USA their own worst enemy?! The rule that is threatening the integrity of the Olympics!

The Olympics is the pinnacle of careers, a chance for the best in the world to compete to achieve their career hopes and dreams. This is a view that very much relates to the sport of gymnastics, everybody remembers the amazing performances of Nadia Comaneci, Lilia Podkopayeva among many more in Olympic finals thorough the ages. The sport of gymnastics is one of skill, poise and artistry where even the slightest  mistake can be the difference between the gold medal and 10th! In this great sport the Olympics remains the most important indicator of career success, the title of Olympic champion is the one that people remember, the one that cements your place in history.

Unfortunately in this games, the pure brilliance of the sport is threatened to be overshadowed by the new ruling which has proceeded to banish American double world champion Jordyn Weiber, from fighting for her right to be crowned the best in the world even though she received the fourth highest score overall in the qualifying competition! Weiber made a slight mistake on the floor, which due to the brilliance of her fellow American gymnasts relegated her to being the third highest scoring gymnast from the USA, fourth overall in the competition, and therefore unable to compete as one of the 24 finalists vying for Olympic gold under new rules.

Weiber is distraught at a small mistake in her floor routine meaning she fails to reach the Olympic final, even as the fourth best qualifier in the whole competition.

New Olympic rules state that in Olympic all around competition and in the finals of any individual apparatus, there are to be no more than 2 athletes competing for any one nation. In the final of the overall all around competition this equates to each nation being able to occupy just 2 of the 24 final berths regardless of how many obtain scores in the top 24 of all competitors.

There is obviously a very simple argument which is the fact that every gymnast will be aware of the rules pre competition, and that by only achieving third best qualifier from their country, they have had the chance to qualify for the final, but have failed. Therefore some blame can rightly be attributes to the gymnast themselves, as everybody has, in general, received the same chance to qualify. This argument however is flawed when the results of yesterdays qualifying results are investigated.

The overall best score during qualifying was that of  Russian Victoria Komova,  she achieved a score of 60.632 overall. One of her main challengers for the Gold medal Jordyn Weiber from the USA put a fantastic performance together on 3 of the four apparatus but made a mistake on the floor, reducing her score slightly but to an extent that she only managed to finish fourth overall with a score of 60.03, just 0.6 off the leader. Notice that I used the expression “only” when referring to the fourth best overall score in the world. The two further gymnasts that managed to beat her were both representing the USA and as a result the fourth highest qualifier for the women’s final is not regarded as one of the top 24 who will be allowed to compete for Gold later in the week.

In a competition in which the goal is to find the best three competitors in the world at a said sport, and to reward their excellent performances with a medal of three variety, it seems outrageous that only two of these medals can be taken by each nation. This surely makes the results of the final obsolete as the all of the very best gymnasts are not present in the finals. If you are fortunate enough to perform to such a high level that you win a bronze medal behind two athletes from a single nation, it creates a lingering doubt as to if you really are the rank of gymnast that you have achieved; or if  actually, you have only managed to achieve that medal due to another athlete being unfortunate enough that two other gymnasts from her country achieved a better qualifying score. With a top gymnast such as Weiber eliminated unjustly, it can be argued also that the results of the games become less valid and people may talk about the result being the way it is only because of Weiber’s technicality elimination, rather that the results themselves.

At the Sydney games 2000, Romania initially got a clean sweep of medals. Raducan was later stripped of her medal for substance irregularity. They are sliver medalist Simona Amanar, left, gold medalist Andreea Raducan, center, and bronze medalist Maria Olaru. This is now impossible under new rules, as only 2 athletes from each nation compete

