Opinion: Gymnastics Doesn’t Get Enough Love
Gymnast Sunisa Lee Does her bar routine at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Many people identify as sports fans, but most say they like football, baseball, basketball, etc. Even though all of those are great, many other sports get outshined, and one of those is gymnastics. There are many amazing details to gymnastics that others don’t see.
Most people think gymnastics is easy and no effort is needed, and some may not even consider it as being a sport. Coming from my own personal experience as a gymnast, I have a different opinion. Gymnastics might look simple when you see people doing it, but in reality you have to put in a lot of work to make it look easy.
Junior and gymnast Josey Kiefer stated, ”One really big challenge that I face is fear. I have to be able to just my mind and body to get myself to do all of the scary skills that I do.”
When you watch gymnastics, all you see is people doing challenging skills and entertaining routines. While behind all of this there are injuries, mental blocks, fear, and exhaustion. For example when you are learning a new skill for the first time it could either be easy, or it could take a lot of time due to something like a mental block.
As a gymnast myself, I have had many mental blocks throughout my eight years of being in the sport. For example, I did a front tuck off of the beam and almost hit my head, and this incident caused me to be scared of the skill for eight months.
In an article named “Why Gymnastics is Underrated” on nvstudentprints.com, article author Taryn Wachowiak wrote,”But at the end of the day, even with all of the bumps and bruises, gymnastics is a lot of fun, both on the team and watching from the stands.”
Even though gymnastics can be hard at times, there is also a healthy side to the sport. This could include competing at competitions with teammates supporting you, as well as the amazing feeling of getting a good score. It may take a lot of hard work, but it pays off in the end when standing on the first place podium.
Many people are going to most likely choose to watch a sport like football, basketball, or a soccer game, but if you are wanting to watch something different, I suggest you try watching a gymnastics competition. If you want to see a close and entertaining competition, try watching a college meet or even the olympics. You can watch gymnastics on ESPN, NBC, and even Youtube.
Maggie Adkinson is a Junior at Ross High School and in her third year of Journalism. Adkinson is currently the print editor/editor in chief of Ross High Times. Some of her favorite things to do are go on vacation, hang out with her friends and watch Netflix in her free time. Her favorite music artists are Zach Bryan, Chris Stapleton, and Frank Ocean. When Adkinson graduates high school, she is planning to go to college (hopefully Ohio State) to major in physical therapy. Her favorite part of journalism is getting the opportunity to write about things she has a genuine interest in, as well as getting to take photos and so much more.
