In June, Almudena competed at the European Cup final getting 12th place, fantastic competition for a debutante as all of her marks were above 9.525. Almu was much better than many of the gymnasts that overtook her there but this was due to the fact hat she was still unknown for the judges; nevertheless this was a great start for Almudena. 

Shortly after, World Championships came and once again Almudena was brilliant indeed. Together with Alba Caride she placed 5th at the teams' competition where her scores were: three 9.500's, for rope, ball and ribbon and 9.450 for her clubs exercise.
 

At the 96 Europeans Almudena competed extremely well, although two of her exercises were new (rope and ribbon) she displayed full control throughout the whole competition without a single doubt in any of her performances placing 10th at the overall competition, 8th at the rope final and 7th with ribbon.

The 96 World Championships, that only included event finals with 2 gymnasts per country allowed in each of them, was absolutely successful for Almu. She was so close to the medals! Almudena definitely deserved a place on the podium for her rope performance because, up till the end, was perfect in both execution and presentation, even if 9.716 is a good score it's still sad that Almudena was robbed the medal.
At the Ball final Almudena was equally fantastic, her elegant ball exercise was highly appreciated by the audience and she got the 6th place scoring even higher than with rope: 9.750. 

Finally, the Olympics arrived, perhaps it still remains Almudena's most brilliant competition.
During preliminaries Almudena scored 9.600 for her four exercises, she started the competition with ball and clubs performing with with ribbon and rope the following day, so good was her work that she overtook big stars of the sport such as Maria Petrova and Tatiana Ogrizko, qualifying in 5th place for the semifinal.
Almudena also attended to watch the groups final where the Spanish Team won the gold medal, it was possible to see her among the audience celebrating the victory with her team mates and the rest of the Spanish delegation.
In semifinals each gymnast had to complete the four exercises and Almudena was among those who followed the international rotation order, starting with rope and finishing with ribbon. It's difficult to say which performance was her best because she was brilliant in both of them but her highest mark, 9.700, was given to her ball exercise. Gathering a total of  38.448 Almudena would take part at the olympic final the following day.
 

Almudena at the 96 Olympic Games © S. Tsusumi Torad courtesy of M. Tostado

In spite of the fact that she was the youngest and the least experienced, she showed  one of the highest levels of true rhythmic gymnastics and also one of the best competitions since all  of  her executions were flawless excepting a little problem with the  final ball catch and a slightly changed ending of the ribbon routine. In fact, at the end of the first rotation Almudena was in 6th place with 9.700 points. Then, with her other best performance of the day and also one of the most beautiful and risky clubs routines of the final, Almu obtained a mark of 9.683, which should have been a higher score. On the carpet, her clubs exercise did really look like a perfect 10.000.  9.566 was the mark for both ball and ribbon routines, at the end of her ribbon performed Almudena could at last breath deep and relax, it had been a hard competition but the result was worth the effort, with 39.515 Almudena was only 0.015 points from the olympic diploma,  this was a big success that not only gave her lots of experience but also made her name shine even brighter among the international stars of Rhythmic Gymnastics.

In 1997 Almudena got a new set of beautiful routines where specially her rope and outstanding hoop exercises were remarkable. She kept her previous ribbon adapted to the new code.

Maybe the 97 European Championships was an unlucky competition for Almudena but even though she had some mistakes with clubs and rope, she demonstrated what she's capable of doing in the last rotation. Her strongest performance came with which was probably her strongest exercise too; Almudena was absolutely wonderful and ended her competition with a flawless performance of her innovate hoop exercise, the score of 9.850 proved that Almudena could have been on the top 6 places and also allowed her to take part at the hoop final qualifying with the 6th best mark.  Almudena repeated the same score the following day with hoop which meant the 8th place. In October the World Championships took place; Almudena's marks helped a lot the Spanish team in the teams' qualification, in fact, Almudena's ribbon routine got a score of 9.800, this shows that Almudena is really on top of the world. Only Russia's wonderful Natalia Lipkovskaya and the Germans, the latter obviously favoured by the judges as they played at home, scored higher than her! So Almudena qualified for the ribbon final with the 3rd best score, well done Almu!! She got the qualification for the clubs final as well.

Almudena at the 97 World Championships © Karol Otero

Almudena scored a total of 39.285  during the overall competition with her highest score for the clubs exercise (9.850); at finals Almudena got 9.691 for her clubs exercise and placed 7th at the ribbon final with a mark of 9.841.

