Category: Uncategorized

Ebee never planned on Rio

Elizabeth Price chose Stanford over the possibility of the 2016 Olympics, and she’s prepared never to compete in elite gymnastics again, despite recent success in international competitions.

“I never really planned on going to Rio,” said Price, an alternate for the 2012 Olympic Team who announced her retirement from the U.S. National Team last week. …

Price said U.S. National Team director Martha Karolyi was disappointed to lose her but understood the decision.

Price also considered going to school at Alabama and Florida, which have won or shared the last four NCAA Championships. Stanford has never won an NCAA title.

She plans to study biomedical engineering in Palo Alto, Calif., and doesn’t expect to return to elite competition after college.

“Once I’m done, I’m done,” Price said.

Olympic Talk

Ebee

world record dives

Thomas Trapp sends this link.

Yang Jian scoring 118 and 123 on his 109b at the London leg of the Fina Diving World Series.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Tom:

The dive is a front 4.5 pike and is the most difficult dive being done off the 10 meter. Only a few men in the world are accomplished enough to use it.

In the prelims he set a world record for a single dive (118 points) and in the finals he broke his own world record with these scores 10, 10, 9.5, 9.5, 10, 10, 10. When you cross out the two highest scores and the two lowest scores he keeps a perfect 30 net points and when you multiply that by the degree of difficulty (4.1 – highest D.D. dive in the world) you get a record setting 123 points. He ended up winning the event with an unheard of 626 points meaning for 6 dives, he scored over a 100 points on each dive. Highly unusual. This guy is the early favorite to win in Rio 2016.

The Onion remembers Kerri Strug

We are OUTRAGED at The Onion. Again. 🙂

The Onion – Americans Once Again Inspired As Kerri Strug Limps To Liquor Store

Kerri

Thanks Dvora.

no Louis Smith at Euros

A one event gymnast is not likely to make Team GBR.

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I thought his goal was Commonwealth Games, not Euros or Worlds.

via GymFever

Osijek 2014: Results, Report, Video

Bea Gheorghisor posted a wrap-up:

The last big international meet before 2014 Euros took place over the weekend in Osijek, Croatia, gathering a diverse and interesting field.

One of the stars of the meet was Vietnam’s Thi Ha Thanh Phan who won two gold medals, on vault and beam. …

Canada’s Isabela Onysko managed o qualify for no less than three finals in Osijek. Improving her execution with each performance, she placed 6th on bars, 5th on beam and managed to win the silver medal on floor. Her routine is one of the most expressive and well choreographed we have seen all year …

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.



Osijek 2014: Results, Report, Video

There are plenty more videos on that post.

related:

• FIG – Croatians earn double gold as Osijek World Cup finals begin
• FIG – Steingruber, Phan shine on second day of Osijek World Cup finals
• results
• videos

Oklahoma AD deserve $30,000 bonus?

John E. Hoover:

It has become en vogue to pile on the NCAA or university presidents or athletic directors or coaches for the exorbitant amounts of money they are paid while student athletes are left to fend for themselves with little more than a scholarship and monthly room-and-board checks. …

This narrative paints athletic directors as villainous slumlords, cold, calculated masters motivated only by the profit they can pocket from free labor, thousand-dollar suits perched high in their shuttered offices tallying up all the money their poor athletes can earn for them.

But reality is different.

ADCastiglione oversees an athletic department teeming with the success for which he is almost solely responsible. …

His tireless and prolific fundraising efforts have more than tripled donor contributions in the past 10 years alone, from $10.1 million in 2005 to $32.6 million in 2012 (the last full year of available data).

OU is one of just seven athletic departments in the country that turns a profit without relying on government subsidies or student fees. …

… consider that it’s Castiglione who hired women’s gymnastics coach K.J. Kindler. Kindler goes out and finds the gymnasts and coaches them. But it’s Castiglione who approves her recruiting budget, as well as any spending for the latest equipment and technology (and whatever other amenities the gymnasts enjoy) because he wants OU to field a championship team.

Same for men’s gymnastics (five national titles under Mark Williams) and softball (two under Patty Gasso) and football (one under Stoops). …

Does Castiglione deserve a $30,000 bonus simply because the women’s gymnastics team won a national championship?

No.

He probably deserves more.

Oklahoma AD Joe Castiglione deserves bonus for program’s success

Thanks Dave.

Thi Ha Thanh Phan (VIE) – Beam

Thi Ha Thanh Phan is the great vaulter who competes for Vietnam.

Turns out she’s fantastic on Beam too.

@Osijek

D 5.9
E 8.125
14.025

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

That’s one of the best 1/1 twisting leaps you’ll ever see.

via GymFever

Coaching Clinic Washington State

New Twisters Gymnastics Location, Port Hadlock, WA on the Olympic Peninsula. $40

Saturday, May 10th, 2014

SteveJoin us for our summer series of Coaches Clinics geared toward Recreational to Pre Team level coaches looking to create a foundation of good habits in themselves and their athletes.

Clinicians will include: Doug Davis, Randy Parrish, Steve Roney and Kelle Riley!

details

(via Rec Gymnastics)