#2 Best Female Gymnast of 2014 - Larisa Iordache
As 2014 draws to a close, we are going back over the very best moments, meets, videos, and athletes from the entire year. Today we’ll be highlighting the Best Female Gymnasts of 2014. Tumbling her way into the No. 2 spot is the Romanian ringleader, Larisa Iordache.

 

The current leader of the Romanian senior national team, brings not only power and grace to the competition floor but also experience that is backed by an impressive resume. Iordache earned a position on the 2012 Romanian Olympic Team that finished third at the Games and competed in her first World Championship in 2013. It wasn’t until this year that Iordache was finally able to step up to the helm and guide the mostly inexperienced Romanian national team through difficult waters. At the 2014  World Championships, Iordache commanded not only the competition floor with poise, grace and confidence for an individual all-around silver medal, but also her team of fledglings to a fourth place finish in spite of countless rookie mistakes.

 

After World’s, she competed  in the Arthur Gander Memorial placing second behind Russian Daria Spiridonova. To finish out the year, Iordache competed in the Stuttgart and Glasgow World Cups. In Stuttgart, she won the all-around title with a score of 59.766 ahead of Jessica López and Kim Bùi. She received the top score on every event except the uneven bars. In Glasgow, Iordache posted the highest score on every event to take home the all-around gold with 59.232, finishing nearly three points ahead of silver medalist Ellie Black.

Although she’s been dubbed the “New Nadia, ” we think Larisa Iordache has the potential to become a gymnastics legend and can’t wait to see what the future holds for this talented athlete.

 

Related:

#3 Best Female Gymnast

Best of 2014 Master List