Entries Tagged 'ethics' ↓

The true winner of the 2000 Olympics, Andreea Raducan, has released an autobiography. In Romanian.

Dowisk reports that an English translation is planned.

She’s on a National book tour May 19 to June 30.

Click PLAY or watch a promo on YouTube.

Details on her Facebook page.

related – Shawn Johnson’s book video trailer

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Be careful what you say …

London, the premiere panoptic city was one of the first to blanket itself with CCTV cameras; its heavy security and surveillance cordon is nicknamed the Ring of Steel.

London decided to make its surveillance yen a dominant feature of its otherwise goofy mascots. “Wenlock” and “Mandeville” both have a huge single eye made out of a camera lens so that they can “record everything.” …

Forbes

Be careful what you do …

London buses have 16 CCTV cameras. What’s British for overkill?

via Vincent Gogolek

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Gold: Zou Kai (6.5/15.85)
Silver: Zhang Chenglong (6.5/15.35)
Bronze: Cheng Ran (6.1/14.725)
Bronze: Deng Shudi (6.2/14.725)

Long Zhang won 2nd on Floor at Chinese Nationals with a routine without a double somersault.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

I like this tall gymnast. But a set of rules that scores his routine up with the best in the World is fatally flawed. Nobody wants to see a routine composed entirely of twisting and roll-out skills in the Olympic final.

Will the FIG MTC demand a variety of different kinds of skills in the next Olympic cycle?

Stoica and his committee have been a big disappointment 2009-2012.

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I’m fed up with India and their endless Federation problems.

Here’s the latest from the Indian scandal press:

Administrative wrangling and a lax attitude have cost India’s best gymnast Ashish Kumar a chance to represent the country at the London Olympics.

And to rub salt into the wounds, a much inferior gymnast has got a wild card to compete at the biggest sporting extravaganza on earth.

Ashish missed the qualification mark at the 2011 World Championship in Tokyo by less than one per cent, but the Indian authorities could have pushed for a wild card.

… the wild card has gone to Syque Caesar of Bangladesh. He won a gold medal at the Central South Asian Artistic Gymnastic Championships last year, but was nowhere in Ashish’s league when they competed in Tokyo. …

Federation gaffe costs Ashish his London Olympics berth

Let me go on the record as supporting the choice of Syque Caesar. Bangladesh needs the boost of the Olympic experience more. And Syque’s a great gymnast, very experienced in the NCAA. I’ll be cheering.

Syque Caesar

… Caesar was born in Florida …

But the college student is delighted to represent his family’s homeland.

“My dad always wanted me to represent Bangladesh,” added Caesar, whose father adopted the uncommon Bengali surname as a result of being the first child in the country born via Caesarian section.

… “I just want to go out there and hit my routines. As long as I do my best then I’ll be very happy, regardless of where I’m placed.”

BBC – London 2012: Syque Caesar aims to bring Bangladesh glory

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Family Guy’s Peter Griffin – Vault

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

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The 2004 Olympic Floor Champ signed on as a spokesperson with I’ve Been Bullied.

Kyle Shewfelt grew-up much smaller than the other boys.

‘WIMP’, ‘Pansy’, ‘Homo’..were all words he would hear regularly, causing him to cry on occasion. At six he began gymnastics and continued to receive name calling for his choice in athletic sports. This bullying only made Kyle push harder.

He refused to be known as a wimp, so he continued training in gymnastics and forced himself to become tougher. …

If you want to help eradicate bullying, click over to Facebook photo and SHARE.

Kyle’s not gay. But suffered bullying from homophobes.

Happily, I think things are changing for the better. At least in some parts of the world.

Josh Dixon came out publicly while competing for Stanford, I think. He’s now at the USOTC in Colorado Springs commenting:

… he has not had a single negative response “in any way, shape or form.” If anything, the only homophobia he has encountered has been from within himself. He acknowledges he once felt internal pressure about being a gay man in what some label the “gay sport” of gymnastics. He didn’t want to fall into a stereotype. But he’s come to embrace it, and he says his sexual orientation now makes him stand out more at the elite level. …

Out Sports

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… A long time ago my wife, Armine Barutyan and I decided to make some important changes in our gym. Mainly, to change the way everyone (coaches, gymnasts, staff, and parents) communicated with each other. We made it a point to greet everyone and say hello when we came to the gym and goodbye when we left. …

Respect Starts with “Hello”

This might surprise people. Al Fong insists on efficient training. He doesn’t like to waste a second. Yet takes time for this social nicety.

I agree with Al. We coach 3 domains:

• physical
• technical
• psychological

Of the 3, the psychology of your gym is the most important.

GAGE, Missouri

Al likes a tidy facility, too. He’s not comfortable unless all mats and equipment are parallel to the walls, and stacked in pyramid fashion.

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Full Twist has results and links to routines.

Russia 177.30
Switzerland 161.55
Great Britain 160.00

Aliya Mustafina 58.95
Anastasia Grishina 57.70
Anna Dementyeva 56.55

Click PLAY or watch Aliya’s Floor on YouTube.

Looks like she’s gaining confidence with her knee after ACL surgery. Good progress. But she’s got a long way to go to be ready to contend for the AA in the Olympics.

