Women’s gymnastics coach K.J. Kindler received a raise of $11,550 and now will received $115,000 annually in guaranteed money. She also had her contract extended by one year to July 1, 2012.
Mark Williams, who has guided Oklahoma to five of the last seven NCAA titles in men’s gymnastics, now will receive $130,000 annually, a raise of $22,150 that will be effective next Tuesday. His contract was extended by five years to July 1, 2013.
The results are in: Erin Blanchard and Chris Estrada will represent the US in the 2008 Olympic games in Beijing.
…
On the women’s side, Alaina Hebert and Erin Blanchard fought it out for first and second through the compulsory and optional rounds. Hebert went into the final round an .8 lead over Erin Blanchard, but a disappointing – based on her body language following the routine – finals performance by Hebert was not enough to overcome Blanchard’s excellent finals performance.
On the men’s side, Steven Gluckstein had a slight lead over Chris Estrada and Michael Devine coming out of the compulsory round. An early interruption, though, left Gluckstein far back of Estrada and Devine at the end of the optional round. Devine had early problems in his final round routine, leaving Logan Dooley as the man to beat. Needing 33.6 points to overtake Dooley’s 102.5 for gold, Estrada chose to perform what looked to me like his compulsory routine. …
Many felt that Kristina should have been one of the two Olympians from Canada. That debate is ended with this bad news sent by Jeremy Mosier.
VACULIK OUT WITH INJURED ELBOW; BROWN NAMED FIRST ALTERNATE
Kristina Vaculik of Gemini gymnastics is reportedly suffering from an elbow injury that will require several weeks to heal. As a result, Alyssa Brown has been named the first reserve (alternate) for the upcoming 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.
But Kristina is young, talented and has great coaches. Most feel she will be one of the international superstars of the next quadrennial.
WAG Olympic Ranking Process Decoded
The following overview circulated by the GCG Program Director-WAG provides the final ranking for the WAG Olympic Selection Process and some information about the process.
Gymnastics Canada is aware that the outcome of this process has created a public debate (internet & e-mails). Hopefully, this brief overview will assist in better understanding the process and the outcome.
Ranking
The ranking of the athletes at the end of Step 1 of the Olympic Games selection process for Women’s Artistic Gymnastics is as follows:
Nansy Damianova from Gymnix in Montreal: 43.3
Elyse Hopfner-Hibbs from Sport Seneca in Toronto 41.3
Kristina Vaculik from Gemini Gymnastics in Oshawa 37.1
Alyssa Brown from Gymnastics Mississauga 15.8
Aisha Gerber from the Oakville Gymnastics Club 13.8
Sydney Sawa from the Calgary Gymnastics Centre 11.6
Stephanie Pacitto from Gymnastics Mississauga (injured) 6.0
About the process
As stated in the process, the emphasis was on performing very well on two apparatus. Some athletes who were strong on four apparatus had an advantage since they had more apparatus to choose from.
The process put the emphasis on meeting the standards at international competitions rather than at the domestic ones. A maximum of two of the six performances counting on an apparatus could be from Elite Canada 2007 or the Canadian Championships 2008.
The assignments to the international competitions were done periodically between November 2007 and May 2008. The top three ranked athletes had a similar number of competitions at which points could be earned: 10 for Kristina Vaculik and 9 each for Elyse Hopfner-Hibbs and Nansy Damianova.
Athletes were assigned to a maximum of one world cup competition before January 1, 2008. Some athletes declined attendance. Elyse and Nansy competed at the Glasgow World Cup in November whose weight was 0.7. Kristina was not age eligible for world cup competitions in 2007. She was assigned to the Olympic Test Event (OTE) in November where WAG could send only one athlete. The weight of the OTE was 1.0 (maximum weight).
There were three competitions with a weight of 1.0: the Olympic Test Event, the Pacific Championships and the Senior Apparatus Finals at the Canadian Championships. Nansy and Elyse competed at two of them and Kristina at all three. The top three ranked athletes competed at one international competition each with a weight factor of 0.80 and one with 0.7.
My opinion is that regulations in Canada are deliberately obtuse obfuscated and confusing — as is obvious above — so that only a few people at the top understand them.
There was no need to force the contenders and coaches through so many high pressure meets over the past 6 or 8 months in order to chose two athletes. That was simply crazy. The administrators of the Women’s program have been getting roasted on the Gymn.ca forum and elsewhere online. They deserve it.
If you can’t get enough Canadian Olympic Gymnastics drama, watch part 1 of this TV special from Nationals on YouTube (men and women interviewed).
