Gymnastics Coaching.com

Shawn looks like a future Olympic Champion, to me.

see more photos on Live.Breath.Love Gymnastics

The About.com Gymnastics blog has a poll asking that question.

Here are the results as of the last time I checked:

Click through to vote. And check the updated results.

About.com Gymnastics poll

(I voted for no age restriction.)

Longtime Oregon State assistant gymnastics coach Dick Foxal has announced his retirement from coaching, effective, Sept. 1.

Foxal, a fixture at Oregon State for the past 21 seasons, has helped lead the Beavers to the NCAA Championships on 13 occasions including the past three seasons. In all, Oregon State has finished among the top 10 teams in the country 10 times during his tenure including as high as fourth in 1996.

“I’m a lucky man to have been involved in gymnastics for so many years. This has been a very rich experience,” Foxal said. “I’m very fortunate to have had the opportunity to work with such amazing young women during the course of my career at Oregon State. A lot has changed at OSU over the last two decades in the sport of gymnastics and at this university. I am very proud to have been part of such an enormous transformation with the gymnastics program as well as for the athletic department.”

Foxal, who has been involved in coaching gymnastics for 38 years, will continue to be associated with Oregon State gymnastics in a new position of Gymnastics Project Coordinator which includes administering camps, clinics and event set-up.

OSU Beavers

Big shoes to fill.

But I’m confident that his rumoured replacement, a prominent Pacific N.W. veteran, can do the job. I’ve not seen that official announcement, as yet.

by Rick McCharles

Congrats to the FARTs. (Funtastic Adventure Racing Team)

The team completed their biggest race to date — Ocean Blue, California — in 8hrs, 40min. The kayak section was HARSH. The mountain biking, at times, was pushing bikes up a CLIFF.

Morgen, Dave, Andy, Jeni – larger version

Here is Dr. Jeni McNeal, still able to do a handstand after 3 days hard racing and race training.

larger version

See all the photos on flickr.

See video and a photo highlights slideshow.

FART – official team website

There is no shortage of Canuck Olympic coverage on the WWW.

source – Adam Wong Fan Club – Facebook

From Kyle Shewfelt’s blog:

… the entire Canadian team gets an awesome Samsung phone/blackberry that we get to keep after the Games. Bell is the wonderful supplier of course and I can tell you that everyone is loving texting and calling back home. Bell rules!

KyleShewfelt.com/blog

Brandon O’Neill:

Elyse Hopfner-Hibbs:

More profiles like this: Canada’s 2008 Olympic gymnastics team – Blip.tv

Leave a comment below if you have more good sources of Olympic news on Canadians.

Olympic travel is a nightmare for the friends and family of “potential” Olympians.

You either gamble and purchase everything before Olympic trials. Or WAIT … and try to get something last minute once your Olympian does qualify. (This is very risky, of course.)

Shayla’s Mom Debbie has their personal Olympic family drama posted on Live.Breath.Love Gymnastics. It’s an eye opener.

The Whole Shayla Worley Money Issue – LBLG

Shayla will be there to cheer on her teammates, even though she did not make the team.

NBC Olympics posted some good pics of the 2006 World Gymnastics Champion, including some of her new gym.

NBC Olympics – Athletes > Vanessa Ferrari > Photos

BBC Sport has a first look at the facilities in Macau where their teams will acclimatize to the time zone change before flying on to Beijing.

The venue is awesome.

The second video on the post includes gymnastics training.

Great Britain’s diving and … gymnastics teams have become the first GB athletes to arrive in Beijing.

The competitors arrived at the Olympic Village on Monday after a 10-hour flight to China from London.

youngest competitor 14yr-old diver Tom Daley

First GB athletes arrive in China – BBC

UPDATE: Actually, only 2 of the original 5 qualified athletes have now been approved to compete in Beijing.

details via Gymbrooke Sports News

related post: no Olympic boycotts for 2008

Polished Gymnastics 101 is a superbly astute fan blog. Here is their prediction for the AA Olympic medalists:

Gold: Nastia Liukin (USA)

Silver: Yang Yilin (China)

Bronze: Shawn Johnson (USA)

Most pundits (including this one) are naming Shawn the odds on favourite.

Why Nastia? …

Many of you are likely dumbfounded by my prediction to keep Nastia Liukin as the Olympic AA gold winner. Shawn obviously seems to be the more likely pick of her consistency, difficulty, and execution. While Liukin is comparatively less consistent than Johnson, I think she is going to get it together one of these days and it could very well be the day of the Olympic AA final. The pressure on Johnson will be far more immense than that of Liukin, as Johnson’s wins at Nationals, Olympic Trials, and the Karolyi camp have looked to downplay a Johnson vs. Liukin showdown that the media was making a big deal out of in the past.

As for Shawn’s Amanar, the code states that the feet are the do or die factor when it comes to crediting the full rotation of the twists, and Shawn’s feet have been short of the complete 2.5 twists throughout Nationals and Olympic Trials. Granted, she isn’t that short of getting the full rotation on vault, but the judges at nationals and trials were USAG judges and would not have devalued the vault if their life depended on it. …

So the fact that one can just say Shawn’s Amanar (and whip+triple full for that matter, though at Trials it was much improved from Nationals) will get credited at the Olympics because it got credited at Nationals and Olympic Trials is not a reliable statement. The reason I am still skeptical for Shawn to win is because she is playing fire with a lot more elements (A-score wise) than Nastia is, though with that said Nastia’s UB routine is a routine many will be nervous when watching because of its many potential problems.

…

All of these potential downgrades and inconsistency could pave the way for Yang Yilin, who looks to be pretty consistent while not gambling with the credit on a lot of her skills. However, I will still predict Nastia Liukin to win. It may not seem all that logical, but I am going to trust my first instinct. And we all should know by now how unpredictable the Olympics can be.

It’s well worth reading the entire detailed post: Olympic AA Final Outlook Part 2-UPDATED – Polished Gymnastics 101

Nastia Liukin performs on the balance beam during the women’s second day of competition at the U.S. Olympic gymnastics trials, Sunday, June 22, 2008, in Philadelphia.

(AP Photo/Julie Jacobson) – ESPN