Rutty secures a place in Cayman history books
(CNS): Raegan Rutty secured her place in the local history books on Saturday when she became the first ever Cayman Islands Olympic gymnast after completing the qualifying rotation in the all around competition in Tokyo. While Rutty’s scores didn’t place here into the individual or equipment finals, the 19-year-old put in a solid performance in her Olympic debut, especially on the vault, where she scored 12.133, and the floor, where she clocked 10.633. Her total score was 39.615.
Speaking after her performance, she said it was “an amazing experience”, 15 years after she joined the local club, Motions Unlimited Gymnastics, when she was just four years old. Revelling in the moment, Rutty said she was amazed that she had been able to reach her goal of becoming an Olympic gymnast.
Rutty’s Cayman team mates are also excited to get their moment of Olympic glory. Jillian Crooks (15) will swim the 100m freestyle tomorrow (Wednesday) at 5:04am Cayman Time in Heat 2, Lane 3. Brett Fraser will swim in the 50m freestyle on Friday, 30 July at 5:09am Cayman Time in Heat 6, Lane 8. Kemar Hyman will tack to the track for the 100m on Saturday.
Meanwhile, Olympic gymnastics was shaken up Monday night when Simone Biles, the odds-on favourite to win everything and the greatest gymnast in the history of the sport, withdrew from the team competition finals after just one vault, citing mental health issues and years of stress and pressure.
On Sunday, Biles helped the US qualify for the team final but it was not the jaw-dropping performance that she is famous for, and despite not being physically injured, she said part of the reason for withdrawing was her concern that she might “do something silly” and hurt herself during the competition. Team USA still bagged the silver medal, with gold going to their greatest rivals, Russia, while Team GB took bronze, their first team medal in 93 years.
Biles, the biggest star at the Tokyo Olympics and the greatest gymnast in history, spoke about her decision openly, saying she had “freaked out in a high stress situation”. It is still not clear if she will continue on to the individual rounds.
See Rutty’s performance on the CIOC Facebook page.
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Category: Local News, Sports
Congratulations to Raegan on representing us and I can only hope you enjoy the totality of your Olympic experience!
I am conflicted with the news of Simone Byles withdrawing for mental health issues.
#1 Did those mental health issues not present itself before she got on a plane to Japan? Spots on any country’s Olympic team are coveted and she just denied someone else their chance to compete.
#2 I do not know the nature of the mental health issues so it is difficult to comment. But … is it not part of an elite athlete training to not only be physically the best but also mentally tough. I am having huge difficulty in reconciling this “new” condition that elite athletes are claiming for lack of performance.
As I said, I am conflicted as mental health issues are real and affects a wide section of the population including athletes. Would be good to hear other opinions.
@28/07/2021 at 1:30 pm
This should provide you with some clarity.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JsjgDIlX2y0
There’s a good article in the WP today – Simone Biles said she got the ‘twisties.’ Gymnasts immediately understood.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/olympics/2021/07/28/twisties-gymnastics-simone-biles-tokyo-olympics/
Worth noting that for most athletes, if they have a bad day they lose the race/competition. If gymnasts have a bad day they can seriously injure themselves. Times 10 for the kind of stuff that Biles does.
Define “mentally tough.” Phrases like that feed into the current sporting culture of playing through pain, or pushing oneself beyond what may be safe for the sake of winning. It places the wellbeing of the individual below the outcome of a sporting event. I think it’s laudable that Simone Byles recognized that her current mental state increased the risk that she would not perform at a sufficiently elite level and thereby risk severe injury.
Frankly, this isn’t a “new” condition, by any means, but finally a breakthrough against the pervasive and toxic mentality that surrounds sporting culture leading to athletes being pressured into placing themselves at harm for the edification of spectators.
@1.03 You could have simply stated ‘I do not know enough about mental health issues to make a meaningful comment’. Instead you throw Simone under the bus then pretend you’re a ‘Good Samaritan’ trying to save her. Just own up to what you are. You are a hater. Period. Fullstop.
Well done Raegan, proud of you!! #teamcayman
The commenters here praising Reagan’s performance are spot on. Reagan should be applauded for her efforts, and she will forever be regarded as Cayman’s first Olympic gymnast.
