Entries Tagged 'ethics' ↓

Lousy drill.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Bad form. Bad technique.

Slight chance of injury.

There aren’t many worse activities for improving Bridge.

American kids can text “loveis” to 77054 to get help.

Jordyn Wieber is … the official spokesperson of Mary Kay Inc.’s “Don’t Look Away” campaign to help prevent and end dating abuse. …

… “As I speak in high school gymnasiums across the country to raise awareness of this growing epidemic and share information about the text-for-help program, I tell my peers that just like gymnastics, balance and boundaries are critical to healthy dating relationships.” …

Gymnast Jordyn Wieber Partners with Mary Kay in Effort to End Dating Abuse

click to see full graphic

Many kids are safer in the gym than out in the real world.

I keep reading online how the Olympics MUST have all the very best athletes. That every medal contender must be there.

I keep reading that more sports must be added. That existing sports — especially gymnastics — needs more athletes at the Games.

… And I don’t disagree.

But the Olympics is about far, far more than whether Vika or Gabby should have won the AA.

Just watch.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

By using sport as a tool for social change, the IOC and its partners implement various activities across the globe in fields such as humanitarian assistance, peace-building, education, gender equality, the environment and the fight against HIV/AIDS, thereby contributing to the achievement of the UN Millennium Development Goals.

This is why the IOC is supporting the FIG Age Group Development Program for developing nations.

Omelianchik was a member of the first place Soviet team at the 1985 World Gymnastics Championships in Montreal, but struggled in the team competition and did not qualify for the all-around final.

However, Soviet team officials (Rodionenko) decided to pull Olga Mostepanova and Irina Baraksanova, who had both qualified for the finals, and substitute Omelianchik and her teammate Shushunova. The decision proved to be sound; the two Soviet gymnasts tied for the all-around gold and became Worlds Co-Champions. …

Click PLAY or watch her 1985 Europeans Finals routine on YouTube.

Click PLAY or watch the Omelianchik Vault on YouTube.

She was traveling alternate to the 1988 Olympics. Retired 1989.

Omelianchik remains heavily involved in gymnastics as a choreographer, coach and judge. She heads the women’s technical committee for the Ukrainian Gymnastics Federation and choreographs routines for many of Ukraine’s top gymnasts …

Is that still the case after Ukraine’s last round of budget cuts?

Execution judges are not doing their job.

For example …

Watch the new Chinese Champion Shang Chunsong.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

6.2 + 8.467 = 14.667 – 1st

Where are the 1.5+ in deductions?

Now watch Liu Tingting in the same Beam final. Same judges.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

5.2 + 7.5 = 12.7 – 8th

Difference between those routines is less than a point.

Yet it’s obvious to anyone. Any 8 year old gymnast — that Shang’s routine was HIT near perfect. That Liu’s routines had many major wobbles and balance checks. Both had a landing deduction.

There should be a far greater difference in E Score than 1.0.

The new Code doesn’t work because FIG allows judges to box the scores. The cleanest gymnasts in each competition suffer. It’s not fair.

Bruno Grandi so often talks about justice.

Why doesn’t he mandate the FIG Technical Committees to start applying the rules as written?

(via Brigid Couch Gymnast McCarthy on Facebook)

Six-time Italian champion Enrico Pozzo has filed a legal inquiry into the judging panel at last weekend’s national championships in Ancona, Italian media reported Tuesday.

Pozzo filed his complaint with a federal prosecutor over the presence of one judge, “La Stampa” newspaper reported. One of the judges in Ancona was a regional director, although the Italian Gymnastics Federation’s rules forbid regional directors from judging at national championships …

Pozzo came just shy of capturing his seventh national all-around title in Ancona, finishing second all-around to Ludovico Edalli by .05. After Saturday’s competition, Pozzo did not mince words and said the scoring was politically motivated. He also withdrew from Sunday’s apparatus finals.

Pozzo’s six titles (2003-2005, 2007, 2011-2012) put him in tie with the legendary Jury Chechi (1989-1993, 1995) and Franco Menichelli (1960, 1962-1966) as Italy’s second-most decorated national champion in men’s gymnastics. Guido Figone holds the all-time record with eight titles, won from 1948-1955.

IG – Pozzo Files Inquiry After Italian Championships

I like this trend where gymnasts and coaches are appealing loudly. And speaking to the media when they feel they’ve been wronged.

Judges are far too unaccountable for their scores, in my opinion.

related – Hambuchen – German Championships Erupt Into Scandal

… Facebook is in the process of giving blue tick verification (checkmarks) to prominent public figures, including celebrities, journalists, government officials, popular brands and businesses with large audiences.

