One example.
read more – Beyond Stranger Danger: 6 Off the Wall Tips That Can Save Your Kid’s Life
Category: safety
USAG responds to McKayla Maroney
“USA Gymnastics admires the courage of those, like McKayla Maroney, who have come forward to share their personal experiences with sexual abuse. Because of their strength in coming forward, predators can be held accountable for their actions. We, like so many others, are outraged and disgusted by the conduct of which Larry Nassar is accused. We are sorry that any athlete has been harmed during her or his gymnastics career.
“We are strengthening and enhancing our policies and procedures regarding abuse, as well as expanding our educational efforts to increase awareness of signs to watch for and reporting suspicions of abuse, including the obligation to immediately report. USA Gymnastics, its members and community are committed to working together to keep our athletes as safe as possible.”
SafeSport updates
If you are trying to make sense of recent accusations and denials online, click over to GymCastic.
Jessica puts together a summary at the 1 hour mark of the audiocast.
SafeSport updates about Dominque Moceanu, Mary Lou Retton, Michigan State, Jeena Nelson (a sex offender volunteering at Altius Gymnastics Club in Utah, not the one in WI) and 1992 Olympic Champion, Tatiana Gutsu has accused Vitaly Scherbo of rape.
McKayla Maroney molested by Nassar
Read her statement on twitter. #MeToo
no deduction on Radilov’s landing
How a vault should be landed. Bringing forces to zero in the safest ways possible.
Click PLAY or watch it on Instagram.
These landings are super dangerous.Some of his competitors injured on Vault landing at Worlds 2018: Uchimura, Audrys Nin Reyes, Yang Hak-seon.
sadly … #MeToo has gone viral
Following a week of more devastating and disturbing news about film producer Harvey Weinstein, Hollywood actor Alyssa Milano took to social media to ask women to share their own personal experiences of sexual harassment and sexual assault.
In a message posted Sunday, she asked Twitter users to reply “me too” to her tweet if they had been sexually harassed or assaulted …
Kohei, Bram – 1 arm regrasp
It’s not all that rare.
Davide Bardana once caught one handed from 1-arm Geinger into 1-arm Giant.
I believe he won H Bar at Elite Canada with that routine. Though I’d never seen it before, Dave had done it a number of times training over the pit.
Click PLAY or watch Kohei on Tumblr.
Click PLAY or watch Bram on Twitter.
best wrist supports for female gymnasts
One gymnast’s experience started a thread on Chalk Bucket.
Best — of course — is not using wrist supports. Avoid overuse injury.
Beckie Downie vaulting from a Rod Floor
I don’t recall seeing this before. Sprinting on a Rod Floor for vault.
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
Gymnastics Coaching.com 