Gymnastics Coaching.com

The 1968 Olympics Black Power salute was a noted black nationalist protest and one of the most overtly political statements in the 110 year history of the modern Olympic Games. African American athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos performed their Power to the People salute at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City.

… American athlete Smith won the 200 metre race race in a then-world-record time of 19.83 seconds, with Australia’s Peter Norman second with a time of 20.06 seconds, and American Carlos in third place with a time of 20.10 seconds. After the race was completed, the three went to collect their medals at the podium. The two American athletes received their medals shoeless, but wearing black socks, to represent black poverty. Smith wore a black scarf around his neck to represent black pride. Carlos wore beads which he described “were for those individuals that were lynched, or killed that no-one said a prayer for, that were hung and tarred. It was for those thrown off the side of the boats in the middle passage.” All three athletes wore Olympic Project for Human Rights (OPHR) badges, after Norman expressed sympathy with their ideals. …

Carlos had forgotten his black gloves, but Norman suggested that they share Smith’s pair, with Smith wearing the right glove and Carlos the left. When “The Star-Spangled Banner” played, Smith and Carlos delivered the salute with heads bowed, a gesture which became front page news around the world. As they left the podium they were booed by the crowd. …

what happened to these men? – find out on Wikipedia

And what do the historic protesters think about Beijing?
Tommie Smith and John Carlos warn of the price of protest – Times Online

People at the top are worried something similar will happen in 2008:

In a letter to national federations, the IOC decreed that all athletes must refrain from clothing, gestures and written or oral statements that demonstrate “political, religious or racial propaganda” at Olympic venues. The missive did not outline punishment guidelines for infractions. …

At Olympics, silence is not golden – Mercury News

Drop a baby from 50ft on to a tramp?

For 500 years, worshippers at a Muslim shrine in western India have continued the tradition — a rite considered to bring good health and good luck to the children.

The infants land and bounce on a bed-sheet held taut by men 50 feet below, and are quickly passed through the crowd to their mothers.

Villagers say no babies have been injured during the ritual, which is practiced by Muslims and Hindus in Musti village in the district of Solapur, in the state of Maharashtra. …

CNN story and video

To see the a BBC video click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Results are up for Level 9 and 10 Nationals.

It was hosted this year by Branch Gymnastics in Battle Creek, Michigan.

competition home page

… a qualifier for Level 10 gymnasts to the Visa Championships (May 22-24 in Houston), where the national teams for both age groups are determined. …

USA Gymnastics

Denver Post John Meyer visits the USA Gymnastics Women’s National Team Training Center at Bela Karolyi’s Ranch in Texas.

http://www.brightcove.tv/playerswf

Andrew Thornton on Gymnast.com has been at it again.

Comparing apples and oranges (scores from different meets) and extrapolating what would happen if these 3 all HIT …

Obviously these are all hypothetical scores …

Jiang Yuyuan: 63.2

Nastia Liukin: 63.0

Shawn Johnson: 62.9

WOW – those were honestly the first numbers I came up with – no adjustments! Keep in mind these numbers assumed Shawn WOULDN’T compete the Yurchenko 2 ½, and I think there’s a good chance she will. If we add that in, her score would go up around 7 or 8 tenths and she’d be in first place. …

Shawn by all reports can do the Amanar vault (Yurchenko 2 ½) easily (video) and remains the favourite. Jiang Yuyuan will likely be the gymnast pushed by China for the AA. She may well be Shawn’s strongest challenger.

Check out Andrew’s detailed analysis with video of Yuyuan’s Floor routine from last weekend on Gymnast.com.

Jiang Yuyuan of China competes on the beam during the women’s individual all-round final of the “Good Luck Beijing” 2007 International Gymnastics Tournament in Beijing, capital of China on Nov. 29, 2007. Jiang won the champion with a score of 61.225.

(Xinhua Photo)

Jiang wins women’s all-around at Olympic gymnastics test – China View

Almost everyone is predicting He Kexin will win bars at the Olympics.

At Tianjing 2008 Chinese Gymnastics National Championships Event Finals her teammate Yang Yilin matched her start value, but did not score nearly as high: 16.725 (7.7 A)

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Compare that routine with He Kexin in Finals 17.325 (7.7 A) – with 3 obvious deductions – video. Seems too high.

Are the Chinese judges are already “pushing” for specific girls on each apparatus? There’s no need to over score He Kexin on bars. That kind of strategy could easily backfire.

videos from this competition are still being added

I’ve been critical of Jennifer Sey’s new book, the most recent to whip up a media frenzy about “abuse of girls in high level competitive Artistic Gymnastics”.

Before that I was critical of the book Little Girls in Pretty Boxes which whipped up a media frenzy about disordered eating of girls and women in Ice Skating and Women’s Artistic Gymnastics.

In both sensational books a few terrible incidents cited were purported to be endemic in all elite clubs.

That’s not true. But it sells books.

The REAL problem in gymnastics is the high drop out rate of young girls, disillusioned with competitive gymnastics.

I entered gymnastics when I was five and left when I was twelve. I entered being a happy kid who had fun in gym and left being an unhappy preteen who loathed gym. …

arielal09

This happens every year in almost every competitive gym.

But no one wants to write a book about Ariela09.

Related: why ex-gymnasts hate the sport after retirement

photo – flickr

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Aussie Nationals is in less than 2wks.

(via Australian Gymnastics Blog)

China dominated at World’s 2007. Here are the reigning gold medalists.

