when will Japan beat China?

Myself and most everyone predicted Japan would win Team at the 2011 Worlds and in London. They didn’t.

Yet again, as it was all quadrennial — China took the Gold.

Here’s a terrific pre-Olympics feature featuring Uchimura on Canadian TV.

Watch it on YouTube. (Embedding disabled.)

shocking Uchimura miss at Tokyo Worlds

I was with gymnastics legend Abe Grossfeld when China beat Japan in Team at the Olympics. “Luck“, he responded. My inclination was to agree.

Both teams were lousy in prelims. But in the 3-up, 3-count Team Final, Japan should win 8 out of 10 times.

Perhaps his failures in Team will keep Kohei in the sport through to 2016.

I hope so.

(via supermura)

Where’s Jim Holt?

The Seattle native is now Men’s Head Coach in Scotland.

There’s a terrific new interview in the Herald Scotland.

As usual, Jim is well spoken. And outspoken.

… When … Holt says Scotland could be better off as a result of independence and should consider seeking separate membership of the International Olympic Committee whether or not the referendum fails in 2014, he is talking about sport rather than politics. …

read more – Champion of the also-rans has big plans for Scotland

Olympic bronze medallist Daniel Purvis and GBR Olympic alternate Daniel Keatings could both be eligible for that Team.

There’s some drama between his employer, the Scottish Gymnastics Association, and their government funding agency, Sport Scotland, too.

Good luck Jim.

Russia in Spain

Aliya Mustafina Online on Facebook:

Gymnasts are now enjoying a small break in Spain! There will be some time spent doing some training, mostly conditioning and other exercises to build up strength. There’s no plans to train on any apparatuses however until their return to Moscow on the 17’th. (But as always.. this decision can change.)

embedding tweets

WordPress — the platform that powers this site — recently added the ability to embed tweets.

Seems to work well.

Thanks Brigid and all the other Couch Gymnast contributors worldwide. You’re doing a great job. I’d double your pay, but … 🙂

Aliya, Vika and Valentina Rodionenko

Aliya Mustafina Online has an entertaining interview from August 15th, newly posted in English. It features Aliya, Viktoria and Valentina Rodionenko. Enjoying some fun & celebrity.

On the Olympics, their new cars, and friendship of the two Olympic AA medalists.

read it here

Thanks Alan.

Maroney – broken tibia

USA Gymnastics on Facebook:

An update on McKayla Maroney:

On Sept. 9, 2012 Olympic gold-medalist McKayla Maroney was injured on her uneven bars dismount (single flyaway) at the Ontario, Calif., performance of the Kellogg’s Tour of Gymnastics Champions. Maroney’s MRI showed a fractured tibia on her left leg, and she is currently in a brace to keep the leg stabilized. …

Fierce 3 on Ellen

(Former gymnast Pink) was a big fan of the Women’s Gymnastics Team throughout the Summer Olympics, so they came to the show to surprise her

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

related – Fierce Five Mania

Grandi on London

FIG President, Bruno Grandi, shares “a few thoughts and impressions from the London 2012 Olympic Games”:


I was particularly impressed by the Rhythmic Gymnastics judging panels. …

The judging in the Trampoline Gymnastics is worthy of special praise …

Turning to Artistic Gymnastics, I must, by contrast, express my regret and disappointment at the incident relating to the score awarded to Japanese gymnast Kohei Uchimura in the Team Pommel Horse. This disagreeable situation unfolded right before the eyes of the IOC President, who was present in the arena.

We urgently need to undertake a comprehensive review of the way we handle appeals. … so that the spectacle of coaches crossing the competition area, waving banknotes in the air, is not something that is ever repeated. …

Recall in that embarrassing incident that Uchimura’s score on Pommels was raised and — as a result — Japan took the Silver medal as a Team, over host GBR.

I’ve since spoken to a number of experts convinced that Kohei’s score should not have been raised. Japan should not have won Silver.

I’m less than incensed over that, however. Considering how many times Kohei has been under-rewarded for Execution, over the years.

I would also like to touch on the appeal by Team USA over the score awarded to Alexandra Raisman in the final of the Beam. The Jury accepted the appeal, which meant that Raisman ousted Romania’s Catalina Ponor from the bronze medal position on the podium. …

It’s easy to argue that Ponor should have won that medal.

I’d like to know exactly what happened there. 😦

… the rules applied in tie-break situations. Do we really need to separate two gymnasts who are locked together on identical scores, down to a thousandth of a point?

Take, for example, Mustafina and Raisman in the final of the All-around competition, who were locked together on 59.566 after the four pieces of apparatus. There was a similar situation with Mustafina and Ferrari in the final of the women’s Floor exercise; then there was the case I referred to above involving Raisman and Ponor in the Beam, not to mention the situations involving Berki/Smith and Uchimura/Ablyazin.

The issue of how to resolve ‘dead-heat’ situations has long given risen to debate, but the FIG has taken a firm position, and chosen to adhere to the principle of equal ranking. …

I’m confused on that. Who is stopping the FIG from awarding ties. The IOC?

If so, leave a comment with link explaining that rule.

Personally I’d like to see it made more mathematically difficult for ties to arise. Tie breaks wouldn’t be needed so often.

I thought the Artistic judging MAG and WAG was lousy. The D-panels giving credit for almost anything. And the E-panels boxing the scores, penalizing those with good execution (e.g. Uchimura) and rewarding those with poor form & extension.

If the Execution judges had a wider range from best to worst, it would help. A lot.

It was a relief to get through — for Grandi — with no worse scandals in the mainstream media. Of course those reflect badly on him. And he’s running for reelection in October.

Read the entire open letter.