My opinion of Aly went way, way up after watching her so calm and solid at Worlds. Tough, durable … she looks to be a mainstay on the A team. With Alicia, Mihai may continue as the #1 male coach on the floor during team competition for USA.
I felt Aly was easily the most powerful tumbler in Rotterdam. Why is she competing double tuck when she could be doing double double?
… After the all-around ceremony, Teng was forced to explain a hand gesture he and Lu made on the podium, where they appeared to aim a gun at Mizutori. The two Asian powers have a long history of war and animosity.
“I would like to explain that the gesture which looks like I am using a gun is not hostile,” Teng said, explaining that the gesture is meant to symbolize the Li Ning logo.
Mizutori made the same gesture back, though he said later he was not sure what it meant.
“I thought maybe I should just go along with it, so I just did it,” Mizutori said. …
… Marine told Le Monde: “I wanted to finish my sporting career in something fun;” …
This girl has talent. Recall that Marine was the most successful all around French female Olympian ever, 7th in Athens. And made a comeback to compete again in Beijing.
We can all learn from coach Sue. Abusing her power as interim principal, last night on GLEE, she bans Tater Tots from the school cafeteria.
Righteous.
When educating athletes about nutrition, fries are a lynch pin. My advice: never order fries. … Only steal a few from friends. And ex-friends. Everything in moderation.
🙂
Nancy Armour has an update on the comeback of our Olympic Silver all-around medalist:
… Johnson is surprisingly nervous as she packs for her first trip there in more than two years. Other gymnasts have moved in during her absence, making the Olympic gold medalist feel like an outsider.
“It’s been so long and I’m completely out of the loop. I don’t remember what it’s like or if I’m up to par with everyone,” said Johnson, who leaves Thursday for her first national team training camp since Beijing. “It’ll probably be fine. I’m probably making way too big of deal about it. But it is (nerve-racking). It’s foreign territory for me right now.” …
Right now the Russian women’s gymnastics team are favourites to win Team Gold at the 2012 Olympics.
China, USA and now Romania are trying to find a strategy to challenge. With the return of Anamaria Tamarjan, Romania now has 17 gymnasts in their Olympic training squad.
The excellent new Russian gymnastics blog, out of the UK, summarizes (based on an extensive review of recent media reports) the many challenges remaining now that Russia is again the Russia of old:
If revolutions can only be acknowledged and recognized with hindsight, we are still too early to celebrate the Russian women’s team and all around victory at the Rotterdam World Championships 2010 as such. In many ways, Russian gymnastics is only beginning to turn a corner and to build the foundations for future more solid and consistent victories. …
The Russians’ current success has largely been forged at the hands of Soviet veteran coaches such as Andrei Rodienenko, Alexander Alexandrov and Oleg Ostapenko. Few ‘new faces’ exist in the Russian gymnastics coaching world, and this is clearly a worry. Both Rodienenko and Alexandrov emphasize the sorry state of Russian gymnastics at grass roots level and Rodienenko highlights the problems for mature gymnasts in pursuing their sporting/professional careers once their competitive lives are over.
The mass base of sports that existed during the Soviet era has been eroded, with few professionals available to select and coach young potential thanks to lack of pay. …
Sport in general has become globalized and gymnastics is in no way immune to the effects. Discussions of Dina Kamalova’s apparently sudden exodus to the USA make it clear that this was a significant threat to young Aliya Mustafina’s career in the sport. The intervention of CSKA chief Galina Stepanova and Russian team coach Alexander Alexandrov ensured that Russia did not lose this brilliant, unique gymnast. Kamalova migrated to Valeri Liukin’s empire in Texas to train none other than Mustafina’s main rival for the recent world championships title, Rebecca Bross. …
… She added a full turn to the right immediately after her double turn to the left; a switch-half, back tuck combination, and a new side aerial to one foot (bringing her held leg all the way up) after her front aerial, Onodi. …
Gymnastics Coaching.com 