CALGARY, Alberta., Feb. 22, 2008 – The USA won the team competition in the USA vs Canada meet, 361.350 to 352.600.
Along with Alvarez and Leyva, the members of the U.S. Team were: Joseph Hagerty of Rio Rancho, N.M./Team Chevron; Kevin Tan of Fremont, Calif./Team Chevron; Sean Townsend of Dickinson, Texas/Team Chevron; and Blaine Wilson, Columbus, Ohio/Team Chevron.
Other members of the Canadian team were Grant Golding and Nathan Gafuik, both of Calgary, Brandon O’Neill of Edmonton and Ken Ikeda of Abbotsford, B.C.
But, so far, only some video content from the last Men’s National competition is posted. The website is stll in development. They have some top talent involved already and I expect it to soon be one of the best sites on the net for gymnastics coaches.
Coverage of the Winter Cup is on http://www.gymnast.com, giving a sneak peak at a new site that USA Gymnastics and the Wasserman Media Group will introduce in the near future for folks who live gymnastics every day. The Winter Cup Web cast is just one example of the exclusive content you’ll see only at http://www.gymnast.com. Enjoy the top athletes’ spectacular performances – and return often as the site grows robust with the best content, especially with the Olympic Games on the horizon. …
World Champion Shawn Johnson is astonishingly good in media interviews for such a young athlete.
But the younger Peng Peng is even more eloquent, I think. She’s a natural.
Charismatic 14-year-old gymnast Christine “Peng Peng” Lee is the best Canadian gymnast coach Carol-Angela Orchard has seen in her 30 years in the sport. …
Broadcaster Robin Brown also posted a commentary after the interview. (Peng Peng is too young to compete in Beijing.)
Olympic age minimums not always fair
… To compete at the Olympic Games you must be 16 years old. There are a few sports where the minimum age is even higher, such as marathon runners who must be 20 years old but generally speaking, 16 is the minimum.
And I’m not sure it’s entirely fair.
The rule was brought in, ostensibly, to protect the child athletes who are at risk of being exploited, pressured, mistreated and exposed to risk of injury. One of the arguments is that these young bodies are not mature enough to handle the extreme training necessary and that they are not emotionally mature enough to handle the pressure.
But 16 seems such an arbitrary number.
In some sports, the age rule doesn’t make much difference. It’s unlikely a 14-year-old is going to unseat a 22-year-old in a strength and endurance sport such as rowing, or that a 12-year-old could make the Olympic hockey team.
But in other sports, the minimum age is a hotly debated and controversial issue. In gymnastics and figure skating, young girls have often shown championship form at the international level. Nadia Comaneci scored her perfect-10 when she was 14-years-old. Tara Lipinski became a world figure skating champion at 14. …
Canada’s own Alexandre Despatie won Commonwealth Games gold in diving when he was just 13-years-old, earning him a place in the Guinness World Records. He’s still going strong 10 years later and is a medal favourite this summer in Beijing.
There is a young Canadian gymnast, Peng-Peng Lee, who is 14 years old right now and according to her coach, is the most talented Canadian gymnast ever. But come next summer, when she’s 15, Peng-Peng Lee will be staying at home to watch the Beijing Olympics instead of competing in them because she won’t be old enough, by a matter of months. She’ll have to wait until 2012. And in this particular case, that’s a shame.
Jaycie Phelps is one of the great personalities in gymnastics history.
She is a celebrity Olympian, once again, at the Great West Gym Fest. And also one of the hardest working coaches on the Floor. She and her Magnificent Seven team mate Shannon Miller are catching up on old times.
I notice she’s listed as Jaycie McClure on the Colorado Aerials coaching staff page. (Jaycie’s married to former Olympic gymnast, current coach, Brett McClure.)
So projects the Gymnicestics? Seriously? blog based on (rumoured) maximum A-score.
Start score is the most important of many variables. It’s a gamble to bring high start scores on every apparatus. Some of the wonderful young ladies on this list will “miss”.
Just now I’m psyching up to go out late to the competition organizer’s get together after the “Big Show” at the Great West Gym Fest.
One of the girls I coach at summer camp was injured in Vault warm-ups during Finals. I’m bummed.
She was completely healthy and had a great competition 2wks ago. Now this set-back.
Crap.
Intellectually I know that the risk of injury is worth it in Artistic Gymnastics in exchange for the many, many benefits of the sport. This gymnast will be far healthier when she’s my age than her non-gymnast friends.
But emotionally, all I can say is that injuries really, really, really suck.
… I wonder if we should compete vault on to softer mats? Or simply into a foam or resi-pit?
Charismatic 14-year-old gymnast Christine “Peng Peng” Lee is the best Canadian gymnast coach Carol-Angela Orchard has seen in her 30 years in the sport. …
Gymnastics Coaching.com 