Manila Esposito is Now One of many Most Profitable Gymnasts within the Whole Historical past of the European Championships – An Previous Faculty Gymnastics Weblog

Whereas engaged on the info for the 2024 European Championships I seen Manila Esposito had produced such a very excessive stat line, that it’s virtually unique to solely probably the most iconic Corridor of Fame gymnasts of prior generations. Whereas Esposito is a younger gymnast who’s nowhere close to the extent of a Corridor of Fame gymnast when going by profession medal depend, when measuring her by single-competition medal depend she is now statistically one of many best performers ever within the historical past of the European Championships.

With a medal haul of 4 gold medals together with three within the particular person occasions, it is a stat line that has historically been related to solely probably the most iconic names within the historical past of the game. Within the final thirty years solely Svetlana Khorkina and Lilia Podkopayeva have been in a position to win three medals within the particular person occasions at a single European Championships.

Podkopayeva has the excellence of being the one gymnast in between Ludmilla Turischeva within the Nineteen Seventies and Simone Biles within the 2010s to carry each the World Championships and the Olympic All-Round title on the identical time. Khorkina in the meantime is greatest recognized for being the one 3-peat All-Round gold medalist in that very same Turischeva-Biles time interval.

The stat line of successful three gold medals in a single European Championships has traditionally been so tough to realize, that the one gymnasts to have carried out it within the final thirty years are the 2 most profitable gymnasts in All-Round competitors in between Simone Biles and the Nineteen Seventies. And now Manila Esposito has reached this identical stat line with the three gold medals she received on the 2024 European Championships.

Successful a trifecta of gold medals has solely occurred on twenty whole events because the European Championships first started within the Fifties. And each single instance is linked to both a gymnast who’s already a member of the Corridor of Fame, or is ready on their inevitable induction. The statistic of successful three gold medals within the particular person occasions at a single European Championships is so unique that 18 out of the 20 occasions it has beforehand occurred occurred with a gymnast who additionally received an Olympic All-Round medal. Of the 2 who didn’t, each of them are Soviet All-Round gold medalists on the World Championships who by no means appeared within the Olympics. And in 2024 Manila turned the twenty first occasion of this pattern occurring.

Earlier than Manila Esposito, each gymnast who has ever carried out this both went on to win an All-Round medal on the Olympics, or an All-Round gold medal on the World Championships.

There are an extra six examples of gymnasts who didn’t win three gold medals at a single European Championships, however did accumulate 9 factors price of medals which holds the identical worth as successful three gold medals within the factors system. These are gymnasts who received fewer gold medals, however made up for it with an abnormally excessive variety of whole medals when counting the silver and bronze medals they received.

Of these six examples, 5 of 6 had been linked to Olympic All-Round medalists, proving simply how unique this type of success is to Olympic All-Round medalists.

As audacious as it’s to say, Manila Esposito is objectively one of the vital profitable gymnasts ever in your complete historical past of the European Championships. It might include the caveat that that is solely below the context of a single-competition report, however it’s a mathematical truth. However when a younger gymnast like Manila Esposito achieves such outcomes so early in her profession, the context doesn’t matter. This child is one thing particular.

Beneath is an inventory of the 21 examples of a gymnast successful three gold medals in a single European Championships. And under that’s one other listing that includes the extra six examples of a gymnast hitting the 9-point benchmark.

Beneath are the gymnasts who didn’t obtain three gold medals in a single competitors, however nonetheless reached the 9-point benchmark.