Paris Olympics door still open for Fil-Am gymnast Malabuyo

Organizers are set to qualify up to eight women to the Olympic Games through the first and second overall ranked gymnast on each apparatus when the series ends this April.

The 21-year-old Malabuyo, a five-time member of the US national team, may have fallen behind in terms of ranking points after reaching the finals and settling for a fourth-place finish in the women’s floor exercises in the third leg in Baku, Azerbaijan recently.

But the door for qualification remains open.

“If they do good in Doha, they can still qualify. And they still have the Asian championships,” said Gymnastics Association of the Philippines president Cynthia Carrion-Norton after returning from Baku.

Carrion added that Malabuyo and Ruivivar are being scheduled to join another qualifier after Doha — the Asian Championship in Tashkent, Uzbekistan from May 2 to 4.

During the Baku meet, Austrian Charlize Moerz went on to take the gold medal in the women’s floor exercise event with 13.566 points, thereby assuring her of an Olympic slot.

Ou Yushan of China was second with 13.533, and Kaylia Nemour was third with 13.266 points, after getting 7.966 on difficulty and 5.3 on execution.

Malabuyo was .133 points in fourth behind Nemour with 13.133, 8.233 on difficulty and 4.9 on execution.

Moerz, who eased Malabuyo out of the no. 1 spot in the Cottbus leg, pulled away when she earned a total of 80 points in the rankings’ after three legs of the four-part series.

In the 2024 Apparatus World Cup’s Women’s Artistic Gymnastics Reallocated Points Rankings of the International Gymnastics Federation, Malabuyo is 11 points behind Moerz.

Malabuyo ended the Baku leg with 25 Olympic ranking points to tally 69 points, with Moerz becoming one of four female gymnasts to have been assured of an Olympic berth after three legs.

The third placer in the 2024 Apparatus World Cup WAG Reallocated Points Rankings is Laura Casabuena of Spain.

Casabuena has fallen quite behind with 45 points, after getting only 20 points in Baku with her sixth-place finish, after making 25 points in Cairo, and none in the Cottbus leg, where she did not join.

As for Ruivivar, a junior standout who burst into elite competitions in 2018, she kept her hopes bright despite finishing eighth place in the women’s uneven bar finals.

The fight for the no. 1 and 2 Olympic spots in the women’s uneven bars is close, with Ruivivar in contention with five others, with her total of 44 points.

This is from the 18 points Ruivivar got from making it to the finals and taking the no. 8 spot.

Of the six, New Zealand’s Georgia Rose Brown is the top bet to make it to Paris. She was a no-show in Baku but has tallied 50 points after the Cairo and Cottbus legs.

Jennifer Williams of Sweden and Vanessa Masova are tied with Brown with 48 points apiece, and so is another Swede Nathalie Westlund with 47.

Croatia’s Sara Sukelic shares fifth and sixth spots with Ruivivar still close with 44. — Peter Atencio