Elena Colas competes at 2026 European Gymnastics Championships in Zagreb; aims for continental podium in first senior year

2026 European Gymnastics Championships: Elena Colas, the French prodigy eyeing a continental podium in first senior year

The French teenager is among the most anticipated gymnasts at the 2026 European Championships taking place from 13 to 16 August in Zagreb.

Hey, World? Elena Colas has arrived to senior competition.

This simple message posted on Instagram by European Gymnastics , accompanied by a video of the French gymnast training, symbolises the high expectations surrounding the teenager’s participation in the 2026 European Championships in Women’s Artistic Gymnastics .

The 16-year-old is set to experience her first major senior championship at the continental event in Zagreb from 13 to 16 August . A first appearance that could also bring her first major successes.

Since the start of the year and her move into the senior ranks, this has almost become routine.

Her first World Cup event, in April in Osijek , ended with three medals : gold on floor exercise and silver on uneven bars and balance beam . Two months later, at the French Championships , her senior debut, the medal count was the same, but this time all three were gold : in the individual all-around , uneven bars , and floor exercise .

With such results, her arrival among the elite has been as smooth as her routines. A surprise? Not really, given how promising she has been for many years already.

Colas has been collecting French championship titles across different age categories since she was 11, sometimes winning by significant margins.

The gymnast from Avoine Beaumont has also enjoyed success in the Top 12 league with her club, making a major contribution through routines whose difficulty was already exceptional for someone her age. Her mastery of the double-twisting Yurchenko vault is one testament to her talent.

Today, these skills allow her to score around 14 points on several apparatus and even to compete with some of the best gymnasts in the world on most of them.

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Elena Colas, an all-around title contender

Colas is also remarkably versatile. Floor, bars, vault, beam: she is capable of excelling on every apparatus and therefore in the all-around competition as well.

It was in that event that she achieved one of the most notable results of her young career: a silver medal at the 2025 Junior World Championships . Her overall level was so high that even a routine scoring a relatively low mark of 12.666 on the uneven bars did not prevent her from finishing on the podium.

This further strengthened her status as one of the brightest prospects in world artistic gymnastics .

The teenager also reached the final in every event contested at the 2025 Junior World Championships, including the team event , where the young French squad captured gold . That historic achievement has fuelled the ambitions of a talented new generation of French gymnasts who are eyeing the defence of their title.

“As a team, the goal is to reach the podium, (even) matching what the girls achieved last year,” Colas told Ici Touraine regarding her nation’s goals for the continental championships in Croatia.

“Then, individually, we hope to make apparatus finals and win medals. For example, on bars, because I know I have the potential. And finally, in the all-around, the objective is the same: get as close to the podium as possible. Winning a medal would be fantastic.”

Continental medals in her first year as a senior will only add to Colas’ allure with just two years to go until the ultimate showcase, the Olympic Games LA28 .

By Nicolas Kohlhuber Jo Gunston