Olympic Channel has unveiled the first episode of their new gymnastics documentary series All-Around. The episodes follow Angelina Melnikova of Russia, Morgan Hurd of USA, and Chen Yile of China. They will be released monthly documenting the journey of the three gymnasts to the Tokyo Olympics.
The first episode shows moments between March and June in the life of three gymnasts. For Angelina Melnikova, the focus is in her preparation for the European Games and the competition where she won gold at the all-around. Morgan Hurd is followed while competing at the Tokyo World Cup, training in her home gym and going to Ireland with her gym for a training camp. Since Chen Yile is currently recovering from an injury, her part of the episode focused on meeting with her family and was the most heartfelt as Chen hadn’t seen her mom and siblings for two years until that moment. Chen’s little sister FeiFei became one of the stars of the episode:
I want to thank the Olympic Channel for blessing us with Chen Feifei content. pic.twitter.com/aozb6Tly2i
— sarah slothanova (@slothanova) August 5, 2019
Other star cameos included Jessica O’Beirne and Spencer Barnes, the hosts of Gymcastic podcast who voiced the intro to the episode.
The creators of the show got unprecedented access to the gymnasts – they were able to film both at Round Lake and the Chinese national team training center. Fans from the West rarely get any information about the life of the Chinese gymnasts beyond what happens at competitions, so the opportunity to have a glimpse at Chen Yile’s life will likely be one of the most fascinating parts of the show.
In addition to the monthly episodes, the creators are promising extra content released by the gymnasts themselves such as photos, videos, and diaries.
The three gymnasts last competed together at the World Championships in Doha but haven’t had a chance to meet at a competition this year. They are likely to compete against each other again at the World Championships in Stuttgart in October.
