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From the excellent Gymnaestrada Media Centre:

The World Gymnaestrada has begun! …

Today, Beaulieu Lausanne hosted 188 performances, each one more astonishing than the last, representing 46 of the 55 participating delegations.

The Swiss Evenings took place at the Sports Center of Malley, each one attended by 5000 spectators. From the start, these evenings generated lively interest. The entrance tickets, which were available from the 18th of March, were in fact sold out in the first two hours. During these evenings, 20 groups from all over Switzerland, with a total of nearly 900 athletes of all ages, presented performances which they had been practicing for two years. …

Aside from Opening/Closing Ceremonies and the FIG Gala, the biggest draws of the week are Les Soirees Nationales, the National Nights, 14 shows in all.

The opening number at the host night was an impressive 12 sets simultaneous swinging rings. (Love front uprise and inlocate on the forward swing.)

Both Men and Women showed a lot of difficulty on this near forgotten apparatus, mats only on the dismount side! (Actually, the gymnastics was VERY safe, over all.)

Swiss engineering and efficiency was evident in the disassembly and removal of the massive structures.

My favourite act was dancer / acrobats inside Swiss pup tents. Hilarious. (I will post video later.)

The crowd loved a bizarre bit, older dancers dressed as Cheese, especially when giant fondue forks arrived.

We saw swinging rope ladders, 6 synchro tramps, hand supported P Bars, silks, scooters, inline skaters, … and much, much more. A dance troupe called “Objectif Gymnastique” impressed by integrating physically and mentally challenged performers.

Gymnaestrada is all good. There’s no downside. Win – win – win. No losers.

I will be posting more on RecGymnastics.com.

In training.

USA National team member Bridgey Caquatto of Legacy Elite training bars in early July of 2011 in preparation for the CoverGirl Classic and the Visa Championships.

http://www.gymnastike.org/embed/NjQzNDk5Nzk4?related=1

Watch more video of Legacy Elite Gymnastics on gymnastike.org

Jason points out that Bridgey has an even higher start value in training that Anna Li. (Anna is going to up hers soon, I’m certain.)

George sends us the link to this video, Mike Outram walking on his own. Fantastic.http://player.ooyala.com/player.js?autoplay=0&embedCode=w1dTdtMjq4aWOWSkvw7HylKrOI1G1qsd

Details on The Windsor Star.

One of the Urban Trees on San Diego Bay’s Waterfront.

“Handstand” by Daniel Stern

The artist reflects on his career in theater and films in this eight-foot bronze sculpture that depicts a man performing a one-armed handstand balanced 12 feet above the pavement. His hope is that people who see the artwork will get a feeling of motion, joy, color, chaos, balance, humor, danger, possibilities and impossibilities.

An unusual edit, the forest Parkour does not start until 5min in.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Meet the Magic is the theme of Gymnaestrada 2011.

Swiss star Ariella Kaeslin (Käslin) announced her retirement from competitive gymnastics Monday at a press conference, just 12 months before what would have been her second Olympic Games. …

Kaeslin leaves the Swiss women’s team far stronger than she found it. During an international career that lasted more than a decade, Kaeslin set a stupendous number of firsts for Swiss gymnastics. She was the first Swiss gymnast to win an all-around medal at the European Championships (bronze in 2009), the first to win a European title (vault, 2009) and the first to win a World medal (silver on vault at the 2009 Worlds). …

read more from Blythe Lawrence, Special to Universal Sports – Gymnast Kaeslin shocks with retirement announcement

In 2010 she was voted “Swiss Sportswoman of the Year”. It is a bit of a shock here in Lausanne.

via THE ALL AROUND on Facebook.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

She got a 6.2 start one day, 6.5 the next.

More videos from that competition on Couch Gymnast.

Participants, organisers and spectators at the 14th World Gymnaestrada were all anxiously observing the skies on Sunday afternoon. With a thunderstorm and heavy rain hanging over Lausanne during the day, the risk of a soaking during the Opening Ceremony scheduled for 4pm was very high!

However, it seems the Organising Committee had a direct line to the weather Gods as, just one hour before the big show, the sun came out and blue skies opened up over La Pontaise Olympic Stadium. …

… the 55 international delegations marched in one after the other, waving their national flags, clapping and entertaining the crowd with scattered gymnastic and acrobatic performances on their way around the stadium. …

read more on FIG – Heavens smile on opening extravaganza

It’s a blast marching in as I recall from 1975 and 1982. Watching 19,000 people march-in is not nearly so entertaining. After France I went wandering around the stadium, catching a nap in the sun at one point.

The background music didn’t help, the most current musical selection being Y.M.C.A. (1978). All in all, not much has changed since march-in 1975.

Best dressed, I thought, were Qatar in traditional desert costume. Those nations each person carrying a flag were impressive: Germany and Austria, for two.

The Top Secret Drum Corps from Basel stole the show, as they did last year at the Edinburgh Tattoo. The only performance to get a standing ovation. The Swiss Airforce buzzing the audience was a thrilling finale, too.

I had assumed FIG MTC had stopped increasing the start values for new more difficult vaults as a safety precaution. I was wrong. This Vault was valued out of 7.4. Stoica and the MTC were there. It looks like that will be confirmed.

(Nastia was there too, Shawn at home training to compete 3 apparatus at Covergirl Classic.)

… The biggest news of the Korean Cup was the unveiling of South Korea’s Hak Seon Yang’s new vault, a handspring 3/1 stretched.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

That was linked on Full Twist, a post including some event Finals results.

Leave a comment if you have seen Hoon Ji Kim’s routine on H Bar 7.1 D score, execution 8.775. Or Zhang Hongtao Pommels, execution 9.350.

Read more on THE ALL AROUND – Korea, China dominate Korea Cup

Here is the top American Bar Bar worker right now, so far as I know. And she is working more difficulty. Anna’s signature monster Tkachev has not been added yet, for example.

http://www.gymnastike.org/embed/NjE5NDk5NzA0?related=1