Gymnastics Coaching.com

… Depicted is a 21-year-old amateur bodybuilder who arrived at a clinic in Dusseldorf, Germany with severe acne on his chest and upper back.

He was a constant user of anabolic-androgenic steroids, of which acne is a side effect — as is damaged sperm and shrunken testicles, both of which he also possessed.

Doctors ordered the patient to quit steroids and start taking antibiotics. Two months later, the acne was gone. So was the muscle. Only gruesome scarring remained — and as his doctors wrote last week in the Lancet, that “is likely to remain with the young man for the rest of his life.” …

Wired Science – Graphic Evidence Against Steroid Abuse

Blythe from Gymblog posted some information:

A simple software upgrade that went very wrong has been what’s keeping the International Gymnast Magazine website frozen, according to the site’s online forum.

The homepage appears to be normal, aside from a large banner in white letters on a red background that reads, “International Gymnast Online is currently unavailable due to site maintenance. Please check back Jan. 1.” But the links don’t work, aside from the forum.

IG’s Amanda Turner posted this in the forum:

Fortunately we were able to do the upgrades and restore our database, but there is an issue with the article engine. No news when it will be fixed Hopefully ASAP!

We have quite a few stories waiting to go up. If this is not fixed by Friday, we may start posting them here on the forum!

IG, where are you?

Some subscribe to IG for a digital subscription to the magazine. Those customers must be ticked-off right now. I assume IG will make amends for the outage, if and when they ever get the site working again.

The major gymnastics magazine websites suck, IG included. (Though I have to admit, International Gymnast is the best of the bunch, when it’s working.)

Suzanne Yoculan’s Gym Dogs kick off their 2009 campaign tonight.

I’ll post only unique and interesting highlights of the coming NCAA season. (Other sites cover the blow-by-blow of every meet.)

Georgia certainly gets the best PRESS of any College Team. (Only Utah comes close.)

Here’s another cute article: Five Reasons Why You Should Follow Georgia Gymnastics

1. Courtney Kupets’s senior season.

2. Yoculan’s last stand.

3. The chance for five straight national titles.

4. Commentary by Katie. Tonight’s season-opening meet against West Virginia will feature live streaming video and audio, with commentary provided by Katie Heenan Dodson.

5. A gymnastics meet is a great date event. Guys, I tell you this every January and I’m going to keep repeating it, because it’s good advice. If you’re a poor young male college student at the University of Georgia, ask a gal to go to the gymnastics meet with you tonight. …

click through for the details – DawgSports

Canadian Olympic gymnasts David Kikuchi and Crystal Gilmore both competed at the 2006 World Gymnastics Championships in Aarhus, Denmark.

Now they’ve embarked on a bigger challenge.

Kaede is Japanese for maple leaf. And it rhymes with ‘Friday.’

CONGRATULATIONS.

Our Olympic Champion is getting some amazing photo shoots.

Olympic gold medal-winning gymnast Nastia Liukin with front the Max Azria’s Spring/Summer 2009 ad campaign, set to debut online later this month.

“For the Max Azria campaign, we wanted someone iconic — someone timeless. We met Nastia at our last runway show, and she was everything we were looking for,” said Lubov Azria, creative director of Max Azria. “The spring collection was inspired by movement and modern dance so she was perfect. It was meant to be, and the magic just sort of happened.” …

Popcrunch – Nastia Liukin Max Azria Spring/Summer 2009 Ad Campaign

Thanks Claudine.

Another Desert Devil gymnast shows a unique skill on Bars. (Recall the Shaposhnikova 1/1 by Chelsey Colman?)

Click PLAY or watch it on Gymnastike.

That’s Christina Pelaez who went on to compete for the University of Washington.

Here’s the most up-to-date list following the Elite Canada Competition in December.

Corbett-Methot, Sky

Damianova, Nansy

Keates, Caitlyn

Leblond-Chartrand, Coralie

Lee, Christine

Lemieux-Guillemette, Cynthia

Liu, Ti

Mackie, Charlotte

Pacitto, Stephanie

Pegg, Dominique

Pepin-Gagné, Laurie-Ève

Rogers, Brittany

Sawa, Sydney

Vaculik, Kristina

Willis, Emma

These young ladies get a monthly cheque from Gymnastics Canada to support their training.

Congratulations.

Đỗ Thị Ngân Thương (born March 10, 1989 in Hanoi) is the Vietnamese Olympic gymnast who tested positive for the banned substance furosemide.

“IOC medical commission chairman Arne Ljungqvist stated that Thuong’s use of furosemide was likely to be accidental, and the result of receiving poor information on doping restrictions. Nonetheless, she was expelled from the Olympic Games and her athlete accreditation was revoked.”

Turns out she purchased the drugs herself. Took them deliberately. Did not consult medical.

Stupid.

She deserved to be banned from competition.

… The Athlete informed the Disciplinary Commission that she wanted to lose weight to look slim and lean, not to enhance her performance. …

read the full story on Gymblog – Do Thi Ngan Thuong resumes training

Zing

This is personally disappointing.

It’s bad press for our sport.

Here’s the list of athletes Gymblog is tracking …

Posted late last month and early into this one, here are my picks for who will make waves in 2009:

Sabrina Gill, Canada

Kohei Uchimura, Japan

Jeffery Wammes and Epke Zonderland, Netherlands

Viktoria Komova, Russia

Fabian Hambuchen, Germany

Larissa Iordache, Romania

Samantha Shapiro and Jordyn Wieber, USA

Alexy Bilozerchev, USA

Tatiana Nabieva, Russia

Nathan Gafuik, Canada

Cui Jie, China

Benoit Caranobe, France

Gymblog – 12 to watch in 2009 — a recap

Click that last link to see the list of honorable mentions.

UPDATE: Gymblog notes that a website dedicated to the 2008 Junior European Champion Tatiana Nabieva has just launched.

photo – France Gymnastics Federation

MoonKid points us to Annie Fogerty from Parkettes. (Yes, one of the girls featured in the infamous Achieving The Perfect 10 CNN documentary.)

Click PLAY or watch Annie on YouTube.

She’s quite the queen of forward somersaulting!

Annie is currently at Umass Amherst on the diving team.