Mélanie de Jesus dos Santos

In 2016 she moved to Saint-Etienne in France to train with Eric and Monique Hagard. She returned to competition in June 2016 at the French National Championships in Mulhouse, placing fourth in the all-around, balance beam, and floor exercise.[7]

In March, she competed in the American Cup, where she received the bronze medal and had the highest score on beam. She became the second French gymnast to medal at the American Cup after Elvire Teza won gold in 1997.[8]

At the 2017 European Championships in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, she qualified for two finals: in the all-around and uneven bars. She finished third in the all-around behind Ellie Downie of Great Britain and Zsófia Kovács of Hungary. The last French gymnast to win an all-around medal at the European Championships was Marine Debauve in 2005.[9]

She became the French all-around champion in 2017, beating reigning champion Marine Boyer by 1.4 points for a total of 55.450. She also won a silver medal on beam.[10] At the 2017 World Championships in Montreal, she finished fifth in the all-around.

de Jesus dos Santos at the 2018 Sainté Gym Show alongside French teammates

In May, she received three gold medals at the French National Championships, winning the all-around, bars, and floor.[11]

de Jesus dos Santos at the 2018 European Championships

In August 2018 she participated in the European Championships in Glasgow. The French team earned a silver medal in the team final, finishing behind the Russians and ahead of the Dutch.[12] Mélanie qualified for two event finals, finishing in sixth place on beam, and winning gold on floor. She became the third French gymnast to win this title at the European Championships after Ludivine Furnon in 2000 and Isabelle Séverino in 2005.[13] At the 2018 World Challenge Cup in Paris, she won the gold medal on floor exercise.[14]

In March de Jesus dos Santos was later selected to compete at the 2019 European Championships alongside Marine Boyer, Lorette Charpy, and Coline Devillard.[15] She later competed at the EnBW DTB-Pokal Team Challenge in Stuttgart where France placed fourth in the team final.[16] At the European Championships de Jesus dos Santos won the all-around ahead of 2017 European Champion Ellie Downie.[17] During event finals de Jesus dos Santos successfully defended her floor exercise title, won silver on balance beam behind Alice Kinsella of Great Britain, and finished seventh on uneven bars. This made her the most decorated female gymnast of the championships, tied with Angelina Melnikova of Russia.[18]

On September 3 de Jesus dos Santos was named to the team to compete at the 2019 World Championships in Stuttgart, Germany alongside Lorette Charpy, Marine Boyer, Coline Devillard, and Aline Friess.[19] Later that month she competed at the Paris Challenge Cup where she won gold on uneven bars and placed seventh on balance beam.[20]

During the qualification round at the world championships, she led the French team to qualify to the team final in fourth place behind the United States, China, and Russia. Individually, she qualified to the all-around final in third place behind Simone Biles and Sunisa Lee of the United States, the balance beam final in sixth place, and the floor exercise final in fifth place. In the team final, de Jesus dos Santos contributed an all-around score of 55.498 to help France finish in fifth place. Coming into the all-around final, de Jesus dos Santos was labeled a strong medal contender. However, she performed very poorly, falling twice off the uneven bars, and finished all the way down in twentieth place. Though she performed better in event finals, she still finished off the podium, placing fifth on beam and fifth again on floor. It was later announced that de Jesus dos Santos was awarded the Longines Prize for Elegance alongside American Sam Mikulak.[21]

In February it was announced that de Jesus dos Santos would represent France at the Tokyo World Cup taking place on April 4.[22] The Tokyo World Cup was later canceled due to the coronavirus outbreak in Japan.[23]