Peter Korman contacted us. He was the first American gymnast to win an Olympic medal in modern times, Bronze on Floor in 1976. (video)
For a trial 3 month period, Peter’s put up an ad in our right hand navigation. Thanks for the support!
Driven to improving the lives of developmentally challenged children, UCS’ Soft Play line was born. Through continued research, one product quickly became a complete line featuring mats to modular play environments. UCS’ primary concern when designing gymnastics , cheerleading and soft play equipment is for the child or gymnast’s ability to develop skills in a safe environment.
Bea edits an English language site called Gymnastics, No Ceiling, mainly covering Women’s Artistic Gymnastics in Romania. Somehow I missed discovering it until now, though she’s been publishing good content for months.
A good starting point is Bea’s article on great Romanian talents injured out in the 1990s under Head Coach Octavian Belu. This is the first of a two-part series published in the new Couch Gymnast magazine.
Let’s talk about a controversial period in the history of Romanian gymnastics. The nineties.
Back then, the Romanians were dominating the team contests, winning five consecutives World titles and the Olympic gold in Sydney. But the way in which those medals were gained is still a very debated subject. …
A total of 10 Romanian gymnasts won World or Olympic individual medals between 1991 and 2000: Cristina Bontas, Maria Neculita, Mirela Pasca, Lavinia Milosovici, Gina Gogean, Andreea Cacovean, Simona Amanar, Alexandra Marinescu, Maria Olaru and Andreea Raducan.
I would like to bring to your attention those gymnasts that never won a World or Olympic individual medal although they showed immense potential. Here are gymnasts that could have won maybe the same amount of medals (although Gogean’s record is most likely unbeatable). Moreover these are gymnasts that would have had the ability to change the face of Romanian gymnastics, showing artistry, difficulty and elegance. Here they are:
Nicoleta Onel
Ana Maria Bican
Daniela Maranduca
Andreea Isarescu
Angela Ghimpu …
I saw the full film at the Best of the Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour. It won the People’s Choice Award 2009, the most recent in the Kranked series.
Poly did some browsing on YouTube, coming up with this historic clip on Aerial Skiing.
Frank Bare performs the first triple twisting quadruple back flip in 1983. This is from Dick Barrymore’s film entitled “The Golden Years of Ski films”. Buy it at dickbarrymore.com
Frank learned it on a water ramp he helped build in 1978. No doubt they were inspired by the swimming pool used for landing extreme dismounts off horizontal bar and swinging rings near Muscle Beach, California.
Frank’s jump was impressive for that era. Only 4 or 5 men have ever done quadruple saltos. There’s very little incentive since it’s (happily) been banned in competition.
His father, Frank Bare Sr., was the first Executive Director 1963-1980 of the U.S. Gymnastics Federation (USGF). And later (1976-1980) was elected Vice-President of the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG).
Canada’s National newspaper the The Globe and Mail posted a summary of the many problems (so far) at the Vancouver Winter Olympics: VANOC, the truth hurts
There have been many problems. No use denying them.
But it’s not “the truth”.
The truth is that the Olympics are marvelous for almost all of those intimately involved.
If offered a chance to go to the Olympics, would you say “NO”?
Does this athlete feel luge is too dangerous? Will she quit the sport?
The rest of the world mostly ignores the Winter Games.
But I’m thrilled he won the prestigious TED prize for 2010.
At the heart of Oliver’s work is an assault on the obesity epidemic: The CDC states that one in four Americans are considered obese. It is estimated that 43 percent of Americans, or 103 million people, will be obese by 2018. The cost of this epidemic is anticipated to reach $344 billion per year. It currently accounts for almost 10 percent of the yearly US health care costs, and that rate will rise to 21 percent by 2018. WHO’s latest projections indicate that, globally in 2005, approximately 1.6 billion adults were overweight and projects that by 2015, that figure will rise to 2.3 billion.” …
Comedian Stephen Colbert is at the Winter Olympics as “Assistant Sports Psychologist” to the U.S. Speed Skating Team. As well as a colour commentator for NBC.
Stephen’s personal philsophy is clearly stated on his personal poster.
Where I live in Canada there’s controversy regarding our “OWN THE PODIUM” program.
That’s a 5yr, $120 million fund created to put Canada first in medals won at the Vancouver Olympics. And in the top 3 in Paralympics.
Canadian athletes in the past, famously, have been gracious in defeat. Garnering more than our share of 4th and 5th place finishes. It’s about time we made it clear that our athletes are not “tourists”, as Dick Pound once called them.
I disagree with most of the complaints I’ve heard against Own The Podium. The only serious accusation is that the organizing committee scheduled too little practice time for foreign athletes at the competition venues. The Canadians got a lot more time, I hear. If so, the IOC needs change the rules.
GEM posted a couple of links relative to the story of the luger who died on a training run. Here’s one:
Just checking out a new system of women’s gymnastics handguards from a company called Panfilof and Daughters.
… a new fastening system—ratchet buckles. This system is more convenient to use than the grips with Velcro or the grips with regular buckles. The ratchet buckle grips are fast and easy to tighten exactly as needed. Ratchet buckles prohibit spontaneous opening of the bracelet. …
Narrow grips have neoprene fasteners on the tongues of the finger holds which makes it possible to regulate the size of the finger holes by moving it inside or outside.
Tumbl Trak is my favourite gymnastics equipment company.
SA Sport (Spieth Anderson) is not my favourite company. In Canada they’ve had a near monopoly for decades. And you know how customers get treated by monopolies.
However, Spieth just got a whole lot better in my estimation. As of January 1st they became an official distributor of Tumbl Trak equipment.
Good move for Spieth. They’ve been under increased competitive pressure from AAI in the West, GymNova in the East. Not to mention Inspire Sports (Gaofei) in Alberta.
More choices for coaches in Canada. That’s always a good thing.
