Rhythmic gymnastics: Four gold medals in Rio

Once again, Darya Varfolomeev was the embodiment of elegance and perfection in Rio de Janeiro. But as the Olympic rhythmic gymnastics champion stood on the winner's podium in the Arena Carioca 1 in Rio's Olympic Park with her gold medal around her neck, she too was momentarily perplexed. Instead of the German national anthem, the Georgian national anthem was played. Annoyingly, as the 18-year-old said after successfully defending her world championship title in the rhythmic gymnastics all-around: "I never thought something like this would happen at a World Championship. But now it can't be changed anyway."

A faux pas by the organizers after another world-class performance by Varfolomeev, currently the best gymnast, which once again crowned her queen of her sport. Her four flawless routines with the ball, clubs, ribbon, and hoop made it clear on Saturday night (German time) that there would be no getting past her in 2025 either. A score of 121.900 points was an expression of pure dominance. Her lead over silver medalist Stiliana Nikolova of Bulgaria was 2.600 points, and her lead over third-placed Italian Sofia Raffaeli was as much as 3.950 points.

Varfolomeev, who had already won the World Championship all-around title two years ago and impressed spectators and the jury as the best in the Rio qualification, suffered a setback later on. In the hoop individual final, the 2024 Olympic champion surprisingly finished fifth with 28.950 points. Her club colleague from TSV Schmiden, Anastasia Simakova, won bronze with 29.400 points. Raffaeli became the world champion (30.650) ahead of Stiliana Nikolowa of Bulgaria (29.950).

But after that, she was unbeatable – which meant three more World Championship gold medals for her. After the final exercise, she slapped the ribbon on the floor in joy, her coach Yuliya Raskina jumped at the edge of the mat: The Olympic champion demonstrated her exceptional status at the World Championships in Rio de Janeiro, even without the long-awaited quintuple triumph. Two days after winning gold in the all-around, the 18-year-old from Schmiden also won the individual titles with the ball, clubs, and ribbon.