Scores from this meet are VERY high. Yet, Valentina Rodionenko keeps insisting that the Russians are underscored:

… The judges exaggerate our small mistakes. And they do the opposite with our rivals. The same error can be penalized in different ways. And when the judges’ alliances begin, the game is on. …

What Alliance?

“… Canada, Australia, Brazil, New Zealand …”

There are a few judges who would be quick to disabuse her on that.

Valentina Rodionenko does a disservice to her Team with these outbursts. One former Russian Team member asked me, “Why is Valentina Rodionenko now a spokesperson for Team Russia?”

I don’t know.

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It’s always bad news when you have to call a lawyer. I fear there will be more legal cases to come.

The Dutch court ruled that Netherlands cannot name Epke Zonderland and Wyomi Masela as their Olympians for London. Instead Netherlands must wait on results from European Championships and two World Cups.

Jeffrey Wammes and Celine van Gerner both challenged that early decision.

My opinion:

1) The Coach / Federation should be empowered to name the Olympians.

2) The Coach / Federation should have waited as long as possible before naming the Olympians.

related – JOHN CRUMLISH commentary

via GYMpower (Dutch)

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I’ve slowly been posting ideas shared by Al Fong and the GAGE staff at their recent clinic. But some of the most important are already online …

Sara Gill on GymDynasty:

… The three days I was there I never saw a child cry one tear. In fact not one child was “yelled at”, or “criticized”, or “belittled” in front of their peers. Instead calm voices explained the correction of a skill or if a change in behavior was needed it was done quietly and to the point. …

… Numbers, numbers, numbers! It is not a secret to be successful in gymnastics one must do a routine over and over to make it his or her best. What is lacking from gyms however, is efficiency. Use every bar, every beam, any floor station you can think of to maximize your time on each event. Instead of having a group of gymnasts in line doing one routine at a time …

What Al Fong Helped me Remember…

Exactly right.

Al Fong has been called the toughest coach in America. He called himself “… the poster boy for everything gone wrong in gymnastics.”

But that’s not the Al Fong we saw at GAGE.

I was very impressed with what we saw at GAGE. Those gymnasts have a fantastic program.

By the way, Sara Gill is a consultant for girls aspiring to Collegiate Gymnastics. Check out recent posts promoting two of her clients:

• Natalie Gervais Stays on Top!

• Sydney McEachern takes 1st place at Manitoba Championships

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There.

I’ve broken the rules of sponsor branding for that … that big thing happening this summer. You know. With gymnastics.

… Using one of those words with London, medals, sponsors, summer, gold, silver or bronze is another likely breach. The two-word rule is not fixed, however: an event called the “Great Exhibition 2012″ was threatened with legal action last year …

Guardian – Olympics 2012: branding ‘police’ to protect sponsors’ exclusive rights

The IOC branding “police” will be busy, busy this year.

JGC mocks the restrictions:

… My blog is in no way associated with the Londinium … Demonstrations of World Class Athletic Ability. But if you do wish to talk about them, may I suggest the official name Londinium MMXII and hash tag #mmxii. And here’s an alternative logo representing the five interlocking benzene rings of benzopyrene:

Here’s a summary of legal ways of using the brand.

Happily the IOC seem to have given up trying to police social media. It’s impossible.

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Lloyd:

… Remember the 2000 Olympic vault final? I do. A Huge amount of tension surrounded the apparatus following the height mishap in the All Around competition, adding extra excitement to wat was already a great showcase of talent.

The lineup was starstudded: lots of top all around competitors were present along with some wildcards like Laura Martinez, whose DTY had been super consistent during her stay in Sydney. There was a nice variety of vaults, high levels of execution, and the general feeling that the vault title was as prestigious and important as any other gold medal in the sport. …

read more – The E Panel – Crack open the vault

Click PLAY or watch Zamo win the 2000 Games on YouTube.

What’s happening in 2012?

Well over 90% of Vaults are Yurchenkos. Statistically they are over-valued compared with the other families.

Many of the best vaulters don’t try for finals. They don’t have time. Superseding priorities are Team and All-around.

That video was linked by Full Twist in a new feature — Gymnastics History: Olympic Champions – WAG Vault — nostalgic recollections.

I was so happy and surprised when Henrietta Onodi (HUN) shared the Gold in 1992.

Will changes in the 2013-2016 Code help?

I’m not yet convinced.

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Israeli requires that their gymnasts confirm readiness to be sent to the Olympics by finishing top 12 AA at the European Championships 2012. Or top 6 in any apparatus final.

That’s confirmed by Valeria on this post:

… A bit about me

I’m Valeria Mksiota, 24 years old and I’m Artistic Gymnastic athlete. I started training when I was 5, and has been training for 20 years. I have dedicated my life to this sport and today I found myself only one small step from my biggest dream – the possibility to join Israel’s Olympic team and represent the country in London …

… In 2011, I won 27 medals in international competitions, 13 of them gold medals. …

Valeria Maksyuta’s Olympic dream

That links to a training video. And a fund-raising request.

It would be a terrible shame if Valeria was not confirmed by Israel. She’s one of the most exciting gymnasts in the world.

Click PLAY or watch her Finals Beam from the London Test Event on YouTube.

I love her unique double front 1/1-out dismount on Bars.

related – Examiner – Israeli requirement puts Olympics in jeopardy for Maksyuta, Aronovich (Jan. 2012)

Thanks Maya.

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