Women’s Artistic gymnastics, in most parts of the world, is far more popular than men’s Artistic gymnastics. That’s the fact, Jack.
For once, male athletes are a minority compared with female athletes, in the same sport.
Male gymnasts often ask for equal treatment. That happened yesterday — the prize money for MAG will be equal to the prize money for WAG at FIG World Cup meets, though the girls are far more marketable.
It’s just the opposite out in the “real” world.
… a trailer for a great-looking new documentary called Miss Representation. Its premise, from the film’s website, is that “American youth are being sold the concept that women and girls’ value lies in their youth, beauty and sexuality. It’s time to break that cycle of mistruths.”
… the film explores how mainstream media contribute to the under-representation of women in influential positions in America …
Stories from teenage girls and provocative interviews with politicians, journalists, academics, and activists like Condoleeza Rice, Nancy Pelosi, Katie Couric, Rachel Maddow, Margaret Cho, Rosario Dawson and Gloria Steinem …
1 League of His Own
2. One for the History Books
3. Boy Oh Boy
4. Style Points
We were really stuck tonight by what a stylish field this was. With the Code encouraging mad skills with the open-ended Difficulty value matrix, many athletes seemed to be chucking skills with little attention to detail a few years ago. That’s no longer the case. There were so many athletes who stood out to us as stylish and focused on form in tonight’s competition. Among our favorites in this category: Uchimura, Oleg Stepko and Mykola Kuksensov of Ukraine, Boy (Germany), Daniel Purvis (Great Britain), the USA’s Danell Leyva and John Orozco, Kim Seungil (Korea), Koji Yamamuro (Japan), Teng Haibin (China), Nathan Gafuik (Canada), Emin Garabov and David Belyavskiy of Russia, Cyril Thommasone (France), Alexander Shatilov (Israel), among others…. Think about all those athletes and their presentation – that’s a long list and a stylish field!
Purviss was in the fight for a podium finish … until he got to H Bar, the final apparatus. There he’d opted for the “easy” (compulsory) FIG routine 2011. That start value killed him relative to Boy who’s one of the best in the world on pipe.
Phillip had had many problems leading up to the AA final. It didn’t look likely he could repeat his Silver of 2010. But he hit Pommel. Landed a much better vault than in Rotterdam. Then hit this killer set to clinch his ranking as the best gymnast in the world … aside from Kohei.
“I’m in the wrong era,” said all-around silver medalist Philipp Boy of Germany, who rocketed from sixth to second in the last rotation with a high bar routine that would have been the toast of the competition had it not been followed by Uchimura’s own spectacular performance, which brought the whole arena to its feet for two minutes.
The men’s all-around final was punctuated by some stellar performances, including Boy’s routine and the high bar set of fourth-place finisher Daniel Purvis of Great Britain. There were also terrific parallel bars routines from Marcel Nguyen and Danell Leyva. But nobody could outclass Uchimura, who started with a near perfect performance on floor and simply got closer to perfection with each consecutive event. …
John Orozco has had a crazy good World Championships. I’d have bet you a lot of money this young guy could never finish 5th. And mentally tough — how would you be competing Liukin on H Bar immediately after your buddy just crashed on it?
There are many fantastic Japanese gymnasts in the shadow of the great one. We know the Tanaka brothers, and sister Rie. But most people did not know Bronze medalist Koji YAMAMURO.
In summary, the men’s AA competition was far better than the women’s. How is that possible considering the men count 10 skills, not 8 … and must do 6 different apparatus !?
Former MT Chair Hardy Fink has been to more Worlds and Olympics than anyone else — and he’s simply astonished at the depth and quality of competitors. We had 24 gymnasts from 17 different nations in this final.
The current rules — for reasons unknown — have not been nearly so damaging to the sport worldwide for men as they have for women. I have no idea why. Leave a comment if you’ve some insight into the relative success of men’s gymnastics over women’s in 2011.
The men do more. More difficulty. With better consistency. Seemingly fewer injuries. And possibly even more artistry. That just doesn’t make sense.
UPDATE: Official start list dated Oct. 14, 16:33pm still lists Lauren Mitchell as Reserve #1, Diana Laura Bulimar competing (2nd).
So far, the rumour looks to be incorrect. Leave a comment if you know more.
_____ original post …
Diana Bulimar will withdraw due to injury is the rumour (via Romanian blog Fangymnastics on Facebook), so the World Champion, the first alternate, will defend.
Romanian Gymnastics Federation website:
… “Bad news: Bulimar Diana was injured during the last exercise is now under treatment, following investigations that follow will decide if she will be able to compete in the finals of the ground.” …
Here’s the routine he missed in Team Finals — Horizontal Bar. NOBODY thought that Kohei would “water down” the routine in order to safely win the meet — and he didn’t
The best I’ve seen is by Amanda Turner … who’s not even in Tokyo.
Somebody should hire her away from International Gymnast magazine.
… Japanese superstar Kohei Uchimura will be gunning for gold in the men’s all-around final Friday evening at the 2011 World Gymnastics Championships in Tokyo.
Uchimura, the 2009 and 2010 world champion, is set to join Russian legend Svetlana Khorkina as gymnastics’ only three-time world all-around champions. If he takes the gold, he will be the first male gymnast to accomplish the feat, eclipsing double world champions Yuri Korolyov (1981 and 1985), Dmitry Bilozerchev (1983 and 1987), Ivan Ivankov (1994 and 1997) and Yang Wei (2006 and 2007). …
Amanda gives a breakdown of Kohei’s major rivals:
John Orozco
Danell Leyva
Koji Yamamuro
Daniel Purviss
Phillip Boy
Emin Garibov
Nikolai Kuksenkov
Marcel Nguyen
These guys are all good. Anyone of them could be on the podium — in second or third position. Marcel Nguyen’s the second “most talented” on the list, I feel. But can he hit 6/6?
Personal shout out to Nathan Gafuik. He’s due for his best Worlds performance ever.
John’s here for USA Gymnastics – Behind The Team – Macready’s Take: Watch Making Friends
Take a walk down Takeshita Street with John Macready and get a feel for the local flavor of Tokyo. Then John catches up with the U.S. Men’s Team (at 3min 45sec) after they won the bronze.
denn333 suggests they award the prize to the AA gymnast with the highest E scores from the AA competition. I’d go for that.
Who picked the photo for their website?
… In association with the International Federation of Gymnastics (FIG), Longines awards the Longines Prize for Elegance at each Artistic and Rhythmic Gymnastics World Championships. Prize-winners receive a trophy, a cheque and a Longines watch. …
Gymnastics Coaching.com 