By creating such a rule which goes against the values of the Olympics, in that the Olympics are held to crown the “three” athletes who are the best in the world and reward medals, many issues and future problems are sure to arise which ultimately display the loss of Olympics Gymnastics’ integrity. The rule itself has robbed no less than 4 deserving athletes, who were amongst the best 24 scores in the competition, of their chance to compete in the finals of the Olympics (Weiber 4th overall, Grishina 12th,Pinches 21st and Yao 22nd). To put into context what this means for the competition I alert you to the fact that the 24th qualifier for the final (28th overall best score) is Ashleigh Brennan from Australia. Her score overall was 54.32, a full 6.3 whole marks less than that of Weiber, yet Brennan will be allowed to compete for the title at the expense of the world-class Weiber who is a double world champion and has trained hard all of her life for a chance to compete, and even with a fall received the fourth best overall score. This is an individual event and therefore is a disgrace and to some extent a prejudice towards ones nationality that the “only” reason that she isn’t able to compete is that she is from the USA. There is no gain to having the 25th best athlete qualify for a competition at the 4th best gymnasts expense.  At the 1996 games in Atlanta, the silver and bronze medals were awarded to Romanian gymnasts, silver medal went to Gina Gogean and the bronze was a tie between two more Romanian gymnasts Simona Amanar and Lavinia Milosovici. Under new rules one of these athletes would not have been able to compete at all in the finals, lowering the standard of the competition and also taking away one of their medals. Amanar’s experience gained in that final and the winning of the medal led to her achieving a Gold medal at the following Olympics in Sydney. If she had not been allowed to compete then her future could have been so much different and we could have been robbed of her wonderful performances from Sydney. In addition, Andreea Raducan was the initial winner of the Sydney 2000 games, but was stripped of her gold for substance irregularities. If this had not been the case the podium would have consisted of Raducan, Amanar and Maria Olaru, all from Romania, the likes of a clean sweep of medals for a country overall is now impossible under new rules.

The aftermath of this Olympic ruling could be disastrous. It isn’t unreasonable to think that athletes from successful nations will ultimately be a victim of their own success. Young athletes looking for Olympic experience such a as that of Amanar’s first games, will no longer be able to achieve that if they compete for a successful nation. This may in turn lead to them looking for ways in which to compete for alternative nations in order to stand a chance of qualification. If an athlete knows that she must beat two medal contenders in order to even qualify for the Olympic final, they are likely to struggle to see the point of wasting time training, knowing that a gymnast’s career rarely lasts more than 2 games in total. The ruling leads to a chance that only 2 athletes from each country will ever be seen in a final every 8 years which surely isn’t the point of sport, or the Olympics. The “plastic brit” issue which currently disturbs ethics in athletics could be soon duplicated now in Gymnastics as a result. This would be in the form of for exampe Russian and American gymnasts competing for nations of a lesser gymnastic quality, by finding loopholes such as ancestoral nationality.

Finally, the point of the Olympics is to showcase the very best Gymnastics for the entertainment of the crowd, and to see the highest level possible in the sport. With this new rule implemented in the sport, it is likely that those athletes at the top of the sport will perform very “safe” routines which are not as entertaining, safe in the knowledge that this should be enough to qualify for the final. Tghey may prefer to do this rather than, like Weiber, attempt to entertain the crowd and show her best moves and performance, but not quite achieve it and therefore miss out all together. There is no place for sentiment or giving the lesser gymnasts preferential treatment at the Olympic finals, that is the purpose of the qualification; the Olympics should be the pinnacle of all sport, the duel of the best athletes to reign supreme for four years. This rule destroys that notion and punishes the gymnasts unnecessarily, as well as the public who are viewing to see the best of their sport, I am sure we are yet to hear the end of the issue.

Aviva Grand Prix- Crystal Palace Review Day 1

Crystal Palace is the last event for many of the athletes competing at the Olympics fo them to run themselves into good shape and achieve good performances to give them confidence leading into the games. Many top athletes were present and the event finals began with the women’s 400m hurdles.

We were treated to a quite outstanding performance from the young Perri Shakes Drayton, who announced her intentions for the summer with a barnstorming PB of 53.77 in winning the 400m hurdles. After a mildly disappointing season up to this point worries were that she was leaving it too late to hit form, and her times had not matched her ambitions thus far. With a new-found aggression and determination she ran the second fastest time ever by a British athlete, second only to the great Sally Gunnel. Blessed with great flat speed Drayton has always seemed to lack belief and often seemed surprised at her success after good performances, hopefully by beating some of her title rivals today she will enjoy a new-found belief that can result in an Olympic medal in London next month.

