A Formal Apology....

Very sorry about the radio silence.  Am in the process of finishing up and handing in my Masters thesis and working five nights.  Time is, as you can imagine, a little tight at the moment.  But as soon as this puppy is handed in, I will be back!  I promise!

See you soon!

Youtube Gems #200048!

The 1994 Goodwill Games team Competition

So, 19972000USgym fan put this tasty little gymnastics treat up in the last week or so.  This is a fantastic contest for many reasons, particularly the calibre of gymnasts competing, that it has some of the last decades best gymnasts at interesting times in their career and because it shows the Ukes and the Russians just after the transition was made to independant states.  This team competition has everything.  Here are some of the things that made it such an interesting gymnastics viewing experience.

The young Svetlana Khorkina was there and she was divine.  That early beam routine she used to do would have to go into my top ten of all time beam routines.  I really loved how the russian used forward rolls on beam back then.  I don't know why, but I like 'em.  I also love her floor routine from that time.  There wasn't quite so much playing up to the camera/crowds/judges but she still had such musicality and originality- in fact perhaps more so than later.  It was great to hear Kathy Johnson say, after Svetlana Khorkina landed a stunning triple twist, "For all you tall gymnasts out there, there is hope.  She is phenomenal and gorgeous!"

In fact, the whole Russian team was a delight.  particularly Fabrichnova who was so, so talented, though her floor music made me giggle a little!  And as ever, I was delighted to see a competition where we actually got to see Dina Kochetkova  show off her unbelievable combination of height and grace.

It was interesting to see Ukraine in this very early transition period, especially in comparison to the Russians.  The Ukes were very tense as usual, but in many ways very much resembled the Soviets of old still, including the red and white leo.  They were beautifully trained and lovely to watch, but you could see that the Russians had moved leaps and bounds in front of them already, particularly in terms of innovation.  Kathy Johnson also repeatedly referred to how relaxed and funloving the Russians had been in training, despite the immense difficulty of their tricks.

The Lilipod was there, and doing my favorite version of her floor routines.  You know, it wasn't simply because she had such great execution and flair that i enjoyed her beam and floor so much, it was also the mere fact that she always went with the unusual leap or interesting jump.  It made her stand out.

On the vaulting front Olga Knizhnik's Cuervo vault left me breathless though she didn't quite hit the landing.  Also, is it just me or did Olga Knizhnik look incredibly sickly?  She was so pale and twiggy looking it made me nervous.  Yelena Piskun had immense power (love that girl) and I just adore watching Shannon Miller vault.  Even when she didn't hit, she made such a lovely swallow shape in the air.  I always think she and Mo Huilan had very similar vaulting form.  A Kazakh gymnast Irina Evodkimova did a great handspring full vault in a fabulously eighties leotard! And it is always strange going back to the old vaulting horse.  I get scared every time someone vaults!

It was an very interesting time for US gymnastics.  Miller as veteran had a patchy beam routine.  The thirteen-year-old (talk about pressure!) Jennie Thomson, Nunno's post-Miller protege was a bundle of nerves and gymnasts I had never really seen before like Soni Meduna weren't too hot either.  Marianna Webster did a nice beam set though.

Speaking of beam, it was funny to watch the Romanians after the Russians.  They looked so clunky and high speed.  They sped up and down the length of the plank kicking and jumping and looking decidedly ungraceful.  I really wasn't impressed even though they were all doing four tumbling elements in a row.

The whole contest was a virtual punch front-o-rama too!  I would be hard-pressed to name gymnasts who didn't use it as a beam mount (the Miller wasn't performing hers- there's one!) and they were all over the floor routines.  What I love about the Russian girls is they often land their punch fronts on floor from exactly where they took off which looks so precise and spectacular.  Most gymnasts move forward, I guess because they are a little under-rotated from the trick they have come out of.  It just looks so much better when the Russians did it.

The other popular move at this meet was the wolf leap, which has clearly had a renaissance this last quad too.  And just like now, many of them were so badly performed.  I don't get it.  They don't look that (comparatively) hard.  What gives?

And Grosheva's tkatchev on bars.  OMG!  

How embarassing!

Gymnastics, by nature, is a sport that is just asking for humiliation in some way, shape or form. 

It asks you to throw yourself over hard, immoveable and strangely shaped objects that could potentially leave you lying on the floor with your legs over your head. 

It asks you to do it in front of a crowd and a host of highly critical officiators.  

It asks you to bend your body into strange and uncomfortable positions- and asks you to do it with very few clothes on.  

It asks you to dance with grace and style, something the average teen finds uncomfortable and potentially degrading without the help of staring judges, loud audiences and television cameras.  

And of course, it asks you to do it at your most vulnerable-to-humiliation age....adolescence.

Basically, gymnastics is a hotbed of potential for humiliation. Even the most professional, elite gymnasts must go a bit red when they see themselves perform a particularly spectacular stack, do something goofy, or suffer an unusual wardrobe malfunction.

(Steliana Nistor, renowned for her unfortunate wardrobe 'issues')

As for young gymnasts, it seems the humiliation comes to them in many ways, shapes and forms, if the anecdotes at the USgymnet board are anything to go by!  Head over there if you want to read about the worst kinds of stacks, the humiliations of unintended er... bodily functions while training, forgetting your routines in the middle of a meet or what happens when nerves get the better of you in front of the judges!

My favorite;

"I was wearing my favorite leo, it was blue and had stars all over it.  So, we goto bars and I am doing my giants and flyaways and 'attempting' front giants.  I lean up against the cable that holds up the bars .  I was waiting for my turn.  When my friend Willow walked up to me, she scared me and I jumped.  And when i jumped the butt of my leo got caught in the cable and got a big rip so I had  a big hole in my butt. Right as it happened the news people walked in to interview the big girl team!! "

(Khorky: Oops! Under the beam!)

Of course some moments of humiliation are exactly that, outright mortifying and not funny at all, like Sacramones 08 teams experience, Kramarenko's vault choke and Atlers almost unbelievable meltdowns.  Some would be funny, like Dasha Joura's black eyes if it wasn't for the tragedy surrounding it, or Nicoletta Onel literally STEPPING out of floor bounds under the scary eye of Octavian Belu at the ITC.  But other, rare moment are just plain hilarious!  Face it, Gymnastics is a sport MADE for bloopers reels.  

In an old IG Forum, posters talked about what they though must have been the more embarassing moments for gymnasts.  Many mentioned Isabelle Severino's famous bars 'stack' in 2005.  It is the first routine in this video and the second 'stack' we are talking about!!

And lets not forget Elena Zamolodchikova's 'fall' in 2001.  That was pretty cute!

I always think the usually spectacularly graceful Ksenia Afasanyeva must have felt at least a little blush when she tripped over just walking out onto the floor at the Euros this year.

There are of course, many, many more moments.

Write in and tell us about your own moments of gymnastics mortification, or others you can remember from elite gymnasts during competitions!

Another Dream Team...

.....Nice to see Shushunova making an appearance on one of these Dream Teams.

If you want to play, read the original Dream Team post and email me yours at listaday@gmail.com....

The Real Gymnasts

Oksana Omelianchick (Floor, Beam, AA) (Floor, Beam)

Olesia Dudnik (Floor, Vault, Beam, Bars) (Bars, Beam, Floor) 

Elena Shushunova (AA, Vault) (AA, Vault)

Nadia Commenci (Bars, Floor) (AA)

Shawn Johnson (Vault, AA) (Vault)

Svetlana Khorkina (Bars, Beam) (Bars)

Alternates: Nastia Lukin, Alicia Sacramone

Coaches: Bela Karolyi, Eduard Nechai

In my team, for floor and beam, they may not have been the strongest tumblers, but they are spectacular dancers. My team is mostly gymnastics from way back when, but if they were in these times they could be better tumblers. Even if some of my gymnastics on these events might not have pulled of the difficulty of others, they make the judges and audience smile. Though, now a days, in the high levels gymnastics is losing it's art. So, those on floor and beam are to bring the art back. Some, I have just picked because I love their personality, like Shushunova who has the mindset of a football player, and obvious determination, and Oksana Omelianchick who is always smiling and can concentrate well. Lukin and Sacramone are my alternates, because they sre good all around, but weren't my top six (because I picked mainly dancers).

Face-off!

So, this week, gymnasts from Spain and Romania are/have (can never figure out the time diff) competing in a meet in Barcelona.  

The Romanians are taking Amelia Racea, Diana Trench, Raluca Haidu, Diana Chelaru, Gabriela Dragoi and Ana Porgas.

The Spanish team will be Ana Maria Izurieta, Naomi Ruiz, Mercedes Alcaide, Melody Pulgarin (which Romanian prosport translated as Pulgarin Song!  Cute!)  Anna Serra and Claudia Villa.

The girls will be facing off to see who wears the ugliest leo....ahem, I mean which new young team is looking better as we enter the new quad.  There is a lot of power in the young Spanish lot, but a heck more grace among the Romanians.  I will be interested to see how it plays out.

More from...

Mostepanova Fan

Well Mostepanova (THE SHE for all y'all arguing about it out there!) has kept the goodies coming, this time with wrap-ups of her favorite floor and beam routines which, as I said about the beam ones- IF you haven't seen these routines, you should treat Mostepanova fan's montages and code videos as your GYMNASTICS EDUCATION! 

