Henrietta is one of five “Gymnastics Legends to be honored by the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame“.

• Cathy Rigby (USA) -1970 World Championships, Silver medal on Balance Beam
• Henrietta Onodi (HUN) – 1992 Olympic Gold and Silver Medalist
• Yuri Korolev (RUS) – 1981 and 1985 World All-Around Champion
• Mikhail Voronin (RUS) – Winner of 9 Olympic medals in 1968 and 1972 (deceased)

• Eileen Langsley (GBR) will be awarded the International Order of Merit for her contributions as the most prolific photographer of major gymnastics competitions for nearly 30 years.

FIG

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Thanks, yet again, to MunchTheSilivasFan.

Fantastic Yuri Korolev being included. He’s one of my favourite gymnasts of all time.

… Should Cathy Rigby be on that list? How many other World Championships single apparatus Silver medalists have been inducted?

I loved Cathy too, … but is this some sort of pro-American bias on the part of selectors?

… As Brian McKeever and his brother Robin raced toward Paralympic gold in the cross-country freestyle Monday, the announcers warned the raucous crowd to stop cheering and just wave to keep them on course.

But there was no silencing the spectators at Whistler Paralympic Park, who screamed wildly and flailed cowbells in support of the brothers from Canmore, Alta., who scooped up the country’s first Winter Paralympic gold medal on home soil.

“It wasn’t a quiet stadium when we rolled through so that was a lot of fun,” McKeever, 30, said. “It doesn’t matter if it’s quiet or not. I can see (a bit) so I just follow Robin.” …

read more – Vancouver Sun – For Canada’s Brian McKeever, it’s ‘a lot of fun’ winning nation’s first Paralympic gold

I still feel it was a massive coaching blunder not to compete McKeever in both Olympics and Paralympics.

Alpine skiing
Biathlon
Cross-country skiing
Wheelchair curling
Sledge hockey

Though the Opening ceremonies were sold out, CTV in Canada opted not to broadcast them live.

One of the big stories of these Games will be how Paralympic athletes “get no respect”.

Luca (Lazylegs) Patuelli hip-hop dancer

Good luck to everyone there.

His name: Luo Chaoyi, director of the Gymnastics Center of the General Administration of Sport.

AP Sports Columnist John Leicester has a mainstream article getting wide circulation with the general public:

Lies and damned lies: China abandons gymnast who competed under age at Olympics

Does this 14yr-old look like a forger to you?

Here’s the translation from Manderin used in the Leicester article:

… The state-run newspaper China Youth Daily quoted Luo Chaoyi as saying that Dong was eligible in Sydney but then shaved three years off her age after retirement in 2001, and that “this must have been an act by her and her family.”

Such an explanation is barely credible — unless, of course, Dong is a master forger of official documents, which is even less believable. In China, as elsewhere, passports are government-issued. Coaches — and not just in China — have also long falsified ages for girls whose small and supple bodies give them a competitive advantage over larger and older young women. The reverse scenario — that a retired gymnast would pass herself off as a kid — makes no sense.

It also hard to believe Chinese officials didn’t know Dong was underage in 2000. Most of Dong’s childhood was spent within the state-run sports system that churns out medalists for China. Her CV shows she joined a sports school at age 4, a provincial team at 7 and the national team at 10. …

SF Gate

Here’s another perhaps more accurate translation:

… the age of Dong Fangxiao is her personal matter and the fact that Dong’s age had been shifted 3 yrs younger after her retirement was Dong and her family’s personal practice. …

China Sports Review

Related: China Media Project – Chinese media tackle the national sports system

There’s not the slightest doubt that Dong was underage. Her personal resume today says she was born Jan. 23, 1986 making her two years below the minimum age requirement of 16 at Sydney.

The FIG is hoping for an April IOC decision on the Olympic 2000 medals.

… One worrisome new fact. She’s apparently returned to China for a visit. I’m slightly worried for her safety.

RISING Russian gymnastic star Kristina Goryunova will not be able to compete in the 2012 Olympics after being suspended for a year by her national federation on Wednesday for using banned medication, local media reported.

Reports said that the samples taken from the 17-year-old at the national championships in November 2009, contained traces of the forbidden substance (one of furosemide analogues).

Goryunova justified the results by saying she was taking a food additive trying to lose weight, adding she did not know that it contained the banned substance. …

Gymnastics star suspended

(via Full Twist)

Gymnastics Examiner reports it’s diuretic furosemide, the same drug taken by Daiane dos Santos and Do Thi Ngan Thuong.

When it comes to gymnastics competitions, What are We Teaching our Kids?

1. All athletes should remain in the competition arena until the last competitor is done competing.

2. Athletes should put their things into their gym bags (all of their things), zip them up, and put them out of the way.

3. There should be no talking during the presenting of awards.

4. All athletes should stay until the last award is handed out.

5. Scores at a meet are the least important thing about the meet.

6. An athlete should definitely have goals, but the process is the absolute most important thing.

7. Athletes on the award stand should congratulate the athletes on each side of her.

8. A great athlete learns to keep reactions on a fairly even keel. This means that they should never get too high or too low about what is going on (especially in reaction to scores).

