“Uptown Funk” 100 movie mashup

Dance. Dance. Dance. 🙂

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Warning: Watching it will mean getting the song stuck in your head. Again.

(via Cosmo)

College Gymnastics novel – ‘Perfect 16.0’

J is considering writing a novel based on College Gymnastics. The working title is ‘Perfect 16.0’.

Cailee Hilton is an 18-year old Level 10 gymnast and recent high school graduate. After a turbulent start to life; being raised under single mom, Amanda, Cailee has finally found the errors of her rebellious ways and has realized her dream: doing college gymnastics at a Division I school. …

After being ranked #1 in the Nation in the Preseason Coaches Poll, the team have a lot of pressure to remain consistent through the regular season and eventually, go on to try and capture the program’s first ever NCAA National Championship! Battling through several injuries and problems throughout the season, the Tigers team are nowhere near their original prowess come Nationals. After squeezing into the Super Six in sixth place, the Tigers are almost certainly ruled out of contention for the title. …

Perfect 16

Perfect 16

You could have input shaping the rest of the novel. If interested, click over to a survey page.

top 100 AA scores of 2015

1. Simone Biles, USA, 63.000
2. Larisa Iordache, Romania, 60.900
3. Gabby Douglas, USA, 60.500
4. Maggie Nichols, USA, 60.000
5. Aly Raisman, USA, 59.900
6. Bailie Key, USA, 59.750
7. Madison Kocian, USA, 58.900
8. Aliya Mustafina, Russia, 58.865
9. Asuka Teramoto, Japan, 58.850
10. Alyssa Baumann, USA, 58.700
11. MyKayla Skinner, USA, 58.200
12. Ellie Black, Canada, 58.150
13. Aiko Sugihara, Japan, 58.050
14. Maria Kharenkova, Russia, 58.033
15t. Wang Yan, China, 58.000
15t. Elsa Garcia, Mexico, 58.000

see the rest on Tsuk the Pain

Simone actually has the top 5 scores so far this year. But is only listed once.

Simone Jesolo

Compare with the Gymternet’s top 100.

on FIG change-of-nation requests

Lauren Hopkins:

… International Gymnast reported that two U.S. gymnasts – Alaina Kwan and Kylie Dickson – are going to compete at this year’s World Championships for the nation of Belarus.

I’m not typically against change-of-nation requests for gymnasts competing at the international level. Most of the time, it’s gymnasts with legitimate ties to other countries, often countries with bare-bones gymnastics programs or no actively-competing elite-level gymnasts. And in cases where there are already elites, there’s generally a selection process through which everyone is given a fair shot at making a team. …

Americans who have never stepped foot in Belarus, and who will not visit Belarus prior to representing the country in major international competition.

How does this even happen? From what we’ve gathered, it seems as though All Olympia head coaches NellieArtur Akopyan and Galina Marinova approached Nellie Kim – President of the FIG Women’s Technical Committee and vice president of the Belarusian Gymnastics Federation – about sending Dickson and Kwan representing Belarus after the two failed to qualify to U.S. nationals (both missed the all-around cutoff of 54.0 by over two points). Kim, who has been trying to build the Belarusian program internally, apparently loved the idea and the three got to work obtaining citizenship for the girls. …

Why I’m Angry About Belarus

I have to agree with Lauren. This is going far-too-far. FIG should not be granting change-of-nation requests to gymnasts with such flimsy ties to the new nation.