Gymnastics Coaching.com

No surprises. She won all 4 apparatus in Finals.

Russia’s Evgeniya Kanaeva has won gold in the rhythmic gymnastics individual all-around competition …

Kanaeva got identical scores of 18.850 on her rope and hoop routines before wowing the judges with a club routine that earned her a finals-high 18.950.

She finished the competition with a ribbon routine that gave her a total of 75.500 and the convincing win.

Inna Zhukova of Belarus scored 71.925 points for the silver and Anna Bessonova of Ukraine had 71.875 for her second straight bronze.

AP

In the last diving event, Aussie Matthew Mitcham (photos) shocked the home crowd by coming from behind to defeat his main Chinese competitor.

Of the 24 diving medals awarded in Beijing, China claimed 11 of a possible 12: seven gold, one silver and three bronze. The sport has produced the country’s most Olympic medals.

Obviously diving coaches around the World need to raise the bar if they hope to compete in future with China. It has been a very poor Olympics for the USA, for example, though they have a young, talented team.

Young Thomas Daley will contend many more Olympics too, I’m sure.

I know many Chinese coaches who prefer the “buck” horse for young gymnasts. Yet there are mushrooms in China.

I like both, myself. Mushroom for beginners. Buck horse once they show good extension.

One more idea from coach Richard Herb.

He suspends “targets”. The boys swing in cross support and try to touch them with their (extended) feet.

Leave a comment if you’ve read this book. I can’t find a review online.

Balance: The Life of a Gay Gymnast

It’s amazing how little has been written about homosexuals in gymnastics sports. This is the first book or major article I can recall.

UPDATE: In the comments, TCO had an interesting point:

You can tell how few gay male athletes there are in most sports by looking at how few died of AIDS in the 1980s. Figure skating was decimated by AIDS: both Olympic Men’s Figure Skating gold medalists from the 1970s died of AIDS, but AIDS deaths in other sports were quite low: one NFL player, one major league baseball player, no golfers, etc.”

Some great captures from Inside Gymnastic’s Grace Chiu.

The wonderful Anna Pavlova really had a terrible Olympics. What a shame.

see more – Inside Gymnastics

Though their old website was already one of my favourites, owner Darlene “The Bean” Fedyna just launched a new look site just in time for the start of the school year in Canada.

… Darlene has used her early childhood education, gymnastics background and her astute business skills to develop and grow GYMTASTICS into one of the premier gymnastics clubs in western Canada. Darlene is also a pre-school consultant, specializing in children’s emotional and physical development, as well as rhyming things with silly words whenever possible (a big hit with the pre-school crowd.) She is extremely passionate about gymnastics and works to be a positive influence to all her customers and coaching staff.

To Darlene, every toddler, child, teenager and adult that walks through the doors of GYMTASTICS is a star!

Though the site is clean and easy to navigate, it’s packed with features — including the very cool “explore the gym” page.

Of course they have online registration. (A web feature that causes as many problems as it solves, for many clubs. I’ll bet this one works perfectly.)

Compare Gymtastics vs your club website. Then email Darlene to see who does her site!

Yours is due for a makeover.

Gymtastics.ca

… That Age Finder on the home page is brilliant!

By looking at the site you might assume Gymtastics is mainly a recreational club. Not so. They have a huge team program and recently graduated Stephanie McGregor to powerhouse Oregon State.

Now that it’s clear this could become the biggest scandal of the Beijing Games in all sports, the International Olympic Committee simply wants the problem to go away.

Despite persistent questions about the ages of several members of the Chinese women’s gymnastics team that won the gold medal, the International Olympic Committee said Friday there is still no proof anyone cheated and believes the controversy will be “put to rest.” …

What about the promised investigation? Assign someone to interview the families of the athletes, perhaps. To ask for newspaper articles from competitions in past years that include age.

Show me those articles and I’ll apologize for questioning the age of He Kexin.

It’s comedy that official documents from a totalitarian state would be considered evidence. Passports and birth certificates have been altered in the past, why should I believe the were not falsified this time?

… the Chinese gave the FIG documents Thursday evening that included the current and former passport, ID card and family residence permit for double gold medalist He Kexin. Lu said the documents all say she was born in 1992, which makes her eligible to compete. Gymnasts must turn 16 at some point during the Olympic year in order to be eligible. …

IOC: Despite questions, no proof – NBC

Personally, I don’t think the issue has been put to rest.

And what about the promised investigation into Yang Yun?

… Even China’s own Yang Yun, a double bronze medalist in Sydney, said during an interview aired on state broadcaster China Central Television that she was 14 in 2000.

Best case scenario, FIG removes the age requirement so we do not have to go through this again in future.

That won’t happen while Bruno Grandi is in charge.

Our predictions for Beijing.

How did we do?

Women’s Artistic:

Team – USA GOLD winner China

Vault – Cheng Fei GOLD winner Un Jong Hong

Bars – He Kexin GOLD winner

Beam – Nastia Liukin GOLD winner Shawn Johnson

Floor – Shawn Johnson GOLD winner Isbaza

All-around – Shawn Johnson GOLD winner Nastia Liukin

Oops. Only one correct out of six.

Men’s Artistic:

Team – China GOLD winner

Floor – Kyle Shewfelt or Brandon O’Neill GOLD (neither qualifed for the Floor final) winner Kai Zou

Pommel – Xiao Qin GOLD winner

Rings – Chen Yibing GOLD winner

Vault – Leszek Blanik GOLD winner

Parallel Bars – Li Xiaopeng GOLD winner

Horizontal Bar – Fabian Hambüchen GOLD winner Kai Zou

All-around – Yang Wei GOLD winner

Much better in the Men’s competition. Correct on 6 of the 8 medals. (I sure wish Shewfelt or O’Neill had qualified.)

How did you do on your predictions?

The 2000 Olympic Champion Laura Wilkinson impressed me in getting back to the Final. But, in her 3rd Olympics, competing against athletes half her age, another podium finish was not to be.

full results

Everyone else in the world tries to find a way to compete against the astonishing Chinese. Another veteran, in her 3rd Olympics, Emilie Heymans did it with extreme consistency. After “choking” in Athens in 2004, Heymans credits sports psychology with her success this time.

Congratulations.

The noose tightens.

Initially not wanting to be dragged into the mud, the International Gymnastics Federation must now at least make the appearance of taking action:

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) confirmed to The Epoch Times today that it has asked the International Gymnastics Federation to investigate the Chinese gymnastics underage fiasco, following new evidence that at least two gymnasts competed under the legal age in the Olympics.

…

More evidence has emerged in the last two days that two of the girls, He Kexin and Yang Yilin, were 14 years old and not 16, as claimed by the Chinese authorities. …

Philippe Filacci, Head of Media Operations for the International Gymnastics Federation, presently in Beijing, confirmed that he was aware of the new evidence. “We are investigating it,” he said in a phone interview.

Epoch Times

As many have pointed out, this is not new evidence. But it reached enough of a buzz in the media that IOC finally felt compelled to act.

In the end, this will be the story of the 2008 Olympics. And that’s a shame.

If only the Chinese authorities had been savvy enough not to select the underage girl(s). They would have been very strong with older girls on the team.