Five Flamengo artistic gymnastics athletes were called up for a training and evaluation period with the Brazilian national team, at the Time Brasil Training Center, in Rio de Janeiro. Flavia Saraiva, Jade Barbosa, Luisa Kirchmayer and Milleny Esteves reported on Monday (15) and will remain at the CT until January 27. Recovering from a muscle injury in her lower back, Lorrane Oliveira requested a release after talking with the red-black technical committee, who preferred to spare her.

The sheer number of "Mais Querido" athletes on the team is impressive. There were five out of a total of 20 gymnasts. For the club's coach, Ângelo Sabino, the selection reflects the work done at the club. 

"It makes us very proud to have this number of athletes called up; it shows that we're on a different path, trying to change the way artistic gymnastics is trained in Brazil. It's a Flamengo tradition to have several gymnasts on the Brazilian senior team, and we still have other athletes who weren't called up but have a good chance of making the team," says the coach.

Continuing the work developed for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic cycle, this is the first stage of preparation for 2018. The objective is to map each athlete, through a series of assessments, to maximize performance, taking into account each individual's particularities.

Prior to the presentation, this weekend (13th and 14th), coach Ângelo Sabino, land sports manager Luisa Parente, and sports science manager Izabel Miranda participated in a seminar hosted by the Brazilian Gymnastics Confederation in partnership with the Brazilian Olympic Committee. The seminar discussed planning for the Olympic cycle and key actions for the development of the sport.

"The seminar was excellent. I'd never seen anything like it in Brazil. It was about educating coaches and introducing new trends and approaches to training. It was very much in line with Flamengo's philosophy of training, more modern, focusing more on efficiency than time spent in the gym," says Ângelo. 

The first event on the red-black artistic gymnastics competition calendar is the Brazilian Team Championship, between June 18th and 24th, with the location yet to be defined.