Son Yeon Jae to Perform at Rhythmic All Stars 2016 with 2016 Olympic Champions

South Korean rhythmic gymnastics star Son Yeon Jae is scheduled to perform with the most renowned and top performing rhythmic gymnasts, including the 2016 Olympic Games champion, at the All-stars rhythmic gymnastics gala show to be held in Korea next week (September 16-17), her agency confirmed Tuesday.

Galaxia SM, Son Yeon Jae’s sports management agency announced that Son, together with Margarita Mamun – the Russia rhythmic gymnast who acquired the individual all-around gold at the Rio Olympic Games, will perform at a gymnastics gala event named “Rhythmic All Stars 2016”. The said event will take place at the Goyang Gymnasium in Gyeonggi Province. 

According to Son’s management agency, Russia’s Aleksandra Soldatova, the world’s third best rhythmic gymnast, will also perform alongside Son and Mamun in Goyang. Other world-class rhythmic gymnastics athletes, such as Melitina Staniouta and Katsiaryna of Belarus, as well as Kseniya Moustafaeva of France, will also appear at the event.

At the Olympic competition in Rio de Janeiro, the South Korean gymnast acquired the top 4 spot in the individual All-around final after obtaining a total score of 72.898 points from the four apparatus event. Staniouta acquired the fifth spot at 71.133, while Halkina took the sixth spot with 70.932 points. Moustafaeva acquired the tenth spot.

Aleksandra Soldatova was not present at the Rio Olympic Games because of the competition’s two-per-country rule. Margarita Mamun and Yana Kudryavtseva were the two gymnasts who represented Russia, and won the gold and silver medal, respectively.

Galaxia SM also announced that the Italian rhythmic gymnastics team, who clinched the fourth spot in the group all-around competition in Rio, will also be present in Goyang.

Son plans to use songs of different genres at her performance in Goyang, which includes K-pop and ballet.

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Son Yeon Jae arrives in Rio for the Rhythmic Gymnastics Competition

Korean rhythmic gymnastics star Son Yeon-jae has finally arrived in Rio de Janeiro on Monday after her training in Sao Paolo to compete at the Rhythmic Gymnastics competition in the 2016 Rio Olympics. 

The 22-year-old gymnast will compete in three rhythmic apparatus events (ball, hoop, clubs and ribbon). Each of her gymnastics routines will take approximately 90 seconds to finish, but that six minutes of her life would be the climax of her 17-year gymnastics career.

Son was only ranked 32nd after she made her debut in the senior circuit during the 2010 World Championships. However, she did not let it discourage her and instead used it as an inspiration to improve herself further. She challenged herself by participating in Russia’s Novogorsk Training Center, a facility filled with the world’s top performing rhythmic gymnasts.

The competition was fierce in the facility where the athletes had to line up in order of performance records even for ballet warm-up. Son, who has been at the end of the line at the beginning of her training, has endured great challenge (over 10 hours per day) for six years. With her extreme dedication and hard work, she eventually moved up to the front.

When asked whether she still wants to engage in the sport of rhythmic gymnastics if she was to be reborn, the 22-year-old nodded without hesitation. 

The South Korean athlete, without a doubt, has greatly improved over the recent years. In the previous World Cup cycle, the 22-year-old gymnast consistently broke her own personal record in every competition, and even won at least one medal in each of them.

As she arrived in Rio de Janeiro, she carried with her the dream of becoming the first Korean gymnast to win an Olympic gold medal. Should she achieve her ultimate dream in this competition, it would be marked as a historic achievement in Korea’s sports history.

The rhythmic gymnastics individual all-around qualifications in Rio will begin on August 19 at the Rio Olympic Arena. The competition will continue on Saturday (August 20) with the individual All-around finals and on Sunday (August 21), with the team All-around finals.

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Russia’s Partial Ban to Have a Minimal Effect on South Korea’s Rhythmic Gymnastics

The decision of the International Olympic Committee not to impose a blanket ban on Russia from the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio will most likely have a little impact on the medal race of the South Korean athletes.

On Sunday, the International Olympic Committee has decided to deny the calls from the athletes and anti-doping agencies to ban all the Russian athletes from the Olympic Games due to the alleged state-sponsored doping in the country. The IOC instead passed the decision to individual sports federations.

According to the president of the IOC, Thomas Bach, the international sports governing bodies will have the full authority to disqualify athletes who will be proven guilty of the doping scheme.  

Some of the international sports federation has already started to test the eligibility of their athletes. Due to the rampant doping in the track and field event, the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) has already decided to ban the Russian team from the sport. Meanwhile, the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) issued a one-year suspension on Russia in June.

The South Korean athletes, however, is not expected to compete in those sports, and will only compete against Russia on those sports where the country is less likely to be banned, thus minimizing the impact of the IOC’s decision.

A blanket ban will most likely have a huge impact in rhythmic gymnastics, where Russia has a lot of competitive athletes. The absence of the two Russian rhythmic stars, three-time World All-around Champion Yana Kudryavtseva and two-time World All-around silver medalist Margarita Mamun, would have made Korea’s Son Yeon Jae the second highest-ranking gymnast in Rio behind Ukraine’s Ganna Rizatdinova, giving the Korean a chance to take home the country’s first rhythmic gymnastics Olympic medal.

Unfortunately for the South Koreans, but doping is almost non-existent in the sport, which means that the Russian athletes are less likely to be excluded in this event. Russia’s best rhythmic gymnast, Yana Kudryavtseva, will take this special opportunity to win her first Olympic title.

But the presence of the Russian gymnasts at the Olympic Games doesn’t mean that the medal podium is out of South Korea’s reach. Son Yeon Jae, South Korea’s top-performing gymnast is well known for displaying impressive performances in each of her appearances, allowing her to break her personal records at a consistent rate. We don’t know for sure how much she has improved by now, so be ready to be surprised at the Rio Olympic Games.

The 2016 Summer Olympic Games in Rio will take place in Rio de Janeiro from August 5 to 21, 2016.

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