Nora Schuler of THE ALL AROUND has been following the many problems:
The FIG World Cup circuit took another hit just before Christmas when the FIG officially announced the cancellation of the French International in 2012. The competition, scheduled for 17- 18 March, has been a mainstay on the FIG calendar for a long time. …
The reason for the cancellation of the French World Cup is the failure of the FIG to secure the top gymnasts for the competition.
The deadline for definitive entries was the 17 December – and not even half of the top three gymnasts per event would have been represented in Paris. And it gets worse.
… [French federation president] Jacques Rey, deplores the non participation of the best gymnasts from Japan, Russia and the USA who were qualified to the event,” the official FIG statement reads. Translated into plain English: the Uchimuras, Wiebers and Komovas can’t be bothered. Their federations don’t care. …
It’s a gross overreach to blame the athletes, of course. In the Olympic year there are many more important priorities than the World Cup.
Blythe Lawrence has attended that meet the past couple of years. They had 15,000+ spectators last year!
Here’s her take on the rotten Christmas in France:
• Sacre bleu! Paris World Cup cancelled?
• Thomas Bouhail injured, will miss Olympics
7 comments ↓
Maybe the World Cup format the FIG is promoting just doesn’t work. Could it be…?
The US women haven’t competed there ever since Atler got injured right? Personally, I do support the boycott since no one has been held accountable. Even so, it’s too bad it’s been cancelled, but if there are no big-name gymnasts…
Blaming the athletes is ridiculous. If I was an elite athlete going into the Olympic year I think I’d skip it to, especially if I was a top USA competitor. They have two girls competing in the American Cup, then you have the pac rims, the Jesolo Cup, the Visa Championships and then the Olympic Trials. This is all squeezed into about 4 1/2 – 5 months. That’s a lot of competing. Then you have Russia, China, and Romania who I’m sure has a few competitions before trials and then the Olympics.
Expecting the top gymnasts to show up many times a year is not going to work unless the money is EXTREME. … And — even then — only MAG will make it as WAG are often injured.
What FIG needs to do to make world cups a success in artistic disciplines is focus less on expecting the top gymnasts to attend and run them as long as there’s an acceptable number of world class gymnasts who are willing to attend. If you look at T&T world cups you have more of the top gymnasts going to get the experience and because it gives more opportunity for them to compete and see where they stand against athletes from other countries. Whereas with WAG especially the focus is on medals from World Championships and Olympics, not on world cups
Is the whole meet off or will it just not be part of the World Cup circuit? That would save the FFG from having to pay 25,000 towards the prize pot.
Sounds like it’s time to ditch the apparatus world cup, just stick with team and all-around. And allow more gymnasts to compete, not just the top ones from the previous worlds.
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