2025 Gymnastics Social Media bits

[Bob]

loving her choices.

 

[ponorvanas]

Has anyone listened to Melanie's most recent interview?
I don't speak French and I couldn't find a transcript of the whole thing. I appreciate the cliffs-notes on Twitter/Reddit, but the parts about her post-Paris financial reality make me a bit confused.

 

[Sasha]

She says that she had several sponsors before the Olympics. She said that after the Olympics, while some of the sponsor contracts were up, she felt somewhat alone/abandoned. She notes that as a professional athlete it's necessary to win in order to earn money. She is currently living with her parents in Martinique because she can't afford her own apartment. She is coaching and notes that things are starting to come together a bit ("les choses se remettent un peu").

She says even if she doesn't want to go back to gymnastics, what else is she going to do? She doesn't know anything about the work world. She doesn't know what she enjoys or what career she would be interested in doing.

While her words sound kind of dire, she is quite matter of fact about the situation at the same time.

 

[KathySantoni]

Would NCAA be an option for her?

 

[MaryClare]

Would NCAA be an option for her?

No, she’s 26 next year

 

[ponorvanas]

https://www.rtl.fr/programmes/on-re...esillusion-son-burn-out-et-sa-vie-aujourd-hui
this is the full 11 minute interview
She talks about having to cover her 2000$ monthly rent, as well as medical and physiotherapy bills while her training at WCC was free, because the Lendis are French.
As the most successful French gymnast in the Tokyo quad, it's outrageous that she seems to have gotten minimal financial support from the Fed/Olympic Committee/Sport Ministry in the lead up to a home Games, but I don't know how funding works in France.
I would have assumed that with the deals she did have (she was sponsored by Adidas since 2019, as well as that French leo brand, plus Venus and Dior in the year before Paris), the money she has earned from the two Simone tours and competitons, she would have been able to have some degree of financial flexibility to figure out her future.
Apparently, she has studied fashion for about an year and a half, but found it difficult to balance gymnastics and university.

 

[MaryClare]

Some very nice gymnastics from Morgane O-R. Excited to see what she can do next year, she’s put in a lot of upgrades but makes it look very easy

 

[Hatsumomo]

A short news segment on Yamaguchi Sara's comeback after tearing her left ACL twice:

 

[rlayt]

Shilese is back on bars:

 

[KristyJ]

I know it's just toe-ons and a Stalder, but it looks very clean and strong. I wish I looked that fit after time away!

 

[rlayt]

You can tell she worked hard at maintaining fitness.

 

[cftmoonlight79]

I hope Shilese stays healthy and can finally make an Olympic team.

 

[RichardL]

Having come up in the sport in the 90s, it boggles my mind that we have narratives like this (in a good way). Can you imagine someone missing the 1992 team after being age eligible since 1990, getting injured out of making the 1996 team, and then qualifying in 2000?

 

[Hatsumomo]

Having come up in the sport in the 90s, it boggles my mind that we have narratives like this (in a good way). Can you imagine someone missing the 1992 team after being age eligible since 1990, getting injured out of making the 1996 team, and then qualifying in 2000?

And we technically have two gymnasts falling under this narrative, if you want to count Skye being age-eligible for Tokyo due to the postponement (though she's a particularly unlucky case, getting injured out at Trials both times).

 

[MaryClare]

Mohini was senior since 1993 and eventually made the Olympic team in 2004

 

[esta]

Annia Portuondo-Hatch, too! Starting with ‘93 Worlds. Didn’t she qualify for Cuba in 1996 but they declined to send any WAG due to lack of funding? Retired. Came back in the ‘01-04 quad after changing nationalities, etc.

 

[rlayt]

Older gymnasts is a good trend.

 

[JaJa]

Older gymnasts is a good trend.

I am not disagreeing. I am though wondering what people's thoughts are about why this is a good trend.