The Phoenix Suns Basketball team drafted Alex Len from Ukraine, the #5 pick overall.
Alex is a very agile 7-foot, 1-inch centre, 255 lbs.
… Len said he was in gymnastics from age 8 to 11. According to his bio in the NBA draft media guide, he chose the sport because he liked Jackie Chan movies.
“My high school (basketball) coach saw me in the gymnastic gym and he took me to the basketball gym and gave me the ball and said `Shoot it,”‘ Len said. “I shot it and made it and he said `You belong here.”‘
Sarah Guyard-Guillot, an artist in “Ka” at MGM Grand and a mother of two young children, was killed Saturday night after a fall from the show’s stage at MGM Grand. The Clark County Coroner’s Office said this afternoon that Guyard-Guillot, 31, was pronounced dead at 11:43 p.m. Saturday at University Medical Center.
No formal cause of death has been determined pending further examination of Guyard-Guillot’s body. She was born in Paris and had spent more than 22 years as an acrobatic performer.
It is the first reported death from an accident onstage in Cirque’s 30-year history. …
“The entire Cirque du Soleil family is deeply saddened by the accidental death of Sarah (Sassoon) Guyard,” the statement from founder Guy Laliberte reads.
“We are reminded, with great humility and respect, how extraordinary our artists are each and every night. Our focus now is to support each other as a family.”
… In October 2009, a Cirque du Soleil artist died after falling from a trampoline during a training session. Oleksandr Zhurov, a Ukrainian in his twenties. …
The All Around attended the 4 nation junior friendly in Berkheim, Germany June 29th posting the most detailed write-up so far.
GBR
France
Germany
Switzerland
The British team won the team competition and took the top two all-around places …
… used by all four nations as a test for the upcoming European Youth Olympic Festival in Utrecht/NED. …
The format was 5-5-3. Switzerland only fielded three gymnasts. France arrived with five gymnasts but Claire Chambellant was unable to compete after an injury sustained shortly before the competition. Germany and Great Britain were able to drop two scores per event, France one, Switzerland none. …
Great Britain, competing here without reigning junior national champion Tyesha Mattis, was way ahead of the field on vault with a double twisting Yurchenko from Amy Tinkler and full-twisting Yurchenkos from everybody else for a total of 43.15.
Bars was a struggle for many gymnasts with a lot of E scores in the 7s reflecting quite a lot of late turns and bent elbows on casts. Germany came out on top here with two scores of 13.95 …
France was the best team on beam and floor showing some very ambitious combinations on beam (front aerial to sheep jump from Vanhille) and interesting choreography on floor. Their E scores on floor were comparatively massive – 7.95, 8, 8.1 and 8.5.
The British team struggled on beam a little but showed strong tumbling on floor – double layouts from Tinkler and Downie, piked full-in from Tinkler, Arabian double front from Downie.
Amy Tinkler showed great difficulty on all events and placed first despite a fall on bars …
… The Couch Gymnast has two new co-editors running the site.
Bea Gheorghisor and Lauren Hopkins …
Lauren was already the editor of US content, and Bea of Romanian content- areas in which they are particularly expert. Now, however, they are taking on more work, working with me on producing, editing and commissioning content for the site and managing the social media. …
This is a fantastic gymnast. What’s her current status?
When will she compete next?
UPDATE: Commenters confirm she will compete Classics and Nationals. With her high start scores on Floor and Vault, she does have a shot at qualifying for Worlds 2013.
Fed up over a perceived lack of support, members of the Spanish men’s national team have penned an open letter to Royal Spanish Gymnastics Federation outlining their complaints and threatening to retire.
The letter, signed by all 14 members of the men’s national team, questions why the team has gone all year without adequate physical therapists and no team doctor at the national training center in Madrid. …
Gymnastics Coaching.com 