WAG restroom debacle at comp

[Issagymnast]

Quick question: A member of my daughters team calling her G (aged 8) went to the bathroom with a male coach during the individual beam performance. She was gone too long and my daughter was told to take her turn on beam as 2nd coach (a female coach) did not realise that gymnast G had not competed and was in restroom. My daughter was confused and was panicked looking for G and didn't score as good as usual. Anyway G's name popped up with my daughters score. It was changed but our coaches had to argue with judges to get it all right and G was allowed to compete eventually! What say you about all this? Male coach to restroom when a female coach there? Missing event are they allowed to compete? What are the protocols. It was a great lesson for my daughter btw.

 

[Coach Kate]

We always have the kids go to the bathroom BEFORE we start warm ups and definitely wouldn't send a male coach with a female athlete if unnecessary. It's ok that they let her compete in my opinion but it shouldn't have happened

 

[Issagymnast]

We always have the kids go to the bathroom BEFORE we start warm ups and definitely wouldn't send a male coach with a female athlete if unnecessary. It's ok that they let her compete in my opinion but it shouldn't have happened

Whats the rule if an athlete misses turn at comps?

 

[JBS]

Quick question: A member of my daughters team calling her G (aged 8) went to the bathroom with a male coach during the individual beam performance.

I'm confused... do you just mean that the male coach just walked her to the bathroom and back so she wouldn't get lost... at a meet with hundreds of other people around?

 

[NutterButter]

I don’t understand either? I mean it doesn’t sound like an ideal time to go to the restroom but we are talking little kids and unfortunately nature can just call at awkward times. Do you think the girl that went to the restroom should not have been allowed to compete?

 

[Issagymnast]

I'm confused... do you just mean that the male coach just walked her to the bathroom and back so she wouldn't get lost... at a meet with hundreds of other people aro

I don’t understand either? I mean it doesn’t sound like an ideal time to go to the restroom but we are talking little kids and unfortunately nature can just call at awkward times. Do you think the girl that went to the restroom should not have

Im more concerned about rules of comp when this occured. There was a female coach that could of done this. Do they have to compete in a certain order and how long would they allow her to jump back in. Not my daughter with male coach so her mom can deal with that.

 

[Issagymnast]

I don’t understand either? I mean it doesn’t sound like an ideal time to go to the restroom but we are talking little kids and unfortunately nature can just call at awkward times. Do you think the girl that went to the restroom should not have been allowed to compete?

What are comp rules if gymnasts go out of order? Or are not present? Or if any other issue arises?

 

[JessSyd]

In Australia, the gymnasts are reminded of their order by the judges at the start of each rotation, and the judges will note if any gymnasts are missing. Technically, after that, if a gymnast isn’t ready to go within 30 seconds of the flag being raised, they get a .3 deduction, and if that drags out to 60 seconds they get a zero.

In reality, in the lower levels at least (we’d expect more from, say, level 5 and up) there would probably be a quick conference between the coach and the judging panel, a warning for the coach to take measures to try to avoid this in future, and we’d let the next girl go and come back to the missing athlete. Sometimes confusion happens if coaches aren’t paying attention and judges don’t realise a girl is missing, but we’d do our best to sort things out.

The thing is - these are little kids, and part of the entire mission of gymnastics Australia is to retain athletes and grow the sport. Taking a hard approach to a little kid needing the loo and perhaps taking longer than expected is not a great way to make a competition a fun experience. So in amidst the rules for judges is an overarching rule, which is ‘if in doubt, rule in the gymnast’s favour.’

In team competitions, there is a 1.00 deduction applied to the team’s apparatus score for competing out of order, although again, I’d probably just give a warning through levels 3 and 4 if it was clearly completely accidental.

 

[Issagymnast]

In Australia, the gymnasts are reminded of their order by the judges at the start of each rotation, and the judges will note if any gymnasts are missing. Technically, after that, if a gymnast isn’t ready to go within 30 seconds of the flag being raised, they get a .3 deduction, and if that drags out to 60 seconds they get a zero.

In reality, in the lower levels at least (we’d expect more from, say, level 5 and up) there would probably be a quick conference between the coach and the judging panel, a warning for the coach to take measures to try to avoid this in future, and we’d let the next girl go and come back to the missing athlete. Sometimes confusion happens if coaches aren’t paying attention and judges don’t realise a girl is missing, but we’d do our best to sort things out.

The thing is - these are little kids, and part of the entire mission of gymnastics Australia is to retain athletes and grow the sport. Taking a hard approach to a little kid needing the loo and perhaps taking longer than expected is not a great way to make a competition a fun experience. So in amidst the rules for judges is an overarching rule, which is ‘if in doubt, rule in the gymnast’s favour.’

In team competitions, there is a 1.00 deduction applied to the team’s apparatus score for competing out of order, although again, I’d probably just give a warning through levels 3 and 4 if it was clearly completely accidental.

Thank you