1998 was a slightly weaker season for individuals gymnasts than the previous year, main competition was the Groups World Championship in Spain where an individual master was also held and, of course, Almudena competed there with most of the Eastern Europe top gymnasts (Elena Vitrichenko, Alina Kabaeva, Yana Batyrchina, Evgenia Pavlina and Youlia Raskina). Almudena was specially good in her new ribbon routine and, although she had some little problems with other routines, her performance remained among the most interesting and beautiful to watch so the Spanish audience gifted Almudena with standing ovations.

For individuals, the Europeans in Porto were the biggest  meeting of the year, the Spanish Team got the 5th place again and Almudena was 9th at the all around. She also competed at the 98 Aeon Cup where Almudena competed with her new rope exercise, about this she talked in a brief interview for the Japanese television: "Of the four routines I'm going to perform here, the rope exercises is the new one I have and, for me, it has lots of meaning."

Almudena competed very well in 1999, at the European Championships she was, as usually, very harshly judged; for sure Almudena deserved more than a 11th place. In the first day of competition Almudena started doing her ball exercise, all was great, very well held balances, great pirouettes and just a slightly unprecise catch at the end. Her rope, probably her best performance there, was beautifully performed and so was her ribbon routine. 

At the 1999 Nationals held in Madrid in June Almudena won the all around title of National Champion for the third time! this means that she broke hers and other former gymnast's record and became the only three times Spanish National Champion ever. Apart from the shared all around gold with Esther Dominguez, Almudena won gold for rope, hoop and ribbon as well.

Osaka was the host city of the 99 World Championships. There, the Spanish Team had as main aim to qualify two individuals for the Olympic Games and they got it with their 5th place, not only that, Almudena was so good with rope that she also qualified for the rope final. 

However, performing with rope in the all around was precisely where Almudena had a little mistake during a jump. This was very unlucky as she had started with a brilliant ball performance that scored 9.   Once again, with her absolutely wonderful hoop exercise showed her grace, talent and mastery at her 100%. One of the most cheered performances of the competition.
As usually in the last years Almudena was the only Spanish individual gymnast taking part at finals; she did so well with her fantastic rope routine! not a single mistake, performed in harmony with the music,

2000: another very important year for Almudena's career, firstly because the European Championships were held in Spain and secondly because Almudena would see her dream of  a second Olympic Final come true.
It's worth mentioning a very successful competition for her, the 2000 Coupe D'Opale  where she won three gold medals (hoop, ball and ribbon), a silver one (rope) and a bronze at the all around competition.

In June, the European Championships were held, this championship was spoilt by the judging scandal. But in spite of the bad things concerning the scores, it was still a great competition for Almudena since she got her best achievement of her career till then: to place 8th all around at a major championship.
 

Almudena at the 2000 Europeans, Zaragoza (Spain) © Karol Otero

Apart from the corrupt judging there was also another saddening thing, at least for me as her fan. For the first time since she was member of the National Team, Almudena went to the European Championships as second gymnast from Spain. Therefore, she performed three routines at the teams' competition whereas Alba Caride did on and Esther Domínguez performed all her four exercises. Anyway, this didn't prevent Almu from doing her best, the first day, with rope, she got a mark of 9.900. Almudena would repeat this score the following day with her very artistic new ribbon routine and earned the highest score of the team with hoop. It was a great moment, Almudena's 2000 hoop exercise is a crowd favourite among fans from all over the world. In Zaragoza, with the very enthusiastic Spanish audience on her side, Almudena broke into tears of emotion when the score of 9.966 appeared on the screen. This mark also allowed her to compete at the hoop final where she fairly deserved a medal. However, judges decided a 5th place for her.

After some competitions and tests, the 2000 Olympic Games arrived. Only a month before, Almudena changed a routine. Her ribbon exercise was really beautiful and special. But the thing is that Almudena had chance to attend to a show by Cirque Du Soleil, listened to that music and loved it so much that decided to change her ribbon exercise using it. 
Almudena started her second olympic competition with hoop, she did a great performance and earned a big applause from the Australian audience. Sadly, the judges had a different opinion. It's unbelievable that Almudena was given an artistic mark of 4.800 for such an original and good exercise. Despite her clean execution and magnificent technique the final score for hoop was 9.708
 

Almudena at the 2000 Olympic Games

With rope,Almudena was very precise too. All the difficult elements were very well performed but she had a tiny problem just in a link. The score was slightly lower than the one for hoop. That 9.691 supposed an 11th place for Almudena after two rotations. During the second qualifying day Almu was even better. She completed her rotation with two magnificent performances. Almudena performed magnificently with ribbon, the public loved the routine and Almudena looked happy and proud of her performance afterward. The mark was 9.716 Her last routine of the day was even better and the audience rewarded Almudena's great work with a big ovation. She did each element so perfectly that after finishing the exercise, she even kissed the ball. The mark of 9.733 was Almudena's highest score and a total of 38.848 drove her to the 10th place qualifying for her second Olympic Final. Very deservingly, her dream came true!

