Author: Rick Mc

I visited impressive “Parque das Nações” (Park of the Nations), a city of the future built atop the Expo ’98 site.

See more of my photos of the park. And Google photos.

This was the venue for the 2003 World Gymnastrada. Click PLAY or watch an old promo vid on YouTube.

Thanks to gymnastics educator, Paulo Barata, who brought me here while I was visiting surprising Lisbon. (He’s busy translating books and documentation into Portuguese, the fifth most spoken language in the world.)

Michael Jackson THE IMMORTAL World Tour is a pop rock concert created by Cirque du Soleil. It premieres to the general public in Montreal Oct. 2nd, 2011.

From there it tours Canada and Detroit before moving to the western States. (tour schedule)

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Talk about a hot ticket. This thing will sell out fast.

Details are emerging:

… 90-minute concert will involve approximately 65 artists (including dancers, acrobats and other performers), with auditions beginning this month in Los Angeles, Paris and New York …

Depending on the response, the show — reportedly the Cirque’s most expensive touring show ever — could also travel abroad in 2012 …

Cirque is also working with the estate on a separate Jackson-themed show for the MGM Mirage … in Las Vegas in 2012. …

CBC

So, THE IMMORTAL is the first of two MJ Cirque shows.

Here’s another of those computer voiced gymnastics cartoons, not nearly as hilarious as WHEN WILL MY SUSIE START KIPPING?

created by ramon3075:

… I did this as a way of making someone else laugh. No disrespect to either gymnasts. ? They are both great. It was something fun to do and hope someone is able to get a good laugh from it. …

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

(via Anna Plourde on Facebook)

Since they host the Commonwealth Games 2014 in this awesome venue:

… why not follow up with Worlds the year after.

Glasgow reveals bid for 2015 World Gymnastics Championships

I expect FIG will vote unanimously for Scotland when the decision is made May 2011.

The hosts of 2013 and 2014 have not yet been decided.

More good communication from the International Gymnastics Federation. We never got this kind of information, this fast, in the past.

It’s in rooms like this that lives of coaches and gymnasts are decided:

The Authorities accepted nationality changes for … gymnasts Siyana Vasileva, from Bulgaria to Azerbaijan;; Elizarova Darya, from Russia to Uzbekistan; and Charlotte McKenna, from Great Britain to Ireland. …

The FIG revealed that all thirty doping controls carried out at the Rhythmic Worlds in Moscow came back negative; results from Rotterdam have not yet been announced. …

… average age of female gymnasts, which has gone from 17.68 years in Stuttgart 2007 to 18.14 today. …

… fourteen recorded accidents in Rotterdam …

read more – FIG Executive meets

Rotterdam was such a success that, in my opinion, the injury rate is now the #1 remaining issue. How many wheelchairs and stretchers left the Ahoy arena?

There’s much jockeying for position by Michel Léglise (FRA) and Adrian Stoica (ROM) both whom plan to run to replace Bruno Grandi (ITA) when he eventually steps down. Grandi was unopposed last election, recall.

I laughed out loud to see a non-issue continued over on the excellent Australian Gymnastics Blog: Thoughts on Gymbloggery:

”Blogs” and other new media vs “old media” (AP, magazines, national sports media, etc.) … at the World Gymnastics Championships in Rotterdam.

Do you find them more or less useful than official reporting sources?
Do you find them more or less credible than official reporting sources?
Do you think they should be allowed to have media accreditation at big events? …

Fact is the line is so blurred now it’s difficult to tell the difference. FIG and USAG were legitimate 24/7 sources of useful news in Rotterdam, same as the blogs. Better, at times.

International Gymnast magazine was excellent on Facebook. Just about as good as THE ALL AROUND blog. (Happily we were spared IG publisher Paul Ziert‘s “ALERTS” this time, though he was there. Paul is only right about 50% of the time in my opinion. A quality source of misinformation.)

Stick It Media actually knows what’s going on.

The biggest difference between new media and old is that new media paid their own way to Rotterdam. And worked twice as many hours as old media. Those who are getting paid treat it as a job, not a passion.

In the middle row is Anne Phillips, founder of Gymnastike.org.

Like every other night, she was always the last to leave the arena. Some nights we were locked into the Ahoy, improvising escape routes.

Anne, Blythe (Gymnastics Examiner) and Brigid (Couch Gymnast) worked by far the most hours and produced more content than anyone else there.

There is no issue.

If you don’t want to read free blogs, don’t.

Wait to watch it on TV. Or read about it on Inside Gymnastics a month or two later.

I feel there are still far too few sources of information. We need a WAG Judging blog. A Beam choreography blog. A Floor Music blog.

If you have a special expertise, please jump in.

Now that Dragon’s new circus show, House of Dancing Water, is up-and-running in Macao, they are auditioning for another.

Franco Dragone and Dreamworks Animation are creating a new sensational international touring show, “Kung Fu Panda” based on the characters “Po” and the “Furious Five”.

APPLICANTS MUST BE 18 YEARS OF AGE AND HAVE PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Click through to the auditions page on Facebook for details.

Almost everyone recognizes Carol-Angela, coach of Elyse Hopfner-Hibbs who won beam bronze in Aarhus 2006. She was long time coach at the now defunct Seneca, Toronto.

Carol-Angela left Canada for the U.K. after the 2008 Olympics, and married Eddie Van Hoof, British men’s technical director.

I’m not at all surprised to see this official announcement:

British Gymnastics is delighted to announce the appointment of former Canadian National Technical Advisor Carol-Angela Orchard to the role of Women’s National Coach – Beam & Artistic Preparation. …

… Carol-Angela prides herself on innovation and has the honour of creating 5 original elements on Beam & Floor named by the FIG after her gymnasts, and included in the official Code of Points. …

British Gymnastics appoint new Women’s Artistic Coach

Good call.

(via Full Twist and More Than The Games)

This should be good.

The “Freddy Cup” Grand Prix competition Nov. 13th in Sardinia, Italy.

The new World Champion, Aliya Mustafina, (after a short training break) will compete against 2 wonderkinds:

… Russia’s Viktoria Komova, winner of this year’s Youth Olympic Games and Junior European championships, and China’s Tan Sixin, balance beam and floor exercise champion at the Youth Olympic Games. Both gymnasts were too young to compete at last month’s world championships in Rotterdam, but will be eligible for senior competition in 2011. …

IG – Mustafina, Morandi Headline ‘Freddy Cup’

Blythe of Gymnastics Examiner was impressed with the unusual circus like format of the mixed pairs Swiss Cup. Elisabeth Seitz and Fabian Hambuechen walked off with the $30,000 first prize.

“It’s kind of a show competition,” Jeffrey Wammes remarked. He’s right — the arena is bathed in blue light for the entire meet and each country had a different, carefully selected piece of music played before its gymnasts compete. Before a Romanian competed, we heard snippets of O-Zone’s “Dragostea din tai.” The French had an intriguing techno-mix. The Germans and Italians had big band pieces.

… NCAA men’s coaches seeking to attract people to their meets ought to visit and take notes on the program …

read more – 2010 Swiss Cup notes: A few last thoughts…

more photos