Month: December 2022

Olympic Studies Centre, Switzerland

In Lausanne, Switzerland.

And online. Open to everyone 24 hours / day:

Library.Olympics.com

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Russian athletes ~ Paris Olympics

Personally, I can’t see any way to fairly allow some athletes who represent Russia to compete in Paris 2024, while disallowing others.

For example, Nikita Nagornyy could SAY he does not support Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. Compete Paris. Then return to Russia to continue his work for Putin, laughing at IOC president Thomas Bach.

That would be worst case scenario. The IOC would be humiliated.

The IOC should give Putin a deadline to withdraw from Ukraine, or have his nation and Belarus officially banned.

Russian athletes who do not endorse their country’s war in Ukraine could be accepted back into international sports, competing under a neutral flag, IOC president Thomas Bach said in an interview published Friday. …

IOC looks for ways Russian athletes ‘who do not support war’ could compete as neutrals

GymAct coaches poll

No surprise. Arizona #1, as usual.

There are 14 teams in the Men’s College GymAct program for 2023.

Nationals May 13, 2023 in conjunction with USA Gymnastics’ JD Championships.

  1. Arizona State (275 points, 9 first place votes)
  2. Washington Men’s Gymnastics (263 points, 2 first place votes)
  3. Minnesota Men’s Gymnastics (241)
  4. lowa Men’s Gymnastics (231, 3 first place votes)
  5. Temple Men’s Gymnastics (216)
  6. Rocky Mountain Mavericks (201)

See the full list.

Oklahoma #1 in preseason poll

As voted by the Women’s Collegiate Gymnastics Association.

  1. Oklahoma (22)
  2. Florida (21)
  3. Utah (2)
  4. Michigan (4)
  5. Auburn
  6. LSU
  7. Alabama
  8. California
  9. Missouri
  10. UCLA

Here’s the list from last season:

  1. Michigan (2405 points) (37 first place votes)
  2. Florida (2319 points) (16 first place votes)
  3. Oklahoma (2317 points) (6 first place votes)
  4. Utah (2306 points) (8 first place votes)
  5. LSU (2179 points) (1 first place votes)
  6. Alabama (2027 points)
  7. California (2020 points) (1 first place votes)
  8. UCLA (1887 points)
  9. Minnesota (1803 points)
  10. Denver (1763 points)

See the full list on Road to Nationals.

How about MSU?

Men’s College East v West

1st annual Collegiate All-Stars competition, hosted by the College Gymnastics Association.

SUNDAY, December 11 at 5 p.m. ET on YouTube.

Each team will select four All-Stars / apparatus.

John Roethlisberger and Bridget Sloan as the commentators, along with Heath Thorpe, Maggie Nichols, Livy Dunne, and Stephen Nedoroscik serving as judges.

Wednesday Addams dance moves

Reminding me of Uma Thurman, I’m looking forward to seeing some of these moves referenced in NCAA routines 2023. 😀

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Here’s Uma. Watch it on YouTube.

Jim Holt on FIG Worlds format

American coach Jim Holt has coached 14 World Championships, with 7 different nations (BAR, BOL, ECU, IND, IRI, NAM, YEM).

He knows as well as anyone the benefits of having developing nations compete at the highest level.

In this post, Jim responds to Hardy Fink’s recent article on the unintended negative consequences of FIG increasingly making it more difficult for new nations to compete at Worlds.

Jim agrees with Hardy and adds specific examples from the past.

jim-holt-responds-to-hardy-fink-on-worldsDownload