Kanaeva to marry Musatov

Two-time Olympic champion in rhythmic gymnastics, Evgenia Kanaeva, has announced she is going to marry hockey player, Igor Musatov.

According to Allhockey.ru, Musatov proposed to his girlfriend after her triumphant return from the London Games. …

The date for the wedding hasn’t been set, but the ceremony is to take place this September. …

RT.com – Wedding bells for gymnastics diva Kanaeva (PHOTOS)

Unlike that Ponor engagement I foolishly linked to, this looks like the real deal. 🙂

Maroney beats Uchimura

I thought they were fairly close in performance of Yurcheno 2 1/2 twist, until I saw this shared on monigymnastics.

Compare the videos – Uchimura v Shewfelt v Maroney

Computer software could certainly have “judged” this apparatus more accurately than humans.

Who was it that questioned why the Men are so much better than Women on Vault? 🙂

Olympic Beam is boring

Arabian Punch Front bemoans the lack of variety on Beam in 2012:

… The nice thing about NCAA is that there’s a pretty wide variety in moves. Not the same can be said for elite gymnastics even at the Olympic level where different countries come together to perform… essentially the same thing. …

… The dreaded and often overused front handspring – back handspring – layout wasn’t used as often as you might think. Only Ponor, Douglas, and Afanasyeva used the skill and Douglas was the only one to do the layout step out. Aly Raisman was the only athlete not to have a front aerial in her routine. Our sport is making some progress! Five athletes competed a side somi with mixed results – some looked pretty, some looked like they were getting ready to sit down. …

read more – Where Have All the Straddle Splits Gone?

Read the comments, too.

Here’s one series singled out for wonderfulness. Deng Linlin, our Olympic Champion.

That .gif is from the terrific monigymnastics tumblr. It’s almost worth joining tumblr to follow.

gymnast Dan Gill founds Huddler

Pando Daily goes into the Stanford gym to profile a Silicon Valley start-up CEO.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

… I was a bit surprised when a former NCAA championship gymnast raised $17 million in funding late last year, not only didn’t do cartwheels, he kept it a secret–until now.

“It didn’t make sense for us to be distracted with hype, especially when it wasn’t important to our partners at the time,” explains Dan Gill, Co-founder, Huddler, which is a company that makes software that modernizes online forums …

Huddler powers 31 sites and field 24 million unique visitors monthly. It has been increasing revenue quarter over quarter and is on track for profitability in 2013. …

Pando – A $17 Million Round We All Missed

Existing online forum software is horrible. Ugly. Huddler MUST be a big improvement. 🙂

(via Dave Durante)

Excalibur Gymnastics responds

In an interview with Oprah Winfrey on Sunday, Olympic gold medalist Gabby Douglas said she experienced racism and felt isolated when she trained in Virginia Beach. The owner of Excalibur Gymnastics countered, saying the accusations are untrue.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Gabby is a fantastic gymnast, one of the best of all time.

Part of that success should be credited to the gym where she trained for 6 1/2 years.

I was disappointed that Gabby and her Mom, future millionaires, were unable to take the high road. And move on.

Instead they expanded on why Gabby left Excalibur. Good for ratings. Exactly the kind of talk Oprah wants to hear.

Women’s artistic gymnasts are as “protected” as any children in any city. The gym is an environment where there’s no profanity, and less racism than anywhere else in town. Gabby is far more vulnerable at school. Or walking down the street. In Virgina Beach or Des Moines.

This headline is not at all the main storyline of Gabby’s career:

Gabby Douglas to Oprah: I was ‘bullied,’ called ‘slave’ during early gymnastics training in Virginia

Hyperbolic sensationalism in the mainstream press.

Sad day for Gymnastics. One of the best stories of the Olympics gone sour.

Sam Mikulak credits coaches

Sam:

I owe my entire gymnastics career to these two amazing coaches!

instagr.am

Grigor Chalikyan & Albert Avchian.

Both are from Armenia. Now at SCATS, California, Sam’s home club.

He’s headed back to University of Michigan, not on tour.

Aussie school bans playground cartwheels

THE fun is over for some Sydney schoolchildren who dare to do cartwheels and handstands in the playground.

Drummoyne Public School has banned handstands, cartwheels and somersaults during lunch and recess unless “under the supervision of a trained gymnastics teacher and with correct equipment.” …

The move has confounded parents such as Rebecca Chown, who has collected more than 250 signatures on a petition calling for the rule to be overturned. …

Fun over for schoolchildren at Drummoyne Public School as handstands, cartwheels and somersaults are banned

Principal Gail Charlier has yet to respond.

Here’s the real danger to Aussie kids:

… For children and adolescents, the 2007-08 National Health Survey results indicate that 24.9% of children aged 5 – 17 years are overweight or obese. …

source

(via @GymnasticsView)

disappointed with Gabrielle Douglas

Gabby Douglas is the super talented, super enthusiastic, somewhat unpredictable wunderkind. Nobody can understand how she flies and jumps so high.

Gabrielle Douglas is the new Olympic Champion on Oprah. Starting to believe her own story.

Wall Street Journal:

… The 16-year-old African-American gymnast appeared on the show “Oprah’s Next Chapter” and said that when she was around 14 years old and in training with other gymnasts “I felt I was being bullied and isolated from the group… Just, they treated me, not how they would treat their other teammates.” …

Olympian Gabby Douglas Felt ‘Bullied’ By Other Gymnasts

Click PLAY or watch part of that interview on YouTube.

So far as I’ve heard, those accusations are wrong and/or exaggerated. As are some of the other statements she and her mother have made repeatedly to media.

Randy Stageburg is a former Senior International Elite and National Team member:

This is absolutely ridiculous. I trained at Excalibur gymnastics for 8 years and I personally trained with Gabby for 2 of those years. The accusations that are being made against the gymnasts and coaches are just sickening. I watched Dena and Gustavo put so much of their time and effort into gabby and the other athletes, no matter their race. Gabby was never a victim …

I also trained with Morgan Evans, Marcia Newby, Britney Ranzy and Sheriese Clark all of which were on the national team and are African American. I can assure you they all have nothing but great things to say about their experience at Excalibur. …

Kristina Coccia (aka Sharky) is a former Senior International Elite who trained at Parkettes:

I’ve had the pleasure of knowing the Excalibur coaches for many years- never once would I question their coaching or love for their athletes. …

I know numerous gymnasts who experienced nothing but fantastic memories from Excalibur. Pay back the money you owe, stop playing the victim and respect the coaches who got you to the Elite level. Because the Excalibur family is one that I personally remember during my career. This entire story makes me sick …

Those quotes come from GymNewstics.

More will come forward now.

… I’m not so sure Gabrielle’s going to be the great celebrity Gabby should be. 😦

Her agent, Sheryl Shade, needs get to work.

Fierce Five – WILD ONES

With the Olympic Results book now available, many will be rejudging the Olympics in super slow-mo.

Happily there’s no doubt who won the WAG Team competition.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.