The French women’s gymnastics team won the bronze medal in Antwerp. A first since 1950.
They did it: the Blue won the bronze medal, in Antwerp, Belgium, during the team final at the World Gymnastics Championships, Wednesday October 4. The group, led by Mélanie De Jesus Dos Santos at her best, offered themselves a historic (and somewhat unexpected) medal: the last charm at the world championships, in silver, dates back to… 1950. Sunday, finishing seventh in the general classification, the Bleues qualified for the team finals, winning their precious ticket to the Paris Olympic Games in the process – unlike the French men’s team.
The Blues therefore climbed onto the third step of the podium with 164.064 points, behind the United States with 167.729 points and the Brazilian team, second, with 165.530 points. The Americans, led by the impressive Simone Biles, back after two years of absence, offered themselves a seventh world title. The star of American (and world) gymnastics also made a point of congratulating Mélanie De Jesus Dos Santos, with whom she trains in Texas, where the Martinican went into exile after wanting to stop gymnastics immediately of the disappointment of the Tokyo Games.
In Antwerp, the pressure does not fall for the French gymnastics team, since Mélanie DJDS is expected in the final of the all-around competition this Friday evening – facing Simone Biles, friend and opponent; when Coline Devillard and Lorette Charpy will attempt to repeat the feat respectively on vault and the uneven bars. And nine months before the Paris Games, Lorette Charpy, Marine Boyer, Coline Devillard, Mélanie De Jesus Dos Santos and Morgane Osyssek have given new color to French gymnastics and can even dream of a new medal, Olympic this time.
