Aleah Finnegan is Olympics Bound

A year and a half ago, she committed to a regional event in Vietnam as a one-off. Now she’s headed to the Olympics. Aleah Finnegan qualified as an all-arounder to the 2024 Paris Olympics Monday with a 51.366 AA score, good enough to be 6^th among those whose teams did not qualify for the Olympics. She is the first Filipina gymnast to make the Olympics since 1964 and will do so alongside compatriot Carlos Yulo on the men’s side.

Aleah began the competition with her signature floor routine and earned a 12.833 (4.8 D, 8.033 E). She followed with a spectacular Yurchenko 1.5 vault to earn a 13.400 (4.6 D, 8.800 E). She hit her bars routine to earn a 12.433 (4.9 D, 7.533 E). She finished a stellar competition with a 12.700 on beam (4.8 D, 7.900 E). This was a .967 improvement on her score from Asian Championships.

Only three other gymnasts have competed at the Olympics and at LSU. Jennifer Wood competed for Canada at the 1992 Olympics, Shanyn MacEachern competed for Canada at the 1996 Olympics and Ruby Harrold competed for Great Britain at the 2016 Olympics. Sarah Finnegan and Jessica Savona were also alternates for the 2012 Olympic teams of the U.S. and Canada, respectively, but neither competed. Those five did so before they competed for LSU.