Author: Rick Mc

Career gymnastics coach who loves the outdoors, and the internet.

Sands on haters

Bad news. For us.

Dr. Bill Sands joined Facebook.

His response to oh so many posts overly critical of Olympic athletes:

… from “Man in the Arena” Speech given April 23, 1910

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; because there is not effort without error and shortcomings; but who does actually strive to do the deed; who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly. So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.”

~ Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919)

When it comes to hurtful comments, Facebook is not all that bad.

Let’s hope Bill doesn’t join Tumblr. Or — God forbid — read YouTube comments.

Personally, I believe in freedom of speech. And freedom from speech. I unsubscribe instantly from the most ignorant.

I urge you to unsubscribe from this blog if you feel I’m needlessly negative regarding, for example, Zou Kai.

The greatest Chinese Olympic gymnast all time now, I believe.

Aliya Mustafina – EVER

Chris:

… Aliya, thank you for inspiring us with you beautiful strength and relentless will, congratulations on all you’ve accomplished. …

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

no Olympic Gala 2012

A re-post from January:

Gymnastics / Skating Extravaganzas are much mocked by insiders.

But many love the Galas at major FIG events.

Matthew Greenwood, Gymnastics coordinator at the O2, confirmed the bad news. FIG and the London Olympics organizing committee both wanted to schedule a Gala … but logistics were too difficult. The Artistic / Trampoline venue is shared with Basketball. And Rhythmics scheduled after the (possible) Gala date.

Finals in London will be again held over 3 days, not two — taking away a potential Gala date.

Here’s a glimpse from the Beijing 2008 Gala — Rhythmic gymnast Aliya Garaeva. Click PLAY or watch it on Daily Motion.

https://dailymotion.com/video/x8dguz

no more double life …

I’ve been busy, busy on the road. At Gymnastics Camps.

And yet, an addict, trying to follow the Olympics online during every short break. You know what I mean. 🙂

Here’s a glimpse of what’s happening at GymRep Camp in Quebec. A flash mob in the middle of training.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Highly recommended.

GymRep.com (English)

Full report coming soon. In the meantime, picture a cross between Gym and Cirque du Soleil. They have 12 bungie spotting rigs over Beams, for example. 🙂

Olympics ends …

For me. 😦

Artistic and Trampoline have concluded.

BEAM
GOLD: Deng Linlin, China
SILVER: Sui Lu, China
BRONZE: Aly Raisman, USA … after appeal of score

After all the grief Aly’s puts up with online, she’s one of the most successful American Olympians 2012. Consistency rewarded. Congratulations.

P BARS
GOLD: Feng Zhe, China
SILVER: Marcel Nguyen, Germany
BRONZE: Hamilton Sabot, France

H BAR
GOLD: Epke Zonderland, Netherlands
SILVER: Fabian Hambuechen, Germany
BRONZE: Zou Kai, China

FLOOR
GOLD: Aly Raisman, USA
SILVER: Catalina Ponor, ROM
BRONZE: Aliya Mustafina, RUS … ahead of the Ferrari after tie break

Sandra Izbasa, sadly, had a fall.

Examiner – Quick hits: Gymnastics event finals day three at the 2012 Olympic Games

last day Gymnastics finals

We’re watching the greatest gymnasts who ever lived.

Or are we?

Mike Jacki, former president of USA Gymnastics and a past member of the FIG Executive Committee, on Facebook:

Here’s my 2 cents…

While having dinner with former FIG President Yuri Titov a number of years ago, we started talking about the Olympics. Yuri told him his toughest Olympic Games was Melbourne in 1956. When I asked why, he told me the boat trip from the Soviet Union to Australia took 20 days! He said they had a parallel bar and pommel horse on deck but the boat rocked so much it was difficult to train.

The USSR traveled to the Olympics on a boat!

I saw a quote in the LA Times where a USA Gymnastics coach said that this year’s team is the best women’s Gymnastics team ever. That made me cringe! Not because the USA Girls are not a great team, they are… they are the Olympic Champions. …

During the men’s all around finals, Al Trautwig of NBC said that Uchimura is “possibly the greatest male gymnast of all time.” As John McEnroe would say, “you can’t be serious!” Besides his errors during his performance in the team championships, what is the basis of such a statement other than NBC trying to drive up its ratings and get people to continue to watch the Games? While he did win the all-around, his performance was certainly less than stellar. Remember Vitaly Scherbo? He had a pretty decent Olympic Games in 1992. Go back a few years when Sawao Kato of Japan won back-to-back Olympic All-around titles and 8 Gold Medals in 3 Olympics. Again, my point; Sorry Al… no way to establish a real way to compare.

My final point … Our women’s team was great this year….Olympic Champions!! But so was the women’s team that won in 1996… Olympic Champions!

Which was better? Sorry… can’t realistically come up with a true answer… I can give you 100 differences between the two… starting with a pretty obvious one…

That was 16 years and 4 Olympics ago! Remember Nadia? She competed on a wood beam, with wood bars and on a floor that was like tumbling on a sting mat over concrete. How about the old wooden vaulting boards…. OK, no comment! Are you getting this?

Anyway, I would strongly suggest we praise our champions, applaud their accomplishments and be grateful for their talents. And we should also remember the many many great athletes that came before, that paved the way, that continued to progress and establish the new standards the sport enjoyed year after year. And for those that achieved the ultimate success as Olympic or World Champions, their awards, their talents and their accomplishments are timeless…. always will be… always should be.

Bring back the 10.0

It’s difficult to compare different eras of gymnastics, true. Far simpler is comparing athletes in the 100m dash. Click the graphic to watch a fantastic short video posted on the NY Times.

Usain Bolt vs. 116 years of Olympic sprinters

Uchimura IS the greatest gymnast all-time, though, factoring everything. 🙂