Gymnastics Coaching.com

Gymnast.com has Men’s photos from day 1.

Kevin Tan

A strong and lively crowd was on hand in Philadelphia to cheer on the 13 gymnasts competing in night one of the men’s Olympic Trials. With a roller coaster of ups and downs, some dreams dashed and others won, there was certainly no shortage of drama in the Wachovia Center tonight. …

commentary – Artemev Leads Dramatic Night One – Gymnast.com

Many doubted the 2004 Olympic Champion on Floor would be able to defend in Beijing.

Kyle Shewfelt hated the idea of embarrassing himself in his first judged gymnastics competition since breaking both of his legs months ago.

Turns out, the charismatic Calgarian need not have worried in the lead-up to an Olympic test event Thursday at Edmonton’s Capital City Gymnastics Club.

Competing in the shadow of West Edmonton Mall, the 26-year-old attacked the vault with no fear and bounced right back into the mix of the Canadian men’s gymnastics team. …

Shewfelt placed first in the vault and second in the floor exercise at the Olympic test event held in conjunction with the national team training camp.

Edmonton native Brandon O’Neill stole the show at his home club, with first-place finishes on the floor and parallel bars and second-place finishes on the vault and the high bar.

The results from this competition — along with numerous other meets held over the last four years — will help coach Edouard Iarov pick the six-man Canadian squad (plus an alternate) for the Summer Olympics.

“I think our team looks awesome,” Shewfelt said. “I’m so happy to be a part of it.” …

daylife – Getty Images

Calgary Herald

At a recent coaching clinic, FIG growth and development expert Keith Russell questioned the high number of hours of training for young children in Artistic Gymnastics.

His concerns are valid, of course. It’s refreshing to see more coaches opting to train fewer, higher quality hours. Shawn Johnson trains far fewer hours than most of her competitors, for example.

But some coaches are more worried about what their gymnasts are doing when they are NOT in the gym. Staircase “luge”, for example.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

One of the best gymnastics blogs just got hipper. (And I’m not talking about the latest fresh look of the site.)

Live.Breath.Love Gymnastics now has a new domain address on the web. Update your link: LBLgymnastics.com

Of the many U.S.A. Women’s Olympic Trials previews, the best (perhaps) is from Polish101- Gymnastics.

New to me was this conspiracy theory:

The judges likely want a win for Nastia, so that Shawn won’t have to feel the pressure of being America’s top gymnast and so that the media will continue to hype up this supposed showdown between power and grace.

Hmm.

No doubt the judges would refute that.

Personally I don’t think Nastia has much of a chance to beat Shawn, if they both hit. And — of course — the B-panel judges do justice to the code on Nastia’s execution on Floor and Bars. Nastia is often over-scored on those apparatus in the States. Shawn is not. Or … not nearly as much.

Read the detailed post for yourself: Final Thoughts Prior to the 2008 Olympic Trials

Ivana Hong – USAG

Horton finally hit Horizontal Bar. Artemev finally hit Pommels.

The enigmatic Sasha Artemev seized the halfway lead here at the men’s gymnastics U.S. Olympic Trials …

Excellent. This should get Sasha through to the selection camp.

(AP Photo/Rob Carr) – ESPN

Raj Bhavsar and Justin Spring, who showed consistency across all six events, Spring finishing first or second in four of six, Bhavsar scoring a second, two thirds and, in the pommel, fourth.

NBC Olympics

I don’t mention Kevin Tan because he’s a lock. Give him his ticket to Beijing right now.

Kevin Tan turned in the best score of the night, 16.550 on rings, his specialty, and he leads the weighted total in that discipline by – in gymnastics terms – a mile …

details on all competitors: Live Coverage: Men’s Prelims – Inside Gymnastics

Justin Spring – AP Photo by Julie Jacobson

The gymnasts will tell you that Justin Spring is the “monster” of the field. He does huge difficulty. But I expected him to be knocked out at this stage because of bad execution. His form can be atrocious.

Looks like I’m wrong. Again.

As always, I look to Andrew Thornton to tell me what’s really going on at Trials:

Although the scores alone won’t directly determine the Olympic team, there will be two spots announced immediately at the conclusion of the competition for both the men and the women. In fact, the men’s selection committee might announce the full six-member team just prior to the final women’s competition on Sunday. At the very least, they plan to announce a nine-member Olympic training squad, with the alternates to be determined at a later date. This means that on the men’s side, we will either know the Olympic team by Sunday or have a pretty good idea of the team. On the women’s side, there will undoubtedly be a bit of mystery that remains at the end of the competition, and fans will simply have to wait a few weeks for the announcement of the final team. …

Gymnast.com

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I just heard today that Casey Sandy did not attend the Canadian Men’s Olympic Training Camp and Test Meet tonight. But did not hear why. Has he withdrawn from Olympic team selection?

In the lengthy debate about double amputee South African sprinter Oscar Pistorius, you knew there would be other “special” cases.

But you probably didn’t guess it would be another South African.

Natalie Du Toit qualified for the Beijing Olympics after she finished fourth in the 10km race in the Open Water World Championships in Seville, Spain.

The 24-year-old, who lost her left leg when she was hit by a car while riding her scooter in 2001, clocked a time of two hours two minutes 7.8 seconds, just 5.1 seconds behind winner Larisa Ilchenko of Russia.

The 10km open water race is making its debut as an Olympic event in Beijing.

Du Toit almost qualified for the Sydney Olympics in three events at the age of 16 but she suffered the accident a year later. …

She missed out on qualification for the 2004 Athens Olympics, but did compete in the Paralympics the same year where she won five gold medals and a silver. …

Reuters

Right now Natalie is in. But Oscar has not yet qualified.

Pistorius, who hopes to run the 400 at Beijing, must run the 400 in less than 45.55 seconds to qualify for the Olympics. His personal-best is 46.56 seconds.

South Africa names du Toit to both Olympic, Paralympic teams – ESPN

natalie du toit – official website

http://www.westphoto.se – Andreas Svensson

Beautiful.

see more here and here

Thanks Leif Danielsson who recommended the pictures from Swedish Championships 2008.

International Gymnast posted an interesting interview with Filip.

Though he qualified as an All-Arounder, Filip plans to compete only Floor and Pommels in Beijing, due to injury. (There will be many more, I expect. The AA is a dying event in Men’s Gymnastics.)

His best apparatus is Pommel Horse. Very smooth.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

I like the Magyar Spindle at the beginning.

Word is that Sasha has reduced difficulty on Pommel Horse and Vault. (No triple twisting Yurchenko this time.)

I REALLY hope he hits at Olympic Trials tonight, Thursday. It would be a shame if he does not get through to Beijing.

IG