The Robbery & The Ongoing Romanian Soap Opera: European Championships 2026

How "Russia" reclaimed its title to become European champion. We break down Angelina Melnikova's return, the Russian visa drama, Sabrina Voinea's D-score inquiry saga, a controversial beam-final robbery and what these results mean for the upcoming World Championships.

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Watch our U.S. Championships live show with surprise guest Shannon Miller. Replay tickets: https://gymcastic.com/gymcastic-live-at-the-2026-u-s-championships/

HEADLINES

Team "World Gymnastics 2," aka Russia, topped the medal table with six medals. Angelina Melnikova led the team with three golds in the team, all-around and vault competitions, plus bronze medals on beam and floor.

Italy finished second in the medal standings, led by European floor champion Manila Esposito. France placed third, with first-year senior Elena Colas winning beam gold and finishing second in the individual medal count.

We discuss:

• Sabrina Voinea's latest D-score inquiry saga and how an inquiry dropped her beam score by three tenths, knocking her out of the final

• Russia's triumphant return and what its team score could foreshadow for Worlds

• Melnikova's five-medal performance and how her all-around score compares internationally

• Elena Colas' breakout senior European Championships

• Why holding apparatus finals before the team final produced mixed results

• Why Pauline Schäfer-Betz was robbed of a beam medal

• Great Britain missing the medals after Becky Downie was replaced by Ruby Evans in the team-final bars lineup

• Memorable skills from Estella Volkoff, Morgane Osyssek and Schäfer-Betz

• Event-final victories for Melnikova, Helen Kevric, Colas and Esposito

• The teams and individuals who qualified for the 2026 World Championships

CHAPTERS

00:00 Intro 00:36 Sabrina Voinea's inquiry saga 04:03 U.S. national team and vault clarifications 06:33 European Championships medal table 13:48 Angelina Melnikova and Elena Colas 21:31 GymCastic updates and Club Gym Nerd 25:01 Pauline Schäfer-Betz beam robbery 30:43 Manila Esposito 33:04 Unique beam mounts and skills 35:46 Helen Kevric and the bars final 38:09 Apparatus finals before the team final? 40:19 Huel 41:37 Competition-format discussion continues 50:47 Team final: Russia, Italy and France 57:13 All-around results and Worlds comparisons 59:12 Vault final 1:04:02 Bars final 1:05:45 Beam and floor finals 1:10:32 World Championships qualifiers

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LINKS

European Championships results: https://results.smartscoring.com/live-results/7bbd2dc9-ea89-49c4-84a2-5009458acca0/live

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