For now — as the senior team finished 22nd at Worlds 2019 and didn’t qualify to Tokyo — gymnasts will be training at their own clubs.
Back to the drawing board.
Category: Olympics
an Olympics love story
Bronze medal-winning Olympian Adam Rippon has a new memoir. In it he recounts his feud with famously homophobic Vice President Mike Pence who lead the U.S. Olympic delegation to South Korea.
Here’s one of the best of his life stories.
Click PLAY or watch it on Twitter.
Paris 2024 logo revealed
Andreea Răducan documentary – The Golden Girl
HEY – IOC.
Give Răducan a Gold medal for the AA at the 2000 Olympics. We’ve always considered her the deserving winner.
Shot in 2015 and 2016, the documentary The Golden Girl centres on Romanian gymnast Andreea Răducan, who won the all-around gold medal at the 2000 Olympics, only to be forced a day later to renounce her title and her medal following a controversial doping test. …
We meet Răducan, now a retired gymnast and a successful businesswoman, in 2015, as she starts to investigate the possibility of convincing the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to give her back her medal. …
Click PLAY or watch a highly dramatic trailer on YouTube.
Men qualified to Tokyo Olympics (so far)
Click PLAY or see the teams on YouTube.
Click PLAY or see the individuals on YouTube.
There are a few more to be named.
Ivan Stretovich training for Tokyo
… Surgeries, growth spurt and coaching issues were among the obstacles he had to overcome to become a part of the gold-winning Russian team in Stuttgart. …
… I changed coaches, that was the most important thing. … now I’m with Vitaly Nikolayevich Bubnovsky [who coached Aleksander Balandin]. He believed in me, he got me to such a place where I’m ready to go out and compete at any moment. …
Under his coaching, only after a month of training, I went to the Universiade in Naples and won four medals. After that, there was the training camp in Japan and right after, the Russian Cup and the second place in the all-around. …
… We started working together in June, only four months have passed, but the work has changed radically, from warming up to the second practice. I started paying attention to every little thing …
STRETOVICH: I NEEDED TO FALL INTO A WASTE PIT TO BECOME A WORLD CHAMPION
Sam Oldham’s story
Former Team GB gymnast Sam Oldham is gunning for one last shot at Olympic glory – this is his story
… Oldham is out of Team GB and hasn’t competed at major championships in several years, yet he remains focused on making a surge for a place in the squad for Tokyo. …
“On paper, right now I’m in the worst possible place I’ve been in. I’m 26, not in the GB squad right now, my funding got dropped, I’m actually living with my grandparents. …
Sam Oldham on Team GB Olympic glory and frustrations, his battle with depression and the road to Tokyo 2020
RSA’s Caitlin Rooskrantz to Tokyo
Congratulations to the South African star. Cheer her at the Olympics.
Petro PAKHNIUK is a fantastic gymnast
With Oleg and Petro healthy, Ukraine could again be an Olympic medal contender in 2020.
GymCastic: Why don’t we talk about him more as an AA medal challenger?
Click PLAY or watch his Euros 2019 P Bars on YouTube.
Unfortunately he missed in the 2019 Worlds P Bar final.
improving World Championships
Most people agree on these points:
- Worlds should be shorter
- Worlds should be less expensive
- Worlds should not showcase dangerous skills from gymnasts not at the expected level of competition
- Smaller, poorer nations should have a chance to compete against China
In 2019 we had medalists from Croatia, Ireland and Philippines, for example. We don’t want to reduce the chances of a future Carlos ‘Caloy’ Yulo having a chance to rise to medal contender.
I’m OK with lower level gymnasts competing Worlds so long as their routines are not dangerous. Recall Sri Lanka’s appearance at Worlds 2003? The audience loved them. Their routines were very basic.
In 2019 Milka Gehani just might qualify for the Tokyo Olympics through the tripartite rule. Worlds 2003 was a step on the long road to Tokyo.
Click PLAY or watch her Beam on YouTube.
To shorten Worlds I’d first cut the Team competition. It would be decided through the qualification round.
IOC and FIG have broad missions. Handing medals to the best of the best is one objective amongst many. Developing sport in Sri Lanka is another.
PROPOSAL – Elite Worlds
In Canada we have always had two major competitions each year:
- Nationals (regional representation, regional development, etc.)
- Elite Canada
At Elite Canada only the best of the best qualify. We might have 12 gymnasts from Ontario and only 1 from Nova Scotia, for example.
I’d love to see an FIG sponsored Elite Worlds. Cash prizes. 15 American gymnasts competing Floor, for example.
Gymnastics Coaching.com 