It's Not All Smooth Sailing

Bear with me, it's a bit of a roundabout, ranty entry today.

Gymnastics in this country - its governance, its prominence, its reputation in general - is not perfect. No doubt there are many who would admit that. There often lingers a sentiment of disinterest in the sport despite it being, in its international scale, one of the most watched and most followed sports at the Olympic Games. What I find of utmost concern (coming from an inexperienced fan's point of view) is the air of exasperation present within the coaching and spectator bodies.

Take for example Peggy Liddick's comments in the piece posted recently about Hollie Dykes' retirement. I highlighted her apparent lack of sympathy or good wishes for the athlete in question. I sensed almost some resentment there, like she was sick of Dykes 'stuffing her around' (as we say here colloquially and it's not the innuendo it appears to be :P) and being insecure and insincere in her competition focus and performance. These comments were dissected in various forums, and points were raised about the rate at which girls who COULD continue the sport suddenly aren't (cf. Monette Russo, Sarah Lauren, Karen Nguyen, Jasmine Webb and now Dykes). Girls who just seemed like their heart wasn't in it anymore despite the horizon of at least one or two more competitive years (in Webb/Lauren's case, four or five) ahead of them. Lauren dropped out before the 2003 Worlds and 2004 Olympics even though she was a Commonwealth Games gold medallist just a year before; Webb missed out on selection for the '07 team with her departure; Dykes has now left before the Beijing Olympics. The motivations behind these retirements were speculated about in great detail, as were the attitudes of people to them. National women's coach Liddick seems to be demanding a lot from particular girls but not advancing the skills of others. She seemed to care a lot if Hollie couldn't hit her side aerial on beam, but doesn't seem to mind tuck-jump-on mounts being done by many in the squad. She talked up Hollie in the newspapers quite a bit but never mentioned the second girl competing at the moment to get a Yurchenko double (Kerby Purcell). Let's have a go at addressing those problems (and the one of getting more of the squad members to international assignments!) first. If it's something you have the power to fix, try and fix it.

At the 2003 World Championships, the USA lost several of its valuable team members to injury and illness. Seeming desperate in the three-up, three-count routine team final format, they called up their alternates and still went on to win a historic team gold. A fantastic effort for them and testament to the high standard of athlete training in the United States. Upon losing team members from our own side during the same competition (and the Athens Olympics), Liddick made a remark that basically alluded to the size and standard of the national WAG squad as it stands - that we don't have a lineup we can whip girls out of and replace them with equally competent performers, we have a 'handful' of elites competing at an international standard. If we lost girls during a preliminary round, there's no way we could make up for lost ground in the final. Not all the girls are at the same skill level. Mind you, Australia's population vs the USA's is not exactly the crux of the argument here. As someone remarked, this "the squad isn't big/good enough" attitude is a poor excuse (particularly coming from the woman in charge of the program) and blame shouldn't rest on the gymnasts themselves. It's a reflection of the standard of facilities and coaching in this country, and I suppose to an extent the administration of the sport as well.

A lot of fans question Australian gymnasts and their approaches to competitions. I can count on twenty eight hands the number of times I've heard variations on the question "Why can't Aussie gymnasts hit in the big meets?" Why is it that so many of our best performers fumble when it counts? Just a few examples: 2000 Olympics team qualification round where several vaults were crashed; 2004 Athens Olympics team qualification round where bars routines were fluffed, steps out of bounds were taken on floor and rock-steady Russo fell off beam; 2006 Commonwealth Games all-around where Hollie fell on every apparatus but still managed the bronze medal; 2007 American Cup where Dasha fell off beam twice and nearly stacked her vault; 2007 World Championships where falls/mistakes were counted on three out of four apparatus and we nearly missed Olympic qualification by one place...

Why do we never have a whole TEAM of rock-solid, high-scoring individuals?

What brings out all the mistakes?

Is it nerves resulting from inadequate mental preparation?

Is it the tiredness that comes with being trained too hard?

Is it distraction from being in front of the cameras and crowd?

Is it fear of the Tall Poppy Syndrome that might come should they succeed?

What is it? What brings on the inconsistency? How can we rectify this problem? How can we stop gymnasts succumbing to fear and feelings of pressure and inadequacy? How can we keep our squad flourishing?

There are a number of solutions, not all of them concrete, that in my inexperienced and rather powerless opinion could help bring about change in the national psyche of this sport. Because I'm, like, heaps pensive 'n' all that :P

First and foremost, gymnastics deserves to be recognised in this country. You'll find that a lot of Aussies think gymnasts train hard for four years' straight and only come out at the Olympics, which they approach with a "we'll never get close to the Romanians anyway" attitude. That's our main problem right there. They're not noticed an in a sense go into major competitions with defeatist clouds over their heads. Nobody realises that girls are competing (and often winning) all year round. National championships and duel meets aren't advertised, they don't get television coverage anymore like the American Cup/VISA Championships do. Thousands upon thousands of Aussies tune in annually to the EJ Whitten Legends football match; an Aussie Rules Football match where a spritely Victorian team takes on a ragtag team of celebrities and retired players. Sadly, Australia's gymnastics duel against reigning World Championship gold medal team China only got a 30-second radio spot and a small mention in the Herald Sun newspaper, somewhere in the back. If more people could have known they were getting a fantastic Beijing preview for a fraction of the price and journey, no doubt the competition would've had a greater attendance. It's great that Liddick and the Gymnastics Australia folks can get our girls into meets televised on NBC, but why not campaign for Nationals to be shown on tv again here (they last aired on Foxtel about seven years ago)?

