English Gymnasts – World is Asking about the Secret
English gymnasts have depicted world class performance during the medal-packed weekend at World Championships in Rotterdam, but the secret behind marvellous performance of theirs is less likely to be disclosed before Olympics 2012.
With Beth Tweddle bagging a gold, Louis Smith ending at the silver and bronze for Dan Purvis, the competition was rounded off in a manner which had obliged the journalists to stick to the word “unprecedented” while reporting the team Britain.
Gymnastics used to be no man’s land for British until Smith managed to bag a bronze medal at Beijing Olympics. This was country’s first gymnastics medal ever at Games since 1920. One year down the line, Tweddle added a world gold alongside world silver won
by Daniel Keatings, who could not even make it into Netherlands competitions this year amid being through an injury. These have been the heights England has never hit before; in fact, it did not even come close.
While the British gymnastics team was called at the studio of an international radio station, upon the signal to “go ahead” they went about discussing the winning business without waiting for the host to come. This was the level of confidence and the strength
of British operation now.
This had been tough for Britain to perform at the world championships; first, because they were away from home, second, Keatings was no more a part of the team amid the injury, and lastly, following the previous success, there was huge pressure of expectations
from them to perform well. Fortunately, all these pressures and potential hurdles culminated in depiction of excellent performances and the team managed to have a frantic day of medals.
Despite the success, the overall performances of both the men’s and women’s teams should be looked at in context. During the team events, both of the teams ended seventh, a clear indication of the fact that there were still better performing countries out
there.
This situation had raised many potential questions, for instance, how were the British going to sort that out? And what would happen next for them? However, the spectators and the reporters both were not allowed to find the answers because British gymnasts
were keeping secrets which, reportedly, they would only reveal in 2012.
European championships held in May this year observed the last major mark lay down by the British gymnasts. There, they managed to wrap up silver medals in both women’s and men’s team events, making European champions of Keatings and Tweddle in process.
Resultantly, this year would have been successful even without bagging medals at Rotterdam. This provides the evidence of the great changes in fortune of British gymnastics that nobody stopped even after winning in May. Instead, medals just kept on coming
to them throughout October.
For Tweddle, who has long since proved herself as a genuine world class English talent, bagging the medals was rather easy. However, on men’s side to win silver and bronze at world championships and that too without the help from their only silver medallist
in 2009, was obviously difficult. In fact consistently being at 15th position until three years ago, it was even unexpected of them to qualify in the fourth place for the men’s team final. In the history of gymnastics, not many teams have depicted
this level of performance.
The reasons behind how this acute strength of the British gymnasts has emerged, and that too in such large numbers, are manifold. For instance, a complete change in the way British Gymnastics had been constructed, a paradigm shift in the coaching techniques,
and even the gradual weakening performances of the other nations.
All these factors have significantly contributed in the rise of British gymnastics. Just like professional teams, instead of just dwelling upon what got them there, now the focus of both of the teams would be on strategizing and plotting about where they
go next and how do they convert their success at world championships into the medals at Olympics in two years’ time.
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