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Gemma Royo

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Gemma Royo
Personal information
Full nameGemma Royo Lorte
Born (1975-03-20) 20 March 1975 (age 49)
Zaragoza, Spain
Gymnastics career
DisciplineRhythmic Gymnastics
Country represented Spain
Years on national team1989-1992
LevelInternational Elite
ClubClub Escuela de Gimnasia Rítmica de Zaragoza
Head coach(es)Emilia Boneva
Assistant coach(es)Ana Roncero
Former coach(es)Rosa Menor, Paqui Maneus, Cathy Xaudaró, Berta Veiga
ChoreographerGeorgi Neykov
Retiredyes
Medal record
Event 1st 2nd 3rd
Junior European Championships 0 0 1
European Championships 2 1 3
World Championships 1 3 1
FIG World Cup 0 0 3
Total 3 4 8
Rhythmic Gymnastics
Representing  Spain
World Championships
Gold medal – first place 1991 Athens All-Around
Silver medal – second place 1991 Athens 6 Ribbons
Silver medal – second place 1991 Athens 3 Balls + 3 Ropes
Silver medal – second place 1992 Bruxelles Group All-Around
Bronze medal – third place 1992 Bruxelles 6 Ribbons
European Championships
Gold medal – first place 1992 Stuttgart Group All-Around
Gold medal – first place 1992 Stuttgart 3 Balls + 3 Ropes
Silver medal – second place 1990 Gothenburg 12 Clubs
Bronze medal – third place 1990 Gothenburg All-Around
Bronze medal – third place 1990 Gothenburg 3 Balls + 3 Ropes
Bronze medal – third place 1992 Stuttgart 6 Ribbons
Junior European Championships
Bronze medal – third place 1989 Tenerife Group All-Around

Gemma Royo Lorte (born 20 March 1975) is a Spanish retired rhythmic gymnast. She was World champion in 1991 and two-time European champion in 1992. The generation of gymnasts that she was part of is known by the nickname "Primeras Chicas de Oro".[1]

Biography

[edit]

Gemma tool up the sport in 1982 at Club Escuela de Gimnasia Rítmica of Zaragoza.[2] Trained by Chus Garcés, she would participate in several Spanish Championships in different categories: children, pre-junior, junior and first category. In 1987 she got bronze i ex aequo with Rosabel Espinosa in Palma de Mallorca. That same year she also became champion of Aragon and soon after, in the Spanish Group Championships held in Onteniente won another bronze in the children category.[3] In 1988 she was called up for a selection of young promises "Barcelona 92", among them there were some future stars of the Spanish rhythmic gymnastics as Ada Liberio, Edi Moreno, Carmen Acedo, Carolina Pascual, Eider Mendizábal, Rosabel Espinosa, Noelia Fernández and Montse Martín, teammate with whom she would maintain a close friendship.

In 1989 she was called up by the Spanish national team to join the junior group, trained by Rosa Menor, Paqui Maneus, Cathy Xaudaró and Berta Veiga. She participated in the Junior European Championships in Tenerife, winning the bronze medal together to the rest of the team, made up of Carmen Acedo, Noelia Fernández, Ruth Goñi, Eider Mendizábal and Montserrat Martín, with Cristina Chapuli and Diana Martín as substitutes.[4][5]

In late 1989 she was incorporated into the senior group, training about 8 hours a day at the Moscardó Gymnasium in Madrid under the direction of Emilia Boneva and Ana Roncero, who since 1982 had been national group coach and head coach. She would also live with all the members of the team in a house in La Moraleja.[6] She began as a substitute gymnast for the group and would debut as a starter at the 1990 Stuttgart Gymnastic Masters due to a last-minute injury to Montserrat Martín, who three days before the start of the competition, broke a leg when stepping on a ball. Later, again as a substitute, at the European Championships in Gotheburg she won the bronze medal in both the All-Around and with 3 balls & 3 ropes, and the silver with 12 clubs.[7][8][9] At the World Cup Final, held that year in Brussels, the group (made up of Montse Martín, Beatriz Barral, Lorea Elso, Teresa Fuster, Arancha Marty and Vanesa Muñiz, with Marta Aberturas as the other substitute) won all three bronze medals.[10] At the Wacoal Cup tournament in Tokyo, held in November, they won overall silver.[11]

