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Mélanie de Jesus Dos Santos
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Dos Santos at the 2023 World Championships

Full name

Mélanie Johanna de Jesus Dos Santos

Country represented

Flag of France France

Born

March 5 2000 (2000-03-05) (age 24)
Schelcher, Martinique, France

Years on National Team

2015-present

Club

World Champions Centre; Kréyol Gym Fort-de-France, Tropic Gym (former)

Coach(es)

Laurent and Cecile Landi; Éric and Monique Hagard (former)

Current status

On the mend - knee surgery[1]

Mélanie de Jesus Dos Santos (born March 5 in Schelcher, Martinique) is an elite French gymnast and 2020 Olympian. She is the 2021 European Balance Beam Champion, 2019 European All-Around Champion, 2018 and 2019 European Floor Exercise Champion, 2017 and 2018 French National Champion, and 2017 European All-Around bronze medalist. She has represented France at multiple World Championships, and is a member of the French team that won bronze at the 2023 World Championships.

Junior Career[]

Dos Santos competed at the 2015 French National Championships, winning all-around silver in the junior division and placing fifth on bars and floor. She made her international debut at a junior friendly meet against gymnasts from Great Britain and Switzerland. There, she won team gold and placed seventh in the all-around. At the Flanders International Team Challenge in Belgium she won team silver and placed fourth in the all-around. She was named to the French team for the European Youth Olympic Festival. There, she performed well in the team final until vault, where she underrotated her double-twisting Yurchenko and subsequently tore her ACL. France finished sixth in the team final.

Senior Career[]

2016[]

Dos Santos was able to recover enough to compete in 2016, but her knee injury from the previous year hampered her progress. After placing fourth in the all-around, balance beam, and floor exercise at the French National Championships, and winning team and all-around gold at a friendly meet against Romania (defeating 2012 Olympian Larisa Iordache and eventual 2016 Olympian Louise Vanhille), she was eventually left off the French team for the Olympics. After Rio, she won all-around silver at the Blume Memorial in Spain, and posted the highest score on vault. After that, she competed at the Élite Gym Massilia, winning balance beam gold, all-around bronze, and placing fourth on uneven bars.

2017[]

Dos Santos started off the year at the American Cup in New Jersey. She hit all four of her routines, posted the highest score on balance beam, and finished an impressive third in the all-around. In April, she competed at the City of Jesolo Trophy in Italy, placing fourth with her team and on balance beam, eighth on bars, and ninth in the all-around. Later that month, she took part in the European Championships in Romania. She earned a bronze in the all-around, France's first European all-around medal in over a decade, but fell in the uneven bars final and finished eighth. In May, she became French National Champion, won an additional silver on beam, and placed fifth on uneven bars.

In September, she competed at the Paris World Cup, winning silver on bars and placing fourth on beam and seventh on floor. In October, she competed at the World Championships in Montreal, Canada, placing an impressive fifth in the all-around. In November, she competed at the Elite Gym Massilia, winning team and uneven bars gold, all-around silver, and placing fourth on floor exercise. In December, she won gold on uneven bars and silver on balance beam at the Toyota International.

2018[]

Dos Santos competed at the Doha World Cup in March, winning balance beam gold and uneven bars bronze. In April, she took bronze in the all-around at the Tokyo World Cup. She went on to compete at the French National Championships in May, defending her all-around title, and winning additional gold on bars and floor and placing sixth on beam. In July, she competed at the Sainté Gym Cup, winning team and all-around gold. She went on to compete at the European Championships in Glasgow, Scotland in August. She not only helped France qualify first into the team final, but also posted the highest all-around score. In the team final, France had some mistakes that dropped them down to second place, but they still bested their bronze-medal finish from the last European Championships. Individually, she placed fourth on balance beam and won gold on floor exercise. In September, she competed at the Paris World Cup, placing eighth on the uneven bars (after scraping her knees on the mat) and winning the gold medal on floor.

She was named to the French team for the World Championships in Doha, Qatar in late October. She contributed to the French team's fifth place finish in the team final and individually placed sixth in the all-around and on floor exercise. After Doha, she placed tenth at the Arthur Gander Memorial and competed at the Swiss Cup Zurich, but didn't make the semi-final.

2019[]

Due to an injured finger, Dos Santos only competed on balance beam and floor exercise at the Team Challenge in the Stuttgart World Cup, helping France qualify to the team final and finish fourth.[2] She initially planned to continue competing on those two events at the European Championships in April, but decided at the last minute to compete the all-around. She qualified second to the all-around, eighth to the uneven bars final, seventh to the balance beam final, and third to the floor exercise final.

In the all-around, she gave solid performances across all four events, posting high scores on balance beam and floor exercise, winning the title over the then-reigning champion Ellie Downie of Great Britain and the highest qualifier into the all-around Angelina Melnikova of Russia. Dos Santos became only the second French gymnast to be European All-Around Champion, following Marine Debauve in 2005. After finishing seventh in the uneven bars final, she claimed a silver medal on balance beam and defended her European title on floor exercise.

