Author: Rick Mc

Amanda Turner posted an interesting interview:

Heading into the Canadian Championships, British Columbia’s Charlotte Mackie spoke with IG about her immediate and long-term goals, her recent coaching change, older sister Gael and more.

The 2005 novice national champion, Mackie is a favorite to win her first senior title at the Canadian Championships, which take place June 2-6 in Hamilton, Ont. She is the younger sister of 2003 Canadian champion Gael Mackie, a 2004 Olympian who now competes for the University of Utah.

Charlotte Mackie, who turns 16 on Oct. 6, is already a veteran of international competition, having won medals on four continents. …

Most interesting to me is where Charlotte talks about changing coaches to David Kenwright from Vladimir Lashin, since named Canadian National Coach.

… I switched clubs because I needed a different approach to coaching and training, a different coaching style. Although every coach who has worked with me has helped me in some way, I want to be able to love gymnastics for all of my life and hope to continue my elite career for another three or more years, or possibly longer. …

read more – IG Interview: Charlotte Mackie (Canada)

CONGRATS!

Click PLAY or watch the Cha Cha on YouTube.

Did she deserve to win?

I think so. Sure she had Mark Ballas, super partner. Certainly they had great costumes, not easy to put together for a short, stocky built girl like Shawn.

But, in the end, it turned out that Shawn Johnson can dance.

At least, I think she can dance. Who would have guessed?

… Nastia could win this thing easily sometime in future.

(via Amy’s Gymnastics Blog)

==== Update:

Here’s an edit with only the Shawn footage from the final show. (9:50)

Though this routine by a Russian gymnast finished with the Silver medal behind local-girl-makes-good Beth Tweddle at the Glasgow World Cup, it was the favourite of Live.Breathe.Love.Gymnastics.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

I have to agree.

This may be the routine I’ve enjoyed most in the past 5 years.

IG Forum has a thread with commentary on who will have the best Floor routine at Worlds ’09.

May Events:
May 29-30 – Moscow World Stars – Moscow, Russia
May 30 – City of Lugano International – Lugano, Italy
May 30 – Zelena Jama Open – Ljubljana, Slovenia
May 31 – Champions Open – Frankfurt, Germany

June Events:
June 1-6 – 13th Games of the Small States of Europe – Limassol, Cyprus
June 5-7 – Diego Lizardi Memorial World Cup – Hato Rey, San Juan, Puerto Rico
June 6-7 – 14th Zurich-Oberland Cup – Uster, Germany
June 6-7 – 22nd Gym Festival Trnava – Trnava, Slovakia
June 6-7 – 48th NHK Cup – Tokyo, Japan
June 27 – Women’s Junior 5-Way Meet (Germany, France, Britain, Italy, Switzerland)
June 29-July 3 – 16th Mediterranean Games – Pescara, Italy

July Events:
July 18-20 – Japan Cup – Chiba, Japan
July 20-24 – European Youth Olympic Festival – Tampere, Finland

August Events:
August 12-15 – U.S. Gymnastics Championships – Dallas, Texas, USA
August 22-29 – Russian Cup – Penza, Russia

September Events:
September 7-11 – Belorussian Gymnastics Championships – Minsk, Belarus
September 7-11 – Vitaly Scherbo International – Minsk, Belarus
September 22-23 – Japan International Junior – Yokohama, Japan
September 28-30 – 2nd Doha World Cup – Doha, Qatar

October Events:
October 3 – Leverkusen Cup – Leverkusen, Germany
October 13-18 – 2009 World Gymnastics Championships – London, United Kingdom
October 28 – Arthur Gander Memorial – Morges, Switzerland
October 31 – Brno Grand Prix – Brno, Czech Republic

… read more on World Gymnastics

UK favourite Louis Smith won Pommels at the World Cup meet in Scotland last weekend. His circles aren’t extended. But he’s very consistent.

Click PLAY or watch Louis on YouTube. (15.750)

No surprise there.

Now Louis plans an attempt at the Guiness World Record for the highest number of flares on a pommel horse.

What? The current record is only 46?

Hey, Louis just picked up his 20th birthday present, a new £24,000 Scirocco.

Thanks Tracey Morrison.

The final performance, a free style.

I was very proud of young Shawn Johnson in this performance. For the first time she danced the “lead”. Mark did well to hold up his end as well as he did.

Shawn let her hair down. And simply had fun.

Congratuations.

Click PLAY or watch the freestyle on YouTube.

The weird costumed intro did not work for me. But the rest of the choreography I would call masterful. Enough acrobatics. But not too much.

It was by far the best of the 3 freestyles. Gilles and Cheryl were … dull. Don’t play on a camp classic like Flashdance unless you are going to blow the original out of the water.

I’d say Shawn will win.

… Of course it all comes down to fan voting.

In my time zone the broadcast is in progress. This is the finale.

I thought, despite some technical error, Melissa Rycroft and Tony Dovolani easily had the most enjoyable paso doble.

Shawn and Mark were less inspired, IMHO.

Here it is …

Click PLAY or watch the paso doble on YouTube.

Click PLAY or watch a Gymnastics Minute video on GymSmarts.

Tony Retrosi, is the owner, Head Coach and Program director of Atlantic Gymnastics Centers.

The Gymnastics Minute is a new series of free introductory video tips produced by GymSmarts.

GOLD – Beth Tweddle 2009 Glasgow Grand Prix UB Finals

This is one difficult routine!

Click PLAY or watch it on Gymnastike.

UPDATE.

Johnson will face off against two other “Dancing With the Stars” contestants in the final showdown of the season.

On Tuesday night, the champion will be announced on the results show. …

Fan support is crucial. The winner will be determined by a formula that factors in judges’ scores and viewer votes.

Shawn says their costumes for the FINAL are the best yet.

Better than these?

You can vote online starting 8PM EST, 5PM Pacific.

UPDATE:

Fans can vote for “Team Shark,” as Johnson and Ballas have dubbed themselves, for up to 30 minutes after the show ends tonight (10:30 PM ET) by calling 800-VOTE4-09 or texting the word “VOTE” to 3409 (AT&T only). Online voting (registration required) will continue until 12 PM ET on Tuesday.

Inside Gymnastics