Student athletes shouldn’t have to hide who they are.
Click PLAY or get a glimpse behind the scenes on Twitter.
The Pride Meet was Feb. 9th vs. #20 Arizona. 🏳️🌈
Category: safety
Break the Fall – a book review
Break the Fall by Jennifer Iacopelli was released Feb 18th.
I finished it in less than 24 hours.
That’s surprising since I’m decidedly NOT the target audience for Young Adult / Teen romance.
This novel is heavy on Gymnastics, light on the typical YA cliché teen crushes and rivalries.
Jennifer: For me, when writing sports fiction, the sport itself is what the plot will stem from, so it’s almost impossible for me to write a book about sports that doesn’t heavily include the competition, practices and training that would be a major part of any athlete’s life.
Often we’ll see books about an athlete that’s injured or an athlete that had to give up their sport as an exploration of their identity away from the thing they love, but that’s been done so much, I’m more interested in what it takes to strive to compete at the highest levels, to try to win and what happens when you do (or don’t). …
And the Gymnastics is well informed.
I assumed Jennifer was an ex-gymnast or coach, but she’s actually a kick-butt librarian. Her sports were tennis and softball.
Jennifer: “… what I worked on the most was making sure the gymnasts were portrayed as realistically as possible, in and out of the gym. …”
The American National Team Director is lead away in handcuffs, accused of tampering with drug test results. Later charged with sexual assault.
When the rest of the Federation supports him, the equivalent of the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee suspends the equivalent of USAG and delivers the U.S. Olympic team to a new coach only weeks before the Tokyo Olympics.
That’s a good plot device.
Jennifer loosely based the new Olympic coach on Kim Zmeskal.
She was inspired to write a Gymnastics novel after following the Nassar / USAG scandal: “… people in a position of power abusing athletes or failing to protect athletes from abuse …”
The story starts at Olympic trials 2020. Ends on the last day of Apparatus Finals in Tokyo.
If you are wondering whether your gymnasts should read this book it does have a lot of profanity. And there is discussion of sexual abuse though none of that is graphic.
The audio version is available on Scribd and Audible.
MyotonPRO Digital Palpation Technology
20+ NCAA Achilles ruptures so far
There are many every season.
It’s a BIG risk for older, powerful gymnasts.
Georgia freshman Amanda Cashman is out.
Alabama’s Griffin James likely out.
Stop sexualizing women’s sport
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
ex-MSU coach Kathie Klages convicted
A jury on Friday convicted a former Michigan State University gymnastics coach of lying to police when she denied that two teen athletes told her of sexual abuse by sports doctor Larry Nassar in 1997, nearly 20 years before he was charged.
Kathie Klages, 65, was found guilty of a felony and a misdemeanor in a Lansing courthouse where Nassar was sentenced more than two years ago. Klages faces up to four years in prison at her April 15 sentencing.
She is the second person other than Nassar to be convicted of charges related to his serial molestation of young women and girls under the guise of medical treatment. …
Recall that Klages continued to support Nassar during his investigation — even asking Michigan State gymnasts to sign cards of support.
related – In a parallel story, then assistant wrestling coach Jim Jordan asked his team to deny the sexual abuse of male wrestlers by team doctor Richard Strauss at Ohio State University.
Stauss committed suicide in 2005 after being accused of abusing at least 177 students.
Simone for #nocompetition in beauty
Olympic athletes join SK-II to declare #NOCOMPETITION in beauty
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
As the world’s sporting talents are gearing up for Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, a band of top athletes have joined forces to declare a battle against beauty standards that they’ve never signed up for, led by cult-favourite beauty brand SK-II.
… Biles, along with an impressive roster of fellow Olympic athletes, including world-record holder swimmer Liu Xiang and the Japan volleyball team, have joined forces with SK-II for #nocompetition, a new global campaign created to inspire women to live by their own definitions of beauty.
Biles admits that in an image-obsessed era, ignoring the pressure to measure up isn’t always easy, not even for her. “I’ve been dealing with scrutiny my whole life. I had to go through puberty in the public eye. It’s hard and social media doesn’t make it any better, but I think the campaign will help us as women to speak up about toxic beauty standards,” …
Maya Zonneveld is Elite Canada Jr Champ
1. Maya Zonneveld 99.831
2. Cassie Lee 99.231
3. Ava Stewart 98.598
4. Alicia Wendland 97.632
5. Sydney Turner 97.281
6. Rylee Miller 97.097
Maya and Alicia are teammates at Revolution Gymnastics.
Clara Raposo won almost everything day 1: AA, Vault, Beam, Floor.
Unfortunately Clara had to withdraw from day 2 after an injury on Vault landing. Competition Vault landing is the single greatest risk in a very dangerous sport.
Read Lauren’s LIVE blog.
Katie Sowers – 1st woman coach in Super Bowl
San Francisco 49ers offensive assistant Katie Sowers will be the first female coach and first openly gay person in a Super Bowl.
Katie is not the first female coach, however. There were a number working with NFL teams in 2020.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
Rosie MacLennan talks mental health
The double Olympic Trampoline champion sometimes suffers from depression.
Watch it on TSN – As Long As I Breathe
This released in conjunction with the #BellLetsTalk program.
Rosie wants anyone else suffering any kind of mental health problems to feel comfortable talking about it.
Details:
“Over the last decade, the Bell Let’s Talk Community Fund has helped more than 650 organizations on the front line of mental health care drive real change in their communities,” said Bell Let’s Talk Chair Mary Deacon.
“We welcome this year’s fund applicants and look forward to offering our support to even more exciting projects in 2020.”
Gymnastics Coaching.com 