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Much press goes to Olympic coach Liang Chow. Always smiling, always upbeat, always positive. A wonderful role model.

But ask the gymnasts what really goes on at the gym.

Shawn Johnson’s other coach – Liwen Zhuang, the unheralded wife of Liang Chow – is said to scorn the spotlight and lead such intense conditioning drills that Chow would plead with her not to kill the gymnasts while he was gone.

“I’m the fun dad,” Chow says. “And she is the real strict mom.”

Liwen Zhuang, above, runs Chow’s Gymnastics with husband Liang Chow. She has coached Olympic athlete Shawn Johnson on the beam and choreographed her floor exercise. Zhuang’s superior knowledge of conditioning is key to Johnson’s success and has helped her avoid serious injury. Zhuang and Chow were both on China’s national team in the 1980s.

Read an excellent article on the “strict mom” – Coach Li sees all – Des Moines Register

Immediately I was reminded of how much stricter Marta Karolyi was than Bela, back in their heyday day.

The favourites to win Team at the Olympics, the Chinese Men’s Gymnastics Team, finally arrived at the Olympic venue. Their training has been ultra secretive up to this point.

How do they look?

From Kyle Shewfelt’s blog:

… We are in a training group with China and they have been MIA until today. We saw them at morning training and they looked awesome. I don’t envy the pressure they are under though. In China, Gold is the only colour that matters. If I was to make a prediction, I would say that they will win. They are so strong, well prepared and deep. I am a sucker for Japanese gymnastics (they are so calm and they just seem to love what they do), but I think China will be the victor here…I at least hope they are. Their futures will be much brighter if they pull of the win!

Imminent Deadline – KyleShewfelt.com

Lu Bin – 2007 Beijing World Cup held at the National Indoor Stadium – GOLD on Vault
gymnastics2007.org.cn

Nice pic. Brae is a Canadian gymnast.

From her Facebook photos page.

The National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) is the legislative body for 17 sports including Artistic Gymnastics.

… According to the 2006-07 NFHS High School Athletics Participation Survey, 1,516 schools offered girls gymnastics in 2006-07, and 18,929 high school girls participated nationwide. …

Girls Gymnastics Rules Changes Announced – SGMA

(via Shergymrag)

one odd High School gymnast photo – source

Still expected to compete in the Olympics.

Chellsie Memmel, who missed the 2004 Athens Games, sat out most of the 2006 and 2007 seasons with injuries. She returned to form in 2008, finishing third at the U.S. Nationals and Olympic Trials.

BEIJING — Chellsie Memmel, one of the most capable all-around gymnasts on the U.S. women’s team, has sustained an ankle injury in practice, perhaps setting the stage for the most pressure-packed comebacks of all of Chellsie Memmel’s many comebacks.

Memmel, 20, of West Allis, Wis., the 2005 world individual all-around champion, apparently hurt herself Saturday. Full details were not immediately available. …

Alan Abrahamson on NBCOlympics.com

Not many gymnasts get “rich” from the sport.

But Nastia is one of them.

Mimi SWARTZ wrote an excellent article for the NY Times on Nastia’s agent, Evan Morgenstein:

… Liukin, who before this year was virtually unknown to all but devout gymnastics fans, can be seen performing aerial magic on a Visa commercial narrated solemnly by Morgan Freeman; appearing online in the AT&T blue room; touting CoverGirl makeup and Secret deodorant; and soon smiling from billboards in ensembles from Vanilla Star jeans. Morgenstein called these endorsements his effort to “help a kid achieve a dream.”

The rewards of this dream can vary, from $50,000 to $100,000 per deal before the Games to possibly millions if an athlete wins gold. Gymnastics in particular is a sponsorship bonanza. …

This Olympic Performance Made More Beautiful by Cover Girl – NY Times

source

WOW! See the video on Gymnast.com.

She could make Floor and Vault finals in Beijing.

Oksana Aleksandrovna Chusovitina (Russian:Оксана Александровна Чусовитина; born June 19, 1975 in Bukhara, Uzbek SSR, USSR) is an Olympic medalist and World Champion gymnast who has competed for Germany since 2006. She was formerly a citizen of, and a competitor for, the Soviet Union (before 1993) and Uzbekistan (1993-2006). …

Wikipedia

larger wallpaper – GymStarz

This is her 5th Olympics. And she’s still improving.

NBC photo Gallergy for Oksana Chusovitina

Palouse Empire Gymnastics was named Gym of the Month by Doug Davis of TumblTrak. He gave them this shout out:

Palouse Empire Gymnastics is located in the small college town of Moscow, Idaho. (80 miles south of I-90). The 9000 square foot facility is fully equipped with women’s and preschool equipment. This includes a 40′ in-ground Tumbl Trak to a loose foam pit, and five 20ft air floors! Over 350 students visit PEG weekly in a variety of programs. In addition to the usual children’s gymnastics classes, PEG has numerous outreach programs that include contracts with the University of Idaho (UI) cheerleaders, UI pole vaulters and the UI PE Department. …. They have a satellite preschool program in Pullman, Washington (8 miles away) with an additional 75 children from local daycares and the City Parks and Recreation Department. PEG is owned and operated by Mark and Lynne Kindelspire.

The photo above shows a Palouse Empire Gymnast using stacked Air Floors outside.

UPDATE: Lynne Kindelspire confirms there is a WSU/UI gymnastics club and they workout every T/TH from 8:30-10pm.

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Getting ready for her record 5th Olympics, American swimmer Dara Torres has the 2nd fastest time in the 100m this year.

How many Moms are in this kind of shape?

You could get that ripped too. Here’s her secret:

… check your bank account, as she revealed she will spend approximately $100,000 this year (2007) on her support staff.

That staff includes: Swim Coach, Sprint Coach, Strength and Conditioning Coach, TWO Full-Time Personal Stretchers, Physical Therapist, Masseuse and last (but certainly not least) a Nanny. This clearly doesn’t come cheap, and Torres lists Bloomberg L.P., Toyota and Speedo as Sponsors that help her defray this ludicrous training cost. They must be good if she can comfortably spend that kind of money on training and not worry about supporting her family, all the more power to her for being able to.

As for her actual workout regime, Torres says she is swimming 5 times a week (no doubles), four 90 minute strength sessions (Swiss Balls, Medicine Balls, Bands and Resistance Work, no weights) and then 60 minute stretching sessions at the completions of each workout. She calls her personal stretchers her “secret weapon” and credits them for a lot of her success.

On the subject of doping allegations Torres pointed out that she is having her blood analyzed despite the fact this is not required, “My attitude is, bring it on. Do what you have to do to prove I’m clean.”

Timed Finals

She’s been named one of the co-captains for Beijing.

Thanks Dave Adlard for showing me the hottie magazine photos of Dara. (I won’t tell your wife.)

An International Olympic Committee spokeswoman said Saturday that there will be no investigation into the ages of Chinese Olympic team members.

Varying ages have been given for Chinese team member He Kexin in news media and Internet biographies, according to a recent New York Times investigation. …

International Gymnast

I don’t like the current age requirement. But if FIG puts in place a rule, it needs to be enforced. For all nations.

Since neither IOC nor FIG is able to confirm documents submitted by member nations are acurate, it cannot be enforced.

All along I’ve felt that some investigative Chinese journalist would need to confirm the true age of He Kexin and Jiang Yuyuan. By travelling to their birth city. Interviewing neighbours and family. Interviewing the parents of competitors from age group competitions in the past. Elementary school teachers. Etc.

Certainly it is possible to confirm their actual birthdates in the Chinese calendar.

But I suspect it would have happened by now, if it was going to happen at all.