I mean it. If you are a new gym fan and only like the Nastia's and Shawn's of today, that is great. But if you want to see some old gymnastics, even just to see how we have arrived at the state the sport is in now (in good and bad ways) Mostepanovafan's videos show some of the greatest, most innovative, graceful and influential routines in gymnastics history. Use them wisely gym fans!

The Floor List

The floor list was quite a predictable lot once you have a grip on Mostepanova's gymnastics taste, but that doesn't make them much less brilliant. She also includes a list of others she considered using, which is great, because I agree that floor would be the hardest to narrow down to five favorites.
I love Naimushina's dance. Always have. Was a bit nervous for her very low double pike at the beginning though!
I have always been in two minds about Camelia Voinea's breakdance routine. While i truly appreciate and admire it for its originality and excitement, I find breakdance very clunky in a floor routine. It gives me the same kind of mild irritation that the NCAA hip hop routines give me. But then, maybe I am just an old stick-in-the-mud.
The Lilipod's floor is a classic, and I personally am a fan of it's obvious referencing of traditional ballet form. She was so well-trained in dance. And the tumbling? Woot!
Omelianchik's birdie routine is nothing short of seminal in this sport. It was innovative in so many ways.
I realy, truly appreciate her inclusion of Filatova's because it is such a winning combination of pure grace and some really innovative modern moves. And this was long before Bogey pulled out the balletic air guitar!



The bars is an interesting set of routines too. Here, Mostepanovafan is giving full and due credit to the innovators in this particular event. Even the ones that didn't make it are a particularly interesting bunch of gymnasts. I was pleased to see she included the underrated Kochetkova and Severino in her cutlist.

The Bars List

I had never actually seen Wu Jiani's bars set before. Holy cow! How cool was that first release? And what a slow. deliberate bar worker! It was almost excruciatingly slow. But beautiful too! I watched it about five times! Pity about the clunky cowboy legs coming off the release.
I have been a long-time fan of Mukhina's bar work. I've always wondered how come she was allowed to do that standing back flip off the high bar? I thought it was banned after Korbut? Bar routines like Mukhina's reminds me of how much we have lost in bars work since the bars were set further apart and the big swinging started. I miss all the crazy transfers and constant innovation. And I LOVE that dismount!
Oh and I'd forgotten about the Li Li combination. It is so very, very cool. I love how the commentator calls it the dislocation position! Well actualy i don't love the term. It kind of makes me wince because it reminds me of all those pictures we see of Chinese kids hanging from the bar in the 'dislocation' position, stretching themselves to achieve that grip. Yow!
I adore Ma Yanhong's dismount and her split position, which i think was one of the most beautiful EVER.
Her top pick is politically charged in a way because it is Kim Gwang Suk's dive from bassinet to bar at the 1991 World Championships. Well, she was still seriously underage here, but how good was that routine?

Hiya

Sorry guys, internet issues, flu issues (hopefully not of the swine variety) and crazy social issues led me astray last week.  I've closed that can o' crazy and will be back to gymnastics blogging anon!

Beaming Like You

Wouldn't Believe!

So Mostepanovafan, the Youtube whizz kid with the awesome code-decoding videos, and catalogues of gymnastics skill that every self-respecting gymnastics fan must watch and learn if they didn't know every single thing already, has posted her (pretty sure it's a her) five favorite beam routines together in a video on Youtube. Even if you don't agree with the choices, watch and be blown away anyway by these orgiinal and exciting beam routines. 

I particularly adored seeing Svetlana Grozdova's routine because I had never seen it before. Wow. Talk about sticking to what you are good at!!  I love how one of the commenters said they loved its slower pace, and that it was not "Shawn Johnson barreling down the beam at warp speed"!!!  Now I love me some Shawn, but that was pretty funny!

Mostepanova fan is clearly a fan of beautiful handstand work, as am I. I just love it when a gymnast tumbles from a handstand position like Mostepanova does. I Love how one of the judges is clapping her after her routine too!

I always thought Kui Yuanyuan looked a Little bit robotic on beam, but who cannot gasp at her layout full twist?  And her wolf jump was absolutely exquisite!

Dudnik's routine is gorgeous and her dismount a stunner.

And Yango Bo.....what can you say?  That routine was over too quickly as far as I am concerned.  Could watch her all day.

Footloose, yes, but Flipping?

Apparently there has been a little bit of expectation around Gossip Girl star, Chace Cawford's planning on starring in the remake of the eighties dance film Footloose, after Zac Effron dropped out of the movie about a town that forbids dance for its wayward youth.  Even Kevin Bacon, the original star has had a word to say, reminding Chase of how tight the pants have to be for that role!

Blake Lively, on the other hand, was shocked to even hear that Chase got the part, because she'd never seen him dance.  And Blake has not forgotten the fact that Bacon's character was a gymnast.  She is looking forward to seeing Chase deal with that.

"I just want to see the gymnastics part.  I'm most excited about that!"

Something tell me Chace will not be doing all of that!  Something tells me, Kevin didn't do all those moves, either!

"I don't know if the gymnastics high bar scene is going to make it in." Chace told reporters, "I need to start stretching now!"

Youth Gathers Experience.....

At Ploiesti.  

So, Amelia, the newest wunderkind of Romanian gymnastcs has taken out the all-around crown at the Romanian Internatonal in Ploiesti this weekend.  Amelia is only just  coming off her win at the Lugano Trofeo contest last week and is heading to the Youth Olympic festival next month.

 Amelia told Prosport that she found the Lugano competition more difficult than the International, because the competition was bigger (Thanks for the peeps who pointed out i wrote it the wrong way around!).  

Everything at Ploiesti, however,  went as well as planned.  It seems she is learning to deal well with the pressure of serious competition because she claimed she was feeling a few emotons at the beginning of the contest, but "got over them" to compete well.

 She feels she is getting good competition experience and that this is giving her greater confidence.  Her goals are to win individual and all-around gold medals in competition at the Olympic Youth Festival this year.

When asked if she felt the pressure of expectation of her talent, Amelia said she felt the expectations but didn't feel as though she was being pushed to much.    She is improving on her difficulty at the moment to make her more competitive, including her bar work, a dismount and vaulting.

Tomorrow, her wish is to win every apparatus final in Ploiesti!

Totally Commited #4

UCLA

Continuing its freshman heavy form, UCLA is taking on a bunch of recruits this year.  After fare-welling a small handful of seniors after last season, including the team standout and stalwart Arianna Berlin, UCLA is going to be even more bottom heavy with youth than ever.  But coach Val and co have selected some fabulously talented girls to take on the UCLA 2010 ride with them this year.  I am still, however, harboring a theory about Val Kondos Field only picking gymnasts with odd names, like double-barrel surnames like her own (Hopfner-Hibbs), a first name as a second names, boys names as second name (Nikki Tom) or just incredibly long or fun names (Heidi Moneymaker, Ari Berlin, Aisha Gerber!) !  I stand by it with this bunch of recruits!

Monique De La Torre  hails from Glendale Arizona.  She is level ten gymnast and trains at Carter's Gym in Mesa (Cater's has sent a whopping 83 gymnasts to college on Gymnastics scholarships!!).  De La Torre is in the top 60 gymnasts in the country and her coach, Jack Carter thought she had a small chance at making the Beijing Olympic Team.  Monique and her family are happy enough that she has a full-ride scholarship with a top college like UCLA.  Her father told journalists once, that "In Mexico, this sport is for rich people only.  Here in the United States, it is possible for Monique to participate."

Monique reached level 10 by 2005, and then international elite where she placed 24th at the Nationals.  She then returned to level Ten.  Her first year competing at that level, she won every event but bars at the State finals.  Last year she was Arizona's Junior Olympic Gymnast of the Year.  Monique is known for powerful and stylish gymnastics.

Danielle Greig- trains at Chart Oak Gymnastics Gliders club in California, home of the well known coaching couple, the Rybacki's.  Her personal best AA score is a 36.525 at Level !).  Some fabulous US Olympic Gymnasts have hailed from Charter Oaks, including Jamie Dantzscher, a UCLA favorite (along with her many sisters!) Allyse Ishino, Tabitha Yim and Vanessa Atler.  Grieg is a walk-on.  She placed 37th AA at the Level 10 Nationals.

Courtney Shannon is a level ten gymnast.  Her highest AA score at the 2008 Surf City Classic was a 36.350.  She trains at Olympic Gymnastics in Laguna Hills and placed 13th in the AA at the 2007 regionals.  She has a GPA of 3.7.

Chloe Takayanagi is a level ten gymnast who hails from Los Angeles.  She trains at Chris Wallers Gym Jam (other home of Chris, UCLA coach and workplace of Mohini Bhardwaj).  She attends Laurel Springs High School and has a whopping GPA of 4.27.  In 2007 she qualified to regionals at Level 10.  In 2002 she was the level 5 state champion.  Her beam set includes an aerial, back handspring to back tuck swing down, a front 1.5 dismount and she vaults a single Yurchenko layout.  She is walking on to the UCLA team.

What Language Barrier?!?!

I love this video.  Thirty- Four seconds of pure cuteness!  Watch and enjoy some comeraderie and good sportsmanship between two lovely girls who barely speak the same language, but don't let that get in the way of friendship!

