tumbling, tramp, diving, acrobatics, circus, cheer, dance, martial arts, X sports … and more
Every year I see increasingly fit Yoga practitioners.
A non-gymnast friend, Andy, recently told me he learned straddle L-sit press to handstand (in middle age) though Yoga training. That’s impressive considering he was primarily a wrestler in his youth.
This is NOT Andy.
photographer Josef Vital – original on flickr
So says an article on the topic of the “cost” of high performance sport.
Big Expenses for Small Athletes
Shawn Johnson is on a six-day-aweek workout schedule. The 14- year-old gymnast from West Des Moines trains 25 hours a week at Chow’s Gymnastics & Dance with her coaches, Liang and Li Chow. She already competes on the national team, and now she is hoping to earn a spot on the 2008 U.S. Olympic team.
I would be very impressed if an Olympic medal contender like Shawn trained that few hours. It would be a brave and confident decision by her coaches who are aware the rest of the National team train well over 30hrs / week.
(Shawn said in a 2006 interview that she trains 4hrs / day after school. Leave a comment below if you know Shawn’s exact training hours over the past number of years.)
Courtesy of Jason Harris – Sports Illustrated
I’d expect Shawn to be the favourite at the upcoming Pan-Am Games.
More discussion on the Gym Chat forum: What it means to be elite
…gymnastics venue for the Pan American Games in Rio de Janeiro, Wednesday, July 11, 2007. The games, which will feature more than 5,000 athletes from 42 countries, begin Friday.
(AP Photo/Gregory Bull) ESPN – Gymnastics Photo Wire
GymnasticsCoaching.com editor Rick McCharles is confirmed for Championships:
USA GYMNASTICS NATIONAL CONGRESS and TRADE SHOW
Aug. 16-18, 2007 – San Jose, California
Held in conjunction with 2007 Visa Championships at the HP Pavilion
(I hope to schedule a coaches “meet-up” there. Look for details on this blog a few days before the event if you will be there.)
Other USA Gymnastics Congress events in 2007:
Region 6 Congress
Aug. 2-5, 2007 – Newton, Massachusetts – Boston Marriott NewtonRegion 5 Congress
Sept. 21-23, 2007 – Indianapolis, Indiana – Sheraton Indianapolis Hotel & SuitesRegion 7 Congress
Sept. 27-30, 2007 – King of Prussia, Pennsylvania – The Inn at Valley Forge
Somewhat hurt since Worlds 2006, I’m hopeful the ever photogenic Nastia will be back on schedule.
She’s very tough to beat on Bars and Beam.
LIUKIN’S COMEBACK PLAN
Pan American Games (July 13-29, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil): Liukin plans to ease back into competition, competing only on uneven bars and beam. Liukin competed in the Pan Am Games in 2003 and will provide leadership to a young team.
Visa Championships (Aug. 15-18, San Jose, Calif.): Liukin looks to return to all-around competition in time to defend her two-time senior national title and qualify for Worlds. She won the junior national title in 2003 and 2004.
World Championships (Sept. 1-9, Stuttgart, Germany): Liukin won world titles on beam and uneven bars and was the all-around world runner-up in 2005. In 2006, she won silver on the uneven bars, the only event she could compete in because she needed ankle surgery.
Liukin easing into competition after ankle injury | Dallas Morning News
I’ve seen a few on-line raves from Austria. Including this one from GYMmedia.
Germany and Switzerland evenings:
In addition to the FIG-Gala the national evenings of these two national gymnastics associations, which are among the biggest of their type in the world, are traditionally the cultural and sporting highlights of every World Gymnaestrada week .
The tickets for these festivals of the senses, of colours and creative ideas were much sought after …
“MU HA MA BE” was the title of the Swiss evening, which stood for “MUsik – HAndlung -MAterial – BEwegung”, i.e. music, action, material and movement, the four creative principles of choreography; the purpose of the show was to search for the very essence of gymnastics….
GymFamily.Com
The Swiss and the German Evening
Leave a comment if you have news from Gymnaestrada.
From an article prior to the 2006 NCAA Championships:
… glitter to coordinating hair ribbons, Gymnasts have this routine down
Women’s gymnastics is one of the few sports where makeup in competition is encouraged, and coordinating hair ribbons with leotards is common.
Gymnasts are also some of the few people who can still get away with wearing scrunchies since that trend died in the mid-1990s.
…
If that article appeals, check the discussion here: competition hair/make-up/glitter/hair spray styles – Gym Chat
ATHENS, Ga. — Sophomore Courtney Kupets of the 2007 NCAA Champion Gym Dogs was recognized for her academics as a first-team member of the 2007 ESPN The Magazine Academic All-America women’s at-large team as selected by the College Sports Information Directors of America.
The 2007 NCAA All-Around and Vault Champion posted a 4.0 in the spring, which improved her cumulative grade point average to a 3.86. She joined Oklahoma’s Brittany Koncak-Schumann and Northern Illinois’ Jody Yednock as the only gymnasts to make the first team. She was also one of only two sophomores to earn the distinction.
Kupets, who is pursuing a major in furnishings and interiors, has won back-to-back NCAA All-Around titles, becoming the first gymnast to do so since Georgia’s Kim Arnold also captured back-to-back crowns in 1997-98.
(via Chalk Bucket)
The Beijing Olympic Committee for the Olympic Games 2008 (BOCOG) has just announced the “Official Supplier” of the 2008 Olympic Games.The Dutch company “Janssen–Fritsen” from Helmond/NED has once again been selected, for the 5th time, to supply the artistic gymnastics equipment which will be used at the Olympic Games 2008 in the Chinese capital.
Apologies.
I had previously posted that a new Chinese company had won the contract for Artistic Gymnastics.
The 2007 edition, to be held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, has prompted the Organizing Committee to restore important venues such as the Estádio do Maracanã and build a new Olympic Village. It is expected that the games will improve infrastructure in the city and lay the foundations for a possible bid for the 2014 FIFA World Cup.
There’s even talk that Brazil will bid for the 2016 Olympics, if successful, the first time they would be held in South America.
Rio 2007 Pan American Games official website – English
The 33 sports include Artistic Gymnastics, Rhythmic Gymnastics, Trampoline, Water Skiing and Artistic Skating (like Figure Skating but on wheels).
Gymnastics Coaching.com 