Memmel returned to gymnastics after an eight-year hiatus during which she got married and had two kids. While there is a national team stipend, it is meager and difficult to live on.
Ask any U. How will a gymnast pay her way then? Many of the top gymnasts in the U. Some gymnasts have certainly been able to juggle both — University of Alabama gymnast Shallon Olsen is on the Canadian Olympic team — but this is relatively rare.
It worked out for her, as she was selected to compete in Tokyo. How much more artistic would our floor routines [be]? A change in the developmental timeline might force college programs and coaches to reconsider their role and purpose. Or it might force gymnasts to choose between the two paths instead of getting to do both. And if gymnasts are being trained to peak later, they might not arrive on campus with all the skills they need to compete at either the college or elite level.
Skill development can be pretty time- and labor-intensive. College coaches have to prepare for long seasons and almost immediately start constructing routines for the start of the season. And during the season itself, the focus is on conditioning and injury prevention.
And this new schedule could change how college coaches approach recruiting not just the elites but also Level 10s. To get anywhere near the developmental model that Cervin, Tilley and Casey seem to favor, the culture of the sport would need to shift significantly. Even after all that has happened in gymnastics, many people still believe that the old ways work or that rather than effecting fundamental change, only some tinkering around the edges is sufficient.
It will, of course, take several concurrent changes to effect a cultural transformation. The sport needs to continue addressing coaching abuses and creating systems of accountability so that bad actors can be weeded out. We have to think critically about a sport whose structure not only enables bad people to flourish but also encourages poor decision-making in people who might actually be well-intentioned.
For starters, we need to change the incentives for gymnasts. Or perhaps difficulty caps so extreme should be instituted so that the difference between junior and senior elite is significant. One indication of baby steps in the right direction: FIG has adopted a age range for international junior elite competition. A year-old elite gymnast, no matter how talented, is not able to compete at any major event. But for its own domestic meets, each country is free to do what it wishes. Right now, there is no age minimum for junior elite gymnasts in the U.
To accelerate the cultural change, Cervin would like to see an increase in the current age minimum for senior elites. Cervin is not alone in thinking this, though her wish appears unlikely to come true anytime soon. That was after USA Gymnastics had requested that the age minimum be lowered in That proposal had been rejected as well. Internally, the Dutch are considering whether to make 18 the age minimum for their elite gymnasts — not surprising given their most successful athletes are in their 20s.
Sanne Wevers was one month shy of 25 when she won the gold medal on balance beam at the Olympics. She and her twin sister, Lieke, are still competing at age And for the first time in decades, every member of the U. Simone Biles, its star, is 24 and better than she was in , when she won five medals in Rio.
Alexander Alexandrov tried to implement something similar in Russia to help create depth and to increase retention of former gymnasts staying in the sport to coach mentioned in an interview with Rewriting Russian Gymnastics, link below. He wanted to lower the requirements to achieve Master of Sport status for gymnasts not on the National team. Masters of Sport are ensured entrance to good colleges and universities, and they are allowed to become coaches after graduation.
And also to allow top-level non-elites a career path for coaching because many great coaches were never elite gymnasts. Clearly, he came to the same conclusions as to why the US is strong when other countries are struggling with depth. Hopefully, other nations will start to implement their own versions of this type of system.
The interview says that the changes for Master of Sport status were passed, but I seem to remember that Andrei Rodionenko later reversed this decision in favor of the original elite criteria. The thing is that such a small amount of girls really get gymnastics scholarships, especially full rides but so many think they will, even when they have virtually no chance. The US elites are taking up a lot of them, as are the international elites.
Agree with tiredmaof4. I read an article recently by a coach and the misconceptions that parents tend to have when they enrol their child in a gym class. Not as hard as an Olympic spot but still tough! You are commenting using your WordPress. You are commenting using your Google account. You are commenting using your Twitter account. You are commenting using your Facebook account. Notify me of new comments via email.
Notify me of new posts via email. Install the app. JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding. You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly. You should upgrade or use an alternative browser. Thread starter Shelovesthebars Start date Sep 1, Status Not open for further replies. Shelovesthebars Active Member. Dec 22, One of the moms at the gym wants to know how many junior elites and senior elites we have right now in the U.
I think she was interested in women's but I personally would love to know on the men's side too. Now she has me curious too. Jun 21, I don't think there is any way in telling, because the level of athlete's is changing all the time, unless USA gymnastics decides to do a count.
At competition's like Visa Championships we only see a small amount of the elite's. Former Gymnast. Proud Parent. Club Owner. Apr 28, 9, Dunno, is that number for seniors or both juniors and seniors both? It seems really low. Gymnastics demographics show most athletes start very young and continue competing into early adulthood.
Video of the Day. Vault into these gymnastics statistics to learn more about this high-flying sport. Global Gymnastics Statistics. World rankings are calculated based on the total number of points each country wins in competition throughout the year. Gymnastics Statistics. There are about 4,, gymnasts in the U. Gymnastics Demographics by Sex. There are 68, athletes in women's programs.
Source: Science of Gymnastics Journal. Gymnastics Demographics by Age. A majority of female gymnasts are 11 to 12 years old, according to USA gymnastics. Most male gymnasts are 9 to Source: USA Gymnastics. Age Demographics by Skill Level. Statistics About Gymnastics Injuries. There are more than 86, gymnastics-related injuries in the U. Olympic Gymnastics Statistics. At the Olympic Games in Rio, U. The U. Simone Biles was the first American woman gymnast to win 4 gold medals. After winning a gold medal on the vault at the Rio Olympics, Biles become the most decorated gymnast in the U.
Nadia Comaneci was the first gymnast to score a perfect 10 at the Montreal Olympics in , according to the Olympic website. Comaneci has won 5 gold, 3 silver and 1 bronze medal in her career. Laurie Hernandez won 1 gold and 1 silver medal at the Rio Olympics. Japanese gymnast Kohei Uchimura is often considered the greatest male gymnast in history but may not be competing in the Tokyo Olympics due to injury, according to NBC Sports.
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