Words are worse than Sticks and Stones

A 13-year old Connecticut girl is bringing the serious issue of bullying to the forefront once again through a stark video she put on the Internet two weeks ago that’s quickly gaining attention.

Her name is Alye Pollack. …

… Without ever speaking, Alye describes her pain and the insults she says she endures every day.

CBS News Correspondent Elaine Quijano reported the video has struck a chord. It has thousands of hits, and an outpouring of sympathetic comments. “Be strong, Alye,” reads one message, and, “Always know how special you are.” …

CBS News

Click PLAY or watch her on YouTube.

Thank you Alye.

You can show support on her Facebook page.

Jessica Dowling – Bars

Jessica is yet another excellent gymnast from Oakville. She won Wild Rose in the Senior Challenge division:

1. 52.867 – Jessica Dowling (Oakville Antoinettes Gym Club (ON))
2. 52.700 – Emily Lennon (Gymtastics Gymnastics Club (AB))
3. 49.100 – Cristina Bedggood (Futures Gymnastics Club (ON))
(full results)

If any College coaches at NCAA Championships ask me for a recommendation on a good recruit who might be flying under the radar, the very first girl I’d name is Jessica Dowling. … They already know about Emily 🙂

Click PLAY or watch her on YouTube.

A lovely gymnast. And a charming girl. Watch an interview from Nationals 2010.

European Gymnastics Championships

Berlin, April 4-10th.

The All Around Gymnastics News and Gymnastics Examiner will be posting LIVE.

Certainly GYMmedia will have extensive coverage in German and English.

The biggest story will be the Russian Women. They are favoured. But Romania’s planning to challenge for the Gold medals.

Sandra Izbasa quoted in the Romanian press:

Q: Sandra, how do you feel now, after you won FX gold at the French internationals?
A: I gained confidence. Now, of course, I hope for gold in Berlin

Q: Who will be the strongest competitor, us or the Russians?
A: We will …

Couch Gymnast.

Gymnastics Examiner – 2011 European Championships preview: Women

Julie Croket (Belgium) via gymnasticsunited

MAG International Junior Team Cup

A professional highlights edit by GYMmedia TV of the Men’s International Junior Team Cup of Artistic Gymnastics hosted in Berlin.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube. (8min, German & English)

via THE ALL AROUND on Facebook.

Suzanne Yoculan Interview

At the Athens Regional qualifier. Always colourful. Always interesting.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

(via Aunt Joyce)

related – Florida’s Rhonda Faehn post meet interview

extremely grateful… painful … ugly …

I’m expecting Florida will be ready in 2 weeks, though. Still the team to beat.

gymnastics week in review

Catch up on EVERYTHING on Gymnastics Examiner – The gymnastics week in review: Europeans, Regionals and other significant meets.

Here’s one story I missed:

An idea for saving NCAA men’s gymnastics (maybe): The U.S. Olympic committee has created an “award” (read: cash prize) for schools who produce Olympic medalists who are still in college when they win said medals. The idea seems to be that if the athlete wins hardware, his or her school will get “recognized” (read: paid). (Associated Press)

Lucky us. Gymnastics Examiner editor Blythe Lawrence is in Berlin for Europeans.

12 teams to NCAA Championships

2011 NCAA Team Qualifiers to Championships April 15-17 in Cleveland, Ohio.

1. UCLA, 197.425
2. Oklahoma, 197.35
3. Alabama, 197.275
4. Michigan, 197.075
5. Oregon State, 197.025
6. Georgia, 196.75
7. Nebraska, 196.55
8. Arkansas, 196.55
9. Utah, 196.475
10. Florida, 196.425
11. Illinois, 195.925
12. Kent State, 195.45

Gymnastics Examiner

… The Illini came through in the clutch on balance beam and totaled a 195.925 to edge Penn State (195.850) for the final qualifying spot. …

“I am so proud of this team and how they fought to the end,” interim head coach Kim Landrus said. …

The meet came down to the wire, as the Illini were just .125 ahead of the Nittany Lions heading into the final rotation. The Orange and Blue needed to hit on beam to remain ahead of PSU, who finished the meet on bars. Penn State turned in a 49.125 while the Illini had two gymnasts remaining to perform on their event. Senior Allison Buckley and Melissa Fernandez each nailed their routines with stuck landing …

#14 Illini Earn Second-Ever Trip to NCAA Championships

Kolman 1-arm regrasp

Rico Andrade at the …

… 2005 Stanford Men’s Gymnastics Alumni meet.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Must have been an accident. … Right?

… In this video he has not been training gymnastics seriously for over 3 years and does a full twisting kovacs and grabs with ONE HAND. This is nuts – no one does one arm grabs on purpose. He did it by accident the year before and then did it INTENTIONALLY that time. I was at this meet, it was incredible. …

Jason Shen

Doha – Zou Kai – H Bar

Zou Kai has improved a lot since unexpectedly winning Horizontal Bar at the Beijing Olympics.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube. (7.7 difficulty)

… I’ll throw a party the day Rybalko is devalued out of popularity, though.

(via The All Around Gymnastics News on Facebook)