Year: 2011

Let’s judge the Worlds Men’s Horizontal Bar Final again — and pick the real winners.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Four guys “hit” well enough to be considered for medals. If you asked a group of 8yr-old gymnasts which was the “best” routine, all would agree it was Kohei Uchimura. Even if they had no idea who he was.

BIG tricks. Great swing. Stuck dismount.

What kind of a judging system would give the gold to the guy with poor toe point, average swing technique, poor “positions” and much less impressive difficulty (aside from the Jaeger 1/1) … ?

Zhang swings great. I’m happy to award him the Silver.

It’s a toss up for me for the Bronze.

When oh when will FIG “fix” the rules on Horizontal Bar?

Here (again) are those responsible for awarding Uchimura 9.033 execution and Zou Kai 8.741:

HUANG Liping (CHN) – Horizontal Bar Supervisor

Execution Judges:

DOBROVOLSKYI Edvard (UKR)
POP Augustin (ROU)
KELEMEN Zoltan (HUN)
MITEV Dimitar (BUL)
ROCHA Joao (POR)

FIG was very careful not to release the detailed execution scores for each judge, knowing some would be lynched. If you’ve somehow got your hands on all execution scores for routines at Worlds, contact me. I’ll give them to WikiLeaks.

(via The Gymnast Life)

Octavian Bellu:

“Those who can cope, will cope! Those who won’t, won’t!”

… this generation is not mentally strong. They are not less talented; there is a difference in mentality. …

Bars is our most problematic apparatus, we start off with almost a 5 point difference. It’s a historical problem for us.

read more on fangymnastics – Octavian Bellu: “[The girls need] to work hard and to want to be the best!”

In Russia they blame the judges for their problems. In Romania, the athletes.

MostepanovaFan’s edit.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Ana Porgras won the Longines Prize for Elegance in 2011.

Her official website (English) has new videos and photos from Tokyo. Or you can follow her on Facebook.

(via Vídeos de gimnasia)

Tougher than gymnasts?

From CNN.com:

Mixed Martial Arts, or M.M.A., is a full contact combat sport that was once banned in much of the United States. Today, it’s one of the fastest growing sports among men… and now women. But why would any woman climb into a cage for all-out combat for what amounts to almost nothing? …

“Fighter Girls” is one of four riveting stories airing on CNN Presents hosted by CNN’s Soledad O’Brien and Dr. Sanjay Gupta this Sunday, October 23 at 8:00 pm ET, re-airing at 11:00 pm ET and 2:00 am ET.

Click PLAY or watch a preview on YouTube.

(via Hard Body)

Pan-Ams: LIVE video streams (multi-sport) | Artistic schedule | results (to come) | Grace Chiu photos
Coverage: Examiner | Double Front | Full Twist | Tsukahara Tucked

WORLDS Wrap-up: – wikipedia | Full Twist | Gymnastike | full results

Good things happen when you are World Champion.

Photoshop magic by Spanny’s Big Fake Smile on Facebook.

Interesting mash-up.

Al Pacino voice over from the film Any Given Sunday.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

… You can really see the form and technique errors in all that slow-mo.

Many continue to be fascinated with our Worlds Bars silver medalist. There’s a heap of new photos from Tokyo on her website.

Let’s keep this next one for when the Russian media complain about her being underscored on Vault. (Her form has actually improved since 2010.)

related – RT.com – Russian gymnasts judged harshly?

Great idea.

John ATKINSON – President FIG Aerobic Gymnastics Committee – is modernizing that discipline. Instead of searching for a PDF document on the FIG website, you can read and search the Aerobic Code online.

fig-aerobic.com

Now we need all the other FIG disciplines to do the same thing.

(via FIG)

Head Coach Sarah Patterson:

“To be able to stand in front of 101,000 fans as national champions is what you strive for every day as both an athlete and a coach,” Sarah Patterson said. “For David and I, this was the 10th time we have received championship rings during an Alabama Football halftime, and I can tell you the feeling never gets old and that we were as excited to share this moment with this team as we were with our very first championship team in 1988.” …

College Gymnastics Board

PHOTO GALLERY