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The rumours were true.

Canadian gymnasts Nansy Damianova of Montreal and Elyse Hopfner-Hibbs of Toronto are bound for Beijing.

The two were deemed the country’s top two female gymnasts at the conclusion of the Canadian championship Saturday and punched their tickets to the 2008 Olympics in August.

The Canadian men’s team of six gymnasts for Beijing has yet to be finalized.

Damianova, 17, and Hopfner-Hibbs, 18, were ranked first and second respectively after Saturday’s event finals.

Points accumulated at both national championships and in their international competitions counted towards qualifying for the Olympics.

“I’m really, really happy because it has been a long year and we’ve travelled a lot this year,” Damianova said. “Nationals was our last meet before the Olympics. I’m glad it finished with a happy ending.”

… Damianova tied for first on the vault and was second on the uneven bars to overtake Hopfner-Hibbs Saturday in the overall rankings.

Hopfner-Hibbs was third on both the bars and beam Saturday, but she’d also won the all-around title Thursday and that helped her nail down the second Olympic berth.

Gymnastics Canada will send Damianova’s coach Katerine Dussault with her to Beijing because Damianova is the country’s top-ranked female gymnast.

Hopfner-Hibbs was disappointed to finish second because she wanted to also secure a trip to Beijing for her coach Carol-Angela Orchard.

“The Olympics, I’m going, and that’s outstanding, but it’s bittersweet,” Hopfner-Hibbs said.

“I know Carol-Angela can come to Beijing, but I don’t know if she’s going to or how many training sessions she can come to. It’s hard because she’s the reason I’m here.” …

CANADIAN PRESS – via Gymbrooke Sports News

I’ve yet to speak to one coach who thinks this is the correct ranking of the Olympians. The points system was flawed.

2008 Canadian Championships
June 7, Calgary

Senior Women’s Vault
1. Nansy Damianova (Gymnix, QC) 14.050
1. Kristina Vaculik (Gemini, ON) 14.050
3. Charlotte Mackie (Omega, BC) 14.000

Senior Uneven Bars
1. Kristina Vaculik (Gemini, ON) 15.600
2. Nansy Damianova (Gymnix, QC) 14.900
3. Elyse Hopfner-Hibbs (Sport Seneca, ON) 14.600

Senior Balance Beam
1. Peng-Peng Lee (Sport Seneca, ON) 15.850
2. Kristina Vaculik (Gemini, ON) 15.500
3. Elyse Hopfner-Hibbs (Sport Seneca, ON) 14.950

Senior Women’s Floor Exercise
1. Peng-Peng Lee (Sport Seneca, ON) 14.900
2. Kristina Vaculik (Gemini, ON) 14.800
3. Sydney Sawa (CGC, AB) 14.700

Old timers can recall when the only consistent source of information about gymnastics was International Gymnast magazine.

Each month we’d wait anxiously for it to arrive. Cutting out the pictures and posting them on the gym wall.

In 2008 there are dozens of good sources of information. Other magazines. Online magazines, including International Gymnast online. Discussion forums. And blogs like this.

It’s easy to post your own site and reveal the truth:

xkcd

(via Scobelizer)

When are you going to start your own blog? It’s free and easy with WordPress.

Just dashing off to the post-competition celebrations. But here are the results of finals — which seem to last for about 17hrs today.

(The NCAA coaches in the audience were mortified at how long we were willing to make athletes hang around for a meet.)

WAG_Senior_EvtFinals.pdf

MAG_Senior_EventFinals.pdf

Peng Peng won beam with a 15.85 out of 6.8.

Brandon O’Neil had a 6.8 start on PBars, scoring 15.50 to win. Unfortunately he landed out of bounds on his 6.5 start FX.

It’s an amazing honour to count as one of the few of hundreds who aspired to trial for the Olympics.

Congratulations to these girls and their coaches.

Thirteen women were named to the 2008-09 U.S. Senior National Team. These 13, as well as six additional women, will compete at the U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Gymnastics, June 19-22 at the Wachovia Center in Philadelphia. …

2008-09 U.S. Senior National Team

Jana Bieger, Coconut Creek, Fla./Bieger International Gymnastics
Mackenzie Caquatto, Naperville, Ill./Aerials
Olivia Courtney, Orlando, Fla./Orlando Metro
Ivana Hong, Blue Springs, Mo./GAGE
Alaina Johnson, Tyler, Texas/Texas East
Shawn Johnson, West Des Moines, Iowa/Chow’s Gymnastics
Mattie Larson, Los Angeles/All Olympia
Nastia Liukin, Parker, Texas/WOGA
Corrie Lothrop, Gaithersburg, Md./Hill’s
Chellsie Memmel, West Allis, Wis./M&M Gymnastics
Samantha Peszek, Indianapolis, Ind./DeVeau’s
Alicia Sacramone, Winchester, Mass./Brestyan’s
Randy Stageberg, Chesapeake, Va./Excalibur

Also invited to the U.S. Olympic Team Trials

Chelsea Davis, Lakeway, Texas/Texas Dreams
Darling Hill, Mt. Laurel, N.J./Will-Moor
Britney Ranzy, Gaithersburg, Md./Excalibur
Amber Trani, Richlandtown, Pa./Parkettes
Bridget Sloan, Pittsboro, Ind./Sharp’s
Shayla Worley, Orlando, Fla./Orlando Metro

Gymnast.com

Mackenzie Caquatto – official website

The top three finishers of the U.S. Gymnastics Championships, from left, second place, Nastia Liukin, first place Shawn Johnson and third place Chellsie Memmel salute the crowd, Saturday, June 7, 2008, in Boston.

