Author: Rick Mc

Rie won the Longines Prize for Elegance, an excellent and surprising pick. After all, they once chose Shawn Johnson.

At 23yrs-old, she is a striking gymnast with great presence.

Click PLAY or watch her Bars on YouTube.

The Japanese women are under rated and under appreciated still. That’s going to change at Worlds in Tokyo next year under their intense media spotlight.

Full Twist links to all 4 of her routines.

Her brother Kazuhito is on the Men’s team in Rotterdam. And father Shoji was in Rotterdam, cheering his kids, and recalling his own days competing at Worlds.

In an All-Around competition the two time World Champion, Kohei Uchimura, would be many points ahead of YouTube phenom gymnast Charlie Tamayo.

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But what if we had them in the training gym together?

Charlie is a much more explosive vaulter and tumbler. Charlie would be better on any trampoline challenge.

Uchimura would love to be pushed. I heard he was quoted this week as saying gymnastics is so easy, he finds it boring at times.

Charlie Tamayo is still trying to get U.S. citizenship, by the way, training full-time for 2012:

… It is my dream to become a member of the US mens gymnastics team and compete in the 2012 Olympic Games.

Born in Havana, Cuba, I defected to the United states in 2003 during the World Championships feeling it was the best chance I had at making a better life for me and my family.

… I have trained in gymnastics for 26 years and now face my most important challenge, making the 2012 Olympic team.

Charlie had a bad meet at Winter Cup last year. But any of the guys who have trained with him know he’s an instant threat to win a Worlds or Olympic medal on Floor or Vault.

Show Charlie some love by clicking through to Tamayo 2012. He’s looking for financial support, too.

The USA is looking to build an Olympic Gold medal team around Hamm and Horton. That’s a combination even Team China will fear. Add the right routines in support of those two in a 3-up, 3-count final. … I could see Charlie Tamayo in that scenario.

On the other hand, the USA has more depth than an other nation. They’ll be all sorts of guys fighting to get on the team in London. I just wish Charlie was a Pommel specialist.

He’s impressed with the globalization of gymnastics.

GYMmedia exclusive interview with the former and again current Rumanian national coach Octavian BELU, one day before the beginning of the team competition of the 2010 World Championships …

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

20 girls!

… Now that’s a tough line-up to make.

UCLA – roster

Expect to see one or two disappear before the start of season.

She’s stolen Nathan Gafuik’s jacket. … And his high heels?

Am I the first to notice that this girl has attitude?
🙂

From the Facebook album: … 2010 by Tanya Nabieva

Alexandrov warned her to be in shape for training after the post-worlds break. Good luck to him.

The old man of Soviet Gymnastics looks great. Has never been more verbose.

And at 5min 30sec he looks at the prototype J&F beam with a flaired end to facilitate dismounts.

GYMmedia exclusive interview with one of the worldwide most successful coach, the former Soviet and Russian men’s and women’s chief coach and long-time President of the Russian Gymnastics Federation Leonid Arkayev.

Of course Arkayev IS the world’s most successful coach, having won more World and Olympic medals than any other. But he hasn’t been at Worlds since 2003.

Click PLAY or watch a lengthy interview on GymMEDIA’s YouTube channel.

LADMMI, l’école de danse contemporaine, in Montreal, is making a Canadian tour, looking for students wanting to become professional dancers. The equivalent of a a 3-year college level education.

Vancouver, BC – October 30th
Toronto – November 2nd
Halifax – November 7th

details

Did the World Vault Champion land …

… in the Corridor, but close to the corridor line.

If so, that’s a 0.1 deduction.

Screen grab from this video of her Rudi in Finals.

Personally, I think not. That 0.1 penalty has not often been taken in the past. Was not taken for other gymnasts in Rotterdam much more off line.

And the wording in English is vague. It should say “one foot on the line”, or something specific.

In that Final that Alicia Sacramone was easily best.

I’m sure we’ll hear other opinions.

related posts – … 0.1 penalty on Vault (compare Nabieva and Mustafina)

Remember the days when gymnasts from only a handful of nations would qualify to the Finals at the World Gymnastics Championships.

No more.

EIGHT different countries were represented in the men’s pommel horse final, and NONE of them were China or Japan?

In fact, none of the top four teams from the team final were represented in the pommel horse final, and this created a very unique and diversified field that included Hungary, Great Britain, Australia, France, Croatia, Armenia, Belgium, and Slovenia! All non-powerhouse countries, and what’s even better…it was one of the best pommel horse finals ever! Six guys scored above a 15, and we’re seeing some of the coolest and most stylish pommel horse routines ever done. …

Andrew Thornton – American Gymnast – Top Three Highlights of Event Finals Day 1

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How are gymnasts from Venezuela and Armenia finishing top 10 in the world?

The main reason, I feel, is the diaspora of coaches from the former Soviet Union. Skillful coaches find talent wherever they end up.

On the Men’s side, the emergence of specialists has really helped smaller nations compete.

It’s a great trend, in any case.

Young coaches get sick and tired of us dinosaurs always talking about the Golden Age of women’s gymnastics, the late 1980s Soviet Teams.

One of those dinosaurs, Queen Elisabeth, has started a new blog called Russian gymnastics – risk, originality, virtuosity:

… For the past 17 years, since the break up of the Soviet Union, gymnastics has stagnated somewhat. If you are a fan of British or American gymnastics, or any of the other states who have benefitted hugely from the ‘retirement’ of the Soviet Union from big-time sport …

I agree.

Especially since so many of those Russian gymnasts and coaches migrated around the world. (See a partial list of former Soviets at Rotterdam.)

… I’ll give you a link to a routine that I consider to represent the epitome of ROV….

I’ve chosen beam as an example of the degradation of ROV in the sport because to me it’s where the changes in the sport have become most obvious. The gymnast is Tatiana Groshkova, who rested on the margins of the Soviet team around the late 1980s and early 1990s. …

Click PLAY or watch Tatiana Groshkova Beam on YouTube.

Click PLAY or watch Deng LinLin‘s 2009 World’s Gold medal routine on Youtube.

Deng’s form is obviously beautiful, the somersaults are high, the exercise is technically correct. However, where is the ‘routine’? What makes this exercise more than an assemblage of difficulties out of the pages of the Code of Points? …

read more – What is this about? Gymnastics at a turning point?

Agree?

Check that blog for yourself – Russian gymnastics – risk, originality, virtuosity

(via Full Twist)

Groshkova was first to compete double full-in on Floor (VIDEO), in an era when it wasn’t needed to have the maximum 10.0 start.

She was simply trying to earn a spot on the Soviet A team.

Update: Canadian gymnast Anysia Unick does the Groshkova sideways backspring (Tousek). Who else is using it in 2010?