huge gymnastics meets 2008: Beijing and Athens

The Beijing Olympics. And NCAA Championships in Athens, Georgia.

I’d love to go to both. But expecting only to get to Athens. It just might be the more thrilling of the two.

The best gymnastics writer working today by far is Dwight Normile, editor of International Gymnast magazine.

His Women’s NCAA Preview article is perfect:

Suzanne Yoculan’s Gym Dogs are the team to beat, whether she likes it or not

Courtney Kupets and Suzanne Yoculan

Though the women’s preseason rankings are not yet out, Georgia is considered the favorite at the NCAA Championships next April. It has to be. The Gym Dogs have won the last three titles, they will play host to the 2008 NCAAs in Athens, they lost no routines from last season’s Super Six Final and they just began training this year in a new, state-of-the-art facility named after their coach, Suzanne Yoculan, who will retire after the 2009 season.

That’s a lot of upside for one program, but Yoculan knows that a ninth team title, which would tie Utah for the record, is far from a done deal. She says that in 1997 she had her “best team ever” but lost the meet because of mistakes. “I saw how our team reacted to that,” Yoculan explains.

…

Yoculan … won’t feel too relaxed at home. “I’m not crazy about hosting if we’re No. 1,” she says. “There are some high expectations for us on campus. (The pressure) is constant.”

Read the entire article on International Gymnast.