Gymnastics Coaching.com

1996 Olympic gold medalist Dominique Moceanu and her husband, former-gymnast-turned-surgeon Michael Canales, blog on the hits and misses of the 2009 World Gymnastics Championships, taking place this week in London.

Dominique Moceanu was a wonderful gymnast. But her involvement in gymnastics since has been controversial:

• suing for legal emancipation from her parents
• coming out of retirement in 2005 (after 5yrs)
• competing in 2006

Whenever the media needs someone outspoken, they go to Dominique. Especially to get a negative viewpoint on her former coaches, Marta and Béla Károlyi.

You could call Dominique a loose cannon. Or “flaky”.

Yet, I was very surprised how insightful and interesting I found their commentary on International Gymnast magazine. Check it out at:

From the Stands: Women’s Qualification

Yes, there are shots at the Karolyis.

Promoting the World Championships in London, I believe these will be run for the 2012 Olympics, as well.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Thanks Magalie Coleno.

Now this is a persuasive product endorsement.

Click the image to be redirected to the Universal site to watch the amusing bit.

Yes, it’s a long and painful wait. I don’t know why GK Elite does not upload it to YouTube. They’d have 10 times as many potential customers see it.

There are more “commercials” if you hang around after this one.

Shout out for Jon Horton who is a great role model for everyone in sport.

I love his attitude.

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

“It’s gymnastics,” said Horton, who trains at Cypress Gymnastics. “It’s a tough sport. Things happen and they happen for a reason, I believe. I have a lot of faith and I have a lot of confidence in myself. It’s the world championships, and some things you just can’t explain. I went out there and I tried to have my best performance. After pommel horse, I went to my coach and said, ‘I can’t be mad at myself. I am not going to quit.’ So then my goal was rings and high bar. I was thinking, ‘Let’s hit and have a good time.'”

“I am going to continue to train my hardest when I get back,” said Horton, who is in the high bar finals on Sunday. “My heart is always in this game. I feel I belong on that medal podium, if not at the top …

read more – original article source unknown – as quoted on mag-nificent.org

Inside Gymnastics has an entertaining daily review they call The Daily Nine.

(Not sure why it isn’t The Daily Ten.)

… This is the first World Championships where Twitter is playing a big role in dissemination of information and instant commentary from competitors, media outlets and fans. Tweets are flowing freely! … find us at http://www.twitter.com/insidegym …

check it out – The Daily 9, Thursday Oct. 15th

Very cool. They weigh over a pound each!

VANCOUVER – Round, undulating medals featuring the stylized eye and fin of an orca whale will be the prize for athletes at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. …

2010 medals unveiled

Press conference quote: Kohei Uchimura (JPN)

… “Today’s performance wasn’t entirely up to my standards, I was bit dissatisfied with it, but I tried the best and have the results.” …

FIG

This guy is going to be the “man to beat” for a long, long time, I predict.

… Uchimura blitzed the field of twenty-four to win his first world men’s gymnastics all-around championship with a big score of 91.50. His nearest competitor was Great Britain’s Daniel Keatings, who finished a staggering 2.575 points behind. Uchimura hit on all six events in a dominant display of consistency, style and confidence. He was clearly in a world of his own. …

Here are the top 10 all-arounders:

Kohei Uchimura (JPN) – 91.50
Daniel Keatings (GBR) – 88.925
Yury Ryazanov (RUS) – 88.40
Kazuhito Tanaka (JPN) – 88.30
Maxim Devyatovskiy (RUS) – 87.475
Kristian Thomas (GBR) – 87.35
Tim McNeill (USA) – 87.15
Benoit Caranobe (FRA) – 86.175
Mykola Kuksenkov (UKR) – 86

commentary on Stick It Media

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

LONDON, ENGLAND – OCTOBER 15: Kohei Uchimura of Japan poses with his gold medal next to Daniel Keatings of Great Britain and Yury Ryazanov of Russia (R) after the Men’s All Round Final on the third day of the Artistic Gymnastics World Championships 2009 at the O2 Arena on October 15, 2009 in London, England. (Photo by Richard Heathcote/Getty Images)

Keatings and Thomas must be big stars in the U.K. right now. Congratulations.

This should help push Artistic Men’s Gymnastics in the Olympic host nation.

Jonathan Horton had falls on Floor, Pommel and Horizontal Bar.

official results (PDF)

The Reuter’s selection.

… see them all

Thanks Michael.

Men’s Finals All-Around starts 1:30PM ET, Oct 15th.

Can the young Japanese gymnastics sensation maintain his consistency and win the World Gymnastics Championships today?

I think so.

His strongest rival was Fabian Hambüchen, out with an untimely minor injury.

I’ve learned the hard way not to count out Jonathan Horton, however.

Historically inconsistent, Jon has a way of coming up biggest under the most pressure.

Gymnastics Examiner has a good preview of today’s all-around Final.

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

TV and streaming video coverage over the internet is available worldwide.

related – Japan’s Uchimura shines in qualifying

Aside from the “stars” who qualified for Finals, many gymnasts had good results at the World Championships.

The Couch Gymnast names a few … aside from Aussie great Lauren Mitchell.

Ana Porgras. Just beautiful. Made me feel good about the sport. She was lovely, lyrical, skillful AND interesting. That’s the kind of gymnast i can’t get enough of. She has personality and performance quality. She is my world champion.

Elsa Garcia

Elizabeth Seitz. Mayra Kroonen, Nathalia Sanchez, Koko Tsurumi.

Myzdrikova

Sydney Sawa

Kim Un Hyang

Deng Linlin

click through for the reasons why – HAPPY THOUGHTS

GymBox – more photos of Ana Porgras