Rhythmic gymnastics is an Olympic sport that originated in the USSR and still attracts a lot of attention mainly in the countries of the former Soviet Union. The colossal successes of domestic gymnasts make the box office for this discipline in Russia, and bets on rhythmic gymnastics are in great demand during the Summer Games. In this material, we talk about the main and main thing that is worth knowing if you decide to bet on rhythmic gymnastics.
Ballet at the origins of rhythmic gymnastics
At the origins of this relatively young sport were the ballet stars of the famous Mariinsky Theater. Rhythmic gymnastics was born in 1934, when the Higher School of the Artistic Movement was opened in Moscow, where former ballet dancers taught.
Rhythmic gymnastics has become a kind of amalgamation of the experience of the first teachers and has incorporated developments from France, Switzerland and the United States, combining aesthetic gymnastics, rhythmic gymnastics, dance gymnastics and free dance.
The Great Patriotic War slowed down the development of the discipline a little, but already at the end of the 40s, a scoring regulation and competition rules were developed for the first USSR championship. The debut international tournament took place in 1963, later it received the status of the world championship.
In the early 60s, the International Gymnastics Federation (the oldest sports federation in the world, which includes more than 130 countries) recognized rhythmic gymnastics as an official sport. The geography of this sport was for a long time limited to the countries of the Warsaw Pact, until in 1980 rhythmic gymnastics received the status of an Olympic sport.
Although gymnasts from Russia and neighboring countries still take most of the medals of the Olympic Games and World Championships, rhythmic gymnastics has serious schools in Spain, Canada, Italy, France, Japan and other countries.
Major tournaments
The calendar of rhythmic gymnastics competitions is not rich in big tournaments, and as a rule, only two bets are accepted – for the World Championship and the Olympic tournament.
The World Championship is held every year, except for the Olympic season, at the end of August – September. Nine sets of medals are played in individual exercises, team events and group exercises.
In individual and group scoring, the medal is all-around and performances on individual subjects, in the individual – a hoop, ball, clubs, ribbon, in groups – 10 clubs and 3 balls plus 2 ribbons.
The Olympic tournament takes place every four years as part of the Summer Games. It is considered more prestigious than the World Cup and attracts the attention of even neutral fans who are interested in gymnastics only once every four years. At the Olympics, only two sets of medals are played – in individual and group all-around.
Types of bets on rhythmic gymnastics
To win . No more than 3-4 gymnasts usually have real chances of the final success in a big tournament, so the odds for the bet are working. At the World Championships, in addition to the all-around, quotes for winning in individual subjects may be offered.
To hit the top . For gymnasts who do not have such a high chance of success, you can see the coefficient for getting into a certain top of the tournament. This can be top-3, top-5, top-7, and so on, depending on the athlete’s chances of performing competitively.
Who is higher . Several pairs of participants are offered in the line, and you make a choice – who in the correspondence duel of two athletes will be better at the end of the tournament. Such a bet allows you not to pay attention to the outcome of the tournament as a whole, but to follow only the performance of the two selected gymnasts.
Total points . For each subject, the judges give marks on a 20-point scale, and the arithmetic mean of the subject is calculated between their marks. In the all-around, the grades of the subjects are summed up, therefore the maximum score on four subjects is 80.
The bookmaker can offer a coefficient for the athlete to reach a certain level – for example, the total is 73 points. By placing more, you predict that the gymnast will exceed 73 in four apparatus.
How to bet on rhythmic gymnastics and what to consider in forecasts
Before betting on major tournaments, pay attention to how female athletes generally progress through the season. It is advisable to study the calendar on the websites of the International Gymnastics Federation and the European Gymnastics Union. Gymnasts have a lot of chances to show their level at smaller tournaments, for example, at the World Cup or Grand Prix stages, so these results will give you material for analyzing the condition of the athletes.
It is necessary to keep abreast of the latest news in rhythmic gymnastics. This is not so difficult to do due to the origin of most of the gymnasts from the countries of the former USSR, and the domestic media from time to time pay attention to their stories and the latest news.
If a top Russian gymnast is injured in training, you will probably find out about it from Russian publications. It is not uncommon to find out in online publications and about changes in personal life that can affect the motivation of an athlete in the short or long term.
Also, from news or interviews, you can get important information about the program that the gymnast is going to bring to the tournament. The fact is that in rhythmic gymnastics it is considered bad form to show the same program from season to season – this can lead to a negative reaction from the referees and fines.
On the other hand, it takes some time to practice a new program, especially when it comes to debugging interaction in group exercises. If gymnasts go to a big tournament with a new program, then evaluate the level of its performance at the past tournaments, even if it was a national competition.
Rhythmic gymnastics is in many ways a subjective type, so do not overlook the composition of the judges. The judges are divided into three teams: the first evaluates the artistry, the second evaluates the execution, and the third group evaluates the level of difficulty of the elements performed.
The team evaluating the technique consists of two judges and has the highest value – more mistakes are made in the technique of execution. To assess the situation and make a thoughtful choice of bets, it is necessary to seriously study the modern rating system introduced in 2013 and the tournament regulations.