Angelina Melnikova added another Olympic medal to her collection today. In the floor final, she tied for bronze with Mai Murakami – the gymnasts had the same difficulty and execution scores. Jade Carey won gold and Vanessa Ferrari won silver – her first Olympic medal came 15 years after her World all-around gold in 2006.
Melnikova said to journalists today that her AA and floor medals came as bonuses because the main goal was the team medal.
Q: Is bronze medal a great ending?
A: It’s just a beautiful ending. I was really worried. I really wanted to finish the Olympic Games well and I did it. I’m over the moon.
Q: How unusual was it to tie for a medal?
A: Unusual, of course. It doesn’t happen often. But it’s great, it brings people together.
Q: How do bronze medals feel after the team gold? Do they feel the same?
A: Any Olympic medal is the highest level of emotions. You’re striving for any good result. First, you want to do your routine well. When you do that and also get a medal, any medal, it’s just unreal.
Q: Your facial expression seemed a bit dissatisfied after today’s performance.
A: No. I had a great, content facial expression, I was just really worried about the score. I knew that I did well. And I really wanted to be on the medal podium, that’s why I was really worried when other girls competed.
Q: How many medals did you wish for when you were traveling to these Olympics?
A: I didn’t make any wishes. The special focus was on the team medal. So, the rest were additional bonuses.
Q: What’s next? Will you stay [in the sport], take a break, or continue?
A: I don’t know yet. I want to come home and rest. Because it was a very difficult yet. Because of the postponement of the Olympics, we worked for 1.5 years instead of half a year. So, right now, I really want to rest.
Melnikova praised Mai Murakami with whom she tied for the third place:
“It’s great to tie with Murakami. She also had a good floor routine, she performed well. We have exactly the same difficulty. I wanted to do the routine as well as possible. I set a goal for myself to do my best floor routine ever.”
After the all-around final, Melnikova said she was grateful to Simone Biles for cheering on her during the final. Tomorrow, Melnikova plans to watch Biles compete:
“We plan on coming tomorrow and supporting our boys and girls. Also, I know that Simone will compete. I heard her cheers today again, I thank her for that every time.”
Valentina Rodionenko said yesterday that Russia had higher hopes for Viktoria Listunova in the floor final than for Melnikova but Listunova finished last today after making multiple mistakes in her routine. Rodionenko, as it often happens, was unhappy with the judging today:
“Of course, I’m unhappy with how Gelya was judged. She did her floor routine as she’s never done before but the judges place everyone according to rank, there’s nothing to do. They had to put her in the same place on the medal podium as the Japanese, it was the first tie at the Olympic. Do you see how they are judging? If the gymnasts are equal, they won’t let [win]. You have to be a head higher. They don’t want to give us the gold – why? Supposedly, two team golds should be enough for us.”
There were actually ties at the Olympics in the past, so it’s not unprecedented even though it is extremely rare. In 1996, there were two ties in WAG – a tie for bronze between Simona Amanar and Lavinia Milosovici in the all-around final, and a tie for silver between Bi Wenjing and Amy Chow on bars.
Photo: Russian Artistic Gymnastics Federation
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