Chellsie Meets Young Gymnasts

Competitors in The Heart of a Champion Regional Gymnastics meet in Glen Falls, New York this week were lucky enough to have a meet and greet with none other than Chellsie Memmel during the three-day meet.

Eight hundred gymnasts from all over the North East cormner of the U.S competed in the meet up to level six, then got to talk with and get autographs from the gymnast.

Sad News for Nebraska Fans...

I don't usually do Men's gymnastics, but breaking news today is that Francis Allen, the longtime coach of the Nebraska Huskers gymnastics team has announced he is retiring.

He told journalists that he knew it was time to go a few years ago when he made seasons highlights tapes for his team members, handed them to them, and the guys just looked askance. They thanked him, and said their parents might enjoy watching them. The tapes were VHS. Not one single member of the team owned a video player.... except Francis!

Francis began coaching at Nebraska in 1969, took them to many National Championships, coached two Olympic Teams and coached Trent Dimas to his high bar gold.

He is now, at the ripe old age of 66 saying godbye to the sport, but not before helping Nebraska find another coach for their men's team.

Another World's Worst Leotard Heat...

BEGINS!!!

Vote for your Favorite in the Poll on the Side!

Best (worst) of 2009 Euros

The Butterfly/Mask

The Peepshow

The Russian Junior Horror Show

Purple Spiky Collar

Black and White No-Neck

Oh Spain!

Another Heat of the World's Prettiest Leotard....

BEGINS!!!

Vote for your favorite in the poll on the side!

Pink and White (Weird to see Chengy out of Red and Gold!)

Purple and White

China Stars

Romanian Junior

Red and Black

Pink and Purple

Marbled Purple

Prosport Article about...

THE ROMANIAN INTERNATIONAL !

A press release has been sent around the Romanian news sources talking about the Romanian International Meet this weekend.  It doesn't tell too much more than I have already told you.  Eleven countries will be participating.  Neither Izbasa or Tamirjan will be there, but the release is forecasting the other young female entrants as potential Olympic fodder.  Entry is free, and the contest runs over Fri, Sat and Sun.

Women's Team: Gabriela Dragoi, Diana Chelaru, Amelia Racea. Ana Porgras, Diana Raluca Haidu.

And While We're on the Subject.....

When i was doing a little research on Maria Zasypkina the other day, I came across this old International Gymnast interview writer John Crumlish had with five young Russian gymnasts in 2001. The gymnasts were Maria, Anna Pavlova, Natalia Uchevatkina, Yelena Anoshina and Lidia Sidorova.

 Along with getting them to talk about how they started in the sport; how they looked up to seniors Khorkina and Produnova; and about their friendships with each other- one of my favorite bits of this interview was when Crumlish asked them to tell him something about each other.

John was smart enough to tell them they were not allowed to just say 'nice' about each other! Their responses turned out to be funny, sweet, enlightening and imaginative, particularly Natalia Uchetvakina's whose description of the girls performing was so vivid and true. I thought I would share with those who haven't read this interview before.

Natalia Uchevatkina: When lena does her floor routine, she always does such a great job, and sometimes she even stares at the judges in such a way it makes them give her a higher score. Anya (Pavlova) looks so little, but nevertheless, when she does gymnastics, her tricks are so big that all of a sudden she seems a lot bigger. Masha like to crack jokes and play around in practice. Lida has a creative imagination and always helps to put together our dance routines for warm-ups, stretching and exhibitions.

Maria Zasypkina: Anya was so little that she did not think she could make it to the national team, but she had so much talent that, with the help of her mom, she made it. Natasha is the prettiest girl on the junior national team, and she always gets praises. Lena is very shy. Lida is simply a good girl.

Anna Pavlova: Natasha tells lots of jokes and entertains everyone, she is very funny. Everybody on the team is pretty, funny, nobody is down often. If someone is down, everyone else helps her out.

Lidia Sodorova: Anya is always laughing, she has a very good sense of humour. Masha is always deep in thought.- gone somwhere in her own world, thinking. Lena is a good girl and a bit shy. Natasha performs well on the bars, and as a person, she is the one who does a really good job of psyching the girls up.

Yelena Anoshina: Masha likes to study and do homework. Natasha likes to clean up, she likes everything always to be tidy. Anya likes to go to the swimming pool with all the girls. Lida likes to make snowballs.

(International Gymnast April 2001, John Crumlish)

The Couch Gymnast is...

...thinking of Nicolae Forminte

and wishing him well after hearing the news of his skin cancer (gymblog). He seems like a wonderful, caring coach and a funny, funny man. I am a big fan of his work and his treatment of the Romanian girls. I hope his recovery is quick and painless.

Totally Commited #3

LOUISIANNA STATE UNIVERSITY

Louisianna has three recruits signed up for the 2010 season.  D-D Breaux says she needed some big recruits to to replace her senior class.  She got them.

Kaleigh Dickson: According to North West News aery strong Senior team.nd Tribune, Kaleigh Dickson fought hard and fast to get herself up to Level Ten standard gymnastics in order to apply for College Gymnastics.  She told the reporter she was determined to get better so she can be a valuable member of a college gymnastics team. Kaleigh joined LaFleur's Gymnastics in Tampa, Florida as a level Nine gymnast and within a year had lifted herself to level ten and won the all-around at the region 8 Championships in Florida.  Her coach Billy West told the NWN&T that; 

"It's really nice to see the kid who wanted to do this collegiae thing come in and be able in such a short amount of time to make such a quick jump to the next level.  It's difficult to be at the level she is at.  Last year she averaged a 36- or a 37- type score, which is good enough to get to level ten nationals, but this year to go to a state and throw a 38 and become a regional champion is really difficult.  She's so focussed and so driven and knows she wants to be really good, and she's just willing to do whatever it takes."

Kaleigh said she loved the coached, the campus and the girls she met from the team.  She knew immediately it was the right school for her.

Janelle Garcia: placed 17th in the all-around at the Nationals as well as holding a GPA of 3.82.  Garcia trains at the same gym as Shayla Worley, UGS signee, at Orlando Metro under Jeff Wood.  She will be performing as an all-arounder and D-D claims her having come from such a tough club will stand her in good stead for the competitive world of college gymnastics.  She will study sports medicine.

Shelby Prunty: also has a very high GPA of 3.964, and trains at Illinois Gymnastics Institute, Hanover Park in Illinois.  Shelby has suffered some injuries of late, but has given herself ample time to heal before the College Season starts.

Another Dream Team!

Yet another contribution to the Dream Team game.  If you want to play, read this.

This Dream Team Creator wanted you guys to know that they just began following gymnastics in the last few years, so they are only familiar with recent gymnasts and those they have been able to access on Youtube.  So if any important gynasts are left out, this is why.

I don't think it matters too much.  The Dream Team game is about personal choice anyway.  Love the team name and the reason for choosing Oana ban on beam- she is Romanian,  that's that!

Team name: I Can’t Stop Watching

 

TEAM

Lilia Podkopayeva (vt ub fx) (vt fx)

Mo Huilan (aa) (vt, ub)

Oana Ban (vt, bb, fx) (bb, fx)

Ekaterina Lobaznyuk (aa) (vt, bb, fx)

Yang Yilin (vt, ub, bb) (ub)

Dominique Moceanu (ub, bb fx) (ub, bb)

  

Reserves: Courtney Kupets, Anna Pavlova

 

Coaches:

Kelli Hill

Liang Chow

Valeri Liukin

Martha Karolyi

 

Reasons:

Lilia Podkopayeva: Tumbling=awesome, chorearaphy=awesome, and her form is good to! I’m not really sure why people complain about her bars so much, because I thought they were fun to watch!

Mo Huilan: She’s got the difficulty, her form is amazing, and I LOVE her bars!

Oana Ban: She's got power, she's got presence! Watch her floor from TF in the 2004 Olympics and you’ll see what I mean.

Ekaterina Lobaznyuk: I LOVE her floor, LOVE her beam, and bars and vault are good to! But floor and beam…wow. Plus I don't know of any other gymnast who uses klezmer music for their floor routine. And klezmer is catchy!

Yang Yilin: Form! Plus I needed someone good on bars, and she's amazing! And her beam is great.

Dominique Moceanu: This would be the Dominique from 1996 that we’re talking about. Awesome floor, awesome beam, great bars…and a huge smile!

 

Courtney Kupets: Ok, I know a bunch of people are going to hate me for putting her as a reserve. But here’s my reasoning. (1)Her most entertaining gymnastics was in college, and that really just isn’t a high enough level of difficulty for elite. (2)She could easily step up for any event, and isn’t that what you want in an alternate? I know my reasoning isn't the best, but whatever.

Anna Pavlova: Her gymnastics is BEAUTIFUL and she's got all the skills! But I did have to also consider consistency, so I put her as an alternate.

Kelli Hill: She can stay calm, and hopefully keep the girls calm and focused.

Liang Chow: He's just a great coach, and I trust him to make good decisions for the team.

Valeri Liukin: I kind of didn't want to have him as a coach, just because he's been on pretty much every team so far. But once I thought about it a little more I put him on, because of all the reasons he's on every other team! 

Martha Karolyi: She can spot the tiny things.

I'm not really sure who the head coach is. Probably Liukin or Chow.

