Gymnastics Coaching.com

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

It’s refreshing to see some of the top coaches in the world explaining to the mainstream media why the International Gymnastics Federation age rules are a mistake. And unenforceable.

… the governing body (FIG), whose rules state competitors must be at least 16 during an Olympic year to compete at the Games, introduced a system where all gymnasts taking part in any major event will have to apply for a licence.

But German coach Ulla Koch told Reuters the whole process is a waste of time.

“They (FIG) are not really doing any additional checks on the passports or any other documents from before,” Koch said. …

The FIG were told by the International Olympic Committee to examine the ages of the Chinese team — which included He Kexin and Yang Yilin who are competing at the world championships in London — in Beijing and after a two-month investigation ruled the gymnasts had not broken any rules.

But Russian-born American coach Valery Liukin, whose daughter Nastia won the all-around Olympic gold last year, said the FIG did not do itself any favours when it increased the age eligibility from 14 to 16.

“The Olympic champion should be the strongest gymnast on the earth today. Not 16 and over. That’s how I’ve always felt. …

Yahoo Sports – Gymnastics-Age-old problems cannot be wiped out

The only time the media is much interested in this issue is during Olympics and World Championships.

Photo by Grace Chiu.

August 6th, 2009 Dean Potter free climbed the extremely difficult top section of the Eiger in Switzerland. And B.A.S.E. jumped down. That flight, 3min, is the longest recorded to date.

His only “protection” was the 5-6lb B.A.S.E. jumping parachute.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Outside: How do you practice for something like this?

Potter: I practiced different dismounts and stuff, but it’s hard to really prepare for a fall that you don’t know is going to happen. I never really had any of my friends push me off a bridge or something like that. I did practice falling on my back, falling sideways. I felt quite confident that if I did fall, I would right myself. …

read the entire interview – The Eiger, Unroped

He was filmed for an upcoming movie called “The Sharp End“.

Potter more than any other is pushing the limits of what is possible in climbing.

You might know his wife, Steph Davis, one of the best female climbers in the world.

I was surprised and impressed to see a Google ad for a program in my area called The Little Gym®. (Not many gymnastics programs are using Google ads.)

The excellent website tells of 300 locations in 21 countries.

Click through if you might be interested.

In order to open a The Little Gym location, a candidate must have a net worth (assets minus liabilities) of at least $250,000. Additionally, the candidate must have $75,000 in liquid assets in order to be considered. …

Franchise opportunity

Leave a comment if you have experience with any of those gyms.

Click through to the official Longines results page for all results.

Click on (PDF) to see just the Women’s Apparatus Finalists.

Thanks melanie.

I’ve seen thousands of pics over the last 2 days.

But the best of all were the series posted by The Big Picture.

Check out The Big Picture.

… But it’s strange I haven’t seen a single routine video as yet.