Nadia 50 years later

As a young coach, I almost jumped in a vehicle and drove 3 days to Montreal to watch Nadia win the 1976 Olympics.

It seemed to far. Too expensive. I didn’t go.

My mistake.

Her performance in Montreal was one of the great stories of our sport.

Nadia had a lot of difficulty. But — Nellie Kim had more. Nadia was more impressive to me for her astonishing execution.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Varna World Cup – Highlights

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Charleigh Bullock 55.500

That’s the kind of score that pencils Charleigh on to the potential 2028 Olympic team.

Meanwhile, she’ll be a favourite in the all-around at 2026 Pan American Championships.

Inside Gymnastics magazine.

Kaylia competes layout Jaeger

The best ever on Bars must get bored. 😀

I’m thinking this won’t end up in her Worlds 2026 routine. She doesn’t need it. And there are deductions.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

World Gymnastics caved on Russia & Belarus

Executive Committee (EC) decided at their 16-17 May meeting to lift all restrictions applicable to Russian and Belarusian athletes since February 2022, with immediate effect.

Personally, I would have voted against. Putin’s war has killed officially over 400,000 — but likely over a million.

Yes, you could argue other nations should be banned, as well. I’d like vote for those bans.

NOW ➙ what about Russia’s top down illegal use of performance enhancing drugs?

Dong Yixuan – Beam Handspring Front

Have we ever seen higher on Beam?

Amazing.

monitoring height in Gymnastics

Dr. Dave Tilley on monitoring for peak height velocity.

Dave’s been tracking 3 numbers for each of the growing kids:

• height
• seated height (torso length)
• wing span

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

At MINIMUM your gymnasts age 10-17 should have a place in the Gym where they pencil in their standing height on some regular basis. They should know when they are growing. There are implications for training load.

If you want to research this topic, get Handbook of Sports Medicine and Science, Gymnastics. (2013).

Here’s the Google Books preview.

Giorgia Villa retires

One of the GREATS is hanging up her grips.

’26 USA Pan Am Championships Teams

Japan’s Team to Worlds ’26

Spencer:

The year’s first world championships squad has officially been named and, obviously, it’s the Japanese team. Five months early on …

Anyway, this year’s worlds team is Nishiyama Misa, Kishi RinaSugihara AikoOkamura Mana, and Nakamura Haruka.

The first four members of the team were automatically locked based on the all-around standings at the end of the second day of the NHK Cup, which finished yesterday. …

The fifth and final team member was determined based on Team Contribution Points …

BBS – JAPANESE WORLDS TEAM NAMED (& EXPLAINED)


LOCKED TEAM
Nishiyama
Misa
14.28314.21713.50013.433
Kishi
Rina
14.23313.83313.66713.783
Sugihara
Aiko
14.53313.50013.58314.000
Okamura
Mana
13.11713.90014.22713.466
???

This team has 3 YDT on Vault. A strong team podium contender for Worlds.