Okay, let’s get back to our research on international female competitive gymnastics systems. The focus for this installment will be on Romania and Australia. Let’s start with Romania!

Pictured: Larisa Iordache
 

Romania

If you’re old like me and watched major international competitions in the 1990’s and 2000’s, then you certainly know the myths and legends about Octavian Belu’s girls training and living together in Deva. To be honest, that’s the first thing I think of when I picture Romanian gymnasts… usually with a cheesy “fluff” clip playing in my mind, complete with commentary and sappy music.

Despite my own silly ignorance (as well as my inability to read in Romanian), I was able to find some helpful resources on the internet that explained their national system for me. Here’s the basic breakdown, as posted on Gimnastica.net in 2012. Interestingly, the age restrictions are very precise!
 

• Beginners: 4-8 years

   o Small club competitions

 

• Category IV – “Mica gimnasta”

   o Level 1: 8-10 years

   o Level 2: 10 years

   o Compete in Schools Championship and National Championship (team, apparatus)

 

• Category III – “Junioare III”

   o Level 3: 11 years

   o Level 4: 12 years

   o Schools Championship and National Championship (team, AA, apparatus)

 

• Category II – “Junioare II”

   o 13-14 years

   o Schools Championship and National Championship (team, AA, apparatus)

 

• Category I – “Junioare I”

   o 15+ years

   o Schools Championship and National Championship (team, AA, apparatus)
 

Not quite sure how national training centers fit into the mix or how athletes can skip categories to become elite at < 15 years, but if you have more information on that, please comment and let me know!

Pictured: Lauren Mitchell
 

Australia

After checking out the vastly different world of Romanian gymnastics, I need to take a step back into the familiar… so, with that in mind, let’s take a look at the Australian system, which is much more similar to the US. There are three different “streams” for competitive gymnastics depending on the athlete’s talent and commitment level.
 

• International Development Program (IDP)

   o Levels 1-3, 5-6, 8, and 10*

   o Junior and senior international following Level 10

   o National teams selected from gymnasts in this stream

   o Maximum age restrictions for each level…

       Level 1: 6-8 yrs

       Level 2: 7-9 yrs

       Level 3:  8-10 yrs

       Level 5: 9-11 yrs

       Level 6: 10-12 yrs

       Level 8: 11-13 yrs

       Level 10: 12-14 yrs

       Junior Int’l: 15 yrs

   o … except for Senior International, which has a minimum age requirement of 16 yrs
 

*I have absolutely no idea why they skip levels 4, 7, & 9… maybe they think they’re bad luck!?

• National Development Program (NDP)

   o Levels 1-10

   o No apparent age restrictions

   o Compete in state and national competitions

 

• State program

   o Not officially part of Gymnastics Australia, managed by each state

   o Local competitions and low training volume

   o Levels 4-10 (with gymnasts usually progressing from NDP levels 1-3)
 

Gymnastics Australia provides more details about the NDP and IDP streams here.
 

I think that just about wraps it up for Romania and Australia! In my next post, I’ll delve into British Gymnastics for a closer look at how the Brits do things.


Related: 
Read about the Canadian gymnastics system