Category: history

Men’s College Gymnastics Association Hall of Fame

This is the 3rd annual announcement of inductees.

Jim Hartung R.I.P.

As a young coach, I was a huge fan of Jim Hartung and the rest of his NCAA Gymnastics dynasty at Nebraska.

Hartung also led the Huskers and Coach Francis Allen to their first four NCAA team titles (1979-1980-1981-1982) and became Nebraska’s first Nissen-Emery Award winner in 1982. He was a two-time member of the United States Olympic team, helping the U.S. to its first and only team gold medal at the Los Angeles 1984 Summer Olympic Games.

Hartung, 65, has been a Nebraska assistant gymnastics coach for the past 19 seasons, giving back to the championship program he helped build …

HUSKER LEGEND JIM HARTUNG PASSES AWAY

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Men’s Gymnastics routines defining the apparatus

zhoxxyy:

Floor

  • Kenzo Shirai (JPN) – 2013 World Championships – Event Final
  • Carlos Yulo (PHI) – 2019 World Championships – Event Final

Pommels

  • Krisztián Berki (HUN) – 2012 Olympic Games – Event Final
  • Rhys McClenaghan, MBE (IRL) – 2022 World Championships – Event Final

Rings

  • Jury Chechi (ITA) – 1996 Olympic Games – Event Final
  • Liu Yang (CHN) – 2020 Olympic Games Event Final

Vault

  • Marian Drăgulescu (ROU) – 2004 Olympic Games Event Final
  • Jake Jarman (GBR) – 2023 World Championships – All-Around

P Bars

  • Rustam Sharipov (UKR) – 1996 Olympic Games – Event Final
  • Zou Jingyuan (CHN) – 2018 World Championships – Event Final

H Bar

  • Epke Zonderland (NED) – 2012 Olympic Games – Event Final
  • Kohei Uchimura (JPN) – 2026 Olympic Games – All Around

Watch all those routines:

The Men’s Artistic Gymnastics Routines that Shaped and Perfected the Sport

This article analyzes pivotal routines in men’s artistic gymnastics across the six apparatuses. How historic performances reshaped standards of difficulty and execution, and perfected the interaction between skill and artistry, thus enhancing the understanding of the sport’s evolution.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

East German coach Dieter Hofmann

When Hofmann died of COVID-19 in April 2020, the international gymnastics community remembered him as an innovator and mentor.

The tributes focused on his technical knowledge shared generously, on a coach “always willing and eager” to help programs worldwide.

None mentioned “The Rose.” None referenced the Stasi files or the pharmaceutical protocols. …

I attended a number of Hofmann’s coaching courses.

He was a coaches coach. Very good at planning. A proven winner. His team won no fewer than 52 medals at Olympic Games, World and European Championships.

I have no doubt that his main passion was beating the USSR.

BUT in that era of the DDR, you cooperated with the Stasi (secret police) or lost your job.

In that era of the DDR, if higher-ups told you to test new drugs on gymnasts, you did it.

I knew very little about all these new revelations — aside from the drugs he told us about at one coaching course. Some kind of steroids. They tried them on junior male gymnasts ultimately deciding that the benefits weren’t worth the risk.

Uncle Tim put together a career retrospective on Dieter Hoffman. So far as I can verify with contemporaries, it’s very accurate. Uncle Tim is a terrific researcher.

Read more …

Gymnastics-History.com – Code Name “Rose”: The Double Life of East Germany’s Head Coach

Philippines the fastest improving Gymnastics nation?

I led a week long Olympic Solidarity coaching course in Manila in 2011.

MAG and WAG.

Gymnastics Coaching Course, Manila, Philippines
Gymnastics Coaching Course, Manila, Philippines

Gymnastics was not well developed at that time. Good facilities just being built.

BUT it was obvious that the Gymnastics Association of the Philippines was passionate and determined to build.

Not too many years later they had a World and Olympic champion in Carlos Yulo.

This is only the 36th largest economy of the world.

Both MAG and WAG Artistic programs have grown quickly. What other nation has done so much in so few years?

They are still improving.

I share my excitement and profound optimism for the Philippines’ turn on the world stage. Long dominated by gymnastics powerhouses, the hosting of a global event by this beautiful island country is a tribute to FIG’s inclusivity and to humanity’s aspirations for independence and global solidarity.

FIG President Watanabe

Věra Čáslavská documentary

Don’t Look Away

Czech gymnast Věra Čáslavská won a total of 22 international titles between 1959 and 1968 including seven Olympic gold medals, four world titles and eleven European championships.

Čáslavská was known for her outspoken support of the Czechoslovak democratization movement and her opposition to the 1968 Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia.

At the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City, she took this protest to the world stage by quietly looking down and away while the Soviet national anthem was played during the medal ceremonies for the balance beam and floor exercise event finals.

Click PLAY or watch the trailer on YouTube.

Rebeca might be back in 2026

In a new Marie Claire magazine interview:

After her historic achievement at the Paris 2024 Olympics, which established her as Brazil’s most decorated Olympic medalist, the athlete decided to take time off to care for her physical and mental health during a sabbatical year.

During this period, she did not compete in the World Gymnastics Championships for the first time since starting in the senior category in 2015, and is still considering plans for the 2026 World Championships and the 2028 Olympics, which should mark the gymnast’s last competition in the Olympic Games.