Author: Rick Mc

Amateur Gymnast (1894)

Thomas Edison, was the “inventor” behind some of the earliest films.

…By the beginning of March, Dickson and assistant William Heise had shot The Barbershop and Amateur Gymnast, both full-length subjects. As with most films made during the coming year, these were slightly less than fifty feet long, shot at approximately forty frames per second, and lasted less than twenty seconds. …

Amateur Gymnast shows a young man performing a somersault: it was probably one of several films taken of members of the Newark Turnverein, a nearby athletic club. Others show two men on parallel bars and a brief boxing match. …

Before the Nickelodeon

Leave a comment if you know of any earlier “moving pictures” of gymnasts.

Note that we’ve added a new category called “movies” in the right hand navigation.

Steliana Nitor of Romania performs on the balance beam during the international mixed pair gymnastics competition Swiss Cup at the Hallenstadion in Zurich, Switzerland, Sunday, Nov. 4, 2007.

ESPN – Gymnastics Photo Wire

(AP Photo/KEYSTONE/Eddy Risch)

UPDATE: Steliana and Flavius Koczi easily won the Mixed Pairs competition for Romania.

GymnasticsResults.com

At the Banff Mountain Film Festival this weekend, my favourite movie was “20 Seconds of Joy”, a documentary about one of the top jumpers anywhere, fascinating Karina Hollekim from Norway.

This was a World Premiere so it’s not available yet. But you can see the trailer now.

“I don’t want to die, I want to live. I’m pretty good at running away, and this is my escape!” This is how Karina Hollekim describes her dedication to BASE jumping. Documentary filmmaker Jens Hoffman first met the now 30-year-old Norwegian in 2002. He immediately started to film, accompanying her through many stages of her BASE-jumping career, until it comes to a sudden stop, changing all aspects of her life.

best film – Banff Mountain Film Festival 2007 | besthike.com

Click PLAY or watch the trailer on MySpace.
http://lads.myspace.com/videos/vplayer.swf

It’s a study in the psychology of high risk activities.

China took half the medals (men and women) at the World Trampoline Championships individual competition.

We can expect good media coverage of Trampoline in Beijing as this will be one of their strongest sports. In fact, all the acrobatics sports are strong for China.

1. Shuai Ye (CHN)
2. Dong Dong (CHN)
3. Yasuhiro Ueyama (JPN)

GymFamily.Com

On the last day of competition during the 25th Trampoline WORLDS in Québec (Canada), top-favorite Irina Karavaeva from Russia won the women’s finals in Trampoline …

photo – Irina Karavaeva and her coach

1. Irina Karavaeva (RUS)
2. Shanshan Huang (CHN)
3. Rosannagh MacLennan (CAN)

read more – GymFamily.Com

This is what I’ve been waiting for all weekend.

Based on results at World Championships in Quebec, nations are invited to the Olympics. Congratulations to the qualifying countries:

China, Russia and Canada each earned two spots in the women’s competition in Beijing, while Germany, Belarus, Britain, Japan, Uzbekistan, Portugal and Ukraine can send one athlete each. Georgia got the other wild-card spot, and the final spot in the 16-person field will be decided by the International Olympic Committee.

In the men’s competition, China, Russia and Japan earned two spots, while Germany, Italy, Ukraine, Canada, Denmark, Belarus and France got one each. Portugal and Australia are the wild cards, and the 16th spot will be awarded at a later date.

US women earn one spot in Beijing for trampoline – USATODAY.com

I expect the trampoline competition to be very high profile at the 2008 Olympics.

2008 GymInfo Preseason Coaches Poll ranks the Stanford Men’s Gymnastics Team #1:

First-place votes in parentheses
1. Stanford (8)
2. Penn State (4)
3. OKLAHOMA (2)
4. Ohio State (1)
5. California

CSTV.com: #1 in College Sports

Gymblog previously posted all the reasons why.

