The Youth Olympics feature many of the same sports as the regular Olympics, but often with a mixed-gender and/or team twist. Some of those variations could find their way onto the Olympic program, as sports try to widen their appeal and offer more medal opportunities to participating athletes. …
The Winter Youth Olympics include mixed-gender events in alpine skiing, biathlon, cross-country skiing, curling, figure skating, luge, short-track speedskating and ski jumping. …
The U.S. curling team, comprised of Massachusetts resident Korey Dropkin, New Jersey resident Thomas Howell and twins Sarah and Taylor Anderson from Pennsylvania, was the only team to go undefeated in round-robin play this week …
The Senior National Team and 2011 Visa Championships Qualifier is by invite only, a who’s who of Men’s Gymnastics USA. See the list of registered athletes here. (PDF)
Thursday Feb. 2nd is prelims, Saturday Feb. 4th Finals.
Cirque du Soleil’s Lisa Jones (lisa.jones@cirquedusoleil.com) will be on hand to talk to any coaches who have questions regarding future career opportunities.
Sarah Burke (September 3, 1982 – January 19, 2012) was a Canadian freestyle skier who grew up in Midland, Ontario, Canada. She later resided in Whistler, British Columbia.
… On January 10, 2012 Burke was seriously injured while training on the Park City Mountain Resort Eagle superpipe in Park City, Utah. …
Onlookers reported that Burke had completed a trick fairly well yet fell onto her head, and the accident did not appear to be very severe. Moments later, however, she went into cardiac arrest while still on the ski slope …
Sarah Burke - four-time Winter X Games champion in halfpipe skiing
The Rhythmic Gymnastics Finals concluded the Visa International Gymnastics, which as part of the London Prepares series functioned as Test Event for the 2012 London Olympic Games as well as the final Olympic qualifier. …
Individual All-around
Gold KONDAKOVA Daria RUS 110.450
Silver RIZATDINOVA Ganna UKR 108.750
Bronze ALYABYEVA Anna KAZ 108.075
Group All-around
Gold ESP – Spain 53.250
Silver ISR – Israel 50.525
Bronze FRA – France 50.400
Bronze GRE – Greece 50.400
Lord Sebastian Coe, Bruno GrandiProf. Bruno Grandi:
… “I am pleased that our gymnasts now have a second chance at participation in the Games, an initiative that aims to bring greater justice to the sport. But as with all new concepts, we will need to revisit certain criteria, details, that some feel are still too complicated. …”
… the Finals in Artistic and Trampoline enjoyed spectacular audience success from a media standpoint. “This is the first time that the FIG has independently produced the signal of a Final. We have chosen to embrace a modern philosophy by live broadcasting on our “Gymnastics” You Tube channel. We have integrated social networks into our global communication package, which has proven very successful. …
I’d agree. Overall the event was excellent, especially for the YouTube Finals feed and videos.
Dwight Normile was more critical of the new system:
… The biggest losers were the Canadian men and Spanish women, both of whom would have qualified under the old rules with their 12th-place finishes in Tokyo.
It would make a lot more sense to use the test event specifically for individual qualification. And if the FIG really wants to raise the level of competition at the Olympics, then it should reduce the number of all-around berths and add more top specialists via the previous worlds apparatus finals. …
… My standout memories from that 2009 meet were her floor routine, a lilting waltz performed like no other gymnast there- even the most impeccably drilled-at-the-ballet bar Russian or Chinese girls.
Another memory is of seeing her standing in the food area being hounded for autographs by legions of new young fans. The then-head coach Nicolae Forminte was standing patiently for a few minutes while she signed programs. Eventually he placed a tender, fatherly arm around her and led her away, telling the disappointed fans that she needed her sleep. This man already knew what precious cargo he had in this gymnast. …
We have Level 1A, B and C. 1A is floor only, 1B and C are floor and vault. The competition structure introduced some changes for 2012 – 2013 to allow for more progression in the sport. …
Would love to see someone draw up comparisons between the different countries …
I hadn’t noticed at the time, but Daniel Keatings competed as 1st competitor on each apparatus at London Test Meet.
Did you have to do anything before the London Prepares event to try and overcome your nerves and prepare for the event?
After the disappointment at the World Championships in Tokyo we got some additional help from a psychologist who taught us some techniques to overcome nerves.
What did you think of your performance at the London Prepares event?
I was really pleased with my performance as I went clean on all apparatus, but more so because I was asked to do a specific job for the Team by performing first on every apparatus, to help settle the Team and hopefully get off to a good start. This is a lot more difficult than it sounds and is very uncommon in gymnastics, but it really shows how we have grown as a team since Tokyo as all of our focus was on the Team and the right result for the Team.
Did you and the rest of Team GB celebrate afterwards?
After the competition we were all physically and mentally drained, so we all celebrated by having an early night. I know it’s not rock star like, but we have an even bigger job to do now…
Daniel took more heat than anyone else in Tokyo after the disastrous 9th place team finish. So it was great to see him and Eddie take the podium at the Press Conference following their superb (near perfect) team performance in London. Both are fantastic media spokesmen, getting PLENTY of practice in the run-up to Olympics.
Eddie deflected my question deftly regarding whether his team could afford to carry an event specialist when team size drops to 5 men:
… Eddie van Hoof, the British Gymnastics technical director, said there was “a good chance” that the pommel specialist Louis Smith, who won a bronze medal at the Beijing Games, would have to cover other apparatus in the team competition. On Tuesday, he competed only in the pommel. “We will look at structure and look at Louis to cover other apparatus but also at our best medal chances. Louis is also good at parallel bars and, surprisingly, the rings as well,” said Van Hoof. …
The past few years he has been in Vet School at the University of Illinois but has taken a year off to train for the 2012 Olympics. He competed in the Windy City Invite which is his first competition since 2009. David talks about what brought him back to the sport, how his training is going, and how his first competition back went for him.
Gymnastics Coaching.com 