Rhythmic gymnastics
Next triumph: German Olympic champion wins European Championship title
May 30, 2026 – 4:33 p.mReading time: 2 minutes
In 2024, Darja Varfolomeev celebrated the greatest success of her career at the Olympic Games in Paris. Now she’s following up with another title.
Gymnastics star Darja Varfolomeev is European all-around champion for the first time. The 19-year-old Olympic champion from Schmiden won gold in the four-event competition at the rhythmic gymnastics championships in Varna. After her exercises with hoop, ball, clubs and ribbon, the eleven-time world champion relegated Bulgarian Stiliana Nikolova to second place by 1.4 points in an exciting duel with 120.150 points. The Ukrainian Taisiia Onofriitschuk came third with 117.150 points.
This means that Varfolomeev will take part in the home World Championships from August 12th Frankfurt/Main once again as the top favorite for gold. “I did my best. I felt very powerful and energetic today and showed it on the floor. In the end, I’m really happy about this gold. That was the most difficult medal for me. I already had all the titles in the all-around, except for the European Championships. Now it’s finally here,” said Varfolomeev happily and relieved.
“Can’t believe it”
Winning the title was not necessarily expected as the 19-year-old was in poor health at the start of the European Championships. “I can hardly believe it, we didn’t expect that we would win the title here. Darja is nowhere near 100 percent and our big goal for the season is the World Championships in August in Frankfurt. That’s why we’re all the happier that it worked out,” said coach Julia Raskina. The deciding factor for first place was the last exercise with the clubs, for which her protégé received the highest score of the day with 31,000 points.
This Sunday, Varfolomeev has further chances for medals in the individual finals with ribbon, hoop and ball. The Schmiden woman only missed the final battle with the clubs due to two equipment losses in the qualification.
