FILIPINO-American gymnast Aleah Finnegan won’t be pressuring herself when she makes her debut for the country in the 52nd FIG Artistic Gymnastics World Championships, the main qualifying event for the 2024 Paris Olympics, opening this Saturday at the Sportspaleis in Antwerp, Belgium.
“I think we’re just gonna keep how my elite routines are now, and if the upgrades come then great — that door’s not shut completely — but if not, I don’t have any pressure or, ‘Oh, I have to get this skill or my life is ruined,’ nothing like that,” Finnegan said of her outlook to the worlds in a story posted on the website gymnastics-now.com yesterday.
“I love playing with upgrades; I love playing with new skills, and so if it sticks, great, and if not, that’s no big deal,” added the athlete, who gained a ticket to the world meet by placing sixth overall in women’s individual all-around event of the Asian meet in Singapore last June.
Also making the cut is fellow Fil-Am Kylee Kvamme, who is scheduled to join Carlos Edriel Yulo and Finnegan in the city regarded as the Belgian chocolate capital.
While looking forward to her international stint in Belgium, Finnegan acknowledged that in the grand scheme of things, at the end of the day, LSU still is my number one priority.”
The gymnast, who bagged a pair of gold and silver medals in the 2022 Vietnam Southeast Asian Games, explained her mindset in approaching big international competitions.
“I really try not to think bigger than it needs to be, and so I thought that was really cool — that I was just kind of switching my mindset, from going into each competition like life or death and like your whole career’s on the line, but no, I was just grateful that I was able to do another competition in the summer,” said the athlete of her Singapore stint.
Although just 20, Finnegan also bared that juggling her elite and collegiate gymnastics career is tough.
“It was kind of a tough decision,” Finnegan explained of competing in Singapore.
“Because this is a lot on your body, especially this age. I mean, I’m only 20, but at this age it can be a lot on your body,” she said. “And so I was really grateful to be able to work with Garrett (Griffeth). He was able to come out and come with me to the Asian championships, and it’s really just kind of working on fine-tuning what’s best for my body and we just kind of went for it.”
