Olympics: Impressive gymnasts make history for Philippines

Aleah Finnegan, Emma Malabuyo, and Levi Jung-Ruivivar officially made their debut in gymnastics for the Philippines at the Bercy Arena Porte de La Chapelle Arena on Sunday, July 28. 

For the floor exercise, Malabuyo paced all Filipinas with a score of 13.10 points. Meanwhile, Finnegan recorded 12.73 and Jung-Ruivivar ended with 12.433.

The balance beam portion of the event was once led again by Malabuyo as she registered 12.23 points followed by Jung-Ruivivar who put up 11.86 and Finnegan with 11.46 to round it off. 

The uneven bars had Jung-Ruivivar leading the three with 13.20 points. Up next was Finnegan with 12.56 and Malabuyo receiving 12.50 points. 

It was Finnegan’s time to shine in vault amongst all representatives of the Philippines as she had 13.73 points. She registered 13.03 points in her second vault for an average score of 13.38. Vaulting only just once, Jung-Ruivivar earned 13.60 while Malabuyo had 13.26.

In the All-Around tally, Jung-Ruivivar and Malabuyo each scored 51.09 points while Finnegan recorded 50.49 points. 

These Olympians will not advance to the next round given there are two more subdivisions set to compete in the qualifiers and they already sit outside the top-24 in the all-around tally and outside the top-8 of each apparatus.

This was the first time since 1964 that the Philippines had representatives in women’s gymnastics at the Olympics.