FOR gymnasts, size is everything. Lack of size, that is. The trend over the
past few decades has been for shorter, lighter gymnasts, and the stars of the
future could be even tinier than those at Sydney.
This year, Nick Grantham of Lilleshall Sports Injury and Human Performance
Centre in Shropshire examined the body profiles of top British gymnasts. He
found that the men averaged just 1.64 metres (5 ft 5 in) tall, while women
averaged 1.48 metres (4 ft 10 in). 鈥淚f you go to the Olympics, you鈥檙e kind of
shocked to watch these people walk past, because they鈥檙e all incredibly short,
especially the women,鈥� says Fred Yeadon, of the Sports Biomechanics Research
Group at Loughborough University.
Being short has several advantages. 鈥淥nce you鈥檙e in the air, if you鈥檙e short,
it鈥檚 certainly much easier to somersault,鈥� says Yeadon. 鈥淥nce you鈥檝e set up your
rotation, the smaller you can become, the faster you can go鈥攜ou can fit
more somersaults in.鈥� Grantham says that longer legs also make it harder to
perform gymnastics. 鈥淟ong legs are long levers. You have to work harder to move
them,鈥� he says.
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The trend towards smaller, lighter gymnasts is being driven by the way
gymnastics is scored, says Yoshi Takei at Northern Illinois University. 鈥淭here鈥檚
now such a heavy emphasis on the difficulty component of the routine and the
awarding of additional bonus points for new manoeuvres,鈥� says Takei. 鈥淭he
smaller the body, the lighter the body and the quicker the body, the easier it
is to do extra somersaults or twists to get the points.鈥�
Takei鈥檚 views are echoed by other researchers. 鈥淥ver the years, gymnastics
has changed quite a lot in terms of technical difficulty. It鈥檚 become a much
more technical sport,鈥� says Grantham. 鈥淣ow, because of the moves that men and
women are having to do to score highly, it鈥檚 favouring the smaller, lighter
athletes even more.鈥�
