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Rhythmic gymnastics
What is rhythmic gymnastics?
Rhythmic gymnastics is a sport made up of
the combination of ballet, dance, gymnastics
and

apparatus

manipulation.

The

apparatuses should be manipulated by the

gymnast as if it was the continuation of their
body it self. This sport is incredibly beautiful,
not only for its movements but also for the
connection of the gymnast with the music,
while working in perfect harmony with their
body.

Rhythmic

gymnastics

cannot

be

described with words because it is an act of

elegance and self confidence. It is also a very
interesting experience for the audiences,
therefore, in competitions, the stadiums are usually action packed.

Becoming a Rhythmic gymnast

The warm-up or training routine should be broken up into three parts. These
include, strength, endurance and flexibility.
Strength:
In order to become an elite rhythmic gymnast, ones
upper body must be as strong as her lower body.
Rhythmic gymnasts generally increase strength by
preforming a multitude of leg, abdominal and arm
exercises and

increase strength, through ballet

training.
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Endurance:
In order to last through long practices and complete
four routines that are each 2 minutes long, gymnasts
need to have long lasting endurance and a strong
stamina.

This can be achieved through aerobic

activity such as running, jogging, jumping rope,

bicycling or swimming.
Flexibility:
This is by far one of the most important and focused
on aspects of the sport. While stretching your body
to the extreme is necessary for success, a gymnast needs to make sure that they are
preforming this task without causing injuries. A gymnast needs to have extreme back
and legs flexibility in order to perform the moves required also "over splits" are
preliminary as it helps the gymnast to perform higher moves (legs stretched beyond a
180-degree angle.)

Apparatuses
Ball: It must weigh at least 400g with a diameter of 18-20cm. It is a very hard
apparatus to handle because of it is shape.
Hoop: It must weigh at least 300g with a diameter of 80-90cm.
Rope: The length of the rope is relative to the height of the gymnast.
Clubs: Gymnastics work with two bottle shaped clubs of equal length 40-50cm with
the weight of 150g each. the clubs have a character performers and they get adapted
with the gymnast it self. The clubs are difficult to handle because they are two and
they take the command of both side of the brain.
ribbon: The ribbon is a single 7m strip of ribbon made of satin attached to a stick. It
is the most beautiful apparatus yet the hardest because it can get a knot at anytime of
the performance and it is 7m long, therefore is extremely difficult to handle.
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Competitions
There

are

many

important

international competitions all

over the world such as: World
Cup,

World

championships,

European championships and

most importantly Olympics. The
competitions are divided in two
steps: Qualifications and Finals,
in which gymnastics compete against each other in a friendly atmosphere.
The winner of the competition is the participant who earns the most points for leaps,
balances, pivots, apparatus handling and execution. The competition exercises are
evaluated by 8-9 judges (11 in the Olympics) who judge based on: the Difficulties
(moves) they perform, and their Execution, which is the coordination of the body with
the apparatus and the music as well as the cleanness of the performance. The
gymnasts should be super flexible yet so strong, in order to perform the moves and
every lack of strength or flexibility will reduce their points.

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History
The

FIG

(Fdration

internationale

de

gymnastique) recognized Rhythmic gymnastics as

an official discipline in 1963 and a year later,
organized

an

international

tournament

in

Budapest. Rhythmic gymnastics slowly emerged

from the shadow of the long established artistic
discipline and entered the Olympic program in
1984.
Until 1962 in Barcelona only one individual event
was part of the program but in 1966 in Atlanta was
added a second team event.
At the 2000 games in Sydney, the Russian -Yulia
Barsukova- won the gold medal at the individual
competitions.
Russia has been the dominant country in Rhythmic gymnastics since the start of the
1990. We saw the rise of stars like Amina Zaripova and Alina Kabaeva.
Evgenia Kanaeva became the first individual rhythmic gymnast to win two gold
medals in the history of the Olympics at 2008 and 2012 games.
Italy is more engaged in group performances and had won a bronze and a silver medal
at the Olympics of London 2012 and Athens 2004.

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Rhythmic Gymnastics in Iran

Rhythmic gymnastics was introduced for the first time in Iran in
2009. Because of the Islamic Republic rules and regulatios, Iran
was not able to participate in any international competitions.
However, finally, in 2015 Shirin Nazary, the Iranian rythmic gymnastics international
judge and trainer, finally introduced this country to the world and raised the Iranian
flag as an international judge.
Every year since 2010, a national competition of rhythmic gymnastics is held all
around the country and in 2014 the Olympic judge Maria Gigova came to Iran and
judged the competition and trained the judges.
We are all working side by side and progressing each year more and more for the
future of this sport in Iran, And this is just the beginning of our greatest.

Me and Rhythmic gymnastics

I started rhythmic gymnastics the first time when my coach asked me to do a move
which I was able to show, then with a blink of an eye I found myself involved in this
sport. I can describe it as my life and my main passion. This sport is way more than
just a sport to me, the nights I dream of it and the days I think of it.
I started training professionally at the age of 12 and competed for the first time at that
age. Now I am the gold medalist of Iran for the second time but I am aiming higher. To
get to this point I had many hard days of training and it was not easy at all. Sometime
everything went wrong, but I kept on moving forward and as Gandhi says "strength
does not come from physical capacity, it comes from an indomitable WILL" but if they
ask me -what helped you succeed?
I will say:

" a power greater than me "

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