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Joe Battaglia finally apologized. And Flocasts did finally remove the controversial post, 4-days later.
Better late than never. Thanks Joe. I trust it’s sincere.
If you are wondering what some guy you’ve never heard of is apologizing for, it’s laid out here.
I’ll continue the boycott, for now, waiting on response from USAG.
Best Joe let the Gymnastics experts handle Gymnastike.
2014 World Championships
MAG
– Zachary Clay, Twisters, Abbotsford, BC
– Ken Ikeda, Twisters, Abbotsford, BC
– Kevin Lytwyn, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB
– Scott Morgan, Flicka, Vancouver, BC
– Jackson Payne, Capital City Gymnastics, Edmonton, AB
– Hugh Smith, Halifax Alta Gymnastics, Halifax, NS
– Robert Watson, Twisters Gym Club, Port Coquitlam, BC
No Nathan Gafuik. No Anderson Loran. GREAT to see Jackson Payne back. Congratulations to National Champions Hugh and Robert who are both headed to Nanning.
Coaches: L. Cheng, R. Ikeda, V. Stan, J. Woodnick and T. Smith (National Team Director)
Judges: Chris Grabowecky, John Carroll and Jeff Thomson
– Ellie Black, Alta Gymnastics, Halifax, NS
– Maegan Chant, World Class Gymnastics, Hamilton, ON
– Isabela Onyshko, Brandon Eagles Gymnastics, Brandon, MB
– Jordyn Pedersen, Manjak’s Gymnastics, Mississauga, ON
– Kirsten Peterman, Revolution Gymnastics, Waterloo, ON
– Victoria Kayen Woo, Gym-Richelieu, St. Hubert, QC
– Aleeza Yu, Gemini Gymnastics, Oshawa, ON
No Victoria Moors. 😦
I asked Gymnastics Canada about her status. “No comment”, was the answer. Kyle Shewfelt could make no comment either on the Pan Ams broadcast. This begs the gymternet to speculate. It’s a shame Gymnastics Canada has such poor communication. 😦
Coaches: A. Brokenshire, M. Charron, Lorie Henderson, D. Kikuchi, G. Tantaru, K. Manjak and D. Brubaker (National Team Director)
Judges: Liz Armitage, Elena Davydova, Andreé Montreuil
related – Black Set to Lead Canadian Worlds Team
by site editor Rick McCharles
Update:
Joe Battaglia finally apologized.
Better late than never. Thanks Joe. I trust it’s sincere. I’ll wait and see if any additional response is forthcoming from USAG or Flocasts.
___ original post:
I’m going to join the boycott. This site gets 2-3 million unique visitors a year. I believe we send quite a bit of traffic to Gymnastike.org.
This hurts, as I love Gymnastike, the #1 gymnastics video site.
I feel rotten for some of the excellent Gymnastike contributors. I’ve only known founder Anne Phillips to have the highest standards. Several times I pitched interviews with outspoken people and she declined saying she preferred Gymnastike promote the positives of Gymnastics. She does not like controversy. This scandal must be agonizing for her.
Know that @Flocasts is the parent company to Gymnastike. Here’s the Flocasts Team.
Don’t blame Gymnastike people for the wrong decisions of Flocasts. That would be unethical.
I’ve had quibbles over how Gymnastike operates, opting not to sign-up for their Gold paid subscription, but there’s never been an incident like this.
___
During the evening of the September long weekend, when most people were on holiday, Gymnastike posted an article:
“Maroney Victim of Nude Photo Leak” (screen shot)
Note that the ad on that page was paid for by Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) for Children, volunteers who help abused and neglected children. There’s one advertiser that should flee Flocasts.
As a fan site that attracts many young girls, I question the headline. Gymnastike should have rushed to the defense of one of the sports greatest stars, defending her privacy.
Unforgivable, however, was a link to 4chan, a shady online community where (mostly) anonymous people share all kinds of nonsense, legal and illegal, including pornography. 😦
One commenter tells there were no photos of Maroney via that link. I know many others saw 3 photos, real or not. I did not click through myself.
Author of the post, Chris Chavez @Chris_J_Chavez, should have known better. He’s a student, an aspiring sports journalist, specializing in Track & Field.
Certainly Chavez knows not to link to 4chan, especially a page sharing stolen pornography, real and faked.
I decided to boycott after seeing this. It was sent to me anonymously.
Looks to me like Chavez was gloating over the thousands of hits his story was getting on Gymnastike. (It did not get nearly that many hits, did it?)
I’m trying to confirm that chavezc is another social media handle for @Chris_J_Chavez. Leave a comment if you know.
Update from @Region5insider (one of the good guys):
Rick that comment that was posted is not from Chris. Someone created the log in and posted the comment. We can tell how long a username as been active on our site and when I saw comment I checked and it was 15 minutes.
That’s good enough for me. I now believe it was not Chris, but rather some quick, humorous imposter questioning the motives for the post.
Still, this is a blog, not a court of law. I believe Chavez posted the article, a listicle in fact, to gain clicks. His post was sleazy at best, illegal at worst.
