I Can Has Cheezburger? is an unexpected internet sensation, a blog from Hawaii getting 1.5 million visitors on a good day. They didn’t invent LOLcats, but they popularized the phenomenon.
You can build your own LOLcat on their factory page.
Inevitably, people came up with LOLgymnasts. Looks like the Australian Gymnastics Blogger is getting into it, too.
Katie’s really moving on after a fantastic career. Her performance in Team finals was dramatic:
… Georgia was nearly flawless until the rock in their line-up, Senior Katie Heenan, fell hard on a high release move from bars. This was the first fall from the team.
Georgia moved next directly to beam, the apparatus that has been the undoing of many an NCAA team. Yet Yoculan felt confident. Lead-off Freshman Hilary Mauro hit for 9.80, and the team felt sure they could finish this apparatus strong. They’d been focusing on this situation in training.
To make things right, Heenan came back with a superb 9.95 on beam and mathematically sealed the Georgia victory. Athens 2004 Olympian Courtney McCool was last competitor. A 9.90 that turned out not even to be needed for the team win. …
I’ve not been nearly so interested in the NBA since that shot.
What was special about Jordan was his “will to win”. A kid who could not make his highschool basketball team in Grade 10 went on to become the greatest of all-time. The next best athlete I’ve seen in terms of “will to win”, is Tiger Woods.
Both have made some fantastic TV commercials for Nike. But my favourite ever is this one called Failure.
That’s a lesson all athletes need learn. You cannot win unless you are willing to fail.
Leading up to the Olympics, we’ll hear this comment over and over:
“China’s gymnasts have a tendency to falter under Olympic pressure. At the Athens Games, the men’s team, favored for gold, wound up fifth.” (source – NBC Olympics)
Out of fear of failure at home, will the Chinese gymnasts falter? Many agree that competition in Beijing will be psychologically tough for Chinese athletes.
Personally I predict the Chinese men will not miss this time. They will have a much higher start score. And they will hit.
The Chinese women’s team, I predict, will finish second to the USA. They may have a slight advantage in start score. But the young American women will be less afraid of losing than will be the girls from China.
For some rediculous reason, all those trying out for the Olympics must compete All-Around at trials. Yet the selection criteria includes specialisits.
Japan is slow to embrace anything new.
2008 Men’s Japanese Olympic Selection Criteria
1. Top 3 all-around (50% from the April trial + 100% NHK Cup)
2. Top 3 event specialists
a) event specialists must be in top 12 AA
b) Points are awarded differently on each event: FX, VT, PB, HB: 3 points for 1st, 2 for 2nd, 1 for 3rd; PH and SR: 4 points for 1st, 3 for 2nd, 2 for 3rd
c) calculate the points from all four days of the April trial and NHK Cup, with special criteria (d)
d)Priority given to:
(i) the gymnast who earns points on pommel horse or still rings
(ii) the gymnast who earns points on more than two events, including floor exercise
At championships 2008 Canadian Casey Sandy hit every routine for 3 days in series.
He’s not well known in the USA. So I interviewed him for Gymnast.com.
Penn State Coach Randy Jepson was not surprised that his All-Arounder Casey Sandywon Championships 2008. Nor that Casey defeated former NCAA champion, Jonathan Horton of Oklahoma, even though Horton finished 4th at World Championships in 2007.
Casey was ranked #1 in the NCAA for most of the season. Coach Jepson knew Casey was the man to beat. Why was everyone else surprised?
After a weird and horrific injury (two broken knee caps) in training at World Championships 2007, many thought there was no way the Olympic Floor Champion from 2004 would be in Beijing to defend his title.
Yet he is scheduled to compete at the Canadian National Championships in his home town Calgary in early June. All eyes will be on him.
… Beijing, Shewfelt says, is no longer a dream, but an obsession, something he thinks about every minute of the day. He’s careful to dampen the expectations, adding that it will be a victory just to be in China and compete. But one senses that in his mind, Shewfelt is already thinking of the next good landing, and another trip up the podium.
“When I’m prepared and I trust myself, I can deliver,” he says. “I’ve never once missed a routine in Olympic competition.”
AT&T sponsored a HUGE autograph session at NCAA Championships in Athens, Georgia. This is one of the first kids in line. She had been picked from one of the local boys and girls clubs.
That’s an official poster provided by AT&T.
I stood in line with Randy Bernard, co-founder of the Gym Meet forum — it took a long, long time for kids to reach the tables.
Personally, I think teams at Championships should send fewer athletes to the autograph session.
If you haven’t done so already, check out the GymMeet forum. A new site, it’s popularity is growing rapidly. We link to it from every page in the right hand navigation under forums.
Gymnastics Coaching.com 