‘PUSHING THOSE LIMITS’ BLACK’S GAME PLAN
Five-time Pan Am Games medallist wants Canadian gymnasts on the map
Ellie Black cartwheeled her way into Canada’s collective conscience last summer as a five-time medallist and unofficial darling of the 2015 Pan Am Games.
Reporters mobbed her for interviews. Wide-eyed children begged for autographs. Her picture featured prominently in newspapers from coast to coast as the first non-American to win gold in the all-around gymnastics event since 1983.
But Thursday in the eerie quiet of the Rio Olympic Arena — after the allotted three minutes per athletes on each apparatus in Canada’s one and only practice at the venue — Black offered a polite caution to people back home dreaming of a repeat performance.
“The Pan Am Games have lots of incredible athletes, but it’s the Pan American countries,” said Black, who left Toronto in August 2015 with three gold, one silver and one bronze. “The Olympics is all the countries in the world. So there’s definitely a very broad variety of athletes here and competitors from across the world who might not have been at Pan Ams.”
Kyle Shewfelt, the only Canadian to reach the Olympic podium in artistic gymnastics, puts it more bluntly.
“Is Ellie a favourite to win a medal here? Probably not,” said Shewfelt, who won gold in the floor exercise at the 2004 Athens Games and is in Rio as a colour commentator for CBC. “But is she a contender? Absolutely.”
In terms of favourites, Simone Biles is an undisputed superstar with the potential of becoming the Michael Phelps of the Rio Games. A three-time all-around world champion, the 19-year-old American has a shot at winning five gold medals — leaving all competitors, including Black, 20, in a cloud of chalk dust.
Biles took a pass on the 2015 Pan Am Games. So did her countrywomen Gabby Douglas and Aly Raisman.
Russia’s Aliya Mustafina and Angelina Melnikova are both factors here, along with China’s Fan Yilin and Wang Yan, so the depth of field in Rio is miles deeper than the one we saw in Toronto.
But Black’s Pan Am success is hardly a throwaway when it comes to calculating her Olympic chances — especially on the balance beam.
“She executed her routine perfectly,” said Anne Merklinger, chief executive officer of Own the Podium. “It’s one of the best balance-beam routines in the world in terms of degree of difficulty.”
Remember: No one is immune to tumbling off the beam, not even Biles, who fell during her routine at the American Olympic trials in San Jose, Calif.
“If Simone Biles hits, she’ll be victorious,” said Shewfelt. “Not only does Simone Biles do the most difficult skills, but she does them with impeccable execution and she’s extremely consistent in competition. But if Ellie qualifies for the final, anything can happen in balance beam. It’s only four inches wide.”
Black refuses to play it safe on those four inches, instead opting for all-out offence. Her routine includes a back handspring, back full — the toughest manoeuvre there is.
“In gymnastics now, everyone is throwing hard skills, so you just have to keep pushing those limits,” Black said. “I want to be confident. I want to be aggressive. That’s what I focus on, is attacking the routines and just going out there to show the gymnastics I’ve trained.”
Black took a two-year hiatus from her studies at Dalhousie University to attack her training for these Olympics. Widely considered one of the nicest athletes on the circuit, the pride of Halifax is humble in victory and gracious in defeat.
In Thursday’s training, she fell on her first attempt at the balance beam, but nailed her routine with ferocity on the second.
“When it comes time to compete, she puts the blinders on,” Shewfelt said. “She’s in a bubble and she’s able to deliver in those pressure situations. That’s something you can’t teach. That’s something Ellie has really been able to develop naturally.”
When she was just 16, Black made the final in balance beam and vault at the London Olympics, only to break her ankle during her floor routine. The youngster led her team to a fifth-place finish, the best Olympic showing ever for the Canadian women.
True to her reputation, Black deflects all questions about her individual performance — and personal dreams — in an attempt to turn the conversation to the team event, where she competes alongside Brittany Rogers and Shallon Olsen of Vancouver, Isabela Onyshko of Brandon, Man., and Rose-Kaying Woo of Brossard, Que.
“Canada is a force to be reckoned with,” Black said. “I think our team is going to do great. I think we’re going to be able to go out there and do some great gymnastics and really put Canada on the map.”