Dalton Myers | Let’s support our gymnasts in Stuttgart

While our track and field athletes have been doing well in Doha at the IAAF World Athletics Championships, our top gymnasts are currently in Stuttgart, Germany, vying for Tokyo 2020 Olympic qualification at the 49th FIG Artistic Gymnastics World Championships, which ends on October 13.

The Jamaican delegation includes six athletes competing on various apparatus. The female team is a mix of youth and experience. The three females are led by Pan-American Games finalist 25-year-old Danusia Francis as well as Olympian Toni-Ann Williams (23), and the young rising star Kiara Richmon (17), who all compete in the all-around competition. On the male side, we should expect some good performances from 27-year-old Reiss Beckford and Caleb Faulk, 25, in all-around competition, and 27-year-old Michael Reid, who only contests the pommel horse. Reid is the latest addition to Team Jamaica after getting his request for change of nationality confirmed this year. The University of Oklahoma alum and the three-time NCAA All-American have won several titles for them, including 2015 NCAA Pommel Horse National Championship.

A return for Williams

Much is expected from the Jamaicans throughout the nine-day championships, which started yesterday. Francis has fast become the lead performer in her own right. The flamboyant gymnast with the ‘blond’ hair and flashing smile is one to watch, especially on the back of good performances at the Pan Am Games. Those Games also marked the return for Williams, who has suffered several injury-related setbacks. For me, on the male side, without discounting the other competitors, you could expect Reiss Beckford to lead from the front. He has been improving and did much better at the Pan Am Games than the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, Australia.

To say that the competition, overall, will be very tough is an understatement. In fact, our athletes will have to be at their absolute best to make it to the all-around and/or an individual apparatus final. But their best is what will be required if they want to use this opportunity to qualify for Tokyo 2020. There will be another opportunity next year at the Pan-American Union Gymnastics Championships, but Stuttgart represents the better opportunity for our athletes. The top-12 gymnasts from the ongoing World Championships will qualify for Tokyo 2020.

Additionally, the top-24 on all apparatus will qualify for the all-around finals, and the top eight gymnasts per apparatus will qualify for the individual finals. So the ultimate goal for Team Jamaica at these championships is Olympic qualification. By doing so, it fits right into the Jamaica Olympic Association’s 10-in-20 campaign as well as the objectives set out by the Nicole Grant-Brown-led Jamaica Gymnastics Association (JGA). Grant-Brown, who has led the organisation since 2014, had vowed to change the perception of the sport locally. The sport still has a far way to go, and I am sure that both Grant-Brown and those in the diaspora will see to it that it continues to grow. The challenge is that we do not get to see artistic gymnastics regularly locally either on free-to-air or cable, and as a result, are not able to appreciate the various apparatus and routines such as Danusia Francis’ unique dismount on the balance beam.

NOT BORN IN JA

Of course, there is always the discussion that many of our top gymnasts were not born in Jamaica. For me, it really is a non-issue. What most would not know is that by changing nationality from a more developed nation to represent Jamaica, these gymnasts also lose all previous funding benefits and have to self-fund to try and make the Olympic dream a reality. In fact, it would be much easier financially, in most cases, to represent Britain or other developed countries than Jamaica. Just this year, crowd funding was used to raise funds to send this team to this current championships in Germany.

I appreciate the level of support, commitment, and hard work put in by all our gymnasts to represent Team Jamaica. It is sometimes not recognised locally despite the hard work of the JGA board but never missed by the rest of the world. So while we are eagerly anticipating the next track and field final that includes a Jamaican, let us also support our gymnasts in Stuttgart, Germany. From podium training to realising your dreams, all the best!

Dalton Myers is a sports consultant and administrator. Email feedback to daltonsmyers@gmail.com or tweet @daltonsmyers.