Heading into the Canadian Championships, British Columbia’s Charlotte Mackie spoke with IG about her immediate and long-term goals, her recent coaching change, older sister Gael and more.
The 2005 novice national champion, Mackie is a favorite to win her first senior title at the Canadian Championships, which take place June 2-6 in Hamilton, Ont. She is the younger sister of 2003 Canadian champion Gael Mackie, a 2004 Olympian who now competes for the University of Utah.
Charlotte Mackie, who turns 16 on Oct. 6, is already a veteran of international competition, having won medals on four continents. …
Charlotte Mackie (Canada) at the 2008 Pacific Rim Championships
Most interesting to me is where Charlotte talks about changing coaches to David Kenwright from Vladimir Lashin, since named Canadian National Coach.
… I switched clubs because I needed a different approach to coaching and training, a different coaching style. Although every coach who has worked with me has helped me in some way, I want to be able to love gymnastics for all of my life and hope to continue my elite career for another three or more years, or possibly longer. …
I think so. Sure she had Mark Ballas, super partner. Certainly they had great costumes, not easy to put together for a short, stocky built girl like Shawn.
But, in the end, it turned out that Shawn Johnson can dance.
At least, I think she can dance. Who would have guessed?
… Nastia could win this thing easily sometime in future.
Though this routine by a Russian gymnast finished with the Silver medal behind local-girl-makes-good Beth Tweddle at the Glasgow World Cup, it was the favourite of Live.Breathe.Love.Gymnastics.
May Events:
May 29-30 – Moscow World Stars – Moscow, Russia
May 30 – City of Lugano International – Lugano, Italy
May 30 – Zelena Jama Open – Ljubljana, Slovenia
May 31 – Champions Open – Frankfurt, Germany
June Events:
June 1-6 – 13th Games of the Small States of Europe – Limassol, Cyprus June 5-7 – Diego Lizardi Memorial World Cup – Hato Rey, San Juan, Puerto Rico
June 6-7 – 14th Zurich-Oberland Cup – Uster, Germany
June 6-7 – 22nd Gym Festival Trnava – Trnava, Slovakia
June 6-7 – 48th NHK Cup – Tokyo, Japan
June 27 – Women’s Junior 5-Way Meet (Germany, France, Britain, Italy, Switzerland)
June 29-July 3 – 16th Mediterranean Games – Pescara, Italy
July Events:
July 18-20 – Japan Cup – Chiba, Japan
July 20-24 – European Youth Olympic Festival – Tampere, Finland
August Events:
August 12-15 – U.S. Gymnastics Championships – Dallas, Texas, USA
August 22-29 – Russian Cup – Penza, Russia
September Events:
September 7-11 – Belorussian Gymnastics Championships – Minsk, Belarus
September 7-11 – Vitaly Scherbo International – Minsk, Belarus
September 22-23 – Japan International Junior – Yokohama, Japan
September 28-30 – 2nd Doha World Cup – Doha, Qatar
October Events:
October 3 – Leverkusen Cup – Leverkusen, Germany October 13-18 – 2009 World Gymnastics Championships – London, United Kingdom
October 28 – Arthur Gander Memorial – Morges, Switzerland
October 31 – Brno Grand Prix – Brno, Czech Republic
I was very proud of young Shawn Johnson in this performance. For the first time she danced the “lead”. Mark did well to hold up his end as well as he did.
The weird costumed intro did not work for me. But the rest of the choreography I would call masterful. Enough acrobatics. But not too much.
It was by far the best of the 3 freestyles. Gilles and Cheryl were … dull. Don’t play on a camp classic like Flashdance unless you are going to blow the original out of the water.
Johnson will face off against two other “Dancing With the Stars” contestants in the final showdown of the season.
On Tuesday night, the champion will be announced on the results show. …
Fan support is crucial. The winner will be determined by a formula that factors in judges’ scores and viewer votes.
Shawn says their costumes for the FINAL are the best yet.
Better than these?
You can vote online starting 8PM EST, 5PM Pacific.
UPDATE:
Fans can vote for “Team Shark,” as Johnson and Ballas have dubbed themselves, for up to 30 minutes after the show ends tonight (10:30 PM ET) by calling 800-VOTE4-09 or texting the word “VOTE” to 3409 (AT&T only). Online voting (registration required) will continue until 12 PM ET on Tuesday.
Alexis actually learned this skill by accident while training full-in. She was at the time coached by Jim Walker at Gymstrada (later Excalibur Gymnastics). She later went on to great things at Alabama.
My gym sent many girls to CSF over the years, including Debbie (Broderick) Rodriguez, today coach of L10 Sr. D Champion 2009 Makayla Stambaugh of Byers Sacramento. And Carol “Lefty” Johnson of Disney movie fame.
It would be a shame to see that historic program disappear.
USA Gymnastics is working with the gymnastics coaches at Cal State Fullerton on a fundraising campaign to support the school’s continued involvement in NCAA women’s gymnastics. Their goal is to raise $50,000 to $100,000 by Friday, May 22, 2009.
To this end, USA Gymnastics is soliciting pledges from interested fans and members to help support the Titan’s 33-year-old program. All donations will be fully tax-deductible and used solely for the Cal State-Fullerton program. At this point, we are asking for pledges. Once we know more, we will follow up to activate your pledged donation. Please sign up now and help this storied program that has made 25 Regional and 13 national NCAA appearances and won the national title in 1979. …
1979 NCAA national champions, AIAW Champions under the leadership of Lynn Rogers
13 trips to the NCAA nationals
25 regional appearances; 18 gymnasts for 66 All-American awards
Academics:
Ranked sixth in the country in 2008 with a GPA of 3.5867
