The Canadian women's artistic gymnastics team will have a lot to prove at the Canadian championships Tuesday through Saturday in Kamloops.
The event is one small step on the women's journey to qualify for the 2012 Olympics in London, but the tiny dynamos are facing an uphill battle without help from the Own the Podium funding program.
After the 2008 Beijing Olympics, where Canada did not qualify a women's team, and results by two individuals were less than targeted, Own the Podium dropped its $500,000 support of the women's team.
OTP helps finance the men's artistic team, as well as the trampoline team. The rhythmic gymnastics team has never qualified for the financing. The women's artistic team is into its second season now without OTP support.
"This creates challenges for us," said Jean-Paul Caron, president of Gymnastics Canada. "We've got to support the programs through other revenues.''
The loss of funding means there will be fewer training camps and a scramble between clubs, parents, provincial associations and Gymnastics Canada to get athletes exposure at international events. Caron said the shortfall has affected the junior and youth programs - which, in turn, hurts the senior program in years to come.
The women's artistic gymnastics team is in a Catch-22, because of the nature of the sport. Own the Podium targets medal possibilities for the future, to be backed up with data from past successes. But the lifespan of a female gymnast is so short, histories can be non-existent. It's easier for a male gymnast such as Kyle Shewfelt or a trampoline competitor such as Karen Cockburn, who stay in the sport longer.
"It's always a challenge with women's gymnastics to predict the future, because we turn them around so fast in four years that the national team or the Olympic team changed completely," Caron said. Women aren't allowed to compete at world championships or Olympics until they are 16, but by the time they turn 20, physical changes or injuries catch up to them and they leave the sport.
Ironically, the women's artistic team, the most popular discipline in the association, comprises about 70 per cent of Gymnastics Canada membership.
Elena Davydova, coach of one of Canada's best Olympic hopefuls, Kristina Vaculik, said female gymnasts now don't have as many opportunities to get the international experience they need.
The sport already has enough challenges. Davydova works out of the Gemini Gymnastics Club, nestled in an out-of-the-way corner on a gravel road in Oshawa, Ont. It's one of seven high-performance clubs in Canada, but it runs on fumes and the sweat of athlete parents who volunteer to raise money, stage bingos, and take turns working in the club. Davydova said there are just two high performance-level coaches on staff, along with two provincial-level coaches, and they're all overworked to minister to 300 to 400 athletes.
And Vaculik? She has grittily worked her way back into contention for an Olympic spot. Davydova said they lost almost a year to find good specialists to treat her elbow ailment, which at the time was rare. "The longer you stay off, the more time it takes to get back in shape," she said. "It would be nice to have access for good specialists. Some countries go to a special sports clinic and everything is there for them, assessment, diagnosis and MRI, right there, that you can do right away."
Vaculik's determination kept her on track. Last December she returned with a formidable performance at Elite Canada, finishing second in the all-round and winning uneven bars and floor. She won a couple of gold medals and a silver at a World Cup event in Germany and said she has all of her skills back.
But she couldn't rest for a minute.
"Gymnastics is not like any other sport," Davydova said. "You miss three days, your [skills]are already off. You miss a week? You need two weeks to get back. We don't have summers that we can sit back and do nothing. We have to set up hard programs through the summer to work toward next season on skills.''
But the team remains determined. Caron said the goal is to qualify a whole women's team for the London Olympics. They need to finish in the top 24 at the coming world championships in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, in October to get to the more important world championships in 2011, which is the main qualifying event to get to the Olympics.
There, the women will have to finish in the top eight to get a berth at the Games, although four more spots are open at a last-chance event, a test event later in the season.
"Making top eight will be difficult," Caron said. "Feasible, but difficult.''