Category: Uncategorized

Podium training has ended.

The 2012 season officially begins Tuesday with the second and final Olympic gymnastics qualification at London’s O2 Arena, site of this summer’s Olympic Games. …

Nations which already qualified also had the opportunity to send up to two gymnasts for experience. The world champion U.S. women and Chinese men passed on the invitation, as did Romania. The Chinese women, however, sent world balance beam champion Sui Lu and world all-around bronze medalist Yao Jinnan. Both gymnasts are expected to do battle with Russian first-year senior Anastasia Grishina, a triple gold medalist at the 2010 Junior European Championships in Birmingham. …

IG – Final Olympic Qualification Begins Tuesday

For MAG it’s tough to call. The roof of the O2 will collapse atop 15,000+ spectators tomorrow night if Great Britain does not finish top 4. They will.

Belarus
Brazil … missing Hypalito
Great Britain
Canada
Spain
France
Italy
Puerto Rico

FIG Facebook album: Visa International Gymnastics 2012

It’s showtime for coach Elena Davidova and Team Canada.

For WAG many pundits have predictions. Most, including me, like the teams in bold.

Belgium
Canada
Brazil
France
Spain
Italy
Korea
Netherlands

I was quite impressed with Spain for the last Olympic berth, but others disagree.

Brazil will certainly be top 4 on Floor and Vault. They’ll need a very good meet on the other 2 apparatus to qualify, though.

The Korean girls are superb gymnasts. But I predict landing errors will take them out of contention. They’re still being spotted on many skills.

At one point I felt Netherlands would be there for Olympics. But injuries have put them in a tough spot.

Belgium lacks depth.

… I could be wrong. 🙂 Any of the 8 teams with a brilliant meet could be there. Good luck to all.

What’s it like to be one of Britain’s greatest gymnasts? In this fascinating autobiography, Beth Tweddle takes us through the biggest moments of her life, from winning gold at the World Championships, to being honoured with an MBE at just 25 years old. Follow her story as she prepares for her most important task yet – the Olympics!

only £5.99

Hopefully this will be available for sale at the Test Meet. I’ll buy a few copies just to support one of my favourite gymnasts.

via @bethtweddlenews

Here you can see Blythe Lawrence LIVE blogging podium training. She actually has to KNOW what’s going on. Me and the chicken, … not so much. 🙂

photo Tandoori Poulet on Facebook

It was Blythe’s birthday last night. Celebrating.

Easy double double for the youngest Canadian. #FIGTest12

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Gymnastics / Skating Extravaganzas are much mocked by insiders.

But many love the Galas at major FIG events.

Matthew Greenwood, Gymnastics coordinator at the O2, confirmed the bad news. FIG and the London Olympics organizing committee both wanted to schedule a Gala … but logistics were too difficult. The Artistic / Trampoline venue is shared with Basketball. And Rhythmics scheduled after the (possible) Gala date.

Finals in London will be again held over 3 days, not two — taking away a potential Gala date.

Here’s a glimpse from the Beijing 2008 Gala — Rhythmic gymnast Aliya Garaeva. Click PLAY or watch it on Daily Motion.

https://dailymotion.com/video/x8dguz

Great news. #FIGTest12

Slava Corn announced that Artistic and Trampoline Finals will be LIVE STREAMED on the FIG YouTube channel. (Rhythmic will not as it’s in a separate venue during the Olympics.)

Artistic and Trampoline prelims will be LIVE streamed, as well. But not every routine. This is a first for an FIG meet and is a bit of an experiment.

Rumour is that FIG video content will later be available under a Creative Commons license. I’ll confirm that when it happens.

I congratulated Meike BEHRENSEN, FIG Media Operations Coordinator, personally. This is yet another great innovation. Ron Scammell, Gymnastics Canada, for example, can now get video footage of the Canadians to promote the sport back home.

Former Dutch gymnast Verona van de Leur seems to be promoting a new career in the porn industry.

She posted 4 teaser videos on the Kanaal van veronavdleur YouTube channel over the past 2 months.

Here’s her most popular video. That’s definitely NOT SAFE FOR WORK or GYM.

She was jailed earlier this year. A sad story.

Final podium training. #FIGTest12
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

No tape on her knee. Recall that Christine had a dislocated patella earlier this season, the same injury as Rebecca Bross.

The Floor is significantly less springy than the one at Tokyo Worlds.

More Canadian podium training videos on the piibunina YouTube channel.

#FIGTest12 Gimnasia Latina, based out of Buenos Aires, is here at the London Test Meet.

For now they publish only in Spanish. But I get every post sent to me Google translated into English. Here’s a sample:

The Spanish team gymnastics arrived yesterday in London to participate on Tuesday, in the pre-Olympic tournament that will distribute the final berths for the 2012 London event, marked on the calendar of these athletes for four years. …

… Jesus Carballo emphasizes the preparation of all hard selected. “This tournament is novel. So far, after the World Cup, the gymnasts down the intensity of your workouts, but this year has maintained a high level of demand “, which even led them to train hard during Christmas. …

Spain seeks his place in Olympics

(Google translated)

… You can get the general idea of what was posted originally in Spanish, but the translation is far from perfect.

It’s nice to see such a professional site dedicated to the Spanish language.

On a sad note, Manuel Carballo withdrew from the competition with a knee injury dismounting PB.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.