| Zsófia Kovács | |
|---|---|
 Kovács at the 2022 World Championships | |
|
Nickname(s) |
Zsofi |
|
Country represented |
|
|
Born |
April 6 2000 |
|
Years on National Team |
2014-present |
|
Club |
Dunaferr SE |
|
Coach(es) |
Janos Trenka, Daniel Torok |
|
Current status |
Active |
Zsófia Kovács (born April 6 in Dunaujvaros, Fejer) is an elite Hungarian gymnast. She's a two-time Olympian, having competed in 2016 Rio de Janeiro and 2020 Tokyo. She is the 2020 and 2022 European vault champion, 2020 European uneven bars champion, and 2017 and 2023 European all-around silver medalist, the highest all-around placing for a Hungarian gymnast. She has been a member of the National Team since 2014, and has represented Hungary at the 2016, 2017, and 2020 European Championships.
Featured Gymnast for November 2020
Junior Career[]
Kovács' first big international meet was the 2014 European Championships, where she placed tenth with her team and nineteenth in the all-around. She went on to win silver in the junior all-around at the KSI-Matsz Cup. The following year, she competed at the European Youth Olympic Festival, placing fourth on vault, fifth in the all-around, seventh on bars and beam, and tenth with her team.
Senior Career[]
2016[]
Kovács began her senior career by winning the all-around at the Austrian Team Open. She also won additional gold medals on vault and uneven bars, and silvers with her team and on floor exercise. At the Doha World Cup, she won floor exercise bronze, and placed fourth on vault and bars and fifth on beam. Along with compatriot Noémi Makra, she competed at the Olympic Test Event in Brazil, placing fourteenth in the all-around. She competed at the European Championships in Switzerland in June, helping Hungary qualify for the team final for the first time in almost a decade. She also had the third-highest all-around score in qualifications, behind Russia's Angelina Melnikova and Switzerland's Giulia Steingruber. They placed eighth in the team final, and Kovács individually placed fifth on bars and seventh on vault. Following the European Championships, she was named to represent Hungary at the Olympics.[1]
Rio Olympics[]
Kovács competed in the second subdivision of qualifications, starting on floor exercise. She placed thirteenth on vault, twenty-fourth on uneven bars, thirty-third in the all-around, sixty-fourth on floor exercise, and seventy-second on balance beam, and qualified as the fourth and final reserve for the all-around.
Post-Rio[]
Kovács competed at the Szombathely World Cup in October, winning bronze on uneven bars and placing fourth on balance beam. In November, she competed at the Cottbus World Cup in Germany, winning uneven bars and balance beam gold, vault bronze, and placing fifth on floor exercise.
2017[]
Kovács started off the season at the WOGA Classic in Texas, winning all-around and uneven bars silver, and placing sixth on vault, seventh on floor, and tenth on beam. In April, she competed at the Doha World Cup in Qatar, winning silver on uneven bars and placing fourth on vault and floor and eighth on balance beam. Later that month, she competed at the European Championships, and made history for Hungary by earning their highest all-around placement: second, besting Henrietta Onodi's all-around bronze medal from 1990. Kovács additionally placed sixth on vault, bars, and beam.
In May, she competed at the Osijek World Cup in Croatia, winning silver on vault and uneven bars and placing sixth on balance beam. In September, she competed in front of a home crowd at the Szombathely World Cup in Hungary, winning silver on bars and beam. In October, she competed at the her first World Championships in Montreal, Canada, but mistakes in qualifications kept her out of the all-around and event finals.
2018[]
Kovács competed at the Osijek World Cup in Croatia in May, winning bronze on bars and silver on floor. In September, she won gold on beam in front of a home crowd at the Szombathely World Cup. She missed the European Championships but was named to the Hungarian team for the World Championships in Doha, Qatar in late October, where she placed twentieth in the all-around. After Doha, she competed at the Joaquim Blume Memorial in Spain in December, winning vault gold, all-around and uneven bars silver, and balance beam and floor exercise bronze.
2019[]
Kovacs competed at the Stuttgart World Cup, but a fall on floor exercise landed her in eighth place. She redeemed herself at the Koper World Cup in late May, winning gold on both uneven bars and balance beam. At the Paris World Cup in September, she won bronze on uneven bars and placed fifth on floor. In October, she competed at the World Championships in Stuttgart, Germany. She placed 30th in qualifications, qualifying as an individual to the 2020 Olympics.
2020[]
Kovacs competed in the postponed Hungarian National Championships, winning vault and balance beam gold, all-around silver, and uneven bars bronze. At the Hungarian Master Championships in November, she won gold in the all-around, uneven bars, balance beam, and floor exercise. In December, she competed at the postponed European Championships in Mersin, Turkey. She won team bronze and became European Champion on vault and uneven bars.
2021[]
Kovacs competed only bars and beam at the 2021 Basel European Championships, but did not make any finals. At the Osijek World Cup in June, she won silver on uneven bars. Later that month, she competed at the Doha World Cup, winning silver on beam and placing fifth on floor and sixth on bars.
Tokyo Olympics[]
Kovacs competed in the fifth subdivision, starting on vault. She placed sixteenth in qualifications, qualifying to the all-around, where she finished fourteenth.
Post-Olympics[]
Kovacs competed at the World Championships in Kitakyushu, Japan in October, placing fifth on uneven bars.
2022[]
Kovacs began her season at the Cairo World Cup in March, winning silver on balance beam. At the Koper World Cup in June, she won gold on every single event except floor exercise, which she didn't qualify to. In early July, she competed at the Austrian Team Open, winning team gold and sweeping all the individual events, except balance beam, where she placed eleventh. In August, she competed at the European Championships in Munich, Germany. She regained her European title on vault, and additionally placed seventh with her team, eighth on floor exercise, and ninth in the all-around. In October, she competed at the World Championships in Liverpool. She qualified to the balance beam final, where she placed seventh.
2023[]
Kovacs competed at the Varna World Cup in May, winning gold on uneven bars. At the European Championships, she won silver in the all-around (matching her result from 2017), bronze on balance beam, and placed fourth with her team, fifth on uneven bars, and eighth on floor exercise.
Medal Count[]
Floor Music[]
2017 - “Michael Meets Mozart” by The Piano Guys