gleeclub was celebrating the Olympic competition in style …
original – flickr
And, of course, Port finishes off every “meal” perfectly.
original – flickr
The party is over. Is there life after Olympics?
Chinese gymnasts still age-16 ??
About.com reports:
Beijing (CHN) BTG FIG Office, August 23, 2008: The Executive Committee members of the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) held an extraordinary meeting today August 23, to discuss the age of Chinese female gymnasts.
Further to the communication released yesterday regarding the age of gymnasts who competed here in Beijing, the FIG continues to gather information.
The Federation has received a number of documents from the Chinese Gymnastics Federation, including passports, identity cards and family booklets. All information is in Chinese and the IF is making as thorough analysis as possible of the papers.
This process may take some time, but in due course, the FIG will make a full report of our findings to the International Olympic Committee. …
If, like the general population in China, you are unaware of the controversy, here’s a catch-up video:
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
Hundreds or thousands of people in China know the year He Kexin was born. It should be easy to prove it with newspaper articles from past competitions that list her age.
Hopefully someone from FIG will get her nose out of the passports and collect some substantial evidence.
trampolinist to carry flag in closing ceremonies
The only trampoline athlete to have won a medal at every Olympic Games since the sport was added in 2000, Karen Cockburn will carry Canada’s flag at the closing ceremonies.
Congratulations.
Evgeniya Kanaeva – Rhythmic Gold, as expected
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.
Olympic Diving – 10m Platform Men
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.
pommel horse training
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.
The Life of a Gay Gymnast
Leave a comment if you’ve read this book. I can’t find a review online.
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.â€
photos – Olympic Gymnastics Competition
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
best gymnastics club website – Gymtastics
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.
… 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.
IOC: put gymnastics age falsification scandal “to rest”
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. …
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.
