Author: Rick Mc

One of the toughest skills ever competed is named after Tina.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Tina Erceg is the only female gymnast ever to represent independent Croatia at the Olympic Games.

related – IG interview

Eileen Langsley has 4 excellent portfolios of photos from the World Gymnastics Championships.

On her blog she recaps the challenges of shooting there:

In Rotterdam TV introduced the Spidercam for the first time at a gymnastics event. This was a remote overhead camera, supported on four strong cables which were slung across the arena. …

For the photographers, the camera and its cables proved to be a real headache in that you would find yourself a nice clean angle to shoot a piece of apparatus then at the last moment Spidercam would move into the background and become a feature of the image. …

… A number of people were accredited as photographers who had little or no experience of working in this kind of environment. Not only did they shoot as if there was no tomorrow, creating the most unbelievable amount of motor drive noise but they felt it was quite alright to speak to the gymnasts, try to get them to pose for pictures and so on. On a number of occasions I had to move away from some of these snappers …

Inevitably with photographers at the same level as the gymnasts and coaches, it was very easy to get images blocked when they moved around, warmed up or a TV crew moved in for a shot. …

Dutch Courage

An interesting read. Certainly Japan next year will have even more media. Coaches and athletes should be better protected than in Rotterdam.

LangsleySports.com

(via Full Twist)

The 2010 Asian Games (XVI Asiad) in Guangzhou

… The two-week-long competition triggered spending of 122 billion yuan ($18.3 billion) on projects including stadiums, roads and subway lines. That compares with the 9.3 billion-pound ($14.7 billion) budget set in March 2007 for the London Games.

Nanjing, the capital of Jiangsu province, will host the Youth Olympic Games in 2014. …

Bloomberg

This 2001 purpose built structure is called the “Olympic Stadium“, as originally it was meant to be used for some events of the 2008 Olympics.

Capacity 80,012.

Guangzhou (Canton), China has a greater population of around 25 million.

There’s no recession there. Growth was 11.5% last fiscal year.

Guangdong justifies the amount of spent as mostly infrastructure. I partly buy that argument in light of the fantastic rate of growth.

In qualifications.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

He did half out (Dragalescu) in Finals. … Is there anything he can’t do?

Thanks Skyler. Thanks Ono.

Recall that French gymnast Youna Dufournet was still injured for the World Championships. (She was 5th AA at the same meet in 2009.)

Check her 14.80 Bars on YouTube. No Def.

That was at the French National Championships this weekend.

AA
WAG senior:
1. Marine Petit
2. Youna Dufournet
3. Laurie Antoniazzi
4. Marine Brevet
5. Aurélie Malaussena
6. Sophia Serseri

WAG junior:
1. Anne Kuhm
2. Doriane Thobie
3. Toscane Bougeard
4. Sarah-Line Errin
5. Manon Cormorèche

(via IG forum)

I’ve got to stop making light of this girl.

She scored 58.30.

IG – Nabiyeva Wins Pas-de-Calais International

Blythe Lawrence is there. Details on Gymnastics Examiner including this post – Notes on the training hall and other things at Pas-de-Calais

In fact, Blythe has already linked videos from most of the routines in finals.

2010 Japanese Championships.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

I recall Artimev warming these up a few years ago. He did it well, but couldn’t land.

One commenter says Kohei is doing Dragalescu vault, as well.

(via Gymnastics Examiner)

The top breakdance guys today are far, far beyond the best Artistic gymnasts. And beyond some of the best Acrobatic gymnasts.

Amazing.

Click PLAY or watch the compilation on YouTube.

When we criticize Men’s Artistic Gymnastics Floor for ‘lack of artistry”. Or lack of aesthetics … I always think of the Japanese Men’s RG Teams.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Those guys are totally amazing. Yet I don’t want Artistic to go that far. Nor do I want to see 6 tumbling passes with Zou Kai non-corner moves.

Somewhere in between.

I saw that linked from a Rhythmic blogger Stella Angelova: My opinion is the one that matters (some profanity)

A. Bruce Frederick has been one of the most prolific gymnastics authors.

Now retired, he still maintains an interesting site called Roots of American Gymnastics featuring some highlights from this table of contents:

You can order the entire book of his 3rd Ed. for $22 including S&H in the USA.