Gymnastics Coaching.com

On the Men’s side I really shouldn’t refer to this meet as most bloggers do: The Scam Cup.

It’s a bloody impressive field, assuming all these great gymnasts make it:

Colombia, Jorge Hugo Giraldo Lopez
France, Benoit Caranobe
Germany, Fabian Hambuechen
Great Britain, Daniel Keatings
Japan, Koji Yamamuro
Romania, Flavius Koczi
Russia, Maxim Devyatovskiy
United States, Jonathan Horton
United States, Tim McNeill

I’d happily pay $35 for entry. That’s a bargain.

Reigning Tyson American Cup champion and 2008 Olympic horizontal bar bronze-medalist Fabian Hambuechen of Germany highlights the international list of participants that includes seven 2008 Olympians and four 2009 World medalists for the 2010 Tyson American Cup on March 6 at the DCU Center in Worcester, Mass. …

USAG

One reason this meet is oft ridiculed, however, is that the number of competitors is so small. It’s near certain that medals will be awarded to gymnasts with falls. And that’s a shame.

Another reason it’s called a “Scam” is that the U.S.A. can enter two gymnasts, all other invited nations only one. The results tend to look good for the host, though that’s far from guaranteed on the Men’s results sheet.

Yet, on the women’s side, there’s one thing I’m really looking forward to … the Nastia Liukin Supergirl Cup, a new competition held the day prior to American Cup. It’s intended to be a a competitive opportunity for the country’s top Junior Olympic gymnasts, though some Elites will be in the field too.

That’s going to be a fantastic event.

Women’s American Cup?

As usual, I’m personally disinterested. Everyone knows the American girls are supposed to win. That will boost TV ratings.

No use listing the female competitors either as the list always changes in the weeks and days leading up to the meet.

It is a great experience for a young up-and-coming gymnast. Canadian Dominique Pegg, for example, is a good choice for this event.

Leave a comment if you disagree. Many enjoyed the Scam Cup last year.

Read some less cynical commentary on Gymnastics Examiner – Analysis: 2010 American Cup will be exciting, especially for men’s gymnastics fans

UPDATE: A thread on IG forum discussing ideas to improve the Scam.

The first time I ever noticed Vanessa was her perfect 10 vault last season. She was a rookie.

I like her vault from January 31, 2010 even better. She only scored 9.85, but this was only the first time she competed Yurchenko half-on front layout half.

It’s instantly my favourite College vault. (… OK, tied with Daria’s Handspring front layout.)

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Gem wants to see it in super slow motion. Look at that “block”. Totally extended. Very unusual. And very cool.

If Vanessa can qualify to Vault Finals at NCAA Championships, she’d be the favourite. She’s got 2 different superb vaults.

By far the worst of NCAA regulations is that gymnasts qualify to Championships Finals with one vault, then must compete two. It’s stupid, even dangerous.

Vanessa Zamarripa – Gymnastike interview.

Update: Valorie Kondos Field interview after that meet

Romance is in the air at The Rock for the gymnasts and the parents as Valentine’s Day arrives.

The adults are bigger drama queens than the teenagers.

more photos from this episode

Episode 15, Loves Me, Loves Me Not, is online free if you live in the USA at ABCfamily.com. And online here if you live outside the States.

Them’s fighting words in Canada. Figure skating is super popular where I live.

… When Dick Pound called out the sport just a month from the opening of the Vancouver Olympics, claiming figure skating hadn’t yet cleaned up its potential for corruption, his words struck a nerve with fans and athletes.

Some said the former boss of the World Anti-Doping Agency doesn’t understand the new judging system. Most agreed it was lousy timing. …

Pound, a Montreal lawyer and a member of the International Olympic Committee, blasted the sport, saying there was no guarantee the new judging system has removed the potential for controversy in Vancouver. …

News Talk 610

I pay very little attention to figure skating, myself. It seems to me that controversies are more entertaining to fans than the athletics.

Besides … once you’ve seen the Iron Lotus in competition, you’ve already seen the ultimate the sport has to offer.

Click PLAY or watch the IRON LOTUS on YouTube.

North Koreans invented this combination … It resulted in a decapitation.

Olympic Rhythmic gold medalist Yevgeniya Kanayeva and her team crushed the Rhythmic World Cup in Montreal.