This way, Almudena Cid became the first Spanish individual gymnast in history competing in two olympic finals. Almudena performed very cleanly with rope in the first rotation, she received a mark of 9.750. Her second performance was very good too. With her super hoop routine Almudena earned a score of 9.725. Maybe Almudena's performance with ball wasn't as precise as the previous day but anyway it remained magnificent and the audience loved it, she just had some doubts and the difficult final catch wasn't precise, she scored 9.691. Almudena finished her second olympic final with a magnificent ribbon routine, anyway judges seemed unwilling to let her score higher than 9.800, she received 9.741 and finally placed 9th, as four years ago in Atlanta. 
It's incredible that such a great champion as Almudena was unfairly deprived of the olympic diploma  again. However, as Almudena says, the important thing is to enjoy rhythmic gymnastics and the audience's appreciation. After such an unfair competition a good new had to arrive, Almudena told the press: "This competition has motivated me a lot to continue and I'd like to participate in my third Olympic Games; it would be something incredible because in Rhythmic Gymnastics two Olympiads are already much and I truly wish to be able to perform in my third Games and enjoy the competition even more than this one."

That Almudena did such a good olympic competition is even more meritorious bearing in mind that she competed injured, her meniscus was broken and after the Games she had to undergo surgery and wasn't completely recovered till the beginning of 2001.

In December, as a result of the messy situation of the National Team and the lack of coaches for individual gymnasts, Almudena decided to go
to Vitoria, her hometown, and spend there at least a month training with her former coaches Aurora Fernández del Valle and Iratxe Aurreoketxea. During the stay of Nina Vitrichenko in Spain, Almudena would have several trainings in Madrid with her as well as tests and concentrations; nowadays Almudena continues working with Iratxe in Barcelona since she's the first sponsored Spanish rhythmic gymnast ever and this allows her to pay her personal coach.

The results of Almudena's hard work training for the new code and preparing new routines were more than brilliant. She was one of the biggest sensations at every competition she took part in, got 6th place at the all around competition and 9th at World Cup Final both at Corbeil Essones Tournament, provided the highest scores at the First European Championships for Teams, where Spain got the bronze medal after Russia and Ukraine.
 

Then, Almudena competed at the 2001 Europeans, she started the competition on her birthday, she performed very well her vivid rope routine very well but her score was "only" 25.650, consequently got 11th place on Rope Final.  Unfortunately, Almudena made a big mistake with hoop, her finger got trapped on it so she did an uncontrolled throw that ended with the hoop out bounces. Her score was 24.150 making her drop to the 15th place at the Hoop Final. During the second day of competition, Almudena presented an incredible ball exercise, in spite of the high degree of difficulty, she's capable of doing a perfect performance of it even under the pressure if biggest competitions but again, was a bit unlucky and had some doubts and non precise elements during her routine. Yet, the beauty and artistry of her ball exercise brought her the highest score in her competition: 26.300, 7th place at the Ball Final.

Almudena at the 2001 Europeans Photo © and Courtesy of A.  Pomanne

Last but not least Almudena's incredible Clubs exercise came! Almu entered the carpet confidently and definitely showed with her routine all the
hard work she'd done during the previous months. Her performance with clubs was perfect! she got a lower score than she'd got for ball but the
audience gave her an standing ovation and many claimed Almudena's clubs routine as the best performance of the whole 2001 Europeans, again the medal was denied but it's undeniable that Almu was the true European Champion with Clubs.

Before the World Championships in Madrid Almudena conquered her 4th title of National Champion, also the rest of the gold medals were for her because Esther Domínguez withdrew from the competition an didn't do a single performance. In August, Almu traveled to Japan for the World Games where she placed 4th at every final.
 

The World Championships in Madrid were very important for Almudena, specially due to her brilliant performance at the hoop final. After the teams' competition, where the Spanish Team earned the 5th place, Almudena was one of the finalists for the hoop final and the first reserve for both rope and clubs.    At the all around competition she placed 11th after the Russians, Ukrainians, Belorussians and Bulgarians with a total of 96.775 points.  At the Hoop Final, the last day of Worlds, Almudena gave another display of her top class gymnastics. Almudena ended her competition demonstrating that she's one of the very best gymnasts in the world. In spite of being unfairly deprived of her medal, her hoop exercise brought much happiness and joy to both the audience and Almudena herself, with 24.750 got the sixth place and the biggest ovation of the championship, she describes Madrid hoop final as the best memory of her international career.

Almudena at the 2001 World Championships

* To be continued