Claudia Fragapane

[Uglybetty]

I was chatting to someone very knowledgeable the other day about the CWG and mentioned the fact that I hadn't really heard much about Claudia before she placed at the British this year....so how on earth did she end up with 4 CWG medals? Seemed to me that she's appeared like a bolt of lightning. She confirmed that although she's always been at the British she was never even close to making "the squad" and that it's taken until she's moved to seniors for it all to fall into place.

It did make me think though. Had she been at another "big name" gym would they have given up on her sooner? Do potential "superstars" get lost in the system because they peak too late?

 

[Jenny]

Claudia has been in British Squad for a long time and has always had loads of potential. I don't think there has ever been any chance of her being missed. Peaking late / early is an interesting point. I suppose it depends what your aim is - Winning compulsory 4 at 8 or winning CWG medals at 16+. Or something in between.

 

[Uglybetty]

Oh that's interesting. I've never really paid much attention until the last 12 months so didn't really know either way whether she was tipped as having the potential she clearly had.

 

[coach1234]

Claudia has been very injured for the last couple of years (to the point where they thought she would not do gym again) which is probably why you haven't heard of her recently but if you look at some of her routine on gymnet you can see she's had the difficulty from a young age, like jenny said she has been in squad for many years

 

[Faith]

My own theory is the power kids don't do so well at compulsory level. The flexibility requirements are very high and so they won't score as well on beam/floor (180 deg split req), and R+C. If you look at many of the top junior/senior results many are mid-table in compulsory/espoir (and quite a few would be placed much higher if R+C is discounted)

I also think potential power gymnasts are being missed in favour of the children who will do well at compulsory, unless they're spotted by a coach with the foresight to realise the flexibility will come or they may not be amazing compulsories.

Espoir/Junior is also where the bright star kids with amazing flexibility might discover they don't also have the fast twitch for the difficulty, and start to tail off...

I read an interview with Claudia's coach recently saying her power and agility was spotted at 6, but they had to work very hard on her flexibility.

Is it just me that likes to look at the British champ results for the past 8 years or so and see how kids have progressed through the elite system...

 

[Uglybetty]

Funnily enough I was sat right next to one of her coaches (not her main coach obviously) at the British this year when we watched her secure her CWG place. I was of course more interested in our girls...wish I'd made more conversation now.

 

[Charlotteamya]

She's had a bad injury, I think it was her ankle. She's been in The line up for ages