Sweet Revolution!

Philippe Silacci – FIG Media Officer (for AIPS Magazine, October 2010)
        For the FIG and the journalists who cover its competitions, 2010 will have been a year of significant change. The FIG is not simply cleaning house, it’s making a major shift toward modernity, revisiting rules, structures and the way it approaches the media. An observation was made during the 2005 – 2008 Olympic Cycle that revealed some disquieting things about our sport; things that were verified du-ring the 2009 calendar events. The time had come for action. The number of improvised individual interviews conducted in the mixed zone. We need to rethink these zones and offer journalists the comfort they need to conduct their inter-views. Above all, we have to put a stop to the coitus interruptus that results from yanking gymnasts from the mixed zone by the arm, leading them.            
A product of our environment
        It’s a secret to no one that times are changing and the microcosm that is sport, gymnastics included, is no exception to that rule. Sport evolves, as do spectator expectations, and change is orchestrated with regard to the media and their spokes-persons the journalists. Yet another profession is undergoing profound change, and this time the trend is irreversible. Internal observations have revealed profound changes over the past five years. Ignoring the issue is nothing short of losing touch with reality. Gymnastics is a core around which gravitate seven satellite disciplines. Each of these has its own rules and ways of doing things. With regard to the media and with few exceptions, we’re seeing seven different ways of responding to the media, but the response is unanimous; the shift affects all seven disciplines.
New attitudes
        Press conference halls are turning into ghost towns while mixed zones thrive; the trend has accelerated over time. This mediatic communicating vessel is most observed in FIG press conference Artistic and Rhythmic Gymnastics. Press halls depopulate as galleries fill up. Journalist participation in Aerobic and Acrobatic Gymnastics is becoming increasingly rare, while the volume of information published, certainly FIG information, increases. The explanation for these changes can be attributed to innovative technologies and the new way in which journalists work.
Technology first
        Each of us remembers the very first e-mails exchanged during the 1997 Artistic Worlds in Lausanne! Since then Internet has evolved and, like hot and cold water, for the most part it’s free of charge. The FIG and its organising partners picked up on that early on in the game. In 2010, on-site Internet access in Moscow (RUS – Rhythmic), Rotterdam (NED – Artistic) and Metz (FRA – Trampoline) will be free for the press.
More on technology…
        Since 1997 at the Artistic Worlds in Rotterdam, the FIG and Swiss watchmaker Longines have been cultivating a partnership that thrives today. It was in Rotterdam in 1997 that the first CIS (Commentator Information System) appeared, a second monitor on which competition data appears in real time. In Rotterdam 2010, and still thanks to Longines, CIS will have disappeared from the press gallery only to be replaced by the Web-CIS, a system that was successfully tested in gymnastics in London 2009.
E-journalists
        From high in the press gallery, I have observed that the majority of journalists write up and send out their work from where they sit or go out for coffee with colleagues, without hoofing it back to the work hall. The gallery must then offer all the working comfort of a press hall. A more significant phenomenon is the mixed zone, which currently enjoys growing popularity. “When I have a good question, I keep it to myself I don’t share it with my colleagues in the press hall!” This is what a good number of journalists have been telling us. And the trend has been confirmed. Have a look at the number of improvised individual interviews conducted in the mixed zone. We need to rethink these zones and offer journalists the comfort they need to conduct their interviews. Above all,
we have to put a stop to the coitus interruptus that results from yanking gymnasts from the mixed zone by the arm, leading them manu-militari to a press conference populated by their coaches and a very sparse audience only to ask them a handful, if that, of questions. Yet another phenomenon. During training, just before qualifications and finals, the written, spoken and televised press need information, interviews, pictures to fill up the newspaper columns and magazine articles that will promote the event. We need to grant them access to that information, perhaps by opening the doors to training halls; one example among many! As of 2010, journalists covering gymnastics will be authorised to watch training from a designated zone. Pre-competition warm-ups remain closed-door. It’s no revolution, but evolution is well underway. The FIG and gymnastics intend to join the current trend and orchestrate change, which means anticipating and responding to the needs of today’s journalists.