Like for 2005, AcrobaticSports.com compiled a list of all the male athletes who have performed routines of 15.00 pts or more, and all female athletes who have performed routines of 13.00 pts or more at international or domestic competitions in 2006.
The main conclusion of this analytical report is that the men's competition saw a sharp increase in difficulty with the number of athletes performing 16.00+ pts of difficulty doubling over a year ago (from 17 to 34 athletes). In comparison, the level of difficulty in the women's seems to have stagnated overall.
The first attached schedule reports the number of male trampolinists per country having performed routines with a difficulty of 15.00 pts or more, 15.50 pts or more, 16.00 pts or more, 16.50 pts or more, and 17.00 pts or more at international or domestic competitions in 2006. The second attached schedule reports the number of female trampolinists per country having performed routines with a difficulty of 13.00 pts or more, 13.50 pts or more, 14.00 pts or more, and 14.50 pts or more at international or domestic competitions in 2006. The difficulty reported on these schedules is based on each athlete's most difficult routine performed in competition in 2006. A trampolinist having performed a 17.00 pt routine would be reported in each of the boxes for his or her country. The data is based on AcrobaticSports.com's best knowledge and may not be fully accurate.
A detailed list of the individuals per country is also reported.
An individual ranking also lists the highest difficulty performers irrespective of their country of origin.
MEN'S ANALYSIS
Worldwide Analysis
In 2006, 107 men performed a routine with a degree of difficulty of 15.00+ pts. This is a sharp increase (19 athletes or +22%) over last year's number (88). With 107 athletes competing 15.00+ pt routine, such a tariff is obviously not a difference maker any longer in top international competition. A tariff of 15.50 pts may not be that much of a difference maker any longer either as 68 athletes performed such tariff in 2006, up from 51 in 2005 (+33%). For instance, athletes such as Yasuhiro Ueyama (JPN), who regularly performed a 15.50 pt tariff in 2005, have started opting for higher tariffs in the finals of top international events.
The highest increase percentage-wise was with respect to the number of athletes having performed a 16.00+ pt degree of difficulty. The increase was 100% (!), from 17 athletes to 34. This exponential increase was due in part to the fact that Russia required its athletes to perform at least such tariff to be on the national team. As a result, 10 Russian athletes performed such a tariff in 2006 (Alexander Rusakov, Alexander Leven, Dimitri Ushakov, Alexei Ilichev, Yuri Koziakov, Andrei Udalov, German Khnychev, Anton Gonakov, Alexei Zenischev, and Evgeni Roik). It was the first time in history that a nation had 10 athletes perform such a tariff. Russia was joined later in 2006 by China as 10 Chinese athletes also performed 16.00+ pt routine (Que Zhicheng, Liu Qipeng, Lou Ming, Chen Chen, Ye Shuai, Dong Dong, Tu Xiao, Wu Yi, Liu Yang, and Chen Shaobo). In contrast to Russia, a 16.00 pt tariff was not required to be on the national team. Thus, such increase was more natural than motivated by a development policy from the national federation.
The number of athletes who performed 16.50+ pt routines went up 40% in 2006 (from 5 to 7). The number of athletes, who performed 17.00+ pt routines went from 2 in 2005 (Jason Burnett from Canada and Takashi Sakamoto from Japan) down to 1 in 2006 (Peter Jensen from Denmark). This last number does not seem representative of the overall tendency though.
Country per Country Analysis
From a country per country perspective, the top 4 countries from 2005 remained the same in 2006. 19 of the 107 athletes came from China, which like in 2005 has the highest number of athletes from our list. The 2006 number for China is slightly lower than in 2005 (22 athletes and 25%). This can be explained by the fact that AcrobaticSports.com's data from China for 2006 might not as accurate as last year's. For instance, it is very doubtful that an athlete like Ma Yanqing would not have performed more than 15.00 pts in 2006. Another explanation for this relative decline might be the fact that some Chinese athletes retired or did not train as hard as in 2005 due to the absence of an event as major as the 2005 Chinese National Games, which is similar in magnitude to the Olympic Games at a country scale. In our opinion, a more telling figure with respect to China is the number of athletes who performed 16.00+ pt tariffs in 2006. The number went up from 4 to 10. This seems more representative to us of the Chinese push to strongly perform at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, just a little more than 10 years after having launched a national program in trampoline. Overall, China continued to build up on last year's performance in an impressive fashion.
