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@stevegis_ssg @mekkaokereke

I have a theory about that.

I'm in my '50s, and while I don't follow gymnastics closely, or athletics much beyond that, I do turn my attention in for the Olympics from time to time.

And up unto a certain point, you saw American gymnasts clap each other on the shoulder decorously on occasion or otherwise demonstrate support in a kind of low- key way.

But it seems to me, from my very limited window on the sport, there was one particular moment in which everything changed.

And that was Ohashi going viral in January 2019 for her 10.0 floor routine. At the collegiate level, not the elite level. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4ic7RNS4Dfo
It was a revelation in so many ways as to what the sport could be. Some of those ways would take rules changes. But others...

@stevegis_ssg @mekkaokereke

Watching Ohashi's team members in the background of the video as she competed *dance her routine along with her* from along the floor and cheer her on: you mean, YOU CAN DO THAT?!

It was so outrageously joyful and exuberant... and it wasn't anything football (both kinds) and rugby and basketball players hadn't been already doing.

So why not? Why not gymnastics too? Wouldn't gymnastics be a much nicer world to be in if it was about holding one another up and cheering one another on?

It felt like everyone in American gymnastics (and, who knows, maybe out of it) has been waking up to this realization.

There's a video of Nedoroscik's pommel horse routine from a different angle than all the rest, where you can see his teammates at the edge of the mat, screaming their fool heads off and pumping their fists in ecstasy cheering him on with everything they have in them.

I like this version of the Olympics much better.

@siderea @stevegis_ssg @mekkaokereke Do you have a link to that video? That sounds amazing

@hillexed

Ohashi one is all over the internet ("Ohashi's 10.0" on YouTube).

I LOST the Nedoroscik one, but will try to find it again.

@stevegis_ssg @mekkaokereke

@hillexed

Okay, this is not the same video as I saw earlier which was a short and shot from a different angle, but you can see the screaming starts at 0:35 while he's still *adjusting the apparatus*, and once he starts you can hear them shouting themselves hoarse in the background. From the point of view of this video they're to the left.

I'll keep looking.

@stevegis_ssg @mekkaokereke

@hillexed @stevegis_ssg @mekkaokereke

Oh, wow, my searching turned this up from 2017: https://youtube.com/shorts/lEESd5e4UiI?si=g1U-hTjWESI5PdSa
Which is EXACTLY what I'm talking about in contrast to how things are now.

@hillexed

If you use TikTok, there's apparently a video there titled "Look at how much it means..." I think at a channel called DraftKings, that I cannot for the life of me load, which I think is the right one, or at least is shot from enough distance from the right angle, his teammates are visible throughout.

ETA: found that video on YouTube: https://youtube.com/shorts/EgXXnX2kg24?si=jQ-e3PGlsPlL6R2m

Only has the end of his routine, but you can see his teammates to the right are already cheering wildly before his feet come down.

@stevegis_ssg @mekkaokereke

@hillexed

Right?! I caught the Ohashi video when it came out, and, as it happens, I was stuck home really sick with not enough brain to do anything other than mainlining gymnastics, figure skating, and cat videos. So I wound up consuming a bunch of Ohashi coverage – from, my God who is this person, will she be in the Olympics, was that not just the most fun floor routine in gymnastics history, are they allowed to be entertaining, up through oh my god what an incredible story, she's been through so much, and what about Coach Val – and I remember hearing some other gymnasts and coaches discussing the sport, and how, according to them, there was (maybe still is) rules about decorousness as well as the way scoring works in elite level competition that pretty much put the kibosh on super charismatic floor routines like Ohashi's.

1/3

@stevegis_ssg @mekkaokereke

@hillexed

I don't have cites for that and I'm certainly not in any sort of position to verify it myself. But I was struck by the possible parallel to the branch of music I've most been involved in making.

In the middle of the 20th century, it was common to present Renaissance and medieval music in costume, as a kind of theater piece, or museum piece.

The historically informed performance practice movement basically stamped that out by the 1980s because it was felt by proponents of historical music to make the musicians look unserious as musicians – like a Ren faire sideshow. The *proper* way for *professional* musicians to present pre-classical music was in concert blacks, same as every symphony orchestra member, same as every classical chamber music concert. To show the world This *Is Too* Serious Music.

2/3

@stevegis_ssg @mekkaokereke

@hillexed

Fortunately, world of pre-classical music started unbending about that about 20 years ago. For one thing, you can't put on a historical opera in an authentic historically informed way without historical opera costumes. For a less well known thing, you can't present historical dance without historically accurate clothing, at least on the women, because there are dance moves for which corsetry of the right period is quite literally load-bearing.

Also, it turns out, costumes are really awesome. Some really great groups out of Europe, especially, started using them in concert, just to further their historically informed impression, like historical interpreters.

Anyways, because I come from that world, it smells to me like elite level gymnastics got caught up in a "We *Are Too* Real Athletes" thing from which maybe they are now realizing they can emerge.

3/3

@stevegis_ssg @mekkaokereke

@siderea @stevegis_ssg @mekkaokereke The ren faire nerds get to make historical clothes for orchestras?? Of course there would be nerd overlap. People didn't like that????? That's so fun oh wow thank you for the fun peek into another world

@hillexed

Alas, no. The costumers who do the kind of work one sees on historical opera are overwhelmingly not the sort of costumers who do renfair work. Not unreasonably: they're very very different, in a number of ways.

Ren faire costumers make costumes that are some form of street wear, to the extent that it's historical it's meant to be what historical people wore going about their day, and it's meant to look good up close and personal, and they have to work in pretty narrow economic constraints to be affordable selling to the general public. The costumers who work historical operas are literally making costumes of the type historical opera performers would have worn on stage. They have to look good from a distance of no less than 20 ft, and because they're not being sold to the public they can be made of much richer materials and with much more intensive labor than is affordable for retail.

Also, they're two different historical periods.