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Gabby Logan posted a strong personal opinion piece on why elite gymnastics is good for kids. And why Beth is a great role model.

As it turned out, Beth Tweddle finished third in voting for BBC Sports Personality of the Year after world champion horse rider Zara Phillips and golfer Darren Clarke.

Beth Tweddle’s gold medal on the uneven bars at the World Gymnastics Championships this year has inspired a generation of children in Britain who were previously under the impression that unless you are Chinese or from a former state of the Soviet Union, you don’t stand a chance on the world stage.

The gold medal was a good start, as was the one she collected at the World Cup in Brazil on Saturday night, but coming in the top three on Sports Personality of the Year could give gymnastics the kind of PR that money can’t buy.

What is not to love about gymnastics? It combines just about every attribute you could hope for in a sportsman or woman: grace, bravery, confidence, dexterity and power, to name a few. Most young girls and lots of young boys do gymnastics of some sort, even if it is only for one term at school, so the chances are you will be familiar with a horse, a beam or at the least a mat, although because of scarce television coverage we are not on first-name terms with the national squad.

Gymnastics: Tweddle can prove an inspiration to whole generation of children – Sport – Times Online

2004 photo – Samantha Davies (one of our favourite photographers)

You will be hearing a lot about Macau in the coming years.

It’s being developed as Las Vegas EAST. (Cirque du Soleil is already in creation.)

source – LaTur – flickr

The Macau Tower (aka Dr Ho’s erection) is becoming a world adventure tourism destination.

You can climb to the top of the mast (video), “Sky Jump” (video), or “Sky Walk” around the tower. No hand rail.

source – jo_chua1081 – flickr

Or bungie jump from a platform 233m high stopping about 30m from the ground. You reach speeds of 200km / hr during the 4-5sec freefall.

Details – MacauTower.com

(via TeamGearedUp blog)

UPDATE: more photos – Adventure Blog

Get well soon.

Carina Hasenöhrl (18) was badly injured in a training accident in the Netherlands on November 7th. She landed a double front on the floor on her head with full force. The MRI-diagnosis revealed that the 4th cervical vertebra is broken and the 3rd vertebrae is dislocated but luckily there are no signs of paralysis (anymore).

Backflip Gymnastics News РCarina Hasen̦hrl injured

photo – V. Minkus, FIG

I was so impressed with director Stacy Peralta’s skateboard documentary Dogtown and Z-boys that I immediately got his next film, Riding Giants (2004).

The film profiles Greg Noll, Laird Hamilton, and Jeff Clark, fantastic athletes I’d never heard of before. These three invented modern big wave surfing and tow-in surfing by having the courage to try things no one else had ever done.

It’s inspiring. Peralta is one brilliant film maker.

To see the trailer click PLAY or watch the video on YouTube.

Riding Giants – Wikipedia

Wow.

Even with many conspicuously missing athletes, this is a great sign for the sport!

Cups and Medals – FIG

Wajdi Bouallegue (TUN) was the first Arab gymnast yet to qualify for a WC Final. Congratulations!

After a very successful meet, Brazil is ready to celebrate Christmas!

Crowds were good and the competition a success by all reports.

GymMedia posted an excellent wrap-up page with full results and photos of many of the winners:

13th World Cup Final finished a very hard year of competitions! – GymMedia

As at World Championships, GymMedia had by far the best coverage on the internet.

photo Brazilian FX winners – Lais SOUZA bronze (left) and gold medalist Daiane DOS SANTOS

I’ve always loved team photo day at the gym.

Altadore Gymnastics scheduled the shoot right after the new uniforms arrived. And right before Christmas. (That way parents can roll the cost of the uniforms into the Christmas present budget.)

larger photo on AltadoreGymnasticsClub.com

I’m too fatigued with the issue to read all the comments on this post. But if you are still keen on the topic …

Gymnastics is certainly a sport, but there’s something kooky about a sport where the results are determined by judges who can sometimes give out baffling scores.

The Yin Blog: Olympics: What’s wrong with gymnastics (and other sports with scoring judges)

The FIG website is not one I normally like. Generally it is messy and content dull.

But they have a good page up for the World Cup. It includes interviews, news coverage, information on organizers and — best of all — more (small) photos by official photographer Volker Minkus.

FIG РF̩d̩ration Internationale de Gymnastique РWorld Cup Final 2006 РBrazil

If interested ONLY in the photos, you are better to go directly to the MinkusImages.de website.

I went to check out the indoor skydiving at Flyaway, Las Vegas.

It’s expensive if you just show up at the door. Get a group of people together and book a time in advance for a good price.

The video clips of advanced flyers look great. They can flip and twist as can real skydivers.

But beginners are limited in what they are allowed to do — basically just spin like a turntable.

Procedure: It involves floating on a column of high-speed air inside a tube-like chamber. training session includes a five-minute video, you’re taught the proper posture: back arched, arms above your head and legs slightly bent. It seems easy, but once you get into the chamber, there are so many fluctuations.

Precaution : People with neck or shoulder problems, or previous shoulder separations should avoid it.

Adventure Blog – SkyVenture, Orlando

video of beginner at Flyaway in Las Vegas – Google video

China’s Cheng Fei took gold on vault winning by a margin of almost 0.5.

It’s nice to see a vault / floor specialist from China. Those are traditionally the weak events.

Cheng, Tweedle win gold in gymnastics World Cup Final in Brazil – Sports – International Herald Tribune

more photos – GymBox.net