Author: Rick Mc

GymnasticsCoaching.com editor Rick McCharles is confirmed for Championships:

USA GYMNASTICS NATIONAL CONGRESS and TRADE SHOW
Aug. 16-18, 2007 – San Jose, California
Held in conjunction with 2007 Visa Championships at the HP Pavilion

(I hope to schedule a coaches “meet-up” there. Look for details on this blog a few days before the event if you will be there.)

Other USA Gymnastics Congress events in 2007:

Region 6 Congress
Aug. 2-5, 2007 – Newton, Massachusetts – Boston Marriott Newton

Region 5 Congress
Sept. 21-23, 2007 – Indianapolis, Indiana – Sheraton Indianapolis Hotel & Suites

Region 7 Congress
Sept. 27-30, 2007 – King of Prussia, Pennsylvania – The Inn at Valley Forge

USA Gymnastics Online: 2007 Regional Congresses

Somewhat hurt since Worlds 2006, I’m hopeful the ever photogenic Nastia will be back on schedule.

She’s very tough to beat on Bars and Beam.

LIUKIN’S COMEBACK PLAN

Pan American Games (July 13-29, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil): Liukin plans to ease back into competition, competing only on uneven bars and beam. Liukin competed in the Pan Am Games in 2003 and will provide leadership to a young team.

Visa Championships (Aug. 15-18, San Jose, Calif.): Liukin looks to return to all-around competition in time to defend her two-time senior national title and qualify for Worlds. She won the junior national title in 2003 and 2004.

World Championships (Sept. 1-9, Stuttgart, Germany): Liukin won world titles on beam and uneven bars and was the all-around world runner-up in 2005. In 2006, she won silver on the uneven bars, the only event she could compete in because she needed ankle surgery.

Liukin easing into competition after ankle injury | Dallas Morning News

I’ve seen a few on-line raves from Austria. Including this one from GYMmedia.

Germany and Switzerland evenings:

In addition to the FIG-Gala the national evenings of these two national gymnastics associations, which are among the biggest of their type in the world, are traditionally the cultural and sporting highlights of every World Gymnaestrada week .

The tickets for these festivals of the senses, of colours and creative ideas were much sought after …

“MU HA MA BE” was the title of the Swiss evening, which stood for “MUsik – HAndlung -MAterial – BEwegung”, i.e. music, action, material and movement, the four creative principles of choreography; the purpose of the show was to search for the very essence of gymnastics….

GymFamily.Com
The Swiss and the German Evening

Leave a comment if you have news from Gymnaestrada.

From an article prior to the 2006 NCAA Championships:

… glitter to coordinating hair ribbons, Gymnasts have this routine down

Women’s gymnastics is one of the few sports where makeup in competition is encouraged, and coordinating hair ribbons with leotards is common.

Gymnasts are also some of the few people who can still get away with wearing scrunchies since that trend died in the mid-1990s.

…

.: Corvallis Gazette-Times: Archives

If that article appeals, check the discussion here: competition hair/make-up/glitter/hair spray styles – Gym Chat

ATHENS, Ga. — Sophomore Courtney Kupets of the 2007 NCAA Champion Gym Dogs was recognized for her academics as a first-team member of the 2007 ESPN The Magazine Academic All-America women’s at-large team as selected by the College Sports Information Directors of America.

The 2007 NCAA All-Around and Vault Champion posted a 4.0 in the spring, which improved her cumulative grade point average to a 3.86. She joined Oklahoma’s Brittany Koncak-Schumann and Northern Illinois’ Jody Yednock as the only gymnasts to make the first team. She was also one of only two sophomores to earn the distinction.

Kupets, who is pursuing a major in furnishings and interiors, has won back-to-back NCAA All-Around titles, becoming the first gymnast to do so since Georgia’s Kim Arnold also captured back-to-back crowns in 1997-98.

Read more: Courtney Kupets Recognized By ESPN For Academics – GeorgiaDogs.com—Official Athletic Site of the University of Georgia

(via Chalk Bucket)

The Beijing Olympic Committee for the Olympic Games 2008 (BOCOG) has just announced the “Official Supplier” of the 2008 Olympic Games.

The Dutch company “Janssen–Fritsen” from Helmond/NED has once again been selected, for the 5th time, to supply the artistic gymnastics equipment which will be used at the Olympic Games 2008 in the Chinese capital.

GYMmedia.com

Apologies.

I had previously posted that a new Chinese company had won the contract for Artistic Gymnastics.

The 2007 edition, to be held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, has prompted the Organizing Committee to restore important venues such as the Estádio do Maracanã and build a new Olympic Village. It is expected that the games will improve infrastructure in the city and lay the foundations for a possible bid for the 2014 FIFA World Cup.

Pan American Games – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

There’s even talk that Brazil will bid for the 2016 Olympics, if successful, the first time they would be held in South America.

Rio 2007 Pan American Games official website – English

The 33 sports include Artistic Gymnastics, Rhythmic Gymnastics, Trampoline, Water Skiing and Artistic Skating (like Figure Skating but on wheels).

I expect the most insightful and detailed gymnastics coverage to come from GYMmedia. Correspondent Giancarlo MORA has been in Beijing for months already.

“One World one Dream …”

…that is the city’s motto for the XXIXth Olympic Summer Games, which are due to take place in Beijing from August 8th to 24th 2008; for this reason, the city is preparing for millions of guests.

Many of the Olympic building have already taken shape and some are already in regular use, such as the Olympic Press Centre in the north of Beijing, close to the Huabei-Hotel, which has been open since 2005, and where the OC plans to hold daily press conferences. …

GYMmedia.com

correspondent Giancarlo MORA and the Olympic stadium in Beijing (Birdsnest)

I will also be looking for on site bloggers posting illegally on the Olympic buzz.

This is one of the Images That Changed The World.

– by Jeff W idener (Associated Press)

You’ll be seeing it a lot in conjunction with Olympic coverage in Beijing.

This unknown rebel will be symbolic for all time as a common man standing up to Totalitarianism. He’ll be a National Hero in China one day.

One of the main reasons I was happy when Beijing got the Olympics was anticipating the tremendous pressure of World Opinion on the Chinese government. They have a lot to answer for.

The regime is corrupt and rotten.

I expect it to fail under the light of Olympic scrutiny. Before the Olympics finish China will announce real democratic reform.

And you’ll again be able to read this currently-banned page on the internet in China: T iananmen Square protests of 1989 – Wikipedia

(I’d be interested to know if GymnasticsCoaching.com is available in China. Leave a comment below if you can read it from there.)

That’s high praise coming from Don Eckert of Woodward West Gym Camp in California.

(Even Charlie Tamayo looks impressed.)

Desert Devil’s Melissa Metcalf shows a ton of difficulty:

Click PLAY or watch her on YouTube.

I’ll be visiting Woodward July 22-25. Hope to see you there.

Woodward West