Europeans seem destined to dominate

Orlando to represent Canada

Last Updated: Wednesday, August 20, 2008 | 1:53 PM ET

Lindsey Craig CBC Sports

Russia's Olga Kapranova has won 13 medals in World Cup competition this year. (Franck Fife/Getty Images)

Beginning Thursday, grace and art greet the sporting world as rhythmic gymnastics kicks off at the Beijing Olympics. Rhythmic gymnastics is a blend of entertainment and athleticism, with competitors performing to music using rope, hoop, clubs and ribbon.

(A fifth apparatus, ball, is sometimes used, but each year, one of the five accessories is excluded from Olympic competition.)

Talented rhythmic gymnasts have extraordinary hand-eye coordination and execute difficult body movements in combination with skillful handling of apparatus. Learning and perfecting such skills requires years of dedication.

"Notice how they contort their bodies in relation to the hand apparatus. One cannot be separated from the other," explained former CBC rhythmic gymnastics analyst Carol Angela Orchard. "If they're really good at it, you almost don't notice the apparatus, it becomes one with the body."

Russia team to beat

Russia has dominated the realm of rythmic gymnastics in recent years, taking gold in the individual contest at both the 2004 and 2000 Olympic Games (Alina Kabaeva and Yulia Barsukova, respectively). In the same years, Russia also came first in the team event.

Russia will make its return to the Olympic floor yet again as the team to beat. Eugenia Kanaeva won 11 World Cup medals in 2008, including one gold in the individual all-around event. She's ranked third in clubs, second in hoop, and third in the ribbon event.

Kanaeva also won this year's European title, earning the top score on each of the four events and defeating reigning world champion Anna Bessonova of Ukraine.

Russia will also challenge for a medal with Olga Kapranova. At the world championships, she won gold in 2005 and bronze in 2007. At 2008 World Cup competitions, Kapranova won 13 medals, including a bronze in the individual all-around event. Kapranova is also ranked second in clubs, first in hoop, sixth in ribbon and second in rope.

Yet another Russian looking for the podium will be Vera Sessina, who won the all-around competition at the 2006 European championships. Sessina also picked up a handful of medals at the 2007 world championships, taking gold in rope and ribbon, silver in the all-around contest and hoop, and bronze in the clubs component.

A fourth top contender is Bessonova. The Ukranian took bronze at the 2004 Olympic Games and at the world championships, she won gold in 2007 and silver in 2003 and 2005.

At 2008 World Cup events, she won 15 medals, including one silver in the individual all-around event. Bessonova is ranked first in clubs, third in hoop, first in ribbon and first in rope.

An athlete who may surprise the top women is Inna Zhukova of Belarus. She placed fifth in the individual all-around competition at the 2005 worlds and placed fourth last year. Orchard said she's been improving steadily and could sneak on the podium.

Canada's Lori Fung won a gold medal in rhythmic gymnastics in 1984, the year of the Soviet Union boycott, but Canada hasn't made an appearance in the sport since 2000 — until now.

Orlando only North American

Alexandra Orlando, 21, is one of the few non-European athletes on the international rhythmic stage. She has more medals than she knows what to do with (they hang in massive bunches in her Toronto bedroom) and she'll be the first Canadian to compete in rhythmic gymnastics at the Olympic level since Emilie Livingston in 2000.

Since 2003, she's won every event at the Canadian nationals. She also made history at the 2006 Commonwealth Games when she tied the record for most medals won by a single athlete at one Games — capturing six gold medals.

"It was such an honour to hear my national anthem being played and six times," she said. "I broke a world record for my sport and the Commonwealth Games, which I never thought I would ever accomplish. It was the highlight of my career."

Orlando also won three gold medals at the 2007 Pan Am Games and was chosen to be Canada's flagbearer at the closing ceremony.

Today, she's in the top 10 going into Beijing and though she's not expected to reach the podium, her mere presence will be an accomplishment in itself.

First, Orlando will be the only North American on the floor. Second, many would argue she's the only competitor who looks more as an athlete should - healthy and strong, with muscle on her frame.

Bigger than usual rhythmic gymnast

Traditionally, rhythmic gymnastics has favoured bone thin athletes. By adding weight training to her regime, Orlando is changing the shape of the sport.

"What was traditionally successful in this sport was to be very, very skinny. And for me, I'm totally not, not that mold, and I was never like that…I had many people tell me, you know, you might not go as far as you want because of how I looked," she said earlier this year.

"That was hard because I was just as good as everyone else. I deserve to be able to go and compete amongst the best in the world, you know, just because I'm slightly bigger than what was normal for a rhythmic gymnast, I wasn't going to let that stop me," she said.

To illustrate, Orlando is 5-foot-6, 127 pounds. Her Russian opponent, Kapranova, is 5-foot-10, 121 pounds.

Orlando's trainer, Chris Dalcin, said that while others focus on a "less is more" ideal, Orlando's strength can make for a more powerful performance.

"When you take the stress away or the weight away, her body reacts in a more explosive way, and in sport, that's everything," he said, noting one benefit was her ability to jump higher.

Representing Canada at the Olympics will also be particularly significant for the patriotic University of Toronto student. In 2004, Orlando was one position away from qualifying for the Athens Games (she placed 21st and needed top 20). Though she couldn't compete for Canada, her dual citizenship leant the opportunity to compete for the American team - but she refused.

"I'm so Canadian — it wouldn't be right," she said, and waited another four years to try again for the country she loves. Her qualifying moment came at the 2007 world championships in Greece, where she earned a ninth place finish in the individual all-around event.

Orlando will only compete in the individual competition in Beijing, since Canada does not have a team entered in the sport. The individual event lasts three days, with the top 10 of 24 athletes advancing to the final after performing each apparatus.

In the group event, 12 teams perform two routines. One apparatus set will be five ropes, and the other, three hoops and two clubs. The teams are ranked based on total points, and the top eight finishers advance to the final. In the final, each group performs with both sets of apparatus. The highest-scoring group wins gold.

As with the individual event, Russia has its sights set on taking the group competition.