Gymnastics Coaching.com

Ah, the life of the Olympic gymnastics celebrity.

Zdeno Chara and Chris Drury of the Rangers watch Olympic Silver medalist Alicia Sacramone drop the puck Saturday afternoon in Boston.

Photo by Steve Babineau

The Boston Bruins won the game 1-0.

ronigal92 (gymgal92) put together a montage highlighting the relationship between the Olympic Champion and her Mom.

Nice.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

While not nearly as good as the new Gymnastics Australia website, I’m satisfied with the new Gymnastics Canada site. Most new sites are buggy. This one is not.

On my first browse through the top pages, I found they all work.

The site is readable. And clean.

It has a LOT of content though not much new.

There are no social networking features. No videos. Few photos. No reason to visit on a regular basis. (Quite a few videos, actually.)

But if you are only looking for basic information, it’s there.

The search box is not powerful, unfortunately. It won’t find the acronym CS4L, for example, though it’s prominent on the LINK page.

Best feature for me could be the blog. (Though you won’t find it by searching for “blog”.) It was set up for the Beijing Olympics and has not been updated since August, 2008. It could easily be repurposed as a Gymnastics Canada blog.

Good luck finding the Classified Ads. Though they cost $25/month, there’s no way to find them from the home page.

There’s no RSS feed for the Featured News page. That’s my biggest complaint.

Gymnastics Canada – English

UPDATE: giRafe notes that the French side of the site is much inferior to the English. Let’s see if it improves over the coming weeks. Gymnastics Canada historically has had a strong commitment to both official languages.

Leave a comment if you have an opinion.

The stunt business is dangerous.

HARRY Potter’s stunt double could be left paralysed after an on-set explosion on Wednesday.

Romford man David Holmes, 25, plummeted to the ground while he was rehearsing a flying sequence for forthcoming film Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – the last chapter in the series.

It is thought the blast, believed to have been part of the stunt, rocked the harness in which David was suspended high above the ground at the Leavesden Studios, Watford.

The local stuntman, who has appeared in all the Potter movies, was sent crashing to the ground and had to be rushed to Watford Hospital. …

David, who recently moved from his home off North Street, Romford, to Leigh-on-Sea with his girlfriend, is said to be in good spirits despite his injuries.

He told colleagues he couldn’t feel his legs. …

Harry Potter stunt horror

Best wishes for a full recovery to the former competitive gymnast.

Miniature people on beam in a model train railway scene.

larger version – flickr – Orin Optiglot

Friends of Olympic gymnast Val Norris have scheduled a party at her gym in Perth, Western Australia.

Olympic Gymnastic Academy and Olympic Fun & Fitness would like to invite friends of Val Norris-Buffham 1958 – 2008 to come and celebrate Val reaching a unique milestone of 50 yrs in gymnastics.

Sunday – 8th March 2009

Venue: Olympic Gym – 2 Lakes Way, Jandakot, WA

RSVP 28th Feb: Email – academy@iinet.n

All the best. Wish I could be there.

What’s G?

“[G’s] the emblem of a warrior, it’s the swagger of an athlete, a champion and dynasty,” … “It’s gifted, golden, genuine and glorious. … The greatest of all time.”

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Lil Wayne … Voiceover
Michael Jordan … Himself
Peyton Manning … Himself
Mia Hamm … Herself
Jimmie Johnson … Himself
John Wooden … Himself
Terje Haakonsen … Himself
Jason McElwain … Himself
Billy Jean King … Herself
Picabo Street … Herself
Jackie Joyner-Kersee … Herself
Nadia Comaneci … Herself
Jackie Robinson … Himself
Tiger Woods … Himself
Usain Bolt … Himself

Cool skill from Fabian Hambüchen.

Click PLAY or watch it on Gymnastike.

He will be competing at American Cup. Also from Germany, 20-year-old WAG gymnast Kim Bui.

Click PLAY or watch it on Gymnastike.

Gymnastics Videos on Gymnastike

In the Olympic quadrennial, if there is a “down” time, it’s now.

Is Jon taking an “easy year”?

I read many NCAA gymnast blogs.

Boring, boring, boring.

They seem to be written by the media guy for the team. Rarely do I ever link to them.

But the wild and wonderful Olivia Vivian is now at Oregon State University. Her diary is unlike any other. It’s FUNNY.

G’day, my name’s Olivia Vivian and I’m a gymnast from Australia. I joined the OSU gymnastics team after competing at the Beijing Olympic Games. The Olympics had been my ultimate goal ever since I understood what they were, and it took me a while to work it out, too! I was a bit of an airhead in my younger years and actually, I still am.

Gymnastics is a popular sport here in America, so I’m going to assume that you know a little bit about what we do, but for those that think females do the rings …

We do the floor, a square mat that is more bouncy than your average grass field, and the vault, which is a table-like object that you run at and then flip off of. Also are the bars – two uneven wooden sticks that tend to peel large amounts of skin off your hands – and the beam.

The beam is a four-inch wide, solid column that is covered in some sort of a protective layer. Whatever this layer is, it doesn’t do much. The most frequently asked question about the beam is, “Does it hurt?” The answer is yes, it does hurt and yes, I have fallen in more ways than you could possibly imagine on the beam! Over the years, you grow accustom to the pain and learn to deal with it, and I’ve had many years to grow accustom. …

People commonly ask me why I chose Oregon State? It’s simple, I love the constant rain and the smell of cows in the morning … just kidding. I chose OSU one, because I didn’t know what the weather was like coming from Australia, and two, because of the wonderful gymnastics program they have here. …

read the rest – College Media Network – Athlete diary

Another good blog is posted by Abby Stack from Georgia.

Kelly Lambert/Staff

more Georgia Gym “Sportraits”

Abby’s Blog