Because our readers are some of the smartest, most insightful and most passionate about the sport that we could wish for, we will try something new.
Last week we posted the below quote of or Facebook page and asking a simple question – Agree or disagree?. The number of pertinent answers was impressive so I thought that it might be worth while gathering them all to gain some visibility somewhere where the debate can continue.
“Watching the 2014 World Gymnastics Championships in Nanning, China, the contrast couldn’t be more stark. While I would defy anyone to view the likes of US gymnast Simone Biles, who took an impressive four golds, with anything short of awestruck admiration, one can’t help but feel that, in the pursuit of ever greater degrees of difficulty, some of the magic has been lost.”
[Source]
I go first: Not all gymnasts are the same, the way in which they manage to “adapt” to the requirements of the sport depending on their body type is to me part of the “magic”. It is very rare that a gymnast has both great power and the looks of a ballerina. There have been times in gymnastics when the difficulty requirements were perhaps a bit lower (during the ‘80s especially), when gymnasts that had both a classical dance training and the most spectacular tumbling passes (compared to their opponents) dominated. Unfortunately, times have changed, gymnastics has evolved (some might disagree with me here) and during the ‘90s and the ‘00s the battle between artistry and power became ever present. What unnerves me the most is that both this article, as well as Grandi’s recent comments about the need to change the Code of Points, seem to be targeted specifically at Simone Biles. Why is this needed? Simone is a truly special gymnast who does have some of the best execution out there, despite not having that much coveted balletic style. Disagree!
Now, here are some of your best comments:
Ester: “The MAGIC of gymnastics is pursuing greater degrees of difficulty! If Grandi wants more ballerina gymnasts he can go to watch a musical.”
Ria: “Yup…..Where has the artistry of the 80’s gone? CoP needs a big revamp & lack of artistry deducted big time. Or more artistry marks up for grabs. I want to see difficulty….but artistry too.” But that said…..I also think artistry comes in many forms….& not just from a balletic gymnast.
And I think gymnasts like Biles DO show a degree of artistry….& incredible personality….And showing personality is lacking in so many gymnasts….You CAN be strong & powerful & show artistry….It’s not just about grace….it’s also about amplitude & clean lines…..
Maria: “This sport needs both things happening. Beauty and power, difficulty and artistry. As simple as that, this isn’t about ballerinas, this is about some of the elegance that has been lost for a while”
Andrei:“I don’t get why artistry is about grace? This is high art vs. low art all over again! Why are classical lines “cleaner” than muscular lines? Why is ballet more artistic than latin butt-shaking or hip hop-inspired dances? Why is flicking your hands more graceful than doing other poses? Simone Biles is more expressive in her work than Kyla Ross is even if Kyla has the more “classical lines”. I’d say Simone is more artistic. Afanaseva has the same facial expression THROUGHOUT her routine. Does that make her more artistic? Jordyn Wieber hit the beat of her music even better than Komova did but apparently Komova was more artistic even if she would randomly wave her arms even if there were no notes to match it. The Chinese are more “classical” but everyone notices that their moves don’t match their music.
I love Omelianchik and will always love her but I can’t help but feel that people from the Eastern European countries like Rodionenko or the other Russian coaches keep claiming that only their gymnastics is or will ever be artistic. Boguinskaya was so avant-garde but it was very different from Omelianchik’s cute routines or Shushunova’s fun routines. They all stemmed away from the balletic routines, as well. I bet if Afanaseva did Simone Biles’ routine, they’d call it artistic, even with the exact same choreography, only because it was Afanaseva doing it. I bet she’d be smiling less, too.”
Susan: “Right now the D score is the most important thing. Gymnastics is getting boring now because everyone does the same skills to get a high D score. Even the “dance” skills count toward the D score, which is why everyone does the same ugly twisting leaps and spins. Right now there are no truly memorable routines because everyone does the same things. The real magic of gymnastics is combining difficult tumbling with great choreography. The Soviets and Romanians of the ’80s were so great because their routines were choreographed for the specific gymnasts. I think what people are really missing are unique and truly memorable routines that combine acrobatics and dance.”
Riccardo: “One may say that Simone lacks in artistry (given that is possible to define what artistry precisely is, and it’s not) but no one in the world can say that some magic has been lost. I’m stunned while watching Simone, and I do think she’s something that makes her gymnastics magical. I would say though, that something HAS been lost: that the kind of artistry and precision that gymnasts like Gutsu and Miller and Lysenko had on beam. Or Onodi on floor. Or Li Li on bars. Or Boginskaya anywhere….”
Megan: “Disagree! I think Simone brings out the magic, you should (see) my smiles after she finishes her floor routine. She has added something to world gymnastics. Artistry isn’t always ballet, it can be dance and presence like Simone’s. There are different kinds of artistry and like another poster said on another post like this:ppl called Nadia a robot when she first started competing. They called Olga the trickster, not artistic but now WE herald them as that.”
Anna: “ I can’t understand why some fans are saying that if we want to see graceful routines, we need to watch ballet. Firstly, if someone wants to see just difficulty, they can watch tumbling/acro competition instead of gymnastics. But it’s not the point. There used to be lots of gymnasts in the past who managed to perform amazing difficulty for their time and be very graceful. Just a few names like Shushunova and Zakharova come to mind. You wouldn’t call them balletic, but each and every move was very graceful. They used to spend hours of training perfecting those moves. Since very early age. That’s why their bodies looked different as well. No one is bothering with that anymore. Why to spent hours on that, if code is not rewarding it. They prefer to spend this time on acrobatics, because that’s what the code values.”
Natalia: “Disagree somehow. As a retired gymnast and a physical education graduate I know how the body type and genetics influence the sport. The fact the people think gymnasts without artistry should be punished makes me sad. Most of the time it is not on purpose, it is not lack of commitment to make this happen. There are some people that need almost no training to be artistic and others that with the proper training can learn it. However, that are people that even with years of ballet training can’t develop artistry. That means, you can’t force a gymnast to be like that. What the gymnast can do, in my opinion, is take the best of the situation as Simone does. She is very clean in everything she does and she uses the best type of song and choreography that fits her body type. On the top of that is remarkable how she can deliver such difficulty so clean and I will say with grace, since she makes it looks effortless. I prefer watching her than the Russians doing their amazing choreography with terrible execution, poor difficulty and suffering in order to complete it. I love the sport and all the different gymnasts types and that’s what makes it interesting. If everything is the same it gets boring. Simone deserves everything she got so far and I wish people could understand that she doesn’t choose to be “robotic”. That’s why you don’t see people like her in Rhythmic Gymnastics, so to force this to happen is to lose great athletes like her that work so hard to accomplish her goals.”
So… who else has a different (and respectful) opinion?
LE: Comments for this article are now closed as it’s becoming increasingly difficult to monitor. Thank you for participating, The discussion is very interesting and many of the points are very insightful. Cheers!
Edited by: Bea Gheorghisor
Photo Cover: Nadia Boyce