By Veronique Bury FIG Editor.

FIRST GAMES ARE A BIG SUCCESS!

Beijing (CHN) NIS FIG Office, August 17, 2008: 24 years have passed since Switzerland has seen one of its own enter a women's Olympic gymnastic final. Ariella Kaeslin filled a much awaited slot in Beijing; she gave a fantastic performance that earned her 5th place in the vault final, after having ranked 18th in the all-around.

Her smile was contagious. With no Olympic medal to show for her hard work in Beijing, Ariella Kaeslin was nevertheless all smiles after the vault final on Sunday. 'I'm ecstatic! The Games were fantastic. If someone had walked up to me and said that I'd qualify for two finals in Beijing and that I'd place 5th in the vault final, I never would have believed it!'

It's true that since 1984 and the Los Angeles Games, boycotted by the Eastern Bloc countries, not a single Swiss gymnast has been able to step foot in an Olympic final. Ariella Kaeslin succeeds Romi Kessler 24 years after her victory. She's simply overjoyed. 'This motivates me to keep going,' confided Ariella.

Born in Lucerne, Ariella got her gymnastics feet wet at the tender age of 4 at a small local club. Five-time national water ski champion (7 - 12 years), she ultimately chose at 13 to train exclusively in gymnastics under the French coach Eric Demay at the Macolin national centre. 'I couldn't water ski all year round,' explained Ariella, 'and I needed to do something all the time.' Her headstrong personality and determination to finish what she's set out to do doubtless had an effect on her performance in China. 'I'm never satisfied, and when something isn't going right, I have a tendency to persevere even when it's a mistake.'

Ariella trained under Zoltan and Snejana Jordanov and Fabien Martin, and admits to having had to work hardest at vault, her favourite apparatus, to finally master the 'Chusovitina' (handspring forward on - stretched salto forward with 1½ turn off).

Ariella was on the verge of tears after the qualifying rounds. 'I gave the competition of my life. I was so relieved and thrilled that I nearly cried just thinking about all the hours I've spent in gymnastic halls.' All smiles, the Swiss gymnast leaves Beijing with her thoughts already scanning the horizon of a promising future: 'I need to work on my floor and bar routines, which are my weakest apparatus, so that I can do better in the all-around competition. Most of all, I want to master a second, more difficult vault in order to qualify for other vault finals.' And who knows but she just might decide to go for a medal this time around!