A personal thanks to Dana Brass, interim Head Coach of Go For It Gymnastics in Vegas, for organizing our clinic / camp last week. It was great.
Shout out to Kyle Shewfelt, inspirational headliner at camp. He made a lot of kids very happy.
From the Facebook album: Wall Photos by Amber
… Many of the girls had attended the UCLA camp with Nastia earlier in the summer. They told me they didn’t see any Olympic medals there. (Likely Nastia has hers locked up in a vault.)
Divers are much more artistic than Artistic gymnasts.
… But are they are allowed to “cowboy” saltos on some skills. Leave a comment if you know the rules on that. (Perhaps we could get more specific on our gymnastics regulations.)
UPDATE: From Mike:
D 8.5.2 During the flight, the position of the dive shall be at all times aesthetically pleasing. Should any of the positions not be shown as described below, each judge shall deduct ½ to 2 points, according to his opinion.
Tuck (C)
D 8.5.7 In the tuck position the body shall be compact, bent at the knees and hips with the knees and feet together. The hands shall be on the lower legs and the toes pointed.
It’s not specifically “allowed”. But is used as judges evaluate from the side.
Everyone is surprised at what a success YOG turned out to be. It looks like the Youth Olympic Games are here to stay.
I’ve not heard of a single overage athlete scandal.
Better athletes will be coming to the next Youth Olympics, IOC president Jacques Rogge said Thursday. ..
The head of the U.S. Olympic Committee on Tuesday blamed scheduling conflicts for the Americans’ woeful performance in the inaugural Youth Olympics, where their gold medal tally is less than Hungary and Azerbaijan. …
The Youth Olympics, which closed Thursday, were dominated by China, which won 30 gold medals and 51 overall. Russia was second with 19 gold medals and South Korea was third with 11.
The United States won only four gold medals, and U.S. Olympic Committee chief executive Scott Blackmun said earlier this week that scheduling conflicts had kept some top American athletes from competing in Singapore.
The Youth Olympics featured 3,600 athletes aged 14 to 18 from 204 national Olympic committees competing in 26 sports. …
“These Youth Games have definitely exceeded vastly my highest expectations,” Rogge said. “I did not expect this level of perfection in organization. Hats off to Singapore for what they have done.”
The inaugural youth winter games will be held in Innsbruck, Austria, in 2012 and the summer games in Nanjing, China in 2014. Lillehammer, Norway, which hosted the 1994 Winter Olympics, is the only city that has expressed an interest in hosting the 2016 winter games, and has until November to submit a formal bid, the IOC said.
The IG interview with Adrian Stoica, president of the International Gymnastics Federation Men’s Technical committee is now online.
IG editor Dwight Normile asks all the right questions.
Stoica confirms that he plans to run for F.I.G. President one day. (I’d vote for Slava Corn.)
Stoica also defends the current Men’s Code of Points, explaining that eventually coaches will invent shorter routines with fewer execution deductions. That’s not what’s been happening, so far.
There’s been a big increase in C, D and E parts. Gymnasts are trying to win by getting the highest start values.
Stoica agreed with Normile that the rules on Horizontal Bar are flawed. Changes will be seriously considered for after London.
Click through to the September 2010 issue of International Gymnast. It’s a great interview.
The biggest surprise of the morning was that these two gymnasts finished GOLD and SILVER on Vault in a competition that has the word “Olympics” on top of the banner.
Vault: 1. Ganbat (MGL) 2. Arican (TUR) 3. Abad (ESP)
… Erdenebold Ganbat took gold in the vault to give Mongolia its most successful result in history. With a handspring double front and a double-twisting Tsukahara, Ganbat edged Turkey’s Ferhat Arican (handspring full to piked front, Tsukahara 2 1/2), 15.650-15.662. Top qualifier Nestor Abad (Spain) won the bronze (15.450). …
Here’s the IG write up on the last day of Artistic competition at the Youth Olympic Games in Singapore:
In the wake of mistake’s from all-around champion Viktoria Komova, China’s Tan Sixin claimed both women’s gold medals Sunday. Tan, the all-around and uneven bars runner-up, was near perfect on balance beam and floor exercise. Tan nailed her acrobatics on beam, including a high two-foot layout to Korbut; switch Yang Bo; front tuck; and a front aerial sheep jump. She took one step to the side on her dismount (ff, ff 2 1/2) to earn 15.550 (6.3/9.25).
Komova appeared tired after victories Thursday in the all-around and on Saturday in the vault and uneven bars. …
Floor: 1. Tan (CHN) 2. Bulimar (ROU) 3. Komova (RUS)
Beam: 1. Tan (CHN) 2. Ferlito (ITA) 3. Donald … Komova 7th (2 falls)
Vault: 1. Ganbat (MGL) 2. Arican (TUR) 3. Abad (ESP)
Parallel Bars: 1. Stepko (UKR) 2. Muntean (ROU) 3. Edalli (ITA)
High Bar: 1. Oldham (GBR) 2. Abad (ESP) 3. Zhu (CHN)
via The All Around Gymnastics News on Facebook
Congratulations to IOC, FIG and meet organizers. I’m astonished how smoothly the Artistic discipline has gone. In fact, the Games themselves seem to be a big WIN for Olympic sport.
- F and G skills are credited as Es;
- C dismounts get full credit, B dismounts get .30; A dismounts are .0 (same in MAG)
- in vault Finals, 2 different vaults from the same family allowed
- No more than 2.5 in CR
Although Fs and Gs are capped at .50 difficulty value, there are no caps on the vault values.