. During the balance beam final she once again won bronze, this time behind Nina Derwael of Belgium and Melnikova.[16] In September Varinska competed at the Paris Challenge Cup where she won gold on floor exercise and bronze on balance beam.

Varinska competed at the World Championships in Stuttgart. She helped Ukraine finish fifteenth as a team during qualifications but they did not manage to qualify a team to the Olympic Games. However Varinska finished twenty-sixth in the all-around and qualified to the final and as an individual to the Olympic Games in Tokyo. During the all-around final Varinska finished in fifteenth place.[17]

In late October and November Varinska competed at the Arthur Gander Memorial, where she won bronze, the Swiss Cup where she and Oleg Vernyayev won silver behind the American team of Jade Carey and Allan Bower, and the Cottbus World Cup where she won silver on the balance beam.

Varinska began the season competing at the Melbourne World Cup where she won gold on uneven bars and placed fourth on balance beam. In March she competed at the American Cup where she finished in 10th place.[18] Most of the remaining meets scheduled to take place in 2020, including the Olympic Games, where either canceled or postponed until 2021 due to the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic. Varinska returned to competition in October at the Szombathely Challenge Cup where she won gold on uneven bars and placed fifth and fourth on balance beam and floor exercise respectively.[19]

In December Varinska competed at the European Championships. During qualifications she helped Ukraine qualify second to the team final behind Romania and individually she qualified to the floor exercise final. During the team final Romania suffered many mishaps which allowed the Ukraine to win team gold.[20]