De Jesus Dos Santos, a French player, says, “I Have To Work Hard To Realize My Goals.”
M. De Jesus Dos Santos Olympic Games Tokyo 2020
French gymnast Mélanie De Jesus Dos Santos did not defend her all-around title at the European Championships last month in Basel, but she did win the balance beam event, which she told International Gymnast Online was a major step toward her goal of competing in this summer’s Olympic Games in Tokyo.
De Jesus Dos Santos, who participated in only uneven bars and balance beam in Basel, stated, “I didn’t necessarily feel that extra pressure but I had to conclude this competition on something nice, especially after missing the uneven bars qualification.”
First, I had to make it to the finals on the beam to earn my new dismount, and then in the finals, I had to hit each of my beam abilities one by one before attempting the dismount to increase the difficulty of my routine and get a higher D score.
Although she Placed sixth in Balancing beam Qualifying,
De Jesus Dos Santos improved her D-score from 5.4 to 6.0 points and finished first in the final because to a more consistent performance.
A silver medalist with a score of 13.866, the 2016 Olympic balance beam champion Sanne Wevers of the Netherlands, was beaten to the gold by her score of 13.90. Anastasia Bachynska of Ukraine won the bronze (13.333).
De Jesus Dos Santos’s D-score of 5.80 was 0.40 higher than that of Wevers’s and Bachynska’s (5.6 apiece), and she credits her preparation for the finals’ flawless execution.
De Jesus Dos Santo, who won the all-around, the floor exercise, and the balance beam at the 2019 European Championships in Szczecin, said, “During training at Europeans, I was concentrating more on landings, and I think it was what helped me to be very steady on the beam.”
But it’s partly due to the many times I trained my routine in Saint-Étienne. I used to practise a lot of targeted ankle strengthening routines on a daily basis.
De Jesus Dos Santos’s coach, Eric Hagard, was the first to greet her as she stepped down the podium.
Hagard praised the gymnast for her “really tough dismount,” saying, “I told her that completing such a dismount for the first time in competition was an excellent thing to do.”
We knew it wasn’t ready, but you guys trying so hard was inspiring and difficult,'” I recalled telling them. I’m really pleased with you.
To properly pace themselves for Tokyo, according to Hagard, De Jesus Dos Santos will only compete in two events in Basel.
At the 2017 World Championships in Montreal, De Jesus Dos Santos placed fifth overall.
At the 2018 World Championships in Doha, he placed sixth overall and fifth on floor exercise. At the 2019 World Championships in Stuttgart, he placed twentieth overall, fifth on balance beam, and fifth on floor exercise.
“We chose not to compete in the all-around in Basel since Mélanie’s first plan was the (now cancelled) Tokyo World Cup in May,” Hagard added.
It was prudent to limit her training to the two equipment over which she had the greatest degree of command prior to her return to competition in three weeks.
However, we improved both routines in preparation for this competition, and we were able to hold our own against the more advanced acts.
After a Solid Showing in Basel,
Hagard and De Jesus Dos Santos plan to pick up where they left off in training for a breakthrough performance in all aspects in Tokyo.
Her consistency on bars and the quality of her beam dismount will be priorities, as Hagard put it. She’ll be able to compete with the finest gymnasts in the all-around if we improve her floor routines as we always do. More importantly, keeping her healthy till Tokyo.
In agreement with Hagard, 21-year-old De Jesus Dos Santos said that she has to raise her Execution scores across the board, and that she plans to increase her D-score on floor exercise from 5.7 to 6.1.
De Jesus Dos Santos is certain that she can compete for medals on the balancing beam and the other apparatuses at the Tokyo Olympics.
Conclusion
She told International Gymnast Online, “Basically, I am an all-arounder, so for me the ideal medal would be in the all-around final.”
But if I keep up my good work on the beam and the floor, I may be able to win a medal in gymnastics. I need to get into the finals first, and from there we’ll see what happens, but I know that I’ll have to put in a lot of hard work if I want to succeed.