EYOF Team Finals

Bea Gheorghisor:

It was an interesting team final at EYOF. With only two scores counting per event (three gymnasts competing) no team had the opportunity to gain a substantial advantage or to capitalize on only one event. …

* the maximum value of an element is E so all elements harder than an E get 0.5 points, same as an E …

Great Britain had a fantastic day with only very few mistakes. This team is all about big skills and power, not that their execution is bad either. But, as I said above, in junior competitions difficulty is not really encouraged; furthermore, the areas where they were lacking today, they got heavily penalized. On floor, for instance, Ellie Downie received only a 12.75 for her very difficult routine which opened with a double layout and continued with a full in on the second pass, both of them very clean and performed with fantastic height. Tyesha Mattis received a score in the high 12s too for a routine which opened with a… double double. …

read more on Couch Gymnast – EYOF Team Finals Report and Results

results

Click PLAY or watch Tyesha’s Floor on YouTube.

Wikileaks – Rhythmic

Notes were scrawled across palms. Marked-up answer sheets were filled with suspicious adjustments. Exams were mysteriously missing pages.

The International Gymnastics Federation found suspicious marks on tests by experts hoping to judge rhythmic gymnastics.

It might sound like a middle-school math test gone wrong, but it’s a fresh scandal in the Olympics world, implicating as many as 60 experts …

The International Gymnastics Federation, known as F.I.G., spent months investigating the episode. Much of their findings, spanning hundreds of pages, were obtained by The New York Times.

The documents showed that in Bucharest, Romania, test takers clearly copied answers from one anothers’ papers, including the mistakes. In Moscow, 114 answers were changed on dozens of tests; in Alicante, Spain, 257 answers were changed.

The exam sheets themselves served as evidence of the suspected cheating — crude markups, blatant copying, unexplained bonus points — that proved as clumsy as a botched rhythmic routine.

One test clearly had been touched by more than one person — it was filled with at least two different handwriting styles, the report said. …

The fallout has been swift, with one top Olympic official already expelled and six others suspended. They include Caroline Hunt of the United States, along with officials from Egypt, Japan and Russia. Dozens of judges who took the tests have been implicated and questioned by F.I.G. investigators.

Ms. Hunt plans to appeal the punishment. …

Investigators found that Maria Szyszkowska of Poland, the former president of the governing body’s rhythmic gymnastics technical committee, interfered with the computer program that calculated the scores. As a result, Mrs. Szyszkowska was stripped of her membership and prohibited from “any form of participation in all F.I.G. events and activities.”

Her lawyer, Sébastien Besson, issued a statement to F.I.G. officials denying any wrongdoing. He argued that bonus points were not awarded arbitrarily and followed common practice. He called the missing answer sheets “obviously regretful, but nobody knows what happened.”

read more on the NY Times – Judges of a Graceful Sport, Caught in a Clumsy Cheating Scandal

Rhythmic

Bad press for Olympic Rhythmic Gymnastics. 😦

Where there’s this much smoke, there’s most likely fire.

I hope this scandal clears some deadwood, and cleans up the Rhythmic judges pool.

The girls deserve better.

Kyle Shewfelt Gymnastics Club

Opening this FALL in Calgary, Canada. Recreation only, to start.

Kyle’s just announced the landing page for his new Club website.

Kyle Shewfelt

And he’s hiring coaches.

EYOF: Russia, GBR, Romania

Great Britain was the biggest happy surprise at the European Youth Olympic Festival finishing 2nd in Team.

Top AA gymnasts from prelims:

Tyesha Mattis (GBR) 54.700
Maria Kharenkova (RUS) 54.600
Laura Jurca (ROU) 54.400
Ellie Downie (GBR) 54.300
Louise Vanhille (FRA) 54.200
Maria Bondareva (RUS) 53.850

Results & Videos: EYOF 2013 WAG EF & AA qualifiers

Click PLAY or watch Maria Kharenkova’s Floor on YouTube.

Check the dismount – double pike punch Sheep attempt.

Noa Kadosh walkover basket

YouTube viewers are flipping over a video of Israeli rhythmic gymnast Noa Kadosh showing off her amazing basketball skills. The video, which has gone viral and has been picked up by major media outlets like ESPN and CNN, shows Kadosh performing a successful free throw while simultaneously doing a walkover at Camp Ramah in the Poconos. …

From the courts of Camp Ramah

Israeli rhythmic gymnast Noa Kadosh makes the basket of a lifetime

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

First time I saw it, assumed it had been faked. 🙂

Dvora Meyers confirms the video is REAL.

Victoria Moors, Elvira Saadi

EXCELLENT interview.

TSN and Powerade are teaming up to showcase 24 of Canada’s future stars today.

This week, the spotlight is on gymnast Victoria Moors.

The 17-year-old, who was born in Surrey, BC and lives in Cambridge, ON, won the all-around championship at the 2012 Canadian Gymnastics Championships and represented Canada at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, England. …

Click here to see SportsCentre’s Powerade 24 video profile of Victoria Moors.

Victoria age-6
Victoria age-6

related – Examiner – Victoria Moors: The new confidence