I'd very much like to see more of this.

Sadly, our gymnasts don't get to be public figures. Highly-paid, highly-photographed or otherwise, so there is little benefit reputation-wise for them. Gymnasts don't get the attention football players, one-off-medallists and pseudo-professional sportspeople do (cf. Stephen Bradbury/Joe Hachem/various stars on the wrestling circuit). They don't get lucrative sponsorship deals or interviews about their progress. I never saw Olympian Allana Slater walking the red carpet at a movie premiere or shopping centre grand opening, but I no doubt saw Russell 'Rusty' Thompson (benchwarmer from the Barrangarragal Bilbies football team) and Alina Bigboobskya (expat Ukrainian javelinist who came 5th at the Sydney Olympics and released her own erotic-photography calendar) walking arm-in-arm there. I know who I'd have rather photographed and interviewed. Mind you, when gymnasts do get interviewed, they're addressed like they're six years old and kept perpetually imprisoned in a cupboard all day every day save for training hours. *sigh* Part of me thinks it's due to the fact that gymnasts can't drink beer or eat a lot of party/finger food or stay out very late so promoters just think they're not worth inviting (the b*****ds). Matt Shirvington, God bless him and his famous assets, is a different story. I've heard he can down a plate of sausage rolls and a seafood platter faster than you can say "equine tranquiliser".

Jana Rawlinson won a gold medal in hurdles at the World Athletics Championships last year after returning to training from maternity leave. Good on her. Better her than me. She was on the front cover of national newspapers and was a guest at various luncheons and charity events. 'Our Jana' went for gold and she got it. Philippe Rizzo struggled through five years of injury to win a historic World Championships gold medal while suffering another injury in 2006. He was in the sports section of two Victorian newspapers, again somewhere near the back, was a fleeting sports update item on the news broadcasts of three stations, and was nominated online by his own brother to be a guest on Andrew Denton's insightful and popular interview show Enough Rope (something I found quite accidentally when I wanted to request on the show's web guestbook that I'd have liked to see Phillip Noyce get interviewed if he hadn't been already). Rizzo has not yet made an appearance. But don't worry, the guy who holds the World Record for belly button fluff-collecting and a jailed politician have. No, that one's not a joke.


Why don't gymnasts get the attention? They more than deserve it. It shouldn't be just the Olympic champion that gets to talk in schools and thank Mum and Dad and God for this Sportsperson of the Year Award. I find gymnasts incredible role models for young people (if you put to the very back of your minds the occasional Playboy spread and lies about athlete age). Gymnasts are fine examples of fitness, dedication, time management and sportspersonship. They're not the ones pursued by police overseas on drugs charges. They're not the ones starting fights in pubs and clubs. They're not the ones on tax evasion charges. They're not the ones slinging racial remarks on the field. I'd have found it rare (and altogether odd) two years ago for someone out in Chiswick-Upon-Crumpet to be burning Hollie Dykes effigies and waving Death to Her and Her Good Toepoint placards.

This? Not so much.

Also, I might add, the Australian Olympic Committee has made a chicken-and-egg move with funding that affects many non-mainstream sports. They introduced a Medal Incentive Funding scheme about a year ago, whereby any athlete that wins a world cup or world championships medal in their sport will receive a certain amount of funding. But only AFTER they win. So I feel sorry for the Olympic sports that don't get a great deal of fanfare or funding in the first place (badminton, tae kwon do, kayaking)... how are they going to challenge for a world cup medal if they can't really afford to get a whole team there in the first place? Seems a bit of an illogical rule.

And if, like the rest of us, GA is nervous about Australia's upcoming performances in Beijing, why don't they try and do what the US does and lobby to get equipment for the gym that's made by the Olympic suppliers? That's why they adapt so well when the big event rolls around: they've already practised on it. Literally, try and get the Olympic equipment at home. It's worth a try. Even if it's just the beam, as that's our nail-biter apparatus.

Ultimately (and here concludes the rant), I find it sad that there is so little benefit, so little incentive for gymnasts in this country, hence so much apathy on the part of the athletes and some coaches. It all comes out looking like a fruitless, thankless exercise. I can't help but feel that gymnasts will never get that highly publicised, everybody-stay-up-late-to-watch-them-in-finals, let's-all-gather-in-Federation-Square-and-watch-them-on-the-big-screen-together treatment we saw the Socceroos get in the FIFA World Cup Final.

I think that at a macro level GA needs to re-strategise this year about how to get the sport in the public eye and how to get the athletes more motivated. Support for the team needs to be evident in the lead-up to the Games, beyond just adolescent cheer squads at Nationals and a small Facebook group (*shameless plug*). On a micro level, Liddick needs to adopt a less scathing attitude with the athletes and work to get them more confident with difficult skills as they learn them with their coaches. Get them world-class, get them consistent, perhaps adjust the national qualification score to be slightly higher so all the hard work doesn't have to be done in Canberra alone, work not just with them but with their coaches as well. Just don't lament that it's out of your hands and that you've tried everything you can. There's always another way to approach something.

*hops down off soapbox*

G'night.