Considered as one of the most beautiful sports in the world, rhythmic gymnastics was not a very popular one in Qatar till a few years back. With an aim to change that and to encourage the sport among the next generation in Qatar, two women in the country began their journey three years back with Olympic Stars and are now training 200 girls.

The academy, a professional center that teaches rhythmic gymnastics and ballet for girls, is accredited by the Ministry of Sports and Culture of Qatar and was launched in 2016 by women for the benefit of next-gen women. One of the founders, Tatiana Yakimova, a Russian Gymnast, said that rhythmic gymnastics combines elements of ballet, gymnastics, dance and apparatus manipulation, which makes it one of the most beautiful sports to watch.

But it is not a cakewalk for the girls and the trainers, who must train daily for three hours minimum to make their mark. They need to have rhythm, grace, flexibility dedication and patience and also be resistant to some amount of pain.

Source: The Peninsula Qatar

“It is not easy for children to take up this sport. We have children as small as 4 years up to 13 years old. The smaller kids are taught the basics of simple steps moving higher up according to their level of improvement. We host free sessions occasionally as well to identify kids who have the talent in them but are unaware of the grace they have,” says Tatiana, the head coach at Olympic Stars.

Trained in Russia, Tatiana learned gymnastics for 16 years and participated in various international competitions. Her first step towards her dream of starting a school to train young girls in rhythmic gymnastics was to become a coach. She took a Degree in Law to understand the ethics and rules and regulations related to the games. A former coach in the Qatar Gymnastics Federation, Tatiana then joined hands with a Qatari cofounder to start Olympic Stars. The institute started with 12 children of whom three are now being trained to be professional gymnasts.

There are 13 kids in total being trained to be professional gymnasts. Apart from Tatiana, there are three other coaches training the 200 kids at the academy – coach Jade, an Olympian who represented UK in 2012 Olympic Games; coach Malena, a FIG certified judge from Spain; and coach Tamara, a certified-professional in managing early childhood and lateral development.

Recently in April 2019, the students at the academy won 8 medals at an international competition in Beirut. Tatiana says, “It was totally unexpected. Our students and trainers had been working hard for all the competitions but when we won 8 medals everyone was in tears. The kids, the trainers and their parents all were so happy to be recognised.” Adding that though the group didn’t win any gold, they hope to change that very soon.

The team is now preparing for the rhythmic gymnastics champion competition ‘GymKids Cup’ in Baku, Azerbaijan to be held on December 18, 2019 where 13 gymnasts will participate from Qatar.

Source: https://www.thepeninsulaqatar.com/article/19/10/2019/Olympic-Stars-Training-the-next-gen-rhythmic-gymnasts-in-Qatar

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