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Lilia Podkopayeva (Russian: Лилия Александровна Подкопаева; Ukrainian: Лілія Олександрівна Подкопаєва) was the 1996 Olympic all-around champion. Many consider her the greatest of all time.

Podkoypayeva was often referred to as the “complete package” gymnast, possessing equal qualities of technical skill and artistic expression. Her routines were known for their melding of balletic, expressive choreography, clean execution, impeccable form and extremely difficult skills. In addition, Podkopayeva was known for being strong on all four apparatus, without an obvious weak event. She was the originator of two skills that are still included in the Code of Points: the Podkopayeva vault and a double front half-out salto on the floor exercise.

Lilia Podkopayeva – Wikipedia

Most extraordinary in that era was her front tumbling. Double front half out is still almost never seen 12ys later. Valentin Uzunov (The Gym Press) compares all other Floor routines against this one.

Click PLAY or watch Pod compete it in Floor Finals at the 1996 Olympics on YouTube.

The International Gymnastics Hall of Fame will hold its 12th annual induction ceremony Saturday, Feb. 9. …

The IGHOF Class of 2008 includes Olympic champions Shuji Tsurumi (Japan), Stoyan Deltchev (Bulgaria), Ma Yanhong (China) and Lilia Podkopayeva (Ukraine).

International Gymnast

An Alaskan likes to travel around the world.

Doing a Mayan-inspired handstand at the Chichen Itza temple complex in Yucutan, Mexico. (1992)

Photo by Rudy Brueggemann © 1992

Check Rudy’s handstand gallery.

(via About.com Gymnastics)

Craig Henningsen

Click PLAY or watch the short clip on Youtube.

(via Straight to the Bar from Flip Catch)

Another valuable article from Tulsa World of Gymnastics on the neglected, if not forgotten, forward hip circle on bars.

A waste of time? Or a valuable progression for kip?

… Now, the crucial part: timing. To correctly do a front hip circle, you need to keep your body extended as you lean forward until you are about to reach horizontal. Now is the time to put your stomach muscles in action. As quickly as you can, snap your body from the extended position to a pike. (Many beginning gymnasts exaggerate this extended-to-pike snap — and this is okay — but as you become more comfortable with the skill, you can start from a hollow body position and go to the pike.)

Be sure that you think about bringing your chest to your legs, rather than letting your legs drop as you bend your body. Making this mistake will result in a decrease in how much power you get going around the bar. …

See the rest of the article – Tulsa World of Gymnastics

More articles like this in their Gymnastics Tips for Gymnasts and Coaches section.

Personally, I like forward hip circles. They are not super important progressions. (Most boys would do very few.) But it’s a good challenge and supplement for girls learning kip. If you have them in compulsory routines in your region, count yourself lucky.

On April 13, 2007 last season, University of Oklahoma’s Abdullah-Simmons became the first black gymnast to win the NCAA all-around national title.

It was an unexpected and great achievement for Taqiy. (I wasn’t even following him for the All-around.)

ESPN’s Jay Weiner posted a feature profile on him. One point of interest was contested by USA’s Ron Galimore:

In gymnastics circles, some say the unspoken bias was that African-American gymnasts weren’t good all-around, that they excelled on the floor exercise or vault, Amin said, but not other events.

Galimore, now a USA Gymnastics vice president and an international judge, disagreed that such a myth exists.

“I would beg to differ,” Galimore said. “Mike Carter. Jair Lynch. Chainey Umphrey would beg to differ. No. No.”

At any rate, the Abdullah-Simmons family didn’t let it stop them.

“I never paid any attention to that,” Taqiy’s father said of the undertones. “I always told our kids to do all six (events). You’ve got to have a six-shooter. You’ve got to be fully loaded.”

“I definitely heard that, that African-American gymnasts were only good in power events, the floor and vault and, occasionally, rings,” Taqiy said. “It makes it a lot better to know that I was able to be considered a good all-around gymnast and not just, you know, status quo.” …

read the entire article – ESPN

World silver medalist on Horizontal Bar in 1987 Curtis Hibbert from Canada would disagree, as well.

I track many personal athlete blogs, rarely linking to them on this site. Many, especially the NCAA gymnast blogs, are little more than rah rah promotional tools.

Only one athlete blog is consistently interesting. Even fascinating.

