The Best of the Best….is it?
Ok, so this is a bit more of an opinion piece than a blog. As most of you know Olympic trials are happening right now. Super exciting for every sport. I love watching them all and love watching the emotions as athletes qualify even more. The thing is I have a beef to pick with gymnastics.
The fact that they only take 4 girls for team finals is ridiculous.
A little background, a couple reasons they made this rule in the first place is that at the time the president of FIG, Bruno Grandi, felt that the sport was drifting too much toward specialists and away from all- around gymnasts. This in his eyes was a bad thing. The second reason he did this was he claimed it would help smaller countries be competitive. This rule completely makes it impossible for the best of the best to be on the team at the olympics. Your best all-arounders are not always the best on each event which means you do not have the best gymnasts competing for their countries team.
Imagine if you required a track runner to do the 400, the high jump, and the 1500. Those 3 events require completely different athletes. The same could arguably be said for gymnastics. Someone who excels at beam could be said to be a very different athlete than someone who excels on vault. Now I know we are watching amazing all-around athletes right so it is very clearly possible but I am guessing there are better ones on individual events that never make it to trials because of the rules.
Riddle me this. If a gymnast got to level 10 and was like you know what beam and vault are not my things but I am really good at floor and bars. What if they could just focus on those 2 events? Imagine not only how much better they could get but what that could do for longevity? But here’s the thing. The sport does not really work that way. If you are not an all-around in the sport of gymnastics it is really hard to make it to those post season meets. Then colleges don’t see you because of lack of exposure. Imagine if the sport was redesigned where it had a much better pathway for specialists. Why do gymnasts have to be good at all 4 events? Just because it’s always been that way? In every other sport athletes are allowed to specialize. Swimming, track, even in basketball everyone has a position that they focus on. I am not saying that from the beginning gymnasts shouldn’t be exposed to all 4 events, I think they should be and there are huge benefits to this but why does it have to stay that way. I think at level 8, avenues for specialists should open up. Yes, I am saying that you should be able to move up levels as just a specialist starting at level 8! Imagine how many more kids would stay in the sport if they didn’t have to do all 4 events. Fears, injuries, and just downright ability take athletes out of this sport and often times this is caused by these issues on just one event. Think about that, a gymnast will quit this sport because of a single event. They are told that if they don’t do all four events it is not worth doing the sport. That is incredibly sad to me.
Ok, back to the Olympics. What I don't understand is why they don’t just take more athletes on the team. Make it worth training elite. Give these girls a chance! Here’s my opinion. The team finals should allow as many girls as you want. Take the top 3 on each event. 3 up 3 count. Just the nature of the sport evens the playing field, because no matter how good you are, you can still fall. The best of the best. If you are top 3 on one event you compete for your team on 1 if you are top 3 on all 4 you compete all 4. This is the only way you put up the best gymnasts. This is the olympics, there shouldn’t be a cap on how many athletes go. Team should run very similar to event finals. Why does it matter that you have the best at event finals but not at team finals? The best all-rounders get to compete for all-around! It is a different competition than team for a reason. If I am the best vaulter in my country I sure as hell should be part of my countries team score!
