The UK’s first ever Para-gymnastics trial took place with great success on Thursday this week at the British Artistic Gymnastics Championships, marking not only a major milestone in Para Sport, but also a significant step forward towards a broader, more inclusive future for World Gymnastics.
The journey to this point started seventeen months ago at the 85th Congress of the Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique in Doha where Para-gymnastics was voted in as an officially recognised FIG discipline. Until that point, Para-gymnastics in Great Britain had only existed up to national level, so the ruling not only represented a crucial expansion of the scope of British Gymnastics, but also a firm commitment to inclusivity and emboldened representation of gymnasts of all abilities.
The decision was unanimously welcomed by the Gymnastics community, many of whom have long been advocating for the representation of disabled gymnasts. Following the announcement, Patrick Bonner, Executive Director of the British Gymnastics Foundation and part of the working group to present the Para-gymnastics plan to FIG, reflected on the significance of the moment. He stated that it marked “an historic and defining moment for gymnastics! Having Para-gymnastics recognised as one of the nine official FIG disciplines is a game changer”.
Most importantly, the official recognition by FIG is the first step towards one of Gymnastics’ most important long term goals: the inclusion of Para-gymnastics at the very highest level. The Fédération, with this decision, launches a commitment to campaigning for the inclusion of the event at the Brisbane 2032 Paralympics, and with it higher hopes for all young para-gymnasts.
This Thursday’s event was undoubtably the first tangible step towards that goal, and for the event to have been such a rousing success is deeply heartening. Thirteen young female gymnasts, hailing from seven different clubs, took part in the event, competing across all four women’s apparatus. Each of the girls put on an extraordinary display of determination and ability, carrying out a host of impressive routines of a variety of technical difficulties. However, perhaps the most notable part of their performances was that every single one was carried out with a smile and palpable enjoyment. It is clear that having an equal opportunity to compete (and with it a glimpse into the potential of the sport) is transformative for the confidence of young para-athletes and it is exactly that which the sport should continue to foster and encourage.
The event was the first in a series of trials with the primary goal of testing out the new para-gymnastic rules currently under development by FIG and develop them for future competitions. The routines from this week’s event will undergo analyses that allow for further shaping and refining of the rules and regulations of Para-gymnastics, taking them one step closer at a time to becoming a fully-fledged Paralympic sport within the next ten years.
The trial was truly a ground-breaking moment in the development of gymnastics as a sport as it should be recognised a such. For those within the gymnastics sphere, the significance of this progression does not go unrecognized, but it is clear to me that the wider sporting world has severely underappreciated it. Not a single news article beyond that on the British Gymnastics own website on the event has emerged. For all that the sports community herald its commitment to the growth of inclusivity, the silence on this particular cornerstone of sporting evolution feels particularly loud. I hope that, as the trials in para-gymnastics continue, awareness of their relevance and value not just in gymnastics but in sport as a whole grows.
We must all live to change and fight for change. The work that these young gymnasts are doing is so wildly impressive and frankly incomprehensible to most of us. Gymnastics is undeniably one of the most physically demanding and challenging sports in existence and it requires a level of bravery that most people do not possess. For these young para-gymnasts to enter into the sport in spite of their differences and be an integral part of its evolution requires a different level of courageousness and mental strength entirely and personally, I found their performances pretty much awe-inspiring. Just imagine what these young boys and girls could do with an infrastructure that fully supports their future careers as top-level competitors. Their performances this week prove that progress is limited only by imagination; so clearly, we all need to dream a little bigger.