That’s Kyle Shewfelt, reigning Olympic champion on Floor. (I may be biased since I edit his official website. You need to check for yourself.)

As a sample, here’s Kyle’s feature on his “Guardian Angel”, his physiotherapist, Susan Massitti, someone who has been there for him throughout his recovery from injury at World’s last year:

Guardian Angel – Kyle Shewfelt

Browse down the list of posts from the home page. You’ll see the highs and lows of an elite athlete in “rehab”. Honest and compelling.

Thanks Kyle.

by Rick McCharles

Charles Minster is the best editor of gymnastics coaching videos in Australia. He’s a legend Down Under.

GREAT NEWS. His work, previously only easily available only in Australia and the U.K., is now being distributed by GymSmarts, the #1 producer of Gymnastics Educational and Training Videos and DVDs in the world.

The first three video sets — all featuring coaches from the U.K. — are recent releases:

I have all three and can strongly recommend them:

1) Dance for Gymnastics with Daniela Nanova (2 DVDs $75) – my review

2) Gymnastics Skills with Christine Still (2 DVDs $75)

3) Key Skills in Advanced Gymnastics for girls & boys by Paul Hall (2 DVDs $75)

The three are complimentary. Obviously the first set is specifically for coaches of dance, artistic preparation and choreography.

British coach Christine Still covers basic skills for the beginner and intermediate women’s artistic gymnastics coach.

But the best of the three sets, for me, is Paul Hall from England. This is the best video I saw in 2007. He’s a brilliant and original coach. The drills interesting and unusual. The video content is valuable for Men’s coaches as well as Women’s. (Read my review of this DVD set from last September.)

All three have sample video clips — check those out — linked from the GymSmarts home page.

My buddy Randy McMullen is again running Emma Lake summer camp for girls.

This is a wilderness environment north of Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, Canada. A facility maintained beautifully — indoors and out — by the University of Saskatchewan.

I have attended for 10 summers or more in the past. And hope to get back in 2008.

Early Registration deadline is March 1, 2008 (CAD $350).

The cost goes up after that if any of the 60 spaces for campers are still available.

Best way to get more information is by phone: 1-306-922-4812

Send me your camp information by email (top right hand corner of each page) if you want it promoted on this site.

High praise from one not easily impressed:

This is the coolest routine in NCAA this year thus far. …

Aleksas

Click PLAY or watch Allyse on YouTube.

Allyse and teammate Tabitha Yim have more dance elements in their routines than you see in an FIG competition, all routines combined.

Too much?

I don’t think so. This is pizazz. Crowd appeal. This is why people watch NCAA gymnastics.

I heard coach Mike Lorenzen say he doesn’t feel Stanford has really “hit” Floor yet this season. But they already have people paying attention to their routines.

I’ll be sitting close to videotape their competition this weekend — Chicago Style: Stanford University, UCLA, Illinois and Washington. This blogger is getting a media credential.

(via Difficulty Plus Execution)

Winter Cup is ON this weekend in Vegas.

ALL the media coverage will focus on the return of Olympic gymnastics champion Paul Hamm. (Morgan is still injured.) And corporations love media attention.

… So far, Hamm is representing Visa, as one of the corporation’s select few Summer Olympic athletes, and he and Morgan are endorsing Adidas, Hilton Hotels and Johnson & Johnson (through the cable TV and online docudrama “Family Room,” emphasizing family relationships on their journey to make the Beijing Olympic team). They recently shot a ‘Got Milk!’ ad. And there are plenty more deals in the works.

“It’s their biggest and busiest Olympics ever,” says their agent Sheryl Shade. “This is the first Olympics since the 1996 Atlanta Games with so many individual athlete endorsement opportunities. Corporations are interested in getting a foothold in China, so they’re going all out. Paul and Morgan are getting lots of calls. Theirs is a unique story. Twins. Coming out of retirement for a third Olympics.”

Hamm’s competition schedule will be relentless. After Las Vegas, he’ll compete in the Tyson American Cup on March 1, the Pacific Alliance in March, then head to Europe for a competition to get acclimated to traveling, time zone changes and the equipment that will be used in Beijing. Then it’s onto the U.S. men’s championships May 22-24 and the Olympic trials June 19-22.

Hamm back in routine to defend gold medal – USA Today

I thought corporations might be reluctant after the scandal of how Paul won in Athens. Seems I am wrong.