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Like most, I’ve admired Cheng Fei for years.

But never been a big fan. Until now.

Why is she still competing at age-20 when dozens of younger girls are waiting for her spot on National Team?

Her passion for the sport is a really compelling story.

Here’s the best coverage yet, on the hottest new gymnastics blog:

As we all know, Cheng Fei had a rocky Olympics. She was on cloud nine after the team competition, only to swallow a bitter pill during the individual event finals, an experience she likened to “a trip from Heaven to Hell.”

According to this Sina article, Cheng cried all night after her disappointing performances on vault and floor. “I cried until my soul had completely left my body,” Cheng was quoted as saying.

Cheng Fei after her ordeal at the Olympics (photo: Amy Sancetta/AP Photo)

She felt empty and wasn’t sure whether she wanted to go on competing. But her coaches felt she should, to exorcise the demons that were haunting her. Said coach Lu Shanzhen, “We’re letting Cheng Fei go on taking part in competitions both at home and abroad to let her find that competitive spirit, to dispel the shadow of the mistakes she made at the Beijing Olympics. Unexpectedly [according to coach Liu Qunlin, Cheng’s training has been far from systematic lately because of her many post-Olympic activities], she is performing better at each competition. Her beam and floor are already close to her peak level.” …

Triple Full – “I Cried Until My Soul Had Completely Left My Body”

I highly recommend you read that blog every day.

Possible Christmas gift for a very young gymnast?

Gymnastics in Action

(rated 3 out of 5 by Dog Ear Diary)

More video tutorials just posted. (Short ads proceed each.)

Click PLAY or watch Learning Handspring Front Layouts – The Technique on Gymnast.
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Click PLAY or watch Learning Handspring Front Layouts – Connecting on Gymnast.
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Subscribe to more gymnastics training videos at GymnasticsOnDemand.com

Reported by, who else, Triple Full:

The protagonist of today’s scandal is Verona van de Leur, who placed 2nd AA at the 2002 Europeans and 2nd on floor at the 2002 Worlds, after which she was voted Holland’s Athlete of the Year, an honor which had never been bestowed on a Dutch gymnast before.

Verona quit gymnastics last summer after an emotionally fraught period …

read the details – And the Scandals Just Keep On Coming…

Here’s her Floor routine at 2002 Worlds.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

For years we’ve heard accusations.

For example, from March 2007: Karolyi – cruel, brutal and abusive?

But the specific charges of violence leveled by his former Olympic gymnast Emelia Eberle look to be the first to “stick” to the teflon coach, so charming and endearing to the general public.

The story is being widely reported by NANCY ARMOUR in the The Associated Press: USA Gymnastics hears no complaints about Karolyis

What should Bela do?

Even as he faces renewed allegations that he was physically abusive to gymnasts during the 1970s, Bela Karolyi said Wednesday that he is a candidate for legislative office in his native Romania.

Karolyi, 66, said he will be on the ballot in Romania’s Nov. 30 election to become a member of national Senate as a representative of Romanian citizens living in the Americas, Australia and Africa.

Bela Karolyi has no comment on abuse claim – Houston Chronicle

Perhaps he’ll be spending a lot more time in Romania.

Already some bloggers are trying to put the Eberle scandal into perspective:

Anne Phillips – Gymnastike – Gymnastics Today versus 30 Years Ago

Blythe Lawrence – Gymblog – USAG: No complaints about Karolyis

Teachers at my elementary school “disciplined” young children with “the strap” in that era. They do not need to be thrown in jail in 2008. Nor should Bela.

Best case scenario would be for Bela to come clean. Admit what they did was wrong. And to apologize.

The C Score posted another terrific top 8 list.

Very few would disagree with the #1 pick … Olympic Champion He Kexin.

In fact, she’s getting better.

Click PLAY or watch her win the 2008 Doha World Cup Event Final on YouTube.

Actually, I’m one of the few who do disagree.

I’ve always slightly preferred Nastia’s routine (despite minor form errors) because it has more variety of difficult elements.

Semenova’s is not a routine I enjoy. But Beth Tweddle is an obvious pick.

Click through to see the entire list – The C Score – Top 8: Bars

UPDATE: Phillipe Chartrand (1984 and `88 Canadian Olympian ) is the coach . Thanks Purlple.

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The NBC reality TV show?

It debuted June 11, 2008.

They train big name celebrities — like Jason “Wee Man” Acuña — to do circus acts.

Here’s a sample clip of the season 1 winner Antonio Sabato, Jr. on silks:

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Celebrity Circus – Wikipedia

Olympic gold medal gymnast 1984 Mitch Gaylord is one of the judges. If you are too young to remember Mitch (of Gaylord salto fame) you really should rent the greatest Janet Jones gymnastics movie ever.

Click PLAY or watch the American Anthem trailer on YouTube.

Reports are that the 4 time defending NCAA Champions have some problems early in the season.

But a Georgia team with problems is still (probably) the best team in the NCAA. Courtney Kupets is back in the line-up, happily. See her Floor routine on Gymnast.

As part of their regular Wednesday Workout series of videos, Gymnastike posted highlights from their November 13th practice on Floor and Beam.

