Women Gymnastics in Portugal

[Flossyduck]

Hi. It's a longshot but I'm wondering if anyone has any information on gymnastics in Portugal. We might just be looking at a move there in spring.I've looked on line and I really can't get much info from what I've found.

There seem to be a couple of good training facilities - one in Porto and one in Lisbon. Beyond that, the smaller town clubs and videos I've found on youtube seem much less formal than here - mostly using floor mats in a multi sport hall. I couldn't find anything with bars or beams or pits in any of the pictures, other than Porto and Lisbon, but I'm hoping I've got that wrong.

My daughter is 8 and on the elite track at a UK high performance centre. She does 18 hours a week, plus homework and gymnastics is her passion - I'd struggle to sell her much less than a full four piece programme. We are probably going to be living in the central area, near to Coimbre and quite some distance from Porto or Lisbon. I'm happy to drive for an hour each way, as we do now. I really don't want to make her miserable and if I can find somewhere she can keep up her gym it will help her get used to the idea of the move.

I've been trawling the net for a couple of weeks over Christmas, trying to get some idea of what we might be looking at and getting nowhere fast. Any thoughts?

 

[Galadriel]

I may be off track but Isnt Portugal stronger in acro?
Is this of interest?
Or nearer?

 

[Flossyduck]

That's possible, I really don't know...

Unfortunately daughter hasn't ever shown much interest in acro, she loves her bars in particular, but all aspects of artistic.

It's going to be a tough one - the kids are not against the move but the first thing daughter wanted to know was where she would be doing her gym and if there were any pictures. I've reassured her that there are good gymnasts in Portugal and the national programme must pull them from smaller clubs somewhere, pressumably?! But then I kept running in to brick walls trying to get information. The national website doesn't seem to show a list of clubs and the only stuff I found on the internet was pretty basic. There must be more out there but I don't know how the system works or how to find a club.

 

[Galadriel]

wild thought - if your dd is on elite track in UK then her coaches may have the contacts in gb gymnastics to ask someone about Portugese clubs ?
I am sure Portugal and GB and Spain have competed friendly in last few years. They surely would be able to find club names with higher level wag?
Or go on FIG website, go on WAG and then gymnasts, pick Portugal, and click on gymnast profiles to see what clubs come up them you can look where they are?

 

[Faith]

How exciting!

Are you free to choose your location? If you have no luck in Portugal itself you could look a Spain if you're near enough to the border?

You could try the BGA and see if they have an e-mail for their Portuguese counterpart, or even fire off an e-mail to F.I.G.

I would also make an appointment with your coaches once the move is confirmed, they may have contacts, or at least they could write you a letter of recommendation that may open doors for you in higher level program's.

How long is it for?

 

[Galadriel]

also coimbra is around 1 hour 20 mins from Porto? Could you be located that 20 mins nearer Porto and further from Coimbra?

 

[DisMom]

You want the European Union of Gymnastics. www.ueg.org is the website. It's in French, I think, but has English available. And the 2012 European Gymnastics Festival was right in Coimbra, so there must be something there. Good luck!

 

[DisMom]

And here is the website for governing body of gymnastics in Portugal--it should have a list of all participating gyms:

Link Removed

 

[DisMom]

And here is the contact information for "general assembly" competitive gymnastics in Portugal as well as the President of gymnastics federation in Portugal:

Assembleia Geral
Contactos:
Estrada da Luz, n.º 30-A, 1600-159 Lisboa
Tel.: 218141145 // Fax: 218142950
[email protected]

João Paulo do Nascimento e Oliveira da Rocha
Contactos:
Estrada da Luz, n.º 30-A, 1600-159 Lisboa
Tel.: 218141145 // Fax: 218142950
[email protected]

 

[Flossyduck]

Thanks for the suggestions. Haven't been able to respond for a while as I'm struggling to get back in to the post New Year gym routine!!
It's great to share this with people who don't think I am crazy for trying to work out where daughter can do gym before we have found a house lol!

Great idea to look at FIG. Same few names and two clubs in Porto and Lisbon come up... as they do with UEG - thanks dsimom.

I have already looked at the Federacao de Ginastica, but I couldn't find a list of clubs on the site. I did see about the festival in Coimbre, which had my hopes up for a bit, but the pics are quite acro based and the location is a general sports hall. Can't find any details of a permanent club.

Faith we did consider the Spanish option but in reality there's a large remote mountainous region on the border and we'd have to live virtually on that border to make it work. The rest of our family would be seriously compromised.

Also the journey Coimbre to Porto is a lot more than 1 hr 20... it's about 80 miles and when I've done it before it was a good two hours. My experience of the roads in that area is not good - we had two blow outs in one morning due to the road surface being so bad and the traffic in to Porto was awful. Not practical to do that on a daily basis.

I think you are right that getting a letter from our club is the way to go, but I don't think we're at the stage where I want to do that yet. Just wanted to know how their competitive structure works and any regional clubs to try and reassure DD.

We're reaching the conclusion that to keep DD training at the level she is currently will need us to be quite near to Porto or Lisbon. How close is somewhere on a sliding scale between convenience for gym and quality of the rest of our lives. We're going in April to look at property and I guess we will need to look at the gyms then too and decide how big an issue we need to make this and where the compromise will come from. I don't think we mind dropping to a more simple programme if everything else makes up for it, but giving up all together seems tough after the work she has put in.

In the meantime any other bright suggestions or knowledge gratefully received as I am feeling a bit nervous about it.