A LOOK INSIDE MY LIFE AS A RHYTHMIC GYMNAST
The Olympics always brings up a lot of emotions for me regarding my gymnastics upbringing and my dream of one day competing at the Olympics. This year was the first time I really got the chance to sit down and work through all of these unresolved emotions, which have haunted me since the day I left the sport. I've always wondered if I made the right decision to leave instead of choosing to stay and train full time and really just go after my dream. During this Olympics I realized that I overwhelming made the correct decision at the time. I also realized that what has haunted me wasn't even the fact I made that decision, but the fact that I never got to achieve my full potential in the sport. I had so much more I wanted to do, and so much more I wanted to show, and it just didn't end up working out that way.
I realized if I do make it through this whole Ascension process, I will definitely make Rhythmic a part of my life again. I'm not sure exactly how it will be in my life, but it will be there. With that being said I decided to share some of my old gymnastics videos. This first video is me doing my floor, hoop, ribbon, and clubs routine.
This second video is of us competing at the Junior Olympics for our group routine. This routine is our hoop and ball routine, although we also competed at the Junior Olympics with our floor routine. I decided not to put up that video because I didn't want to overwhelm everyone with too many videos. I'm the one in the front at the beginning who starts off with the two hoops! In case you then get lost as to which one I am, I'm the one towards the end of the routine who juggles the balls (haha I'm sorry, I just couldn't resist, because for whatever I reason I think that it's really really funny)
One of the things that I'm really loving about this Olympics, is that our female athletes not only outnumber our male athletes, but that they've won more medals than them. This Olympics is definitely getting a world wide conversation started about girls participating in sports and removing barriers that are preventing us from being able to become athletes. These are two articles I've read about this so far, but there's a lot of them :)
In this article they talk about race in the world of gymnastics. As a women of color who participated in Rhythmic, one of the greatest barriers in our sport to getting more girls of color involved is financial. This sport is VERY expensive and it keeps out a lot of girls, especially those who are minorities and/or are lower-income.
"In January, a fact sheet released by the National Women's Law Center reported that less than two-thirds of African-American and Hispanic girls play sports, while more than three-quarters of Caucasian girls do."
http://news.yahoo.com/the-white-world-of-sports--what-gabby-douglas’-vault-into-olympic-history-means.html
This next article talks about all the misogynistic comments that have been directed at the female athletes who are competing at the Olympics. The female athletes from Saudi Arabia who are making history by being the first women ever to compete from their country, have been called the "prostitutes of the Olympics" by men who don't want women to participate in sports. In this article women athletes from the UK and the US respond to degrading comments that have been made about their bodies.
"We, as any women with an ounce of self-confidence would, prefer our men to be confident enough in themselves to not feel emasculated by the fact that we aren't weak and feeble."
Wouldn't it be great to live in that world? I feel like whatever world that is, there would also be no violence against women.
http://sports.yahoo.com/news/fat-fit-over-women-athletes-193539328--spt.html
