Exclusive: LSU’s Aleah Finnegan still undecided about Paris 2024, won’t defer if she qualifies

Aleah Finnegan is savoring the moment: the LSU sophomore has become one of the Tigers’ all-around strongholds, she just earned her first-career perfect 10, and she is barely a year into representing the Philippines at the elite level.

While NCAA is her primary focus, Finnegan made an elite comeback last year. The 20-year-old switched from representing the United States to the Philippines (her mother’s native country) a year after initially deciding to retire from elite altogether. She made an impressive statement in the process, winning four medals, two gold, at the postponed 2021 Southeast Asian Games in May 2022.

Now, she has another major decision to make in regard to her individual career, but it’s still that: a decision she hasn’t yet made.

Recent comments from Cynthia Carrion, the president of the Gymnastics Association of the Philippines, suggested that Finnegan has decided she will pursue a berth to the 2024 Paris Olympic Games. That’s not necessarily the case.

“As of right now, I actually don’t have anything that’s set in stone with any of that,” Finnegan told Gymnastics Now on Friday. “I think when you look at it from the outside it seems like, ‘Oh, like this is their plan, this is set, this is what’s gonna happen.’ But right now, I’m really just focused on this season.”

There are many factors that play into deciding whether to pursue a berth to the Olympic Games, especially when very few NCAA gymnasts do both college and elite at the same time. In the middle of the taxing, 15-week NCAA season, it’s hard to look ahead to next week or next month, let alone to this summer or fall. A lot of things can change, so Finnegan isn’t committing to anything just yet.

“The door is not completely shut… It’s definitely something I’m open to, but right now, I’m really just trying to take it one thing at a time, kind of see how I’m feeling physically, mentally after the season,” Finnegan explained.

That being said, if she does decide to make a push for Paris, she’ll do so while continuing to represent LSU – no deferring her junior season.

“I’m not planning on taking a year off or anything like that,” Finnegan clarified. “This is just something that, if I’m able to, that I would pursue, but it’s not anything that I’m gonna go out of the way to do.”

If Finnegan does, in fact, decide to throw her name in the hat, her next step will be punching her ticket to Paris – a manageable but far from easy task.

The first step would be the Asian Championships, which will take place sometime in the second quarter of this year. There, Finnegan would need to finish in the top eight of the women’s all-around event to qualify to the world championships that are scheduled for September 29 – October 8, 2023, in Antwerp, Belgium. 

A top 14 finish in the women’s all-around qualifying at worlds, among eligible competitors, would earn Finnegan her ticket to Paris. That berth would be a “quota place by name,” meaning it is for her and her alone, not a spot that can be redistributed to another athlete at the National Organizing Committee’s discretion.

For reference, one of those Southeast Asian Games medals she earned last year was silver in the all-around. With a strong performance, Finnegan should qualify to worlds, and then her biggest competition is gymnasts from other predominantly smaller NOCs. Individual gymnasts from the United States, Great Britain, and Canada, along with the other top 9 teams from 2023 worlds qualifying, are not eligible since those nations will have already qualified 5-woman teams.

If Aleah Finnegan decides to pursue her Olympic dream, it’s well within reach. Now it’s just a question of whether she wants to take the leap.