French Get Lesson in Gymnastics, U.S. Style

Merry Saint-Genies, French national gymnastics coach, does not want his team to become complacent just because its members are considered France’s elite athletes.

France, after all, is not a gymnastics power compared to the Soviet Union, Romania, or even the United States.

So, he has sent six of his best junior national competitors, all between the ages of 12 and 13, to the United States to see how the better half does it.

“It’s not a matter of technique,” Saint-Genies said. “Our girls have very good technique. We have a good gymnasium, we have a good coach, equipment, and a lot of money for the sport.

“I want to prepare my girls mentally for different types of competition,” he said. “America is a fighting country and I want to teach my girls how to fight.”

At last fall’s 1985 World Championships in Montreal, France finished 18th. Saint-Genies sought help.

He approached Don Peters, U.S. national coach and coach of the Southern California Acro Team (SCATS) in Huntington Beach. Peters invited the French team to work out with SCATS for three weeks as part of a two-month U.S. tour.

“One of the difficult things in coaching athletes is to get them to rise above the level of their country,” Peters said. “If you’re the national champion, that’s pretty good, but, if that level is not high enough to be successful in world competition, there’s an inertia and it’s difficult to overcome that.”

The French team left SCATS last week, and will train with Bela Karolyi, Mary Lou Retton’s coach, in Houston for three weeks. The gymnasts also will train at Parkette, a prestigious club in Allentown, Pa. They will compete in four to six U.S. meets, including two international competitions, the American Cup and the U.S. Mixed Pairs.

The French athletes will take with them more than new attitudes once they leave the United States. Julie Knight, a SCATS choreographer, worked extensively with the team, and created new optional routines for each gymnast. The French team will debut the new tricks at the European Junior Championships next May in Studgart, West Germany.

Said Saint-Genies: “I would like them to leave here more proper in their form. American girls are very, very correct, and the optional she constructs is very good for the girl.”

Next summer, Knight will spend two weeks in Paris choreographing new optional routines for his senior national team.

And if all goes according to plan, Saint-Genies said he hopes to achieve a top 12 world ranking by 1987, good enough to qualify for the 1988 Summer Games.