33yr-old gymnast back competing

… In her time away from gymnastics, she became involved in endurance sports – marathons, triathlons – won the NPC National Fitness Competition (which qualified her as a professional IFBB fitness competitor), and became a dentist.

… “I started coaching youth gymnastics in August [2012], and by November, I had decided to compete again.” …

From gymnast to dentist – and back again

Desiree Walker – 33 yr. old – Level 7 Bars – 1st meet in 17 years

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Respect. 🙂

(via Masters Gymnastics)

Guatamala, Costa Rica win Central American Games

I’m not getting much online from the big competition in Costa Rica.

Costa Rica won the men’s Team. Guatemala was second, Panama third.

Costa Rica’s Tarik Soto had the highest AA score in qualifying.

Guatamala won the women’s team, unsurprisingly.

AA
1. Ana Sofia Gomez 54.65 (Guatamala)
2. Monica Yool 53,400 (Guatamala)
3. Isabella Amado 49,300(Panama)

Leave a comment if you’ve got links to more substantial information.

day 2 – Russian Finals

Many of the top gymnasts were not 100%. Coaches still must try to select “winning” teams for Europeans hosted in Russia.

VAULT
Denis Ablyazin 14.075
Kudashov 13.255
Pavel Pavlov 13.125

P BARS
David Belyavskiy 15.030
Aleksandr Balandin 14.800
Nikolai Kuksenkov 14.000

H BAR
Nikolai Kuksenkov 14.950
Nikita Ignatiev 14.850
Daniil Kazachkov 14.100

Ablyazin ends up wtih 3 gold medals.

(via Full Twist)

Mustafina was taken out of day 2 Finals. To protect her knee.

BEAM
Eugenia Shelgunova 14.050
Polina Fyodorova 13.900
Ksenia Afanaseyva 13.775

FLOOR
Ksenia Afanseyva 13.600
Christina Goryunova 13.525
Alain Polyan 13.075

(via Full Twist)

full results on IG

Gymnast #391:

I’m also glad to see that some other older veterans like Pavlova, Myzdrikova, Kramarenko etc are still competing. Pavlova’s regional team won gold 🙂

champions

men’s gymnastics cufflinks

Coach Cassie is looking to create MAG memorabilia.

manly cufflinks

Click through for more. Or to offer her advice.

SALES at Great West Gym Fest told me that men’s gymnastics is a great market. Little girl gymnasts have thousands of items to choose from each meet. The boys, very few.

Sabrina Gill – Gymnix

Grace Chiu is posting some pics on Facebook.

Sabrina Gill

Brigid McCarthy is there — but why she’d leave sunny Australia for the cold and snow of Montreal, I have no idea — and posted notes on podium training for the Jr Russians, Romanians and Canadians.

Minnesota head-to-head vs Illinois

UPDATE – Check the comments on this post. Very interesting. Ono is flying from California to watch Minnesota v Illinois. To see the format in person.

Men’s NCAA is failing. I’m keen to try anything to improve chances of survival. A similar format to this has worked in Germany.

The experiment reminds me of Snowboard cross (boardercross), first tried 1991. Now in the Olympics.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Ski racing for time was boring to me. But I love boardercross.

_____ original post:

An experiment this weekend. Sounds GREAT to me.

both teams will be on the same event and will strategically select five athletes to battle, one on one against the other team. …

Winning routine gains 1-point.

Click PLAY or listen to Justin explain it on YouTube.

First team to 16 points, wins.

The trailing team competes second. Nice touch.

Tie-breaker sounds pretty goofy, however.

via @StickItMedia

UPDATE from USA FIG Judge in the comments:

… The idea (officially referred to as the “bracket system” by the NCAA Rules Committee) …

Cliff Gauthier at William & Mary has been proposing this (and an alternative) head-to-head scoring system since the early 1980s. The NCAA Rules Committee adopted it this year because a critical mass of NCAA coaches (including Justin Spring and others) signed onto the concept. The bracket system is available only in dual meets in which both coaches agree to use it.

Dave, in the comments, has some concerns.

American Cup – redemption

Year after year, the main story of the ScAmerican Cup has been fans complaining about the format.

For example, DVORA MEYERS (2012) – The “Scam Cup”: How A Very American TV Event Gives U.S. Gymnasts A Leg Up On The Olympic Competition

Yet Dvora and the rest of the crew at GymCastic (episode 32) were filled with praise for the event this year. Especially for the online coverage.

USAG on YouTube:

Podium Training Playlist
NBC Broadcast
Non-Broadcast Routines

With full scores on each routine.

The LIVE streaming was much appreciated too.

CONGRATS to USAG and FIG. And AT&T. This was a legitimate FIG World Cup competition. No more scammy for the home team than any other World Cup.

AM CUP

cheering Enus Mariani

There’s nothing I don’t admire about this young Italian gymnast. She’s now one of my favourites.

Looking forward to her staying healthy and happy this quad.

Click PLAY or watch her Bars on YouTube.

On uneven bars you had a few errors. Could you explain to us what happened?

“The routine is new with very hard combinations, and I don’t have it down a hundred percent, but with my coaches (Massimo Gallina and Federica Gatti) and the technical director (Enrico Casella) we have decided to start competing it in meets anyway.”

Elisa Emanuelli on GymnewsticTranslated Interview with Italy’s Enus Mariani

Enrico Casella, coach of Vanessa Ferarri, is back directing the Italian women’s National Team program for Rio. There were rumours he might move to Australia this cycle. But that didn’t happen.