end of a Canadian era

Jean-Paul Caron, President/CEO Gymnastics Canada, via email:

… Jeff Thomson’s employment as the Program Director – MAG with Gymnastics Canada shall cease effective December 31, 2012. As most of you are aware, Gymnastics Canada will be restructuring its operations to streamline capacity over a period of approximately 2 years.

… Jeff will continue to be involved with the MAG program and provide support as we move forward.

For a transition period, the new MAG National Coach / Team Director and Junior Age Group Team Coach, Markos Baikas will report to the Chief Technical Officer, Cathy Haines. …

By mid January, we hope to have a National Coach / Team Director for MAG in place. …

I’m sorry to see Jeff Thomson and interim Head Coach Masaaki Naosaki go. I particularly liked their strategy for qualifying a full team to the London Olympics. Unfortunately, it didn’t work. Canada finished 13th, just missing.

Photo by Grace Chiu.