Filipa Martins is an exception in Portuguese gymnastics.

Filippa Martins’ unprecedented access to the decision-making of all competitions (“all around”) at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris proves the exceptional status of maiata in national artistic gymnastics, admits former Olympic gymnast Esbela da Fonseca.

“I had a time when I was still training gymnasts, and I noticed that she had very clear qualities that allowed her to improve significantly and be someone more important than usual. First of all, she has a huge willpower. At that time, she trained a lot, I had my feet firmly on the ground and knew where and how to go. I think this is one of the exceptions in Portugal,” the 82-year-old former athlete told Luce.

Filipa Martins will compete in the Paris 2024 Olympic Games all-around final on Thursday, which starts at 18:15 local time (17:15 in Lisbon) at the Bercy Arena in the French capital, four days after securing one of the 24 spots available in the third event.

Scoring 14.133 on vault (rewarding the courage to risk Yurchenko’s spectacular double pirouette), 13.800 on asymmetrical parallel, her specialty, 12.633 on floor, and 12.600 on balance beam, Maiata finished with 53.166 points and 18th place in qualifying, led by the “inevitable” North American Simone Biles, who won gold at Rio 2016 with a score of 59.566.

“I don’t believe that I can compete for high places, but who knows. It only takes one mistake from any good gymnast or a fall, which can happen at any moment. If you do everything right, you can even aim for third place. May luck be with you,” wished Esbela da Fonseca, an Olympic athlete in Rome 1960, Tokyo 1964 and Mexico 1968.

Filipa Martins equalled the three former Lisbon Ginásio Clube gymnast, who was 116th, 68th and 85th in the all-around classification from the three Games she competed in in the 1960s, and Ana Rente in the individual trampoline at Beijing 2008, London 2012 and Rio 2016.

“His qualities [gímnicas] general. Then comes persistence, the pace of training and, above all, planning. Training must be regular. Thank God, all this is very different from my time. I see very few people, but every now and then such a rarity appears. In my time, there were more people doing gymnastics and trying something. The level, of course, was nothing, but the desire to train was greater,” he compared.

The Acro Clube da Maia gymnast was already 37th in the all-around at Rio 2016 and 43rd at Tokyo 2020 – with a historic 17th place in the asymmetrical parallel routine – but was going at 28, an unusual age for highly competitive athletes, to achieve the best Olympic record of her career, after serious injuries and five ankle surgeries.

“There is a lot of maturity and experience here. I also did gymnastics until I was 26 and it was easy for me, but then we got tired of it, and I am surprised that she has not gotten tired of this wandering. It is a great thing. Of course, at 28, it is difficult to keep up with this pace. There is still a lot to learn, but the years take their toll,” said Esbela da Fonseca.

The unprecedented final in Paris 2024 adds to the list of achievements of Filipa Martins, who has a movement in her name registered in the official gymnastics code and became the first Portuguese in European decisions, in which she stood out with eighth place in the overall competition in 2017, on the uneven bars in 2021, and also at the World Championships, showing her best results in 2021, finishing seventh in the all-around and eighth on her favorite apparatus.

“These are isolated cases when people are good, train more than their colleagues, and manage to surpass themselves a little. Now, in terms of continuity, there is no factory of good gymnasts. [no país] “There is no hope that it will exist. There is no money for it,” lamented Esbela da Fonseca, who has served in technical, refereeing and management positions at seven other Olympic Games, between Moscow 1980 and Beijing 2008.