 

Prelims

VT: Lilia, Mo Huilan, Ekaterina, Yang Yilin, Oana

UB: Yang Yilin, Mo Huilan, Lilia, Ekaterina, Dominique

BB: Oana, Ekaterina, Yang Yilin, Mo Huilan, Dominique

FX: Lilia, Mo Huilan, Oana, Ekaterina, Dominique

Choosing the gymnasts for prelims was not very hard on vault or bars. For beam, I left Lilia out because I heard in a few places that she was inconsistent on beam. Is that true? If it isn't, then I'd be in pretty much the same situation that I was in on floor, which is that I absolutely LOVE every single floor routine! I finally left out Yang Yilin, because I just couldn't leave out Dominique's "Devil went down to georgia"! I don't really remember why I was so set on having Mo Huilan compete on floor, but I'm sure there was a good reason! (the other 3 girls were already competing floor in finals, so I put them in)

Finals

VT: Lilia, Ekaterina, Mo Huilan (Oana)

UB: Yang Yilin, Mo Huilan, Dominique (Lilia)

BB: Oana, Ekaterina, Dominique (Yang Yilin)

FX: Lilia, Oana, Ekaterina (Dominique)

The gymnasts in parentheses are the alternate on that event.

On vault, Lilia and Ekaterina both have difficult vaults, and Mo Huilan's DTY is amazing.

For bars, Yang Yilin and Mo Huilan were easy. Dominique's bars is like a kid on the playground.

On beam, Oana is Romanian, Ekaterina's beam is beautiful, and Dominique is just good! (plus her mount is cool!)

Floor, I think, is the strongest event. I could put anyone up! I chose Lilia because she has the best floor I have EVER seen, Oana because, well, go watch her 2004 Olympic TF floor, and Ekaterina because I love the routine!

Gymnasts I wanted to include on the team, but didn't:

Olga Korbut: I'm not actually sure why I didn't have her on the team...

Nadia Comaneci: Same for her...

A lot of gymnasts from the 80's I don't know the names of: Difficulty of today, but still with the elegance!

Samantha Shapiro: Amazing form, and a huge smile! She probably would have been on the team, but she hasn't competed at worlds or Olympics yet.

Jiang Yuyuan: Her floor speaks for itself.

Lizzy Leduc: :)

He Kexin: WOW bars.

Ivana Hong: I actually had her on the team at first, before I replaced her by Mo Huilan and moved her to an alternate position. Then I replaced her again by Anna Pavlova. I LOVE her form!

Diane Dos Santos: Her tumbling is awesome!

Svetlana Khorkina: She would have been on the team if I'd actually wanted her. I don't know. I guess I just didn't want the drama queen?

Beth Tweddle: Her. Bars. Is. Insane.

This is by no means a full list, just who I can think of right now!

Bela Karolyi: Seeing as this is team "Can't Stop Watching" I thought it would be funny to have him coach. But in the end I decided that the gymnastics is amazing enough!

Congratulations to.....

KIM BUI!!

So, Kim Bui won the German National Championshsips for women. I am very happy to hear that because I have become very fond of this gymnast. Only two nights ago I was watching her floor routine at the Tyson American Cup and thinking what a lovely, elegant floor worker she is. I also remember her very fondly from the European Championsships qualifications because I just felt so sorry for her cos she was having one heck of a bad day. I believe she won my Splatfest of the Day Award at the Euros!

Well it looks like there was no such splatting for her at these Championships considering there are a lot of talented German girls at the moment (some are out with injuries though) competing for the championships.

For those of you who don't know much about Kim, she was alternate to the Beijing Olympic Team but decided to continue training after as she still felt great affection for the sport. She told International Gymnast magazine that she would do it as "long as I have fun and time" to do it.

Kim's mother is Vietnamese and her father is from Laos, but she was raised in Germany. Kim really showed her talents at the American Cup this year, where she placed third, trying out the elements she wanted to use at the Europeans Championships. The Euros were not, however, the meet she planned on. She placed 16th in the AA and fifth in the vault finals.

Bui has been coached by various former Russian gymnasts, which is telling in her lovely form and execution. Kim is 20 and her training partner is the younger Marie- Sophie Hindermann. Kim says she tries to help Hindermann with certain things like performance failures and other things that one only learns through experience, but that she has also learned from Hindermann's strength and determination.

Kim is starting university soon and was unsure at the time of her february interview with IG, if she would continue on to the 2009 Worlds, let alone the London Olympics. Maybe with the German Championships under her belt, she might just consider it.

The Tale of the Two.....

 "Broken Dolls"

Last night I watched a little of Slommanie Kulkolkie (Broken Dolls), the documentary about Russian Gymnastics and was reminded of the sad stories of the Zasypakina's, the two young gymnasts with the same names.  Both girls competed for Russia at different times. There experiences, however, were strangely similar, though the outcomes extremely different.

The documentary Slommanie Kulkolkie is entirely in Russian and without subtitles. But even without knowledge of the Russian language it is not hard to grasp its negative attitude to the state of Russian gymnastics at the time of filming. It repeatedly illustrates the dangers of gymnastics with its shots of training gymnasts taking falls, it's coverage of Yelena Mukhina's sad story and it's repeated use of imagery from the heartbreaking Russian gymnastics film Kukolka (Little Doll). The documentary interviews gymnasts like Ekaterina Labuziouk, Svetlana Khorkina, Anna Pavlova and Maria Zasypkina as well as featuring a little of a young Yulia Lozhecko.

It would be interesting to hear what young Maria Zasypkina had to say about her sport in this documentary, considering she was recovering from a broken vertebrae in her neck that almost left her paralysed. At the time of the accident, Maria was a popular Russian gymnasts who was already making a name for herself at competitions like the Junior Europeans, the WOGA Classic, the Canberra Cup and the 2001 World Team's Event. She was already known for the incredible difficulty of her gymnastics, such as a double yurchenko vault and her punch front and standing Arabian on beam. She was also known, ironically, for taking some awful spills while performing them.

(Maria took an ominous and awful fall at the Canberra Cup some time before her more serious accident. Her beam set was magnificent, but perhaps too difficult for her age?)

Maria Zasypkina's accident occurred during training at Round Lake. Maria was training vault. She had recently returned from the Ghent World Cup contest in 2002. Maria was performing a round-off, half on handspring- off but something went wrong and she landed on her head. Due to difficulties experienced getting emergency help to the training center, it was nearly an hour before Maria actually received the urgent medical attention she needed.

When she finally made it to the hospital, it was discovered that Maria's legs were paralyzed as well as having partial paralysis to her hands and arms. Zasypkina's strength became legendary at Round Lake and in the media as she endured the torturous wait for the ambulance, survived two operations, had a metal rod inserted in her back and eventually recovered feelings in her hands, and then her feet. She spent her sixteenth birthday in hospital but was able to spend New Years Eve the same year at home, a testament to the speed and strength of her recovery. The documentary features lengthy interviews with her and footage of her spending time with her family at home.

The other Russian Zasypkina- Svetlana Zasypkina had already long left the sport when Maria had her near-tragic accident. Svetlana left gymnastics at age sixteen, when after ten years of intense training she too injured her spine while training. She was no longer able to perform any jumps and training was completely out of the question. Leaving the Soviet training system, Svetlana turned to acting when Isaak Friberg gave her the lead role in the tragic film, Kukolka ("Little Doll" or "Dolly").

For those of you not fortunate (or unfortunate some may think) enough to have come across the film, which had limited distribution, it is a poignant film about what happens to a young gymnast when she has to leave the sport. I was lucky enough to find a VHS copy of this film in the state library collection, and watched it with a mix of horror and sadness.

Following along similar lines to the life story of the young actress who played the part; the "Dolly" is a young gymnast who has been injured badly and must now leave the Soviet training system and attempt to lead a the regular life of a teenage student. needless to say, the little girl has immense trouble adjusting to regular social life, and takes out the psychological effects of the transitions on her classmates, manipulating and bullying them even though she is smaller and younger than most of them. Unlike the story of the real young gymnast, the film has a tragic outcome.

In an article catching up with Svetlana Zasypkina several years ago by Gymnastics Greats, the young actress seems to have had trouble adjusting to the the real world too. Confused about where to place her energies, she had first continued acting, then started a course in gymnastics coaching, switched to veterinary sciences, then eventually to industrial business. One thing is for sure, she no longer wants anything to do with gymnastics. She told reporters that if she so much as sees it on the television, she turns it off.

Maria Zasypkina, on the other hand, must still have some love for the sport because she tried to come back, unsuccessfully unfortunately, after the her recovery. But considering the far worse outcomes of the handful of spinal injuries we have seen in modern gymnastics (Mukhina, Gomez, Sang Lan) I am sure Maria is grateful she got the chance to do gymnastics again at all. She apparently does not harbour such negative feelings for the sport considering she and a friend reportedly skipped university classes in 2005 just to visit and watch other Russian gymnasts at the 2005 Voronin Cup!

It is interesting, I think, to look back on these films after Russian gymnastics has experienced and come out of such a crisis as a changed system. Things have cshifted markedly in over there and I think this is reflected in the two Zasypkina's opposite attitudes to the sport since leaving it. While Svetlana wants nothing to do with the soviet system that she felt used her up and spat her out, Maria, despite the magnitude of her accident and the negative light placed on it by the documentary, returned to the sport and continues to involve herself in it while pursuing her education. While many complain that the gymnastics isn't like it used to be from the Russians, life isn't what it used to be there either. And for that, I am grateful.