Now Blythe on Gymblog hints that the Stanford Women’s Gymnastics Team could challenge 3 time defending champions Georgia.

2004 Olympic Alternate Allyse Ishino will compete for Stanford this year.

I dunno. There’s more to a winning NCAA Team than talent. Georgia has the whole package. And with NCAA Championships in Athens, I wouldn’t bet against the Dogs.

I had long forgotten a gymnastics film from the mid-1980s called Flying or Dream to Believe.

It’s still showing on late night TV. Why? It was Keanu Reeves’ first film.

Yes, it’s cheesy. A bad takeoff of Flashdance. Robin (Olivia D’Abo) is about as unlikely a highschool gymnast as can be imagined.

But many young women from that era liked the movie.

I tried to find the names of the gymnast stunt doubles (who were very good) but had no luck.

If anyone remembers the names of the athletes who performed in that film, leave a comment at the bottom of this post. (One was Leanne GALLANT.) It was filmed in Toronto, the big Regional competition shot in Niagara Falls.

UPDATE: Other gymnasts included Jessica TUDOS, Alexandra BOROWIK, Sasha VANOCHKO. Thanks George.

Carrie Shearstone confirms that she was stunt double for Olivia D’Abo. And that Suzanne Devalk (sp?) and Sandra McNeil worked that movie, as well.

Chantel Kowdrysh (Preston):

Yep I was also one of the gymnasts in that movie:) so was Liz Halmagyi (now Spencer) and Risa Litwin.

movie review – Flying – Canuxploitation

Dream to Believe (aka Flying) – Amazon

QUEBEC – Canada continued its podium march Friday, capturing two silver medals at the world trampoline championship.

Two-time Olympic medal winner Karen Cockburn of Toronto led Canada’s second-place performance in the team trampoline event. Cockburn was joined by Rosannagh MacLennan of Toronto, Sarah Charles of Kelowna, B.C., and Brenna Casey of Ottawa.

China took gold, while Russia claimed the bronze.

“The Russians faltered a bit tonight and we were really on,” said Charles. “We rose to the occasion.”

Brandon Sun Online

Next, two of my favourite athletes in the world, Karen Cockburn and Rosie MacLennan, did not let down the home crowd

Here’s how their performance was blogged live by Lefebvre Guillaume:

Cockburn-MacLennan (CAN): Extremely loud cheers before their routine. The loudest cheers of the whole competition so far. Full in half out straight to start the routine. Fantastic routine. Amazing synchronization and great execution and difficulty. A gold medal worthy performance. 9.70 pts mark for the synchronization. 13.30 pts DD. 49.30 pts.

Acrobatic Sports

Unofficial results:
1. Cockburn-MacLennan (CAN) 49.30 pts
2. Chernova-Karavaeva (RUS) 48.70 pts
3. Domchevska-Movchan (UKR) 47.70 pts.

Side note – I just happened on to Karen promoting Springfreeâ„¢ Trampoline as “the safest backyard tramp”. It is. And I was happy to see a top trampolinist giving a celebrity endorsement.

Who would not want to be endorsed by Karen?

She is an ideal role model.

UPDATE: Karen had to terminate her routine after 6 skills in Finals of individual trampoline. She finished last. Too bad.

Unofficial results:
1. Karavaeva (RUS) 38.60 pts
2. Huang (CHN) 38.10 pts
3. MacLennan (CAN) 37.70 pts

One big highlight to report, the gold medal routine in tumbling for Russia with a new world record from Andrei Krylov :

Full in full out straight, full in full out straight, triple back tuck.

Results are starting to roll in on the internet. (It has not been exactly easy to follow what’s happening in Quebec City. I heard the wireless internet at the venue has been cutting in and out.)

Seems to me some of the favourites have NOT qualified for finals.

Best blow-by-blow coverage is by Lefebvre Guillaume on Acrobatic Sports:

3 Gold Medals for Russia and 2 for China at the Team Finals at 2007 World Championships

Beautiful gym though:

GYMmedia – Quebec