Congratulations Max on your historic performance in one of the toughest Olympic Finals all time. 🙂
Category: ethics
the gymternet hates Al Trautwig
UPDATE – NBC’s Al Trautwig apologizes for comments on Simone Biles’ adoptive parents
Good news. Trautwig eventually did the right thing.
But browsing his twitter feed for the first time makes me less impressed than ever with the non-gymnastics expert on the NBC commentary team. He’s frequently arrogant, negative and combative.
I finally watched some NBC delayed prime time coverage last night. They covered very few routines over a random time line.
Knowledgable gymnastics fans should follow instead the NBC web coverage with Jim Watson, Jonathan Horton and Courtney Kupets Carter. (NBC log-in required.) Or use a VPN to watch via the British coverage.
___ original post from Aug 7th:
This curmudgeonly tweet resulted in angry stream of replies.
Simone Biles was adopted by her grandparents. Simone calls them her parents. Mom & Dad.
Perhaps it’s time to throw out that old black & white TV.
Amanars – Hong un Jong & Aly
Click PLAY or watch our defending Olympic Champ on YouTube.
Click PLAY or watch Aly’s (much improved) on YouTube.
Both got 15.766. Clearly the judges over-scored Aly in comparison. 😦
related – Hong un Jong’s Cheng VIDEO
(via Personal Musings and Jordyn’s Left Eyebrow)
Korean friendship – Hong Un Jong and Lee Eun Ju
One of the goals of the Olympic movement.
North and South Korean Gymnasts Take Adorable Selfies Together in Rio
Hong Un-jong is the defending Olympic Vault champion from North Korea. Lee Eun Ju is South Korea’s Olympian in Rio.
See this photo on papaliukin
http://papaliukin.tumblr.com/post/148473014554/my-favorite-photo-already-korea-as-one
related – Rio 2016 Olympics: Lebanese athletes refuse to travel with Israel team 😦
Hero De Janeiro – Andreas Toba
Magnetic imaging of his knee showed a tear in his front cruciate ligament as well as meniscus damage in the knee, the German Olympic Sports Federation said.
Toba will have to be operated on and will fly back to Germany once he is no longer in pain, gymnastics team official Sven Karg said.
The gymnast ruptured the cruciate ligament during the floor exercise but astonishingly still competed on the pommel horse afterwards …
Share this photo on Facebook.
Fabian Hambüchen feels FIG rules are pushing too much difficulty. I agree. Especially on Vault.
ALL Russian Paralympians banned from Rio
IPC president Sir Philip Craven:
“The Russian Paralympic Committee are unable to ensure compliance with and enforcement of the IPC anti-doping code and the world anti-doping code within their own national jurisdiction and they can not fulfil its fundamental obligation as an IPC member.
“As a result, the Russian Paralympic Committee is suspended with immediate effect.”
Laurie Hernandez is fine
International Gymnast magazine had it wrong.
keeping gymnasts safe
The front page headline where I’m at was the Indianapolis Star investigation on how USA Gymnastics handles allegations of sexual misconduct.
If you want to follow-up on this discussion I recommend GymCastic episode 210.
“IndyStar tracked down four cases in which USA Gymnastics was warned of suspected abuse by coaches but did not initiate a report to authorities. Those coaches went on, according to police and court records, to abuse at least 14 underage gymnasts after the warnings.”
GymCastic and our twitter account @GymCoaching are the only two sites I know of consistently linking to stories of coaches accused of abuse.
It’s an important issue.
That said, let’s put the risk of coaching sexual misconduct in perspective.
I’m far more worried about motor vehicle accidents driving to the Gym than I am of sexual abuse.
I’m far more worried about injuries in the Gym than I am of sexual abuse.
Fact is that female gymnasts are the best protected children in town, on average.
The GymCastic audiocast mentions Larrissa Miller as an example. In 2015, Larrissa revealed that she had been sexually abused by an extended family member from the ages of 5 to 16.
Not a coach.
If you worry about child sexual assault take a close look at friends & family of those kids you feel are vulnerable. Protect your own.
USA Gymnastics could do more to safeguard their members. I agree. This media attention will help.
But it’s far easier for independent watchdog sites to track past offenders. Suspected potential offenders. The best we have so far is GymCastic’s List of Gymnastics Coaches In The News for Alleged Abuse database.
If concerned, you should volunteer to help update that list.
Finally, I believe people are innocent until proven guilty. How many innocent coaches will be accused in aftermath of this news story?
related – Bekah – Put down your torches: In defense of USAG
UPDATE – A message from Steve Penny, president of USA Gymnastics
271 RUS athletes cleared to compete
This is more than two-thirds of their original entry list of 389 athletes, despite the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) recommending a blanket ban after a doping scandal.
Here’s the list of Gymnastics sports athletes approved.
Olympic.org posted the official statement.
does USAG do enough to protect kids?
The Indianapolis Star posted a lengthy article detailing numerous cases where the reporters feel the National Sports Governing Body could have done more, sooner.
Timing is lousy since most of the world is distracted by something happening in Rio right now. This is an important issue. Better would be to have posted a week ago. Or right after the Olympics.
Publishing now does smack of Olympic opportunism.
USA Gymnastics’ response to Indianapolis Star’s report
For information on how USA Gymnastics handles allegations of sexual misconduct, please click here.
Gymnastics Coaching.com 