Gymnastics Among the Ruins

Photo by AL Shaibani Wedeea

So I learned this photo posted earlier was taken of a facility in Yemen. 

Yemen, in recent time, has been experiencing a crisis in leadership and stability.  It is on the verge of a civil war; and made vulnerable to being a safe haven for al Qaeda and IS.

Rick McCharles had blogged about gymnastics development in Yemen a couple of years ago.  He linked to this article written almost exactly three years ago:

As the first gymnast sprints down the fraying stretch of carpet toward the vault, his gruff coach shouts encouragement in Arabic: “Jump big, like you dream!” Hurdling himself onto the vault, the gymnast’s height on his takeoff is impressive. Later on, as he tends to the blisters on his hands from the dozens of conditioning drills he executes each practice, he admits with a shy smile to the big dream that motivates this dynamic explosion off the vaulting table – to one day compete in an international meet.

It is sad to see the setback and downward slide of a country like Yemen.

*UPDATE* 12:30pm 8/26/2015

Gaar Adams, who authored the above article, left a comment on Nick Blanton's page:

This is Yemen. When people hear about Yemen, the things that come to most people's minds are words like "war", "extremism", and "terrorism." But the people of Yemen are some of the most kind and hospitable folks you would ever have the pleasure of meeting and -- though you may not associate a country of such strife with gymnastics -- Yemen actually had a gymnast (its first) at the Olympics in 2008, Nashwan Al-Harazi. I lived in Yemen in 2009 while intensively studying Arabic and trained a couple of times with Al-Harazi at the national training center in Sana'a (I'm a former gymnast.) It was a barebones gym -- the kind you see in Olympic fluff pieces where there aren't proper mats, equipment is outdated, etc. But the work ethic and resilience of these guys was incredible. I'm a freelance journalist in the region and returned to Yemen before the 2012 Olympics to write a piece on Al-Harazi's remarkable story about getting one of the Olympic wildcards and to revisit his gym 4 years after he went to Beijing. (Attaching the article at the bottom of this post.) Al-Harazi's gym in Sana'a is still standing -- these photos are actually from a smaller training facility in Hodeidah, Yemen, a port city on the western coast of Yemen that's been under increased bombing by a Saudi-led coalition over the past few weeks. It's senseless. This is how you breed extremism/contempt/disillusionment/anger -- through the needless destruction of facilities that are positive outlets for youth and by forcefully taking away programs & spaces that provide opportunities for young people. The kids who trained here took pride in their abilities and were incredible athletes considering their limited resources. Now, a part of their identity has been removed until this place can be rebuilt, and all that's left is them asking "Why?" with no one to answer that question but violent propaganda on both sides. The Olympic opportunity provided to Al-Harazi helped him immeasurably -- he's now a gymnastics coach in the USA. Any opportunity like that for these kids in Hodeidah has now been taken away (by an operation being funded heavily by the United States, but I'll keep my politics here to a minimum.) It's an absolute tragedy. Here's Al-Harazi's story below. Please read it, share it, and remember next time you hear about Yemen or a country in the MIddle East that it's filled with good people -- the vast, vast majority of whom reject terror, extremism, and just want to live their lives in peace like everyone else: http://www.salon.com/.../pommel_horses_and_protestors.../

I have a feeling he and I don't see eye to eye on politics.  But we both probably hope for the best in regards to Yemen.