Blythe Lawrence will be there for Examiner. She’s from Seattle.
… The inclusion of six of the top eight potential Olympic teams on the women’s side and Japan, China, Russia and the U.S. going head-to-head on the men’s makes this meet a bona fide Olympic dress rehearsal. …
Lauren Hopkins will be there for The Couch Gymnast. I’ll be there, too. I’m particularly interested in this opportunity:
In conjunction with the 2012 Kellogg’s Pacific Rim Gymnastics Championships, USA Gymnastics is offering two days of coaching, judging and business educational opportunities during the event at the Tulalip Resort. To attend for free, you will need to show your Pacific Rim Championships event ticket.
The host Rhythmic team made the minimum FIG standard, but not the (higher) British Gymnastics qualifying score. They’ve appealed to be allowed to compete in the Olympics.
I agree with Nadia:
… the host nation should have a rhythmic gymnastic presence at the Olympics to inspire the next generation of young women.
“It is important,” said Comaneci, noting that this was a rare opportunity for the sport to promote rhythmic gymnastics at the highest competitive level.
“How many times are the Games in your home country …
Even if FIG approves your athlete for Olympics, most nations have additional requirements. “Evidence that the athlete will finish top half of the field”, for example.
In the case of GBR Rhythmic, it’s British Gymnastics that is refusing to nominate the team to the British Olympic Association.
I was involved in one of these dramas in 1999, the Canadian Olympic Committee initially unwilling to approve Kyle Shewfelt for the 2000 Olympics. (He was the youngest competitor.)
Kyle nearly qualified for Finals in Sydney and went on to be the most successful Canadian in history. It’s examples like this that coaches should cite as a reason to approve athletes / teams for Olympics.
It’s crazy that the host nation won’t approve their Rhythmics Team. Imagine what kind of boost the sport would have in the U.K. with all that Olympic exposure, regardless of result.
Leave a comment if you know of other athletes who made the Olympic qualification standard, but were denied participation by their own nation.
Gymnastics fans are in for a treat this year, with the 2012 MG, WG, RG, TRP & ACR National Championships all combined into one massive event at Sydney Olympic Park.
Having qualified a full team at the 2011 Artistic World Championships, Australia will look to select a full women’s team to compete at the Games. …
The Rhythmic Gymnastics Finals concluded the Visa International Gymnastics, which as part of the London Prepares series functioned as Test Event for the 2012 London Olympic Games as well as the final Olympic qualifier. …
Individual All-around
Gold KONDAKOVA Daria RUS 110.450
Silver RIZATDINOVA Ganna UKR 108.750
Bronze ALYABYEVA Anna KAZ 108.075
Group All-around
Gold ESP – Spain 53.250
Silver ISR – Israel 50.525
Bronze FRA – France 50.400
Bronze GRE – Greece 50.400
… “I am pleased that our gymnasts now have a second chance at participation in the Games, an initiative that aims to bring greater justice to the sport. But as with all new concepts, we will need to revisit certain criteria, details, that some feel are still too complicated. …”
… the Finals in Artistic and Trampoline enjoyed spectacular audience success from a media standpoint. “This is the first time that the FIG has independently produced the signal of a Final. We have chosen to embrace a modern philosophy by live broadcasting on our “Gymnastics” You Tube channel. We have integrated social networks into our global communication package, which has proven very successful. …
I’d agree. Overall the event was excellent, especially for the YouTube Finals feed and videos.
Dwight Normile was more critical of the new system:
… The biggest losers were the Canadian men and Spanish women, both of whom would have qualified under the old rules with their 12th-place finishes in Tokyo.
It would make a lot more sense to use the test event specifically for individual qualification. And if the FIG really wants to raise the level of competition at the Olympics, then it should reduce the number of all-around berths and add more top specialists via the previous worlds apparatus finals. …
Gymnastics / Skating Extravaganzas are much mocked by insiders.
But many love the Galas at major FIG events.
Matthew Greenwood, Gymnastics coordinator at the O2, confirmed the bad news. FIG and the London Olympics organizing committee both wanted to schedule a Gala … but logistics were too difficult. The Artistic / Trampoline venue is shared with Basketball. And Rhythmics scheduled after the (possible) Gala date.
Finals in London will be again held over 3 days, not two — taking away a potential Gala date.
Here’s a glimpse from the Beijing 2008 Gala — Rhythmic gymnast Aliya Garaeva. Click PLAY or watch it on Daily Motion.
Berki as qualified to the Games despite the evidence pointing to the fact that he clearly missed the 85% rule. The FIG has been unable to produce the mathematical breakdown and proof of Berki’s qualification despite a number of media requests.
I actually want Berki to compete in Pommels at the London Olympics. It was a mistake confusing the selection process with additional requirements of specialists.
The FIG Academies, a worldwide education programme for coaches in the federation’s six competitive disciplines that was launched in 2002, celebrated the 10th year of its existence in 2011. …
• 118 Academies overall
• in October, overall participation reached 3,000 coaches
• three levels of coach education (for now)
• FIG Technical Committee must have L3 by 2012
• L3 candidates who meet special pre-requisites and achieve exceptional examination results will be awarded with an FIG Coaches’ Brevet.
A total of twenty-five Academies are planned in 2012 …
It was Bruno Grandi who hand picked former MTC Chair Hardy Fink for the job of FIG Director of Education and Academy Programmes. Obviously a good choice.
Right now at an Artistic Academy in Tokyo coaches are being “coached” by Fink, Keith Russell and Valeri Liukin. I think they might learn something.
… The Academy Programme for Men’s and Women’s Artistic Gymnastics has been supplemented this year with a comprehensive Age Group Development, Competition and Testing Programme that was introduced to 17 countries in 2011 to which will be added as many as 25 more during 2012. …
Philippines MAG adopted the new Age Group rules this season reporting good feedback from coaches.
nations under the new scheme are:
