The much-anticipated World Gymnastics Championships began on October 19 and has almost reached its end. In the last four days, many stars secured the medals that they have been aiming for for years, while several also succumbed to unforeseen injuries. And for 22-year-old Hungarian athlete Zoja Szekely, who even represented her nation at the 2024 Paris Olympics, her fate unfortunately fell under the latter in Jakarta.

On the day of the women’s all-around, Szekely sustained an injury that prevented her from competing any further. Despite that, the Hungarian gymnast rallied to step back onto the mats the very next day. While she pushed herself to overcome the earlier setback, Szekely was clearly not 100%. Cameras caught her lying on the mat in pain after suffering an injury during her routine in the women’s uneven bars final.

“Szekely landed short on the dismount and collapsed. She grabs her knee and is eventually carried off by the coach. Feels like she should have done a layout after yesterday’s AA injury,” posted gymnastics journalist Scott Bregman on X. It was an unfortunate end for the gymnast who once said that the uneven bars were her “hardest and favorite event” since beginning gymnastics.

Despite the injury, she chose to perform a more difficult dismount instead of opting for a safer layout. In the very next moment, she, her coach, and the medical team attended to her and carried her off the mat.

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But she wasn’t alone. On the very first day of the championships, America’s medal prospect Asher Hong succumbed to an ankle injury. Following that, India’s Pranati Nayak, who competed in the Tokyo Olympics, suffered from an ankle sprain during qualifiers. While these gymnasts faced setbacks, on the following days, a few also shone bright in the Indonesia Arena as Daiki Hashimoto from Japan and Angelina Melnikova, who competed as an individual neutral athlete, grabbed the all-around titles.

After her injury in the all-around, the Secretary General of the Hungarian Gymnastics Association, Sándor Altorjai, had stated her participation in the event finals was up in the air. Though she did eventually compete, the sports director said that after undergoing tests, it turned out that she had bone bruises in both knees. Amidst this, the coveted all-around title that was claimed by Melnikova welcomed unprecedented debacles.

Angelina Melnikova’s controversial all-around win sparked outrage over alleged judging bias.

Angelina Melnikova has emerged as the big talking point in the recently concluded World Gymnastics Championships’ all-around final. After Russian athletes were largely absent from the Paris Olympics, Melnikova competed as a neutral athlete in Jakarta as part of the first Russian contingent to compete at Worlds since 2021.

But coming to the much-discussed all-around final, Melnikova wasn’t seen as a gold medal contender, with the USA’s Leanne Wong in sublime form. While she did suffer a fall on vault and qualified for the all-around finals in the ninth position, Wong made sure that she stayed focused. And indeed, she completed all four of her rotations perfectly.

She even went for the Cheng in vault, giving her a whopping 14.466. Thus, with such a commanding performance, most fans, along with Cheng herself, were near certain of her victory. Except it did not happen.

Coming in as the final gymnast in the rotation, not much was expected from Melnikova. When she fell on the beam, nobody thought that the Russian would be able to overtake Wong. With her score reading 13.100, Melnikova needed more than 13.366 to win. And then it happened. The Russian’s routine seemed to be full of errors, and in one instance, she also had her feet out of bounds. Despite all this, the judges awarded her a solid 13.466, handing her the gold medal in the most bizarre manner. 

Speaking about the same, Melnikova herself looked quite surprised to have won the gold medal. “No [I did not think I had won], I had some mistakes on my turns, and that’s why I wondered what the score would be. Honestly, I thought I would be second,” said Melinkova. But soon enough, controversy broke out, and fans were all over the internet lambasting the judges. Nonetheless, Melnikova returned to international competition in style.