By Veronique Bury FIG Editor.
At 28, French gymnast Isabelle Severino dreamed of wrapping up her gymnastics career in Beijing, with a third Olympic participation after Atlanta in 1996 and Athens in 2004. But that was not to be. After having ruptured her Achilles tendon at the Clermont-Ferrand European Championships in April, Isabelle has been relegated to the press grandstands to watch the finals through the eyes of France Television. A somewhat anticlimactic ending to an exceptional career, one that deserved to go out in a blaze of glory.
What an understatement!
At the tender age of seven, young Isabelle was already dancing about dressed as a gypsy in a gig at Paris' Olympia. Seven years later, she placed first at the uneven bars in the European Championships Junior competitions, two years prior to taking her first world medal in Seniors (Puerto Rico World Championships Bronze at the uneven bars).
Yet, if there is one single thing to remember about this extraordinary young woman, a veritable jack-of-all-trades who seizes every opportunity she gets, it’s the road that led her from Florida's Cirque du Soleil (2000) to sports aerobics (2002) where she was the European Bronze medallist and world vice champion in trios (2002). She returned to gymnastics in 2003 for an incredible comeback, joining the French Women’s Team for the 2004 Games in Athens.
In 2005, just one year later, she took the most impressive medal of her career, the Gold in the individual floor final at the European Championships at 25 years of age!
An unusual career; one that commands the respect and admiration of the elite. There are those in Beijing who will be sorely disappointed to miss the tango floor exercise Isabelle had prepared precisely for this Olympic occasion.
A FIG interview:
You were injured at the Clermont-Ferrand European Championships, which has kept you from ending your career at the Beijing Olympic Games. How do you deal with such an experience?
It's hard to deal with, knowing my career is over. Not only did I rupture my Achilles tendon, I fractured the malleolus when I fell on my ankle. I’ll have a screw in my ankle for a year, which means that I won't be practising gymnastics anywhere in the near future! It's just not possible. I'll have to learn to live with it, but personally, I think it's unfair.
How did you recover from the European Championships?
I had a lot of people supporting me at that time. I was really thankful to have my family and friends, and the girls from the French team as well. So many people sent messages, and that helped me a lot.
And then you got an offer from France Television?
Yes. Soon after that. I hadn't even undergone my operation when France Television called to offer me a position as a gymnastics consultant in Beijing. I immediately accepted. It helped to know people were thinking about me. Europe 1 asked me to participate in a daily radio broadcast. With my business to run (a communication agency that Isabelle set up with her father in 2000), I'll need to reorganise my time in light of these new professional opportunities.
Finally, do you find yourself apprehensive about watching the competition from behind a microphone, a good distance from the apparatus?
It will be difficult, that's for sure. But I've got an opportunity to see the competition from a totally different point of view. This time around, I’m here to give information to millions of telespectators. It's fantastic! I will also be handling interviews on other stations, websites and at different venues. It'll give me a chance to meet with athletes from a variety of disciplines, a great social opportunity. Even though I won't be participating in the competitions, I'll be experiencing incredible moments right here where I am.
