Gymnastics in Africa

Two of seven 5-day FIG Age Group Programme Camps for Artistic Gymnastics on the African continent were completed over the weekend in Nigeria and in South Africa.

I’m leading in Nigeria and Senegal. Hardy Fink, the Director of FIG Education & Academy Programmes, is on tour leading 4 camps, including South Africa:

NIGERIA: The camp in Nigeria was hosted by the Gymnastics Federation of Nigeria in the planned and new capital city of Abuja from March 18-22 and within the impressive gymnasium in the National Sport Complex.

Thirty Nigerian coaches from all parts of the country attended. … Nigeria has an enormous population and a large pool of potentially super gymnasts.

SOUTH AFRICA: The FIG Age Group Camp in Pretoria, South Africa was for Men’s Artistic Gymnastics only and was held from March 20-24 …

South Africa has among the most advanced and well-prepared gymnasts and also among the most educated coaches from among the 25 countries to which this programme is being introduced. For that reason, it was possible to also explore the higher levels of the technical skills testing program and the higher levels of the compulsory exercises.

… The camp was highly successful and has served to energize the coaches to make greater progress in the near future.

In the coming week, three such Age Group Training Camps will be conducted at the same time in three different African countries. Two of them will be French language camps in Congo and Senegal and one will be an English language camp with Portuguese translation in Mozambique.

details on FIG

I’ve seen superb talent in Africa. Strong, flexible and tough.

A 2012 Olympic Gymnastics Champion is an African American. Any argument that Africans are not well suited to Artistic Gymnastics is nonsense. They’ve simply not had enough opportunity to train the sport.

Click PLAY or watch Fakiyesi Oke Tayo on YouTube.

He’s never competed outside Nigeria.