Category: Olympics

who predicted SPAIN would be going to Tokyo?

Roxana did.

World Championships BEGIN

Tokyo Olympic qualifications start with the ladies this time. The next two days will decide which 12 teams qualify. USA, RUS and CHN have already booked their tickets from Worlds last year.

I’ll be commenting LIVE via Twitter @GymCoaching.

More LIVE coverage:

What an honour to watch all these great gymnasts at one of their career peak competitions — Olympic qualification.

    • Australia and Ukraine were unlucky to draw the first flight of 10. I don’t have confidence that scores won’t escalate over the two days.
    • Australia really looks back on the right track. They competed less difficulty than they train, looking to improve E-score. On vault for example, their landings were  fantastic. Fans down under had no streaming video nor TV coverage. That’s bad for the sport.
    • Belgium killed it. A terrific team performance, especially Bars. Led by the great all-arounder Nina Derwael, looks to me like they will qualify a full team to the Olympics.
    • Jade Vansteenkiste competed the best triple twist I’ve seen in a long time
    • Danusia Francis, now competing for Jamaica, likely punched an AA invite to Tokyo. It’s been a long road. I’m thrilled for her.
    • Aneta Holasova CZE is another I really enjoyed watching today. Great Floor.
    • Oksana Chusovitina fell on her second vault. And Beam. She’s at risk of not qualifying for Tokyo. That would be a disaster for both Gymnastics and the Oympics. She’s one of our best stories.
    • Milka Gehani from Sri Lanka had everyone raving. Best ever from Sri Lanka.
    • the team that surprised me most and best today was Egypt.  Gymnastics is booming in that nation. One double twisting Yurchenko. Great stuff on all 4 apparatus.
    • Big crowd. Especially for the Germany session. And they did not leave unhappy.
    • Both North and South Koreas were excellent. Some of the best form and technique in the competition. It was great to see them on the floor at the same time.
    • Stars of the day were Germany and France. Both fantastic, but France finished ahead and is gunning to challenge China and Russia for the podium. They could do it.
    • Mélanie scored 56.482 and is definitely a favourite for podium AA. Love her unique Bars construction.
    • Congratulations to Team Canada. Despite some injury problems, they pulled off another very good prelims performance. Good chance to qualify to the team final.
France

MyKayla Skinner is the alternate

From a one time controversial athlete, MyKayla has gained a huge fanbase — including myself — for this awesome and courageous comeback to Elite from NCAA.

She should keep improving and try for the Olympic team.

protesting on the podium

Věra Čáslavská made clear her opposition to the 1968 Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Tommie Smith and John Carlos were less subtle at those same Olympics.

In his autobiography, Silent Gesture, Smith stated that the gesture was not a “Black Power” salute, but a “human rights salute”. …

The american sprinters Tommie Smith,John Carlos and Peter Norman during the award ceremony of the 200 m race at the Mexican Olympic games. During the awards ceremony, Smith and Carlos protested against racial discrimination: they went barefoot on the podium and listened to their anthem bowing their heads and raising a fist with a black glove. Mexico City, Mexico, 1968 Mexico city, Mexico, 1968

In a perfect world we would keep politics and sport separate.

We don’t live in a perfect world.

On Nov. 1, Smith and Carlos will be inducted into the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Hall of Fame, an honor bestowed because of their “character, conduct and off-field contributions,” as well as their athletic achievements.

Nancy Armour – USA TODAY – Opinion: ‘We were wrong,’ as USOPC finally do right by Tommie Smith, John Carlos

It’s been 51 years since the USA expelled Tommie and John. Time to make it right.

related:

Hurd, Melnikova, Chen Yile – part 2

This documentary episode was posted before Morgan was named a non-traveling alternate for USA. You can see how competing 3 meets back-to-back did not work out for her.

Both Angelina Melnikova and Chen Yile did qualify to Worlds.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Russia could be banned from Tokyo 2020

Putin loves sport.

I suspect corruption in Russian Anti-Doping goes all the way to the top.

The World Anti-Doping Agency has given Russia 3 weeks to explain how multiple positive drug tests were deleted from a database during the agency’s investigation into the massive doping scandal that broke in 2016.

Why it matters: If Russia doesn’t comply, the country will likely be banned from next year’s Olympic Games in Tokyo. …

Axios

Laurie Hernandez for @Coke

Heart this.

1st World Urban Games – Budapest

An event so new it doesn’t yet have a dedicated Wikipedia page.

The inaugural edition of the World Urban Games is taking place in Budapest from 13-15 September 2019.

Six competition sports are featured, including non-traditional and emerging Olympic events such as 3×3 basketball and BMX freestyle park, (both already set for the program at Tokyo 2020 and breaking (provisionally included for Paris 2024).

John Belushi was a gymnast

If you are too young to remember the comedian John Belushi, search for him on YouTube.

John as a youth was a good athlete, captain of both football and wrestling teams. Turns out he did some Gymnastics, too. Barry Keeley taught him tumbling in High School.

John once — uninvited — did a series of cartwheels on stage to join the Grateful Dead to sing the chorus.

John did his own backward handsprings in the Blues Brothers film.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Actually, it was stuntman Jonathan Yarbrough (stage name Jonathan Pendragon) who did the backward handsprings in a fat suit.

Jonathan had trained at Cal State Fullerton with coach Dick Wolfe.

Here’s one of Belushi’s funny skits on Saturday Night Live. Well past his athletic prime.

Click PLAY or watch it on Facebook. 🙂

John Belushi died age 33 of drug overdose.

Tokyo Olympic Gymnastics venue

Environmentally friendly.

Click PLAY or watch it on Twitter.