USA Gymnastics Junior Olympic Optional Championships

While coupled together, the competition this past Monday and Tuesday the 22nd and 23rd of June, was completely separate from that of the Chicago Cup that occurred the four days previous. The competition that took place Monday and Tuesday was the USA Gymnastics Junior Olympic Optional Championships. While still performing rhythmic gymnastics, the girls competing in this tournament are younger than those who competed in the Chicago Cup. Many not over 3 feet tall and yet still performing beautiful and complicated routines.

While levels 9 and 10 competed at the Chicago Cup, the two highest levels one can achieve in rhythmic gymnastics, this competition consists of athletes from levels 7 and 8, accounting for why many of these girls are younger.

Just like in artistic gymnastics, one mistake, no matter how small, can often shatter an athlete’s confidence to the point where they cannot come back. Many times after one mistake an athlete will continue to make more. After her first routine, Yana Matkivski seemed to be the one to beat in the overall competition, scoring over a 16.0 with the ribbon, but after letting the ball slip once at the beginning of her next routine, it seemed she could not recover. Matkivski still delivered a beautiful routine filled with difficulty and even with errors scored a 14.025, so maybe she did recover after all.  Matkivski ended up taking second in the overall.

Excitement ensued as during one athlete’s ball routine a bird seemed almost to dive bomb from the rafters to the competition floor. To everyone’s dismay, the bird continued to circle the floor only 2 feet above the ground for the rest of the routine. There definitely was a chance for an accidental collision, but luckily the problem was avoided.

Many of the girls who ended up on the podium at the end of the competition were the smaller and younger girls who competed, girls who probably started the sport at an extremely young age and have dedicated themselves to it since then.  It is amazing to see such small athletes deliver such big results.