It’s that time again. After waiting for what seems like forever (and really four years is basically forever), the Olympics and Paralympics are back and this time they’re in Tokyo Japan, the city known for its colour, energy, culture and life, so you can guess we’re expecting a lot from this year’s events.
Although the actual location of the event is something to definitely be excited for, with the inevitable epic Open Ceremony event (I wonder if they’ll have a giant firework Pikachu) and the beautiful official motto “United by Emotion”, the Tokyo Olympics are sure to go down in history as one of the best - (although we don’t think anything can top the Spice Girls’ Opening Ceremony entrance in London 2012). Here at The Zone, if you can’t already guess, we are very, very, very (and a few more very) excited for the Gymnastics part of the competitions!
We can’t wait to get more epic floor routines by legends such as Simone Biles, new jaw dropping pommel horse routines from the super talented men’s teams and more nail biting vault performances in this year’s Olympics.
I surfed the internet for all you eager Olympic Gymnastics fans and I’ve read so many predictions for the upcoming contenders. Many predict that the young and talented Gabby Perea (16) could be joining the US team, along with Ragan Smith (17), who became a Gymnastics icon after her famous 2016 Pacific Rim Championship Floor Routine to a mashup of ‘The Addams Family’ music . Although the excitement of seeing new gymnasts on our screens is ongoing, we will definitely miss Aly Raisman who confirmed via Instagram in January that she won’t be attending the 2020 Olympics.
As for the British hopefuls, after competing in the 2019 Artistic World Championship in Germany, both the men and women teams ended up qualifying for Japan 2020 (yey). The Female team is likely to include the fantastic gymnasts Alice Kinsella, Becky Downie, Ellie Downie, Georgia-Mae Fenton and Taeja James, and the Male team is likely to include the brilliant gymnasts Joe Fraser, James Hall, Dom Conningham, Giarnni Regini-Moran and last but not least Matt Whitlock who holds an MBE. We can’t wait to cheer our amazing teams on!
The Gymnastics aspects of the Olympics will be based in the Ariake Gymnastics Centre and will include three disciplines: Artistic, Rhythmic and Trampoline. According to the Olympic competition schedule there will be 9 Artistic competitions, 3 Rhythmic and 2 Trampoline (we still want more!). It should be noted that the competitions schedule is subject to change - but we can’t help but get excited about them anyway!
Now a little about the Ariake Gymnastics Centre. The centre is a temporary venue that will be located in the north part of Tokyo’s Ariake district and has great links to public transport (just a fun fact in case you’re thinking about attending). The venue also holds a whopping 12,000 seats for Olympic Gymnastics (that’s a lot of Gymnastics fans).
(Credit Google Maps Streetview captured May 2019)
However, Seiko Hashimoto, Japan’s Olympic minister, says that due to recent Coronavirus fears, it is possible that the games may be postponed till later in the year, but Hashimoto stated that they are doing all they can to ensure the games continue as planned.
Here at The Zone we can’t wait to see all the Gymnasts in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
If you consider yourself a budding Gymnastics Olympian, why don’t you check out some more of our blogs at https://www.the-zone.co.uk/blog/.