FIG Elects New President & New Vision

I'm sure you've heard by now that gymnastics has a new president. I think Morinari Watanabe was the best choice between the two contenders but I wasn't as averse to Guelzec as other critics have been. I do think Guelzec has been doing a terrific job transforming Euros into a financially profitable event, enjoyable for both hard core gym fans and newbies. Under his stewardship the UEG has gotten better at bringing their multiple championships to a global audience, with expansive TV network contracts and a high definition live stream. Then I consider how wonderful recent World Championships in Europe have been and it's clear to me that Georges cares a lot about growing the brand of the sport while keeping the integrity of it prevalent. But alas, he lost to Mr. Watanabe by a significant margin of 19 -100 votes. Guelzec's more reserved vision of gymnastics seemed too similar to ex-president Bruno Grandi's and his ill timed PR attacks against Mr. Watanabe did not sit well with the guarded and sheepish FIG membership. But in my opinion the win was decided by a lot of back door lobbying and I can assume that UEG's recent complaints against JPN and USA, for not sending their star gymnasts to artistic World Cups, did not sit well with those heavyweights (and a few others who fell under that scrutiny). 

So what are some of the things Mr. Watanabe wants to get done? Well his first priority is to learn english to better convey his ideas to us. His second most immediate concern is to return the FIG to its former prestige by acquiring a seat in the IOC. The recent changes to the 2020 qualification procedure- that's had some countries upset- was largely a result of the FIG's lack of political power within the IOC to lobby for a higher participation cap on our sport. Gymnastics is one of the BIG 3 sports; it receives the most press, highest advertising revenue, and biggest ticket sale purchases; it shares that place with athletics and swimming. Yet we are the only governing body, of the three, that isn't a member of the IOC nor do we have a chair on any of the important boards that make critical decision regarding Olympic development. Because of this, team sizes in AG had to be reduced, with strong countries competing against strong international individuals for remaining specialist spots, maxing out at two. Mr. Watanabe respects the circumstances that led the FIG to make these changes, but thinks larger teams allow for better strategizing when it comes to creating a team of all-arounders and specialists, and particularly thinks it will be very hard on MAG to have dynamic results when only four people are up on six events. He has not said anything definitive but hinted that he wanted bigger teams with the additional specialists capabilities still in play. He can only get this done if he enters the IOC. "Together we can be the King of sports," he declared in his acceptance speech. 

A diagram taken from Mr. Watanabe's gymnastics vision report

Some of his other ideas are to have a Junior World's (the FIG has always been set against this), and to have gymnastics ranked as the tenth highest global sport by 2024 (currently ranked 24th). He wants to increase the NF (national federation) delegation to make a more diverse FIG community, but in order to reach numbers that football or basketball has he must find a way to make the sport more affordable and accessible to developing countries. Currently, we have 138 federations who participate in our sport; volleyball, basketball, and athletics are the highest ranked sports in terms of NF participation with 218, 212, and 211 federations. 

Similar to Guelzec, he wants the FIG to use star gymnasts to promote the sport, which will lead to more fans, higher revenue, and bigger budgets for more spectacular competitions, as outlined in his over simplistic bubble diagram on the right. I guess the difference between Watanabe and Guelzec on this matter is how far they're willing to go to remonstrate against gymnasts not fulfilling their unofficial duties for the sport. Headed by Guelzec, the UEG went public at its last summit against people like Simone Biles bringing in so much cash flow for domestic competitions but not attending FIG events, excepting World's. Watanabe on the other hand is not trying to force anyone- including his own country's star studded men's team- to compete where they don't need to, but still thinks they can be a marketing tool in other ways, perhaps collaborating with the FIG media to enhance the brand's online presence, or attend competitions simply for signing autographs and speaking to media. He envisions gymnastics working as any other professional sport, like tennis, would work. To that end, he's thrown around the fact that he has access to premier Japanese companies, and in the lead up to the Tokyo Olympics, he can get many of them to become new FIG sponsors. This was a huge deal for Grandi who once complained that acrobatic and aerobic events didn't even pay for themselves, because they had no sponsors. 

One of the biggest statutes he tried to pass (and narrowly missed at the convention) is one that few people are talking about, and that's his creation of two new FIG committees: one for only women and one for coaches. I'm very excited by the latter! The women's committee will be composed of female presidents of federations, but what they will convene to discuss is unknown. The ultra awesome idea of having a coaches committee is LONG OVERDUE. When one thinks of how the FIG has stumbled to integrate the open ended code with the foundation of what artistic gymnastics is, you have to wonder why they have not sought the expertise of coaches sooner. So many things could have been avoided it they listened to the concerns of the coaches back in 2003-2005. For the next quad they voted to get rid of certain core requirements which upsets me greatly since - in principal- core requirements should be the structure of our sport, the base of what defines each apparatus. So when the FIG erases some of these core requirements, it's like admitting that they don't know what gymnastics is or where it's going, and it's upsetting to know that something that was deemed so important just a year before is not even relevant a year later. Even Aliya (epitome of an artistic gymnast) admits she doesn't understand the constant changes to so many things. Perhaps too many FIG decisions are reactionary instead of proactive. I hear a lot from Grandi and former WTC president, Nellie Kim, on what artistic gymnastics IS NOT. According to them, Simone Biles is not an artistic gymnast (making this the only sport where you can win something you are apparently not doing). Floor routines are not artistic at all, beam is not being done the proper way either. I agree with them, but then I also have a clear vision of what I would like to see, while they have only ever talked of what they don't like and never a concrete answer for what is correct. It's like, instead of telling you they want a square and defining what a square is, they tell you to make a shape, then when they don't like the shape you've produced change the rules so you make a new shape, and each construction gets farther and farther away from the thing they want to see. Anyways (I got off track lol)... the coaching committee will contain head coaches from the top 6 ranked federations at World's (so it changes yearly) from each discipline and they will exchange views and opinions with their respective technical committee. Hopefully, if this ever comes to pass, it means no more consulting Cirque du Soleil for advice on how to improve the sport, we have our own expert panel!

Out-gym coming your way

Other ideas by Morinari include outdoor gym, a concept he likely took from volleyball, where "beach-gym" and "out-gym" would become a real thing (but who can say for sure what it would actually be). The logistics of it seems impossible, so I think it would borrow from AGG (aesthetic group gymnastics), Trampoline, Acro, or Aerobic since I can't see Artistic, Tumbling, or Rhythmic doing well under outside elements. He also wants to revolutionize the scoring system and take away more of the human element in judging. Tablet PC's and 3D computer judging will accurately change deductions from subjective to scientific. He wants to improve the FIG Learning School by promoting e-learning, giving more coaches and judges access to FIG training.

So. Did Watanabe win because he's overpromising, or do you think he has the vitality, the resources, and the support to see these new measures become real?