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🙂

Elite female gymnasts age-25 are mostly retired. A relatively high percentage have had Achilles problems.

Yet Chellsie Memmel decided to move on to Power Tumbling.

Respect.

She partly attributes her long career to training on a tumbling trampoline. For the past 20 years.

And later on Air Floors.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Chellsie signed autographs at the Congress Tumbl Trak booth. (VIDEO)

Kids at Flip Fest Gym Camp post on the “Goal Wall“. Kids like Chellsie Memmel.

USAG:

Laurie Hernandez and Bailie Key have been selected to compete at the at the Junior Japan competition, Sept. 22-25 …

related – USA Worlds Selection camp September 9-18 at the Ranch

Click over to Gymnastike to see why Lexie Priessman and Madison Kocian are not attending.:-(

Many have been linking to an excellent Balance Beam Situation commentary:

Over the years, we’ve all seen any number of hilarious scores showered upon US gymnasts at domestic competitions, and this storied history of ridiculing hyper-American judging has cultivated the widespread assumption that less biased international judges would never succumb to such silliness.

At times in the past, this has been the case, but in the last few years, the international judges have seemed willing to evaluate the execution of routines with that we would normally consider an American lens. …

… “she’ll never receive those scores internationally” needs to be tempered as a credo because it lately amounts to only a tenth or two of difference for most gymnasts rather than a dramatic break that blows up potential scoring and because it is far from consistent, even among the various chosen ones. It has been quite person-specific. …

read more on BBS – On Home Scoring, the Elite Kind

If you click through you’ll see the statistics are not at all rock solid.

Yet I feel the same way. The best American gymnasts in the past looked GREAT at home, … but not nearly so good once compared directly with the top Chinese, Romanians and Russians. Scores tended to drop.

(It’s still that way with the American men. Uncle Tim, please compare ACTUAL scores on Rings and Pommels for team USA at Worlds 2013 with the scores they got at U.S. Championships 2013.)

Now that the American women are in reality the #1 team, that’s no longer the case.

YES … there are many, many other variables. 🙂

Manna – C; Alvarino – D; Menichelli – A; Endo – B; Tong Fei – B; Gogoladze – C; Fedorchenko – C; Marinich – C; Morandi – D; Van Roon – D; Baker – E; Tsukahara – D; Ri Jon Song – G; Liukin – G; Kolyvanov – F; Tamayo – F; Penev – F; Hypolito – F; Wu Guonian – D; Thomas – D; Korobchynski – E; Deferr – D; Li Yuejiu – C; Lou Yun – E

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Manna is a name. But I don’t recall a gymnast named Manna. Jim remembers Bob Manna, University of New Mexico, late 1960s. Thanks.

He’s got Bobby Baker’s double front with 1/1 twist included. Has FIG approved that?

Ma JIuH YsM-sKT is next working on Pommels. 🙂

Seems I was busy. I found far fewer video clips and photos on my camera than expected.

Here are a few.

Those are Rounders, the world’s best pit foam blocks.

That’s the biggest clinic gym. Inside the Trade Show hall.

It was a pleasure and an honour to represent Tumbl Trak as an Ambassador again this year.

Thanks once again Hartford.

Championships 2014 are scheduled for Pittsburgh Aug. 21-24th. Put it on your calendar right now.

See a few more pics from Hartford.

The Colbert Report:

“To be safe, I think they should just bring the Olympics back to its Greek roots, where nothing gay ever happened.” – Stephen reacts to the Russian Olympic Games

related – GymCastic Episode 43: The First Ever Panel on LGBT Issues in Gymnastics

Amusingly, getting the details on Alicia Sacramone’s heterosexual engagement was the most entertaining segment for me.

Surprisingly, GymCastic couldn’t find a Lesbian who wanted to participate in the panel.

