The European Gymnastics Championships took place recently from April 13-19 in Montpellier, France. The competition included both men’s and women’s gymnastics, with an all-around final and individual event finals taking place. With World Championships coming up in October, we decided to highlight some of the stand-out performers from Euros on the women's side - those who have a shot at vying for medals in Glasgow.

This year’s European Championships were missing some of the top gymnasts on the continent, including Larisa Iordache, Aliya Mustafina, and Vanessa Ferrari, to name a few, so it was interesting to see which gymnasts would step up to claim spots on the podium. Below, check out our list of the top five Europeans to watch for, in no particular order. Let us know who you’re most looking forward to seeing perform in future competitions!

1. Kseniia Afanaseva (Russia)

Kseniia Afanaseva is a veteran on the Russian team, having competed at both the 2008 and 2012 Olympics. She is known for her work on vault and floor, and she proved in Montpellier that she is still just as strong as ever on both events. Although only performing a double twisting Yurchenko in qualifications, she threw an Amanar with no problem in the vault event final as one of her two vaults, securing the bronze medal. Her highlight was definitely her floor routine during event finals, where she showed not only powerful tumbling (triple twist, double layout) but beautiful choreography, dance and precise execution. She had great landings on all of her tumbling, and also showcased some gorgeous spins. Her high difficulty (her floor routine has a 6.3 D-score) combined with her top execution make her one to watch for sure.

2. Giulia Steingruber (Switzerland)

Giulia Steingruber is another veteran in the European field, having competed at the 2012 Olympics and winning several vault championships in the past. Steingruber is another power gymnast whose specialties are vault and floor, but she is also a solid all-around competitor, as demonstrated by the fact that she took the all-around gold medal in Montpellier. She has a 6.0 D-score for her floor routine, which is packed full of tough tumbling (including a full twisting double layout), but she also has one of the most beautiful floor routines in terms of choreography. She’s great at performance and just seems to float through her routine, showing that she is more than just power. Vault is her other key event, where she performs a front handspring 1 ½ twist, worth 6.2 in start value. Steingruber stands out on vault for her execution - she always gets a lot of amplitude off the table and keeps her legs locked together throughout flight.

3. Daria Spiridonova (Russia)

Although she is not a strong all-around competitor yet due to low difficulty on most of her events, Daria Spiridonova is on this list for her bar routine alone. While she took the bronze medal on this event at Worlds in 2014, she won the bars event final in Montpellier easily with her 6.7-rated routine. As her D-score suggests, the routine is packed with difficulty - an example includes her Pak Salto to toe-on to Shaposhnikova ½ connection. She is also beautiful to watch on bars. Spiridonova has great pirouetting skills and always hits her handstands. Although she did score the highest execution in the final (8.766), she still has a lot of room to improve, so it will be interesting to see if her score continues to go up with each competition.

4. Becky Downie (Great Britain)

Another veteran of the sport is Becky Downie, who competed at the 2008 Olympics and was an alternate at the 2012 Olympics for Great Britain. Downie is still going strong, especially on bars and beam. She is right up there with Spiridonova on bars, competing a 6.7-rated routine. Some of her tough skills include a Shang (clear hip circle, counter pike over high bar), a toe-on to full pirouette to Ricna, and a Hindorff. She ended up placing just behind Spiridonova with the silver medal due to slightly lower execution. Downie also secured the silver medal on beam with a very clean routine, which carried a 6.0 D-score.

5. Maria Kharenkova (Russia)

A relative newcomer to Russian gymnastics, Maria Kharenkova won the silver medal in the all-around for four very clean routines. Her difficulty is a bit low on a few of the events, especially vault where she only competes a full twisting Yurchenko. It’s balance beam where she shines. She won the gold medal at the 2014 European Championships on this event, and she has continued to do well coming into this year, competing with a 6.4 D-score. She has a tough tumbling series on back-handspring step-out, back-handspring, back layout, which she unfortunately fell on during event finals. She also performs a free walkover to sheep jump combo and a side aerial to switch leg leap to back pike. If she can get her difficulty level up on her other events, she’ll be a tough all-arounder to compete with.

Notable mentions

Claudia Fragapane (Great Britain), who competed one of the toughest floor routines, packed with four huge tumbling passes.

Ellie Downie (Great Britain), who placed third in the all-around and overall had a very consistent competition.

Maria Paseka (Russia), who competed two of the toughest vaults at event finals, worth 6.3 and 6.4, although her form will need some work as her legs tend to go into a straddle position when she repels off the vaulting table.

Andreea Munteanu (Romania), who took the gold medal on beam for a very solid routine which included a back handspring step-out into full twisting back tuck for her tumbling series, and a triple twist for her dismount. 

Related:
Giulia Steingruber, Oleg Verniaiev Win All-Around at 2015 European Championships