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Bookmakers refuse to pay out grandmother’s medal bet despite Sam Oldham’s gymnastics bronze at London 2012

The grandmother of Olympic gymnastics bronze medallist Sam Oldham has lost out on a 200/1 bet that her grandson would win a medal after bookmakers refused to pay out because it was a team – rather than an individual – medal. …

Telegraph

The Independent Betting Adjudication Service (IBAS) is discussing the matter with the cheap cheats — Betfred.

Here’s a photo of the wager itself.

Is all this bad press worth £1000, Betfred?

I don’t think so. Sam’s a National hero.

Sergei Sobyanin, Mayor of Moscow, today awarded money … to Muscovites that won medals at the Olympics!

…

Aliya was awarded 4 million rubles for the Gold, 2.5 million for the Silver, and two 1.7 million ruble certificates for her bronze medals! That comes to a total of 9.9 million rubles.. worth $311,488 USD. Wow! And let’s not forget about the Audi! Congrats Aliya!

aliyamustafina.ru

It’s not only the American Olympians making serious coin. 🙂

I stopped by Bounce in Hartland, Michigan, to check out these amazing home made wall bars. In person.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

related – construction photos posted on Facebook.

Some European coaches can do ALL their strength and flexibility improvement work on wall bars. They are not nearly as popular in North America.

That’s what they told Kathrine Switzer. She disagreed, the first woman to run Boston in 1967.

… on that bus were co-race directors Will Cloney and Jock Semple. …

Jock was well known for his violent temper. He seethed for awhile, and then he erupted. He jumped off the bus and went after me. I saw him just before he pounced, and let me tell you, I was scared to death. He was out of control. I jumped away from him as he grabbed for me, but he caught me by the shoulder and spun me around, and screamed, ‘Get the hell out of my race and give me that race number.’ I tried to get away from him but he had me by the shirt. It was like being in a bad dream. Arnie tried to wrestle Jock away from me but was having a hard time himself and then Tom, my 235-pound boyfriend came to the rescue and smacked Jock with a cross body block and Jock went flying through the air.

At first, I thought we had killed him. I was stunned and didn’t know what to do, but then Arnie just looked at me and said, ‘Run like hell,’ and I did as the photographers snapped away and the scribes recorded the event for posterity. …

The Real Story of Kathrine Switzer’s 1967 Boston Marathon

… Switzer was the women’s winner of the 1974 New York City Marathon, with a time of 3:07:29 (59th overall).Her personal best time for the marathon distance is 2:51:37, at Boston in 1975. …

She was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame in 2011 for creating a social revolution by empowering women around the world through running. …

Switzer was named Female Runner of the Decade (1967-77) by Runner’s World Magazine and received an Emmy for her work as a television commentator.

Trevor sends a link to this Taiso Gymnastics 2011-12 compilation. More goofing than Gym. Some wipeouts. Some laughs.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

That’s the home gym of Canadian National Team members Jayd Lukenchuk and Anderson Loran.

… “It has been a bit frightening. We have had marriage proposals; my daughter is 16,” her mother, Erin, Maroney told Mail Online.

“We have hired specialist security guards to make sure McKayla is never on her own. We don’t want another Shawn Johnson situation to happen.”

Johnson was another Olympic gold medalist who was stalked by 34-year-old Robert O’Ryan. …

Read more …

Is this really necessary? 😦

(via Couch Gymnast)

This has absolutely nothing to do with gym.

But the latest viral video from a Korean Comedian / Rapper is must watch.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Who’ll be first to include his “horseback riding dance” in their Floor routine. 🙂

Rewriting Russian Gymnastics has been posting translations of Press conferences. As usual, Alexandrov, Andre Rodionenko and Aliya Mustafina are worth following. All well spoken, surprisingly honest, surprisingly blunt. Komova has really grown up. She handles herself quite well now in front of reporters hoping for an interesting misstatement.

Valentina Rodionenko, … not so much.

An excellent example:

Valentina Rodionenko, Aliya Mustafina and Viktoria Komova – Sovietski Sport/Komsomolskaya Pravda press conference:

Valentina Rodionenko: Functionally the Americans were far better prepared than our girls. We couldn’t do it because our girls were all injured. Professor Arkhipov was with them. He’s the best orthopaedic specialist in Russia. He was all the time with our team. He knew what injuries they had. Now they have to heal their injuries. Now they’ll go to Spain to a recovery training camp, we cannot overload them as they do in the US. They wouldn’t stand it. This is why they are so strong, so healthy, except for Douglas.

Journalist: like robots…

Rodionenko: I may not be objective. But their gymnastics are not beautiful. We are for classical, beautiful gymnastics, they are for athletic gymnastics. It’s called artistic gymnastics. It has to be artistic. This is our position. …

interview with Valentina Rodionenko …

Here’s the latest.

Sports Express interview by Elena Zaitsakhovskaya with Aliya and her parents:

-I heard many times that they wanted to transfer you to another coach, because Alexandrov was the national team’s head coach. Did you know about it?

-Yes. I was asked many times if I understood that the head coach cannot have personal gymnasts.

-What did you think about it?

– Whom could they transfer me to? Every coach had her gymnast; they didn’t need me, except Alexandrov…

-Did you fear that the trainer would leave you?

– Aleksandr Sergueievich always helped me, in all situations, whatever happened. …

– Do you quarrel during training?

– Of course. About anything. For instance, if I can’t achieve something or the coach has told me something that I haven’t liked. We may not talk to each other for three days.

Aliya Mustafina – I knew that Alexandrov would not leave me

Who’s faster over 10 meters – the fastest sprinter in the world, or a diver?

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

… Smith and double pommel horse world champion Berki both scored 16.066, but the British gymnast believes he should have been crowned Olympic champion as his routine was technically more difficult.

“I think I should have won the gold and he should have won the silver,” said Smith. “I don’t care about sharing medals. My routine was harder and there was more risk involved so I think it should have gone in my favour. …

Telegraph – London 2012 Olympics: Louis Smith wants gymnastics rule change after narrowly missing out on gold medal

I’m satisfied that Berki should have won Gold. Louis needed his hardest routine (with the extra single pommel Russian) if he wanted to win. A gap of 0.1 in difficulty score is not enough against Berki who has much better extension.

Louis is off on holidays in Spain.

related – Mail – I doubt I’ll go on to compete at Rio Games, says Britain’s gymnastics hero Smith