Skip to main content

Should the FIG 'allow' wins? Comments on the World Rhythmic Gymnastics Championships

Image
By
I was reading International Gymnast Online yesterday and came across a story about the Rhythmic Gymnastics World Championships:

http://www.intlgymnast.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1921:russia-wins-three-more-golds-in-moscow&catid=5:competition-reports&Itemid=164

What caught my eye was Tanya's comment at the bottom of the page, to the effect that the Russian team had won too many golds at this championships, and that the FIG shouldn't 'allow' it. Now, granted, I don't know much about rhythmic. The 15 point winning margin of the Russian team suggests that there wasn't much doubt about their win, though, and there seem to be enough people in the world gasping about Kanayeva's grace and artistry to make these wins seem reasonably legitimate; if anything can be legitimate in this sport given the amount of controversy surrounding figures such as Irina Viner.

What really got me thinking, though, was the poster's emphasis on the idea of the FIG exercising power over who can or can't win.

There is an important point of principle here.
Surely sport is about the best winning - not administrators 'allowing' countries to win as a sop to national pride. But what is 'best?', and who decides? Who exercises control over the form that gymnastics takes - the performers and coaches, spectators, or the administrators, and for what reasons? Is fairness about an equal spread of medals amongst diverse countries, or about awarding wins to those who perform the 'best' under the current set of rules? Who should decide what those rules are? Is who wins more important than the sport itself? Is it right to let the sport's administrators try to 'level the field' artificially?

I'm not a rhythmic expert and I may have missed the point - perhaps the Russians aren't clearly the best and should have come second, third, or even last. But if they are the best, what is the problem?

Labels:

Comments

  1. Anonymous25 September 2010 at 13:42

    I think the FIG is already trying to prevent any one country from dominating. Bruno Grandi enjoys enormous support from the smaller countries because he is always promising them a share of the medal wealth. His promise to break the Eastern Bloc dominance is what got him elected in the first place. In a way, he has succeeded, at least on the men's side, due to the deemphasis of the AA.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

‘My daughter likes gymnastics. For us, this is the big success’. Aliya Mustafina talks to Match TV

By
Via VK.com.  Google translate A big interview with Aliya Mustafina was published on MATCH!. We provide a small excerpt below, and the full version is available on the website at the link below  ❓ Aliya, you are now the head coach of the junior artistic gymnastics team. What does your typical day look like? 💜 My current life is similar to what it was when I was competing. In the morning, I have breakfast and go to work by 9:00, we train for four hours, have lunch, rest and train for another three hours. During the training camp, the athletes live at the base. They live and train on the same territory. ❓ Do you manage the gymnasts' personal trainers or do you evenly distribute the responsibilities? 💜 We work in contact with the personal trainers, I listen to their opinions. For example, if the trainer believes that their athlete needs to be given a little rest or do fewer repetitions of a particular exercise, we do so. ❓ Describe the current generation of children. Do they nee...
3 comments
Read more

Denial of visas - some background

By
Can I remind everyone interested in Russian gymnastics that the restrictions imposed on Russia following its state-sponsored doping scandal were quite separate from the restrictions introduced following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine? The Russian doping scandal came to prominence in 2016, while WADA imposed further sanctions in 2019. Although these sanctions restricted Russia’s participation under its national flag, they did not impose a blanket ban on Russian gymnasts. Athletes who met the relevant eligibility requirements were still permitted to compete. Artistic gymnastics has historically recorded relatively few positive doping tests, and Russian gymnasts were not collectively excluded from international competition as a consequence of the doping scandal. Russian gymnasts therefore continued to compete at the Olympic Games and major international championships, including the Tokyo Olympics in 2021. The situation changed in February 2022, following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukra...
Post a Comment
Read more

Who really won the WAG All Around?

By
You will find a link to the FIG's newly published book of results at the Olympic Games here .  This year, they have broken down the judge's execution scores so you can see exactly how each judge evaluated the gymnasts' performances.  It makes for interesting reading - if only I had more time to analyse each judge's marking.  A skim reading already highlights multiple inconsistencies in individual judges' marks and makes you wonder why they bother with the jury at all. I have taken the time to look at the reference judges' scores for the top four in the women's all around.  The FIG explains here what their role is, and how they are selected.  I even used my calculator, which is a risky thing in my hands.  My, how I wish we could have seen a similar document for the Tokyo World Championships. I wonder if anyone can explain how, if the FIG's Code of Points is so objective and fair, it is possible to come up with two different results using two differ...
70 comments
Read more

RRG Archive - scroll by date, from 2024 to 2010

Show more