The two World Floor Champions dated a bit in High School.
World FX Champions Mai and Kenzo
The two World Floor Champions dated a bit in High School.
Category: Gymnastics
Simone plans to compete in 2018
Sordid history of ‘The Big O’
Now that Morgan Hurd and the rest of the world survived Worlds Montreal, let’s talk about the Big O. It’s been called the “greatest white elephant of a stadium ever built“.
And it’s still under construction though the 1976 Olympic debt was finally repaid some years ago.
The roof has broken and been repaired many times over the years. Chunks have fallen.
Inside it’s a massive, confusing maze of dead end concrete space. The only way to get around efficiently is by bicycle or golf cart.
Judges and media had only 2 slow elevators to get to the field of play. After a week I finally found a random set of stairs and used those instead. It’s very easy to get lost.
Many have commented on how few washrooms are available in a complex that size. Eventually some Men’s toilets were switched to serve the ladies.
I was relieved there weren’t more problems.
So … I’m sure the City at various times considered tearing down The Big O. Personally, I’m glad they didn’t. It’s weirdly beautiful. And there are plenty of attractions nearby that I enjoy. Especially the new Gymnastics facility in the tower. A Gym was proposed way back in the late 1970s. The INS Gym will be a great resource in future.
If interested read more in The Guardian – The 40-year hangover: how the 1976 Olympics nearly broke Montreal
The Montreal Olympics left the city with a C$1.6bn debt, a string of corruption scandals, and a creeping sense of economic and social decline. Forty years on, how did the city survive?
On 17 July, with Queen Elizabeth, Canadian prime minister Pierre Trudeau and 73,000 people looking on, the Greek athletes who traditionally led the Parade of Nations came up the ramp toward the Olympic stadium to find their way almost blocked by construction workers.
Out of sight of the cameras and the throng inside the stadium, the staff were frantically wielding shovels and brooms to clear away the building debris left from the manic push to complete the facility on time. In the final scrambling months before the Games, 3,000 labourers had worked in teams 24 hours a day to make it possible for the Olympics to begin at all. They barely succeeded. …
The Olympics can no more run a deficit than a man can have a baby
I survived Montreal Worlds
One of the most popular memes from Worlds 2017.
The number of meet-ending injuries was shocking.
But was the number of injuries at 2017 Worlds more than usual? I’m not sure. I recall some very bad Worlds.
FIG tracks those numbers. In the past I’ve seen the FIG Worlds medical report. It won’t be published for some weeks, I expect.
But I’ve not seen that report released publicly for many years. I’ve requested a copy from one of the FIG Medical Commission.
This year meet ending injuries were suffered by some of the highest profile gymnasts: Kohei Uchimura (ankle on Vault in competition), Ragan Smith (ankle in training), Larisa Iordache (Achilles on Floor in training), Vanessa Ferrari (Achilles on Floor in competition).
Social media is the main source of competition information for many people. Injuries were very quickly communicated from those in the arena. More so than in the past. Five major injuries occurred in one subdivision of MAG preliminaries. That set off the gymternet alarm. Ready to quit the sport, I had to take a long walk to calm down.
In the cases of Vanessa and Larisa Achilles rupture was predictable. Both arrived in Montreal knowing there was a chance it could happen. I can’t blame the venue. The same thing happened to Alicia Sacramone at Worlds Tokyo 2011.
Those who jumped on the Montreal broke the gymnasts meme reminded me of the old similarly wrong over-simplification: Marta broke the girls.
Gymnastics is a very dangerous sport. It’s most dangerous when athletes used to landing on mats in the pit have to try to stick a Vault on competition mats. It’s Russian roulette. Audrys Nin Reyes was a favourite to medal on Vault. He was injured on landing just like Kohei.
Kyle Shewfelt had 2 serious injuries over 3 Olympics. One landing on competition Floor. The other landing a competition Vault. (Kyle said Kohei’s injury looked similar to his on Vault.)
If you worry about the health of your favourite gymnast, worry most when they compete Floor and Vault. They are much, much safer training in their own Gym.
Was lighting in the training Gyms or competition Gym a factor?
Possibly. But not a big factor I don’t expect.
Was insufficient practice time in the competition Gym a factor?
Yes. In my opinion.
That facility sat empty much of the time before the start of competition. Why not offer a second podium training? Why not allow more time / gymnast? FIG could easily correct this for Doha.
Podium training was bungled too for some gymnasts. Petrounias, for example. Lack of chalk and timing errors are the fault of the organizing committee. Not FIG.
Did the gymnasts have enough time on the new Gymnova equipment?
No, in some cases. The U.S. men had not used the Gymnova vault horse before arrival in Montreal. Donnell Whittenburg, one of the favourites, said he couldn’t get used to it in time.
On the other hand, some nations planned to get time on the Worlds equipment. China spent a week training on Gymnova in Alberta before arriving Montreal, for example. Smart. Japan and Brazil trained at INS Montreal before the official Worlds training gyms opened.
Russia said gymnasts were not allowed to prepare WAG Bars for their teammates. That’s a big safety concern, in my opinion. FIG should reevaluate that rule immediately.
But were the Montreal Worlds cursed?
Was the venue too old and flawed?
No. It was a far better than average World Championships. I congratulate FIG, the Worlds organizing committee and all those volunteers for getting 99% of things right.
If you disagree, please leave a comment.
related – Spotlight Gymnastics – The flip side of the medal – Montreal 2017
ideas for new skills on Pommels
JessicaTalksMensGym.com … a proposed new website for GymNerds has a few more suggestions for Max Whitlock.
Could you put any of these on horse?
Valeri Liukin Interview
How did Valeri feel at the end of his first World Championships.
Very happy. Jade’s FX routine in finals was the best he’s seen her do.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
AllCore360 machine
12-year-old Whitney Bjerken is a Gymnastics YouTube celebrity.
In this episode she tries the AllCore360 machine.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
Interesting. Of course she’s training only isometric strength in only one body position. Not what we need for sport. We need train all the sheets of muscle for strength / power.
On the other hand, perhaps some future evolution of this kind of machine could have the athlete go through a greater range of motion. Duplicating specific skills.
Over the 11 minute video they up the resistance of the machine. A gymnast like Whitney finds it easy. That’s because gymnastics body weight training / conditioning is far superior to any machine. 🙂
Thanks George.
Slava Glazounov interview
Jorge Vega Lopez – National hero
Guatemala has had gymnastics heros in the past – Ana Sofía Gómez, double Olympian, for example. And Luisa Portocarrero.
But the nation has really fallen in love with Jorge.
Click PLAY or watch his homecoming on YouTube.
Gymnastics Coaching.com 