Georgia has been attracting gymnasts from Russia for several years now but they had little luck on the women’s side with gymnasts getting injured a lot. Two years ago, Alla Sosnitskaya planned to switch to Georgia but had to retire due to a career-ending injury.
Maria Kharenkova posted photos from Tbilisi a few months ago with a caption “No effort is in vaint” which spurred rumors about a possible switch.
Kharenkova won gold on beam at Euros in 2014 and silver in the all-around in 2015 but constant injuries prevented her from making major teams in later years. She kept training and competing at national competitions but hasn’t been on the national team for the past two years, so a nationality switch seems like a good idea if she wants to keep competing. FIG has officially approved the nationality change this week. Yesterday, during the qualification at the Russia Cup, she got 48.1 in the all-around with multiple mistakes and a slightly better performance today earned her 49.332, so a clean all-around performance can potentially earn her a spot at the Tokyo Olympics, if Georgia sends her to Worlds this year.
Photo: Russian Artistic Gymnastics Federation
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I’m stoked about this, & I realllllyyyy hope they send her to World Championships to have her try qualifying for Tokyo. Honestly I’d assume that if she & the federation went to the trouble to get this nationality switch that they have already talked about them sending her to Worlds this year! 🤞
I have always really liked her!