Author: Rick Mc

… Larisa Latynina and Michael Phelps. Gymnast and swimmer of legend for Louis Vuitton. …

Update – Will Michael Phelps LOSE his medals? Swimmer in hot water after Louis Vuitton ad is leaked before end of Olympics

Russian Punk Rock Band Pussy Riot was found guilty of “hooliganism motivated by religious hatred” by a Russian Court, according to a report from The Guardian UK. The judge sentenced three members of the 10 women band to two years in prison. …

Mashable

Their performance in a Church was … pretty bad. In every way. I’d call it “hooliganism” if they’d done it in my town.

Paul McCartney and many others defend freedom of speech.

Lesson learned? Be careful not to get on the wrong side of this guy.

Drive, Aliya, Drive.

I saw Jessica at IGC this summer, in great shape … though letting a minor elbow injury heal.

One of the best available NCAA recruits in Canada, she’s decided to stay elite, taking a few classes at McMaster University in addition to full-time training. She could compete for either Netherlands or Canada this cycle.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

via @theallaround

Rewriting Russian Gymnastics linked to a charming pre-London video interview with 2000 Olympic Floor & Vault Champ, Elena Zamolodchikova, now a Coach and Judge.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Many gymnasts have already reported to their schools.

Savona is loving LSU, so far.

Click PLAY or watch a Men’s Temple Team montage on YouTube.

… highlighting the 2012 season where the ‘][’emple Owls recorded one of the program’s best years in recent history …

This Russian montage begins with Aliya’s injury on Vault. (Note, again, that it was quite well executed. Certainly far better than her average Amanar.)

Then documents her recovery to a surprisingly successful Olympics.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube. She truly is an athlete.

Nickelback warning. 🙂

I’d never link to that kind of trashy gossip, … unless it was about the guys. 🙂

Uncle Tim Talks Men’s Gym

Let me introduce you to our panel of commentators:

Lauren Hopkins of The Couch Gymnast
Spanny Tampson of Spanny’s Big Fake Smile
Dvora Meyers of Unorthodox Gymnastics and the author of Heresy on the High Beam
and Uncle Tim, who might as well be one of the ladies. …

Dvora would like to kick things off with a preface:

Before I get started, I want to thank Uncle Tim for the opportunity to pick apart the male gymnasts’ appearances. Usually, the only commentary we get to hear is about the women. In an ideal world, we’d leave everyone’s looks alone and snark only about the stupid things people say. Alas, I think the invention of the Internet has killed that dream. (Thanks, Al Gore!) But I’ll settle for getting to analyze the men’s style. Equal opportunity objectification, folks! …

On Louis Smith:

Dvora: I know it’s fairly unoriginal to observe this, but there is something downright Faustian about his facial hair. If indeed it is part of some deal-with-the-devil bargain, I think Smith should file for breach of contract for coming out on the wrong side of that tiebreaker. …

read more – Best in Hair: London 2012

Uchimura and his teammates must be pencilled in for Part 2.

Olympic diving gold medalist and former Purdue national champion David Boudia said Thursday that he’s considering competing in gymnastics at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio De Janiero.

… Boudia said he would only compete in vaulting-related gymnastics events.

Boudia, who competed in gymnastics during his childhood years before transitioning to diving , says that gymnast Bridget Sloan, a 2008 Olympic silver medalist, used to train near where Boudia has trained in Indianapolis. Boudia says that he’s considering getting in touch with Sloan’s coach for possible gymnastics training. …

Boudia: Gymnastics an Olympic possibility

Good luck to you, man.

Training Vault at Sharp’s. … I’ll alert Danell you’re after his spot. 🙂

How could I have forgotten?

This is a banned skill, as GeoffTaucer tells:

This is a layout Thomas with an additional full twist — back one and three quarter salto with two and a half twists to dive roll. The skill is banned in gymnastics competitions because it is considered to be too dangerous. …

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

FIG MTC Committee member Steve Butcher from the USA gave us a rundown of changes — surprisingly few — at Congress.

He noted that half the committee wanted to ban roll out skills on Floor altogether (as has WAG) due to safety concerns. Concussion is the big concern. But a compromised was reached:

A maximum of 1 rollout salto may be performed in an exercise.

No rollout saltos may be executed in direct connection with any salto elements.

Most of the top guys will still include one layout Thomas, I predict. A few madmen will add an additional twist, proving the more cautious members of MTC correct. Nope. The Thomas with extra twist is already banned.

The Vault tables have been reworked. Lets wait and see if Vault scores are still disproportionately high next quad. It looks like they’ve been better brought in line.

Most disappointingly for me:

Horizontal Bar

No major changes

Though the Olympic Final on Pipe was fantastic, I still feel the rules are weakest on this apparatus. Crap and repetitive crap will continue to be rewarded.

I’ll paste the 6th August 2012 Major Changes in MAG Code of Points memo in the comments of this post.

Thanks Alex.