Amid the drama of the IOC considering a ban on Russian participation in the Olympics, Russian head coach Andrei Rodionenko officially announced the country's Olympic team on Thursday: Angelina Melnikova, Aliya Mustafina, Maria Paseka, Daria Spiridonova, and Seda Tutkhalyan.

Many of these names are familiar--Mustafina and Paseka were both members of the 2012 Olympic team. Mustafina earned four medals at that Olympics, including a gold on uneven bars, and Paseka earned a bronze medal on vault. Spiridonova is known for her work on uneven bars, and was one of the four to earn gold on the event at the 2015 World Championships. The year prior, she won bronze on the same event in Nanning. Tutkhalyan's senior career began in 2015, and she was named to the Worlds team that year, where she qualified to both the all-around and beam finals.

A name that we are not as familiar with is Melnikova. The youngest member of the team, Melnikova turned 16 in April, and has very little international experience. Her first major competition was the DTB Pokal World Cup in Stuttgart, Germany, in March, and she helped the team finish first with by contributing on all four events. She earned the highest scores for the team on vault and beam, and the second-highest score on bars (behind Spiridonova) with a 14.95. In event finals, she placed first on vault, fourth on bars, 12th on beam, and second on floor.

The Russian Championships were held shortly after, where Melnikova won the all-around competition. One of her most notable events was beam, where she scored a 15.333 in event finals.



In June, Melnikova competed for Russia at the European Championships in Bern, Switzerland. She contributed to the team's gold-medal performance, and was the only gymnast to compete on all four events in the team final. She also qualified to the beam final, where she placed fifth. At the recent Russian Cup, Melnikova claimed the all-around title once again, and improved her scores across the board. Her all-around finish after two days was a 117.150--a full point ahead of Tutkhalyan who finished in second, and 4.35 points ahead of Mustafina.

Melnikova is an elegant gymnast who brings a lot of artistry to each event, but she's also powerful, and throws tough acrobatic elements in addition to her dance. A great example is her beam routine, where she performs a difficult dance like a 2.5 wolf turn, switch ring and sheep jump, but she also does a back handspring step-out to back handspring to two feet to back layout, connected straight into a jump series, and a high double pike dismount.

See her routine from the Russian Cup below:

Video via Alyssia Spaan

This will be Melnikova's first Olympics, assuming all goes according to plan and the IOC does not ban Russia from the Olympics. An IOC decision will be made following the Court of Arbitration for Sport's ruling to uphold the ban on Russian athletes, which was announced on Thursday in Switzerland. A final decision by the IOC is expected to be made by Sunday. A ban like this would have huge ramifications across many sports, but it would especially affect gymnastics, as Russia is considered one of the top teams contending for a medal this year. For Melnikova and her teammates, the hope is the IOC will see reason and allow these athletes to compete for what they have spent years training for.


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Russia Announces 2016 Rio Olympic Teams