After Olympic victory: gymnasts want to get out of the niche

After Olympic victory: gymnasts want to get out of the niche 4 hours • 1 minute reading time Gymnastics in Paris Darja Varfolomeev wins gold in rhythmic gymnastics in Paris. Now the athletes hope for more popularity for their often under-recognized sport. Paris - The brilliant performance of Olympic champion Darja Varfolomeev and fourth-placed Margarita Kolosov in Paris should lead their sport out of the niche and into greater attention. "I hope that rhythmic gymnastics will become more popular in Germany. In any case, people are interested in our sport. It is also a very beautiful sport," said national coach Yuliya Raskina in Paris. The 17-year-old Varfolomeev was the first German gymnast to win Olympic gold on Friday, while Kolosov, three years older, narrowly missed out on bronze. For the German Gymnastics Association (DTB), it was the first Olympic gymnastics medal since Regina Weber in 1984 in Los Angeles. "The strongest training group in the world" "I hope the sport gets a bit more attention now. It's a great sport," said Kolosov from Potsdam, who trains with Varfolomeev at Raskina's national base in Schmiden, Swabia. He was pleased that not only two athletes were in the final, but were among the top four, said DTB sports director Thomas Guteknecht. "That simply shows that the training group in Schmiden is the strongest in the world. We hope to consolidate that in the future so that we can continue to play at the world level," he emphasized. dpa