Still Dreaming up Dream Teams!

More people have sent in Dream Teams from our Dream Team Game.

If you want to play, read the original Dream Team post for the rules, have a go at making up your own, and email it to me at listaday@gmail.com and I will post it. Have Fun!!

(Omelianchik)

Here is karen's team. I linked to it, but she wants it posted here too! Lots of lovely lines in this group. Love that Adriana Pop and Boris Pilkin are in the coaching crew.

Team name: The Best of the Best

Oksana Omelianchik (AA, floor)

Lilia Podkopayeva (AA, floor)

Olessia Dudnik (AA, floor, beam, vault)

Aurelia Dobre (AA, floor, bars, beam)

Yang Bo (beam, bars)

Terin Humphrey (AA, floor, bars, beam)

Reserves: Daniela Silivas, Natalia Laschenova

Coaches: Adrian Goreac, Boris Pilkin, Adriana Pop

(Yang Bo)

Why I chose who: I chose Oksana Omelianchik because...... well, does this really need explaining? Oksana was a great all-around gymnast, and was most credited for her beeeyuuutiful floor routine. It was really playful, childlike, yet artistic at the same time. Her tumbling was quite unique, too. She was good in all the apparatus, her worst event being vault, but I chose her for just AA and floor because these, to me, were the areas she was most remarkable in.

Lilia, I chose for similar reasons to those I stated about Oksana. The only difference is that her dance was not the same. I wanted to put her on beam, but, even though I’m ignoring any limit rules, I think I chose enough girls to go on beam.

I think that every gymnastics fan can see why Olessia could easily make it in any team. I love her floor routine, it’s so elegant. Her beam routine was really difficult, and still is today. I chose her as the only vaulter because her vault is so clean and precise. Her bar routine was decent, not outstanding, in my opinion, (but her mount was amazing). All these great qualities make a great all-arounder, too.

Aurelia Dobre is sadly underrated, even though she’s one of the best gymnasts Romania’s ever had. With consistency, difficulty, and grace on all events, she made a great AA gymnast. Her floor routine was so artistic and original, her form on bars was outstanding, and her beam routine is, well, just plain gorgeous. She’s a top beam worker for sure.

Yang Bo is the. Best. Beam. Worker. Ever. Talk about difficulty and PERFECT form. And I am talking P-E-R-F-E-C-T. She usually made at least one mistake in her routines, but I chose her despite inconsistency. Her bar routines aren’t very difficult at all, but she just performs so cleanly and all, I had to choose her.

Terin Humphrey, like Aurelia Dobre, was, and is, underrated. Despite her terrible make-up, her gymnastics was really good. Her floor choreo was exceptional, in my opinion. Her beam routine was packed with difficult elements, and her bars routine was really good too. Her vaults were good, but there’s something about double twisting Yurchenko’s (or Yurchenko’s at all) that just doesn’t impress me, unless it's Dunik who's performing them.

I know, it seems like a crime to put Silivas and Laschenova as reserves but I just prefer the other athletes.

Adrian Goreac was my first choice as a coach because he produced some, if not the, best gymnast Romania’s ever had. I chose Boris Pilkin because he was Svetlana Khorkina’s coach, and my, what a gymnast he produced. Adriana Pop was chosen because she was Ludivine Furnon’s choreographer, and well, I don’t know that many coaches."

The Next person didn't put a Team Name in, but I will just use the term from their description of why they chose these people as the team name. I love the coaches in this one too! Love the team psychologist. Clever. Ukraine should take a leaf out of your book!

Team: Profuse Gorgeousness!

(Ma Yanhong)

Yang Bo/ bb

Natalia Shaposhnikova/ vt bb fx

Cheng Fei/ vt, ub, fx

Ma Yanhong/ ub

Natalia Yurchenko/ vt ub

Olga Mostepanova/ bb fx

Alternates: Aurelia Dobre, Svetlana Boginskaya

Why The team was chosen: profuse gorgeousness. Yurchenko may do floor instead of Shaposhnikova; they can decide.
Cheng Fei on bars will be wonderful because 1. the bars are the old bars, and 2. look at our coaches!

(Olga Mostepanova)

Coaches:
Vladislav Rastorotsky http://www.gymn-forum.net/Articles/SL-Rast.html
Boris Pilkin, ingenious innovator
Lu Shanzhen, who loves form, line, shapes, technique
and
Sports psychologist Yelena Patterkin I do not think these girls are known for their consistency, so if they intend to win, she may have to be called upon to cultivate some tanktitude. hopefully we will not need her.

Totally Committed #2

The Utes

Well, Utah had a big recruiting line up this year. It was sadly marred a little by Chloe Sims being rejected by the NCAA clearinghouse. Despite passing her SAT's- a totally foreign test that is always having to be passed in films to us Australians- and getting great grades, Chloe didn't have the requisite core subjects to make it through the stringent NCAA requirements.

There are, however, some just as exciting prospects coming from within the U.S for Utah.

Katelyn Mohr is a well-known international elite gymnast from California. Katelyn made a play for the 2008 Olympic Team last year and will bring huge experience to Utah. She placed sixteenth at the 2008 U.S Nationals after competing on three events (not vault) and won the Brestyans Invitational and the Level Ten U.S Classic . She will be a fabulous addition to a college team, with high level skills already in place. She loves performing front tumbling skills and arabians.

Katelyn has been homeschooled for high school and it will be very interesting to see how she copes with a college education. The supportive Utah campus environment should help her adjust.

Megan Whitney, who calls Salt Lake City home, has always dreamed of going to Utah. Megan competes with the Desert Devils and has been the Level Ten state all-around champion three times. Though she originally verbally committed to Denver she changed to her first choice, the Utes. Megan is known for her excellent vaulting.

The Romanian Internationals...

...will be held this weekend in Ploiesti, Romania (5th to 7th of June).

(Ana Porgas)

Representing the Romanians in the Olympic Hall will be five gymnasts.  Diana Chelaru, Amelia Racea, Raluca Haidu will compete in the AA competition, while Ana Porgas and Gabriela Dragoi will perform on two events.  The rest of the girls are probably concentrating on healing injuries in preparation for the World Championships which are creeping up very quickly.

At the international in 2006, the Romanians took out everything in the competition. Izbasa took the AA (Druncea placed 2nd) as well as on vault and floor. Catalina Ponor won balance beam and Steliana Nistor bars. Gymnasts from Canada, Luxembourg, Israel, Egypt, Hungary, Belgium and Cyprus among others provided the competition.

(last year's runner-up, the retired Druncea)

Romanian gym fans are already talking about the competition at the onlinesport forum and apparently much of this years meet will be televised- meaning we may see some of it on Youtube (fingers crossed!).

 The competition isn't exactly fierce, unless more countries will be involved this year, but it will be interesting to see how the Romanians are getting on preparing the younger gymnasts for further international competition.

A Little Goodbye to....

UCLA's 2009 Floor Routines.

As far as I am concerned UCLA have always had the best floor routines and this year was no different. 

They are exciting, graceful, original and never, ever cheesy (yes, I mean you Gym Dogs!) And while I will be excited to see what they come up with for next year, I will definitely be sad to see this lot of routines go!

Anyway, I thought I'd post this video of the UCLA vs Nebraska meet floor highlights for those who haven't seen it because it is a treasure trove of fantastic floor work. This meet was held in March, the last regular meet of the season and it contains six of the best floor routines performed by UCLA this year. In fact, they had an amazing floor rotation, scoring a season high of 49.575.

1. Mizuki Sato- I think she is one of the weakest dancers of the girls. She is still pretty pose-y, a by-product of gymnastics training that Val- ever the ex-dancer- confesses to finding frustrating in her gymnasts.  Mizuki is very, very clean in her dance however, as well as being graceful and having excellent tumbling. This is how she gets away with being a bit weaker in the dance stakes. Her opening turns were awesome too!  Her routine was not the best start, but trust me, the routines get better and better.

2. Vanessa Zamirripa- for a vaulter this girl can sure pull off the dance! For the first thirty seconds of this routine, I am never fully convinced, then it all seems to fall into place. She plays a combination of saucy and sweet well and is excellent at playing to the judges and the audience. I adore the bit where she is on one leg, with the other up behind her, and does the three steps with her hands in time to the piano notes. So cool! Her leaps need more amplitude though. 

I also like that the routine is performed kind of slowly too, even though the music itself is not that slow. So many NCAA floor routines are choreographed to be so speedy these days that they nearly border on frenetic. It's as if they think no one will notice the flaws if the gymnast grins her head off and moves as fast through the dance as she possibly can!

3. Arianna Berlin- this was our little Break Dancing Queen's last ever floor routine as a senior for UCLA and Bam!- she pulled off a gorgeous routine with her usual brand of cool. Sometimes I think the transitions from gymnastics skill to the breakdance can be a little awkward within the routine but most of it still looks awesome. I like her little salsa/hiphop freak out in the middle too. AND I would really, really love to see her and Cassidy McComb in a moonwalk-off!

