Uneven bars are recognized in trouble: Russian gymnasts go to the World Cup in a truncated squad

On October 17, the World Gymnastics Championships will start at the Ahoy complex in Rotterdam, where team medals will be awarded for the first time since 2023. The top three men's and women's national teams will receive tickets to the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles. The denial of visas to three leading Russian gymnasts — Angelina Melnikova, Victoria Listunova and Anna Kalmykova — seriously affected the medal prospects of our team. Now, if men keep their chances on the podium, then the main task for women will be to reach the finals.

Russian women at the World Cup without leaders

In August, the Russians won the European Team all-around with a score of 165.430 points. Angelina Melnikova took gold in the individual all-around and vault, as well as two bronze medals. Anna Kalmykova became the second in the all-around (and together with Melnikova and Lyudmila Roshchina won the team event). Now the heroines of Zagreb 2026 will not be able to perform in Rotterdam. The Dutch authorities refused visas to Melnikova, Kalmykova, and Olympic champion Victoria Listunova for political reasons.

The reaction of the governing structures of world sports to the situation with the non-issuance of visas to the stars of Russian gymnastics on the eve of the World Cup turned out to be far from what we expected to hear. In response to desperate calls for an assessment of the Dutch government's interference in sports competence, World Gymnastics and the IOC made indifferent comments that left no hope for an expeditious solution to the problem or for punishment of those responsible. Organizations designed to protect the autonomy of sports have in fact recognized the right of politicized officials to independently decide who can claim the championship at the top level and who cannot. So the struggle for the rights of the victims, apparently, finally falls on the shoulders of the victims themselves.

At the same time, the idea of boycotting the tournament was not discussed on our part: the team will perform in a weakened squad. Lyudmila Roshchina, Alyona Glotova, Milana Kayumova, Elizaveta Us, Zlata Osokina and Alexandra Anufrieva remained in the women's team. The Russians will perform under the neutral code WG2. The organizers have received approval for this option from World Gymnastics. Although the international federation officially returned the right to the national flag to Russians in May of this year, local authorities still have the right to prevent its use. This situation may persist at other tournaments for a certain time.

Our main hope in the women's individual all—around is Lyudmila Roshchina. She finished fourth in Zagreb (53.866 points), and 11th at the Jakarta World Cup a year ago. She can get into the world top ten, but she is still far from medals. In March, Lyudmila won the World Cup in Antalya in the vault and floor exercises. So she has reason to expect separate finals, but the level of competition at the World Cup will be completely different.

And you, brus: the crowning achievement left Marinova with a bronze in the all-around

Another of our gymnasts, Arseny Dukhno, won silver at the European Championships.

— We need to look at and draw conclusions about the level of our young girls after the World Cup. Because strong American, Chinese, Japanese, and Brazilian women will be added there," former Russian national team captain Emin Garibov told SE immediately after the World Cup.

Alyona Glotova has prospects on uneven bars. At the European Championships, she received a high score of 14,300 points in qualifying, but she made a serious mistake in the final. Kayumova, the champion of the 2025 Junior World Cup in this projectile, won the March stage of the World Cup in Antalya with 14.233 points and became the second in Cottbus. Both girls will qualify for the final eight. However, it is unlikely for medals. For comparison, Olympic champion Kaylia Nemour from Algeria won the 2025 World Cup on uneven bars with a score of 15.566.

Reaching the finals of the team all-around is real for the Russians. But a medal against the background of a lack of experience — in the fight against the USA, China, Japan, Italy and Brazil — will be a pleasant surprise.

Medal chances of Russian gymnasts

The men's team included Arseniy Dukhno, Daniel Marinov, Sergey Naidin, Ilya Zaika and Savely Sredin. At the European Championships, the Russians took team silver, losing to the British by 0.570 points. Moreover, Naidin was absent in Zagreb due to visa problems. Now he can strengthen the team on the horse, the bars and the crossbar.

— Just now, Naidin presented a new combination on the horizontal bar, Marinov put together the old one, which he did before the operation. That is, we are starting to reach the world level," head coach Dmitry Andreev said in an interview with SE in the spring.

In the individual all—around, Dukhno lost in August to Ukrainian Ilya Kovtun, who plays for Croatia, by only 0.001 points - 82.832 against 82.833. Marinov became the third with 81.899. In the summer, 18-year-old Arseny won gold at the Russian championship, scoring 84.065, and in 2025 he won the junior World Championship. In Rotterdam, his main rivals will be the Japanese Daiki Hashimoto and Shinnosuke Oka, the American Fred Richard and the same Kovtun. A year ago, Hashimoto became the best at the World Cup in the all-around with 85.131 points.

Marinov also has a chance of a decent performance, although Daniel did not make it to any individual finals at the 2026 World Cup. At the previous World Championships, he won bronze on parallel bars, and in the spring of 2026 he won floor exercises at the World Cup in Cairo. Now Daniel is competing for at least the uneven bars final.

Ilya Zaika became the vice-European champion in rings with 14,400 points, losing to Arthur Avetisyan from Armenia with an equal score in additional indicators. In September, the Russian won the FIG World Challenge Cup stage in Paris on this projectile, performing a nominal element. Savely Sredin took the bronze medal on the crossbar, where Sergey Naidin will be another Russian hope. On these four shells — freestyle, rings, uneven bars and crossbar — the national team has reason to wait for the finals and fight for medals.

The main contenders for the team gold are Japan and China. The British, Americans and Russians will also compete for medals. Given the depth of the teams, a bronze medal would be a success for our national team.

Jakarta on the table: the World Cup in Indonesia was the triumph of Angelina Melnikova

Daniel Marinov, the new leader of the men's national gymnastics team, brought another medal to Russia.

Olympic licenses and favorites

The top three teams in men's and women's team all-around at the 2026 World Cup will receive Olympic quotas in Los Angeles for five athletes, not tied to specific names. Nine more teams in each category will be selected for the 2027 World Cup based on the results of qualification among those who did not receive a license a year earlier.

The main stars of the men's tournament are Olympic all—around champion Shinnosuke Oka and three-time world champion in this sport Daiki Hashimoto. China brought the chief parallel bars specialist Zou Jingyuan (two gold medals at the Olympic Games and four at the World Championships on this projectile), Great Britain — Jake Jarman and Harry Hepworth. Irish Rhys McClenaghan is considered one of the favorites on horseback, and Filipino Carlos Hulot is in the vault.

The women's leaders include Brazilian Rebeca Andrade, Chinese Zhang Qingying and Qiu Qiyuan, Japanese Aiko Sugihara, American Hezley Rivera and Algerian Kaylia Nemour. Italy, led by Manila Esposito, will compete for the team awards. The special attention of local fans will be focused on Olympic champion on balance beam Sanna Vevers.

Other national teams also have significant losses. The most decorated gymnast in history, Simone Biles, has taken a break and has not yet decided whether to return to the 2028 Games. Olympic champion Sunisa Lee has announced plans to compete in Los Angeles, but her return to competition is expected in 2027. Jordan Chiles is also aiming for a home Olympics. Italian Alisa D'Amato is missing the World Cup after shoulder surgery, Chinese Zhang Boheng due to a muscle injury in his arm. World crossbar champion Brody Malone has taken a break, but plans to return in 2027 to qualify for the Olympics.

Recall that at the 2025 World Cup in Jakarta, the Russians won four medals: Melnikova - gold in the all—around and vault, silver in uneven bars, Marinov — bronze in uneven bars. There was no team tournament in Indonesia. Now the men will have to prove that the silver medal in Zagreb is not their limit, and the women will have to stay in the strongest eight without those around whom the plans for Olympic selection were built.