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Ends today.

Still my favourite competition anywhere.

We were honoured to have Valeri Liukin attend with his AWESOME WOGA kids.

I posted photos to our club flickr account.

And a few to the GWGF Facebook page.

We finally got 2004 Olympic Floor Champion Kyle Shewfelt down for the meet this year. He was a HIT with one and all, truly one of the best spokespersons for our sport.

Kyle was celebrity Olympian along with Shannon Miller, Jason Gatson and others.

Congratulations to Meet Director Dave Adlard and his funtastic team of volunteers. I’ll be there next year, for sure, Dave.

official website – GreatWestGymFest.com

I put up a (roughly edited) Great West Gym Fest video on YouTube which gives you a flavour of the CRAZY FUN we have at this competition.

… Of all the amazing features of this meet, most amazing of all was the logistics of running 6 Sessions in one day.

That’s less than 2hrs / session! (Obviously judges are not allowed to go to the bathroom.)

Have you ever heard of another meet that runs 6 flights of competitors in one day ??

I was in the middle of a gym meet. And missed the TV broadcast.

But the competition sounds less a let down than usual. Especially the come-from-behind victory of Hambuechen.

Men’s All-around
1. Fabian Hambuechen (GER) 90.650
2. David Sender (USA) 90.450
3. Joseph Hagerty (USA) 89.550
4. Koji Uematsu (JPN) 89.350
5. Benoit Caranobe (FRA) 88.650
6. Yury Ryazanov (RUS) 86.900

Women’s All-around
1. Jordyn Wieber (USA) 60.200
2. Bridget Sloan (USA) 59.600
3. Kim Bui (GER) 56.000
4. Rebecca Downie (GBR) 55.600
5. Amelia Racea (ROU) 55.150
6. Kristina Goryunova (RUS) 54.600

official website

I once coached 3 young women 5′ 10″ and taller at the same time.

They were IMPRESSIVE on Beam and Bars, let me tell you.

Haley Cameron is 6′ 2″ tall (1.88m) and competed all-around Level 7 in California.

But who were the tallest International gymnasts ever?

Double Olympian Jana Komrsková was 1.67 m (5.5 ft) tall.

Katheleen Lindor, another Olympian, stands at 5’6″. She had to have the bars adjusted for her in Beijing!

But the tallest I could find on the internets was …

Marie Sophie Hindermann, a German Olympian … at 5’7″

Here she is at the 2007 Worlds Event Finals on Bars. Click PLAY or watch the IMPRESSIVE routine on YouTube.

Past & Present Gymnastics lists more – The not so tiny tumblers?

There must have been taller. Leave a comment if you know of any.

Sandra Izbasa (1.64m – 5′5′’) is likely the tallest Olympic gold medalist. Along with Svetlana Khorkina who was about the same height.

UPDATES from commenters:

A Canadian gymnast, Cara Pomeroy, is 5′9″.

She was Canadian National Bars Champion on more than one occasion (beautiful Stalder and Endo Work, Giant Full to Gienger, Flyaway Double Twist Dismout), and did well in the all-around (won medals at National Championships on Floor and Beam).

Cara went to University of Illinois on a full Scholarship…And scored a 10.0 on Bars in NCAA competition.
===

Ashley Miles was probably the tallest in elite gymnastics and to compete at a World Championships at 5′7″-5′8″.

23 February 2009 – by Regional Qualifying Average

full rankings – GymInfo

Georgia is #1.

Despite resting some of the big guns, Stanford still scored a season high against California, gaining a spot on UCLA.

The high flying Bruins were forced to count a fall on beam in a loss to Nebraska.

Florida, with another year’s best team score over Alabama, continues to dig out of a deep hole.

Steve McCain interviews the “next great thing” in USA gymnastics. The 2009 American Cup Champion.

She’s quite eloquent.

Click PLAY or watch it on the USAG YouTube channel.

Click through for more interviews from Chicago.

Wow.

Huge upset.

We had Oregon coach John Carney scouting our meet, the Great West Gym Fest before flying out to this competition.

But his hot team was defeated by the Washington Huskies!

… Washington tallied a season-best 196.000 for the evening. Illinois came in second with 195.900 and Oregon State finished third with 195.800. Eastern Michigan totaled 191.475.

“We’re going to enjoy this one tonight,” said Bowers. “This felt really good. For our seniors, this is the highest score they’ve ever had. They’ve never beaten Oregon State in their four years and not in the three years I’ve been here, so this is huge for us, for our team and for our program. I’m just thrilled. I’m not surprised that we could do it. I’m just so glad that we finally did.”…

GymDawgs Down No. 9 Oregon State, No. 14 Illinois

Introducing free running basics to school girls.

Girls do Parkour: Girls Empowerment Day

ParkourGenerations put together a great session for girls to get to learn the basics of parkour in London. Needless to say, the girls loved it. …

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

(via FlipCatch)

Automobile TV ad.

http://www.metacafe.com/fplayer/1276402/fat_gymnast_cool_ads.swf
Fat Gymnast Cool Ads

Quite impressive, wouldn’t you say.

With female gymnasts, my main two nutrional concerns:

are they getting enough Calcium?

are they getting enough Iron?

A good article on USolympicteam.com

Symptoms

The easiest symptom to notice associated with iron deficiency anemia is fatigue that worsens with exertion. Fatigue is common and can have many different causes (such as other nutritional imbalances, illness or stress). If an athlete experiences normal fatigue throughout the day and is not worsened with exercise, the cause is likely not iron deficiency by itself. The following are also possible symptoms of iron deficiency anemia:

Decreased performance

Sleepiness and fatigue (outside of normal)

Poor concentration

Moodiness or irritability

Always feeling cold

By Bob Seebohar, Fuel4mance – IRON DEFICIENCY ANEMIA AND PERFORMANCE

Thirteen-year-old American Jordyn Wieber bested her US teammate, 16-year-old Olympian Bridget Sloan for the American Cup title, 60.20-59.60. Wieber got an early edge from her Amanar vault, and in the end it was that vault that made the difference: Sloan and Wieber tied on bars, and were within a tenth of each other on both floor and beam.

In the men’s competition, German Olympian Fabian Hambuechen pulled out the victory over American David Sender on the last event. Hambuechen’s 15.75 on high bar — an event he won at the 2007 Worlds — enabled him to edge Sender 90.65-90.45. Olympian Joey Hagerty placed third with an 89.55. …

About.com Gymnastics

(AP Photo/Jim Prisching) – larger version

(AP Photo/Jim Prisching) larger version