Gymnastics Coaching.com

did Melanie Jones win Floor?

This is one sweet, smart routine. With plenty of crowd appeal.

Her Aussie fans back home feel this was #1.

54 scores were given in the Floor final. And all but one ranged from 9.85 – 9.95.

From the 6 judges, Ding got 5 9.95s. EHH and Stack-Eaton got four. Jones, much less well known, only got three.

None of the top gymnasts distinguished themselves enough to be the clear winner, I thought. So it was a bit of popularity contest, in the end.

CalicoIzzy:

You put Melanie in the UGA leotard with Kat’s name, and she wins floor finals.

Floor final was a joke

Rhonda Faehn – NCAA interview

Class act.

This was the best season ever for Florida Head Coach Rhonda Faehn. They truly did everything right this year. But it turned out to be the toughest, tightest Team finish ever.

http://www.gatorvision.tv/mediaPortal/embed.swf

I’m betting that Florida will be the team to beat again next season.

Olympic champ Melissanidis returns

Google Translate:

.. he Atlanta Olympic champion gymnast 1996 in (Floor), Greek, Ioannis Melissanidis , will be competing in … the World Cup in Osijek, the end of the month …

At 34 the gymnast is in good condition to develop competency in their unit. “I have never ceased to be a gymnast. I train every day, I’m still the same diet that I had when I was competing. So I think you could do well. “Said Ioannis.

He further clarified: “It would be impossible to reach a level to the Olympics, but there are other competitions – European Championships, the World Cup events of the Mediterranean Games … anything is possible.” …

gimnasialatina.com (Spanish)

Here’s his Gold medal routine. Back in the day when execution was required, and shorts were short.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

No problem. He’s young. Jenny Hansen is age-38 and still trying for the U.S. National Team.

Triple Twisting Yurchenko

Click PLAY or watch McKayla Maroney on YouTube.

Someone handy with editing software has merged the reigning World vault champion’s two vaults from the 2011 U.S. Championships, showing 98 percent of her Amanar and adding in the last half twist of her second vault (layout Podkopayeva) to make it appear that Maroney is doing a triple twisting Yurchenko. What it does achieve is providing a good visual of what the first TTY will look like whenever it gets done.

Examiner Watch this: McKayla Maroney’s “triple twisting Yurchenko”

Men’s NCAA Championships recap

Ono sends the link to an NCAA Men’s Apparatus Finals recap video.

Here’s the (astonishing Illinois come-from-behind-on-Pommels victory) Team Finals recap video.

The Illini party like it’s 1989.

I’m watching the full replay of Team Finals right now.

I assume those clips don’t have embed codes because geeks cannot figure out how to add the preroll advertisements. Too bad.

There are more videos on NCAA.com.

Dutch gymnastics law suits

It’s always bad news when you have to call a lawyer. I fear there will be more legal cases to come.

The Dutch court ruled that Netherlands cannot name Epke Zonderland and Wyomi Masela as their Olympians for London. Instead Netherlands must wait on results from European Championships and two World Cups.

Jeffrey Wammes and Celine van Gerner both challenged that early decision.

My opinion:

1) The Coach / Federation should be empowered to name the Olympians.

2) The Coach / Federation should have waited as long as possible before naming the Olympians.