At the Paris World Cup in September, she showed significant upgrades on the uneven bars and won gold. Although she qualified first to the balance beam final, she fell in the event final and finished seventh. In October, she competed at the World Championships in Stuttgart, Germany, coming into the competition as a favorite for individual medals. She qualified third to the all-around and helped France qualify fourth to the team final. Unfortunately, falls in the team final and all-around dropped France down to fifth place, and Dos Santos finished twentieth in the all-around. She also placed fifth on balance beam and floor exercise, and won the Longines Prize for Elegance.

2020-2021[]

At the Coupe d'Hiver in 2020, Dos Santos competed only uneven bars, placing second with team white.

In 2021, she competed at the European Championships in Basel, participating only on the uneven bars and on balance beam. She fell on the uneven bars during qualifications, but made the balance beam final, where she became the European Champion after qualifying in sixth place. In mid-June, she was named to the French Olympic team.[3] At the Flanders International Team Challenge in late June, she won team and all-around gold and uneven bars silver.

Tokyo Olympics[]

Dos Santos competed in the fourth subdivision, starting on balance beam. She helped France qualify to the team final, and individually qualified to the all-around and was the first reserve for the uneven bars final. France placed sixth in the team final, but mistakes in the all-around dropped her down to eleventh place. She did get a chance to compete in the uneven bars final after Simone Biles withdrew, and finished sixth.

2022[]

In April, Dos Santos moved to Texas in the United States to train at World Champions Centre under Laurent and Cecile Landi, while still representing France internationally.[4] Her return to competition came at the Paris World Cup in September. She didn't qualify to the uneven bars final, but did qualify to the balance beam final and placed sixth. In October, she competed at the World Championships in Liverpool. She didn't qualify to any individual events, and mistakes in the team final caused France to fall back to eighth place.

In December, she had surgery on her knee, and resumed training the following February.[5]

2023[]

In June, Dos Santos competed at the French National Championships, only competing on uneven bars, where she won gold, and balance beam, where she won bronze. She was later able to compete in domestic U.S. meets as a guest, meaning that her scores didn't count. At the American Classic, she posted the highest scores on uneven bars and balance beam. At the U.S. Classic, she posted the second-highest all-around score and highest score on uneven bars. Later that fall, she competed at the Paris World Cup, winning gold on uneven bars and floor exercise.

At the World Championships in Belgium, she helped France qualify to the team final, which also qualified them a full team to the Olympics in Paris. In the team final, she had strong performances across all four events, finishing with an incredibly strong balance beam routine capped with a stuck dismount. Her beam routine sealed the deal and helped earn France the bronze medal, their first World team medal since 1950. Individually, she placed tenth in the all-around after falling on uneven bars. In November, she competed at the Arthur Gander Memorial, where she won silver in the all-around, and the Swiss Cup Zurich, where she was eliminated after the second round.

Medal Count[]

Year Event TF AA VT UB BB FX
2015 French National Championships 2nd 5 5
FRA-GBR-SUI Junior Friendly 1st 7
Flanders International Team Challenge 2nd 4
Tbilisi European Youth Olympic Festival 6
2016 French National Championships 4 4 4
France-Romania Friendly 1st 1st
Joaquim Blume Memorial 2nd
Élite Gym Massilia 3rd 4 1st
2017 AT&T American Cup 3rd
City of Jesolo Trophy 4 9 8 4
Cluj-Napoca European Championships 3rd 8
French National Championships 1st 5 2nd
Paris World Cup 2nd 4 7
Montreal World Championships 5
Élite Gym Massilia 1st 2nd 1st 4
Toyota International 1st 2nd
2018 Doha World Cup 3rd 1st
Tokyo World Cup 3rd
French National Championships 1st 1st 6 1st
Sainté Gym Cup 1st 1st
Glasgow European Championships 2nd 4 1st
Paris World Cup 8 1st
Doha World Championships 5 6 6
Arthur Gander Memorial 10
2019 Stuttgart World Cup 4
Szczecin European Championships 1st 7 2nd 1st
Paris World Cup 1st 7
Stuttgart World Championships 5 20 5 5
2020 Coupe d'Hiver 2nd
2021 Basel European Championships 1st
Flanders International Team Challenge 1st 1st 2nd
Tokyo Olympic Games 6 11 6
2022 Paris World Cup 6
Liverpool World Championships 8
2023 French National Championships 1st 3rd
Paris World Cup 1st 1st
Antwerp World Championships 3rd 10
Arthur Gander Memorial 2nd

Floor Music[]

2016 - "Tango Amore" by Edvin Marton

2017 - “Humidifier” by Eddie Hale

2018 - "Jungle Bill"/ "Tiger Dust" by Yello/ "La Cumparsita" by Kiazz Brothers & Cuba Percussion

2019 - "Show Me How You Burlesque" from Burlesque/ "I Got You (I Feel Good)" by James Brown

References[]

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