Kiroi-Bogatyreva, Weintraub win at Oceania
Sporting a beaming smile – amid tears of pure joy and relief – the 22-year-old Jewish Melburnian formed a heart shape with her arms.
Before heading to the presentation area inside a packed arena in Budapest last Friday to receive her hard-earned 2024 Rhythmic Gymnastics Oceania Championship individual all-around gold medal, Alexandra Kiroi-Bogatyreva allowed herself a moment to let the significance of what she’d just achieved begin to sink in.
Sporting a beaming smile – amid tears of pure joy and relief – the 22-year-old Jewish Melburnian formed a heart shape with her arms, having earned the only individual rhythmic gymnastics quota spot available for the Australian Olympic Team for Paris 2024.
Having missed out on qualifying for the Tokyo Olympics by the tiniest of margins, Paris will be the 2022 Commonwealth Games gold medallist’s debut Olympics.
“This competition win means a lot to me,” an ecstatic Kiroi-Bogatyreva said, shedding light on how she has “been working towards this goal for four years now”.
“Only my coaches, who have had my back, know how much training and hard work and sleep deprivation and everything, I have put into this.”
She also feels very thankful to her family for their ongoing support.
Leading by 1.550 points after day one, with well-executed, high difficulty routines that scored 31.450 in hoop and 30.950 in ball, Kiroi-Bogatyreva maintained her advantage on the final day, earning scores of 31.000 in clubs and 27.300 in ribbon, for a total of 120.700.
Mayabi Akiya, a 16-year-old fellow Melbourne native who has enjoyed a breakout year in senior international competitions, claimed silver just 3.750 points behind.
New Zealand’s Havana Hopman came third on 114.800 and Sydney’s Isabella Wang fourth on 97.700.
“The Oceania Championships is about the all-around [result], so I wasn’t focusing on having a high score for this apparatus, or this apparatus,” Kiroi-Bogatyreva explained.
“I needed to be consistent and the best in all four routines and I think that is what pulled me through.”
The 2022 Maccabiah Games triple bronze medal winner has resided in Baku for most of each year since 2021, to train full time with Azerbaijan Gymnastics Federation (AGF), while juggling competing and studying law online.
Also a member of Le Ray Gymnastics Club in NSW, she utilises the gym and physios at the Victorian Institute of Sport when returning to Melbourne at year’s end.
On social media on Monday, Kiroi-Bogatyreva added she “could not have done it without all the amazing people at AGF … [and] thanks to all in AUS for your support! Dreams come true!”
Fellow Jewish rhythmic gymnast Jessica Weintraub – a 17-year-old former Melbourne resident now based in Brisbane – can now pencil herself in for her own Olympics debut – along with her Aspire Academy Senior Group teammates – after they won the Oceania Championships group title on Sunday, edging opponents New Zealand.
That earned the Australian Olympic Team an extra gymnastics group quota, putting Aspire in prime position to represent the green and gold in Paris.
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