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Yukio Endo (1937-2009) was … Olympic champion and world champion.

… At the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo he also received two individual gold medals, in parallel bars, and in individual all-around. …

Here’s Endo competing in the very same venue that hosted Worlds 2011.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Abe Grossfeld was there — but tells that the arena has been much renovated (improved) in the decades since.

(via Mesothelioma)

I attended the World Gymnastics Championships Banquet as a guest of Marceline Goldstein from Cirque du Soleil, a sponsor.

Here she is channeling her inner Uchimura.

Marceline is running open auditions in Tokyo and Osaka.

Here Grace Chiu is showing the soon-to-be-iconic photo of new World Parallel Bar champion Danell Leyva celebrating with Yin Alvarez.

Click on any of the photos to see the original. On most you can comment.

Team USA …

Artists were available to quickly present the ultimately personalized souvenir of Tokyo.

Meiji Kinenkan restaurant is a huge complex adjacent to the famous Meiji Shrine. They had one room just for Sushi & Tempura, another for Chinese food. And several for deserts.

By the end of the evening, the outdoor area was most popular.

As people get home from Tokyo, I expect Facebook to be flooded with images from this event. It truly was a highlight of the competition.

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Certainly this was the most memorable Worlds Banquet in history. I’ve not been to many — but did attend the worst … Montreal 1985.

The final day of competition was a Sunday and all food services anywhere near the venue were closed. Everyone was starving when the grub arrived. It was mad — the best gymnasts in the world scrambling over each other to get to the food.

Katie at Full Twist has been following the World Championships in Tokyo as closely as if she had been in the gym the past 14 days.

Thanks.

Here’s her wrap-up of the meet, the best single summary post I’ve seen as it links results to videos of the winners.

Worlds 2011: A Final Wrap Up

Full Twist will rank high in my year end “Best of the Gymternet” list.

… Instead of after a selection camp at the Karolyi Ranch, the Olympic team will be named at the end of the 2012 Olympic Trials, Karolyi said, the same evening as competition at the Trials concludes. Trials will take place in San Jose, Calif. June 28-July 1, 2012.

“I’m a little nervous about that, to be very honest, but that was the decision, and I hope we will be able to handle it,” Karolyi said. “I always like to select the team two days before we leave the country, and this will be different. …

The reason for naming the team at Olympic Trials has more to do with getting the Olympic roster in under the International Olympic Committee’s deadline for having set rosters, said Steve Penny, President of USA Gymnastics. …

read more on Gymnastics Examiner

Marta is leaving Tokyo quite happy. Watch a video interview on Gymnastike.

… have I mentioned how much I love this guy? 🙂

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Perfect toe point. Wonderful line. … (I’ve promised to stop complaining about him.)

OK. Most experts don’t agree with this decision. Here’s the slightly more detailed scores.

full results (PDF)

Zou Kai won because the judges awarded him the highest start score 7.70.

Zhang from China had the second highest start score 7.60. And finished second.

Other guys have more exciting routines — but lower starts. Since Men’s judges will only give Uchimura 9.033, and yet give Zou Kai 8.741, difficulty decides the medals.

If you feel there should be a greater difference between those execution scores, take it up with the guys that put those number to paper:

HUANG Liping (CHN) – Horizontal Bar Supervisor

Execution Judges:
DOBROVOLSKYI Edvard (UKR)
POP Augustin (ROU)
KELEMEN Zoltan (HUN)
MITEV Dimitar (BUL)
ROCHA Joao (POR)

… Look. Horizontal Bar rules are screwed up. They need revised from the ground up. The best guys in the world do either boring routines, repetitive routines or routines with 4 similar skills. The FIG rules are to blame.

Routines were “better” in 2004 than they are today.

When are Stoica and his committee going to do something about it?

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

A last minute replacement for Komova, Ksenia was stunned that she won. Perhaps she’d heard about some of the Russian press insisting there’s a conspiracy against her nation.

Brigid loved the final competition for women in Tokyo – Best. Floor. Final. Ever.

One of the biggest criticisms of the all around competition was the lack of clean performances. Today we saw eight of them. They varied in difficulty, finesse and style, but it was the most competitive event of the women’s competition. It was suspenseful, delightful and surprising. And for that I am grateful.

full results (PDF)

SV: 6.40, Execution: 9.233, Score: 15.633

I was thrilled this routine — without any double salto between the bars — won the meet. This will usher in a trend in routine construction, I hope.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

I congratulated Danell personally. And congratulated one of the E judges even more enthusiastically. (That judge had Danell 1st.)

There’s not much separating many amazing routines.

full results (PDF)

SV: 6.60, Execution: 9.266, Score: 15.866

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

full results (PDF)

Couch Gymnast report on the final – The Beamer: Ode To Sui Lu

The most insane final.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

full results (PDF)

He had the highest start value by 0.4. … Won by 0.2.

That first vault — Handspring front layout triple twist — will be named for him.

(via Vídeos de gimnasia)

FIG on Facebook:

Thank you for hosting the world championship in Tokyo. Without all of your support, none of this would have happened. …

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Hardy Fink reflected back on history for comparisons with Kohei. Bilizerchev had a more dramatic start to his career. Li Ning was as dominant, but for a shorter period of time.

I’d say Uchimura is the greatest male gymnast of all time. Khorkina the greatest female.