9. Support and cheer for the other teams in your rotation.

10. We can set an example for our athletes by helping each other out as coaches.

11. We control what we can control, and don’t worry about things we can’t control.

Those are the summary points of a long essay: Coaching Gymnastics in the New Millenium – What are We Teaching our Kids?

I’d agree with Troy if all meets were run as excellently as the Great West Gym Fest. But when a competition is run badly (as many are) I’m sympathetic for the bored gymnasts, especially during awards.

My own pet peeve is older male gymnasts improperly dressed, or completely missing, during awards ceremonies.

Comments?

One of the great success stories is this guy …

He was shattered after finishing with a personal best, Canada’s best ever 5th place in the men’s 50KM Mass Start cross country ski race.

… “My goal was to stay with the leaders, conserve as much energy as I could,” Kershaw explained. “It’s a marathon. It takes over two hours. You have to be so calm and collected. I accomplished everything I hoped for, and more. But to be 1.5 seconds from the gold medal in a race so long …… when I see my technicians, it’s going to be really hard. It’s the best 50K of my life. But, at the same time, it’s really tough to place fifth.” …

Vancouver Sun

Devon Kershaw really believed he could beat Petter Northug of Norway, the reigning World Champion.

That’s the psychology you should have to compete at the Olympics.

Kershaw is pysically, technically and psychologically ready to win. That’s what Own The Podium is all about.

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That’s the same race, by the way, where coaches decided not to compete the alternate, blind skier Brian McKeever:

… Alex Harvey of St-Ferreol-les-Neiges, Que., and Ivan Babikov of Canmore, Alta., were the last skiers on the course to cross the finish line.

Harvey was 32nd and Babikov 33rd, which called into question the decision to sit alternate Brian McKeever, the legally blind skier who was seeking to become the first winter athlete to compete in both the Olympics and Paralympics.

Harvey and Babikov didn’t appear to have anything left in the tank after a series of earlier races, whereas McKeever was fresh. The 50-km race would have been his only Olympic event. …

It’s too extreme. My inclination is not to watch him skate. I assume he’s more flamboyant style than substance.

And his antics play into many of the stereotypes about male figure skaters. Even gay pundits are asking: Is Johnny Weir “Too Gay” For Figure Skating? (VIDEO)

My respect for Weir climbed a notch or two after hearing him fire back at broadcasters Claude Mailhot and Alain Goldberg of RDS, a French-language sports channel in Quebec. Here’s that interview.

U.S. men’s figure skater Johnny Weir says he was ‘frankly, pissed’ upon learning that the two French-language commentators questioned his gender and made other jibes during his Olympic skating performances last week. (Feb. 24)

Click PLAY or watch his interview on YouTube.

Still, I’m more inclined to cheer (or at least smirk at) the macho antics of Silver medalist, Russia’s Yevgeny Plushenko.

Plushenko and his coach want his competitors to man up and throw quad twists. I agree.

Comments? … Should I simply give up on Figure Skating completely?

Personally I agree with Olympic great Ken Reed:

… The intent of Canada’s Own The Podium program has become lost – or perhaps obscured – with the focus on the medal count. Yes, it was always about trying to win more medals than anyone in 2010. But from the get-go, it was clearly stated that this was a stretch goal – an ambitious target intended to galvanize our nation, inspire our athletes, focus our funding and build a foundation of partnership. …

… OTP is an overwhelming success. We have delivered funding, coaching resources, technology, preparation and team unity to build an environment for success. Regardless of the medal count, this is a fact. Canada’s team was prepared. …

OTP’s about more than medal count

On the other hand, decisions have already been made to change leadership, perhaps shift the focus of Own the Podium, and possibly even changing the much mocked name.

details – Baumann to take over Own the Podium

related – Should Own the Podium have been branded differently?

UPDATE: The U.S.A. owned the podium at this Olympics. Germany was fantastic, too. Congratulations. But Canadians are not disappointed with our results, overall. And once we defeat the States today in Men’s Hockey, we’ll have the most Gold medals for any host nation in Olympic history.

… Most of my friends are convinced that the upstart Americans will win Hockey. But I’m not worried.

China did exactly the opposite of what I expected. And exactly the wrong thing.

Blythe updates us in this post: Gymnastics Examiner – Chinese officials remain defiant about Dong Fangxiao’s age in 2000

Now … the IOC is in a much easier position to pull the Team and Individual medal from Sydney. IOC must choose to support either China or the International Gymnastics Federation. They’ll back FIG.

China has no influence over Dong Fangxiao because she lives in New Zealand. She and her husband have admitted she was underage. How can China think they can sustain this lie now?

Obviously the correct response for Beijing would have been to fire the coaches and administrators from 2000. And apologize. Since that didn’t happen, … I’m guessing China has more skeletons in the closet.

Let’s assume one of the “fall guys” they would have fired got angry and decides to reveal other rules violations. Age of athletes in 2008, Beijing, for example. …

This is getting interestinger and interestinger.