College coaches are warmly welcomed to Canadian Championships 2012 in Regina, May 21-26th.
Here’s a partial list of those coming up to the Great White North:
Jeff Thompson Penn State Scott Sherman Michigan Bill Ryden Arizona D-D Breaux LSU Kathie Klages MSU Larissa Libby Iowa Elise Ray Washington Dawn Cattermole BYU Chris Waller UCLA Greg Marsden Utah Dan Kendig Nebraska Bryan Raschilla Alabama
NCAA school representatives will be credentialed and can have access to the spectator areas of training gyms. As well as to the VIP spectator area of the competition gym.
Start lists will be available for each session.
Leave a comment if you know of other recruiters making the trip.
I like this tall gymnast. But a set of rules that scores his routine up with the best in the World is fatally flawed. Nobody wants to see a routine composed entirely of twisting and roll-out skills in the Olympic final.
Will the FIG MTC demand a variety of different kinds of skills in the next Olympic cycle?
Stoica and his committee have been a big disappointment 2009-2012.
China is the defending Olympic Team Champion in both Men’s and Women’s Artistic.
Should they adopt a goal of winning as many individual apparatus medals as possible in London? Rather than trying to win Team?
Sun Xiaochen in the China Daily:
China’s national gymnastics teams have already accepted that they won’t repeat the dominant Olympics they enjoyed in Beijing …
The international powerhouse bagged nine gold medals – including the prestigious men’s and women’s team all-around competitions – out of the 14 categories at home four years ago, which comprised a big portion of the nation’s 51-gold haul in Beijing.
However, it is unrealistic to expect an equally exceptional result in London. …
“It will be extremely hard for us to defend the team event title this time,” said Chen Yibing, men’s captain and Beijing Olympics rings gold medalist.
“We lack the all-around talent now, so everybody has to dig deeper and try to make up for each other’s weak event.”
Inspired by Chen, pommel horse Olympic champion Xiao Qin has started to work out on the rings, an event he dropped for 10 years. …
The first day of the event finals at the Chinese Nationals saw the girls kicking it old school, with senior citizens Cheng Fei and He Kexin emerging as apparatus champions on their pet events. …
Romania is back. They won 3 gold medals in the apparatus finals. Sandra Isbaza (Vault), Catalina Ponor (Beam) and Larissa Iordache (Floor) dominated the competitions. Russia saved the honour with Victoria Komova (Uneven Bars). …
Ron Noe of Stick It Media is often the lone blogger promoting and publicizing age group Men’s Gymnastics in the USA.
He’s frustrated with the just finished Men’s J.O. Championships in Cincinnati:
… I’m going to be perfectly blunt about this. Aside from a nice Facebook page and very minimal print coverage, the promotion of this event during the course of the competition, was virtually non-existent. No active Twitter updates, no videos, no live scoring, no nothing. It’s an Olympic year, for crying out loud. Failure to promote this year’s men’s JO Nationals was unfathomable to me. …
I’d love to do more to promote the 700+ best age group guys in the USA. But I need news, photos and videos to link. Please leave a comment if you know of good sources online.
So … the main story is the grand return of Romania as an Olympic Team contender. Their prelims score was only a point less than the US need to win Tokyo. Romania fans are excited.
… For me, this team centres on Ponor, whose statuesque presence draws instant attention from spectators. Catalina has always been thrilling to watch: her feline features are matched by a catlike ability for solidity on the balance beam. Her new routine looks comfortable and rock hard, and is the closest she has looked to her 2004 self since her golden heyday. …
With Ponor back, and Iordache the superstar up-and-coming AA contender, Romania truly could get on to the medal podium in London.
