Not since 1988 that Australia has been unsuccessful in qualifying a female gymnastics team to an Olympic Games – a situation which the latest batch of stars will prevent from happening this weekend.
The Australian women’s artistic gymnastics team will compete at the Aquece Rio Test event which will start this Saturday night (AEST). The Australian team needs to be included in the top four spot in order to acquire an Olympic berth.
The Australian artistic team has only accomplished to get into the top 14th spot at the previous World Championships, failing to acquire the Olympic qualification as it requires a top-eight finish.
Nevertheless, the result was good enough to receive an invite to the Rio test event, which will take place at the same venue as the Summer Olympic Games in August. Teams who finished at the top 9th to 16th has earned the invite for the test event.
Trying to preserve almost thirty years of tradition, Australian national team coach Peggy Liddick feels that the pressure is on, but she doesn’t want to put the burden on her young team.
"My superiors remind me of it every single day," Liddick told AAP of Australia's strong history at the Games.
"But it's not fair for me to put that undue pressure on the team.
"I'm really consciously trying not to coach by intimidation.
"It's a real delicate balance between going in confidently and doing our job and yet not having them be so afraid of not qualifying that they strangle their own performance."
Last week, Australia has participated at the Pacific Rim Gymnastics Championships in good form, wherein they managed to acquire the third spot in the team event.
They finished the competition ahead of Japan – who took the sixth spot at the World Championships – winning them the bronze medal.
The former world champion Lauren Mitchell is still on the road to recovery from a knee injury and beam specialist Mary-Anne Monckton’s year ruined by a knee reconstruction, Liddick is preparing a brand new team to Rio.
Georgia-Rose Brown, Emma Nedov and Kiara Munteanu – who acquired the sixth spot in the all-around event last week in Seattle – are anticipated to partake in the all-around with Emily Little, Larissa Miller and Rianna Mizzen to complete the team.
Artistic gymnast Michael Mercieca and trampoline gymnast Blake Gaudry will also participate in the competition in hopes that they will acquire a qualification for the Olympic Games.
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