LSU Gold

Finnegan Set To Begin Journey At 2023 World Artistic Gymnastics Championship

Antwerp 2023 FIG Gymnastics +0
Finnegan Set To Begin Journey At 2023 World Artistic Gymnastics Championship

ANTWERP – LSU gymnast Aleah Finnegan begins her journey at the 2023 World Artistic Gymnastics Championship on Monday, October 2 at the Sportpaleis in Belgium. 

The World Championship in Antwerp began on Saturday, September 30 and is set to run through Sunday, October 8. The event begins with men’s team and individual qualification on Saturday leading into the women taking the floor for qualification on Sunday and Monday. 

Competition for Finnegan begins with the women’s qualifying round at 10:45 a.m. CT on Monday, October 2 as she starts on floor in subdivision eight and rotates to vault and bars before finishing on beam. The top 24 gymnasts from the women’s qualifying events will move on to the women’s individual all-around final on Friday, October 6.

Coverage of the event will be shown around the world on live television broadcasts and digital live streams, including a new free-to-air digital platform All Gymnastics (allgymnastics.tv). All Gymnastics will give fans exclusive access to all isolated camera feeds on all apparatus.

Fans in the U.S. can also watch on NBC and its streaming service. Peacock will carry all of the finals live with women’s team finals set for Wednesday, October 4 at 12:30 CT and women’s all-around finals at 12:30 CT on Friday, October 6.All three days of qualification can be viewed via livestream.

The top 8 performers on each apparatus from qualification will move on to apparatus finals, with day one of women’s vault and bars finals at 7 a.m. CT on Saturday, October 7 and beam and floor on day two the following day.

A native of Lee’s Summit, Missouri, Finnegan earned her spot at worlds after finishing as one of the top eight all-arounders at the Asian Championships in June to continue her journey with the Philippines at this year’s World Artistic Gymnastics Championships. 

Finnegan’s journey with the Philippines, her mother’s native country, first began last year when she made her international debut at the 2022 Southeast Asian Games and won four medals, including team and vault golds. She was the silver medallist in the all-around and on the balance beam.

She continued competing on the international stage with Team Philippines this past summer at the 2023 Asian Gymnastics Championships in Singapore, which would ultimately put her in the pathway to Paris 2024.

Finnegan tallied two bronze medals on vault and one on balance beam in the Asian Championships to earn her spot at the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Antwerp, the sport’s biggest Paris 2024 qualifier.

Her performance in Singapore led her to become the first Filipino woman to earn multiple medals at the Asian Championships.

Finnegan will have to finish as one of the top 14 all-arounders of the non-qualified countries on Monday in order to qualify for Paris. Additionally, the highest-ranked individual on each apparatus (six for men, four for women) will secure a quota for Paris.

The FIG event page for the Artistic Worlds is the go-to web portal for the latest news, official results, medal standings and a complete competition program. For the full schedule of events of the 2023 World Artistic Gymnastics Championship in Antwerp, visit the official website here.