Author: Rick Mc

Anne Phillips, founder of Gymnastike, continues a series of gymnasts to watch on each apparatus.

I like this pick:

Another bar routine that caught my eye at Nationals last year was Elise Wheeler of Southern Utah. She qualified as an individual All Arounder again this year as she is very pleasant to watch on bars. Here is a clip of Elise from bar training at last year’s Nationals:

Click PLAY or watch Elise on Gymnastike.

http://www.gymnastike.org/assets/portal/add_ons/mediaplayer-4.2/player.swf

That was one year ago today, podium training. And this year podium training is actually on podium.

Aunt Joyce (who’s here at Championships) calls Elise Someone To Root For:

… Gifted with beautiful lines, a natural dance ability and great athletic ability, Elise Wheeler came back to the sport and has now qualified to the NCAA Championships as an individual all-arounder for the third consecutive year. Elise embodies the perfect combination of beauty, grace, precision and power. …

It would be wonderful to see an athlete from a smaller program, the Southern Utah Thunderbirds, win a medal.

Click through to see Anne’s other strong College Bar routines: Gymnastike – Uneven Bar Routines to Watch for at the 2010 NCAA Championships

Anna Li is the routine to beat, most agree.

=== Update:

Here are Anne’s Beam routines to watch. I’m not really loving any of those linked, aside from Vanessa Zamarripa.

McCool has the experience and rock solid routine to win this apparatus, IF she qualifies for the Final.

Coach tweeted: “She’s got nothing to prove.”

True. But I don’t know whether that helps, or not, as an apparatus specialist.

Dan Kendig last night brought his team and coaching staff to La Nouba in Orlando, en route to NCAA Championships in Gainesville.

Huskers Head to 2010 NCAA Championships

La Nouba Head Coach Mathew Sparks took the team on a backstage tour, the girls getting to speak with a number of the performers.

Nebraska Assistant Coach Tim Garrison told me this was the first time he had seen Cirque live. La Nouba is one of the most acrobatic of all Cirque performances.

I couldn’t resist.

… two thick and juicy boneless white meat chicken filets (Original Recipe® or Grilled), two pieces of bacon, two melted slices of Monterey Jack and pepper jack cheese and Colonel’s Sauce. …

It’s as disgustingly delicious as it looks!

… the sodium content is high — a whopping 1,380 milligrams — more than a half-teaspoon’s worth of salt. For comparison’s sake, the American Heart Association recommends people eat less than 1,500 mg of sodium in an entire day.

Considering the rising consciousness on healthy eating — from rules that will require calorie counts on menus nationwide to Jamie Oliver teaching kids in West Virginia to make better food choices — it was pretty gutsy of KFC to market a product that sandwiches bacon and mayo-based sauce between two pieces of fried chicken.

Still, KFC’s new creation might surprise you a little on the nutritional front. At 540 calories, the Double Down, though not exactly a dieting food, is 90 calories lighter than McDonald’s Premium Crispy Chicken Club Sandwich. …

NPR – The Nutritional Lowdown On KFC’s Double Down

UPDATE – Is it really 540 calories? Or more like 1190 calories? (via JAO)

This crime against humanity will not be sold in Canada. America’s rank as the most obese major nation is safe, for now.

And just in case Wendy’s wants to challenge, KFC has this “sandwich” in the lab …

(via This is why you’re Fat)

How cool is it to compete on a full podium?

Click PLAY or watch Anne’s night-before-podium-training preview on Gymnastike.

http://www.gymnastike.org/assets/portal/add_ons/mediaplayer-4.2/player.swf

Gymnastics Videos on Gymnastike

This is the SEC podium, I believe, used every year at SEC Championships.

If you have a prediction on the top teams, click through to the Gymnastike Super Six Prediction Contest!

(Most feel UCLA will win. The rest are going with either undefeated Oklahoma or host Florida.)

First The Beatles. Then Elvis. You had to guess that Cirque would get Michael Jackson.

The magic of Cirque du Soleil and the genius of the King of Pop will be combined in the creation, development, and production of Michael Jackson projects based on the music and songs of Michael Jackson.

An arena-touring show is expected to debut in late Fall 2011 and a Las Vegas permanent show is expected to open in late 2012.

Cirque

The possibilities are fantastic, of course.

Click PLAY or watch an odd preview on YouTube.

More jobs for more acrobats.

The favoured Russian women’s team will be able to get to European Championships in the U.K., but the men are not going.

by Google translation of the official notice in Russian:

Men’s Russian team, unfortunately, will not be able to participate in the European Championship, as there is the slightest opportunity to get to Birmingham because of the volcanic eruption in Iceland, which resulted in the British sky was in a fog of volcanic dust. Told head coach, a member of the Board UEG, Andrei Rodionenko: “In this situation, due to the volcanic eruption in Iceland were all deleted from the British team. At the European Championships did not go as teams of Ukraine, Belarus, Georgia and Armenia. There are reports that the Portuguese are also unable to get to the United Kingdom. It is known that Belgian national team traveled to Birmingham 11 hours, while the Spanish national team, this trip took 30 hours. Therefore, UEG and the Organizing Committee along with the national federations have done everything that the team could come to the continental championship. UEG will not apply any sanctions against those teams, who were unable to get to Birmingham. ”

As told Andrei Rodionenko, UEG collects a separate meeting on the issue of selection to the Youth Olympic Games in Singapore, as the European Youth Championship is a qualifying for these games. UEG will do everything to athletes who have suffered from natural disasters, could pass a full selection at Youth Games to be held this summer. According to the Rodionenko currently FSGR and the organizing committee of women’s European Championship are doing everything that the Russian women’s team was able to easily get to England.

Thanks Kaoru-no-kimi.

Update – Portugal did find a way to get to the competition.

How many more will cancel due to travel problems?

I’d earlier predicted that Susan Jackson of LSU would, again, win Vault. She has two proven different vaults for Finals.

Several people repled with this:

If you remember, last season Vanessa made the NCAA vault event final but didn’t have a second vault so just competed a yurchenko layout. This summer, she learned a Podkapayeva Lopez (layout Podkapayeva) vault:

Click PLAY or watch Vanessa’s “second” vault on YouTube.

She’s got a sky high, clean Yurchenko 1/1 too, of course.

Anne Phillips, founder of Gymnastike, is posting a series of gymnasts to watch on each apparatus.

Click through to see her other strong College vaulters: Gymnastike – Vaults to Watch for at the 2010 NCAA Championships

… The Chris Evans Breakfast Show is the flagship show on BBC Radio 2 in the United Kingdom. …

Here Chris and … some other guy … give gymnastics a go at Heathrow Gymnastics Club.

Click PLAY or watch it on BBC.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/emp/external/player.swf

(via Beth Tweddle and Full Twist)

Normally the most extreme trampoline videos feature … Jason Burnette.

But the Hinerikko team from Japan is doing some things (perhaps) that even Jason hasn’t done.

http://www.facebook.com/v/xxx

Video posted by Trampolining on Facebook. (Sorry for the crappy quality of the video. Fact is, video and photos on Facebook are crappy. Please post videos to YouTube, then link them from Facebook.)

There’s more, much better resolution, on the Hinerikko YouTube channel.

This was linked by Cirque casting scout Marceline Goldstein. She’ll be at NCAA Championships this weekend in Florida.

This Chinese acrobats show many stunts I’d never seen before. They work up to a “5 high” balance.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube. (A quarter million views.)

Thanks Chris, from Vegas, for sending us the link.