Gymnastics Weekly News: Olympic champion Sunisa Lee climbs to top spot in NCAA all-around rankings
Plus, the Netherlands' Bart Deurloo announces his retirement and a look back at Greece’s Vasiliki Tsavdaridou from Atlanta 1996.
Tokyo 2020 Olympic gymnastics all-around champion Sunisa Lee of the United States has climbed to the top of the NCAA women’s gymnastics all-around rankings after five weeks of competition.
Lee, who competes collegiately for Auburn University, moved ahead of defending NCAA champion Trinity Thomas after posting a season high 39.825 in the all-around on 3 February in their dual meet against Alabama. Her performance there included perfect 10.0 scores on the uneven bars and balance beam, along with a 9.900 on the vault and 9.925 on the floor exercise.
2021 world all-around silver medallist Leanne Wong is ranked third, while Olympic floor exercise champion Jade Carey is fourth. UCLA freshman Selena Harris rounds out the top five.
In the team rankings, the University of Oklahoma continues as the No. 1 team with the University of Michigan second, followed by the University of Florida.
With action continuing this weekend, here’s a look at the top 10 match-ups (all times Eastern):
Friday, 10 February
- Minnesota at #2 Michigan, 5:30pm
- Missouri at #3 Florida, 7pm
- Eastern Michigan at #10 Kentucky, 7pm
- #9 LSU at #5 Auburn, 8pm
- #7 California at Oregon State, 10pm
Saturday, 11 February
- Arizona State at #6 UCLA, 5pm
- Metroplex Challenge featuring #4 Utah, Georgia and Illinois State, 3:30pm
- Metoplex Challenge featuring #1 Oklahoma, Alabama, Arkansas and Stanford, 8:30pm
Sunday, 12 February
- West Virginia at #8 Denver, 4pm
Two-time Olympian Bart Deurloo announces retirement
Bart Deurloo of the Netherlands, who competed at the Tokyo 2020 and Rio 2016 Olympic Games, announced his retirement from competitive gymnastics this week in a post on his Instagram.
“Retired! After a lot of beautiful years in the game, I’ve decided to end my gymnastics career and be active as a coach for the Dutch national team,” he wrote. “Thank you all, it was awesome.”
The charismatic Deurloo was a fan favourite who excelled on the horizontal bar. He was the 2017 world bronze medallist in the event and finished seventh in the Tokyo Olympic final.
At Rio 2016, he ranked 15th in the all-around final and just missed out on a trip to the high bar final, finishing 10th in the qualifying round.
From the vault…
This week, we take a look back at Greece’s Vasiliki Tsavdaridou during the women’s all-around final at the Atlanta 1996 Olympic Games.
Tsavdaridou finished 21st overall, highlighted by her performance on the balance beam which earned a 9.687 and features the mount named in her honour.