In the future, LGBT relationaships will be no big deal. Public opinion is changing fast.

related – Out gay gymnast Josh Dixon named to US Senior National Team

One of the crazier moments at Championships was Josh catching layout Jaeger 1/1 with 1-hand … and continuing the routine. (VIDEO)

Leyva, who is recovering from a shoulder injury and has not been able to fully train, stated in his withdrawal letter,

“I very much appreciate the opportunity to be, once again, part of the team that will go onto the world stage and represent the United States in the great sport that is gymnastics. Unfortunately, I have to decline. … We have decided that the right decision for me, to better help the team in the future, is to retract from this competition so that I can heal further and reach my full potential yet again.” …

read more on USAG

Orozco, Penev or Ruggeri will move up.

Thanks Uncle Tim.

Uncle Tim has updated his Men’s stats.

This UTRS list is less comprehensive than the WAG as some of the top guys have not competed much since the London Olympics.

Best Scores this year:

1. Kohei Uchimura Japan 91.850 Japanese Nationals
2. Sam Mikulak USA (91.650) U.S. Nationals
3. Max Whitlock Great Britain 90.650 British Championships
4. Alex Naddour USA (90.600) U.S. Nationals
5. Oleg Verniaiev Ukraine 90.500 University Games
6. John Orozco USA (90.400) U.S. Nationals
7. Ryohei Kato Japan 90.250 University Games
8. Oleg Stepko Ukraine 90.050 University Games
9. Nikolai Kuksenkov Russia 89.950 University Games
10. Fabian Hambuechen Germany 89.850 University Games

Naddour really did have a great day 2 at Championships. I’m surprised to see him ranked above those other guys. Good PH and Rings really help the AA score.

Floor
1. Jake Dalton USA (16.100) U.S. Nationals
2. Shirai Kenzo Japan 15.900 All-Japan Championships
2. Steven Legendre USA (15.900) U.S. Nationals
4. Kohei Uchimura Japan 15.800 NHK Cup
4. Eddie Penev USA (15.800) U.S. Nationals
4. Paul Ruggeri USA (15.800) U.S. Nationals

Pommel
1. Max Whitlock Great Britain 15.967 English Championships
2. Krisztian Berki Hungary 15.966 French International
3. Daniel Keatings Great Britain 15.800 British Championships
3. Zhang Hongtao* China 15.800 Chinese Nationals
5. Luke Stannard USA (15.700) U.S. Nationals
6. Matvei Petrov Russia 15.675 Russian Championships

Rings
1. Eleftherios Petrounias Greece 16.150 Cottbus
2. Arthur Zanetti Brazil 15.900 University Games
3. Denis Ablyazin Russia 15.875 Russian Nationals
4. Yan Mingyong China 15.767 Chinese Nationals
5. Liu Yang China 15.750 Cottbus
5. Brandon Wynn USA (15.750) U.S. Nationals

Vault
1. Yang Hak Seo South Korea 15.787 University Games
2. Ri Se Gwang North Korea 15.550 Doha
3. Denis Ablyazin Russia 15.408 Europeans
4. Manrique Larduet Cuba 15.400 Pan Ams
5. Igor Radivilov Ukraine 15.300 University Games
6. Jake Dalton USA 15.187 Cottbus

P Bars
1. Oleg Stepko* Ukraine 16.050 University Games
2. Oleg Verniaiev Ukraine 16.000 University Games
3. Zhou Shixiong China 15.967 Chinese Nationals
4. Emin Garibov Russia 15.875 University Games
5. Vasileios Tsolakidis Greece 15.800 French International
6. Anton Fokin Uzbekistan 15.750 Anadia

H Bar
1. Koji Uematsu Japan 16.050 All-Japan Championships
2. Emin Garibov Russia 16.025 University Games
3. Kohei Uchimura Japan 15.900 Japanese Nationals
4. Danell Leyva USA (15.850) U.S. Qualifier
5. Yusuke Tanaka Japan 15.800 Japanese Nationals
6. Sam Mikulak USA (15.750) U.S. Nationals

See the entire database.

Some smaller nations will be sending their best specialists, Prashanth Sellathurai from Australia, for example.

Grace Chiu GraceClick:

See what it reads when Daniel Steiner of Ohio State goes upside down. Very Da Vinci Code or something, eh?

See more Grace Chiu photos from Senior Men’s Day 2.