Luisa Fernanda Blanco Saavedra (born 18 November 2001) is an artistic gymnast. Born in the United States, she represents Colombia internationally. She competed for the Alabama Crimson Tide gymnastic team and is the 2021 NCAA Champion on the balance beam. She represented Colombia at the 2024 Summer Olympics.
Blanco was born on November 18, 2001, in Los Angeles, California.[2] Her parents, Sandra Saavedra and Nelson Blanco, are immigrants from Colombia.[1][3]
Blanco made her elite debut at the 2017 WOGA Classic. She did not compete in the all-around, but she posted the highest score of the competition on the balance beam, and she won silver with the WOGA team.[4] Then at the 2017 U.S. Classic, she tied with Kalyany Steele for the all-around bronze medal behind Alyona Shchennikova and Abby Paulson.[5] She then finished 12th all-around at the 2017 U.S. Championships.[6]
Blanco finished ninth all-around at the 2018 WOGA Classic and had the third-highest score on the balance beam.[7] Then at the International Gymnix in Montreal, she finished ninth in the all-around and on uneven bars and eighth on balance beam.[8] She also finished ninth all-around at the 2018 U.S. Classic.[9] She then finished 17th all-around at the 2018 U.S. Championships.[10] At the 2019 WOGA Classic, she competed on the uneven bars where she had the highest score of the meet and on the balance beam where she finished second behind Sloane Blakely.[11]
Blanco graduated from Lebanon Trail High School one semester early and joined the Alabama Crimson Tide gymnastics team in January 2020.[12] Her freshman season was cut short due the COVID-19 pandemic.[13] At the 2021 SEC Championships, she helped her team win the title, and individually, she won the all-around, vault, uneven bars and balance beam titles. She was named the 2021 SEC Gymnast of the Year.[14] She scored her first perfect 10 at the 2021 Regional semifinal on the balance beam.[15] At the 2021 NCAA Championships, she won the balance beam title with a score of 9.9625, and she finished second in the all-around behind Oklahoma's Anastasia Webb.[16]
At the 2022 SEC Championships, Blanco helped Alabama finish second behind Florida, and she placed second on the uneven bars behind Sunisa Lee. However, she injured her ankle on the balance beam.[17] The injury was minor, and she competed on three events at the 2022 NCAA Championships where Alabama was eliminated in the semifinals.[18] During the 2023 regular season, she scored three perfect 10s on the balance beam.[1] Then at the 2023 SEC Championships, she finished second in the all-around to help Alabama finish second behind Florida. Alabama failed to advance to the 2023 NCAA Championships, but Blanco qualified as an individual on the uneven bars and finished in second place.[19]
In 2023, Blanco announced that she was returning to elite gymnastics and switching nationalities to represent Colombia. She began training at Midwest Gymnastics Center with Sunisa Lee's coach, Jess Graba.[3] She won the all-around and uneven bars titles at the 2023 Colombian Championships.[20] She was selected to represent Colombia at the 2023 Pan American Games where she helped the Colombian team place fifth.[21] Individually, Blanco qualified for the all-around final where she finished eighth with a total score of 50.099.[22] As the highest-placing athlete who was eligible for an Olympic berth, Blanco qualified for the 2024 Olympic Games.[23][24]
Blanco announced on April 28, 2023, that she would be returning to the Alabama gymnastics team for her fifth and final year.[25] In Blanco's final home meet, which also celebrated senior night, she scored two perfect 10s, her first on vault and floor exercise.[26] She led her team to a second-place finish at the SEC Championships with scores above 9.900 on all four apparatuses.[27] Then at the NCAA Championships, she was one of four Alabama gymnasts who fell off the balance beam, leading to an eighth place finish.[28] She finished her NCAA career with 21 All-America honors, the most of any Alabama gymnast in program history.[29]
Blanco represented Colombia at the 2024 Summer Olympics. In the qualification round, she finished 30th in the all-around, but after applying the two-per-country rule, she took the 24th and final spot in the all-around final. She is the first Colombian artistic gymnast to reach an Olympic final.[30][31]
| Year | Event | Team | AA | VT | UB | BB | FX |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | WOGA Classic |  |
| ||||
| U.S. Classic | |
13 |  |
12 | |||
| U.S. National Championships | 12 | 17 | 7 | 11 | |||
| 2018 | WOGA Classic | 9 | |
||||
| International Gymnix | 9 | 9 | 8 | ||||
| U.S. Classic | 9 | 12 | 6 | 11 | |||
| U.S. Championships | 17 | 19 | 17 | 14 | |||
| 2019 | WOGA Classic | |
|
| Year | Event | Team | AA | VT | UB | BB | FX |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | SEC Championships | Canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the USA [13] | |||||
| NCAA Championships | |||||||
| 2021 | SEC Championships | |
|
|
|
|
|
| NCAA Championships | 5 | |
|
|
|||
| 2022 | SEC Championships | |
12 | |
|||
| NCAA Championships | 7 | ||||||
| 2023 | SEC Championships | |
|
||||
| NCAA Championships | |
||||||
| 2024 | SEC Championships | |
|
||||
| NCAA Championships | 8 | 23 | 17 | 5 | 52 | 18 | |
| Year | Event | Team | AA | VT | UB | BB | FX |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | Colombian Championships | |
|
||||
| Pan American Games | 5 | 8 | 7 | ||||
| 2024 | |||||||
| Olympic Games | 23 |
| Season | Date | Event | Meet |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | April 2, 2021 | Balance beam | Regional semifinal |
| 2023 | February 4, 2023 | Alabama vs Auburn | |
| February 24, 2023 | Alabama vs LSU | ||
| March 3, 2023 | Alabama @ Missouri | ||
| 2024 | March 8, 2024 | Vault & Floor exercise | Alabama quad |
