Category: Uncategorized

Hard Body linked to an inspiring ad. The theme is I WILL WHAT I WANT.

Misty was first introduced to ballet on a basketball court at the Boys and Girls Club in the LA area.

By ballet standards, she didn’t fit the mold. So, she broke it and cast a new one. Fifteen years later, Misty is a soloist for the American Ballet Theatre.

Under Armour

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Sports editors many times publish gymnast crotch shot photos. I consider that unethical. 😦

But for Scotland’s Frank Banes, I’ll make an exception. 🙂

Online, many felt that Ellie Black should have won Vault over local star, Claudia Fragapane.

Watching LIVE in real time, I had thought the ranking was OK.

But I went back to check.

Claudia had higher start values. (0.5 over 2 vaults) Ellie was much cleaner.

The judges seemed to be crediting just about anything as layout. Chant and Fragapane both were credited layout. I assume Dipa’s bizarre Kasamatsu was also credited layout.

Competitor
1. FRAGAPANE 14.766 (14.500 & 14.633)
2. BLACK 14.433 (14.433 & 14.433)

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Ellie starts here. Claudia starts here.

OK. I’m convinced.

Ellie Black should have been the Commonwealth Vault Champion. Claudia should have had more than 0.5 execution deduction compared with Ellie over the two vaults. The judges got it wrong.

Somebody call Nellie. 😦

The Lords of the Rings video has been updated with 3 more legends, two of them still competing. The NEW section starts at 4min 35sec.

4:35 Yuri van Gelder – the most beloved ring strength man over the internet. He brought new strength standards in the discipline of still rings and a big controversy after being caught with coke. Maybe worked towards his popularity 🙂

6:51 Chen Yibing – the man with the smoothest transitions and a learning book type performances. His signature routine with high diversity of elements, executes in smoothest flow, brought him dozens of gold medals in the discipline of still rings.

8:52 Arthur Zanetti – the one who changed the meaning of “clean execution”. It is just e great experience editing his videos and seeing the hold time of his strength elements to hit 3 seconds each time. Maybe in the Brazilian translation of the Code of Points they changed “2s” with “3s” and so long does he freezes every time like having a Swiss stopwatch in his ears.

I’d rank Chen Yibing the best all-time. For his era.

GymFever is talking about some event in Brazil.

1. Daniele Hypolito 54.700
2. Jade Barbosa 54.150

Jade Barbosa, now age-23, is looking better than ever.

Click PLAY or watch Jade’s FX on YouTube.

A number of people, including Nico on GymFever, mentioned that Peña did a better Handspring double front than Dipa Karmakar competed today in the Commonwealth Vault Final.

Here it is.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Yep. That’s the least dangerous landing of all those I’ve seen competed by the 3 gymnasts chucking them today.

Peña is an awesome vaulter, too. By far the strongest of the three. Next is Karmakar. Fadwa MOHMOUD is the weakest. Watching her warm-up at African Championships 2014, I was convinced she was not going to compete Prudnova. Nobody in their right mind would do it from this slow a run.

Click PLAY or watch African Championships on YouTube.

Check the YouTube video image. Watch the reaction of the Egyptian coach.

Is this the sport you want to be coaching? 😦

As we’ve seen over and over again, FIG judging panels are not going to penalize those cannonball landings with no opening of any kind, so the vault must be banned.

Otherwise even more gymnasts, most from developing nations, are going to start training it. Seems it’s going to take another Elena Mukhina type injury before FIG WTC addresses this serious problem. 😦

I was shocked and surprised to see some negative comments about Claudia several places online.

Claudia Fragapane is fantastic.

What’s not to like? 🙂

I can hardly wait for Floor tomorrow. Hers is my favourite routine in the world right now.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

I’m not contesting Claudia’s Gold medal. Simply pointing out that WAG judges are very inconsistent on what’s awarded layout.

The way they deduct landings is worse. There’s very little reward for landing safely and with complete control. 😦

Canada goes 1-2 on Rings.

Rings Final results
Morgan CAN 15.100
Lytwyn CAN 14.800
Purvis SCO 14.766

This is the first competition I can recall where RINGS is the best apparatus for Team Canada. 🙂