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“This tragedy must never happen again.”
The President of the International Gymnastics Federation – known as FIG by its French initials – Japan’s Morinari Watanabe, commented on the procedural, technical and judging failures that resulted in a Court of Arbitration for Sport ruling that placed Romania’s Ana Barbosu third and American Jordan Chiles fifth in the Olympic women’s Floor Exercise event at the Paris Olympic Games.
Writing in the just-issued FIG Bulletin no. 265, Watanabe commented:
“First of all, I would like to congratulate the organisers of Paris 2024, which is now one of the greatest Olympic Games in history. I would like to thank all the gymnasts and their national federations who have produced such wonderful gymnasts for the wonderful competitions and the dramas they have created. I would also like to thank France, the City of Paris, the Paris 2024 Organising Committee, the French Olympic Committee, the French Gymnastics Federation and the volunteers for hosting the Olympic Games. …
“Finally, I would like to address the tragedy that occurred in the women’s floor exercise final. This tragedy must never happen again. Since I became FIG President, I have been promoting the use of technology in judging. Unfortunately, this tragedy happened.
“The use of technology in sport is now taken for granted and the FIG used to be at the forefront of introducing technology in all International Federations. But now we are no longer a pioneer. This is because we are not able to break our own prejudices because of our traditions. We need change. We need challenges. And we need the courage to move forward. It was the lack of courage to take that step forward that led to the tragedy in Paris.
“What can we do to prevent the same tragedy from happening again? It is up to us to have the courage to change.”
That isn’t much comfort of Chiles, who has been placed fifth in the event, pending an appeal of the CAS decision to the Swiss Federal Tribunal, where there is some possibility of a referral back to a new CAS panel for re-examination.
Watanabe also praised the expansion of gymnastics, as shown by the spread of medals to 20 countries across artistic, rhythmic and trampoline:
“Looking at the Olympic landscape, people have probably noticed. The athletes have changed a lot. Simone Biles from the USA has overcome a setback to dominate the sport. Carlos Yulo of the Philippines won two gold medals. Colombia, Ireland, Algeria and Kazakhstan won their countries’ first Olympic medals in gymnastics.
In the past, only a limited number of countries won medals. But now many countries can win medals. Why is that? When Zhang Boheng [CHN], performed on high bar in the men’s team final, his rival Hashimoto Daiki of Japan asked the crowd to be quiet. This is the landscape of gymnastics in the world today. We respect our opponents as much as we respect ourselves and we help each other. This is the world of gymnastics today. And I hope it will be the world of gymnastics in the future.”
Watanabe also addressed efforts against abuse and gender participation:
“In its history, gymnastics has had a dark past of harassment of athletes. Reflecting on this dark history, the ‘Gymnastics Ethics Foundation’ was established and the system to protect the gymnasts was created.
“With the ‘Gymnastics Ethics Foundation,’ we have faced the reality. The reality is that harassment still exists. The ‘Gymnastics Ethic Foundation’ aims to improve the situation by acting as a court for gymnastics and imposing sanctions. At the same time, the ‘Safeguarding Working Group’ has been set up within the FIG organization as a section to train coaches.
“The ‘10 Golden Rules’ drawn up by the Working Group have become a model for all International Federations. My goal is ‘zero harassment’ in gymnastics. The goal is still far away, but we are certainly making progress.
“As for the gender equality, we examined the actual situation and achieved gender equality in the composition of officials in FIG as well as in its member Federations. In many cases, gender equality is neglected in the composition of officials in National Federations. We will continue to promote gender equality activities in each country and region.”
Watanabe did not address the continuing lag of gymnastics in terms of revenue vis-a-vis the other first-tier Olympic television share federations, World Aquatics and World Athletics. Amazingly, FIG continues with its policy of not paying prize money, even at its own World Championships.
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