Gymnastics Coaching.com

Chloe is a brilliant but inconsistent gymnast who surprisingly retired in the months leading up to Beijing.

I was sad to hear the reasons why. From a newspaper article:

… Battling an eating disorder and mental fatigue, [Sims] chose personal happiness over the ultimate prize of a shot at winning gold. It was the most difficult decision of her life, but for Sims it was the only way she could overcome her inner demons. “I was mentally unhealthy. I had a lot of problems. I had an eating disorder and I was under a lot of pressure,” she said. “Every morning I woke up and didn’t want to go to training. It felt like I was wasting my time and other people’s doing something I didn’t want to do.” …

Since severing ties with the inner-circle of the Australian gymnastic squad, Sims said she has experienced feelings of social alienation.“It’s hard not to go to the gym every day and see all my beautiful friends. We were very close but it’s hard to maintain that bond outside the sport,” she said. “My parents and my brother and sister are very supportive and have been incredible through all this.”

read more on the Gymnastics Australia blog

Chloe is only one of a number of Olympic candidates who stopped training in Australia. All for different reasons. Still, the National Team program, excellent in the past, needs to reassess.

Gymnastics Australia bio

larger photo – Chloe Sims official website

Only one man and one woman will compete in Beijing. The VISA Championships are the first step. (I was told the American alternates will also travel to the Olympics.)

HOUSTON, Texas, May 23, 2008 – 2005 U.S. trampoline champion Alaina Hebert of Broussard, La., and Steven Gluckstein of Atlantic Highlands, N.J., lead men’s and women’s trampoline, respectively, after the preliminary round at the 2008 Visa Championships at Reliant Park in Houston, Texas.

… read more — including Tumbling and Double-mini results — on USAG: Gluckstein, Hebert lead men’s, women’s trampoline at 2008 Visa Championships

The post links to photos and results. Here’s the ranking, so far.

You can get one of these cakes for yourself … if you live in Israel.

original – flickr

lilach cake company

In Second Life, some avatars are gymnasts.

larger version – flickr

Here’s a Second Life balance beam.

Senior – 2008 U.S. Classic, May 23, 2008, Reliant Arena, Houston, Texas.

* All-Around – Ashley Stott
* Vault – Mackenzie Caquatto
* Uneven Bars – Christa Tanella
* Balance Beam – Ashley Stott
* Floor Exercise – Randy Stageberg

UPDATE: full results – USAG

This small, little publicized competition actually drew a good crowd.

A number of NCAA coaches were in the audience, as well. Randy Stageberg, for one, has already signed with Florida.

Click PLAY or watch Randy on Floor at Gymnix 2008.

Inside Gymnastics magazine posted by far the best detailed coverage I’ve seen:

What’s Up in Warm-ups

As We Saw It …

Check also: News, Notes & Quotes from Nats, Thur

The layout of the site is much improved. Congratulations.

Watching from the stands, I was hopeful it was a minor finger “jam”, a very common occurrence on P Bars. Especially on Stutz to one bar.

Sadly, it was worse than I thought.

HOUSTON — Reigining Olympic all-around champion Paul Hamm has a broken right hand and will miss the U.S. Olympic Trials in June, his coach Miles Avery announced Friday.

“He won’t be able to do the Olympic Trials,” Avery said. “The course of action for that is to petition him to the team. And try to prove his readiness later in the summer, closer to the Games.”

Hamm suffered the injury on parallel bars in the final rotation of the first day of the U.S. Championships for men in Houston. During a stutz to one bar, his finger shifted on contact with the rail and he felt something pop, he said.

X-rays on Friday showed a fracture in the fourth metacarpal. Hamm will likely undergo surgery to put a pin in, and he will take four to six weeks to heal.

read more on International Gymnast

original – flickr

If it was any other gymnast, they might be off the team right now. But here is how Paul did last night under the official “point program” for selection:

Paul Hamm – 46
David Sender – 29
Joseph Hagerty – 25
Jonathan Horton – 24
Morgan Hamm – 24
Kevin Tan – 23

David Durante – 22
Raj Bhavsar – 22

Justin Spring – 15
Kyson Bunthuwong – 15

(Leave a comment if you know how they arrived at these “points”.)

Certainly from the point of view of the athletes, they simply want to have a good competition on day 2 (Saturday) and qualify in the top 14 through to Olympic Trials in Philadelphia.

Everyone expects Paul to be given every possible opportunity to compete in Beijing. He has 77 days before the start of the Games.

Wang won gold medals in all four individual events — ribbon, hoop, clubs and rope Thursday — and her combined score of 66.500 has her in first place after the preliminary round of the all-around competition. Rachel Marmer (62.575) is in second place and Ava Gehringer (62.200) is third. …

The Visa Championships likely will be the last major competition of Wang’s career. She plans to enroll at Yale in the fall and is not looking ahead to London in 2012 or torturing herself over what might have been this summer in Beijing.

Wang overcomes heartache
Defending champ eyes third title despite missing cut for Olympics – Houston Chronicle

We can ready for Lisa’s coronation as 3 time USA Champion after finals.

larger photo – NYTimes

Too young to compete in the Beijing Olympics.

… Or it may be that the reporter for the People’s Daily Online made a “mistake”.

Gymblog and Shergymrag jumped on this “mistake”.

This is the biggest scandal waiting to happen in our sport right now.

Great routine. Amazing landings. Aussie record score = 15.750

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Thanks Emily.

More routines from that competition on YouTube.

Read more on the Australia Gymnastics blog.