Opportunity knocked, Aleah Finnegan answered
The American turned Filipina gymnast wasn't focused on elite gymnastics until she got a chance she couldn't turn down. Now she is set to become the first female gymnast from the Philippines at the Olympics.
Artistic Gymnastics
Aleah Finnegan was content with her elite gymnastics career.
She had moved on, gone to Louisiana State University, becoming one of the stars of the squad.
What she thought would be her final competition as an elite gymnast – the 2021 U.S. Gymnastics Championships – was a behind her, a performance she called heartbreaking at the time all but a distant memory.
“I had kind of had peace with putting my elite career to rest,” Finnegan told Olympics.com in an exclusive interview earlier this month. “I wasn’t really focusing on my elite career.”
But, then, she got a call from the Gymnastics Association of the Philippines asking if she was interested in representing them at the 2022 Southeast Asian Games.
Finnegan’s mother, Linabelle, was born and raised in the Philippines and her oldest sister, Hannah, had presented the island nation at the SEA Games more than a decade ago.
At first, Finnegan wasn’t sure she was ready to open the door to elite gymnastics again.
“I really wasn’t sure if that was something that I wanted to do just because I was just kind of getting settled into my collegiate career and kind of the structure of going every single week another competition,” explained Finnegan. “Later in that season, I ultimately made the decision because my body was in the right space, my mind was in the right space to ultimately continue competing after such a long season already.”
It paid off, as Finnegan went on to win four medals at those Games including team and vault golds. She was the silver medallist in the all-around and on the balance beam.
Aleah Finnegan: “What do I want this to become?”
Even after her successful international outing, her focus remained on her LSU season, and Finnegan wasn’t sure she would continue competing for the Philippines.
“I really just focused on, ‘Okay, where do I want to go with this? What do I want this to become?’” Finnegan said of her deliberations. “I try not to do too many things at the same time, try not to load my plate too much. But I, thankfully, was in a great place physically and mentally [after my collegiate season] to be able to compete again.”
Her results at the Asian Gymnastics Championships in May this year included two bronze medals on vault and the balance beam, but more importantly, earned her a chance to compete at the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Antwerp, Belgium, the sport’s biggest Paris 2024 qualifier.
Since that competition, Finnegan has taken the opportunity to rest up from a long NCAA season that ran immediately into more competition.
“I really just wanted to let my body rest. Our family went on vacation. It was a great time to just kind of recover, rejuvenate,” said Finnegan. “I’m really thankful I was able to have that rest and that time off to recover and give myself a few weeks before heading back into the gym, just kind of been [there] ever since.”
She took a cautious approach to competition in Antwerp, focusing more on executing clean solid routines than dipping into her vast repertoire of skills.
And it paid off.
Finnegan secured a quota spot at Paris 2024 becoming the first female gymnast from the Philippines to do so thanks to her stellar performance in her world championships debut in Antwerp.
An Olympic dream, renewed
Representing the Philippines has re-ignited Finnegan’s childhood dream of going to the Olympic Games, something that her older sister Sarah came ever so close to as a U.S. alternate for the London 2012 Games.
“I’ve been wanting to go to the Olympics since I knew what the Olympics were,” says Finnegan. “I was kind of calculating how old I would need to be and what years that would be. I never really thought growing up that it would be 2024, but here I am with this opportunity.”
It’s something that Finnegan may have thought would never happen after three major mistakes on the opening night of competition at those 2021 U.S. nationals kept her from advancing to the U.S. Olympic trials.
That night, that disappointment, Finnegan admits plays a role in what she’s doing now.
“I didn’t really like how my career had come to end, especially so abruptly, too. But, like I said, I had peace with it, especially just going into LSU and going into that different part of my life. I wasn’t really sure if that was a door that I wanted to open again.
“However, it was an opportunity that was just laid out in front of me, and I don’t want to use the word silly,” continued Finnegan, “but it would have been silly to pass up on it.”