Coaches Accommodations for Jewish Gymnasts

[Deleted member 25978]

Hello friends,

I have a student from Israel and she wants to compete. In Israel, competitions are planned around the existence of the Jewish day of rest, Shabbat. Shabbat is from sunset on Friday to sunset Saturday. She cannot do any exercise due to her faith. She’ll also wear shorts with her leotard.

I understand that many competitions happen over a whole weekend. Are there exemptions for religious athletes where she can do her competing on a Sunday or something?

Thanks!

 

[WV Gym Mom]

We are not in an area with a lot of observing Jewish gymnasts, but there are a few. In meets, if their scheduled competition time falls later Friday or on Saturday, they go in with another rotation earlier Friday.

 

[Coach Kate]

We have an LDS family on our team. They do not compete Sundays. For the normal meets, she just doesn't compete if it's a Sunday, so she does less than her teammates, and then for championships our region is good about accomodations.

 

[Aussie_coach]

We have a number of gymnasts who are 7th day adventists. They just sign up for competitions, which we know are on Sundays and leave out the rest.

They have the same expectations of no activity from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday.

 

[gymgal]

Most of the competitions can accommodate the need to switch days. Whether they will participate in awards depends on what session they end up in.

 

[Carly]

We have seen individual girls competing with a different level whose level competed on a different day. I'm not sure why but it must be for a reason such as that. I hope that it works out for your gymnast!

 

[Soaring]

Yes many competitions will try to be accommodating about this type of thing, where the gymnast may be allowed to compete during another level's session. Like others have stated, whether they receive awards will depend on the meet.

 

[rlm's mom]

We are Jewish, though not religious. One of Dd's friends is religious though and keeps the Sabbath. She usually manages to compete on Friday or Sunday. Ive always admired their commitment to their religion. I hope to follow their lead one day!

 

[JPC13]

We’ve not had an issue with meets, but my daughter has most definitely skipped every practice on high holidays (Passover, Yom Kipper, etc.). Keeping shabbot would make things tough though — no practice from sundown Friday night to sundown Saturday means you’re effectively missing two prime practice times every week. That’s going to be tough when you’re at the level of 5 practices a week.