Some of the comments here about Simone Biles however, are despicable. I was not going to comment on this, so as not to distract from Reagan’s well deserved praise.
However, I feel that people should remember some things before taking cracks at Simone Biles. The woman not only represents the US, but also USA Gymnastics, the organization that looked the other way while Larry Nassar abused her, as well as hundreds of other young girls and women. Simone even testified at Nassar’s trial. Imagine facing your abuser in open court. To say that Simone “caved” or wimped out at the current Olympics is ridiculous. She has more guts than most of us.
Nah, she caved. All part of what she signed up for.
You are the kind of person people avoid.
Well done and congratulations to all the Cayman athletes. It is a great achievement just to be invited! Proud of you all!!!
Well done. Great achievement.
So proud of you Raegan!!
You are living your dreams and at such and early age.
I know your Mom and Dad and your entire family are feeling so proud right now.
Thanks for representing Cayman with such professionalism and skill.
Well done! Most can’t even do a cartwheel….you are an Olympic gymnast! So proud of you!
Excellent job Raegan !
Excellent job Raegan !
How can such a wonderful story attract only 3 comments. I guess bad news does sell. Well done Rutty and family.
Some parts of the island were without Internet access last night.
So proud of you, Raegan!
You and all of the Cayman Olympic team have done us proud!
Well done Raegan, all you hard work over the years is worth it. Performing in the Olympics is itself a life success!
Nevermind any detractors who may want to compare you with the world’s best – you’re a champion to Cayman! You will be a role model for others.
Thank you!
Although sad, it is wonderful and appropriate that athletes like Naomi and Simone are admitting that mental health issues are as real as physical injuries. Time for us all to start and accept that and not dismiss it. I hope that health insurance companies and employers join the real world.
Well done at competing. Her position in the overall results reflects the fact she was invited & did not qualify (not taking anything away from her, but stating fact). If gymnastics wasn’t so tough on the body I would say keep going for the next Olympics, or the one after.
The Bermudian gold winner in the women’s triathalon took 4 attempts before finally triumphing. However, she qualified for her place.
Most of our swimmers are invited to. Not qualified to race in the A heats (except the Frasers & a couple of others).
Sad but true. Don’t build them up. They are guaranteed to fail, if you measure success by results.
Some context would be useful. What international events have you been invited to?
None. I have qualified for all those I have attended.
That’s great. What type and level of events did you attend?
The ones appropriate for my abilities.
So zero. Gotcha.
The person’s comments were fair. Why do we not qualify? We are content at just being invited. Make it on merit not because we are from a small country
First some context, there have only been 3 “invited” swimmers among Cayman Olympians over all the games since Andrew MacKay was the first to qualify in 2004. Also in this cycle we have had limited opportunities for athletes to swim Long Course (50m) races as we don’t have a 50m pool on island.
So why don’t you either go pound sand or raise us the millions we need for a 50m pool to develop and compete on a level playing field, without swimmers needing to go overseas to train.
But why do we have different standards. Is it not an injustice to those athletes that qualify? I think we could spend the money that these invited athletes use to go to events back home on development so others can qualify
Ask the CIOC
A wonderful experience for the young lady which she deserved after all her hard work.However a “solid performance” actually gave her 80th place out of 80 in the all around. This just shows high the competition standards are in the Olympics, but full marks to Raegan for persevering and completing every rotation.Even the “goat” American team member Simone Biles expected to excel,caved in under the intense pressure to perform. Gymnastics is surely the toughest sport requiring so many separate skills of great difficulty, when compared with say the 100m on the track which just involves running for 10 seconds!.
Disgusting comment about Simone Biles. Mental health is just as important as physical health. You don’t know what really was going on so to say she caved is just rude.
9.57am I did refer to her as the “greatest of all time” in case you missed that. Perhaps the phrase “caved in” was ill judged, but the enormous pressure she was put under to perform just became too much for her and that is very understandable.
To 9.38pm “but the enormous pressure she was put under to perform just became too much for her and that is very understandable”. Do you know that for a fact? What, you just assumed that. Never ASSUME anything, it makes an ASS of U and ME. Thete are many other possibilities being pressured to withdraw so that others could get a shot at glory, or to withdraw and let someone of another skin colour win (just look at what’s happening in USA recently). These are outrageous but so is your comment.