Gold for young Darja

At the Olympic Games Paris 2024, Germany had a breakthrough in rhythmic gymnastics, as Darja Varfolomeev soared to all-around gold on Friday 9 August.

"It's amazing. I think I will only realise it all later. I can't express my emotions, I'm still focused," she told reporters afterward. "It's difficult to say something right now. I'm really happy and I'm still not really believing it. I'm also really happy that I was able to do four clean routines. That was really important for me. Now I've finished my competition with a gold. It's just unbelievable."

Bulgaria's Boryana Kaleyn was silver followed by Italian Sofia Raffaeli in third. It’s part of a resurgence in the sport for the nation that has only claimed one medal in the Rhyhtmic Gymnastics before reunification. Regina Weber took bronze in the inaugural contest at the ’84 Games in Los Angeles.

Varfolomeev and compatriot Margarita Kolosov, who finished just outside the medals in fourth, represent the first time Germany has had two women in the final since the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul.

Kolosov's placement is the highest (other than Varfolomeev) since that bronze medal forty years ago. “It took these nine years, maybe seven, until it started to work,” said German coach Yulia Raskina, a Sydney 2000 silver medallist for her native Belarus, the woman at the center of their remarkable return to the sport’s spotlight. “Everything takes time. In rhythmic gymnastics, especially, everything takes time, yeah? After ages, you see if you were right or if you were wrong.”

Raskina has lived in Germany since 2014. A decade later, she’d brought two athletes – Varfolomeev and Kolosov – to Paris.

The rise of the program has not be easy, says Raskina. “Of course, the system is very different from Belarus and Germany, and my times as a gymnast were much different than my times now as a coach,” she explained. “I had to accept many things, to change my opinion, my mind.

“Especially in Germany, we don’t have so much time. We cannot work unlimited [hours]. The girls go to school,” she continued. “Maybe, yes, I have now a system of how I work. I have a plan of how it’s supposed to be.” In reality, it’s been a long road, one full of sacrifices. She left her native Russia at age 13, alone, to pursue her career in the sport. Varfolomoeev’s parents followed three years later.

At first, the result didn’t come. She finished 15th with clubs during qualifying at the 2019 Junior Rhythmic Gymnastics World Championships. It was the only event she performed at the competition. But, suddenly, success was there, a fifth place finish at the 2022 Europeans led to a silver medal all-around at the senior worlds later that season. “We were all a bit surprised,” admitted Raskina. “It was unexpected.” Last season, she swept all five gold medals at the world championships.

“I was always feeling that we have to say, ‘World, we are in our place. She belongs on top,’” said Raskina. “I just tried [to make sure] that she’s strong, that she’s getting better as a gymnast, that she has class. For me, it’s very important that her skills are good, that she’s doing everything technically correct, that she can react fast. “It’s just developing,” the coach continued. “You have a goal and you just try to work with her in the situation where you are.”

Friday in Paris, that was enough. "For this medal, I've worked every day, nine hours [a day]," Varfolomeev said.

China's Gold on Group final

China won the rhythmic gymnastics group all-around final with a final score of 69.800. Israel took silver with just the smallest of margins at 68.850 points, while Italy landed another bronze medal in the sport with 68.100.

The team of Ding Xinyi, Guo Qiqi, Hao Ting, Huang Zhangjiayang and Wang Lanjing topped the table after the first rotation of five hoops. The group moved in perfect synchrony, a flurry of glittering black and gold to a medley that included “Loki's Ire” and “Can't Help Falling In Love” which landed them a score of 36.950. 

Ukraine’s mesmerising routine that was set to Georges Bizet’s Carmen gave them the second-highest score in rotation one. Italy wowed the crowd with a “molto vivace” routine in Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 for the third.

Defending champions Bulgaria dropped a hoop during the first rotation, but scored the highest in rotation two, which involved three ribbons and two balls, with a 33.700. 2023 World All-Around champions Israel had the second-highest score after the champions with 33.250. 

China scored a 32.850 in the second rotation, the ribbon and ball routine set to traditional Chinese string music. While it was the third-highest, it was enough to earn them the first-ever rhythmic group title for China.

From war to Olympics

Ukrainian rhythmic gymnast Viktoriia Onopriienko found an inner bravery that she did not know: she went to the Olympic Games in a war-stricken situation, something remarkable for her as an athlete. The 19-year-old spent 18 months training in extremely straining circumstances in the nation's capital Kyiv discovering a greater purpose for cmpeting in her sport.

“Many things changed over the last year," the rhythmic gymnast told Olympics.com in an exclusive interview ahead of the World Championships in Valencia where she was hoping to obtain a quota spot for the Paris Olympics. "First of all, I feel I'm braver. I feel like I have grown up a lot. Now I understand why I do it. I have a bigger goal now and now I believe in myself more.”

“The moment I stepped on the podium my thoughts were like, ‘Finally, I did it, I made it, I raised our flag in first place and heard our anthem’," Onopriienko said about becoming individual European champion earlier this year in Baku. "At that moment I thought it was for my country. All the pain we had before, tough exercises... I understood immediately that it was all for the final outcome, to reach that great result.”

How rules worked on this edition

In total, 94 rhythmic gymnasts competed at Paris 2024, 24 individual athletes and 14 groups (five athletes per group). As the host country, France received six quota places which include one group quota, while one quota place for the Universality place has been decided by the Tripartite Commission.

The other 87 quota places had been allocated to the National Olympic Committees (NOCs) with a maximum number of seven per NOC, two for individual athletes and five for one group.

Finally, they had two events: the individual and group all-around competitions. Also, all athletes born on or before 31 December 2008 (15 years old at Paris 2024) were eligible to compete at the 2024 Games.