The excitement continued with the amazing rivalry that has developed in the 400m hurdles between world champion Dai Green and Javier Culson. The field also contained great american athletes Bershawn Jackson and Angelo Taylor in addition to young British star Jack Green hoping to rub shoulders with the worlds best and announce himself on the world stage. Green was hampered by Bershawn Jackson being disqualified in lane 8 a lane outside of him which meant that he had to run blind, and was the target for the other athletes. The race itself was a mirror of the recent clash at a recent Diamond League event with Dai Green gaining on Javier Culson down the home straight but not quite having enough to catch him. Culson won the event in what once again was a breathtaking time of 47.80, just outside the British all comers record. It is evident from the race and the event last week that if Dai Green is to win the gold medal from the outstanding Culson, he has to attack his first two hundred meters more and ensure that he is no more than a metre behind going into the home straight. In leaving himself quite so much to do on the home straight he is not putting Culson under enough pressure, whereas if he were a little closer there is the chance that Culson may tighten up and it will be down to who can hold their form to the line. Jack Green ran a great PB in finishing fourth behind Taylor in 48.60 and finished in fourth place announcing himself to the world and beating great athletes including former champion Felix Sanchez!

 

Greene hold Culsons harm aloft after his defeat.

After watching the 400m hurdles for both the men and women, one thing is clear that the British athletes seemed to have timed their training very well and look set to reach their peak at the Olympic games with all 3 having now run personal bests in the last two weeks.

The 100m semi finals unfortunately for British athletes, threw up no surprises with all of the main protagonist reaching the final and British athletes continuing to fail with Chambers the best of them in the first semi final finishing just 5th in 10.35. This will be a huge disappointment for Dwain who has qualified based on his win at the trials and his past successes and good times. Unless he has some miraculous advances in training before the games it looks likely that a semi final berth is the very best he will be able to achieve. For an athlete of Chambers talent and history, this quite honestly just isn’t good enough.

In the flagship event, the mens 100m final, Tyson Gay won in a time of 10.03. He wasn’t overly impressive but had too much for the rest of the field that involved his compatriot Ryan Bailey who finished second in 10.09. His job was yesterday made a bit easier by Jamaican superstar Asafa Powell pulling out of the event with muscle tightness. In comparison to some of his more notable performances, it seemed that Gay was slightly lacking in his pickup and his transition to top speed. This left him trailing slightly, however in this race he had enough once he was into his running to pull away from the field comfortably in the end. He will need to improve this area to have any chance of Olympic gold however as he will come up against athletes who are as fast if not faster than he, who also have great strength endurance such as Bolt, Blake, Powell and Gatlin. If he gives those athletes the few meters he did the field tonight, he certainly will struggle to claw it back.

In the mens Long jump Chris Tomlinson was back to some good form just before the games when jumping 8.26. He has struggled this year so far and was selected for the Olympic games without having achieved the qualifying standard, after tonight’s return to the form that the selectors were confident he could achieve, he is hopefully ready to peak at the games. Mitchell Watt just pipped Tomlinson to the win after jumping 8.28m.

The womens 200 was a close race between Williams and McLaughlin with Williams winning in 22.75 seconds. This is a good time, however after Felix ran 21.69 in the US trials recently, both will have to find another level if they are to challenge for the gold. The Jamaican hope Simpson who was expected to set the pace at this event ran very disappointingly to finish 6th. The womens 500m also went as expected Cheruyiout won comfortably and visibly had more to give. Britain Holly Bleasdale ran a personal best in 15 minutes 10.06 secs, still nowhere near the elite athletes but progress nonetheless.

In the womens 1500m the british women ( England, Dobriskey and Weightman) were left for dead in 4.06 by Brunei athlete and former world champion Jammal. Laura Weightman finished fourth which is a good performance in a top class field for the youngster and definitely good preparation for the games.

Unfortunately Lui Xiang pulled out of the 110m hurdles final with a sore back, however the field was still stacked with world-class talent. The event was won by American and world number one Merrit in a brilliant time of 19.94 a massive meeting record, breaking the long-standing British all comers record previously held by Colin Jackson. Britain’s number one Andrew Pozzi qualified for the final but unfortunately pulled up after the first hurdle and did not finish.

The big finale of the night lived up to the hopes and expectations of a raucous home crowd. Mo Farah looked in amazing shape while winning the 5000m after a devastating last 800m broke the will of his competitors. The world champion looked ready for the Olympics and alongside Jessica Ennis, holds the most realistic hopes of Olympic Gold for the home crowd.

As a whole the Aviva Diamond League Grand Prix tonight was a very successful one for the British athletes with the performances of Mo Farah and Perri Shakes Drayton particularly standing out. With a host of personal and seasons bests alike among the British contingent hopes should be good going into the games.