WAG What exactly does "Junior Olympic" mean anyway?

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gymbeam

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I've had people ask me why its called that and I haven't been able to even make an educated guess. Can anyone tell me why its called that? Are there other sports that have a JO classification, too?
 
Apparently there are other sports that use the term. A teammate of my DD is a JO archer. My guess is it's any sports stream that feeds into the Olympics at the elite level.
 
Apparently there are other sports that use the term. A teammate of my DD is a JO archer. My guess is it's any sports stream that feeds into the Olympics at the elite level.
So, after reading your post I decided to Google (why didn't I do that before?) and there are a ton of sports that use Junior Olympic as a classification. Does anyone know, is there ever a multi-sport Junior Olympic games event? You know, like the Olympics, but with the younger set? Just purely curious!
 
I think it's Junior Olympics because it's the age group/level category of the governing body (USA Gymnastics) that fields the Olympic team. The Olympic team doesn't come from AAU or JOGA, for example, so those aren't considered Junior Olympic programs.
 
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I think it's Junior Olympics because it's the age group/level category of the governing body (USA Gymnastics) that fields the Olympic team. The Olympic team doesn't come from AAU or JOGA, for example, so those aren't considered Junior Olympic programs.

The Olympic team doesn't come from JO either. It comes from the national team have qualified through a completely different elite system. The age group/ levels part of USAG is HOPES/ Juniors. All a completely separate system. Olympic team members never need to set foot in JO. JO has absolutely nothing to do with 'the big O'. It is just a name.
 
The Olympic team doesn't come from JO either. It comes from the national team have qualified through a completely different elite system. The age group/ levels part of USAG is HOPES/ Juniors. All a completely separate system. Olympic team members never need to set foot in JO. JO has absolutely nothing to do with 'the big O'. It is just a name.

I think the point was USAG is the national governing body of gymnastics in the U.S. which means USAG runs the national team in gymnastics. There are other governing bodies in the U.S. for gymnastics but they aren't the national governing body and therefore don't run the Junior Olympic program. I don't know of any national team members that were never in the Junior Olympic program. It doesn't happen. I would imagine the other "junior Olympic" sports are also under the national governing bodies for those sports.
 
I think the point was USAG is the national governing body of gymnastics in the U.S. which means USAG runs the national team in gymnastics. There are other governing bodies in the U.S. for gymnastics but they aren't the national governing body and therefore don't run the Junior Olympic program. I don't know of any national team members that were never in the Junior Olympic program. It doesn't happen. I would imagine the other "junior Olympic" sports are also under the national governing bodies for those sports.

This is what I meant. :)
 
The Olympic team doesn't come from JO either. It comes from the national team have qualified through a completely different elite system. The age group/ levels part of USAG is HOPES/ Juniors. All a completely separate system. Olympic team members never need to set foot in JO. JO has absolutely nothing to do with 'the big O'. It is just a name.

I don't think it's completely separate. The National Team members do come up through the JO system first, most all the way through level 10, before going elite. TOPS and Hopes aren't designed to teach a beginning gymnast from the minute they walk in the gym. The JO system is designed to prepare gymnasts for higher levels of competition, as compared to Excel which is designed to be more recreational. (hopefully I didn't open a can of worms by bring excel in)
 
I don't think it's completely separate. The National Team members do come up through the JO system first, most all the way through level 10, before going elite. TOPS and Hopes aren't designed to teach a beginning gymnast from the minute they walk in the gym. The JO system is designed to prepare gymnasts for higher levels of competition, as compared to Excel which is designed to be more recreational. (hopefully I didn't open a can of worms by bring excel in)

I meant the elite system is separate in that there are no requirements to do JO at all. Kids could do TOPs / HOpes/ elite if their gym chose. Most do some JO. There aren't a lot of elite meets so it makes sense but it isn't required. The elite system is very different, even the equipment is different. The FIG code of points is completely different. Level 10 is a very high level , just a different system to FIG.
 
I meant the elite system is separate in that there are no requirements to do JO at all. Kids could do TOPs / HOpes/ elite if their gym chose. Most do some JO. There aren't a lot of elite meets so it makes sense but it isn't required. The elite system is very different, even the equipment is different. The FIG code of points is completely different. Level 10 is a very high level , just a different system to FIG.

That is very true, but only for WAG. For MAG, you do go through the JO system.
 
But then in MAG we have junior elite separate (kind of) from JO. Nonetheless, I do think that part of the purpose of the JO program on both sides is to prepare athletes who will then go on to the elite track.
 

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