Gymnastics Coaching.com

As expected, FIG ad IOC “investigated” and found that all members of the 2008 Chinese Olympic Women’s Gymnastics team were old enough to compete.

My feeling is the same as Live.Breath.Love Gymnastics:

… there is no way that He Kexin and Deng Linlin are 16 …

LBLG

He Kexin – Getty Images

Odds are that, one day, the age falsification scandal of 2008 will be revealed in an autobiography of a Chinese gymnast or coach.

Yet the story still has legs:

… The federation said it is still looking into the ages of 2000 Olympians Yang Yun and Dong Fangxiao. China won the bronze medal at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, which concluded eight years ago Tuesday.

Yang said in an interview that she was 14 in Sydney, but explained later it was a slip of the tongue.

“The FIG does not consider the explanations and evidence provided to date in regards to these athletes as satisfactory,” the federation said in a statement Wednesday.

FIG Secretary General Andre Gueisbuhler said Dong obtained a credential for the 2008 Olympics using documents that indicate she was only 14 in 2000, according to the AP. Dong worked as line judge in Beijing.

“I would hope that the whole world in sport realizes that the FIG is serious about these rules and the ethics and moral questions,” Gueisbuhler said.

Since an age requirement of 15 was first established in 1981, numerous gymnastics champions have admitted after retirement that they competed using false documents, including Soviets Olga Bicherova and Olga Mostepanova, and Romanians Lavinia Agache, Gina Gogean, Alexandra Marinescu and Daniela Silivas.

The only nation punished to date for age falsification in gymnastics is North Korea, which was banned from the 1993 World Championships after varying birthdates were given for Kim Gwang Suk. Kim was registered as 15 years old at the 1989 World Championships, at the 1991 World Championships and at the 1992 Olympic Game.

The minimum age requirement was changed to 16 beginning in 1997.

International Gymnast

It’s embarrassing for our sport.

Surely the best way out of this PR mess is to eliminate the age requirement completely. Perhaps retroactively.

The new look National Gymsports Championships is underway at Mystery Creek, Hamilton. Early signs are that Canterbury will dominate the junior Artistic Gymnastics events and they have already taken the Level 4 in both Men’s and Women’s Artistic Gymnastics. Tumbling as proved a spectator hit with New Zealand Indo Pacific athletes, Campbell Main (Counties Manuaku) and Kieran Growcott (Canterbury) thrilling the audience with speed and power.

Hawkes Bay/Poverty Bay had an excellent first day in the synchronsized Trampoline events with pairs Scott Tallot/Sam Tallott and Anastasia Smith/Chivaun Broderick taking titles in the 13/14 years.

Rhythmic Gymnastics Level 8, 9 and 10 has started with stiff opposition from the visiting Australian athletes. Otago gymnasts Brooke Hastie and Gabriella Garcia put on an excellent performance in the Ribbon apparatus with 1st and 2nd place.

Monday 29th is the start of the Aerobic event with World Number 3, Angela McMillan performing for the first time this year in New Zealand. …

Canterburys Analise Borkus

some results are linked from the GymSports New Zealand home page.

The Couch Gymnast posted yet another original, well-researched article listing many up-and-coming Jr. Gymnasts around the world. Who will come into prominence as Seniors over the next Olympic cycle?

They even poke fun at the Chinese program with this photo:

Included are:

USA: Bross and Shapiro and Wieber

Russia: Tatiana Nabieva, Aliya Mustafina

France: Youna Dufournet

England: Nicole Hibbert, Danusia Francis

Canada: Peng Peng Lee, Dominique Pegg, Charlotte Mackie

Romania: Amelia Racea, Larisa Lordache and Diana Chelaru

Australia: Britt Greeley

Italy: Paola Galante

Japan: Shizuka Tozawa, Erica Lynn Danko

Netherlands: Nastasja Blind, Celine De Gerner

Brazil: Khiunai Dias, Ethione Franco

Belgium: Jolien Eggermont

Mexico: Daniele Espinosa

Ukraine: Natalia Kononenko

Click through to the Couch Gymnast for photos and details: Something to look forward to…

Leave a comment if you want to add to the list.

Here’s the superbly elegant Samantha Shapiro. Click PLAY or watch her beam from Gymnix 2008 Finals on YouTube.

A more important question: Which of these talents will not be able to handle the intense demands of the code of points as an all-arounder?

Many of those listed above show “loose” form on very difficult routines. That lack of control makes me worry about injury.

Will rule changes to be finalized in October make the sport “easier”?

I predict the biggest “stars” of the London Olympics will be specialists.

related: Up-and-coming juniors Part I: Russia and Romania – The C Score

MissEducated and Tuesday both recommended as “highest 1/1 twist on beam” that shown by Chinese double Olympian Kui Yuanyuan.