4. Aisha Gerber- I like this routine, especially the starting pose and the opening series of moves when she is lying down. According to Aisha, she can't see her life existing without dance being in it somewhere and was terribly excited when she first learned of Val's dance repututation and saw videos of old UCLA routines. I love Aisha's tumbling too (pity she stepped out- I love how the line judge seemed to be half asleep and lifted the wrong end of the flag!!) but her leap series was bloody awful.

5. Elyse Hopfner-Hibbs- I really, really love this routine. The music is my favorite of this years bunch and i think Val did a great job in bringing out the dancer in Elyse, while still retaining her signature stylings like the illusion and her spin/jump sequence. I particularly love the bit where she is sitting on the ground with her legs out and does that dramatic lean over her knee as she raises the knee to the chest. Elyse's first leap nearly rivalled Gerber's for badness though, but it was terrific to see her land her Arabian so well. Its been a bit sketchy this year. 

(Also, is it just me, or is EH-H's music really similar to Mohini Bhardwaj's senior floor routine that won the national title?)

6. Brittani McCullough- I adore this routine. The choreography was a collaborative effort between Brittani and Val. There is something really electric and magnetic about the way Brittani dances. I think i heard a commentator say that it is based on exactly the kind of dancing Brittani used to do at church when she was a kid. Whatever, it works a charm. It's a pity she was having some trouble getting her tumbling back from her achilles injury, because the dance is brilliant, original and so cool.  Can't wait to see her when she is back in fighting form next year!

So, if you haven't taken any notice of UCLA's floor work this year, please sit back and take it in;

Totally Commited #1

A Look at NCAA recruits. This Week...

ARKANSAS

Arkansas, the surprise Super Six finalists and definite winner of the Most Improved Category of last year's season, is welcoming three new recruits for the 2010 season.

(Alyssa Strodel, their fourth, graduated high school a semester early and joined Arkansas in the Winter Semester)

(Kelci Lewis performing with her high school band)

Oklahoma gymnast Kelci Lewis who, according to coach Mark Cook, has been coming to Arkansas gymnastics camps since they began, is bringing her three years of level Ten experience to the rapidly improving Arkansas team. She is a terrific vaulter, with a career-best of 9.95 on vault. She won her high school freshman state titles in both freshman and sophomore years. She skipped her junior year and is now completing her senior year, so Arkansas probably doesn't have to worry to much about her keeping up her grades! The Level 9 state champion and recipient of a Shannon Miller award made a conscious decision to not pursue an elite career, preferring instead to aim for a Division 1 college scholarship. Looks like she made the right choice.

(Recruit Amy Borsellino and freshman Jamie Pisani)

Amy Borsellino is from New Jersey and competes for North Stars Gymnastics, where on of her team mates was current Arkansas freshman Jamie Pisani. Amy apparently led the team to setting a state team record and had an individual AA score of 38.05. Amy was also an international elite and won the AA at the Parkette Invitational. She recently qualified to the JO National Team. Before dropping back to level ten, Amy also competed at the US Classic in 2007 and at Nationals, just missed out on a spot on the National Team.

(Amanda Siebert)

Amanda Siebert is an Arkansas local, something her new coaches are pleased to have on the team. The five-time Arkansas state champion will be contributing on vault and floor for the university team. Her career best on vault is 9.775. She is a letter-winner in track too and plans to major in kinesiology. Apparently, the very same day Amanda Siebert signed her letter-of-intent, Arkansas was heading into the Super Six championships. While handing out pieces of the cake bought by her gymnastics club, at the Williams Center for dance and gymnastics, where she also coaches, to celebrate her letter, she was just as excited about heading home to watch her future team compete on television!

Leotard winners (and Losers)!!

So, here are the winners of the leotard heats for this fortnight.

The Ukraine's worst leotard, as voted by you;

The Rainbow Capped Sleeve

And the prettiest Japanese Leotard, as voted by you;

The Cherry Blossom

Some more Dream Teams...

Here are two more Dream Teams for the game.  If you want to play, refer back to the original Dream Team Game post, read upon how to do it, dream up your own perfect team and email it to Listaday@gmail.com.  

Here is yet another one entirely devoted to U.S members.

The Team USA Superstars

Nastia Liukin (AA) (UB,BB) FX UB BB

Alicia Sacramone(FX,VT) FX VT

Shayla Worley (BB,UB) (UB) BB

Chellsie Memmel (AA) UB VT

Courtney Kupets (AA) (UB,BB) UB

Shawn Johnson (AA) (BB,UB,FX) FX BB VT

Alternates

Ivana Hong

Jana Beiger

Coaches

Valerie Liukin

Liang Chow

Kelli Hill (I don't know if shes coached in an olympics or worlds but she has coached somebody that went to the olympics so... if she can't then Marta)

Bela Karoyli

Reasons: Before you say anything I did not mean to have All Americans! It turned out that way.
Nastia Liukin: I definatly want her to do the AA. She has such grace that I couldn't resist putting her on floor. Uneven Bars and Balance Beam speak for themselves...
Alicia Sacramone: She deserves a third chance!!!! Floor and Vault are amazing for her...
Shayla Worley: I always wanted her to be on the 2008 olympic team. I love her beam so that is why she is competing Beam in the Team Final.
Chellsie Memmel: Foot injuries make me sad...third chance for her too. She is an amzing AA and has really beautiful bar routine...Vault....I needed someone....
Courtney Kupets: Beautiful bars!
Shawn Johnson: Is a great All Arounder that can be used for every event...but UB was given to somebody else this olympics.
Coaches:
Valeria Liukin: Has produced great gymnasts,knows how to spot out the tiniest mistakes, is really great coach in general!
Liang Chow: I think he knows what he's doing...great to gymnasts...
Kelli Hill: Seems to not produce many injuries.
Bela Karoyli: I need a good experiances coach. Not head coach though...
Marta: Just cause...
Here are two more dream teams to contribute to the game.
Once again, if you want to play, look over the original Dream Team post introducing the game, dream up your own team and email it to me at listaday@gmail.com.


Here is another team with an interesting mix of gymnasts from across the ages;

Team Technicians

Cheng Fei VT, BB, FX (VT, FX)

Tatiana Lyssenko AA (VT, FX)

Svetlana Boguinskaya AA (VT, BB, UB)

Lilia Podkopayeva AA (BB, FX)

He Kexin VT, UB (UB)

Nadia Comaneci (UB, BB, FX) (UB, BB)

Alternates: Daniela Silivas, Shannon Miller

Team coaches: Lu Shanzhen, Bela Karoyli, Octavian Belu

Reasons: I picked my team based on those with good difficulty but also great lines and technical execution. Ok, so maybe bogui doesn't have the highest difficulty, but she sticks everytime and she's the goddess of gymnastics, how could I not include her!
Silivas and Miller are my alternates as they are great all arounders and could replace any team member.

Video of Romania and Boney M!

A kind reader linked to a video on Youtube of the Romanian Girls and Boney M in the comments.  I thought you'd all like to witness them getting their dance on.  Sandra seems to be having a particularly good time!

As mentioned, the sound is awful. The vision ain't too good either.  But it is still funny!

Enjoy!!

(And YES- There is a conga line!!!)

Lugano Trofeo Results

(Yasmin Zimmermann)

Well, the all-around honours in Lugano were taken out, rather unsurprisingly, by Romania's little junior talent, Amelia Racea.  Oddly enough for a Romanian, her highest scoring event in the AA competition was on the uneven bars with a 14.350.  Her lowest was floor, with a 13.650 despite her 5.3 difficulty.  

(Jessica Diacci)

Racea was the leading light of the Romanians, with the next best placement being Raluca Haida in seventh place (Haida had a 10.900 beam score.  I wonder what happened there!?).

Ana Maria Izurieta had came in second, and Yasmin Zimmermann took third.  The Chinese contingent didn't fare so well with Yaping coming in tenth and Jiayi twelfth.

The top scores on each event were;

(Giulia Steingruber)

Vault: Racea/ Zimmermann 14.200

Bars: Racea 14.350

Beam: Izurietta 14.700

Floor: Izurietta 13.700.

Some other lesser known standouts  appear to be Giulia Steingruber, who scored 13.550 on floor, which would have placed her third.

Jessica Diacci of Switzerland got a 13.850 on beam.

Dorina Boczogo of Hungary was one of only four girls to score into the 14's for vault.

Various tidbits of ...

NCAA NEWS

The Aiken Standard had a short story on Georgia sweetheart Grace Taylor's return to South Carolina this weekend.  Taylor went back to her old gym and handed out trophies to young gymnasts in a contest and gave a talk to the young athletes about her experiences in the sport. Taylor also talked to the journalist about her close relationship with her old Aiken coach, Draha Krizova, about facing the end of her gymnastics career and about her continuing plans to use her Masters in Public Health to work in medical missions or non-profit organisations in the future. Read about it here.

Well the Utah Utes aren't just pretty faces and fabulous gymnasts.  The Deseret news reported this weekend that big name Utah athletes Kristina Baskett and Daria Bijak are eligible for academic all-americans.  Baskett has acccumulated a GPA of 3.69 in her communications major, while Bijak has a 3.84 in film studies.  Baskett now has a career total of twelve All-America Awards, and Bijak has seven.

On top of that, five Utes made the Dean's List; Deetscreek, Johnson, Mackie, Bijak and MacAllister.  Read about it here.

