Translated from Portuguese by Anastasia Stakheeva
After eight years of absence Jade Barbosa, a two-times Worlds medalist, reappeared in Doha and became the 15th in the women’s all-around. A 27-year-old demonstrated that she had recovered her physique and is moving confidently towards Tokyo 2020. She talked to Globo Esporte about competing at Worlds:
“These Worlds became my comeback to the gymnastics world. I feel renewed. It seems like I unlocked a phase of the game. [laughs] Now I’m sure that I’m back among the big names of gymnastics. I have yet to do my 100% because there are still two years before the Olympics. I can still improve a lot. I haven’t felt so healthy and prepared for many years.”
For years Jade has been fighting injuries, the last one was the stress fracture in her shin during the Rio 2016 preparation. After the Olympics, Jade barely competed in 2017, she looked after her body and today, she can say she doesn’t suffer anymore from pain. As a bronze medalist of the 2010 Worlds, Jade is going to place her stake on this apparatus again.
“It’s priceless for me that I’m able to do the vault the way I do it now. I haven’t felt so healthy for many years. Now I’m sure I can train two vaults. It stuck in my head: “Damn, I can’t do things the way I did them when I was younger.” But this time I did. I was consistent on vault, with good scores. Now I feel prepared to do the second vault. I have been in training for a year already, but I didn’t have confidence. Now I will work on my two vaults for 2020.”
In order to get into a vault final one needs to present two different vaults. In Doha Jade wasn’t ready to do the second vault, she only did her DTY in the team final and in the all-around. She got 14.500 in qualification, improved to 14.600 in the team final and got back to 14.500 in the AA. Three near-sticks.
Despite good results, Jade made at least one fall every day of the competition. She is going to correct these errors with the help of Valery Liukin, the legend of gymnastics, who has been the national team counselor for three months now and is contracted by The Olympic Committee of Brazil until the end of the year.
“Whoever is present at the gym every day knows that we are working in the right way. It has been three months since we started working with Liukin. Not full-time, but it was marvelous. Brazil has to elevate the difficulty, and our execution is improving. I mean choreography. All our choreography animates the public. I can see a lot of improvement. I’m sure our team will come smashing into Stuttgart.
Nine team spots for Tokyo 2020 will be distributed at the World Championships in Stuttgart next year – USA, Russia, and China already qualified in Doha. Jade Barbosa hopes to keep fit to help her team get the Olympic qualification and, who knows, maybe she will shine at vault?
Eight years of absence? What? When was that?