In 1991 Gemma became a starter, the two exercises for groups were 6 ribbons for the single-apparatus exercise and 3 balls and 3 ropes for the mixed-apparatus one. Their ribbon exercise used "Tango Jalousie", composed by Jacob Gade, for the music, while their mixed-apparatus one used the song "Campanas" by Víctor Bombi.[12] To choreograph the dance steps of the 6 ribbons exercise, they had the help of Javier "Poty" Castillo, then a dancer with the National Ballet, although the team's usual choreographer was the Bulgarian Georgi Neykov.[13] Before the World Championships, they won gold at the Karlsruhe tournament (ahead of the USSR and Bulgaria) and three bronzes at the Gymnastic Masters in Stuttgart.[14]

On 12 October 1991, the Spanish team (consisting of Gemma, Débora Alonso, Isabel Gómez Pérez, Lorea Elso, Teresa Fuster and Montserrat Martín, with Marta Aberturas and Cristina Chapuli as the substitutes) won gold in the all-around at the World Championships in Athens. This medal was described by the media as historic, since it was the first time that Spain had won the World Championship in rhythmic gymnastics.[15] The next day, they would also win silver in both of the two apparatus finals.[16][17][18] After this achievement, at the end of 1991 they would tour in Switzerland.[19][20][21][22]

In 1992 they won silver in a tournament in Karlsruhe, and later they were invited to give an exhibition at one in Corbeil-Essonnes. In June, with new exercises, they participated in the European Championships in Stuttgart, where they shared the gold medal in the all-around with the Russian team, in addition to winning another gold in the 3 balls and 3 ropes final and bronze in 6 ribbons.[23][24][25] Gemma did not compete in the 1992 Olympic Games because rhythmic gymnastics was an individual-only sport at the Olympics at that time, although she participated with the rest of her teammates in the opening ceremony, leading the parade of participating nations.

Shortly after, they won gold at both the Asvo Cup in Austria and the Alfred Vogel Cup in the Netherlands, where they also won silver in 6 ribbons and gold in 3 balls and 3 ropes. Fuster and Gómez were injured before the World Championships in Brussels, which took place in November 1992. They were kept on the team as substitutes, but in the competing lineup were replaced by Alicia Martín, Cristina Martínez and Bárbara Plaza. In this competition, the team won silver in the All-Around, with their score just one tenth of a point away from allowing them to retain the world title they had won the previous year. In addition, on November 22 they won bronze in the 6 ribbons final and were 8th with 3 balls and 3 ropes.[26] After this, Gemma retired from competition, as would the rest of the group that had been world champion in Athens the previous year.[27]

In 1992, Gemma also received the Medal of Sports Merit from the General Council of Aragon along with his former teammate Marta Aberturas.

After her retirement, she focused on her telecommunications engineering studies while collaborating with her club in Zaragoza as a school and national level coach, winning the bronze medal in the children category at the Spanish Championships of Sets held in Alicante in 1993. After graduating Gemma abandoned rhythmic gymnastics. She currently works at an international telecommunications company in Madrid.

