Rhythmic Gymnastics, Interview Katja Tamberg 2000, RSA

	German version
	With her gymnasts she had the longest trip but was back home: Katja Tamberg from Berlin, who has been living in Durban / South Africa for the past 5 years. Since 1996, Katja has contributed to the development of South African rhythmic gymnastics. At the 4^th City Masters in Berlin, Sonja Schmeisser chatted with the coach who once was a rhythmic gymnast at the <OSC Berlin> sports club.
	The delegation from South Africa in Berlin	Katja, what made you go to South Africa? About five years ago, a gymnastics club in Cape Town had placed an advert in a German gym magazine, looking for a rhythmic gym coach. I applied for the job, but in the end, my application was passed on to a small club in Durban, where I finally settled. Now I am head coach of this club called <Ocean Rhythmic Gymnastics>. Additionally, I developed some teaching material for the South African Gymnastics Federation, such as coaching manuals, videos and the Olympic Development Programme for 2004 / 2008.
	Is your club also offering a high performance programme? Yes, and <also> is the correct word. Like in the USA, gymnastics clubs are organised in a fully commercial fashion.Without a large number of recreational gymnasts, it wouldn‘t be possible to finance the high performance section. My club has a typical structure: We have a total of 250 children of which 50 are doing rhythmic gymnastics on a competitive level. Of these 50, about 10 are involved the Olympic Development Programme. Since last year, I have had two ex-gymnasts assist me with the coaching. Of course it took quite a while to build the club up to its present size. There seems to be so much interest – is rhythmic gymnastics that popular? Well, nobody just walks through our door… But we work closely together with the schools in our area – and the sport is really pretty popular! Ballet is also very popular. Many girls decide to take up one out of these two <beautiful> disciplines. In Durban, there are about 10 schools offering rhythmic gymnastics as a school sport. This way we can spot many talents, especially non-white girls. So far, only white rhythmic gymnasts have represented South Africa at international events. Why? The money is a problem. For all girls who participated here in the Berlin City Masters, the parents had to pay the entire trip. Also, for all members of the South African Team that participated in the 1999 Osaka World Championships, the trip was fully self-funded. In the past, clubs didn‘t even try to find black gymnasts, as the coaches‘ only income are the monthly fees which most black children are unable to pay. This is due to the large majority of non-white families having disadvantaged backgrounds. However, recently a number of clubs, including mine, has decided to let talented under-privileged gymnasts join classes for free or at reduced rates. Unfortunately, all these girls are not yet old enough to feature in international competitions. We are hoping for government grants and are trying to find sponsors to assist these young gymnasts in the future. Their training is only a small financial problem, but as soon as expensive outfits and apparatus are necessary and regular trips to national and international competitions start, the clubs might not be able to continue supporting these gymnasts as much as they deserve. I am convinced that by 2008 the latest, our National Team for the group competition will be 100% non-white and also most of our individuals.

Siegerehrung Ball, citiy Masters 2000 Berlin
Final with ball of 4th City-Masters -
1st Daniela Kunze /GER / Leipzig),
2nd Susanne Müller (GER / Berlin),
3rd Jo-Anne Nelson
(RSA / Stellenbosch)

Here in Berlin, four South African cities are represented: Cape Town, Stellenbosch, Johannesburg and Pretoria. This sounds like wide-spead development?

That‘s true. In all cities and even in many smaller towns, rhythmic gymnastics is being offered. All together, we have about 1000 registered rhythmic gymnasts in South African clubs. Also, many more gymnasts train rhythmic gym at their schools. This is quite amazing, as rhythmic gymnastics was only introduced into South Africa 10 years ago. We don‘t only offer high performance programmes, but have various competition categories for the recreational section of the sport. Isabel van Achterbergh, our Chairperson, and all the other early supporters of rhythmic gym in South Africa must be congratulated on the incredible development of this sport, especially considering the extreme political change and financial hardship.

JoAnne nelson, RSA 2000

Jo-Anne Nelson,
one of the best gymnasts
of RSA

Who are the coaches?

For our high performance gymnasts, we have coaches from South Africa, Russia, Belorus, Ukraine, Bulgaria and Romania. The conditions are difficult, as the Federation has hardly any money. Most of our work is club-based. But we have been able to put a national programme into place for the younger gymnasts – for their systematic development, with training camps, ability tests and regular competitions.
The juniors that are competing here in Berlin have been training with this programme. And Renata who placed 6^thyesterday, is one of the best of our junior squad. We are also proud of the top ranked junior in our country, Belinda Potgieter, who won a medal at a recent international competition. Next year, Belinda and Renata will join Jo-Anne Nelson, currently the top South African gymnast, in the senior section. I believe that by then our major progress will be noticable.

Will we see the South African gymnasts at other international events this year?

Overseas trips are not very common for our gymnasts, because of the expenses. But two gymnasts will participate in the Junior Commonwealth Games in August and our highlight for 2000 will be the All African Championships at the end of November.

How is Michelle Cameron doing, the best known South African rhythmic gymnast?

Michelle earned herself the Wild Card for the African Continent for the Olympic Games in Sydney. But the National Olympic Committee of South Africa has the policy that in all sports, Wild Cards will not be used – with the exception of those that went to black athletes. This was very disappointing for Michelle and she almost decided to quit. But her university offered her a sports bursary which expects her to compete in the National Championships, the African Championships and next year‘s World Games in Akita / Japan. After a short break, Michelle re-gained enthusiasm and mental strength and we are looking forward to her come-back in the competition arena.