(AP Photo/Michael Dwyer) – ESPN

Commentary:

Johnson Retains All-Around Title – Gymnast.com

Nationals: Shawn Wins, Chellsie Triumphant – Gymnastics and stuff

Shawn Johnson National Champion 2x Running! – Live.Breath.Love.Gymnastics

Johnson, Wieber win U.S. Championships – Gymblog

“Honestly I don’t think I’ve ever felt this happy about a second place,” Liukin noted after the meet. “I’m a competitive person at heart, and I get that from my dad 100 percent… but I was really happy with how this whole weekend went besides that first fall on the first day.”

Johnson Defends U.S. Title – IG – results

Ivana Hong had a good meet finishing 5th.

It is not confirmed yet, but a rumor is that Nancy Damianova and Elise Hopfner-Hibbs have been chosen for the Canadian Olympic Team. Kristina Vaculick deserved the spot over Nancy in my opinion.

Live.Breath.Love.Gymnastics

That’s the general consensus, honestly, amongst coaches here at the Canadian Championships.

In reality, Nancy and Kristina are close — even if you disregard the bizarre point system used for selection. Either athlete is a good second choice after Elise. I would rank Kristina slightly ahead of Nancy, but it is a close decision.

The latest rumour is that Nancy’s coach Katerine Dussault has been named coach.

If true, that’s an idiotic decision. Elise’s coach Carol-Angela Orchard has far more international experience and is the obvious choice.

Over 600 gymnasts have been competing at the huge Olympic Oval in my home town Calgary. Today it ends, culminating in apparatus finals in Artistic and Trampoline sports.

I’ve been attending Nationals for about 30yrs. This is the best ever, in my opinion.

Congratulations to Scott Hayes and everyone at Gymnastics Alberta. To the hundreds of volunteers. To the organizing committee.

I particularly liked trampoline sports — power tumbling, double-mini, trampoline — being front and centre. Canadian coaches have done a fantastic job building the sport across the country and rarely get the recognition they deserve from the media.

Kids bussed in on school field trips liked trampoline sports best, I noted.

Full results linked from the competition home page

Ontario will host in 2009. British Columbia in 2010.

Andrew Thornton:

… if we simply look at the scores from Day 1, there is a team of six I see that would have scored the highest in a 3-up, 3-count format, and it might have a couple of surprises:

Shawn Johnson
Nastia Liukin
Alicia Sacramone
Chellsie Memmel
Bridget Sloan
Mattie Larson (!)

Sound crazy? It might at first, but if you look at the actual numbers, it shouldn’t.

see the numbers on Gymnast.com – If we had to pick the team based on Day 1 of Visa Championships

Related: Can Mattie Larson win a place in the show? – L.A. Times

She’s from All Olympia Gymnastics Center in Los Angeles, the same gym as Junior Samantha Shapiro.

Gymnastics Canada used a “point system” based on score on each apparatus to choose two female Olympians.

The Canadian Gymnastics Championships Finals tonight is the last chance to gain points.

Described colourfully as a “cut-throat” competition by an athlete on the male side, the yearlong battle between three of the women is more cut and dry at this point.

With Elyse Hopfner-Hibbs nearly five points ahead of Nansy Damianova and 14 ahead of Kristina Vaculik — according to the unofficial count in the new qualifying system Gymnastics Canada is using to select two women to represent them in the Beijing Games this summer — it would take a perfect performance from Vaculik today at the Olympic Oval, and some below-average efforts from the other two to propel her into an Olympic berth.

Even so, anything can happen, and although Hopfner-Hibbs does a great job hiding her nerves, she’s anything but calm.

“I’m not that calm. I’m trying to be calm,” said the Torontonian who claimed the all-around title at the 2008 Canadian gymnastics championships Thursday night.

“It’s a very stressful process. We’ve never had anything like this before.

“Hopefully next time we qualify a full team so we don’t have to go through this all over again.” …

Toronto Sun

Elyse

From a coaching perspective, the system used turned out to be a big mistake. Those wanting to contend needed to compete as much as possible, traveling frequently to World Cup meets in hopes of adding points.

In fact, they needed to stay in a state of “competition readiness” from January through until today. That’s not ideal for peaking at the Olympics.

It was totally unnecessary too. Better would have been selecting a training squad working together cooperatively. With a final decision made based on competition results and training performance. As is done in the USA. In Russia. In most countries.

Elyse and Aisha Gerber have both signed with UCLA for next season. Coach Chris Waller is here cheering on the two new recruits.

Many are raving about the unique qualities of this American gymnast, second in Junior after day 1 at the VISA Championships in Boston.

What feet! What toe point!

These are older videos …

Click PLAY or watch Beam on YouTube.

Click PLAY or watch Bars on YouTube.

Coaches Galina Marinova, Fernando Villa, and Arthur Akopyan. Club All Olympia Gymnastics Center (AOGC) in Los Angeles.

(via Rawles)

Samantha Shapiro – Got Chalk