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Anna Marie Niemeir, 14, of Missoula, performs her floor routine before judges at the 2008 Great West Gym Fest at the Coeur d’Alene Resort Convention Center on Saturday.

SEAN GARMIRE/Press

… Dani Crane, 15, said she also enjoys meeting other gymnasts, as well as meeting some of the Olympic athletes who attended the event.

“They share their stories with us about training and stuff. It’s really cool,” Crane said.

Among those attending were gold winning Olympians like Shannon Miller, the most decorated gymnast – male or female – in the U.S.; Stoyan Deltchev, for whom the impossibly difficult Deltchev maneuver on the uneven bars was named; and Carly Patterson, the all-around gold-winner in the 2004 summer Olympics.

“The kids really love it,” Deltchev said waiting in a Coeur d’Alene penthouse suite for the next event.

Deltchev said the young athletes don’t remember his 1980 Olympic win or recognize his face, but when they hear his name “they say ‘oh that’s the guy the move is named after.'”

This is Deltchev’s third year attending the event. He said he continues to return because of the quality of the meet.

“Everything here is at a super high level,” he said.

Miller, a gymnastics ambassador who hosts her own extended cable network television show, “Gymnastics 360 with Shannon Miller,” agreed with Deltchev.

“It’s exciting and fun for the athletes, and it’s one of the most well organized invitationals in the U.S.,” she said.

Gym Fest gets rolling – CDAPress.com

Note – The photo of Deltchev shows him doing “Spagat” (splits) on rings, not the Deltchev release.

Great West Gym Fest – official website

Nice ad.

gym divas leos

CALGARY, Alberta., Feb. 22, 2008 – The USA won the team competition in the USA vs Canada meet, 361.350 to 352.600.

Along with Alvarez and Leyva, the members of the U.S. Team were: Joseph Hagerty of Rio Rancho, N.M./Team Chevron; Kevin Tan of Fremont, Calif./Team Chevron; Sean Townsend of Dickinson, Texas/Team Chevron; and Blaine Wilson, Columbus, Ohio/Team Chevron.

Results

Team
1. USA, 361.350
2. Canada, 352.600

All-around
1. Guillermo Alvarez, Denver/Team Chevron, 89.100
2. David Kikuchi, Canada, 88.750
3. Danell Leyva, Miami/Universal Gymnastics, 86.600

USA Gymnastics

more photos

Other members of the Canadian team were Grant Golding and Nathan Gafuik, both of Calgary, Brandon O’Neill of Edmonton and Ken Ikeda of Abbotsford, B.C.

Gymnastics Canada announced that Claude Pelletier has resigned as Gymnastics Canada National Coach in Women’s Artistic Gymnastics.

A great coach, none the less, Claude did not enjoy anything like the success of his predecessor Andrei Rodionenko, now Head Coach in Russia.

Specifically, the Canadians did not qualify as a team for the 2008 Olympics.

original – flickr – tehdaev

This site is going to be HUGE.

But, so far, only some video content from the last Men’s National competition is posted. The website is stll in development. They have some top talent involved already and I expect it to soon be one of the best sites on the net for gymnastics coaches.

Coverage of the Winter Cup is on http://www.gymnast.com, giving a sneak peak at a new site that USA Gymnastics and the Wasserman Media Group will introduce in the near future for folks who live gymnastics every day. The Winter Cup Web cast is just one example of the exclusive content you’ll see only at http://www.gymnast.com. Enjoy the top athletes’ spectacular performances – and return often as the site grows robust with the best content, especially with the Olympic Games on the horizon. …

USA Gymnastics

See for yourself – Gymnast.com

larger original – flickr – rebasue

World Champion Shawn Johnson is astonishingly good in media interviews for such a young athlete.

But the younger Peng Peng is even more eloquent, I think. She’s a natural.

Charismatic 14-year-old gymnast Christine “Peng Peng” Lee is the best Canadian gymnast coach Carol-Angela Orchard has seen in her 30 years in the sport. …

listen to the audiocast linked from the CBC Inside Track podcast page.

Click PLAY or watch Peng Peng compete Floor on YouTube.

Broadcaster Robin Brown also posted a commentary after the interview. (Peng Peng is too young to compete in Beijing.)

Olympic age minimums not always fair

… To compete at the Olympic Games you must be 16 years old. There are a few sports where the minimum age is even higher, such as marathon runners who must be 20 years old but generally speaking, 16 is the minimum.

And I’m not sure it’s entirely fair.

The rule was brought in, ostensibly, to protect the child athletes who are at risk of being exploited, pressured, mistreated and exposed to risk of injury. One of the arguments is that these young bodies are not mature enough to handle the extreme training necessary and that they are not emotionally mature enough to handle the pressure.

But 16 seems such an arbitrary number.

In some sports, the age rule doesn’t make much difference. It’s unlikely a 14-year-old is going to unseat a 22-year-old in a strength and endurance sport such as rowing, or that a 12-year-old could make the Olympic hockey team.

But in other sports, the minimum age is a hotly debated and controversial issue. In gymnastics and figure skating, young girls have often shown championship form at the international level. Nadia Comaneci scored her perfect-10 when she was 14-years-old. Tara Lipinski became a world figure skating champion at 14. …

Canada’s own Alexandre Despatie won Commonwealth Games gold in diving when he was just 13-years-old, earning him a place in the Guinness World Records. He’s still going strong 10 years later and is a medal favourite this summer in Beijing.

There is a young Canadian gymnast, Peng-Peng Lee, who is 14 years old right now and according to her coach, is the most talented Canadian gymnast ever. But come next summer, when she’s 15, Peng-Peng Lee will be staying at home to watch the Beijing Olympics instead of competing in them because she won’t be old enough, by a matter of months. She’ll have to wait until 2012. And in this particular case, that’s a shame.

From the Inside Out – Robin Brown

Most coaches like the age requirements as they are right now.

But I’m not at all confident that Peng Peng can stay at this level for another 4yrs. I hope she can.

related post: gymnasts too young for the 2008 Olympics

Jaycie Phelps is one of the great personalities in gymnastics history.

She is a celebrity Olympian, once again, at the Great West Gym Fest. And also one of the hardest working coaches on the Floor. She and her Magnificent Seven team mate Shannon Miller are catching up on old times.

Click PLAY or watch Jaycie’s montage on YouTube.

I notice she’s listed as Jaycie McClure on the Colorado Aerials coaching staff page. (Jaycie’s married to former Olympic gymnast, current coach, Brett McClure.)

Funtastics Gymnastics Men’s Head Coach Donny Gardiner has never seen a ring tower dropped.

I have.

It’s not a pretty sight. (Right Sandor?)

In this video Donny tries to stand up a ring tower with only 5 adults and 2 gymnasts lifting. One and a half gymnasts, actually.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Is this a YouTube record for fewest number of lifters?

Seems to me we once lifted a tower with only 4 men, bracing the feet so they could not kick out. But I’ve got no video evidence.