PARIS — In the qualification rounds of artistic gymnastics, athletes have one shot to make the final. There are no lets, no do overs. A single wobble, stumble or fall can make the difference between competing for a medal or heading home.
“Sometimes mishaps happen,” gymnast Ava Stewart remarked matter of factly Sunday after Canada’s showing in qualifications. “It’s gymnastics.”
By Stewart’s telling, “there was some really good, some really bad” in Canada’s qualifying.
The good: The five-person team performed well on the vault with Ellie Black, Canada’s most decorated gymnast, and three-time Olympian Shallon Olsen qualifying for the vault finals.
The team scored 161.563 points across all four apparatus that make up women’s artistic gymnastics — vault, uneven bars, balance beam and floor exercise — which sends them through to the team final on Tuesday and Black scored well enough that she is likely to move into the all-around final, an event she dropped out of in Tokyo after she sprained her ankle.
The bad: It was a rough day on the balance beam. Competing as the second athlete for Team Canada, Black fell during her routine. Stewart, up next, followed suit as did 18-year-old Aurelie Tran, who is making her Olympic debut. It means Black, who finished fourth on the vault at the 2020 Tokyo Games despite her injured ankle, will not advance to the apparatus final.
But the team is choosing to focus on the positive, to stay confident. After the rough showing on beam, they rallied to register strong scores on the floor exercise. And they are ready to bring that confidence to the team final.
“If you had asked me a week ago (when) I’m struggling with a little bit of ankle stuff, just to go out and be able to do all of that today, I’m super ecstatic,” Black said.
Black’s ankle has been a persistent source of grief and she had surgery on it last year. As for how it’s doing now? “It’s good,” Black says. “It’s as good as is it’s going to be. We’re living, we’re taping … ice baths every day.”
At 28, Black has become the first Canadian artistic gymnast to compete in four Olympics and with experience she knows the importance of remembering how special it is to be at the Olympics, especially one where fans are allowed in the stands. Canada competed in qualifying at the same time as host France and the Bercy Arena was roaring. “It’s hard when the crowd is so loud, but it’s also something really special and really magical,” Black said.
“I’ve just been trying to soak up every little moments because you don’t get these opportunities all that often.”
And her teammates seem to be following suit. Right before the team stepped out to begin vault qualifiers, Black said she caught Tran and Cassie Lee “having a moment … I could literally see the sparkle in their eyes about being in the Olympic Games.”
The sparkle was still there post-qualifying when Lee was asked to describe her feelings after qualifying for the team finals. “All I can think of is yay,” she said.
With one round of qualifying competition still to go, the United States — who performed earlier Sunday morning performed in front of celebrities such as singer Ariana Grande, actor Tom Cruise and rapper Snoop Dogg — was leading in team scoring, with superstar Simone Biles topping the scoreboard for women’s all around, vault and floor exercise. Biles competed in most of the qualifying events with a taped left ankle due to what coach Cecile Landi has described as “just a little pain in her calf.” Speaking with media after the qualifying rounds, Landi said Biles’ calf started bothering her “a couple of weeks ago” and “just a little bit again” in Sunday’s competition. He said there had been no discussion about pulling the multiple Olympic medallist from competition.
In women’s artistic gymnastics, the top eight athletes in qualifying move on to finals in each of the four apparatus while the top 24 across all events move to the all-around final (with a limit on two athletes per country). In team competition, four athletes compete on each apparatus and the top three scores are registered. The eight teams with the most points advance to the final where scoring resets.
Canada qualified for these games by capturing bronze at the 2022 world championships, the first time the country had ever reached the podium in the event.
The women’s team is not the only Canadian artistic gymnastics team headed to the finals; Paris marks the first Games in 20 years that Canada has qualified both men’s and women’s teams in this discipline. The men competed Saturday and finished eighth to become the first Canadian team to qualify for an Olympic men’s team final.
Canada has only reached the podium in artistic gymnastics once: At the 2004 Athens Games when Kyle Shewfelt won gold in the floor exercise at the 2004 Athens Games.