History-making gymnasts from Chinese Taipei, Jordan and South Korea inspire those back home

SINGAPORE – Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al-Soud almost quit gymnastics in 2015 as he doubted his abilities and felt like no one believed in him.

Thankfully, he did not give up.

Seven years after he almost walked away from the sport, the 28-year-old clinched a historic silver in the pommel horse at the 2022 world championships.

He was the first Jordanian and Arab gymnast to finish on the podium at the world event.

He credited his coach Gurgen Sirekanian for guiding him to his breakthrough at the 2019 Asian Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Mongolia, where he won his first gold medal.

Abu Al-Soud, who was second in the pommel horse here on Saturday, told The Sunday Times: “He told me how to focus on my training because I was very distracted.

“A lot of people said I was a loser, I can’t do it. But I never let that affect me and always took that as a motivation. I kept doing badly in competitions till 2019... Imagine being in gymnastics for 15 years without medals, it was very difficult to stay.

“But with discipline, I got the first gold medal in the Asian Championships in Mongolia and that was the big key to starting my journey.

“Everything changed, I started to believe in myself.”

The two-time Asian champion is one of several gymnasts at the ongoing senior Asian championships who are blazing a trail for their compatriots.

It has been a lonely road for Abu Al-Soud at times. Many of his peers have dropped out to focus on their studies, but he is determined to pursue his passion for gymnastics while completing his Masters in sports science.

While Jordan has been trying to send teams for junior competitions, Abu Al-Soud is the only senior athlete regularly participating in major international competitions, which can get tough for him as “it’s all on my shoulders”.

The pressure got to him a few years ago as he struggled to replicate his form in training in competitions.

He said: “I was nervous, I had stress, but with time, I learnt how to control it because it’s a process for you to be a champion and failing is a lesson.

“So I started taking it as a lesson, not a failure and that was one of the best things I ever did to reach what I am now.”

Dealing with the public’s perception of gymnastics is also a challenge that Chinese Taipei’s Lee Chih-kai, 27, has had to face, as the sport was not as popular when he first picked it up at the age of six.

While his family was supportive – he used to perform gymnastics moves to attract customers to his parents’ vegetable stall at a market in Yilan, Taiwan – Lee noted that not many understood the sport.

Gymnasts were seen as circus performers to those who were unfamiliar with it and, even to others who knew a little more, they were simply seen as people doing flips and rolls.

But that has changed as the island began producing results, with Lee becoming the first Chinese Taipei gymnast to win a medal at the Olympics where he clinched silver in the pommel horse at the postponed Tokyo Games in 2021.

He said in Mandarin: “It was a little tougher because people probably had the traditional mindset that those who did gymnastics had no future.

“Most people would think that it was better to focus on studies.

“But when I slowly charted out a path for myself by doing gymnastics, people started to realise that doing gymnastics was a good career choice too.

“In the past, some would say that gymnasts were all brawn and no brain but that’s not the case.”

Since becoming South Korea’s first female gymnast to claim an Olympic medal with her vault bronze in Tokyo, Yeo Seo-jeong has been recognised a lot more.

But she notes that gymnastics is still not high profile back home.

Yeo, 21, said: “Winning at the Olympics is very hard for everyone, not just for me.

“I’ve gotten more popular, people want to get my autograph and everyone knows gymnastics, but it’s still not too popular in Korea, we don’t have many clubs.”

So the grind continues for Yeo, who is inspired by her parents, themselves trailblazers.

Her mother Kim Yoon-ji won a team bronze medal in the 1994 Asian Games, and her father, Yeo Hong-chul, was the 1996 Olympic vault silver medallist.

For Abu Al-Soud and Lee, seeing gymnastics grow in their respective homelands has been a validation of their sacrifices.

The path ahead is not easy, acknowledged Abu Al-Soud, who is targeting more success on the international stage.

He has his eye on the 2024 Paris Olympics but he knows it will be harder to qualify without a team; he would have to be first at the 2023 world championships in September or in the top two in the 2024 World Cup Series.

But he remains undeterred, saying: “There’s been a lot of positive impact on the kids.

“Before they only wanted to play football. But now, after seeing me getting medals, a lot of them are heading to gymnastics because they see an idol and it seems possible to achieve the dream...

“That makes me very proud.”