China’s Men’s gymnastic team with Yang Wei, Xiao Qin, Huang Xu, Liang Fuliang, Chen Yaibing, Zou Kai, from left, celebrates during the medal ceremony after winning gold in the Men’s team final of the Gymnastics World Championships in Stuttgart …

(AP Photo/Daniel Maurer)

ESPN – Gymnastics Photo Wire

Who will be on their 2008 Olympic Team? (I’d heard last summer they were trying for minimum 7.0 start values on every routine for Team finals.)

Most of the top contenders:

2008 Chinese National Championships
May 10-11, Tianjin

Men’s Floor Exercise
1t. Zou Kai 16.300 (6.7 A)
1t. Liang Fuliang 16.300 (6.5 A)
3. Zhang Chenglong 15.700

Pommel Horse
1. Xiao Qin (A 6.6) 16.575 ……. WOW
2. Zhang Hongtao (A 6.6) 16.375
3. Chen Chen

Still Rings
1t. Chen Yibing 17.100 (7.4 A)
1t. Yang Wei 17.100 (7.5 A)
3. Yan Mingyong

Men’s Vault
1. Guo Jiahao 16.587
2. Hu Junjie 16.300
3. Liang Mingsheng 16.262
… Li Xiaopeng competed only one vault (16.900, highest score) during preliminaries as a safety precaution

Parallel Bars
1. Huang Xu 16.800 (7.0 A)
2. Feng Zhe 16.650 (7.0 A)
3. Yang Wei 16.475 (7.0 A)

High Bar
1. Zou Kai 16.55 (7.0 A)
2. Feng Zhe 15.925
3. He Jiajin 15.725

Next up for the Chinese Olympic contenders is this weekend’s World Cup in Tianjin. Slated to compete for China are Cheng Fei, He Kexin, Yang Yilin and Xiao Sha for the women, and Yang Wei, Chen Yibing, Li Xiaopeng, Xiao Qin, Zou Kai and Huang Xu for the men.

Lu Bin, who unfortunately suffered a major elbow injury just days before Nationals … is likely out of Olympic contention.

read more on International Gymnast

Detailed, excellent post by Lisa Wang just went up on International Gymnast:

The Chinese National Championships, which also served as one stop of the Olympic team trials, concluded Sunday in Tianjin.

When asked to recap the weeklong competition and where the Chinese women currently stand as a team, Head Coach Lu Shanzhen reiterated that “the [Olympic] team gold is of course of the utmost priority.” Comparing the Chinese and U.S. teams, Coach Lu noted that “the U.S. National Championships have not taken place yet, so we are not certain what secret weapons or new upgrades the U.S. team will unveil. However, from the information gathered so far, in a 6-3-3 team scenario, the Chinese team can now match or even outscore the U.S. on vault, on bars we can outscore the U.S., and on floor exercise if we hit our routines the way we’ve hit them today we’ll be on par with the U.S. team for a good fight.”

Coach Lu’s optimism is wisely tamed with caution though, as he emphasizes that “while we’ve made significant technical upgrades across the board, competition results are not determined on technical ability alone. We have a relatively young squad, so stress management under high-pressure continues to be an area we work on and improve upon.” …

read the rest of this article on IG

… there’s the rub. Can China hit 12 for 12 in the Olympic Team Final?

I’m still thinking the team with the highest start score will win preliminaries. The team toughest psychologically will win Finals. That will be the USA.

Some of the top contenders for the Chinese Olympic Team:

2008 Chinese National Championships
May 10-11, Tianjin

Women’s Vault
1. Cheng Fei 15.812 (Double-twisting Yurchenko, 15.50/Cheng 16.125)
2. Deng Shaojie 15.45
3. Deng Linlin 14.90

Uneven Bars
1. He Kexin 17.325 (7.7 A)
2. Yang Yilin 16.725 (7.7 A)
3. Pang Panpan 16.475
4. Jiang Yuyuan 16.40

Balance Beam
1. Sui Lu 16.575 (7.0 A)
2. Guo Wei 16.500 (6.9 A)
3. Zhang Nan 16.300 (6.8 A)
4. Cheng Fei 16.175 (6.8 A)
5. Li Shanshan 16.125
6. Cui Jie 16.050

Women’s Floor Exercise
1t. Sui Lu 16.200 (6.4 A)
1t. Cheng Fei 16.200 (6.5 A)
3. Yang Yilin 15.675 (6.2 A)
4. Cui Jie 15.500
5. He Ning 15.625
6t. Guo Wei 15.500
6t. Jiang Yuyuan 15.500
8. Xiao Sha 15.450

IMHO, the Chinese girls on Floor are not nearly “on par” with the USA. Here’s co-winner Sui Lu in Finals. Her score of 16.2 out of 16.4 for this routine is clearly absurd.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

I don’t particularly like Cheng Fei’s Floor routine (video) either.

more videos from the meet on YouTube posted by fanbutterfly

UPDATE:

Routine-by-routine analysis is bringing to light more questions about the validity of these scores. For example:

BEAM – Gold: Sui Lu (7.0 A-score, two wobbles and a sizable step on the dismount. A 16.575?! These Chinese judges put even the Scam Cup judges to shame when it comes to the outrageous over scoring of home gymnasts.)

polish101 blog

Note: The “Scam Cup” is what brutally accurate bloggers call the American Cup, famous for too high judging scores.

Ooo. … I dunno. This is a GREAT BEAM ROUTINE with a few errors.

Click PLAY or watch Sui Lu win Beam Finals on YouTube.

polish101 does concede that Sui Lu will be on the Olympic Team.