Rhythmic Gymnastics | Page 2 | Golden Skate

Rhythmic Gymnastics

Serious Business

Record Breaker
Joined
Jan 7, 2011
janetfan, I don't think rhythmic gymnastics should be a guilty pleasure. Watching so much rhythmic gymnastics gave me a really deep and scary impression of just how difficult it is. It takes an inhuman amount of precision, balance, coordination and practice to achieve even the routines of the lowest ranked competitors here. It doesn't take as much brute strength and stamina as some other sports, to be sure, but how many other sports have athletes who can spin in a 225° arabesque split while dribbling a ball? And this is one of the most basic moves in rhythmic gymnastics at this level. The apex of any sport is to push the human body to an outrageous limit for the sake of good competition, and rhythmic gymnastics absolutely does that.
 

janetfan

Match Penalty
Joined
May 15, 2009
janetfan, I don't think rhythmic gymnastics should be a guilty pleasure. Watching so much rhythmic gymnastics gave me a really deep and scary impression of just how difficult it is. It takes an inhuman amount of precision, balance, coordination and practice to achieve even the routines of the lowest ranked competitors here. It doesn't take as much brute strength and stamina as some other sports, to be sure, but how many other sports have athletes who can spin in a 225° arabesque split while dribbling a ball? And this is one of the most basic moves in rhythmic gymnastics at this level. The apex of any sport is to push the human body to an outrageous limit for the sake of good competition, and rhythmic gymnastics absolutely does that.

No argument from me......

When I say guilty pleasure I simply mean I enjoy it enough to not woryy or even concern myself with the scoring.

It is pretty much the way I feel about Ice Dancing.
I enjoy Ice Dancing and even love it at times.
But I have no desire to ever try and learn too much about the scoring system.

Let's face it, for some of us that would serve to ruin the pleasure of it.

Guilty....without a doubt...yes. :)
 
Joined
Aug 16, 2009
janetfan, I don't think rhythmic gymnastics should be a guilty pleasure. Watching so much rhythmic gymnastics gave me a really deep and scary impression of just how difficult it is. It takes an inhuman amount of precision, balance, coordination and practice to achieve even the routines of the lowest ranked competitors here. It doesn't take as much brute strength and stamina as some other sports, to be sure, but how many other sports have athletes who can spin in a 225° arabesque split while dribbling a ball? And this is one of the most basic moves in rhythmic gymnastics at this level. The apex of any sport is to push the human body to an outrageous limit for the sake of good competition, and rhythmic gymnastics absolutely does that.

Definitely! The first time I watched rhythmic gymnastics, I was wowed by their eye-hand coordination. This isn't crocheting, folks. It looks tremendously difficult. In fact it looks impossible. I keep looking for the strings holding things up, and of course there aren't any.
 

deedee1

Record Breaker
Joined
Nov 14, 2007
I am not familiar with Rhythmic Gymnastics and its rules at all.
Even to such untrained eyes of mine, it is obvious indeed that Evgeniya Kanaeva of Russia is just above everyone else. :yes:

The one who has stolen my heart, however, is Yeon Jae Son of Korea! :love:
 

gato

Spectator
Joined
Mar 29, 2012
Hi im new.. long time lurker.
Thank you all, esp. serious business!, for your comments on the events!
I wanted to share some links to watch the event online in case any of you missed it in my next post! :)
 

gato

Spectator
Joined
Mar 29, 2012
I don't know how long they will have these videos online, so I suggest to watch before they disappear! ;)

http://www.nbcolympics.com/video/rhythmic-gymnastics/individual-all-around-final.html
http://www.nbcolympics.com/video/rhy...oup-rot-1.html
http://www.nbcolympics.com/video/rhythmic-gymnastics/qual-indiv-all-around-rot-3-4-group-rot-2.html

and my two favorite athletes in this sport together-so cute: Evgenia Kanaeva and Yeon-Jae Son!
http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m8mkionvVU1r71tfco1_500.jpg
 
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Victura

On the Ice
Joined
Apr 8, 2012

Thank you so much for posting these! I'd been trying to watch the competition somewhere but had missed it on NBC (not enough patience to sit through 4 hours of broadcast for 10 minutes of coverage). Some of this is absolutely unbelievable! Pirouettes in penché position? And the flexibility? Wow!

