Call it a sign of the times we live in, but there is currently a statistic in women’s artistic gymnastics (WAG) that is so baffling, it makes me wonder how this current era will be interpreted by fans in future decades. This statistic was made possible only by a combination of unprecedent geopolitical events that have nothing to do with sports, coupled with one of the most unexpected moments in Olympic history, all while occurring alongside a once in a century pandemic.

The statistic in question is that that of the last four gymnasts to win the gold medal in the All-Around, in all four cases it marked the last time they competed in a major All-Around Finals. Consequently, all four gymnasts can say they have yet to be beaten and have yet to have their crown taken away by a fellow rival. The four gymnasts in question are:

Simone Biles of the United States (2019 World Championships)
Sunisa Lee of the United States (2021 Olympics)
Angelina Melnikova of Russia (2021 World Championships)
Rebeca Andrade of Brazil (2022 World Championships)

Simone Biles won the All-Around in traditional fashion at the 2019 World Championships. But then things got weird when the 2020 Olympics were delayed until 2021. During those Olympics Simone famously withdrew from All-Around finals after experiencing a bout of “the Twisties.” This allowed Sunisa Lee to take the All-Around gold medal and surpass Simone Biles, but only doing so under circumstances where she wasn’t competing directly against Simone.

Next came the 2021 World Championships which due to the Covid-19 Pandemic, were caught up in a scheduling quirk. Never before had the All-Around been contested twice in one year, nor held directly after the Olympics in a time period where many of the top gymnasts typically take a rest period from high-level competition. This allowed Angelina Melnikova to win the All-Around, but doing so in a competition where neither Sunisa Lee nor Simone Biles were in attendance, while Rebeca Andrade was present but opted not to compete as an All-Arounder.

But then came Russia’s war against Ukraine resulting in Russian athletes including Melnikova being banned from competition as a war sanction. This resulted in organizers for the 2022 World Championships awkwardly promoting Melnikova as the reigning #1 gymnast on their event website, for a competition where she was banned from competing or defending her title. This allowed Rebeca Andrade to win the All-Around at the 2022 World Championships in a competition where Melnikova, Sunisa, and Biles were all absent.

Thus completing a four year period where women’s gymnastics produced four different All-Around Champions, without any instance of the previous gold medalist directly losing to the new victor.

As a fan of the sport, this is a rather unique time period because we have four consecutive instances where a highly decorated gymnast reached a high-point in her career, without having any form of closure to their current run of success. Four gymnasts have simultaneously watched their careers rise, with no “fall” in sight or anything resembling a climatic end.

But what makes this current trend so fascinating is that none of these gymnasts have intentionally avoided each other. All four gymnasts have made a genuine effort to remain at the highest level of competition and attend the 2024 Olympics in top shape.

For Sunisa Lee and Simone Biles, it is perfectly normal for a high-ranking American gymnast to take a hiatus spanning 1.5 years which is exactly what Aly Raisman and Gabby Douglas did in the past. In the case of Sunisa Lee, she is also competing during the era of an unprecedented NCAA rule change (NIL) where current Olympic superstars can now simultaneously cash in on post-Olympic sponsorships while maintaining NCAA eligibility.

This never before seen scenario made Sunisa Lee the first-ever Olympic All-Around Champion to compete as a college gymnast. Sunisa Lee was the first of her kind being able to take advantage of a rule change that had previously limited high-level Olympic gymnasts from competing NCAA instead of elite. Considering Sunisa intends to return to elite competition by the Summer of 2023 despite being hospitalized with a non-gymnastics related medical condition earlier in the year, she is the last gymnast who could ever be accused of trying to dodge a top-level matchup.

