As a Forge Press sports writer, I knew I was likely to write about some sports which I had never done so before – the likes of basketball or badminton. What I didn’t foresee, however, is that I would end up blogging about rhythmic gymnastics.
However, at a test event at London’s O2 Arena this week, the Great Britain rhythmic gymnastics team failed to qualify for their home Olympic Games by 0.273 marks. The margin could scarcely have been smaller. A ribbon tied itself into a bow costing the team their Olympic place.
Rhythmic gymnastics receives no funding from UK Sport and whether this is right or wrong is a whole new debate.
The failed qualification is a story as intriguing as it is devastating for the girls involved and their families, who have spent out thousands of pounds to try and help their daughters live their dreams.
Devastating it may be, but it is also a situation which must not be reversed, regardless of how harsh that may sound. And it is harsh. But then sport is a harsh game, particularly at the top level – a fact that these seven girls must come to live with.
The British Olympic Association (BOA) and British Gymnastics decided to set a target score for the London event at 45.223 – 82% of the top score of the World Championships in Montpellier last autumn.
This wasn’t officially necessary. As the host country, Team GB were guaranteed a place, but the BOA rightly promised that any sport planning to utilise a host nation qualifying place must first demonstrate the ability to deliver a credible and competitive performance in the games and, second, a longer term strategy to achieve a lasting legacy for their sport.
Sadly for the gymnasts this does appear to be a breath of fresh air for British sport. For too long we have embraced the person or team who tried hard but lost.
The team appeared on BBC Breakfast this morning in an attempt to drum up support in order for the BOA to give them a reprieve.
The British gymnastic Facebook page was bombarded with comments from supporters such as ‘as the host nation we shouldn’t have to qualify’, ‘disgusting’ and ‘ridiculous’.
Unfortunately that attitude gets you nowhere in sport. There was a clear target set. Whether the target should have been lower, say 80% of the World Championship top score, is beyond the point. The target was set, the gymnasts were confident of reaching it and they didn’t meet it.
One Facebook comment said ‘well done to the girls for all their hard work’. I have no doubt that they did work hard. But not hard enough. They had a goal and they didn’t reach it. End of story.
Captain Rachel Smith spoke on Twitter thanking people for their support, ending her Tweet with the hashtag ‘#fighters’. Again, they may be fighters, but they didn’t fight hard enough.
One of the emotional group, Lynne Hutchinson said in an interview with BBC Sport, ‘That really wasn’t our best routine, I didn’t think it was the routine we deserved either. We did three really good routines out back; it just wasn’t what we deserved today’.
That’s sport. You have to perform on the day, in front of the crowds (and in this case the judges) when it really matters if you are to consider yourself an elite sportsman or woman. That didn’t happen. Good performances ‘out back’ are irrelevant.
Wayne Rooney may score 100 out of 100 penalties in training, but if he misses one to bring England level in the last minute of the final of Euro 2012 in Kiev in July, he will be afforded little sympathy.
If the BOA were to reverse the decision, it would make a mockery of British sport. All athletes should be there on merit and not favoured just because it is their home Olympics.
I acknowledge that UK Sport gives no funding to rhythmic gymnastics, making it almost impossible for the team to dream of a place at Rio de Janeiro in 2016. But this is a separate issue.
At the test event, the likes of Switzerland and Azerbaijan also missed out on qualification, but both teams finished ahead of Britain.
Why should Britain qualify when at a qualifying event, other teams beat them? By the same token, why should Switzerland and Azerbaijan be discriminated against just because the games is not in their country?
The appeals of a seemingly pleasant group will be easy to sympathise with, but being pleasant alone should not lead to success. Further athletes, notably Britain’s weightlifters should take note that the BOA is not willing to budge a nanometre on any of its qualifying targets.
It is a teenage dream over for the septet, but one they must live with. Sport is all about cruel margins between success and failure and that beauty should never be changed.
This is not a matter of how hard they worked or the no funding issue- the fact is they scored nearly two whole marks above the benchmark score at the test event (weds 18th jan) – this exceeds the score set by BG and BOA abd therefore should be put forward for nomination!