Gymnasts will floor you with their controlled flights of fancy

Flight testing is happening at the OCBC Arena. Aeronautical engineers – well, coaches with iPads – are in attendance. Design problems are being fixed after crashes. It’s practice day at the Asian Artistic Gymnastics Championships. On Thursday, this brilliant air show begins.

On the floor, the rings, the parallel bars, everyone is rising and descending stylishly. Who else, except divers and pole vaulters, do so much fine work upside down? A dance critic at The Washington Post once wrote an essay on Roger Federer. For gymnasts, a newspaper’s art section might wish to send a representative, for they do everything with a casual elegance. Even falling.