Quad turn Beam, Mai Murakami Floor

Wow.

Posted on Facebook by Kazukuni Ohno from Iketani Gymnastics in Japan.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

I saw this on Gymnastics Examiner. Thanks Blythe!

Kazukuni also posted a terrific Floor routine by Mai Murakami (double layout, double double). She’s competed that tumbling before, but not this well.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

That’s via American Gymnast.

Japan is the most underrated WAG nation right now. It will great to see their female gymnasts get media attention this year with Worlds in Tokyo.

Legendre goes 92.20 AA

92.20 AA for Legendre! NCAA’s top AA score of the season.

Legendre: FX-16.20 PH-14.60 SR-14.80 VT-16.70 PB-14.90 HB-15.00

@StickItMedia

Wow. I didn’t see this coming. CONGRATS Steven.

Kylee Botterman 10.0 Vault

UPDATE:

Stanford nips Michigan at the end to win (196.800). U-M posts a 196.500 to take 2nd, Nebraska takes 3rd 195.400

@Michigan_WGym

Congrats to Kylee for the first 10.0 of the NCAA season.

Kylee Botterman is inspired by love.

Video to come.

Canada Games Gymnastics begins

This multi-sport competition for ‘younger’ competitors is kind of a big deal in Canada. It’s a blast to participate.

Competition starts today.

But if you know nothing about this meet you might be interested to know how absurd are the rules.

PEI (population 141,551), Yukon (population 34,246), and Newfoundland (population 509,200) must each field a team to compete against Ontario (population 13,000,000) and Quebec (population 8,000,000).

There are more people in the Toronto subway than in all of Yukon.

Does that sound fair to you?

I’ve worked with gymnast from those smaller Provinces at training camps. My advice: … try to beat Ontario on the execution score. … Don’t worry about difficulty.

Good luck to everyone in Halifax.

official website – Artistic Gymnastics

related post – Gymnastics set to begin at Canada Games

Gymnastics improving in Spain

For a while there, it seemed to be all bad news out of Spain.

But since Jesus Carballo Jr. took over as President, things are looking up, up, up.

Couch Gymnast posted the best summary so far of what’s happening there:

Carballo is hoping to make some major improvements to the state of Spanish gymnastics, a nation which hasn’t achieved what it was threatening in some impressive performances back in the 1998-2000 period.

“I practically live at the Federation (…) I go there at 8.30am and go away at about 9pm. On weekends I try to move around Spain visiting clubs and autonomous federations. I also meet marketing and publicity companies (…) We can’t live only off grants, which is now eighty percent of our budget. We need to make gymnastics financially profitable. I’d like to take gymnastics to more sectors, for it to have more visibility”.

In the same interview, Jesus Carballo Senior (National WAG coach) talked about his expectations for Tokyo 2010 and the Olympics. He disputes the fact that Spain’s economic situation is the primary reason for their lack of recent success in the sport.

“Crisis? The National Sport Council has good facilities and we won’t run out of resources to go to the Olympics. If we don’t classify it won’t be because we have less money”. …

read more on Couch GymnastSpanish Gymnastics: Changes Ahead

That post links to an article on farodevigo.es (Google translate)

… In another recent article, Carballo also claimed that Spain has 8,000 licensed gymnasts (most of them from WAG), in comparison to Germany, where there are five millon gymnasts. …

Click over to American Gymnast to see one of the skills named after Carballo, on H Bar.

unhappy Valentine’s Day

If you like The Onion’s warped sense of humour, … and have no Valentine, you’ll like this.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

If that offends you and your Valentine, get some warm and fuzzy tips for the day from University of Michigan’s Kylee Botterman (VIDEO).

Kylee’s happily engaged. … I’m happily single. That’s my story. And I’m sticking with it.

spotlight – Alicia Sacramone

Our World Vault champion is by far my favourite interview of active gymnasts.

Watch her on the most recent Behind the Team here.

(… Behind the Team. … Who voted on that name for this program?)

AT&T U-verse doesn’t offer embeds. How quaintly backwards of them. Did you know Verizon has the iPhone now?

Some episodes are posted on the USAG YouTube channel. But not this one.

(via GymNiceTic)

results from the Nadia Invitational

via International Gymnast Magazine on Facebook

Senior:

1. Anysia Unick CAN 54.850
2. Madeline Gardiner CAN 54.750
3. Reagan Hemry USA 50.450

I’m assuming Anysia gets the cover of the next International Gymnast magazine. 🙂

Junior Victoria Moors landed double double on Floor, a first for a Canadian gymnast.

But it sounds like there were plenty of falls. … Makes me appreciate College gymnastics all the more.

Junior:

1. Mackenzie Brannan USA 56.050
2. Abby Milliet USA 54.050
3. Ana Maria Ocolisan ROM 53.150

Nadia with one of the Romanian girls.

IG wrap-up – Unick, Brannan Capture Comaneci International

home page – Nadia Comaneci International Invitational

Florida 197.725, Georgia 196.600

GAGymDogs, a huge Georgia fan, on the public College Gymnastics Board forum:

Congrats to Florida for an excellent meet tonight. Florida was on fire, and they are the real deal. I know it’s a long way off until NCAAs, but I really think they are the team to beat this year. The 1-2-3 punch of all-arounders Johnson, Caquatto, and Dickerson is amazing. Alaina Johnson is an absolutely gorgeous gymnast on every event. Here is a brief comparison of the teams on each event:

Vault: Florida’s amplitude far surpassed Georgia’s. Their body positions were also better on their vaults than UGA. Even when the Florida gymnasts took a step or hop, it was controlled & they landed with their chests up. Couch and Cheek both landed with chests down, and I feel like their scores were too high.

Bars: I think every Florida gymnast stuck her dismount if I remember correctly. I did not see any deductions in Johnson’s routine from my angle & I felt like her routine was better than Ding’s that received the same score. From where I was sitting, it looked like Ding had a slight hesitation on her half pirouette on the low bar.

… click through to read more – Congrats to Florida

That’s the graphic on the private Gymnastics Gossip Message Board.

Oklahoma season-high 197.225

In the flurry of big numbers last night, I neglected OU.

The fifth-ranked Oklahoma women’s gymnastics squad set a season-high score for the second consecutive week as the Sooners defeated No. 25 Iowa State, 197.225-195.375. …

Sooner Sports

Still undefeated.

I felt last year was some kind of miracle season for the Sooners and Hollie Vise. But they are a contender to win Championships (again) in 2011 without Hollie.

Sooner Sports

(via The All Around)