… a student at Eastern Illinois University, she was known for her lightning speed on the racetrack, setting records in the 400- and 600-meter sprints.
After graduating from college in 2005, a friend introduced her to the world of Figure, and the girl hasn’t looked back. With a sixth-place finish in last year’s Olympia and first-place win at IFBB’s Ft. Lauderdale Cup, the former track star is still turning heads.
Ten days after the United States went to war in the Persian Gulf, Whitney Houston performed the greatest rendition of the Star Spangled Banner in sports history.
On Jan. 27, 1991, Houston took the field at Tampa Stadium prior to Super Bowl XXV to sing the national anthem. The US was at war in Iraq and the game between the New York Giants and Buffalo Bills was serving as a welcome respite from the televised reports of scud bombs and cease fires.
The pop star had recorded the vocal weeks before in a Los Angeles studio and lip-synched the song at the Super Bowl, but few in the crowd of 73,000 or the 110 million watching at home seemed to notice. …
There’s plenty of women’s Collegiate commentary online this year. But my favourite has been the new Balance Beam Situation blog:
LIVE Friday, Feb. 10th:
… Over in Florida, Marissa King got a 9.725 on vault, so there’s no point to continue living. Alaina Johnson goes 9.950, so they’ll manage to get along somehow…They end up dropping King’s score and counting a 9.800 from Spicer. …
… Okay, we have to talk about Ashanee Dickerson going into the 9.9s on bars for the second time in a row at home…
… AH! Hunter goes 9.975 (and breaks 9.9 on all three of her events)- so Florida scores 49.625 on floor and ends with a new season record of 197.850.
In the news, Brianna Brown of CGA has verballed to Georgia. This is not a surprise given the discussion a while back about Jay getting himself on board the CGA train in a big old way. Since Whitcomb, Jetter, and Williams were already spoken for, it was assumed he would be courting Brown and Hundley. Priessman is in a different boat since elite success in the next quad may alter her NCAA trajectory. …
Georgia records a strong 49.275 on vault, led by Ding’s 9.900. This is the pace they need to go over 197 this week (which should be the goal), but they will hope to go higher on bars, where they have a little more 9.9 potential. …
Ack – Shayla has another issue on bars for Georgia (it’s always something), meaning they will count Tanella’s 9.750 – opening the door for Arkansas who scored 49.300 on vault. Kat Ding saves the day, so Georgia scores a respectable 49.175 and maintain the lead over Arkansas by .250. …
Carol-Angela Orchard coached dozens of international gymnasts including Worlds Beam Bronze medalist Elyse Hopfner-Hibbs and Peng Peng Lee.
CA left Canada for the U.K. after the 2008 Olympics and married Eddie Van Hoof, British Men’s Technical Director. Currently she’s GBR Women’s National Coach – Beam & Artistic Preparation.
Shannon … was in Seattle today to promote next month’s Pacific Rim Gymnastics Championships …
… About that double-twisting Yurchenko…Miller, who most often competed a half-twisting Yurchenko or 1.5 twist on vault, remembers doing a DTY at “one competition…I’m not sure that it was very pretty.” (The meet was a U.S. Classic, she thinks, but she’s not entirely sure.) For gymnastics fans, Miller’s DTY is something of a unicorn — a few people have sworn they’ve seen one, but it’s very rare.
Vault utterly terrified her. Miller referred to her “My coach called me knob knees, and I had little toothpick legs, that didn’t generate much power on vault,” she said. As an event, vault was her “nemesis,” she said.
She’s “not a big fan” of the current code of points. “I hope that we get back to more artistry in the sport so that there’s a better balance between the beauty of gymnastics and the difficulty of the skills,” she said. …
She and Huang Qiushuang both fell (VIDEO) at Worlds the year prior. 😦
I don’t see any way China would bring He Kexin to the London Olympics — unless they decide to forfeit a chance for Team medal in exchange for more apparatus medals. … Possible, but unlikely.
Gymnastics Coaching.com 