I'm on the fence on this one, and would love to hear other people's perspectives. On the one hand, seeing level eight skills at a World Cup or World Championships seems wrong. On the other, smaller gymnastics nations need international experience too, and they'll never improve if they have to stay at home because their best athletes can't do D-level dismounts.
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This was mentioned in another blog. I believe if there is a lack of good quality competition at home then countries NEED to be able to send their gymnasts to internationals in order to get experience.
Often performance determines the qualification for future events. If teams or countries aren't entitled to at least one spot then it can stop new talent coming through.
I don't really get the purpose of the question. In my opinion, a gymnast must show she/he controls not only G elements, but also A and B skills.
I think gymnasts should go to international competitions whatever their level to gain a good understanding of the competition and to hopefully make them a better competitor
I'm divided on this topic. But, I am leaning towards having a minimum D-score to qualify to certain competitions, perhaps 4.0.
I feel that if the FIG were to place a minimum D-score of 4.0 to qualify. To put it in perspective, a Yurchenko layout is a 4.4 and if a gymnast gets a 2.0 from meeting 4/5 of the CR, that leaves another 2.0 to be gained from 8 skills and CV. Also, I don't see the connection between having no international experience and not being able to improve difficulty-wise.
On the other hand, we have seen how not being adequately prepared for the international stage can be detrimental to a gymnasts performance like the female Chinese gymnasts at 2010 Pacific Rim, or those who reached their peak after years of experience, like Kaeslin, Boginskaya, Dragulescu, Sacramone and Cheng Fei. But we have seen gymnasts who have excelled in their international debut, like Nastia Liukin, Korbut, Shawn Johnson, Silivas and Li Ning.
I'd rather see form and technique requirements.
Athletes doing clean and SAFE gymnastics wins over athletes doing forced skills that they're not really ready for. Technique requirements would just make the sport uglier and more dangerous for a lot of athletes.
Coming from a small gymnastics nation, our gymnasts would have no chance to get proper experience without international meets.
I think there needs to be a clear differentiation between competitions like the World Championships and international competition in general.
Perhaps at the Worlds there should be a minimum average difficulty of 4.0 (or something similar) to ensure a high level of performance.
All other international competitions should be left up to organizers.. Many of the winners of World Cup level events will never be in serious contention for World or Olympic medals. Winning on the World Cup circuit is a major boost not only for those individual gymnasts, but for their countries and federations. I see no reason to restrict these.
I agree; countries who are still developing their gymnastics program need to be able to gain international experience. It took the US about a couple of decades to attain the world class level where they are right now.
Hate to comment again, but I just read a very interesting interview with Nellie Kim who briefly mentioned that perhaps there should be a World Championship for Level A and Level B gymnasts. Level B being that the gymnasts don't have to fulfill all the requirements that are required for a Level A gymnast. The interview was with International Gymnastics, you should definitely look it up, it's quite insightful.
NEED International experience, yes. But World Championships, like the Olympis, is for the best in the World and I believe should be left for only those gymnasts.
I say no. I don't want gymnasts from developing countries injuring themselves attempting a randomly-chosen D score minimum just so their country can be represented at worlds. Many training facilities around the world lack proper equipment to safely train more difficult skills.
I'm really on the fence for this one. I do feel however that the FIG is always trying to increase viewership (i.e. elimination of the more routine and "boring" compulsories, 3-up-3-count, encouraging difficulty by not capping a rountine with a max perfect 10). Requiring a minimum skill level would definitely encourage 'big trick' gymnastics which would undoubtedly increase viewers among individuals who don't routinely watch gymnastics.
However, in my opinion, a lot of these changes have weakened learning the basics for gymnastics and have hurt form and artistry. I think in a way this hurts developing programs just as much as decreased international experience.
It's a tough call. I like the excitement and the big tricks but as a gymnast who competed in the mid-80s to mid-90s, I recognized the fundamentals/basics are extremely important, especially for developing programs.
In one regard, I dislike messy gymnastics. Too much difficulty crammed in a routine with little time for choreography and often-poor execution.
On the other hand, I don’t know how much I like a floor routine (in 2010) consisting of a double tuck and a double twist, as clean as they may be.
Where is the balance?
And what about the developmental countries? We can’t expect the girl from Sri Lanka to have the same difficulty as the girl from China, right? But should she still be able to compete?
Having attended several World Championships all over the world, I can't tell you how heartwarming it is to see gymnasts from very poor countries get out there and give it their all. They know that their skill level is far below the rest of the competitors, but they get to represent their country and have an amazing experience.
In 2005 (I think), the Sri Lanka team was scheduled to compete, but had visa issues and arrived only minutes prior to the competition. These girls traveled half way across the world and were probably Level 7, but they were cheered on just like the rest of the field. It was a great experience for me to see the crowd support for ALL gymnasts, not just the good ones.
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