In September she traveled with several former gymnasts from the Spanish team to the World Championships in Sofia to meet again with the former national team coach Emilia Boneva, and a tribute dinner was also organized in her honor.[28] After Boneva's death on 20 September 2019, Gemma and other former national gymnasts gathered to pay tribute to her during the Euskalgym held on 16 November 2019. The event took place before 8,500 attendees at the Bilbao Exhibition Center de Baracaldo and was followed by a dinner in Boneva's honor.[29]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ Martin, Montse and Manel. Pinceladas de rítmica. p. 126. ISBN 978-84-17023-48-5.
  2. ^ "La gimnasia celebra sus bodas de plata". El Periódico de Aragón (in Spanish). 30 January 2006. Retrieved 20 March 2024.
  3. ^ "Campeones de Aragón | Federación Aragonesa de Gimnasia". 18 November 2016. Archived from the original on 18 November 2016. Retrieved 20 March 2024.
  4. ^ "Silver for Liberio with clubs and bronze for Spain as a group". hemeroteca.abc.es. 20 August 2019.
  5. ^ "2.European Junior Championships in Tenerife, Spain (15.-18. June 1989)". r-gymnast.bplaced.net. Retrieved 17 March 2024.
  6. ^ Fernández del Valle, Aurora (1995). Gimnasia rítmica deportiva: aspectos y evolución. ISBN 978-84-85977-60-4.
  7. ^ "Historical silver for the Spanish team in the European rhythmic gymnastics competition". abc.es. 23 August 2019.
  8. ^ "Spain is setting the pace" (PDF). hemeroteca-paginas.mundodeportivo.com.
  9. ^ "7.European Championships in Goteborg, Sweden (1.-4. November 1990)". r-gymnast.bplaced.net. Retrieved 17 March 2024.
  10. ^ "7.European Championships in Goteborg, Sweden (1.-4. November 1990)". r-gymnast.bplaced.net. Retrieved 2 March 2024.
  11. ^ "The sport year". hemeroteca.abcdesevilla.es.
  12. ^ "RG music list". 9 November 2019. Archived from the original on 9 November 2019. Retrieved 23 February 2024.
  13. ^ "Pozuelo IN - Poty: "Mi vida cambió cuando España queda campeona del mundo por primera vez en la historia en gimnasia rítmica"". 5 September 2019. Archived from the original on 5 September 2019. Retrieved 23 February 2024.
  14. ^ "2.Gymnastic Masters in Stuttgart, Germany (7.-8. September 1991)". r-gymnast.bplaced.net. Retrieved 23 February 2024.
  15. ^ "29 años del oro en el Mundial de 1991 de gimnasia ..." COE TV (in Spanish). Retrieved 23 February 2024.
  16. ^ "Historical gold in rhythmic gymnastics". hemeroteca.elmundodeportivo.es.
  17. ^ "The Spanish team makes history by winning the Athens Rhythmic Gymnastics World Cup". hemeroteca.abc.es. 26 August 2019.
  18. ^ "Spain world champion in rhythmic gymnastics in groups". hemeroteca.abc.es. 26 August 2019.
  19. ^ "España cerró su actuación con otras dos medallas de plata". lavanguardia.com. 14 October 1991. Retrieved 27 August 2013.
  20. ^ "Two more silver for the group". mundodeportivo.com. 14 October 1991. Retrieved 27 August 2013.
  21. ^ "The gold that couldn't be (Part 1/2)". mundodeportivo.com. 16 October 1991. Retrieved 27 August 2013.
  22. ^ "The gold that couldn't be (Part 2/2)". mundodeportivo.com. 16 October 1991. Retrieved 27 August 2013.
  23. ^ "8.European Championships in Stuttgart, Germany (4.-7. June 1992)". r-gymnast.bplaced.net. Retrieved 23 February 2024.
  24. ^ "Spain won gold at the rhythmic gymnastics European Championships". www.abc.es. 26 August 2019.
  25. ^ "Spain won gold and bronze at the European Championships". hemeroteca.mundodeportivo.com.
  26. ^ "16.World Championships in Brussels, Belgium (13.-15. November 1992)". r-gymnast.bplaced.net. Retrieved 23 February 2024.
  27. ^ "Emilia Boneva: "With Carmen Acedo and Carolina Pascual we would have swept"". hemeroteca.abc.es. 27 August 2019.
  28. ^ CENA HOMENAJE A EMILIA BONEVA | Seguimos en Bulgaria. Cena homenaje a Emilia Boneva por parte de las gimnastas que pudieron viajar a Bulgaria la semana pasada: Gemma Royo, Lorea Elso, ... | By Montse Martin ArtFacebook, retrieved 16 March 2024[self-published]
  29. ^ "Facebook". www.facebook.com. Retrieved 31 January 2024.[self-published]
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