Gymnastics Coaching.com

A happy follow-up to the disappointing story of how Canadian coaches opted not to put blind skier Brian McKeever into the line-up during the Vancouver Olympics.

… As Brian McKeever and his brother Robin raced toward Paralympic gold in the cross-country freestyle Monday, the announcers warned the raucous crowd to stop cheering and just wave to keep them on course.

But there was no silencing the spectators at Whistler Paralympic Park, who screamed wildly and flailed cowbells in support of the brothers from Canmore, Alta., who scooped up the country’s first Winter Paralympic gold medal on home soil.

“It wasn’t a quiet stadium when we rolled through so that was a lot of fun,” McKeever, 30, said. “It doesn’t matter if it’s quiet or not. I can see (a bit) so I just follow Robin.” …

read more – Vancouver Sun – For Canada’s Brian McKeever, it’s ‘a lot of fun’ winning nation’s first Paralympic gold

http://cdn.pis.picapp.com/IamProd/PicAppPIS/JavaScript/PisV4.js

I still feel it was a massive coaching blunder not to compete McKeever in both Olympics and Paralympics.

Bridget Sloan tweeted the bad news that David Beckham tore his Achilles.

http://cdn.pis.picapp.com/IamProd/PicAppPIS/JavaScript/PisV4.js

I always think of that as a gymnastics injury.

… David Beckham says he is determined to make a “swift and full recovery” from the ruptured Achilles tendon that has left his dream of playing in a record fourth World Cup finals for England in tatters. …

Times Online

Update: Full Twist has more information on the injury.

One of the feel good gymnastics stories of the year. The big comeback of Hollie Vise for Oklahoma. She competed the all-around for the first time in her College career, scoring 39.600.

How sweet after all the troubles she’s known.

Click PLAY or watch Hollie’s Bars on Gymnastike.

http://www.gymnastike.org/assets/portal/add_ons/mediaplayer-4.2/player.swf

(via Aunt Joyce – Ms. Vise If Ya Nasty)

As a trivia side note, when I started my first gymnastics website (for Kyle Shewfelt in 1999), I identified Hollie’s as the best gymnast website online. It’s almost unchanged today, 11yrs-later. I still like it.

Check it out – HollieVise.com

Top 25 College gymnastics teams.

I’m surprised.

Susan Jackson has been atop this list all season. By what mathematics has Sarah overtaken her?

Susan’s not missed a routine all season, so far as I know. This seems an error.

top 25 all-around gymnasts

Update – Quentin explains:

… She seems to have peaked in the RQS time frame climbing up the list rapidly the last month or so. Sarah’s RQS for individual events has her ahead of Susan on BB and FX, tied on UB with Susan being ahead in Vault. The total season average has Susan in the lead 39.525 to 39.358 for Sarah. Vanessa Zamarippa actually has a higher season average than both but is tied for second RQSwise with Susan.

The RQS (Regional Qualifying Score) results in some surprising rankings. Here’s how it’s explained by GymInfo:

… Qualification for regional competition is based on a team’s and an all-around competitor’s six best regular-season-meet scores, of which three must be away. To obtain the regional qualifying score (RQS), the high score is eliminated and the remaining five scores are averaged. …

Therefore, if you have 3 meets away in which you got high scores, your ranking may be higher than if all your highest scores were at home meets.

Pole Vault coaches lurk around gymnastics gyms, eyeing the tallest gymnasts. Awaiting the day those gymnasts want to move on to another sport.

Her former gymnastics coach, Dana Brass, got the good news. Kelsie just finished 6th at World Championships in her new style of vaulting.

Congratulations.

Gold medalists:

Floor – VACULIK, Kristina (CAN) – (5.3) = 13,950
Floor – PIHAN, Marta (POL) = 13,950
Beam – SOLOVYEVA, Tatiana (RUS) – (5.8) = 14,775

Vault – Fahrig, Matthias (GER) – (7.2/6.6) = 16,112
Parallels – HOSHI, Yosuke (JPN) – (6.2) = 15,425
H Bar – Zonderland, Epke (NED) – (6.9) = 15,825

More results, video links and commentary:

• GYMmedia – World Cup Cottbus: 2nd Final Day Men

• GYMmedia – Canadian Kristina Vaculik – most successful gymnast in Cottbus!

• Gymnastics Examiner – Kristina Vaculik wins two more medals as Cottbus competition concludes

• Couch Gymnast – YEP, I WAS RIGHT….VACULIK ROCKS!!!

Kristina Vaculik is getting much love for finishing in the top 3 on all four apparatus. Many, including me, were disappointed she was injured in 2008, unable to be selected for the Olympics. It’s nice to see her continue with international success.

Click PLAY or watch Kristina’s Floor on YouTube.

Simple tumbling. But very pretty gymnastics. As Couch Gymnast says, she’s going to be a wonderful College competitor.

Dennis Hack from Eurotramp, used in Beijing at the Olympic Games 2008, claims:

“Our tramponline “Premium 4 x 4” is, at the moment the most high-performance certified competition trampoline in the world!

… In the past, the bands were 6 and 4 mm wide; today they are 4 x 4 mm wide, which displays clearly less air resistance.

read details on GYMmedia – Trampoline Know-how: ‘4 x 4 is not for anyone with weak nerves!’

Now that “Flight time” (total time of the 10 skills) has been added as a judging criteria, trampolinists will want the hottest bed possible.

But will this make trampoline competition more dangerous?

Peter Korman contacted us. He was the first American gymnast to win an Olympic medal in modern times, Bronze on Floor in 1976. (video)

For a trial 3 month period, Peter’s put up an ad in our right hand navigation. Thanks for the support!

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The big story of this meet is Oksana Chusovitina, returned to competition at age-34. Will she ever retire?

What an amazing physical specimen. … Unfortunately her form hasn’t improved after the injury layoff.

Gold medalists:

Vault – Oksana Chusovitina (with a fall – video)
Bars – Kristina Vaculik

Rings – Marcel Nguyen
Pommel – Saso Bertoncelj
Rings – Samir Ait Said

full results on International Gymnast

Anysia Unick – Silver on Bars

commentary on Gymnastics Examiner – Cottbus World Cup: Oksana Chusovitina, Marcel Nguyen golden for Germany