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Kaká’s photos from the Brazilian championship of Artistic Gymnastics and Rhythmic Gymnastics.

Flickr: Kaká’s photos tagged with gymnastics

GrinnellGirl from Evanston, Illinois has posted some great OLD gymnastics photos to flickr.

Girls have often been exasperated when boys jump up on beam and do tumbling skills first or second try. Any strong male tumbler / trampolinist (with some guts) can do back tuck, for example.

Click PLAY or watch a 20-year-old male gymnast doing low beam on YouTube.

(Russian born) West Australian Daria Joura defended her national women’s all-around crown with a stunning display at the Australian Gymnastics Championships at Vodafone Arena in Melbourne on Friday.

Training partner Lauren Mitchell finished second in her first year as a senior with Commonwealth Games gold medallist Chloe Sims from Queensland in third.

Joura collected four gold medals, winning the all-around title along with the individual apparatus gold on floor, vault and the uneven bars.

In doing so, she led the Australian team to an upset victory over reigning world champions China, coming from behind on the final apparatus to win by less than half a point.

Joura’s combined all-around total of 120.350 was made up of two consecutive 60-plus point displays, both bettering her previous best all-around total of 59.875 achieved in finishing fifth at last year’s world titles in Denmark.

The 17-year-old opened with her signature double-twisting Yurchenko vault, earning 15.100, the first time she has broken the 15-point barrier with the difficult manoeuvre.

After another improvement on the uneven bars (15.600) her only stumble before her final floor routine came when she toppled off the balance beam to score 14.125.

… After hearing the news of their team win over China, whose team included two members of last year’s world championship winning team, Joura said the unexpected victory had overshadowed her individual performance.

Joura dominates Gymnastics Championships – Breaking News – Sport – Breaking News

Inside Gymnastics magazine is great.

I really enjoyed their Jan / Feb 2007 edition — Gator Time, it’s a swamp thing — with a major feature on the fantastic 2007 Florida NCAA Women’s Gymnastics Team.

Their FREE on-line offerings are not nearly as good. (They say it’s improving.) But check this excellent feature on up-and-coming America athlete Samantha Peszek:

Inside Gymnastics’ radar screen for the 2008 Olympics.

News – Inside Gymnastics Magazine

photo from Samantha Peszek – official website

I recently signed up for Facebook as it’s a great way to network with other acrobatic coaches. (I found MySpace useless.)

Once you are a member of Facebook, simply search for “gymnastics coach” or any other search term of interest. The resulting list is very interesting.

You can also join “Groups” on topics of interest. This is even better, I find.

For example, I joined a Group called “Gymnastics Coach’s Corner“.

More interesting is a group called “concerned about Olympic Men’s Gymnastics rules” which I joined because I am concerned about Olympic Men’s Gymnastics rules. Especially the changes to Horizontal Bar.

The 2004 Olympics for Men was a disaster due to judging scandals. Now the International Gymnastics Federation has changed regulations less than 2 years prior to the 2008 Olympics. This is unfair to the athletes. It may lead to a repeat of judging scandals in Beijing.

This group asks the FIG to repeal those changes until AFTER the next Olympics.

Join the Group “concerned about Olympic Men’s Gymnastics rules” on Facebook. (Free membership required.)

If you don’t know Canadian photographer Dory Dynna, I’ll bet you’ve seen some of his excellent photos over the years.

These days Dory is much involved in the dance community in Vancouver.

Some of his OLD OLD photos I happened to find still posted on the internet including some from Emma Lake Gymnastics Camp. (I put these pics up as I happen to be back in Saskatchewan where Dory started.)

Many more including female Artistic stars of the past – GYMNASTICS PHOTOS – Dory Dynna

I have friends in Salzburg, Austria at Worlds.

Looks like they are having FUN.

Today title-holder Janin Oer (Germany/25.45 points) again was the winner of the Senior’s women All Around Competition. …

German also won the gold medal in the men’s All Around Competition. Achus Emeis (GER/27.25 P.), also title-holder from 2005 is placed first.

Achus Emeis – gold medal – Germany – photo Hagen Wehrend

Read more on GYMmedia.com

The one I REALLY like is the Roue Cyr modification invented, I believe, by Cirque Eloize co-founder, Daniel Cyr. You can see it in Cirque du Soleil’s Corteo.

Here’s the list of athlete representatives. They give feedback to the FIG from the athletes regarding issues on the floor.

Excellent idea.

John ROETHLISBERGER
mailto: jr@flipfest.com

Svetlana KHORKINA
mailto:gymnasticsn@mail.ru

Eva SERRANO
mailto:serranoeva@aol.com

Dimitri POLIAROUSH
mailto:dimavp7@bellsouth.net

Ana MACANITA
mailto: margaridamacanita@hotmail.com

Patrick BONNER
mailto:patrick.bonner@tesco.net

FIG

People were disappointed to find the crowd favourite would not be competing at Canadian Championships.

Just got an update on Nathan from coach Tony Smith.

He had minor surgery on his hand a couple of days ago to remove a bone chip which had been aggravating for months.

All is well. Nathan’s hand feels better already. But the chip could have been removed months ago if only medical had diagnosed the loose chip sooner.