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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

The 2010 Winter Paralympics are underway.

Alpine skiing
Biathlon
Cross-country skiing
Wheelchair curling
Sledge hockey

Though the Opening ceremonies were sold out, CTV in Canada opted not to broadcast them live.

One of the big stories of these Games will be how Paralympic athletes “get no respect”.

Good luck to everyone there.

El-grip giant to front-half-in, back out.

Cool.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Not the strongest routine, but good enough to win Bars at the Houston Invitational.

(via Aunt Joyce)

Learn from Sasha on Make it or Break It.

Or learn from Hollywood.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Actors. Is there anything they don’t know?

So says one official from China.

His name: Luo Chaoyi, director of the Gymnastics Center of the General Administration of Sport.

AP Sports Columnist John Leicester has a mainstream article getting wide circulation with the general public:

Lies and damned lies: China abandons gymnast who competed under age at Olympics

Does this 14yr-old look like a forger to you?

Here’s the translation from Manderin used in the Leicester article:

… The state-run newspaper China Youth Daily quoted Luo Chaoyi as saying that Dong was eligible in Sydney but then shaved three years off her age after retirement in 2001, and that “this must have been an act by her and her family.”

Such an explanation is barely credible — unless, of course, Dong is a master forger of official documents, which is even less believable. In China, as elsewhere, passports are government-issued. Coaches — and not just in China — have also long falsified ages for girls whose small and supple bodies give them a competitive advantage over larger and older young women. The reverse scenario — that a retired gymnast would pass herself off as a kid — makes no sense.

It also hard to believe Chinese officials didn’t know Dong was underage in 2000. Most of Dong’s childhood was spent within the state-run sports system that churns out medalists for China. Her CV shows she joined a sports school at age 4, a provincial team at 7 and the national team at 10. …

SF Gate

Here’s another perhaps more accurate translation:

… the age of Dong Fangxiao is her personal matter and the fact that Dong’s age had been shifted 3 yrs younger after her retirement was Dong and her family’s personal practice. …

China Sports Review

Related: China Media Project – Chinese media tackle the national sports system

There’s not the slightest doubt that Dong was underage. Her personal resume today says she was born Jan. 23, 1986 making her two years below the minimum age requirement of 16 at Sydney.

The FIG is hoping for an April IOC decision on the Olympic 2000 medals.

… One worrisome new fact. She’s apparently returned to China for a visit. I’m slightly worried for her safety.

From Michigan_WGym on Twitter:

U-M knocks off #5 Georgia 196.375-195.800

Preliminary results reported by Gymnastics Examiner:

… Russia’s Tatiana Solovyeva led qualification on uneven bars, balance beam and floor exercise during the first day of competition at the 34th Cottbus World Cup in Cottbus, Germany.

Germany’s Oksana Chusovitina, back after two surgeries that sidelined her in 2009, threw a handspring piked full and a Tsukahara 13.925 to qualify first on vault to Saturday’s finals …

Russia’s Tatiana Solovyeva leads three events after Cottbus World Cup qualifications

In 2008 Triple Full called Tatiana Solovyeva the “young Russian we most look forward to seeing in 2009”.

Shout out to Anysia Unick from my home town, Calgary. She qualified to 3 Finals.