Category: safety

Oleg Vernyayev – Stop War

 Oleg calls for the international sporting community to support Ukraine.

From Instagram:

“last saw my native Donetsk back in 2012. And soon the war will take away my opportunity to return home for almost 9 years.

With the onset of a full-scale invasion, training was put on a back burner. From the first days, I started volunteering, as did some of my colleagues, Ukrainian gymnasts. About three thousand athletes and coaches are now defending the Independence of our country. Over a hundred of them will never return home.

Silence settled in our training halls. But we must not be silent!

We should not keep silent about Russia’s crimes against Ukraine, as Russian and Belarusian athletes do.

Their silence is support for the bloody Russian terror. Terrorists have no place in international sports.

I urge all citizens of the civilized world to support Ukraine on the sports front!

Silence kills!”

Click PLAY or watch it on Instagram.

improving ETHICS / SAFETY

Interesting observation from a top sports journalist.

The top 3 teams at Worlds have all been having a reckoning of how to improve ETHICS / SAFETY — especially because female gymnasts are so young, and the training so intense.

Gymnastics is absolutely the best sport for kids IMHO. But there have been terrible abuses, especially at the highest levels of WAG.

Ukrainian gymnasts in the dark

A timely reminder of why gymnasts from Russia and Belarus were banned from the Liverpool Worlds.

Putin is bombing Ukraine’s power grid, causing grief and suffering for civilians.

IOC should announce what date Russia will be banned from the Paris Olympics, unless Putin’s war is ended.

Worlds Liverpool meets are FAST

Great for the spectators.

Similar to NCAA College meets in the States.

fluke slip on Springboard?

It appears that way.

But Blythe noted there have been several gymnast who have slipped on the Board in Liverpool.

Rebeca – disaster on Vault

Rebeca’s Cheng — first vault counting for the team — was excellent.

But her hand slipped on the second. She had to simply do a tucked Salto.

Smart decision. But she now won’t qualify for the Vault Final.

STOP WAR

Illia KOVTUN from Ukraine is wearing a STOP WAR t-shirt at Podium Training. OK, I think.  And of course I agree with him.

Putin’s invasion of a neighbouring nation took out both Olympic Champion teams from our sport.  And killed many innocent people.

STOP WAR.

Of course training for this competition has been super challenging for Ukraine. Their athletes have been all over the world trying to get ready.

Lee Chih-Kai withdraws from Worlds

One of the favourites for the Pommel Final, we were surprised when Lee Chih-Kai didn’t appear with the Taiwan team for Podium training.

It sounds like he had to withdraw for Covid reasons.

Very, very few are masked in the arena. Notably most of the Chinese and Japanese coaches.

Germany rocking unitards

Thanks AGAIN to the women of Team Germany for choosing to wear unitards.

No competitor should feel forced to wear a leotard in competition.

Trinidad pays Thema Williams

I happened to be there when news broke that Canadian-born gymnast Marisa Dick would replace Thema. It was at the Olympic Test Meet in Rio.

We were surprised as Thema had looked healthy during Podium Training — in a striking gold leotard. No observable problems.

But her coach at the Games was John Geddert. He told the Federation Thema wasn’t ready enough. Trinidad had to fly the replacement in from Canada. Last minute.

FORMER national gymnast Thema Williams’s four-year battle for compensation, for the “biased and flawed” decision of the TT Gymnastics Federation to pull her out of the 2016 Olympic Games, came to an end at 2.20 pm on Thursday.

That was when the federation’s bankers, Republic Bank Ltd, delivered a cheque for $223,800.19 …

On November 26, 2018, Seepersad ruled Williams was entitled to $200,000 for loss of endorsements and other opportunities because of the federation’s “biased” and flawed decision to withdraw her from representing this country in the 2016 Rio Olympics. …

Gymnastics Federation pays Thema Williams damages

Federations must have clear selection policies. And enforce them.

The ONLY good news from this disaster was that Marisa had a good competition. And did qualify Trinidad to the Olympics.