GYMNASTICS Preview: Three World Champions in Artistic World Challenge Cup in Paris

Greece's Eleftherios Petrounias, the 2016 Olympic gold medalist in Rings (Photo: Fernando Frazao/Agencia Brasil via Wikimedia Commons)

The sixth of seven meets in the FIG Artistic World Challenge Cup series comes this week in Paris (FRA), on Saturday and Sunday at the Accorhotels Arena.

This is an apparatus-only event (no All-Around) with some noteworthy entries, including three athletes who own individual golds from the FIG World Championships:

● Tin Srbic (CRO) ~ 2017 High Bar World Champion
● Eleftherios Petrounias (GRE) ~ 2016 Olympic Rings gold; 2015-17-18 Rings Worlds golds
● Artem Dolgopyat (ISR) ~ 2017 Worlds Floor silver medalist
● Saso Bertoncelj (SLO) ~ 2018 European Pommel Horse silver medalist

● Zofia Kovacs (HUN) ~ 2017 European Champs All-Around silver medalist
● Diana Varinska (UKR) ~ 2019 European Games All-Around bronze medalist
● Oksana Chusovitina (UZB) ~ 11-time World Championships medalist, including 1991 World Floor Champion and 2003 World Vault Champion

Chusovitina is now 44 and won her first international championship medals back in 1991 for the USSR; she has also competed for the Commonwealth of Independent States, the Unified Team, for Germany and now for Uzbekistan. In 2018, she won the Asian Games silver medal in Vault. Amazing!

Prize money, as usual, for the World Challenge Cups is CHF 800-600-400-300-250-200-150-100 for the top eight places. Look for results here.