All those pregnancy rumors are starting to make Fergie self-conscious. … (“No, no,” the pop star insisted) …
Perhaps to prove it – and also to show off her love of gymnastics – she performed a one-handed cartwheel during Sunday’s taped performance with the group Heart. Catch her skills when the special airs Wednesday on Fox. …
One pregnancy rumour I can confirm. Congratulations Dana Brass (Cirque du Soleil) and Frederick Nicolas (Le Rêve) on the birth of their son Maxim James Patrick Nicolas who arrived on Tuesday April 8th. He weighed: 7 pounds, 3 oz.
UPDATE: Fergie explained. “I went through years of gymnastics and I wanted to be a gymnast at one time … Celebrity Gossip
Variously called power stilts, velocity stilts, PowerBocks, PoweriZers (PowerStriders), Pro Jumps, 7 League Boots or Powerskips. (As marketed by different manufacturers.)
Amanada Osswald is the gymnast interviewed who “balks” on back tumbling. (One comment said that her “error” was staged for the camera.)
Nationwide Children’s Hospital conducted the study. And they are calling for more guidelines. National standards. For better trained coaches.
Amen.
The US News and World Report On Medicine blog had the most interesting perspective that I read, written by an ex-gymnast Lindsay Lyon:
… I wasn’t exactly surprised by the latest findings on young gymnasts: Nearly 426,000 kids ages 6 to 17 were treated for gymnastics-related injuries in U.S. emergency rooms between 1990 and 2005, according to a study in April’s Pediatrics, an average of almost 27,000 bang-ups a year. Upper-extremity fractures and dislocations were most common among the younger set, while the 12-to-17-year-olds typically strained or sprained their lower limbs. …
Some suspect the number of injured is higher than this study suggests. “In my practice, gymnasts are the athletes that are most likely to put up with an injury for the longest time before they actually report it,” says pediatric orthopedic surgeon Angela Smith, a past president of the American College of Sports Medicine. …
Despite the danger, Smith is all for participation in gymnastics. “It provides young athletes with quickness, agility, poise, grace, and actual presence,” she says. Not to mention strength. “I think the benefits you can gain far outweigh the risks,” says Steve Penny, president of USA Gymnastics (the national governing body), whose 3-year-old triplets now practice.
…
For the concerned parent: Yes, there will be hand-wringing in the bleachers, and injuries will occur in the most careful of gyms. But there are several ways to increase your gymnast’s safety. Children should practice in a supervised environment with a trained coach or spotter—not at home …
I was tipped off to this story, by the way, by a brand new gymnastics blog, yet to be announced. The more, the better. Truly, I think everyone should have a blog.
UPDATE: Amy Van Deusen has more on this study on her About.com Gymnastics blog
UPDATE 2: The Today Show video clip was NOT balanced, I thought. But rather sensationalized. Too bad.
Times have been hard on the famed Russian National Gymnastics Team in recent years. For most of my lifetime they have been indisputably the best in the world. The gymnasts we studied to learn about technique. The coaches we most admired. And emulated.
The future looks bright, however, for Head Coach Andrei Rodionenko and the team. For the third time in sequence, Russia won the European Junior Championships. That shows depth and consistency.
Here’s a recap of the meet last weekend on GYMmedia:
… With 180.625 points they won the event ahead of France (170.500) and the Netherlands (169.959), who both won a team medal in the juniors’ field for the first time.
Surprisingly, the two-time silver medalist of the last years, Romania, and also Italy (bronze in 2004) remained without medals on the ranks 4 and 5 today.
With more than 60 points Tatiana NABIEVA from Russia won the all-around competition in front of her team mate Aliya MUSTAFINA …
“It’s the end of gym, the end of the Olympics, the end of everything I had counted on. Everything collapses,” she told the paper.
Severino had been scheduled to carry the Olympic flame through her native Paris on Monday.
Isabelle is already a double Olympian for France, and had wanted to compete a third.
She had previously retired. Gone on to Pole Vaulting and Cirque du Soleil. Then made this brave comeback.
… Following France’s historic bronze medal at the European Championships Saturday, the team dedicated its podium presence to two-time Olympian Isabelle Severino, who suffered a torn Achilles Thursday at the competition in Clermont-Ferrand, France.
2008 Women’s European Championships
April 5, Clermont-Ferrand, France
Team Final
1. Romania 181.525
2. Russia 179.475
3. France 177.175
4. Italy 175.775
5. Ukraine 175.475
6. Great Britain 174.050
7. Germany 170.850
8. Netherlands 166.825
Mia Lazarewicz was at the meet in France. A few comments:
1) The Russian juniors were every bit as incredible as people are saying. Far, far, far more exciting to watch than the Russian seniors (Pavlova included, though I adore her). They deserved to win the junior title by the 10 points they won by – no other team was even close on any event.
2) Hungary has a junior girl named Renata Toth with great potential on every event, but she shone on floor especially, with a front handspring double front that was extremely reminiscent of Podkopayeva’s height and control. I can’t find any videos of her (my camera ran out of batteries – sigh), but I could see her making her mark on the sport in years to come.
