Japanese Gymnastics - Moving Forward.

As we look to the relocated Figure Skating Worlds this week, my thoughts (and many others I'm sure) are still with the people of Japan as life tries to return to 'normal' 6 weeks after the disasterous earthquake. Today I bought a copy of the British ice skating magazine iSkate and this was the cover - no glamourous sports photography, just a solemn reminder of the reason Worlds is late this year.

But in the world of gymnastics, the Japanese are very keen for things to continue as planned!

The Japanese Gymnastics Championships championships take place this week in Tokyo's Yoyogi National Gymnasium (the site of what would have been the Skating Worlds). International Gymnast magazine has an interesting article on gymnast Rie Tanaka and on the general outlook of the Japanese gymnastics community. This week the organising commitee put out an international plea for the 2011 World Gymnastics Championships to go ahead as planned, In Toky this October.

This quote from the president of the Japanese Olympic Commitee, cited in the IG article.
"As you may already know the metropolitan government of Tokyo has not been affected from the earthquake, nor the tsunami,Hence, it is very important for Japan to actually host a premier international event to uplift the [devastated] people, especially the young children."

I whole heartedly agree with these comments, high profile sporting events have a great opportunity to build unity and national pride. How good would it be for these gymnasts to compete in front of a home crowd and come back from all the adversity this year to earn a ticket to the 2012 Olympics?

Photo - The Japanese ladies gymnastics team that won silver at the 2010 Asian Games (Daylife)