Reminded me a bit of figure skating with the flesh-colored leotards and the "kiss and cry" area. :)
 
Joined
Jun 21, 2003
This is such an excellent sport. To me, it seems like the sport is progressing in the direction of greater precision in the moves, with not so much emphasis on extreme flexibility as it used to.
 

janetfan

Match Penalty
Joined
May 15, 2009
This is such an excellent sport. To me, it seems like the sport is progressing in the direction of greater precision in the moves, with not so much emphasis on extreme flexibility as it used to.

I agree and hope USA will get a few contenders in this beautiful sport so we can see more of it.
Despite being the sole voice defending NBC at GS it's not like I'm blind.

Yes, I see faults with NBC's coverage and don't approve of them passing over sports where USA has no medal contenders.

On the other hand I can't help notice the "me, me, me" cries of disapproval :think:

No one has mentioned this but a fair enough complaint is about the way we can feel held hostage at times.

Whether it's the winter or summer games many of us don't like having to tune in on a given night because figure skating or gymnastics will be shown only to have sit through hours of other events.

I feel sure many of us also don't like the way they chop up skating and gymnastic competitons by constantly switching coverage to sports we don't care as much about.

I do understand from a marketing point why NBC does it....but that doesn't mean we have to like it.

Anyway......does anyone have any info or links about some of the USA rhythmic gymnasts?

Seems like knowing something about them would be a start to a better understanding of a sport I feel no shame in calling a "guilty pleasure."
 
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janetfan

Match Penalty
Joined
May 15, 2009
Thanks Doris. I had no idea the sport is almost non-existent (or atleast mostly at a non-Olympic level here).

Not surising NBC did not show as much as some of us would have liked.
 

dorispulaski

Wicked Yankee Girl
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
Country
United-States
janetfan, I don't understand why rhythmic gymnastics isn't big in the US. So many little girls take both ballet and gymnastics, it should be possible. It's not like ribbons, clubs, hula hoops and dodge balls aren't available in the US.
 
Joined
Jun 21, 2003
^ Do you think it is because the sport basically derives from performing in the circus? Juggling, tumbling, acrobatics, and stuff like that? This kind of entertainment has been very popular in eastern Europe, and also in some Asian countries like China.
 

Tonichelle

Idita-Rock-n-Roll
Record Breaker
Joined
Jun 27, 2003
It doesn't help that it doesn't get any attention at all by the TV media during the games... I mean, I just thought rythmic gymnastics involved ribbons!
 

janetfan

Match Penalty
Joined
May 15, 2009
When we mention in USA a sport we only see once every four years forget skating.
The champion or atleast the leading contender for that has got to be rhythmic gymnastics.

Some interesting points were just raised but I don't have a clue why it is not more popular here.

Is there a lack of coaches?
 
Joined
Aug 16, 2009
I finally got to view most of the footage for the individual all-around. This sport is unbelievable. Never mind the flexibility; the way they throw that apparatus up in the air and magically put their hands out where the thing lands is just unimaginable.

I think it's clear that the main fan base is in a few Eastern European countries. I listened to the medal ceremony, and you could clearly hear the audience singing along with the Russian National Anthem. I haven't come across that except in the case of a win by the host country, when it makes sense that most of the audience would take part. I'd guess that a large proportion of the spectators at this event were from either Russia, Belarus, the Ukraine, or Bulgaria. We who love following the sport here in the West are fighting a losing battle to gain popularity for it.

Only one thing I'd change: I do not warm to that extreme pulled-back hairstyle. Everyone looks semi-strangled. I understand they have to keep their hair out of their eyes, but artistic gymnasts manage that without looking, as the French say, pulled by four pins.
 

Serious Business

Record Breaker
Joined
Jan 7, 2011
It's not a lack of exposure that holds the US back in rhythmic gymnastics. If you look at the recent Olympics, Americans dominated or at least seriously challenged in a vast variety of sports that never see the light of day in the US. Look no further than the US women's volleyball team, for instance. The silver-medal winning team, which was heavily favored to win gold, is made entirely of squad members who play in non-US clubs in their professional careers. They do not get the support back home for their sport, but it doesn't stop them from excelling. Americans are, by nature, extremely jockish. The idea of doing well in sports appeals to a number of ingrained elements in the American psyche, and even sports that get little exposure in the country can and do attract the best and grittiest Americans.