Like in 2005, Russia came in second place with 14 athletes (instead of 10) performing 15.00+ pt tariffs. Percentage-wise, it represents an increase in terms of relative share from 11% to 13% of the overall international athletes having performed such tariff. The more telling story about Russia is that the number of athletes having performed 16.00+ pt tariffs went up from 3 to 10. Russia seems to be the only country capable of rivaling with China in terms of depth. Japan remained in 3rd place in our rankings, with 11 athletes instead of 9 last year. Many of last year's Japanese athletes had tariffs between 15.00 pts and 15.20 pts. This year, many had a tariff superior to 15.50 pts (7 athletes). Japan followed up its 2005 breakthrough year by a strong overall performance in 2006. Like in 2005, Germany was in 4th place with 8 athletes, the same number as 2005. The notable difference this year was that all of them performed a routine superior to 15.50 pts. Adam Goetz actually even tied the national record of difficulty with 16.80 pts.
France appeared in 5th place with 8 athletes (up from 3 last year). Such drastic improvement can be explained by the initiative to perform strongly at the 2006 European Championships in Metz. Such initiative was very successful with three medals. For 2006, France was followed by Canada (6 athletes), the Netherlands (6), Australia (5), the Ukraine (4), Great Britain (4), Portugal (4), Belarus (4), Spain (4), the U.S. (3), and Switzerland (2). Denmark, Moldavia, Italy, Poland, and Georgia each had one athlete who performed a 15.00+ pt tariff in 2006. Georgia with Tengiz Koshkadze was the only newcomer, whereas Israel with Konstantin Miroshnikov was the only country that disappeared from our list from 2005 to 2006.
Individual Analysis
The official World Record is currently established at 17.00 pts and co-held by Igor Gelimbatovsky (USSR - 1986) and Daniel Neale (GBR - 1999). This World Record can be beaten only at FIG-sanctioned events. Last year, Jason Burnett (CAN) performed a 17.20 pt routine at the final of the Canadian Championship, a non-FIG sanctioned event. This year, Peter Jensen (DEN) became 2006's king of difficulty by performing a 17.20 pt tariff at the Copenhagen Cup. Despite the fact that the Copenhagen Cup was not an FIG-sanctioned event and that the World Record could thus not be officially broken, it was the first time that the World Record was unofficially beaten at an international competition. It is interesting to note that Jensen was only 20th in our ranking last year with 15.80 pts. This underscores how close some of the top athletes are from each other.
In our 2006 ranking, Jensen created a little gap over his rivals as the next two athletes performed only 16.80 pts (i.e., 0.40 pts less than Jensen). As mentioned above, Adam Goetz (GER) tied the German national record of difficulty with 16.80 pts at a local competition, the Schwartzwald Cup. Jason Burnett (CAN), who was last year's difficulty king, performed 16.80 pts this year. One important fact to underscore is that Burnett performed this tariff in the final of the 2006 Krasnodar World Cup. Thus, Burnett performed the highest difficulty in an FIG-sanctioned event in 2006.
Que Zhicheng (CHN) was 4th on our list. Que is the most consistent athlete in the world in performing top notch difficulty. Que performs only one routine, his 16.70 pt tariff, no matter whether it is at a top international competition or a local competition, in the qualifications or the final. His 16.70 pt tariff has actually noticeably improved this year over last year in terms of execution. The stability of his 16.70 pt routine is extremely impressive as he crashes very rarely. His teammate Liu Qipeng (CHN) followed with 16.50 pts, also regularly performed at FIG-sanctioned events. Liu was joined this year at the 5th place with this tariff by 2005 World Champion Alexander Rusakov (RUS) and Michael Serth (GER), who both beat their own personal records at domestic competitions. Takashi Sakamoto (JPN) performed "only" 16.40 pts in 2006 (down from 17.00 pts in 2005). Ueyama also performed 16.40 pts in 2006, his personal record as well. Little known Lou Ming (CHN) closed our top 10 with 16.30 pts.
Compared to last year, a 16.30 pt tariff was required to be within the world's top 10 in 2006, 0.10 pts more than last year's 16.20 pts. 7 athletes remained within the top 10 from one year to the other: Adam Goetz (GER), Jason Burnett (CAN), Que Zhicheng (CHN), Liu Qipeng (CHN), Alexander Rusakov (RUS), Takashi Sakamoto (JPN), and Yasuhiro Ueyama (JPN). 2006's three newcomers were Peter Jensen (DEN), Michael Serth (GER), and Lou Ming (CHN). The three athletes who disappeared from our 2005 top 10 list were Nuno Merino (POR), Alexander Leven (RUS), and Gary Smith (GBR).
