Episode #72
The Robbery & The Ongoing Romanian Soap Opera: European Championships 2026
How "Russia" reclaimed its title to become European champion. We break down Angelina Melnikova's return, the Russian visa drama, Sabrina Voinea's D-score inquiry saga, a controversial beam-final robbery and what these results mean for the upcoming World Championships. GYMCASTIC LIVE REPLAY Watch our U.S. Championships live show with surprise guest Shannon Miller . Replay tickets: https://gymcastic.com/gymcastic-live-at-the-2026-u-s-championships/ HEADLINES Team "World Gymnastics 2," aka Russia, topped the medal table with six medals. Angelina Melnikova led the team with three golds in the team, all-around and vault competitions, plus bronze medals on beam and floor. Italy finished second in the medal standings, led by European floor champion Manila Esposito. France placed third, with first-year senior Elena Colas winning beam gold and finishing second in the individual medal count. We discuss: Sabrina Voinea's latest D-score inquiry saga and how an inquiry dropped her beam score by three tenths, knocking her out of the final Russia's triumphant return and what its team score could foreshadow for Worlds Melnikova's five-medal performance and how her all-around score compares internationally Elena Colas' breakout senior European Championships Why holding apparatus finals before the team final produced mixed results Why Pauline Schäfer-Betz was robbed of a beam medal Great Britain missing the medals after Becky Downie was replaced by Ruby Evans in the team-final bars lineup Memorable skills from Estella Volkoff, Morgane Osyssek and Schäfer-Betz Event-final victories for Melnikova, Helen Kevric, Colas and Esposito The teams and individuals who qualified for the 2026 World Championships CHAPTERS 00:00 Intro 00:36 Sabrina Voinea's inquiry saga 04:03 U.S. national team and vault clarifications 06:33 European Championships medal table 13:48 Angelina Melnikova and Elena Colas 21:31 GymCastic updates and Club Gym Nerd 25:01 Pauline Schäfer-Betz beam robbery 30:43 Manila Esposito 33:04 Unique beam mounts and skills 35:46 Helen Kevric and the bars final 38:09 Apparatus finals before the team final? 40:19 Huel 41:37 Competition-format discussion continues 50:47 Team final: Russia, Italy and France 57:13 All-around results and Worlds comparisons 59:12 Vault final 1:04:02 Bars final 1:05:45 Beam and floor finals 1:10:32 World Championships qualifiers SPONSOR Limited-time offer: Make healthy eating simple with Huel. New customers receive 15% off online with code GYMCASTIC at https://huel.com/GYMCASTIC . Thank you to Huel for partnering with and supporting our show. LINKS European Championships results: https://results.smartscoring.com/live-results/7bbd2dc9-ea89-49c4-84a2-5009458acca0/live AD FREE & BONUS EPISODES Join Club Gym Nerd for ad-free podcasts, weekly Behind the Scenes episodes, our members-only archive, games, forums and live-show discounts: https://gymcastic.com/club/ Add Club bonus and ad-free episodes to your podcast player: https://gymcastic.com/community/postid/89/ LA 2028 Roster Lab: https://gymcastic.com/2028-roster-lab/ Elite Score Explorer: https://gymcastic.com/elite-scores/ Gymnastics Calendar: https://gymcastic.com/gymnastics-calendar/ GymCastic Games: https://gymcastic.com/games/ Newsletters: https://gymcastic.com/gymcastic-newsletters/ Shop GymCastic: https://store.gymcastic.com/