3) Italy’s juniors were incredibly impressive, which I was delighted to see. And one girl, I unfortunately forgot to write her name down (UPDATE – Paola Galante) was a testament to the fact that a gymnastics audience still loves to watch the dance portion of floor. This girl clearly used to study rhythmic gymnastics, and she did a 2 and a half Memmel turn, absolutely stellar, with her leg in a complete 180 split. It was so beautiful, the crowd gasped and applauded more than for any other trick I saw all weekend (except for Tweddle’s new bar release – more on that later).
4) Romania’s juniors are in trouble, from what I saw – consistency was a major problem, and it was only on beam that we saw a semblance of the great Romanians past. Every other event, I was hardly interested enough to follow them…they need a coach who can follow in Belu’s footsteps – no easy task.
5) Due to an incredibly inconvenient bout of food poisoning, I was unable to attend the senior team finals on Saturday. I watched on TV, but it was terrible coverage and I was in a haze and can’t properly comment on the competition. I do know that the Russian seniors have some big holes, and that it was not surprising to see Romania take gold.
6) Event finals were outstanding. Chusovitina deserved to win vault, even with her fall. Her handspring 3/2 was beautiful. And I saw Difficulty plus Execution said she was miserable, but I can confirm that she was jumping up and down and hugging everyone when her score came up. I’m sure she was mad about falling, but she was psyched about gold. And she was all smiles during the awards ceremony. The two Italians who finished second and third were also impressive vaulters – I am excited to see the dawning of this new, hopefully great Italian program. I’d love to see another country start challenging for medals. Additionally, Pavlova threw her Amanar, and wasn’t even close – not in warmups or competition. Both times, she just barely got her feet to the floor before falling. She’s got a lot of work to do if she hopes to compete that in Beijing.
7) Bars. First of all, let me start by saying that Beth Tweddle was absolutely robbed on bars, and just goes to show again why this new code isn’t working: they encourage ridiculous series of tricks with ridiculous difficulty, and then slay the gymnast for any errors in the process. It’s a lose-lose game. Her routine was packed with interesting skills (her only rival was Semenova), and the new Tkatchev with a half is BRILLIANT. She nailed it in team finals, though she was a little off in event finals. She connects it into a straddle hand, and in event finals she lost control of the straddle hand and had to quickly pirouette to save herself. With no other major deductions, her execution scores were in the mid 8’s, which is absurd. She finished in 4th place. However, I believe she was still pleased for 2 reasons: 1) the gasp and cheer that accompanied the Tweddle – it really was breathtaking. 2) the massive boo that erupted when her score came up (15.475). The place went crazy. As for the others, Semenova’s routine was gorgeous, of course, Nistor’s was surprisingly clean, and Zgoba was a surprise for third (but deserving). …
Here’s Beth’s astounding bar routine, including the Tweddle. Brilliant!
8) Beam. Semenova’s routine was nearly flawless and should have broken a 16.0. More than one judge took more than 1 point of deductions, when the only visible errors were a slight balance check in her handspring 3/4 to handstand and a small step on her dismount. But none of the other competitors held a candle to her precision, poise, and deliberate placement of skills. She’s quite phenomenal to watch. Izbasa’s routine, for second place, was lovely, with an exceptional triple twist dismount. Kozich’s routine was clean but unremarkable. And I must add here that Vanessa Ferrari, although disappointing all weekend (she, too, has a lot of work to do for Beijing), has a truly original, beautiful beam mount.
9) Floor. I had big problems with the judging on floor. It was consistently low (although it was consistent, at least). Izbasa’s floor routine was so lovely, and definitely deserved the gold. Similarly, Tweddle’s deserved the silver (if she could figure out how to hold that arabian double pike in a straight pike the entire time, she’d gain 3 tenths on her score). Bronze was the issue. Glad that Tamirjan took third place, since I like to see the underdog get her piece of the pie, as it were. But her routine is certainly not the routine I’d have chosen for third place. It was so unremarkable, I’d forgotten it as soon as she finished. I’d have loved to see Chusovitina take third (when did she start competing a full-out double lay??), although I recognize that she’s extremely weak in dance. But her tumbling was fabulous, and again a testament to extremely difficult gymnastics not being rewarded. Pavlova didn’t fare much better. Beautiful, sophisticated floor routine with tumbling to match. She slightly stumbled on a few of her jumps, but I didn’t find them offensive enough to merit her 14.875. After all, an inferior routine from the French girl Vericel was given a 14.775, and she stepped out of bounds THREE times.
All in all, a very entertaining weekend. It was great to see competitors from countries I’d never watch otherwise, like Latvia or Iceland (both competing at pretty standard level 9). The meets were all exquisitely organized. Next stop: Nationals in Boston, and then Olympic trials in Philly. Haha, maybe I should start my own blog?
~ Mia
You SHOULD start your own blog, Mia. Merci for the input.
If not, send me your comments from Boston and Philadelphia, both meets I am missing. (I will be in Houston. Also both NCAA Championships.)
… With 180.625 points they won the event ahead of France (170.500) and the Netherlands (169.959), who both won a team medal in the juniors’ field for the first time.
Gymnastics Coaching.com 