A few of the challenges set by the coaches:

2 beam routines in a row 9.9 or higher for each girl

15 stuck beam series in a row as a team

15 stuck “flip” elements in a row as a team

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

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Yelena Produnova is one of the most exciting, dynamic gymnasts of all time. Her front somersaulting skills are freaky great.

From 2000 Olympics Team Prelims – Floor Exercise:

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Produnova has three skills named for her in the Gymnastics Code of Points:

On the Balance Beam, a jump forward with ½ twist – piked back salto

On the Uneven Bars, an uprise/clear hip to handstand, Half turn to L or mixed L grip

On the Vault, a handspring double front salto.

Wikipedia

This video was linked from Past & Present Gymnastics – Unusual Cool Skills

related post: Produnova – Handspring double front vault

International Gymnast posted the full lists up to #30.

The top eight gymnasts on each event qualify to the World Cup Final, Dec. 15-16 in Madrid. A gymnast who declines his invitation will be replaced by the next gymnast in the ranking. …

A number of gymnasts chosen are injured. Or not training.

Many of the most motivated are those that did not qualify for Beijing, I believe.

I’m looking forward to seeing Krisztian Berki and Prashanth Sellathurai on Pommels, for example. Both those two could have been on the podium at the Olympics. Pegan is #1 on Horizontal Bar … but was not allowed to compete in Beijing due to the inflexible selection process.

Prashanth Sellathurai

FIG World Cup Rankings
Nov. 19, 2008

Women’s Vault
1. Oksana Chusovitina GER 754.19
2. Cheng Fei CHN 615.64
3. Anna Pavlova RUS 408.65
4. Alicia Sacramone USA 344.37
5. Yelena Zamolodchikova RUS 279.91
6. Jade Barbosa BRA 246.50
7. Hong Un Jong PRK 236.70
8. Carlotta Giovannini ITA 211.37

Uneven Bars
1. Beth Tweddle GBR 489.76
2. Daria Zgoba UKR 358.80
3. Nastia Liukin USA 330.00
4. Ksenia Semyonova RUS 262.50
5. Steliana Nistor ROM 230.98
6. He Kexin CHN 230.00
7. Jana Sikulova CZE 229.17
8. Yang Yilin CHN 202.50

Balance Beam
1. Catalina Ponor ROM 324.51
2. Nastia Liukin USA 320.13
3. Anna Pavlova RUS 310.83
4. Cheng Fei CHN 262.52
5. Shawn Johnson USA 216.50
6. Steliana Nistor ROM 201.04
7. Sandra Izbasa ROM 196.60
8. Zhang Nan CHN 194.74

Women’s Floor Exercise
1. Cheng Fei CHN 394.87
2. Sandra Izbasa ROM 384.50
3. Daiane Dos Santos BRA 377.31
4. Beth Tweddle GBR 255.02
5. Shawn Johnson USA 247.50
6. Jiang Yuyuan CHN 227.00
7. Alicia Sacramone USA 194.61
8. Vanessa Ferrari ITA 176.75

Men’s Floor Exercise
1. Diego Hypolito BRA 596.72
2. Marian Dragulescu ROM 411.06
3. Zou Kai CHN 338.36
4. Anton Golotsutskov RUS 334.97
5. Brandon O’Neill CAN 251.81
6. Gervasio Deferr ESP 241.21
7. Fabian Hambuchen GER 221.15
8. Eleftherios Kosmidis GRE 210.00

Pommel Horse
1. Krisztian Berki HUN 800.58
2. Xiao Qin CHN 624.27
3. Louis Smith GBR 411.45
4. Robert Seligman CRO 299.21
5. Zhang Hongtao CHN 297.78
6. Filip Ude CRO 240.66
7. Prashanth Sellathurai AUS 186.43
8. Hiroyuki Tomita JPN 176.27

Still Rings
1. Yuri van Gelder NED 935.65
2. Chen Yibing CHN 493.51
3. Alexander Vorobyov UKR 483.98
4. Jordan Jovtchev BUL 452.59
5. Regulo Carmona VEN 398.72
6. Alexander Safoshkin RUS 316.77
7. Andrea Coppolino ITA 262.00
8. Yang Wei CHN 248.06

Men’s Vault
1. Leszek Blanik POL 567.41
2. Marian Dragulescu ROM 512.53
3. Anton Golotsutskov RUS 351.57
4. Jeffrey Wammes NED 332.10
5. Thomas Bouhail FRA 308.59
6. Yevgeny Sapronenko LAT 244.84
7. Ri Se Kwang PRK 244.25
8. Daniel Popescu ROM 226.83

Parallel Bars
1. Mitja Petkovsek SLO 1,016.34
2. Yann Cucherat FRA 461.56
3. Li Xiaopeng CHN 453.05
4. Feng Zhe CHN 316.81
5. Huang Xu CHN 294.34
6. Won Chul Yoo KOR 241.34
7. Anton Fokin UZB 239.67
8. Samuel Piasecky SVK 234.81

High Bar
1. Aljaz Pegan SLO 714.12
2. Fabian Hambuchen GER 479.65
3. Vlasios Maras GRE 411.36
4. Philippe Rizzo AUS 315.28
5. Zou Kai CHN 290.42
6. Igor Cassina ITA 252.81
7. Epke Zonderland NED 229.43
8. Yann Cucherat FRA 174.17

See the full list on International Gymnast

Do you think the Americans will attend?

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