Despite the mistakes he made in his routine, which cost him significantly, Eleftherios Petrounias secured a spot in the final (Sunday, 4/8) and made history

Petrounias celebrated his third qualification to the Olympic finals, an unprecedented achievement for Greek artistic gymnastics, in Paris. He will now aim for his third Olympic medal, following his gold in Rio and bronze in Tokyo.

The 14.800 points that the 33-year-old “lord of the rings” accumulated in the morning session, despite some errors that kept him lower than expected, ultimately placed him in 6th position in the qualifiers. These points were enough to comfortably earn him a spot in next Sunday’s final (04/08, 16:00 – 16:40 Greece time, live broadcast on ERT).

When he returns to “Bercy” in eight days, everything will be different. The Greek representative will chase a new significant record, aiming to become the first rings specialist to achieve three Olympic medals in the entire history of the event.

Ahead of Petrounias in the rings qualification were his most formidable opponents, against whom he will compete for the medal: The standout performances came from the two Chinese gymnasts, the 2022 world championship silver medalist Jingyuan Zou (15.300 points) and the Olympic and world champion Yang Liu (15.233 points), followed at a distance by the host nation France’s Samir Aït Saïd (14.966 points), Belgian Glen Cuyle (14.900 points), and Turkey’s 2022 world champion and 2023 European champion Adem Asil (14.866 points). The top eight were rounded out by Armenian Vahagn Davtyan (14.733 points) and Britain’s Harry Hepworth (14.700 points).

In the rings final, which will start from scratch without considering the qualification scores, the Greek champion will perform his routine 3rd among the eight finalists, right after the two Chinese gymnasts, according to a pre-drawn lot.