Chavez did not hit PUBLISH. Perhaps he doesn’t have permission to post himself. It was published by Joe Battaglia, Creative Director of @Flocasts, responsible for a number of sports, including Athletics, Wrestling, Dirt Biking and Gymnastics. Very experienced, without question Battaglia should have known not to link to 4chan.
Perhaps he was the only one working over the long weekend when the scandal broke.
The gymternet went nuts.
Battaglia some time later deleted the porn link, without explanation or apology.
He left the story up. It’s not been removed as yet as I post. (Deleting it may be seen, by Battaglia, as an admission of wrongdoing.)
UPDATE – Flocasts did finally remove the article entirely. 4-days later.
That was his second unforgivable mistake. Battaglia should have deleted the post entirely and instantly apologized for the “mistake“. Flocasts would later have to decide what to do with Chavez and Battaglia for linking to porn in the first place.
Instead, Battaglia doubled down with this tweet the next morning, as the gymternet blew up in protest.
@theworldgymnast Because we don't bury our heads in the sand on news just because the subject is uncomfortable.
— Joe Battaglia (@JoeBattaglia75) September 1, 2014
//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
I assumed we’d see an apology Tuesday morning when people got back to work at Flocasts. …
Nothing. 😦
___
That’s it.
Gymnastics Coaching will boycott Gymnastike until Flocasts takes action.
I unliked their Facebook page.
Unfollowed them on twitter.
I’m sending this post to the co-founders of Flocasts:
Martin Floreani @martinoflo | Martin@flocasts.com
Madhu Venkatesan @madhuvenkatesan
Mark Floreani @markflocasts
Also @USAGym. There’s nothing worse for the Federation than to be in any way associated with pornography. Potentially child pornography.
Leslie King, USAG’s Communication director, has stated the organization will revisit whether or not Gymnastike should be invited to future events.
One final word on these stolen photos, try not to blame the victim.
related – Lauren Hopkins – RESPONDING TO CONTROVERSY 101
Andy Thorton:
I think the old Mustafina is finally back.
Ever since tearing her ACL at the 2011 European Championships, there’s been something missing from the 2010 world all-around champion’s gymnastics. Although she still managed to win multiple medals at the 2012 Olympics and 2013 world championships, Aliya Mustafina has never quite shown the same fierce competitive confidence that allowed her to dominate the world in 2010 …
With some recent upgrades at this weekend’s Russian Cup, a more confident look on balance beam, and some cleaner tumbling on floor, the Russian just may be inching closer to reigning world champion Simone Biles …
Here’s an event-by-event look at the best difficulty scores put up recently by both of these gymnasts – using scores from the P&G Championships for Simone Biles and the Russian Cup for Aliya Mustafina …
Can Mustafina Challenge Simone Biles? An Event-By-Event Look
Click through for details.
Both meets were somewhat over-scored so we may be able to compare apples with oranges this time.
Projected D-scores:
Simone = 25.1
Aliya = 24.4
Ross = 23.3
Both Simone and Aliya could upgrade. Mustafina will almost certainly up her Bars start score, though perhaps not until Apparatus Finals.
My advice to Valentina :-), however, would be to ask Aliya to go clean. Try to stay within 1 fall of Simone’s final AA score. Simone may not be able to win with a fall in 2014. She finished 0.9 ahead of Kyla in 2013.
Wow.
Andreea should be in the Worlds Beam Final 2014.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
(via Fangymnastics – 5 things we learned at the 2014 Romanian Nationals)
Thanks to the clubs who hosted our 4-day Level 2 Technical over the long weekend.
Ours was the 1st course to be held at the NEW Taiso Saskatoon Training Centre. (Grand opening this coming Saturday.)
For the final day we moved across town to the superb Can-Am Gymnastics club.
All coaches PASSED, by the way. 🙂
Finally, Thanks to Alynn Brischuk who did all the work organizing the excellent demonstrators.
Alynn’s just finished her Masters and will be teaching at the College of Kinesiology, University of Saskatchewan, this year. That school has an excellent educational gymnastics facility. Professor Keith Russell has finally retired. It’s a new era.
Did anyone get stats from the medical team?
I heard it was awful. Not surprising with so many smaller nations trying to compete against the USA. They are generally far more prepared than the rest of the Americas.
Many coaches are hoping Yesenia defects to their Gym. This is one fantastic example of physical preparation.
3rd at Pan Ams – 14.4 (6.2, 8.2)
Click PLAY or watch her Floor on YouTube.
You can watch a different angle of that routine on Gymnastike. I always link to YouTube, if I can, over Vimeo or Gymnastike because video streams faster.
Sadly Cuba will send neither WAG nor MAG teams to the World Championships. After the latest two defections, we may see even less of these fantastic gymnasts.
For once one of these articles on intense Chinese youth sport schools does not include photos of children crying.
In Anshan city of Anhui Province, a group of children aged from 6-10 years old are committed to diving practice for a whole 2 years. At the end of the training, they either get selected into the official diving regiment, or go home. …
read the article – Life in a youth diving camp
(via Thomas G Trapp)
Gymnastics Coaching.com 