EDITORIAL

BY PROF. BRUNO GRANDI

FIG PRESIDENT

Dear Friends

After an absence of 15 years, the 45th Artistic Gymnastics World Championships returned to China, to the city of Nanning in the southern part of the country, where once again the Chinese Federation and city of Nanning extended a flawless welcome.

The Tianjin Worlds in 1999 were a significant World Championships, an Olympic qualification and a business card for China’s 2008 Olympic bid.

The welcome was extraordinary for the duration of the ’99 Worlds, where we were received by the President of the Republic, Jiang Zemin, in his private state residence, and were given access to the new thing in technology: high definition television.

In Nanning, orientation was held in all its splendour, following protocol, showcasing a wide range of services through the sheer quality (and quantity) of volunteers on whom FIG personnel relied heavily, and, most importantly, with respect and warmth shown to all the athletes and leaders present.

 

On behalf of the FIG, I would like to express my most sincere and heartfelt gratitude to this extraordinary – if somewhat unfamiliar – world.

 

It started with the political authorities but wrapped up with the enthusiasm of grandstands packed full of fans who turned out to fill the halls on every single competition day.

The competitions were held in these conditions, in a sports palace reserved solely for our discipline. It was almost always full, and was the home base for 40 television cameras filming the performances.

We helped create a cutting-edge environment that is difficult to reproduce, one to which only the Olympic Games can aspire.

Because of that, organisation of this important world gymnastics competition could not have been better. Thank you President Luo Chaoyi!

As always, the championships had weak and strong points. And though the latter were more numerous, let’s take a critical look.

Strong point: if we consider that after 18 exercises, the Men’s team ranking rolls out China and Japan at less than 0.10 hundredths of a point, we can also imagine how thick the tension and emotion was in that hall over the course of those two hours of competition.

Critique: With regard to the technical judging of exercises (in the broadest sense), which is of greater technical value and lesser executional value, we are seeing a trend that surfaced at other major international competitions, starting with the Olympic Games in Athens. We notice that the athletes are striving to execute difficult elements, to the detriment of artistic expression.

 

In my opinion, this is no longer artistic gymnastics, but acrobatics. We are deforming our sport. The same goes for Women’s gymnastics, where the situation is even more startling.

 

Reference judges often compliment jury conduct. By averaging averages, we come up with a score that is sufficiently valid that it need not be modified or called into question during a competition.

To conclude, this vision of our competitions should make us think. I think it is important to rethink one of my old, but still current, ideas of acting on the relationship between difficulty and execution values. We have reached a point of balance between the two values, and that works against the artistic slant of an exercise.

In terms of the judges themselves, we must encourage education and preparation through courses and updates that are both fitting for and adapted to the current time.

Another positive consideration concerns the distribution of medals among specialists. On Men’s Floor Exercise, the eight finalists in Nanning belonged to seven different federations. This was the case for several apparatus, which makes it more spectacular, gleans audience interest, and is more attractive for the federations.

This is a positive trend in gymnastics today, as compared to previous editions.

It is positive because it affects the relationship between the numerous National Olympic Committees and gymnastics. Their interest continues to grow our sport.

In Nanning we attended the most productive World Championships in years with regard to positive elements.

Thank you, everyone.
Thank you, Nanning!

 

 

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IMPRESSUM

World of Gymnastics is an official publication of the International Gymnastics Federation – FIG. Three issues per year.

Publisher: FIG C 2015

Publication Director: André F. Gueisbuhler.

FIG Editing: Philippe Silacci; Meike Behrensen; Blythe Lawrence; William Dalè.

Production: SportBusiness Communications

Design and build: Andy Medley

Nr 75 will be released in June 2015

Editorial deadline: 1st April 2015

The reproduction of any articles, information, pictures must be approved in writing prior to publication.

Photography:  FIG Official Photographer Volker Minkus, fig-photos.com, IOC.

Translation: Allison Zurfluh, Corinne Gaudefroy.

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