mmer Olympics

,

Irina Risenzon prac-
tices her routine at

Pho to by Br ia n Hen dle r

the Wingate training
complex in Netanya.

Olympic Leap

Israeli rhythmic gymnasts use approach born in Soviet Union.

Dina Kraft
Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Netan a

n one side of the cavernous gym,
six members of Israel's first
Olympic rhythmic gymnastics
team warm up in a circle, chatting softly in
a mix of Russian and Hebrew while stretch-
ing their legs in effortless splits on the mat.
Nearby, Irhia Risenzon, a fellow gymnast
competing in the individual category, is try-
ing to master a leap in which her head must
tilt backward to meet a bent leg.
It's late afternoon and the young
women, ranging in age from 17 to 22,
have been practicing for much of the day.
In black T-shirts and black shorts, they
appear to be in uniform, reinforcing a
feeling of discipline and order that marks

their training and routines.
"There are harder workouts and easier
ones:' says Risenzon, 20, her auburn hair
pulled into a bun. She sits on a wooden
bench on the edge of the gym, watching
the team begin its routine. The gymnasts
practice about 10 hours per day.
"But you know why you are here she
says. "For me it's my goal: the Olympics.'
Like every Olympian, her ultimate goal
is the gold.
"That's the dream:' Risenzon says,
breaking into a smile, a marked contrast
from the grimace she's been wearing for
the past two hours while trying to perfect
her leaps and pivots before her hard-driv-
ing coach, Ira Vigdorchik.
Risenzon has been training with
Vigdorchik since she was 9, the same year
she and her family immigrated to Israel
from Ukraine.

The language in the hall is predomi-
nately Russian; six of the eight rhythmic
gymnasts are immigrants from the for-
mer Soviet Union. The two Israel natives
are the daughters of immigrants: Rachel
Vigdorchik, who tutors Risenzon, and Neta
Rivkin, who at 17 is the youngest member
of the Israeli Olympic team.
This large contingent of rhythmic gym-
nasts is why the Israeli squad has nearly
as many women as men this year in its
39-member delegation for the Olympics
in China.
The sport combines ballet, theatrical
dance and gymnastics and is divided into
individual, pair and team event categories.
Ropes, hoops, balls, clubs and ribbons are
used in the routines.
About 3,000 girls are training in gyms
across the country, according to Rachel
Vigdorchik. She oversees 300 of them at

the gym she runs in Holon and at another
branch in Jaffa for Arab girls.
Vigdorchik, who moved to Israel in
1979, was scheduled to perform in the
1980 Olympic Games in Moscow, her
hometown; but she stayed home when the
Israeli team boycotted, along with other
countries, in protest of the Soviet invasion
of Afghanistan.
Looking around the gym at the team
members she has coached, most of them
since they were little girls, Vigdorchik says
they're like family. She says this year's
Olympics Games are "closing a circle."
Vigdorchik says she's proud that rhyth-
mic gymnastics, a sport brought to Israel
by Russian immigrants in the early 1970s,
has caught on.
"It's very popular, but we need more
government investment and more spon-
sors:' she says, echoing a common com-

Olympic Leap on page B2

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July 31 • 2008

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