Three members of the medal winning 2011 World Championships Team – Jonathan Horton of Houston, Texas, McKayla Maroney of Long Beach, Calif., and Alexandra Raisman of Needham, Mass. – are on the athlete roster for the Ralph Lauren Corporation, an official outfitter of the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Teams for London 2012.
The gymnasts will serve as Ralph Lauren brand ambassadors leading up to and throughout the Games. …
The All-Around series was supposed to be the jewel in the crown of the new World Cup series. Four stops on three continents – Jacksonville, Glasgow, Stuttgart and Tokyo – were to see the top eight male and female gymnasts from the all-around final at the 2010 World Championships compete for prize money and ranking points.
The series flopped completely. …
… Only a single female gymnast, overall winner Huang Qiushuang, competed in three competitions. Not one female gymnast attended all four.
At the final competition in Tokyo in late November, the FIG wasn’t even able to find eight female gymnasts willing to compete. …
FIG’s Wolfgang Willam is committed to staying the course for the next 2yrs:
… The 2012/2013 World Cup will include six stops. Starting in New York in March 2012, the series will include Tokyo (April 2012), Stuttgart (November 2012), Glasgow (December 2012) before returning to the USA in early 2013 and finishing off in Tokyo in April 2013. …
… On the other hand, Nora points out that the Swiss Cup which offered 85.000 Swiss Francs in prize money and appearance fees this year was a better meet than Stuttgart.
Let’s wait and see. The AA World Cup is not working as badly in MAG. Many of the top guys are willing and able to get to most of the meets.
I still feel that money is the best way to grow international stars who can reach the general public in non-Olympic years.
I’m keen to see what the FIG Competitions and Marketing Commissions recommend in terms of “simplifying the rules” to better appeal to a mass audience.
Meanwhile, Lauren Mitchell’s been shooting a TV ad for VISA. There are stills from that session posted on Facebook.
UPDATE:
Visa, a proud sponsor of the Olympic Games for 25 years, announced today that Australian gymnast Lauren Mitchell will join sporting greats including swimmer Michael Phelps and shot put gold medalist Valerie Adams as the face of its London 2012 Olympic Games campaign. …
I’d pretty much ignored this thread of discussion as empty speculation. But it’s true.
Raisman was expected to sign with the University of Florida this week after announcing her intentions to represent the Gators in NCAA competition during the August Visa Championships …. By taking on professional status she has relinquished her NCAA eligibility.
The value of a scholarship and degree from Florida is considerable. It’s difficult for me to believe she can match or better that with prize money and by signing with Octagon Sports.
But perhaps it’s getting more lucrative to go pro than in the past. Blythe Lawrence considers the issue.
I’m all for more money for gymnasts and coaches. If this works for Aly, it’s good news.
… researchers at U of T’s Centre for Sport Policy Studies conducted the most comprehensive analysis to date of gender equity in Canada’s interuniversity sport system …
… While men make up only 44 per cent of the university student body, they have 56 per cent of the varsity sport opportunities. The exact opposite is true for women, who make up 56 per cent of students and enjoy 44 per cent of the spots on varsity teams.
The numbers get far worse at the top, where women make up only 19 per cent of head coaches and only 17 per cent of athletic directors. …
Yet Canada has no “Title IX” legislation.
Seems to me that 44-54 is not bad.
But that the old boys club is alive and well in Canadian university hiring.
The study’s authors are tasking Canadian Interuniversity Sport and its four regional counterparts with three challenges:
• to revamp their gender equity policies based on these results;
• to create an immediate 50 per cent target towards proportional female participation; and
• to develop a plan for improving leadership opportunities for women in coaching and senior administration. …
Another “open” event. Talent Scout Marceline Goldstein will be running that audition. If your gymnast has amazing acrobatic talent, or multiple talents, I’d recommend they give it a go.
Here’s Marceline (Facebook) at the recent audition in Osaka.
In Japan, the Cirque du Soleil Casting partner is former Stanford coach Sadao Hamada (Facebook). Here he is at the Tokyo audition.
