Hello friends, I am back from my extremely long hiatus (Tbh I pretty much forgot about this blog whoops, sorry!) to talk about an issue that happened just yesterday. We all know that the World Championships are going on right now, with WAG qualifications just ending yesterday. I hopped on to Twitter this morning to see a tweet from one of the prominent gymnastics journalists. The tweet read "Y'all. A gymnast here just dismounted with a round-off back tuck. I can dismount with a round-off back tuck. At what point do we give opportunity, and what point do we say this is the World Championships and there should be a standard of quality and difficulty of routine?". This tweet rubbed many of gym fans the wrong way, including myself. Let's tackle the major issues that I personally have with this person. The first issue is that she comes off as both arrogant and ignorant here. The World Championships is a place where we see a lot of calibers, yes. But it's also a place where gymnasts from smaller countries can come and show their skills that they work on all year. My question that I, and many other people who have the same opinion as me, is "What's the big deal?". In my opinion, there isn't one. The gymnast with this round-off back tuck (Who she did not name, but we assume she was from a smaller gymnastics country) is not going to make any finals. That is clear. She just came to represent her country, and she is one of the best athletes in the country. There are a lot of gymnasts who just come into qualifications, and won't see a final. They are perfectly fine with just going out there, representing their country, and doing their best to show what they have been working on. We need to keep in mind that not every country has top of the line equipment like we see in the United States, Russia, China, and all the other teams. We saw this with Dipa Karmakar. After 2014 with her Commonwealth Games vault victory, our eyes were truly opened to how smaller gymnastics countries don't have the funding to get top of the line equipment and gyms. This definitely plays a factor in what difficulty score the gymnast is capable, and how much they can train.
The second issue that I take with this person's comment is the privilege that they seem to hold. This person got their way to Stuttgart paid by their fanbase. I had responded to them saying "I disagree with this. What country are they from? Let's not forget that some countries do not have training equipment like the major teams do. I think that if they are the best of the best in their country, they should get an opportunity to represent their country. They won't qualify for any finals so what's the harm? Why does it matter? It's not like they're bumping Simone or Jade or Melnikova or anyone out of their spots so what's the harm if they want to represent their country?" This is what many people thought when reading the initiating tweet. When this person responded to me they said: "Part of the harm per say is that the competition is too long and too expensive for a lot of places to host." Yes, it may be. But places like Stuttgart, Montreal, and Doha sign up for this when they put a bid in for the World Championships. They know this going in. I was talking to someone earlier in a chat, and they brought up that most of the time, Worlds will be hosted in rich countries, and that they can handle these costs. Of course, one of the exceptions was Doha last year, but they still managed to host the World Championships, without complaining about how many gymnasts hosting it. If the venue doesn't mind hosting this many gymnasts, and if they know this going in, why should the gymnerds be bothered?
At the beginning of the last paragraph, I mentioned the privilege they seemed to hold. As I mentioned before, this person's trip was funded by their fanbase. They had the pleasure of being able to get a ticket to see the whole process live. People also seemed to think that this person seemed to be complaining about having to stay in the arena longer, because of these types of routines. Recently, I got the chance to go to Montreal Worlds in 2017, and even though it was a disastrous Worlds full of injuries and peril, I stayed for every competition and enjoyed every moment. I saw so many gymnasts rise to prominence and saw many gymnasts like the gymnast who was shaded in that tweet, smiling, and beaming with pride, finally being able to represent their country and have this experience, and I drank in every moment of it. I was THRILLED when there were three qualifying subdivisions in a row and I was there for every moment. This person is taking someone's ticket, who wanted to experience this as well, and who wouldn't have complained about this issue. That is where privilege comes into play.
The third and final issue I take with this is the criticism of the gymnast and country itself. In the past, we've seen so many countries start out like this, and come back out with the intent to get better and thrive. Examples that have been brought up were Ireland, India, Sri Lanka, Georgia, etc. My friend Tamari, who lives in Georgia, which is obviously a smaller gymnastics program, was talking about how great it was to finally have someone representing her country at the Worlds stage, and while the gymnast didn't make any event finals, their country was finally being represented on the Worlds stage. I feel like to make my point, it'll be good to bring up Dipa again. After competing at the 2014 Commonwealth Games, she was determined to improve and ended up going to World Championships and the Olympics. She started out like the gymnast who competed that round off back tuck, and she improved. We also saw that with the Irish team. They had their first showing at an international competition and used it as motivation to get better. Who knows where this gymnast can be in just a few years? Why should we, as people who come from these bigger gymnastics countries, complain when we see a level seven beam routine? We don't know their determination. We don't know what they are capable of based on one routine. If we give these gymnasts the chance to compete in qualifications, this might give them the chance to turn their program around. What a shame it would be if we discouraged them from competing, and prohibited them from being great. Now I don't know your stances on this, or if anyone will actually read this post, but if you do, please consider this argument when you are thinking of what side to take.
