After spending three years away from international competition, Angelina Melnikova was close to walking away from gymnastics. But her 2025 return gave her a new reason to keep going. Competing at the World Championships in Jakarta, Indonesia, she seized the opportunity and claimed the women’s all-around title. Even a fall on the balance beam could not stop her, as she recovered on floor exercise to finish just 0.100 points ahead of runner-up Leanne Wong. Now, as she prepares to defend that title, Melnikova faces a setback: her visa, along with those of two fellow Russian gymnasts, has been denied ahead of the 2026 World Championships.
Watch What’s Trending Now!
On October 13, the Russian Gymnastics Federation announced that Dutch authorities had refused visas for three of the country’s leading female gymnasts ahead of the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Rotterdam, which begin October 17. The athletes affected are Melnikova, Viktoria Listunova, and Anna Kalmykova, the 2026 European all-around silver medalist.
The federation said it viewed the refusals as an attempt to prevent its strongest gymnasts from competing. In its statement, the RGF described the decision as “the targeted elimination of the strongest gymnasts from the fight for World Championship medals and Olympic quotas.”
The federation said it planned to raise the issue with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and World Gymnastics, asking both organizations to assess the decision and its impact on equal conditions for Olympic qualification. According to the RGF, the reason given for the visa refusals was that “one or more states” in the Schengen Area considered the athletes a threat to international relations.
The visa situation has also affected other members of the Russian delegation competing under the designation WG2. The federation said some athletes had received visa approvals while decisions for others remained pending. As of Tuesday, the RGF reported that four women, Alyona Glotova, Lyudmila Roshchina, Milana Kayumova and Elizaveta Us, and five men, Arseniy Dukhno, Daniel Marinov, Sergey Naidin, Ilya Zaika and Saveli Syedin, had received visas. Muhammadzhon Yakubov was still awaiting a decision.
The refusals come at a critical time for the team. The top three men’s and women’s teams at the World Championships are set to secure the first team quota places for the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games. Russian gymnasts competing under the WG2 designation had been hoping to contend for medals and Olympic qualification opportunities.
However, this is not the first visa obstacle the athletes have faced this year. Melnikova, Listunova and Kalmykova were also initially denied visas for the 2026 European Artistic Gymnastics Championships in August. Melnikova and Kalmykova were later granted permission to travel, and the Russian delegation went on to win team gold.
With the World Championships just days away, the visa decisions have cast doubt over whether three of Russia’s leading female gymnasts will be able to compete. Interestingly, this is not the first time visa restrictions have kept gymnasts from competing at the World Championships.
The 2025 World Championships faced a similar visa controversy
In October 2025, Indonesia denied visas to Israeli gymnasts ahead of the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Jakarta, held from October 19 to 25. The decision prevented the Israeli delegation, including defending world floor exercise champion Artem Dolgopyat, from taking part in the competition.
Indonesian officials linked the decision to Israel’s military offensive in Gaza. The Israel Gymnastics Federation challenged the decision through the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), seeking urgent measures that would allow its athletes to participate.
However, the urgent requests were rejected, and Israel ultimately confirmed that its gymnasts would not compete in Jakarta. World Gymnastics acknowledged Indonesia’s decision not to issue the visas and expressed hope that athletes around the world would be able to compete safely.