‘Flying Ducks’
take to the bars
See story Page 3B
Wednesday, January 16, 1985 Emerald Sports Supplement
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Rltyfliw Of GynumtiM
uring the '84 Summer Olympics,
Americans were surprised to see a dif
■ ferent kind of gymnastics. Instead of
B W young girls wrapping themselves
around uneven parallel bars or leap
ing over vaults, spectators saw
women combining gymnastics and
dance in a way that seemed effortless.
The sport is called rhythmic gymnastics, and it’s
anything but effortless. Ask Maria Basile, 18, who
trains at the National Academy Of Artistic Gymnastics
in downtown Eugene. She knows how much work it
takes to be a world-class rhythmic gymnast.
Rhythmic gymnastics is radically different from
the typical artistic gymnastics, Basile says. Instead of
tumbling, rhythmic gymnasts compete using one of
five hand-held apparatus (ball, clubs, hoop, ribbon or
jump rope). Their dance routines are done on a floor ex
ercise mat and are usually accompanied by a piano, she
says.
Yet when Basile became interested in gymnastics
eight years ago, she went into artistic gymnastics —
like everyone else, she says. Rhythmic gymnastics was
something no one did in the United States.
But Basile sustained an elbow injury at 15, putting
tumbling out of the question and making rhythmic
gymnastics her only option.
"I couldn’t do any tumbling and so I went into
rhythmic,” Basile says. “Rhythmic involves more dan
cing, and I was always a better dancer than a tumbler
anyway.”
Basile, originally from Chicago, has concentrated
on rhythmic gymnastics since that time and succeeded
in becoming the 1983 Illinois state champion. She plac
ed fourth all-around in the 1984 Region V champion
ships and placed 23rd in the national rhythmic cham
pionships. She began training in Eugene last summer.
“There’s not very many places you can go to train
because it’s not too popular in the United States,” she
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says. "In Bulgaria, it’s like our football games, but not
here.”
But Basile says that the sport seems to be growing
in popularity in this country. Since the Olympics,
where rhythmic got its first mass exposure, it has "just
exploded," she says.
Basile came to train at the National Academy
primarily because she would be coached by Kathy
Brym, a native of Czechoslovakia, she says.
"Kathy’s an excellent coach. She’s dedicated and
puts all her time and energy toward training the team,”
Basile says.
Rhythmic gymnastics is a well-known sport in
Eastern Europe, where Brym competed until her
family’s escape to the West in 1967. When she arrived
in the United States, there was little interest in the
sport, yet she did compete in the world championships
from 1973-77.
"I’ve mostly done it all on my own,” Brym says.
“People looked at you funny when you walked into a
gym with a hoop.”
Besides the help of her coach, Basile believes she
will benefit immensely from dance classes she is taking
at the University. Basile enrolled at the University this
term for hours of dance which she says should give her
a tremendous boost.
If all goes according to plan, Basile believes she
could be performing in the 1988 Olympics. The recent
coverage of rhythmic gymnastics has given Basile
much competition, but she says this should only help
her.
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Plwta by Steven Walt