01. Januar 2009  
Vienna, Austria  
Artistic Gymnastics

... Personalities:Caroline Weber & Gabriel Rossi : Austria s Athletes of 2008

Rossi (AG), Weber (RG)

 öft ---: During the two weeks up to the stroke of midnight on New Year's Eve, the  traditional voting procedures took place for the selection of theAustrian Gymnastics Federation's (ÖFT) "Sportsman and Sportswoman of the Year". The result was determined by a combination of a jury consisting of prominent international experts and media representatives, on the one hand, and online fan voting in which thousands of votes were cast, on the other. The rhythmic gymnast Caroline Weber (V), who took part in the Olympic Games, and the 18-year old top-ranking artistic gymnast Gabriel Rossi (St) both won this vote for the first time ...

Caroline WEBER: ... The hard-working gymnast intends to 'press on' with her training!

A clear winner on the women's side.
Caro Weber says happily:  "It means a lot to me that I have not only been voted sportswoman of the year in the Vorarlberg region but have now also been recognised by people who are even more closely associated with my sport. That makes for a good start to the year. Now I need to create four new voluntary routines and press on with my training, as the next season is waiting".
There was never a question mark over the "absolute majority"  (57% of all the votes cast) for the 22-year old gymnast from Dornbirn, who now lives in Vienna.
The majority of fan votes showed her to be the most popular. The jury's verdict took account of Weber's highly successful year, in which she took Austria's best places ever in rhythmic gymnastics at the Olympics (17th), Europeans (12th), World Cup (8th) and in the Grand Prix (4th), as well as achieving the State Master Titles numbers 30 to 34.

Gabriel ROSSI (18): Austria's youngest State Champion

Tense voting until the last minute on the men's side.
In the case of the male gymnasts, by contrast, the ÖFT vote for sportsman of the year was a close-run thing, with the top position changing several times during the voting procedures. 
Despite gaining the majority of the fan votes, Marco Baldauf (V) just failed to make a hat-trick following his successes in 2004 and 2005 because the jury favoured the promising gymnast from Graz Gabriel Rossi.
The youngest Austrian artistic gymnastics all-around State Champion reacted by saying: "It's great. I hadn't expected that so many people would have held my performances in 2008 in such high regard. But it really was a particularly successful year. Now I have to do the Matura [advanced school-leaving qualification] – and then from the summer I can at last concentrate completely on my career as a professional gymnast!“
* Source: Labner/ÖFT