In recruiting news, San Jose State University has received a letter-of-intent from Albuquerque gymnast Alyssa Telles-Nolan.  She was the 2009 all-around champion for New Mexico this year.  From her results, she seems to be best at bars, but San Jose Spartans coach, Wayne Wright is also looking foward to using her in the all-around too.  Read about Alyssa here.

Hilarious!!! The Romanian girls get down.....

...with Boney M!!!!

  Yep, that's right, Boney M!  They live on!  

In an article titled "Ra-ra-Rasputin" by prosport we are told about the girls from Deva taking a friday night off to go see Boney M play.  According to the article, the girls planned on slipping into the 5000 strong crowd unnoticed to watch the show with Nicolae Forminte.  They were, however, recognised by the band and taken on stage, where they danced and sang to some songs.  Sandra Izbasa apparently got right into it, singing along to a couple of songs on the mike!

Ceresela Patrascu said she was very, very surprised to discover the band members were big fans of Romanian gymnastics (I was too) and that they had youtube clips of them competing on their phones.  It was, they told Cera, as exciting for them as it was for the girls to meet and hang out on stage.

Okay, so I am totally rapt to hear that the girls get taken out to concerts on their weekends (even if it is Boney M and so deliciously, daggily Eastern European!) considering they live in a small town and rarely get to go home, but what I really want to know is, if they wanted to watch the show unnoticed, why on God's green earth did they where their national team tracksuits!?  Now come on people- that is not exactly covert!

For those of you too young, or just sheltered enough to have never experienced Boney M, here is a youtube vid of their "greatest" hit, Rasputin.  It's pretty freaking funny. Now, try to imagine Sandra singing it.

The Lugano Trophy

So, with all the yakking about the Moscow Star, admittedly a more prestigious and interesting competition, we forgot that the Lugano Trofeo Internazionale is being contested this weekend.  No results are up on Gymnastics Results yet so it may have just finished. 

 The Lugano trophy is a great competition for trying out younger gymnasts in international competition, given the large amount of juniors who often attend.   The meet is getting a little bit bigger every year, though and usually hosts a handful of interesting and well-known European gymnasts.  

This year, one of the stars of the European Championships, Ariella Kaeslin is competing for Switzerland, along with a favorite of mine, Yasmin Zimmermann.  Other familiar faces from the Milano Euros will be there, including Laura Gombas, Ana Maria Izurietta, and Naomi Ruiz. 

This year gymnasts from nine different countries will be competing in the women's competition, including, for only the second time, some Chinese gymnasts under a new exchange program being encouraged between European and Asian nations.  Representing China will be Liao Yaping and Tang Jiayi.

(Racea)

The Romanians generally tend to send a few of their younger ones and this year is no exception with Amelia Racea, Diana Trenca and Raluca Haida all competing for medals.

Holland has sent the most female gymnasts with four girls including Nastasja Blind.

(The girls from Luxenbur lend each other a hand in 2003)

(2003 winner Emily LePennec)

There was  no Lugano Trofeo held in the Olympic year last year, but 2007 saw quite a wonderful field of young stars contesting the Trophy.  Here is the top eight all-around competitors that year.

1. Ceresela Patrascu

2. Paola Galante

3.  Youna Dufournet

4. Gabriella Dragoi

5. Yasmin Zimmermann

6. Serena Lichetta

7. Loes Linders

8. Berber Van De berg.

I look forward to hearing the results of this weekend's competition.  I'm particularly interested in seeing how the young Chinese and Romanians compare and how they shape up against some of the older girls.  Will keep you posted.

More Dream Teams.......

Some more Deam Teams are up...

(The Beautiful Aurelia Dobre)

Whoever provided this first one didn't give their reasons for choosing the gymnasts, but what the heck, I thought I'd post it anyway so you can take a look!  I'm not sure Mustafina is quite legal yet, but whatever.

Perfection team

Nastia Liukin usa (aa) ub bb 

Tatiana Lyssenko ukr (aa) fx vt bb

Lilia Podpokayeva ukr (aa) aa

Irina Krasnyanska ukr (bb ub)ub

Andrea Munteanu rom (bb fx vt) fx

Aurelia Dobre rom (vt fx ub) vt

alternates

courtney mc cool usa

Aliya Mustafina rus

coaches 

Octavian Belu, Valery Liukin, Leonid Arkayev, evgeny marchenko

hope you love it :)

(Lyssenko)

The second Team, the Beautiful Bitchfaces contains some of the most graceful girls in women's gymnastics.

Note From Creator: Okay, I based this all on personality and artistry and that's why my my team is named...

The Beautiful Bitchfaces!

Line-up:

Svetlana Boginskaya (AA) VT FX

Svetlana Khorkina (AA) BB UB 

Nastia Luikin (AA) UB BB

Daniela Silivas (BB UB FX) FX BB UB

Oksana Omelianchik (AA) FX VT

Alicia Sacramone (VT) VT

Alternates:

Alexsandra Marinescu

Anna Pavlova

Mohini Bhardwaj

Coaches:

Adrian Goreac (Head Coach)

Valeri Luikin

Why?

I wanted a team that was bursting with personality and artistry pretty much. In my opinion the six that I have chosen represent the highest degree of what artistic gymnastics should and could be! All of them, except A-Sac, could compete all around but each also has an event where they shine. Boginskaya on floor, Daniela on the beam, Khorki on bars, so on and so forth... Alicia is my only specialist because she makes vault look beautiful. Also, most of them can melt steel with their glares and that was an important contributing factor.

(Bogi melting some steel)

My three alternates were mostly chosen for sentimental value. Alexsandra and Anna both have beautiful style and great difficulty, but are pretty inconsistant. (Though in the case of Marinescu that may be because of Belu probably scaring the crap out of her in competition.) Mohini is one of my favorite Americans, but she just doesn't have the difficulty nor the style of the other gymnasts. She has proven herself a leader though, and can step into any situation and keep a level head and that's why I want her on my team.

The reason I only have two coaches is because I think if there are anymore then that the team gets muddled. Too many conflicting voices. Valeri and Adrian are two that I trust not to abuse the athletes, but give them the discipline to get where they need to go. Adrian has produced some of the most beautiful gymnastics ever, while Valeri seems to be a great technitian and understands the code really well. They could come up with some phenomenal routines.

(Liukin, one of the most popular coach choices so far) 

The third Team is from KarenlovesGymnastics. She said she wasn't sure how to email her team to me (look to the right of the screen, Karen!!!) So head over to her blog to see her Dream Team, The Best of the Best.

And Another Dream Team....

Well the If I was Marta team is truly a Dream Team- a "what could have been if things had been different". See if you agree.
If you want to play, email me your own Dream Team at listaday@gmail.com. Check out the original Dream Team post to see how to play.


A note from the creator: Before I get started, I know that I am totally breaking the rules with this but hey its just for lighthearted fun, right? Well after watching US Nationals, Trials, and then the gulp....team final I couldn't help but think what if....this and this and that had happened. So this is my 2008 USA Women's Olympic Dream Team!

(Shayla Worley; What fracture?)

Team Name: If I Was Marta...

Shawn Johnson (AA) (VT, BB, FX)

Nastia Liukin (AA) (UB, BB, FX)

Samantha Peszeck (BB, VT, FX) (BB)

Alicia Sacramone (VT, FX) (VT, FX)

Bridget Sloan (AA) (VT, UB)

Shayla Worley (UB, BB) (UB)

Alternates - Chellsie Memmel, Ivana Hong

WHY?
Shawn - Well you have to put SJ on AA and VT, BB, and FX. I dont think her UB Routine was well recieved at all...
Nastia - Again, you have to qualify her for AA. UB and BB are no brainers and Floor, she won the bronze!
Sam - I think shes very underrated on BB! Personally i think she has a better full then Shawn, she is VERY consistent on beam and just lots of precise power on that event. Shes also very powerful on Vault and Floor for qualifications too...
Alicia - Shes a world medalist on both Vault and Floor. Knowing what I know now (beijing beam) I would just let Alicia focus on those 2 events that she was most comfy in and let her be that team leader we all know she is!
Bridget - OMG her DTY at the AmCup was gorgeous! Great lines and consistence on UB, and she has STUCK that doublelayout consistently. Shes also a true all-arounder so I put her up for AA in qualifications too...
Shayla - When She hits bars and beam, she rocks it and I think would be very well recieved on an international stage!

(Ivana Hong: Still a bridemaid)

Chellsie - (As I duck to avoid the tomatoes being thrown at me) - Im sorry, really chell i am. You have the grit, determination, and toughness of a lion! But...this is the olympics and you just get hurt way too much for me to put you on the lineup...sorry! (This also could be a tiny bit of predjudice for me just not liking her style of gym but again, thats why im ducking from the tomatoes...)
Ivana - Im with Marta on this one, Shes got to up her difficulty, consistency, and GRINablity in order for me to put her on a team. Shes an alternate though because well..I just like her OK! (and i almost feel bad for her...) AND THOSE LINES! =)

(Sam P, still on the team)

Coaches

Valeri Liukin - Head Coach - I think he is just the right mix of toughness, order, and precision that a head coach needs. Yet, unlike Bela, Im not scared to leave my atheltes alone with him.
Liang Chow - Obviously a great coach and a great person to have on your team (We are, after all, in China!) Plus, he is
warm, smiling compassion for the girls.
Marta Karolyi - She really did have a knack for spotting talent, bringing the team toghether, and keeping them in line.
Bela Karolyi - Its the record, I just can't deny that record. But again, he is NOT the head coach of my team

Hope you all enjoyed! You think this team could have won the gold? Thanks for the game CouchGymnast! It was fun!

