I had to laugh when I read this story, it's kind of sad (not upset sad, but sad.), but defenitaly something you wouldn't expect to see at a competition. The picture below will make more sense once you read the story.
I copied it off of the alberta gymnastics website.
Home - Edmontonian grabs bronze in gymnastics // Alberta Gymnastics Federation (It's not plagerisme if I put the link right.)
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Link Removed
October 06, 2010
Hot off a BRONZE medal for Team Canada on Day #1, Kristin competed today on day #2 in the Individual All-Around competition and finished 7th. Her vault score increased significantly from Day #1 (from a 13.65 to a 13.95), thus setting the stage for her Apparatus Finals set for tomorrow.
" Kristin competed well today, except for beam, where she had a bad day. Not to make excuses, but while she was waiting to mount on beam, I was trying to swat away a bat that was flying around her ! How do you prepare an athlete for distractions like that ? We do contingency planning as part of our preparation, but that kind of situation never occurred to us as a possibility ! The thing was flying around her and it was one of those weird things. Before her routine on floor, I also had to remove a large butterfly from the middle of the floor. The coach from England had a bird do its thing on her during the meet....coaches were in hysterics....We were at a gym meet; this was surreal ! After beam, Kristin regrouped extremely well and ended up hitting floor and vault, her two best events. She is really pumped for Vault and Bars finals tomorrow and she is a definite medal hopeful on Vault. She just has to go out there and hit two strong vaults and really work on nailing the landings. If she does that, she is really putting herself in contention. Hopefully there's not going to be any wildlife malfunctions ! " said her coach Valérie, who called from India to give us the news.
"Kristin is in the best shape of her career. She is ready to go out there and leave nothing behind. Tomorrow should be exciting. She has to focus on performing her two vaults as best as she can." said her coach Michel Arsenault from Edmonton.