Category: Gymnastics

fun interview with Nikita Nagornyy

Q: And how did you manage to win gold, the first one in the history of Russian men’s team?

A: All the guys were just ready to win. All were thinking about the first place. There was no uncertainty. …

Q: The Tokyo Olympics are in less than a year. But Russia might be banned from the Games. Are you following the news?

A: I actually had no idea about it. I’ve only learned about it all 10 minutes before I came here. What can I say? I went through this once already – before Rio, when we were flying to Brazil not knowing whether we would compete. …

Q: I saw you doing a parachute jump. Was that your childhood dream?

A: Rather my wife’s dream. I don’t think I’d dare to do it without her. But I proposed to her this way. …

NAGORNYY: WE CAME TO STUTTGART HUNGRY

2017

Pommels – pendular swing conditioning

Active flexibility.

Click PLAY or watch it on Facebook.

FIG Ambassador Fabian Hambüchen

At Worlds Stuttgart, Fabian was everywhere.

He’s still training. For fun. Not competition.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Daiki Hashimoto wins All Japan

18-years-old!

Super AA final:

1. Daiki Hashimoto 86.031
2. Kazuma Kaya 85.664
3. Kazuyuki Takeda 85.364

There was a weird 0.5 deduction from the AA if you didn’t have a high enough difficulty total.

For example, Shogo Nonomura scored 85.699 but the difficulty penalty knocked his score down to 85.199 and 4th.

Click PLAY or watch Daiki on YouTube.

Top scores on each apparatus:

FX Carlos Yulo 15.2
PH Yanato Kanayama (?) 14.933
SR Yuya Kamoto 14.966
VT Daiki Hashimoto 14.933
PB Yuya Kamoto (?) 14.933
HB Yuya Kamoto (?) 14.566

MAGnastics was covering it on Twitter.

O by Cirque du Soleil – Bateau

I saw O again recently.

One of Cirque’s most popular shows, it’s hardly changed since launched 1998 at the Bellagio.

The swinging P Bars act is my favourite.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Bars – introducing shoot from High to Low

Jason Mortimer.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

 

Click PLAY or watch a GAGE progression on Facebook.

Bea Gheorghisor on Romanian Gymnastics

Romania finished 22nd as a team at Worlds 2019. It would seem they are just another team, no longer a superpower.

But the next generation of Juniors is looking good. And here’s some other promising news.

Bea:

I think that Romania will qualify a team to Paris and even win at least an individual medal there.

The project called Tara, Tara, Vrem Campioane [“Country, country, we want champions”] was initiated in 2014 and is being coordinated by Bellu and Bitang.

This is Romania’s response to a half-centralized system (camp based) that has worked for other countries.

The idea is to de-centralize in order to encourage healthy competition among [the various] centers and also stimulate the development of gymnasts and coaches. …

In order for this to work long-term, we need some key elements that are still missing: realistic judging in internal/national competitions, more and better prepared coaches, finding a way to transition junior elites into successful seniors, a way to motivate gymnasts without physical and mental abuse.

Read the full Dvora Meyers interview:

The Fall (and Rise?) of Romanian Gymnastics

One big question remains – Can the next generation of Romanians be competitive on Bars?

They are now wearing grips. But — oddly — still rely on Free Hip when the rest of the world uses primarily Sole Circle. Watch Ana Maria Barbosu competing Bars.