The artist is nothing without the gift, but the gift is nothing without work. –writer Emile Zola

Hard work made it easy. That is my secret. That is why I win. –gymnast Nadia Comaneci

Gymnasts and gym fans alike know the amount of intense training it takes to reach the top. Starting from a young age, gymnasts learn the discipline that is required to put their bodies through hours of rigorous training each day.

Fans from around the world have produced some amazing training montages over the years, but there are a few in particular I’d like to point out. The first is a fantastic one I came across called Training Emotions. I like it because it covers a wide variety of skills, gymnasts and eras, and I enjoy the dramatic music too!

Training Emotions Montage, by Gymlover

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5IvKIoTgoE

My favourite parts:

-A pensive portrait of Yelena Mukhina at 0:42. She will forever be remembered as the 1978 World Champion, denied a chance at the 1980 Olympic Games after a terrible injury. She passed away due to complications from her paralysis in late 2006.

-Unique skills, such as the aerial cartwheel perpendicular to the beam at 1:48, the Gaylord at 1:58 and the German giants to Tkatchev at 2:06.

-The gymnast practising a layout Jaeger with a harness at 2:15.

-Jackie Bender at 3:06. She was a strong gymnast on the Canadian National Team in the early 1990s, but I believe her strength, flexibility and balance would have lent itself well to Sports Acro or a show such as Cirque du Soleil.

Jackie Bender, Former Canadian National Team Member

The next training montage includes all the gymnasts striving to be part of the Unified Team at the 1992 Olympic Games. This was to be the last time competing together under one flag.

Soviet Training Montage

I’ll leave you with a well-made montage about China’s training system. I’ll reserve comment, except to say that it’s hard to watch such young gymnasts and that perhaps raising the age limit in international competition wouldn’t be such a bad thing after all.

Gymnastics in China

Please leave a comment and tell me about other montages you enjoy watching. I’m always interested in discovering new ones!