CARLOS Yulo won’t be the only Pinoy gymnast aspiring to qualify for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.
Expected to join Yulo in the quest for an Olympic ticket to the French capital three years from now is US-based 31st Vietnamese Southeast Asian Games double gold medalist Aleah Finnegan, according to Gymnastics Association of the Philippines president Cynthia Carrion.
“We have been communicating with Aleah and she is keen on qualifying for the Philippines in the Paris Olympic Games,” said Carrion, who was recently cited for her leadership of the association by KG Management at an awards dinner at the Heritage Manila Hotel ballroom.
“We are making arrangements so she can compete in the Asian championships, which will be a qualifying event for the world championships, which is the main qualifying meet for the Paris Olympics,” she added.
Finnegan, who turned 19 last Jan. 4, bagged a gold in the women’s artistic gymnastics team and vault plus a pair of silvers in the individual all-around and balance beam, respectively, in her national team debut in last year’s edition of the regional sportsfest in the Vietnamese capital of Hanoi.
A member of the US squad that won the team gold medal in the 2019 Pan American Games in Lima, Peru, she is currently a sophomore and varsity mainstay of the Louisiana State University Tigers.
The LSU Tigers compete in the US NCAA Division 1 SEC Conference, capturing Conference honors in 2017 when Finnegan’s elder sister Sarah was a team member.
Aleah apparently is keen to follow in her elder sister’s successful footsteps after starring in the Tigers’ close 196.775-197.275 loss to the University of Utah Red Rocks in Salt Lake City three days ago at the start of the 2023 collegiate season.
With a total score of 39.950, Finnegan shared overall top honors with junior teammate Haleigh Bryant in the dual meet.
Like Yulo, the pretty Fil-Am sprite needs to finish in the top eight of the women’s all-around event in the Asian meet scheduled sometime in the second quarter of this year to become the first Filipina gymnast to compete in the 42nd FIG Artistic Gymnastics World Championships in Antwerp, Belgium in September.
Finnegan then needs to at least finish among the top 14 women’s all-around qualifiers at the worlds to gain a slot to the Paris Olympic Games.
