Women’s gymnastics has traditionally been dominated by teenagers. The Dutch team – on average the oldest team at the World Cup in Antwerp – proves that experience and maturity can also ensure success.
When Eythora Thorsdottir made her debut at a major tournament at the European Junior Championships in 2012, she thought: four more years of gymnastics and then I will be done with my top sports career. Important detail: the Rotterdam native was only fourteen at the time.
“But that’s just how it went in gymnastics. You stopped being a woman at the age of eighteen or nineteenth,” says Thorsdottir in conversation with NU.nl. “That gave me the idea eleven years ago: just keep going and then we’ll call it quits.” Smiling: “But I’m already 25 and I still do gymnastics.”
In the field of participants of the world championships, which started last Saturday in Antwerp, Thorsdottir is considered ‘old’ at that age. Of the 211 female participants, more than half (116) have yet to reach the age of twenty.
The prevailing idea in gymnastics for decades has been that teenagers have a physical advantage in a sport where being small, agile and flexible yields higher scores. The scandals that have emerged in recent years in gymnastics, including in the Netherlands, prove that this dominance by often underage girls can cause serious problems.
Partly due to the many stories about abuse and inappropriate behavior, a change is slowly taking place. Thorsdottir is happy to see more and more gymnasts who – just like her – continue longer. “The average age is increasing, also internationally. That is good for gymnastics, because it makes us more of an adult sport. Instead of it remaining a little girl’s sport.”
Four World Cup gymnasts are older than Wevers
Sanne Wevers is one of the oldest gymnasts on the list of participants of the World Championships in Antwerp. Only Brazil’s Jade Barbosa (32), Chile’s Makarena Pinto (35), Poland’s Marta Pihan-Kulesza (36) and Angel Wong from Hong Kong (36) were born earlier than the 2016 Olympic beam champion.
Experience brings the Netherlands to the Games
Sanne Wevers does not have to think long in the Sportpaleis Antwerp on Sunday about an explanation for the good performance of the Dutch women’s team in the World Cup qualifications. “Experience,” says the Frisian. “It says a lot that we are on average the oldest team here. I think it is very important that we can bring that maturity.”
National coach Jeroen Jacobs has not selected a single teenager for the most important tournament of the year. Wevers (32) is the oldest of the five and Vera van Pol (29), Thorsdottir (25), Naomi Visser (22) and Sanna Veerman (21) have also been competing in top gymnastics for a while.
The five, with an average age of almost 26 years, set the highest score ever for a Dutch women’s team on the second day of the World Cup. The total after the round of the four apparatus was 161.197, almost two points higher than last year’s World Championships (159.396).
More importantly: the orange formation finished sixth in the country classification in qualifying. That ranking is good for a team ticket for next year’s Olympic Games in Paris and placement for the World Cup final on Wednesday. It will be only the fourth time that the Dutch women will participate in the final battle of the nations competition at the world championships (see box).
“We currently have a super strong generation,” says Wevers. “And that is really due to our age. We have reached a new level of professionalism, we understand each other well as a team and know why we are doing it. The team dynamics would of course be different if you only put sixteen-year-old gymnasts together.”
Dutch women in the World Cup gymnastics team competition
2001: Fifth in the final (Verona van de Leur, Gabriëlla Wammes, Rikst Valentijn, Renske Endel and Monique Nuijten).
2015: Eighth in the final (Eythora Thorsdottir, Lieke Wevers, Tisha Volleman, Sanne Wevers, Mara Titarsolej and Lisa Top).
2019: Eighth in the final (Eythora Thorsdottir, Naomi Visser, Tisha Volleman, Lieke Wevers and Sanne Wevers).
Can the age limit in gymnastics be increased?
Since 1997, sixteen has been the age limit that the international gymnastics association FIG has used for participation in competitions for seniors. In recent years, there have been increasing calls for this limit to be raised further.
“It is not easy to get this through. The current rules work fine for countries like China. They will always continue to produce young gymnasts,” says Thorsdottir.
“But I think it would be healthier if gymnasts were only allowed to become seniors around the age of eighteen. Then you are a little older, you have more knowledge and you can make better choices for yourself. Moreover, the burden on your body is also great if you are already should peak at the age of sixteen.”
Daan de Ridder is a sports reporter
Daan is in Antwerp for the World Gymnastics Championships for NU.nl. Read more of his stories here.
According to Thorsdottir, there is more and more knowledge in the Netherlands about the correct way of training for older gymnasts. This was missing for a long time, precisely because many women said goodbye to the sport after their teenage years.
“Gymnasts had to stop so early because they were all in the same pattern. And then it ends for your body. We have now discovered that it is not necessary to constantly put heavy strain on your body as you get older. And As Dutch gymnasts, we now have much more space than before to follow our own route. This allows us to continue exercising for longer and hopefully continue to compete at a high level for longer.”
Sanne Wevers only competes on beam in Antwerp. Photo: Reuters
2023-10-03 03:20:53
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