Colombian gymnast Luisa Blanco during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
Photo: AFP – LIONEL BONAVENTURE
Colombian gymnast Luisa Blanco, an Olympic debutant in Paris, finished in twenty-third place in the all-around gymnastics final held at the Bercy Arena, which was won by American Simone Biles.
Luisa Blanco reached the individual finals in Paris thanks to the rule that allows a maximum of two gymnasts per country to compete in the finals. She took advantage of this opportunity to share a magical night in the French capital with stars like Biles and Brazil’s Rebeca Andrade.
The 22-year-old Colombian, trained by Ashley Johnson in Alabama (United States), where she is one of the top competitors in the collegiate league, began her competition with the floor exercise, completing a simple routine to the tune of ‘Atrévete’ by Calle 13, without errors, but lacking significant difficulty.
Her score was 12.700, placing her in twentieth position after the first rotation.
In her second exercise, the vault, the Colombian also did not take risks. She executed everything correctly without excessive difficulty, finishing with the third-highest score (13.500) of the six gymnasts in her rotation, moving up to nineteenth place overall.
The third rotation was on the uneven bars. Shortly after starting, she became unbalanced and had to dismount from the low bar to regroup her thoughts. She returned more focused and self-assured, completing the routine well, although the initial mistake penalized her with the lowest score (11.133) among her competitors.
Thus, she lost the position gained in the previous rotation before facing the final exercise, where she was only ahead of Hungarian Bettina Czifra.
On the balance beam, the Colombian gymnast performed a medium-difficulty routine on the most challenging element, which is five meters long and ten centimeters wide, and finished with a correct dismount, totaling 12.866 points.
The Colombian gymnast, with a total of 50.199 points, placed twenty-third in the final, only ahead of German Sarah Voss (49.999).
Luisa Blanco earned her Olympic spot at the Santiago 2023 Pan American Games, where she arrived as a substitute but left with direct qualification to the French city.
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