Year: 2010

Andy Thornton asks a good question: “… it seems like girls just don’t tumble like they used to. What happened to huge double layouts and full-in dismounts?”

It’s even more true on Vault. That apparatus has seen very little progress over the past 20yrs. Yet Men’s Vault and Floor tumbling are insane in 2010.

Kytra Hunter’s demo Floor at American Cup shows impressive tumbling.

Click PLAY or watch Kytra on YouTube.

In the past, powerful gymnasts could do 3 apparatus and get away with relatively easy Bars. (i.e. Romania)

Today, in my opinion, coaches must select gymnasts first for Bars and Beam. And try to develop tumbling and vault difficulty later. Nastia would be one prototype.

(via About.com Gymnastics)

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 …

Click through for details on each: The Lost Girls of Romania

If you like that article, check out Bea’s blog as well: Gymnastics, No Ceiling

I’m subscribed.

The All Around Gymnastics News on Facebook:

Viktoria Komova wins AA at Russian Championships – 60.875, 2. Ksenia Semyonova 57.900, 3. Svetlana Klyukina 55.875.

Videos are being posted … but cannot be embedded. What’s with that, RussianCup2009? … Russian TV broadcast rights?

Here’s Komova on Bars. Not her best routine, but check the Stoop Stalder Shaposhnikova Half (video) transition …

Update: Amanda Turner embedded the Bars video in Facebook. I never knew, until now, that it was possible in Facebook when not possible anywhere else.

RISING Russian gymnastic star Kristina Goryunova will not be able to compete in the 2012 Olympics after being suspended for a year by her national federation on Wednesday for using banned medication, local media reported.

Reports said that the samples taken from the 17-year-old at the national championships in November 2009, contained traces of the forbidden substance (one of furosemide analogues).

Goryunova justified the results by saying she was taking a food additive trying to lose weight, adding she did not know that it contained the banned substance. …

Gymnastics star suspended

(via Full Twist)

Gymnastics Examiner reports it’s diuretic furosemide, the same drug taken by Daiane dos Santos and Do Thi Ngan Thuong.

Two talking points:

• doesn’t she remind you of Alicia on Beam?
• what a dismount!

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

She’s certainly not going to win the Longine’s Elegance Award.

But a routine that steady will take her a long way.

(via Live.Breathe.Love Gymnastics)

Any excuse to watch Amy Chow.

Click PLAY or watch them on YouTube.

This was linked from a thread called Interesting high to low bar transition on IG forum. That variation of Pak would be worth trying for kids who have trouble “clearing” their feet on kip.

The first Youth Olympic Games go August 14 – 26, 2010 in Singapore.

… The IOC announced yesterday, on March 3, that Setsuko Fukuzawa is the grand prize winner of the Medal Design Competition. For her submission, lucky Setsuko was rewarded a visit for two to the Singapore Youth Olympic Games. …

FIG – And the winner is …

BATON ROUGE — LSU All-American gymnast Susan Jackson earned the No. 10 spot in ESPN SportsCenter’s Top 10 plays of the night on Monday after her acrobatic, unique first “pitch” at a recent LSU baseball game.

The nation’s No. 1 ranked all-around gymnast, Jackson stood in front of the pitcher’s mound and performed a series of one-handed back handsprings toward home plate while holding the ball in her left hand.

Jackson stopped just short of the home plate dirt where she proceeded to turn around and flip the ball to LSU freshman infielder/catcher Matt Fury.

SportsCenter anchor Josh Elliot remarked, “That may be the greatest first pitch I have ever seen in my life.” …

LSU Sports
http://www.lsusports.net/mediaPortal/embed.swf

Seems to me there was more interest in this year’s American Cup gymnastics meet than in many years past. Kudos to USAG and the meet organizers.

Now … why don’t you improve the format for 2011?

Do you want it to be referred to as the Scam Cup forever?

Blythe Lawrence linked to some analysis if you are into post-meet dissection:

• American Cup truths: Andrew Thornton
• American Cup truths II: Aunt Joyce
• American Cup truths III: The Couch Gymnast
• American Cup truths IV: Gymnastics Examiner

The gymnastics week in review

Some weren’t impressed with the inaugural Supergirl Cup, held the day prior, but I love the concept. More reward for the top Level 10s (and Elites dropping down to compete Level 10).

Here’s the Supercheesy wrap-up video.

http://multivu.prnewswire.com/mnr/mnr_lib/201002/players/player-single.swf?job=42097

source

I’d love to see Oklahoma win the 2010 Team title.

They just beat #1 ranked Alabama.

Why are so few pundits predicting OK to win?

One of the biggest complaints about College Gymnastics is that only 4 teams have won, ever. If that continues, why not put UCLA, Alabama, Georgia and Utah in the Final Four (starting 2011) automatically. No need to run the regular season.

It would be great for the sport to see Oklahoma win. Go Sooners!

The second biggest complaint about College gymnastics is the high scoring. Yet I feel the alternative (F.I.G.) rules are far worse. An example from this past weekend’s ScAmerican Cup:

… Aly Raisman’s beam score was LUDICROUS. I’m surprised the commentators didn’t make a bigger deal about that routine. She did one of the most perfectly executed routines I have seen from ANYONE in a really long time, all as a virtual rookie on live television. Not even a hint of a wobble on a single skill, and a NAILED a brand new double Arabian dismount. I would say that was probably the most impressive “rookie” routine I have ever seen before, and the judges rewarded her with a whopping 9.15 E-Score.

What in the world were they watching? Then, Rebecca Bross, whom everyone knew was going to win anyway, nearly falls on her full turn, has a couple of jittery bobbles in between her skills and minor checks on the side somi and front tuck, and then takes a huge lunge forward on her dismount, and receives a 9.1 E-Score. It really is unbelievable. If Bross’s routine was a 9.1, then Raisman’s was a 9.85, not a 9.15. It’s a perfect example of the biggest problem in judging today…an absolute REFUSAL to reward perfect routines with high execution scores, particularly on the women’s side. Those judges should be fired. …

Andy Thornton

Andy likes Raisman’s beam (video) more than I do. But his criticism of F.I.G. judging is totally valid. They box Execution scores atrociously.