Following the British Championships, the third and final Olympic Trial, the British Olympic Association and British Gymnastics are delighted to announce the team for the 2008 Olympic Game in Beijing.
Beth Tweddle, Becky Downie, Marissa King, Hannah Whelan, Laura Jones and Rebecca Wing.
Matthew Greenwood, Technical Director of British Gymnastics: “We are very proud of the Women’s Artistic Team that has been selected for Beijing. The girls will be extremely well prepared and in a position to once again prove the great strength in depth that we have now established.â€
Beth Tweddle
“I’m really excited and just looking forward to getting there and doing the best job I can. The Teams been together for a long time now and I definitely feel we can have positive results.â€
Becky Downie
“I can’t describe how happy I am and can’t stop crying! It’s a massive relief and shows that all the hard work has been worth it.â€
Hannah Whelan
“It feels fantastic to be selected and I’m really proud of myself. I can’t wait to be involved in such a big competition.â€
Marissa King
” I don’t think this will sink in for a while, its every athletes dream and there’s no words that can some up how happy I am to be selected. The whole group has worked so hard for this and the emotions are now finally coming out. I can’t wait to get out there and do the jobâ€
Laura Jones
“It amazing, when I found out I was so pleased I just wanted to cry. I’m so excited we’ve got a really strong team and I’m confident we’ll do well.â€
Rebecca Wing
“Its absolutely amazing to be selected and cant describe the feeling. After so much pressure I’m so glad the selection has come. We’ve got a really good group of girls that get on well so I’m confident we’ll put in a good performance in Beijing.â€
Imogen Cairns and Kayleigh Cooke have been selected as travelling reserves.
… In the women’s competition Sandra Izbasa suffered an injury during warm-up, just a few minutes before the start of the competition. The European floor champion could not continue, heading to Bucharest for medical checkups. …
UPDATE: northernriver reports the injury turned out to be not serious.
Nicolae Forminte, the head coach of the Olympic team, already knows what gymnasts he will rely on in view of the Olympic Games in Beijing, scheduled in August. ‘In Romania the birthrate did not grow spectacularly overnight, so I could not select other girls,’ the head coach joked. …
Of course he’s talking about the rumours of age falsification of He Kexin from China. This is the pot calling the kettle black. Romania has been as guilty as any other nation in the past.
Andrew Thornton is making my prediction that the USA will win the Beijing Olympics look dubious:
The first “virtual gymnastics meet†is now over, and the best girls from China have beaten the best from the USA.
Vault, Bars, Beam, Floor, Team (3-up, 3-count Team Finals)
… I’m sure you can see that this competition was won on uneven bars!!! Does this make it more clear exactly why the U.S. is still in need of improvement here? It does for me at least. Chellsie Memmel’s bar routine has certainly helped close the gap a little, but we still have a long way to go to catch this team that not only has a 1.4 advantage in start values on bars over us, but clearly has superior execution as well. …
I would have a hard time believing the Romanians or Russians can challenge these two teams, but you never know. Romania could show up again with another incredibly well-prepared team that is ready to nail every routine in the team finals like they did four years ago. Combine another performance like that with some mistakes from the U.S. and China, and maybe there could be some surprises. As of right now, though, I clearly see the U.S. and China as the ones to beat, and I would expect Romania and Russia to battle for the bronze.
Is the 1.45 difference I came up with in this virtual meet too much for the U.S. to make up? Absolutely not, but it definitely shows where we could potentially get beat by China if we don’t do something about it fast. I hope Martha Karolyi gets a chance to watch this virtual meet so she doesn’t toss out a gymnast like Bridget Sloan, who could potentially score a 16.0 on bars. Though it’s still going to take a team effort to make the improvements necessary to catch China on this event, this game has emphasized to me even more the need for the U.S. to find that elusive third bars score. …
That’s the guesstimate by Andrew Thornton on Gymnast.com.
… The U.S. girls, on the other hand, do tend to get credit for everything, and in fact have shown much more consistency on beam this year than China. I’ve seen Cheng Fei, Xiao Sha, and Li Shanshan all fall this year, while Shawn, Nastia, and Chellsie have hit every routine I’ve seen them compete. My point here is that looking at hit percentages and the chance of actually getting the “expected†start values, I would say that the U.S. is probably a little stronger on beam than China. If China nailed three perfect routines with all connections, it might be a different story, but it is VERY rare to find routines where they actually do this. …
Many felt that Kristina should have been one of the two Olympians from Canada. That debate is ended with this bad news sent by Jeremy Mosier. 
Gymnastics Coaching.com 