Five questions with Natalyia Kuzmina, President of the FIG Rhythmic Gymnastics Technical Committee
Eastern Europe has traditionally been a bastion of Rhythmic Gymnastics, but we have been seeing that gymnasts from the Americas and Asia are beginning to challenge this domination a bit. How do you explain this ?
Kuzmina: “You’re right: there has been visible progress in Asia, not only in Uzbekistan but in Korea, Japan and other countries. But there has also been notable progress in America. I was at the Pan American Games in July in Toronto, and I was very surprised to see that there were 6,000 spectators who came to see the Rhythmic events, not just the relatives of the athletes but local people, because Canada does not have a big Rhythmic tradition. The gymnasts from the Pan American countries as well have made a great deal of progress and have a lot to look forward to, as do those from Africa. We are very aware at the FIG that this sport must be universal. We have put in place FIG Academies and judges courses to help spread knowledge and training techniques. It’s very important that the coaches and choreographers from leading countries organise seminars and give courses on how to compose a routine and use the apparatus. I am expecting to see many continents in the All-around final here in Stuttgart.”
Yana Kudryavtseva (RUS) has been the dominant gymnast of the past two World Championships. What makes her such an exceptional gymnast ?
Kuzmina: “It’s true that she is unique. Yana has exceptional apparatus elements and harmony with music. She has excellent coaches and benefits from wonderful training conditions put in place by the Russian Rhythmic Federation. Its President and Head coach, Irina Viner, has a long-term vision and has put in place an organisation and methods so that the gymnasts are always well prepared. In Russia as well, there are music specialists, specialists for choreography and a big medical center in the vicinity if they need to see doctors. That too is unique.”
What needs to be done to continue to develop Rhythmic outside Europe ?
Kuzmina: “Courses are one thing, but we also have to think of ways to render our programme more exciting and attractive to all federations. We should revise the code of points in order to support the principle of universality. This idea may seem new, but why not try to develop team Rhythmic Gymnastics competitions for men like they do in Japan? Or pairs with two apparatus? Or Mixed Pairs? There are a lot of ideas coming from our federations. One must know how to evolve. We cannot just leave the situation as it is, because we know that the competition is strong between sports to continue to be part of the Olympic programme.”
Five judges from the 2014 World Rhythmic Championships in Izmir were just sanctioned by the FIG Disciplinary Commission for biased judging. What does this say to you ?
Kuzmina: “Obviously, we’re not happy about this. We have fought to have fair, objective judging in Rhythmic Gymnastics. We should organise a more practical education system for new judges. The judges from Asia or South America especially don’t have a lot of opportunity to get experience. All the judges must be objective and honest. A judge must judge only what he or she sees, without taking into account the name of the gymnast or which country or continent she comes from. But I think that over the years we have made progress. It’s not enough to penalize the judges, because judges are only human and they make errors. The main thing is educating them and then giving them ample practice.”
President of the FIG Rhythmic Gymnastics Technical Committee
The FIG Rhythmic Technical Committee is preparing a new code of points for the 2017-2020 Olympic cycle. What changes would you like to see in the new code ?
Kuzmina: “That’s a difficult question. We would like to eliminate the repetition of elements. We have a special scientific workgroup that has done some research and collected a lot of data. The important thing is the handling of the apparatus, because we are a sport that uses apparatus. So we would like to focus on the manipulation of the apparatus as well as the artistic side of the sport: the use of music and how the gymnast works with it. That’s what I hope to see in the future.”
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