Author: Rick Mc

NBC is hoping their Winter Olympics TV coverage will help viewers forget about Conan O’Brien.

On Wednesday’s episode of The Colbert Report, comedian Stephen missed out on his personal bid to qualify to the Vancouver Games as a U.S. Olympic athlete. (He thought it owed to him after he led a fundraising drive that collected $300,000 for USA Speedskating.)

It came down to this: a race between world champion speedskater Shani Davis and Colbert. The winner would get the last position on the U.S. Olympic Speedskating Team to Vancouver.

Shani had called Colbert “a Jerk”. This was a grudge match.

Davis won by 13 minutes.

On the bright side, after the loss Colbert was named “Assistant Sports Psychologist” to the Team. He’s coming to Vancouver.

Event better, on the same T.V. show, NBC Olympics chairman Dick Ebersol invited Colbert to join NBC as a colour commentator, saying he could give updates on Shani Davis.

Colbert will be one of the highlights of these Games for me.

We’ve posted this before.

But it’s worth looking at again.

Michelle Browning is still competing this amazing vault, scoring 9.825 last weekend.

Click PLAY or watch it on Gymnastike.

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

Who else has done this vault in College?

… former Penn State gymnast Michelle Ilg. … Gina Bruce of Nebraska …

(via gymfan86 on College Gymnastics Board)

UPDATE: Kristine Garbarino from WMU does a variation of this vault, too. Training video 2009.

UPDATE: Level 10 Ebony Walters is competing this vault, as well. (several errors in that article, BTW)

Translation of an interview with the Romanian gymnast who finished 4th on Rings at the last World Championships.

…
There have been rumors in the gymnastics world that this new Code of Points discourages gymnasts from training for AA competition. What is your position regarding this statement? You have been training and competing on various events during the last years. What about now? Will you just focus on rings or will you try to train and compete on some other events too?

It is not just the Code of Points that discourages gymnasts from training and competing in the AA. It is also the fact that in the whole world more and more gymnasts become specialists on only one or two events. However, if I stay healthy enough, I will definitely help the Romanian team on as many events as I can. …

Fangymnastics

http://cdn.pis.picapp.com/IamProd/PicAppPIS/JavaScript/PisV4.js

196.55 – 196.5

Looks to have been a great battle.

UPDATE: “Alabama Gymnastics team came away with its best score of the season by more than a point, downing No. 7 Arkansas, 197.450-195.500, in front of 13,506 fans.”

Roll Tide!

Gymnastics Examiner fills us in on the big picture:

NCAA week three, and UCLA is the team to beat. The Bruins, surging on the power of sophomores Vanessa Zamarripa and Elyse Hopfner-Hibbs as well as senior Anna Li, are fast emerging as the team of 2010. Catch them if you can.

Chasing UCLA is a surprising Oklahoma squad led by senior Hollie Vise, sophomore Megan Ferguson and redshirt freshman Natasha Kelley, who is competing with a partially torn ACL (and doing fairly well, too.) Alabama and Florida, both loaded with underclass talent, should also post big scores this week. …

details on all meets – NCAA week three: UCLA on top, Georgia looks to gain ground against Utah

Georgia vs. Utah tonight, Friday.

Dory Dynna linked to a highlights reel. Very cool … but they seem to fall down, a lot. ☺ He’s got tickets to see them in Vancouver as part of the arts festival held in conjunction with the Winter Olympics.

Promotional video for STREB with highlights from Wild Blue Yonder, STREB VS GRAVITY, Cirque du Soleil and the David Letterman Show

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

… “It’s a mixture of slam dancing, exquisite and amazing human flight, and wild action sport,” says Elizabeth Streb, the daredevil founder of the Brooklyn-based STREB Extreme Action Company. …

Streb, an exuberant 60-year-old with spiky black hair, has won a MacArthur “genius” award for her work with the company she created in 1985. She remains fit a decade after she stopped performing her own choreography — so physically demanding, each move is calculated mathematically to avert catastrophe. …

read more: Daring dancers ready for Olympiad

Retired gymnast and the World Food Programme (WFP) ambassador Li Ning Thursday said he would pay for five humanitarian flights to bring food and other relief materials to earthquake-stricken Haiti.

The Olympic gold medalist said the donation of 1 million yuan (146,500 U.S. dollars) would cover the cost of the flights from Panama to Port-Au-Prince, capital of the Caribbean nation.

“It’s heartbreaking to see such a huge loss in Haiti. It reminds me of the terrible earthquake in our country in May 2008,” said the 46-year-old businessman successful in China’s huge sportswear market. …

WFP ambassador Li Ning helps with Haiti aid

http://cdn.pis.picapp.com/IamProd/PicAppPIS/JavaScript/PisV4.js

If you don’t like the open-ended code of points …

If you don’t like minimum age rules for gymnasts …

Then, you probably don’t like the International Gymnastics Federation President Bruno Grandi.

http://cdn.pis.picapp.com/IamProd/PicAppPIS/JavaScript/PisV4.js

… On January 22, 2010, the Chinese … newspaper Tianjin Daily released an interview of the FIG President Grandi …

Gymnastics has become accessible to everyone. It has created a social status and contributed to individual and collective fulfilment. It plays an incredible economic role, and continues to fascinate fans worldwide and inspire and galvanize us into action when we need it most.

For worse? There is the corruption that goes hand in hand with money, doping and cheating. I have been fighting against it since first I entered the world of sport. …

FIG – Get more for your money!

Surprisingly, the article doesn’t mention the elephant in the room, the looming disciplinary proceedings involving Chinese gymnasts Yang Yun and Dong Fangxiao, suspected of having violated minimum age requirements for participation in the 2000 Olympic Games.

That bomb will drop February 26, 2010.

(via The All Around Gymnastics News on Facebook)

Gymnasts of all ages from coast to coast will getting an upside-down look at the world on Saturday, January 23rd, when they share the experience of performing a handstand at precisely 2 PM, wherever they live in Canada, as part National Gymnastics Week which runs from January 18-24.

Many other activities are planned at clubs across the country in a combined effort including Gymnastics Canada, 12-provincial/territorial federations and over 700 hundred clubs …

details – Gymnastics Canada

http://cdn.pis.picapp.com/IamProd/PicAppPIS/JavaScript/PisV4.js

more handstands

This should only be true for bloggers.

Here are some stats to justify to parents why their kids should be in gym.

The Kaiser Family Foundation has the results in from its latest media usage study, and it was enough to shock the authors. …

the latest study, … upwards of seven and a half hours per day. Plus, for the first time, time spent watching TV actually dropped in favor of other forms of media, including listening to music, using a computer, playing video games, reading print publications and watching movies.

Moreover, because so many of the kids are multitasking by consuming multiple forms of media at the same time, they actually end up consuming closer to 11 hours’ worth of media content within that seven and half-hour span. Nor does do those hours include the time kids are spending talking on their cell phones (half an hour) or sending text messages (an hour and a half). …

Mashable