Royal Dublin Society (RDS) facility in Ballsbridge, Dublin, Ireland
The mission of these games was to “provide a unique and unparalleled sporting and cultural experience for athletes taking part from all over the world, as well as for their coaches and families, volunteers and sponsors, combining the excitement of sport with the opportunity for personal distinction and pride.”
On Friday the 20th we had judges & coaches meetings prior to podium training on Saturday the 21st. Rhythmic competed on Sunday (divisioning) and Wednesday the 25th (finals) Artistic competed on Monday & Tuesday for prelims and Thursday & Friday for finals. On Saturday the 28th was a demonstration of the New Artistic routines and a Celebration Display in the afternoon.
The Sport Commissioner was Marie Carroll and the Technical Delegate for Artistic was Kate Hickie and the TD for Rhythmic was Cindy Bickman. Judges were from around the world and Ireland and the Meet Referee was John Burkel for men and Sarah Jane Clifford for women and Cindy Hoover for rhythmic.
Our venue (RDS) fit a practice gym and a competition gym with matching equipment. There were 2 floor exercise mats, one sprung, one not sprung. Competition was on time throughout the week.
The venue was very festive and exciting. Initially there wasn’t enough seating with lines of spectators going down the street waiting to enter. They added an additional 240 seats for spectators!
At this time, level IV did the level III compulsory and an optional routine in each event in Artistic Gymnastics. In Rhythmic gymnastics, the level IV gymnasts only performed an optional routine. 25% of the preliminary score and 75% or the final score equaled the award score for all gymnasts/events.
There were 56 Rhythmic Gymnasts and 101 Artistic Women and 87 Artistic Men gymnasts.