Raleigh - Durham, North Carolina
Celebrating 30 years of Special Olympics history!
Gymnastics was held at the Raleigh Convention Center Complex in Raleigh. Artistic & Rhythmic Gymnastics used Speith Anderson equipment. Rhythmic gymnastics was set up in the West Exhibit Hall (8,500 sq.ft) and artistic was in the main arena (30,000 sq.ft.). Day 1 was practice for all gymnasts. Different levels were competed in different sessions. In artistic, Levels 1, 2, & 3 performed compulsory routines. Level 4 competed level 3 compulsories and also did an optional routine on each event.
Both rhythmic and artistic started each session with a parade and presentation of the gymnasts & officials. Additional seating had to be added for the overflow crowd. In rhythmic, 4 events were competed- hoop, ball, ribbon and rope except level 1 did Floor Exercise.
There were many clinics and demonstrations There was a coaches clinic to introduce the new rhythmic compulsories. There was a unified rhythmic demonstration, Bart and Nadia performed, and there were artistic team, trampoline, sport aerobic, and rhythmic team demonstrations in addition to our Gym Show the last day.
The Sport Manager was Barbara Meleney and the Technical Delegate was Kate Hickie for Artistic & Cindy Bickman for rhythmic. Officials were from the US as well as international judges from as far away as El Salvador and Japan!
We had our first perfect 10 scores! Portilla Anayansi from Cuba scored 10.0 in level 2 Balance Beam and Mei-Yu Lau from Hong Kong scored a 10.0 in level 1 Balance Beam. There were 87 male artistic gymnasts, 145 female gymnasts and 46 rhythmic gymnasts with a total of 278 participants from 41 countries.
New Rhythmic routines were introduced at the conclusion of the games.
Each day of competition drew between 2,000-3,000 spectators!
Demonstrations were used to: