Here’s a recent backstage profile:

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

We had the chance to say hi to Kristina Baskett. She’s actually leaving the show, headed off to Los Angeles for some, I assume, stunt work.

The newest circus water show is opening in Macao.

Almost everyone knows Don from his many years at Woodward West Gym Camp. He and wife Sara today agreed to move to Go For It Gymnastics in Las Vegas.

Fantastic news. Everyone at the gym is SUPER excited.

… Horton, who trains at Cypress Academy, won a total of $17, 500 for his results in the all-around, still rings, floor exercise, and vault.

“I have to say thank you so much to IGC and Bruno Klaus,” said Horton. “This is one of the greatest things anyone has ever done for men’s gymnastics. To donate that kind of money and give it to the athletes who aren’t in school and live on their own like me (I’m married), Danell and Chris. We support ourselves right now so to have somebody donate that and support men’s gymnastics is one of the kindest things.”

Danell Leyva of Miami/Universal Gymnastics, and Chris Brooks of Houston/University of Oklahoma, were the next top earners, collecting $9,500 and $7,500, respectively. …

USAG – Horton earns top prize in International Gymnastics Camp ‘Champions Challenge’

International Gymnastics Camp – home page

2008 Olympic bronze medalist Raj Bhavsar said Friday he will retire from competitive gymnastics and join Cirque du Soleil as a performer for the troupe’s show next year in Los Angeles.

Bhavsar, 29, was an alternate for the 2004 Athens Olympics and was selected as an alternate in 2008 but was elevated to the bronze medal-winning team when 2004 gold medalist Paul Hamm withdrew because of injury.

Bhavsar returned to gymnastics in 2009 to debut a skill on parallel bars that was named in his honor, one of two in the code of points that bears his name. He also won two world championship medals and was the 2002 NCAA all-around champion at Ohio State. …

Houston Chronicle

with Amelia Racea - Gymnastics No Ceiling

(via Couch Gymnast)

There have been some initiatives.

For example, Cirque pays a cash prize to Senior gold medalists at the Canadian Championships.

Now something new. In 2008 a contractual agreement was signed with Cirque provinding support to the F.I.G. Acrobatic Gymnastics Technical Committee.

Some coaches are financially supported to train athletes in their own gyms. Scholarships were made available to active athletes.

And now Cirque is providing some support to gymnasts working together in a camp in the Ukraine, in preparation for a future world tour with “Quidam”.

I don’t know the details. All this I got from an interview with Bernard Petiot, Cirque du Soleil Vice-President Casting and Performances, at the World Acrobatic Gymnastics championships in Warsaw.

An interview with one of the hardest working gymnasts in Hollywood:

Heidi Moneymaker attended the University of California, where she joined the gymnastics group and became uneven bars and vault team champion in 1997 and 2000 and individual champion in 1998 and 1999.

… Heidi competed in the 1999 World University Games and received two Honda Award nominations. With this skilled background, she made the step and has worked as a stuntwoman and stunt actress on television series and films since 2002.

24, Hancock, Mission Impossible III, My Name Is Earl, Serenity, Spider-Man 3 and Star Trek are just a few of the many well known and high profile movies and TV shows that Heidi has done stunt work for and I was lucky enough to be able to get in touch with her recently to ask her about some of her latest projects including being Scarlett Johansson’s stunt double in Marvel Studios‘ Iron Man 2! …

Scarlett Johansson’s stunt double in Iron Man 2

read Heidi’s interview

This could be funny. The Office does gymnastics?

UPDATE from Nastia on Twitter:

Had a fun day shooting another subway commercial and TV special with Brian Baumgartner from “The Office”

Star Steve Carell says the next will be his last season. No doubt The Office will be cancelled with his departure.

If you’re still holding out hope that Anna Li will resume training for elite competiton, stop.

Anna’s having too much fun this summer.

Both she and Nastia are coaching camp in L.A., however.

Three months after Games, window of opportunity appears to be closing on medalists.

How much are you willing to pay for a Winter Olympic Gold medal?

… The Globe and Mail contacted nine Canadian individual gold medalists from the 2010 Games, including the two-woman bobsleigh team of Kaillie Humphries and Heather Moyse. Gold-medal-winning teams such as men’s and women’s hockey, men’s curling, and relay troupes in speed skating and short track were excluded because their medals were not as immediately identifiable with one athlete.

Asked how much the medals would be worth to them in 2010, the athletes gave a range of responses, though most were in the low five-figures, with several responding $20,000.

Moguls champion Alexandre Bilodeau wouldn’t provide specifics, but an informed source said he stood to earn about $200,000 this year. He and skeleton champion Jon Montgomery, who stands to make about the same, are the only gold medalists negotiating endorsement deals, and some athletes, such as speed skater Christine Nesbitt, do not even have agents. …

Globe Sports

(via Sport At Its Best)

Nebraska grad J.D. Reive, who spent six years as an assistant at Stanford, will replace Tom Dunn, who retired after 29 years at the Hawkeye helm, as the University of Iowa’s men’s gymnastics’ head coach.

“We are very excited to announce J.D. as our new head men’s gymnastics coach,” U of Iowa A.D. Gary Barta said of today’s announcement. “J.D. brings a wealth of coaching experience from the Junior Olympic and senior National Team ranks, as well as from a highly successful and academically demanding Division I institution. He shares our Iowa values, is a proven winner and a tireless advocate of men’s gymnastics. We are very confident in his ability to develop our student-athletes and move our men’s gymnastics program forward.”

At Stanford, Reive, a former U.S. National Team member, helped led the Cardinal to a National Championship in 2009, as well as a runner-up spot in 2008 and two third place finishes in ’06 and ’07. He was named “NCAA West Regional Assistant Coach of the Year” in 2006 and was the National Assistant Coach of the Year in 2009. He has also been the College Gymnastics Association’s “Assistant Coach of Year” three times (2006, ’09, ’10).

“I am extremely excited about the opportunity to represent the University of Iowa,” Reive said in a statement released today by Iowa. “The athletic department’s continued support of men’s gymnastics is a testament to the great legacy of Hawkeye gymnastics; a legacy that I fully intend to build upon. There is a great deal of potential in this program that will soon be realized. It’s great to be a Hawkeye.”

Reive and his wife, former U.S. National Team member and UCLA star Doni Thompson, have one son, Dante, 2-1/2. …

Inside Gymnastics – ticker