Click PLAY or watch her Atlanta Beam routine on YouTube.

I agree.

That’s the most awesome that has ever been done.

Compare Kui Yuanyuan with the rest on this montage of beam 1/1 twists. (I’m shocked so many different gymnasts have done it.)

Click PLAY or watch the montage on YouTube.

When this skill was first invented — many years ago — we had a gymnast named Christine Wallat who did 10 every workout.

I stopped to watch every one. It’s an unbelievable skill to see live.

On May 12, 2006, Donnellan walked onto a tumbling mat at Tucson’s Gymnastics World and did a single front flip, a move he’d done daily for seven years.

But that day, the 16-year-old Salpointe Catholic High School sophomore over-rotated and, in less time than it takes to give your best friend a high-five, fractured two vertebrae and damaged his spinal cord. …

Today Drew is age-18, a freshman at the University of Arizona.

The Tuscon Citizen posted a major article on Drew’s life after the accident:

Life at college has been an adjustment, but mostly in a good way, he said. He learned how to operate the elevator controls, something he couldn’t do before, and he loves being away from regimented high school schedules.

He doesn’t really have a social life yet, but is considering joining a Methodist campus ministry at UA and possibly the UA Adaptive Athletics quad-rugby team.

“I’ve pushed a quad chair,” he said. “I’m not very fast, but I can push it. I think it might be fun.”

read the entire article – Paralyzed gymnast’s promise: No self-pity

Hang in there Drew. We are cheering for you.

by site editor Rick McCharles

This coming weekend I’ll be presenting at the annual conference in gorgeous Nova Scotia.

Hosted by Gymnastics Nova Scotia.

In the Recreation Stream:

Building Better Circuits

Best gymnastics Games, Effective Warm-ups

In the Men’s Artistic Competitive Stream:

Horizontal Bar Skills

Parallel Bar Skills

Pommel Skills

Rings Strength Elements from Basic to Advanced

I’ll report here on all highlights from that meet-up.

On Gymnast.com:

Butter Sculpture of Shawn Johnson

Shawn certainly is a big celebrity right now!

larger original – flickr – jlantzy<img id="image6231"

We posted the “Crockett” in training already.

But I did not realize Jeff had “competed” the skill in the USA Winter Cup Skill Challenge.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Outrageous.

I’m still waiting for a female gymnast to show Jaeger 1/1 twist. (Certainly Olympic Champion He Kexin could do it.)

(via Gymnast.com)

Here’s the best video translation of the interview which forced Bruno Grandi and the International Gymnastics Federation to investigate age falsification of Chinese gymnasts Yang Yun and Dong Fangxiao at the 2000 Olympics.

At the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, questions arose regarding five of the six women on China’s gymnastics team. Evidence surfaced which indicated that the Chinese government many have falsified the athletes’ passports to pass the girls off as sixteen – the minimum age required for Olympic gymnastic competition. While the International Gymnastic Federation continues its investigation into the allegations, additional evidence has come to light which illustrates China’s habitual deceit and manipulation of the truth.

That evidence is presented here, translated for the first time into English, so the world can decide. The setting is the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games, where Yang Yun, an inexperienced Chinese gymnast won medals & captured hearts by surprisingly competing head-to-head against gymnastics legend, Svetlana Khorkina.

Yang Yun’s passport said she was sixteen.

Yang Yun says she was fourteen.

In this interview produced by state-run Chinese television, the truth finally comes forward behind the curtain of manipulation, misinformation, and deception.

Produced by Stryde Hax & HeatherShow.com
Translations by Cindy
Subtitles by Heather Lawver

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Yang Yun is today a TV journalist, charismatic and intelligent.

I hope she admits the truth to investigators.

I hope she marries her Olympic Champion fiance Yang Wei and they live happily ever after.

However, there is almost certainly going to be extreme pressure from the National government on Yang Yun to claim some sort of error was made in that interview.

She hinted to A.P. that she might have “misspoken”.

read more – Yang Yun: China’s Habitual Deceit – Heather Show

related: Sydney Olympic medallists dragged into gymnastics probe

Did you see this?

Us Weekly shares the inspirational stories of Olympic gymnasts Nastia Liukin, Shawn Johnson, Alicia Sacramone and Chellsie Memmel as well as Michael Phelps’ transformation from a bullied schoolkid to record-breaking swimmer.

Of course celebrity mags like this are always looking for an extreme story line:

Liukin, 18, has won four medals at the games – including the silver following a controversial tie-break – but she’s had her moments of doubt.

Just a few months ago, Liukin considered quitting, her best friend and training partner Katie Matusik tells Us …

EXCLUSIVE: Pal: Olympian Nastia Liukin Wanted to “Give Up” Gymnastics – Us Magazine

(via difficulty plus execution)