Just Imagine for a minute....

You're a college gymnast.  

You and your team have had a great year. In fact you've had a fabulous year- fabulous enough to be on of the four teams to make it to national championships. 

As a freshman you've had a terrific first season. You've been in the line up on beam, bars and vault most meets and even done all-around during a spate of team injuries. You haven't fallen once all year, except for your first meet when, you misjudged your bars dismount and fell forwards (but it was your first meet and you were nervous

Today has been great. You cheered your team mates on floor in the first rotation. You only had a tiny shuffle on your high Yurchenko one-and-a-half landing, but you hit every handstand on bars and nailed your dismount scoring your season high 9.950.

Now its the final rotattion and you are up on beam. Your team is in second place at the moment. You have a chance to take over the lead from leaders, who are watching from the tunnel. Everybody must hit.

You watch your team mate perform the last beam routine of her college career. It is nearly perfect. You watch your fellow freshman buddy wobble a tiny bit coming out of her leap series, but recover for a clean dismount.

It's your turn. 

You listen to the crowds cheering loudly for the home team, but pretend its all for you as you wait for the judgesYou leap on with confidence, smile, pull off as clean a pirouette as you've ever done, then everything goes terribly wrong during your leap series, the pike jump into split leap you have done a million times in practice.  Your landing is off and you overbalance, only just saving yourself from a fall with some wild arm waving. The world freezes for a second.  You hear your team mates calling out encouragemtn. Don't worry. Just keep going. Shake it off. You take a deep breath, trying to ignore the eyes of the judges, the crowd and your coach. You take another breath and launch forward into your front aerial walkover.

 

Before you even realise what has happened, you find yourself on the ground, the side of your foot and ankle stinging where it scraped down the side of the beam. 

Panicked, you don't even take a second to regroup.  You climb back up and complete the routine as fast as you can, each move robotic, your mind blanked by the shock of falling. You manage to land your mount without a waver. Your team mates clap loudly. But you know it is too late.

You are so demoralised, so embarassed, that you can't even watch the rest of the rotation. You miserably take in your score and then keep your head down. You accept a consoling word or hug from your team mates every now and then but you don't watch everyone else get up and do the beam routines of their lives, doing everything they can to make sure your team at least holds onto second place. It is the senior anchor who clinches it, posting her second perfect ten of the season on beam. It isn't enough to win, but your team stays in second place.

You pull yourself up from the cormer you've been hiding in since you got off beam and hug your team mates who are grinning and jumping up and down. They might have had a chance at first place, but second is the best they have ever done at a National Championships s they are still pretty happy. Not as happy as they would have been if you'd won though.

As you hug them and listen to their words of encouragement, as they tell you that it could have happened to anyone, that it was freak thing and not to be upset, you feel the ache in your throat as you try not to cry, knowing that if it wasn't for the tenths you lost they would- you would be national champions right now.

Your team mates would never say anything, would never openly blame you, but you know that they know it is your score that did it. Even worse is the fact that every time you meet a team fan for the next year, they look at you in this certain way and you know that they are thinking about what could have been if it wasn't for you. 

But the worst part is that YOU know that if it wasn't for you and you have to carry that weight through til next season.

THIS is why i do not like the new all six scores count rule for NCAA Championships next year. Its bad enough that in an individual-turned-team sport like gymnastics, that fans might blame a single gymnast for losing a championships for them, and even worse, that one athlete, no matter how generous their team is about it, might feel like they are entirely responsible for the loss of a close scoring championship, even if they have competed brilliantly all year. It's too much pressure. But you know, as long as the crowds are bigger, and more money is made.....

(Also, make sure you read what Rhonda Faehn had to say about these issues in Inside Gymnastics.  She too iondering about the risks of an injury ruining a whole teams chances or the risk of routines being watered down to prevent falls. That would suck.  NCAA routines are already to same-y and safe. Go Rhonda for speaking out!!!!) 

Gymnasts and their Coaches

Vicky Dobson and Elena Davydova

(Young Davydova)

Sometimes I think its just nice to hear about some regular gymnast- not young gymnasts vying for spots on the National team training thirty-forty hour weeks, risking burnout before pay off, but a gymnast with lots of talent and achievable goals.

Canadian gymnast Vicky Dobson, coached by Elena Davydova, is one of those girls. There is no doubt that Vicky is talented and tenacious at age eleven. According to the Durham Region News, Vicky had only one week to prepare herself for the Ontario Cup after returning from a broken hand. She a managed to come in at 5th place, qualifying for the Provincial Championshsips. Vicky went from strength to strength after this. She came third at the Provincials, qualifying easily for the Eastern Candians where she came second in her age category! Talk about improvement!

Vicky claimed she was more excited than nervous. She loves the sport and best of all, it is still fun for her.

"I thought flipping around and all that stuff would be really fun to do so I chose gymnastics. It's really active and just really fun to do, because you get to swing on the bars and do all sorts of things on the floor. It's really hard work, but it all pays off and it's really fun to do.

But not only is Vicky an adept gymnast- she has found she has quite the talent for diving, where she will now be competing in the Provincial Championships and Canadian Nationals on the 1 and 3 meter springboards as well. Not only is gymnastics still fun for this eleven year old, but she gets to pursue her diving as well. As for dreams. She is keeping it real and aiming for university gymnastics scholarships one day.

I found it refreshing to hear about a talented gymnast who is just enjoying gymnastics, and enjoying life too.

(Davydova coaching.

The girl is not Vicky Dobson. I couldn't obtain a pic of her.)

Her coach, Elena Davydova, was the first woman to perform a backward giant and a Tkatchev on bars. She was trained to coach in the U.S.S.R and spent time training the National Team in St Petersburg before she left for the states. She has been coaching full time since coming to Canada. She is involved in coaching at Gemini, is a brevet judge at an international level and works developing coaching training at a provincial level as well. She coaches three national team members and her gymnasts are known, unsurprisingly, for their excellent artistry and execution.

(Davydova training other coaches)

Her greatest coaching success came with Kristina Vaculik and she has had two athletes competing on World Championship teams. Her greatest wish, according to the Gymnastics Coaching Association of Canada website is to produce a medallist at a World or Olympic competition and to be a coach of the Canadian Team at the Olympic Games.

Watch this Youtube video of Davydova to remember why she was just so darn great. It's fuzzy and old but worth its weight in gold.

Her bar routine was so so cool. I love the mount and the transfer from low to high in that same position. Why can't gymnasts just chuck in a mount like that these days? It's not like they are working to a time limit on bars. It can't be that hard to learn and it looks A-mazing. AND people would always remember them and look out for them in competitions! I know I was always waiting for Chellsie memmel or Ivana Hong do perform their original and exciting bars moves.

Davydova's floor routine was crazy brilliant too. It was beautiful in parts, sassy in parts, and even a bit comical too. And she pulled every aspect of it off. She made such beautiful shapes with her body with her dance.

And you know what I miss, people? A good old-fashioned dive roll! Gymnasts look great as they soar through the air in that swallow shape before landing one. Why is Jennifer Beals dive roll in her dance audition in Flashdance one of the most memorable parts of the film? Because they are simple and spectacular, that's why. And Davydova provides a wonderful version in this fantastic routine.

Another Dream Team!

This one is a goody too. It is an interesting blend of old and new and is mostly made of Americans and Romanians.  The reasons for choosing the athletes is compelling.  The reasons for (not) choosing the alternates are hilarious as is the reason for selecting Valeri Liukin as a coach.  Enjoy!

(If you want to participate and contribute a Dream Team, please go back to the initial post (click here) to find out how to play, then send your entry to me at listaday@gmail.com.  Have fun!)

Team Name: Team I'm gonna kill the competition

Nastia Liukin (AA) UB, BB

Liz Tricase (VT, UB, FX) VT, UB, FX

Olesiya Dudnik (AA) VT, BB

Courtney Kupets (AA) UB, FX

Monica Rosu (VT, BB) VT

Oana Ban (UB, BB, FX) BB, FX

Coaches: Liukin, Kelli Hill, Mihai Brestyan, Natalya Marakova

Why?

 Athletes

Nastia's my favorite gymnast

Tricase was awesome on VT, UB, and FX

Dudnik is Dudnik

Kupets is awesomeness

Rosu was an awesome vaulter, IMO she had the best Amanar ever

Ban was one of the best BB workers I've seen, very deliberate in her

moves, not a question of can she make it or not

and also I can design new code routines for all of them

Alternates: Pavlova (was originally on the team, replaced by Dudnik

b/c of lower difficulty), Groshkova (was originally on the team, taken

off for lack of consistency), Lysenko (she wasn't hitting UB and BB in

practice, and those were the 2 events where she would really

contribute, I couldn't do it on FX, her double layout is SCARY!)

Coaches

Liukin is great at pacing and UB and BB, Hill is very personable,

great UB coach, Brestyan is good with VT, BB, and FX execution,

Marakova's a wonderful beam coach and choreographer