WOMEN'S ANALYSIS
Worldwide Analysis
The primary conclusion from the analysis of the difficulty performed by the women in 2006 is that the overall level seems to have stagnated even though the very top level might have slightly improved. In 2006, 44 women performed a tariff of 13.00+ pts. In comparison, our information was that 47 had done so in 2005. This slight 6% decrease might actually be more of a stagnation as our information from China may not be the most accurate for 2006. China represented 40% of the athletes on our 2005 list.
More telling, the number of women who performed a routine of 13.50+ pts in 2006 increased over last year from 21 up to 25 (+19%). The number of athletes who performed a routine of 14.00+ pts in 2006 also went up, albeit just one unit (+10%). Interestingly, the largest increase came for women who performed 14.50+ pt routines as the number went up from 2 (Irina Karavaeva and Huang Shanshan) to 5 with the addition of Karen Cockburn (CAN), Claire Wright (GBR), and Zhong Xingping (CHN). Obviously, this 150% increase demonstrates that some of the major players anticipate that a 14.50+ pt tariff will be required to win the gold medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. This analysis seems corroborated by the fact that the names of all three winners of World Cups or Continental Championships in 2006 appear within the list of athletes who performed more than 14.50 pts in 2006: Irina Karavaeva (RUS), who won the European Championships and two World Cups, Karen Cockburn, who won the World Cup Final and the Pan American Championships, and Huang Shanshan (CHN), who won two World Cups and the Asian Games.
Country per Country Analysis
China remained the dominating country in the world in 2006. Even though the reported number of athletes who performed 13.00+ pt has decreased from 18 to 13, China still represents 30% of the worldwide athletes who performed such tariff. China represented 40% last year. One reason for this reported decrease might be that AcrobaticSports.com's figure for 2006 might not be the most accurate. Another reason could be that, like in the men's, some of the athletes might have retired or trained less intensively after the 2005 Chinese National Games. More telling is the fact that the number of Chinese athletes who performed 13.50+ pt tariffs went up from 5 in 2005 to 8 in 2006 (+60% increase). Another important increase is that now two Chinese athletes (Huang Shanshan and Zhong Xinping) perform routines with 14.50+ pt tariffs. Only Huang performed such a tariff in 2005.
Far behind China, the same countries as in 2005 enter the top 5: the U.S., Russia, Canada, and Belarus. The only difference with 2005 is that the U.S. (2nd) and Canada (4th) swapped places. The U.S. went up to the 2nd spot on our list as 5 athletes performed 13.00+ pt tariff in 2006. It should be noted that this figure included Alaina Hebert, who apparently retired since. Russia remained in 3rd place, now with 4 athletes over 13.00 pts, all actually over 13.50 pts as such tariff was a requirement to be on the Russian National Team at the 2006 European Championships. Russia remained the only country in the world with 3 athletes over 14.00 pts thanks to Karavaeva, Natalia Chernova, and Natalia Kolesnikova.
Team Canada is now in 4th place with 3 athletes, but it should be noted that now 2 athletes (Cockburn and Rosannagh MacLennan) have tariffs over 14.00 pts. Belarus and the Ukraine follow, also with 3 athletes over 13.00 pts each. Great Britain, Germany, Portugal, and Uzbekistan all had 2 athletes over 13.00 pts. Poland, the Netherlands, Spain, France, and Georgia each had one. The only newcomer this year was Georgia with Luba Golovina. Three countries left our list in 2006: Brazil with Ana Paula Milazzo, Slovakia with Katarina Prokesova, and the Czech Republic with Lenka Honzakova.
Individual Analysis
World Record holder (with 15.30 pts) Irina Karavaeva (RUS) remained at the top of our list in 2006 with 14.70 pts. She already occupied the first spot on the 2005 list with 14.90 pts. However, her margin over the next best performer has shrunk from 0.40 pts in 2005 to 0.10 pts in 2006. It should be noted that Karavaeva has been performing her 14.70 pt routine at all international events in which she competed whereas her two next followers, Karen Cockburn (CAN) and Claire Wright (GBR), have performed their new 14.60 pt tariffs in very limited occasions. Huang Shanshan (CHN) and Zhong Xingping (CHN) come tied in 4th place this year with 14.50 pts. The other members of the top 10 in 2006 include Tatiana Petrenia (14.20 pts) followed by Alaina Hebert (USA), Natalia Chernova (RUS), Natalia Kolesnikova (RUS), Rosannagh MacLennan (CAN), and Anna Dogonadze (GER), all with 14.00 pts.
Compared to 2005, Hebert and MacLennan were the newcomers within the top 10, whereas Elena Movchan (UKR) was the only athlete exiting the top 10.
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