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The 2005 World Champion has postponed his previously announced retirement since he qualified for the World Cup Final in Pommels and Horizontal Bar.

We get one last chance to honour one of the best gymnasts of the decade.

original – flickr – hturtdekan

… His exciting gymnastics with its elegant execution, and great resistance to be the most complete gymnasts in the world have become one of the most valued gymnasts on the international scene.

Ana Gulica’s Weblog

Jason Burnett, the Silver medalist in Beijing, is the world record holder for Degree of Difficulty with 17.5 on April 2, 2007, at the Lake Placid Trampoline World Cup.

But back in 2004 he put together an 18.5 routine — likely the highest DD ever on a regulation tramp — in training:

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Here’s that same 18.5 duplicated in Walabers Trampoline, a video game. Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Search YouTube for “Jason Burnett” for more extreme feats of trampoline genius.

related post: trampoline – Thriller, Turgeon, Killer, Polyarush

China is ordering its basketball players to stop faking their birth dates, local media reported Friday, turning the spotlight back on allegations of systematic altering of athlete’s ages.

Sports authorities have sometimes been accused of altering players’ ages to show them as being younger, mainly to qualify them for youth tournaments. Those false ages stay with athletes and can result in embarrassment and regulatory sanctions when athletes move on to greater success.

While that practice, known as ‘age shaving,’ is considered widespread in sports such as basketball and football, the opposite was suspected in the controversy surrounding the women’s gymnastics competition at the Beijing Olympics. …

China warns basketball players to be honest about their ages – The Canadian Press

So, China has admitted to age shaving.

This was forced mainly because of the Yi Jianlian age controversy. He plays for the New Jersey Nets.

This must be pressuring those in China who falsified the ages of Olympic gymnasts.

… The International Gymnastics Federation eventually cleared the Chinese women’s Olympic gold medal gymnasts of amending birth records to appear older than they were, but continues to investigate the ages of Chinese gymnasts who competed in the 2000 Sydney Olympics. Female gymnasts are required to have attained a minimum age of 16 during an Olympic year to be eligible for competition. …

Chinese tighten age rules

One day the truth will out.

It’s simply a matter of time.

AP Photo by AMY SANCETTA

Chinese gymnasts Yang Yun, left, and Dong Fangxiao wave flowers after recieving the bronze medal in the women’s gymnastic team finals at the 2000 Summer Olympic Games in Sydney. – Daylife

Marcela Lopez from Brazil is the reigning World Champion of Aerobic Gymnastics.

The strength and flexibility of these athletes is astonishing. Check her planche in this routine from the 10th Annual World Championships held in Ulm 2008.

Click PLAY or watch Marcela on YouTube.

Here she is at the Gala at that same Worlds.

Marcela started in classical ballet at age-4. Has many years of rhythmic dance and jazz dance training. And Capoeira, of course.

In training at the University of Georgia.

Beam is the toughest event to win in the NCAA. It’s the most competitive apparatus.

Click PLAY or watch it on Gymnastike.
http://www.gymnastike.org/assets/portal/add_ons/mediaplayer-3-16/mediaplayer.swf

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related post: gymnastics workout at Georgia

Helen Colagiuri (Australia) has been selected by the FIG as one of the 8 judges to officiate at the World Cup Final, Dec. 15-16 in Madrid.. Helen will be A2 on Beam and B panel on all other apparatus. Only the top 8 gymnasts on each apparatus are invited.

Recall the name?

Helen Colagiuri was the judge singled out by Valeri Liukin, Tim Daggett and others in the American Camp after Nastia finished Silver behind He Kexin in the Olympic Bar Final.

original – flickr

There are no ties allowed in the Olympics. In Beijing, if a tie occurs, it is first broken by start value…which in this case was identical. Then it’s broken by the deductions taken by the middle four judges…which were also identical. The third tiebreak was the average of the three lowest of the four counting judges’ deductions and this is where the difference was made.

Colagiuri awarded He 9.300 and Liukin 9.000, while none of the other five judges scored He’s execution better than one-10th of a point above Liukin.

I defended Colagiuri and the judging panel at the time, even though I personally wanted Nastia to get the Gold. The pirouette angle deductions are so debatable, that any of the top 3 could have won.

I still believe no “Australian Judging conspiracy” against the USA exists.

Sadly, it became a huge media storyline: Nastia’s score correct, says beleaguered judge

Seems FIG believes Helen Colagiuri is one of the very best judges in the world. Otherwise they would have found a way not to select her for the World Cup Final to appease the Americans.

MostepanovaFan posted an excellent video guide to balance beam mounts using the 2009 Code of Points.

Here’s another. Her guide to dismounts.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Finally, after being premiered Nov. 21st, the audiocast rebroadcast is available.

Hosted by three-time Olympian John Roethlisberger, monthly broadcasts will be streamed live.

IGRN – THE INSIDE GYMNASTICS RADIO NETWORK

It would not play for me in Firefox on a Mac. AND I had to download some software from Microsoft.

But it did then work in Safari on the Mac.

Surprisingly, they’ve not published it in iTunes.

Of course it’s a very interesting and entertaining podcast — 2hrs long — featuring Shannon Miller, Nastia Liukin, Todd Thornton and Shawn Johnson.

Inside Gymnastics has made it so difficult to find, I wonder how many people have listened so far?

related post: Inside Gymnastics bungles again?

The best apparatus in College gymnastics is Beam.

It’s unbelievable how much more solid, and more artisic, are NCAA gymnasts than most international “little girl” gymnasts chucking skill after shaky skill.

College Floor choreography too is far more interesting and entertaining than FIG.

Bars, however, is strange.

The only things that really matter on College Bars is “hitting handstand” and “sticking the dismount”.

This reduces the entertainment value greatly, for me.

Click PLAY or watch the #1 ranked team in College gymnastics on Gymnastike.
http://www.gymnastike.org/assets/portal/add_ons/mediaplayer-3-16/mediaplayer.swf

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Note that most of the girls do straddle cast handstands. There is too much chance of form deduction on straight body cast. And greater risk of being “short” of handstand.

simple low to high transitions are off-putting to me. I’d rather the NCAA require a “real” transition

“line” on bars is not much deducted.

If I could revise the NCAA rule book on Bars, I would. The gymnasts are easily and safely capable of more, even with the restriction of a maximum 21hrs / week training.

Beam is terrific just the way it is. I linked to video of Georgia training Beam last week.

Tyson American Cup at the Sears Centre Arena in Chicago is not a meet to which I pay much attention.

But if you want to see it live, seats are available on Ticketmaster.

Sat. Feb 21st, 2009 – 1:30 PM

Locals might get a better deal buying through Spring Hill Gymnastics. They are partnered with USAG on this event.