… She swept the competition in Montreal with the All-round and 4 apparatus! On her heels, Russians Daria Kondakova, Daria Dimitrieva and Yana Lukonina; a line-up that is merely the tip of a formidable iceberg lying in wait to climb every podium there is. …

ROPE
Gold – KANAEVA Evgenia (RUS) 28.275
Silver – DIMITRIEVA Daria (RUS) 27.850
Bronze – KONDAKOVA Daria (RUS) 27.750

HOOP
Gold – KANAEVA Evgenia (RUS) 28.300
Silver – KONDAKOVA Daria (RUS) 28.125
Bronze – DIMITRIEVA Daria (RUS) 26.800

BALL
Gold – KANAEVA Evgenia (RUS 28.200
Silver – DIMITRIEVA Daria (RUS) 27.675
Bronze – LUKONINA Daria (RUS) 27.450

RIBBON
Gold – KANAEVA Evgenia (RUS) 28.650
Silver – LUKONINA Yanna (RUS) and STANIOUTA Melitina (BLR) 26.900

FIG

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

Wikipedia says she’s 1.68m (5’6″) tall and weighs 42 kg (93 lbs).

Gymbits posted an update on that Japanese robot that swings on a bar.

Uchimura watch out. Japanese robot enthusiast Hinamitetu has a mechanical competitor improving rapidly.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

I saved this video to use as an example of the biomechanics of swing and release.

Long term goal of this project? A Cylon gymnast?

… The intermediate step would be a robot assisted gymnast?

(via Gymnastics Examiner)

Gymnastics Examiner posted an overview of NCAA women’s rankings, week four. It includes videos of the apparatus leaders, so far.

Gymnastike has links to even more videos from the past weekend.

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

photo – Jamie Deetscreek

by site editor Rick McCharles

Every two years the Paralympics get some media attention. Sadly, hard working athletes with physical disabilities are much ignored the rest of the time.

The 2010 Winter Paralympics, officially known as the X Paralympic Winter Games, will be celebrated in Vancouver and Whistler, British Columbia between March 12 to March 21, 2010. …

Five sports will be on the 2010 program:

Alpine skiing
Biathlon
Cross-country skiing
Wheelchair curling
Sledge hockey

The big story of this meet I expect will be blind skier Brian McKeever, who will compete in both the Olympics and Paralympics.

Likely this is the best time to talk about opportunities for improving the plight of disabled athletes.

I’m looking for a study abroad program for my friend Barkat Ullah from Bangladesh.

A full-time gymnast who had competed internationally in Asian regional competitions, Barkat was partially paralyzed on a fluke pommel horse fall.

Today he is a University student playing able bodied table tennis, the only sport left he could do with limited lower body mobility. But he aspires to help build Paralympic sport in his fast developing nation.

If you have any advice or information that might help Barak’s cause, please leave a comment.

Everyone in the gymnastics community worldwide needs rally around any of our athletes catastrophically injured.

Although the name was originally coined as a portmanteau combining ‘paraplegic’ (due to its origins as games for people with spinal injuries) and ‘Olympic‘ the inclusion of other disability groups meant that this was no longer considered appropriate. The present formal explanation for the name is therefore that it derives from the Greek preposition ????, pará (“beside” or “alongside”) and thus refers to a competition held in parallel with the Olympic Games.

Wikipedia

Paralympics 2010 – official home page

A glimpse at the cool cops chasing hippies trampoline act in the Cirque du Soleil’s Beatles show LOVE.

It’s much tougher than it looks.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Posted by Marceline Goldstein from Cirque Casting on Facebook.

Shaun White suffered a terrible crash at the Winter X Games Friday night while attempting a trick called the Double McTwist.

Then he went on to win his third straight title at the superpipe final at Winter X Games in Aspen, Colorado.

Click PLAY or watch the Double McTwist on YouTube.

The 2006 Olympic gold medalist pulled off his newly patented Double McTwist 1260 in the first run of the superpipe finals to score a 95.33 – 1.67 points better than Iouri Podladtchikov of Switzerland.

… White is a favorite going into the Olympics.

Philly.com

The poster boy for the X Games practiced his new trick at a secret location.

Click PLAY or watch it on GrindTV.

http://static.grindtv.com/1.2.2407/swf/video.swf?sa=1&si=1&i=45513&sct=

The pipe sits at an elevation of 12,300 feet, making it the highest pipe ever. It cost over $500k to construct and was funded by both Red Bull and Oakley. …

Shaun White’s Private Halfpipe