The update will roll out to pages, as well as profiles. Just like Twitter, there’s no way to request verification, but the social network does offer the ability to report fake pages impersonating you. …

techradar

For example, Shawn Johnson.

This will help separate official pages from the many FAN pages.

via GymFever

FIG is looking at reforming the 2020 Olympic qualification system.

Bruno Grandi:

Targeting 2017

… The new calendar should maximise opportunities for Olympic qualification via World Championships, continental championships and World Cup events. …

… FIG will host a Symposium to which all of the member federations will be invited and offered the chance to share their views. …

All of the measures adopted, including the new calendar and the new formats, will then be tested out in practice, in order to verify the validity and effectiveness of the reforms. The new calendar and formats are then scheduled to come into force permanently from January 1, 2017.

All in all, the reforms should provide gymnasts with a clear path towards qualification for the 2020 Olympic Games.

Fundamental principles …

• prioritising of team competitions …

• focus on individual All Around competitions …

• allow athletes participating in continental competitions to qualify directly for the World Championships or the Olympic Games, the same as athletes competing at World Cup events, thus raising the status of these competitions.

read more on FIG – Letter from the President, Jun 3rd, 2013

Blythe has some commentary – Changes coming for Olympic gymnastics qualification system

I’m worried.

At first glance it seems we’ll end up with a more complex system. More chances for athletes to qualify via some World Cup or Continental Games — without having to compete directly against others not selected.

The current system seems fairer.

Qualify at Worlds. Or the Olympic Test Meet.

ALL of the contenders will be there. Same venue. Same judges.

The Canadian Men did not qualify a team for 2012. And it was fair. They had a fair shot.

Any more complicated system will almost certainly be less fair.

I’ve been cheering for Istanbul, by the way. Their odds of being selected are almost non-existent now, however.

UPDATED Fri May 31st

Canadian Championships 2013.

Grace Chiu GraceClick:

Ariel Crawford, SK, National Open – performing her original mount (Canadian “D”) Press to 1-arm handstand full pirouette hip circle — at Carleton University.

Day 2 we waited to watch Ariel’s cool routine including this very cool mount.

… She left out the backward hip circle.

She’d been told after Day 1 it was a big deduction.

Some sort of nonsense about her “elbows being bent on backward hip circle“.

I’d ask the Judges to show us a video of a gymnast doing that skill with straight elbows. It’s impossible.

Check the elbows on some similar skills including backward hip circle.

Click PLAY or watch the Yurchenko Loop on YouTube.

Click PLAY or watch the Teza on YouTube.

Here’s Aerials FINALS routine, with the back hip circle taken out. (VIDEO)

Thank TrishaG for links to those videos.

Men’s judges are far stronger at evaluating new elements during competition. They understand advanced skills better.

Members of the University of Oklahoma women’s gymnastics team … tornado clean-up efforts in Moore

See more Sooner Gymnastics Tornado Clean Up photos on Facebook.

Hambüchen, who won his seventh German all-around title on Sunday, took second on floor exercise behind Matthias Fahrig in Tuesday’s apparatus finals. Hambüchen filed an inquiry into his 6.2 Difficulty score, and the score was corrected to 6.3, putting him ahead of Fahrig. After Hambüchen was announced as the gold medalist, however, the D-score was once again changed back to 6.2, and he was told he waited too long to file the inquiry.

The reversal outraged Hambüchen, 25. …

read more on IG – German Championships Erupt Into Scandal

see image on Facebook

… Flashback Interview with U.S. Olympic medalist Courtney McCool,

she takes us back to the 2004 selection process beginning with the 2004 US Championships.

Courtney talks about her famous peel off bars and how that affected her second day of competition …

Watch more video of Flashback Friday on gymnastike.org

A girl’s parent volunteer at a competition started an interesting thread on Chalk Bucket:

… I must comment on how amazing the atmosphere was on that side. Coaches dialoguing with the judges during the meet, getting opinions and looking at score sheets and everyone was okay with that.

All the teams seem like they are one big happy family and not that they are not serious about their gymnastics, but there was just such a light fun air about the whole thing it was contagious. …

Question why do you think it seems so much more fun for them and so serious on the women’s side?

I did scorekeeping on that side as well and the judges barely talked to each other and no way would a coach come over to look at the score sheets and get feedback on the athletes warm up where I was. …

see the commentary

making a MOCKery of Finals

Ya. … What is it with that?

At Canadian Nationals 2012 I was a WAG coach. In 2013 I’m a MAG coach.

I’ll report on the differences once the chalk dust has settled.