The same could be said for Simone Biles whose Tokyo-2021 Olympic experience was so awful and came with such taxing media scrutiny, it is understandable why she would want to wait as long as possible before returning to competition in the Paris-2024 Olympic cycle. Simone Biles is not only the most decorated gymnast in the history of the World Championships, but has already had one of the longest careers amongst any gymnast to have ever won the All-Around. If there is one gymnast that has earned the right to skip a competition because she is an aging veteran who wants to preserve her body, while having nothing left to prove with any future success being merely a bonus on top of a storied career, it is Simone Biles.

But Simone Biles has all the signs of a gymnast who is training hard for a future appearance in high-level competition including the recent announcement that she will compete alongside Sunisa Lee in the U.S. Classic later in the Summer.

And then there is Angelina Melnikova who is without exaggeration the most aggressive gymnast of the past decade when it comes to attending any and every competition available to her. Starting with her senior debut in 2016, Angelina Melnikova has never missed a European Championships, World Championships, or Olympics from 2016 to 2021. The lone exception being the 2020 European Championships which she was barred from competing in due to Covid-19 restrictions.

Angelina Melnikova only seemed to be getting better and better with each passing competition. Her success had finally culminated in winning the prestigious All-Around gold medal in late 2021. But before Melnikova could follow up on that success, Russia was banned from competition in early 2022. Yet Melnikova continues to train and compete in Russian domestic competition, still attempting to be an athlete, even while having no high-level competition to strive for.

Finally, there is Rebeca Andrade who has only competed in All-Around Finals on three occasions in the eight years she has been eligible for high-level competition at the Olympics and World Championships level. But Andrade has suffered three ACL tears in her career which explains her numerous absences. Many gymnastics fans (myself included) are of the opinion that all the gold medals Andrade has won in her last three major competitions are proof that Rebeca has always been one of the most talented gymnasts in the sport, it was a longstanding history of injuries that had prevented her from proving her true capabilities until now.

None of these four gymnasts have shown anything to indicate their careers are on the decline. Melnikova and Andrade are two long-time veterans who have just begun to hit their stride and enter the most dominant portion of their careers. Sunisa Lee is still a relatively young star with untapped potential for the future. And Simone Biles will always have the potential to be a gold medal threat. While it should be noted that Simone was at her most dominant form right up until the 2021 Olympics.

The last time a reigning All-Around Champion was actually defeated in an All-Around Finals was Morgan Hurd at the 2018 World Championships. If we didn’t have the context of Simone Biles dominating the sport in the 2013-2018 era and only looked at the sport using results from 2019-2023, fans would be completely divided over which of these four gymnasts was truly the top threat for the 2024 Olympics.

Sunisa Lee, Angelina Melnikova, Simone Biles, and Rebeca Andrade have never appeared together in the same All-Around Finals. It was only at the 2019 World Championships and 2021 Olympics that 3 of 4 were in the same All-Around Finals. Meanwhile the World Championships in 2017, 2021 and 2022 featured just 1 of 4 gymnasts.

The climatic showdown between these four gymnasts will likely never come. Angelina Melnikova is currently under a war ban that not only has no end in sight, but even Russian officials have begun to publicly acknowledge that their outlooks for being allowed to participate at the 2024 Olympics in gymnastics are grim. For Melnikova, the most realistic scenario is the war ban won’t be lifted until at least the Los Angeles-2028 Olympic quad, a time period where Biles will most likely be retired.

The Covid era of gymnastics will be remembered for these four gymnasts and their All-Around prowess, yet paradoxically these gymnasts didn’t have all that many encounters with each other in the All-Around. And certainly not during the time period when all four gymnasts were at the height their success.

Between Sunisa, Melnikova, Andrade, and Biles, none of these gymnasts have directly competed against any other member of the quartet on more than two occasions. Of the four gymnasts, Angelina Melnikova has the most All-Around appearances in the 2016-2022 era. But Melnikova has faced Biles only two times in All-Around Finals, Sunisa Lee two times, and Rebeca Andrade on one occasion. That’s the sum total of any of these personal rivalries.

Which brings me back to the original question that inspired this article. How will future generations of WAG fans interpret the current era of gymnastics?