So why the lack of success in rhythmic gymnastics for the US? There are a few reasons, but top among them, in my opinion: biased/corrupt judging in the past. To succeed, one had to have the European look. To have the European look, one had to be European. In the entire history of the sport, only 4 non-European countries have ever medaled in the team or individual all-around in rhythmic gymnastics. That's 8 medals out of 197. The only time a non-European competitor won a medal in the individual all-around was during the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, which was boycotted by the Soviet Bloc countries (Canada won that one, making it the first, last and only time North America won a major medal in the sport). Americans had very little incentive to compete in the sport on an international level. Those who did find the motivation got nowhere fast, which meant they were unable to build off their success and start a legacy.

And let's not forget, rhythmic gymnastics is also a very new sport. The first world championships in the sport were held in 1963. The individual all-around was introduced to the Olympics in 1984 (yes, the Soviet boycott Olympics, ironic!). The group competition wasn't an Olympic event until 1996! All this makes rhythmic gymnastics a newer Olympic sport than even ice dancing. This means that there is far less time for the expertise and heritage of rhythmic gymnastics to spread and travel around the world to places such as the US.

And ice dancing is a good comparison for rhythmic gymnastics. It's also another judged aesthetic and musical sport that has been dominated by Europeans, with North Americans virtually shut out of it for most of its history. That, of course, completely changed recently. And what made the change? The code of points! By removing a lot of the ingrained bias out of the judging, and forcing judges to focus, in large part, on defined technical aspects of the sport, Americans finally found their way in. You give those Americans a road map to athletic success, and no matter how uphill it is, we will climb it!

Well, guess what? Rhythmic gymnastics also has its own code of points now, with almost every aspect of judging the sport carefully laid out. This is a relatively new development, and it hasn't borne fruit for Americans yet. But then the adoption of the COP in ice dancing didn't immediately lead to American success in the discipline either. So I say give it time. There are bound to be enterprising rhythmic gymnastics coaches/experts in the US who came from Europe who could show Americans the way, now that there is a way.

The COP in RG has already opened the door for non-European competitors in the individual all-around. Son Yeon Jae, whom I've talked about quite a bit in my previous posts, came just a few fraction of a point from winning bronze at the Olympics. She would've had she not dropped both her clubs during her club routine. Had she medaled, she'd be the first non-European individual competitor to medal in RG in a non-boycotted games. At this rate, it's almost inevitable that she will break through sooner or later, as she is only 18.

Oh, and fun fact about Son Yeon Jae, she is a star back in South Korea, where her unlikely success in a sport previously unfamiliar to South Koreans, coupled with her good looks, rather puts her in mind of another Korean athletic superstar. And just like Yuna Kim, Son Yeon Jae appears in a wide variety of commercials before the Olympics. Here she is in a deliriously cute ice cream commercial where she barely does anything related to her sport (her notoriety is apparently so great there's no need to remind people what she does). Here she is in an air conditioner commercial with a Korean swimmer, a commercial that came out over a year ago.
 
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janetfan

Match Penalty
Joined
May 15, 2009
Thanks for such an informative post SB.

I had no idea RG was a newer sport.

I did check out the links and agree about Son Yeon Jae and hope she continues to do well in the future.

I would like to see RG become better established in N. America.....or anywhere for that matter.
 
Joined
Aug 16, 2009
Thanks so much for the background on this tantalizing sport. I kind of suspected the European bias. In fact, I read somewhere that the American contender is the daughter of a Hungarian emigre (who may be her coach--I forget), so she's part of that tradition, it seems. I do hope we get more involved with rhythmic gymnastics, because it has so much appeal, and I'd like a chance to see more of it.

On your advice, I paid special attention to son Yeon Jai, and I too loved her. I like that she's popular in Korea even if her sport doesn't have a lot of followers there.

Maybe you can answer a question for me. I watched the girl from Belarus, and she burst into what looked like tears of disappointment after her ribbon routine. I thought for sure she had made some terrible goof, but then she got a huge score and won the bronze. I can't tell anything from the playback. So what made her cry? Did she miss something but have a high degree of difficulty that it didn't matter? Or was she just exhausted and tense?
 
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