How does a sport that has athletes flying and climbing many feet in the air not be part of the Olympics? Sports acrobatics should be in the
Olympics because it is very unique and does not even compare to any other
Olympic sports. Sports acrobatics is the only sport that requires athletes to
do dangerous pyramids and stunts. This sport “is unusual that it uses the body
of another person or persons as “living apparatus”” (Olsen 4). Also sports
acrobatics has many different types of groups such a pairs, mixed pairs, trios,
and a men's four in different age divisions and levels to get many different types of
athletes involved. First time I saw an acrobatic routine I was amazed of the
difficulty of skills these athletes do and “most people don’t seem to have any
experience seeing anything like it” (Andersen 3). I saw tops flying around doing flips in the air and knew instantly that I wanted to do it too!
Bringing sports acrobatics into
the Olympics would help bring more athletes and to get other new countries
involved. There are many countries around the world facing the same issue to
get acrobatics into the Olympics. For example, Britain has a club
called Whales that has world champion athletes ready to take it to the next
level. Also there are acrobatics teams in Israel and Mexico; it would be
awesome to bring everyone together around the world that shares a common
interest of acrobatics. Sports acrobatics is fairly new and it would add a new
spark to the Olympics and bring new audience to watch it. I feel the audience
is ready for a change because they are getting uninterested with the same old
sports in the Olympics. I do understand that many Olympic sports have been
around for thousands of years, but change is also good.
Additionally many people believe
that acrobatics is very similar with gymnastics and artistic gymnastics, but acrobatics
only uses one apparatus, which is the floor. In acrobatics you can't just rely on yourself, but also your other partners. Without your partners the group will be very unsuccessful. The best way to see the difference between the two sports is to watch an acrobatic
routine. When watching a routine you will be shocked of the grace and beauty of
the sport and will wonder why it has not been entered in the Olympics.
Posted below are the different
types of group in sports acrobatics.
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| Women's trio group. |
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| This is a mixed pair group. |
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| This is a women's pair group. |
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| Men's four group. |
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| This is a men's pair group.
Here is a link of a women's Russian trio during the 2013 Acro World cup. This trio is flawless and has a very clean routine. This type of routine is called "tempo" or dynamic routine that only consists of flips and different types of summersaults. This video can help the audience to better understand the sport.
Works Cited:
Olsen, Kirsten. "2 Marylanders Find an Unusual Answer; the Uncommon Sport of Acrobatics Provides the Life Style they Sought." The Washington Post (pre-1997 Fulltext): 0. Jan 07 1988. ProQuest. Web. 22 Oct. 2013.
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