I was just looking at the Aarhus 2006 results, as you do, trying remember who won silver and bronze in the AA (I'm starting to think I have very early-onset alzheimers!) and I realised that 2006 was a funny year for China. They won the team event very convincingly.
But if it hadn't been for the brilliance of Cheng Fei, they would have had a shocking time individually.
For starters, there was not a single Chinese gymnast in the uneven bars finals, which is just plain weird.
And to make things even weirder, there was no Chinese medallist on beam (Zhang Nan came fourth. In fact, two years in a row she came fourth on beam. That musta sucked!)
And in the AA, the highest ranked AAer was Pang Panpan in 6th place (actually, that wasn't too bad).
And then their new superstar goes and wins all the leg events- the events China used to suck on!
Clearly, they were focussed on a team medal, but still it was kind of strange.
I guess it was just preparation for what was to come- a solid, impossible-to-beat team line up, newfound medal potential on floor and bars and the emergence of another individual superstar!
Sorry about all this desperately seeking busines, but once again, the Couch Gymnast is seeking "Marcus" a regular commenter who seems to know lots about the code!
Also, while we are at it, are any of the gymgirls a la Triple Full blog, Mihaela, JW or Kristina reading this? I would love to get into contact with you girls if I can too. Can you also email me if you can?
The Couch Gymnast is looking for her reader who calls herself Giulyx14! Giuly, can you email me if you read this? I want to ask you something pertaining to Italian gymnastics. Ta! listaday@gmail.com
Ana Porgras found her balance with her adjusted beam routine and took the gold in Stuttgart by a large margin over Ksenia Semonova and Germany's Maike Roll. An injury prevented her from competing on floor.
This win has probably helped Ana's confidence since worlds. She told Prosport earlier this week that her main focus now is on contributing the team. This is not surprising considering next year is the beginning of qualifications for London 2012 and consolidating team line ups for the coming quad. I expect Porgras will be a key memeber.
It will be interesting to see who remains from the previous quad. As Porsport reported, Anamaria Tamirjan's injuries, hip pain and a cyst in her left knee, which was to be operated on shortly, have been further complicated by an injury to her right meniscus. She told Prosport that she wants to coninue to fight for a podium place.
Safe to say Gabi Dragoi may drop by the wayside over the nextv couple of years, considering she was not initially selected for the Worlds line up. It remains to be seen how and if Izbasa will be able to return to form. If things go this way, we may see an entirely new team for London, with Ana Porgras as its old lady. Wouldn't that be funny!
There is a short interview with Australian gymnast Larissa Miller up on the IG website at the moment. Larissa did very well by making it to bars finals at the Worlds this year at her first major international event. She talks about her experiences at world, her training and the changes she wants to make in her bars set. Fairly interesting.
Gymnastics some how found itself being used in a battle that is currently ensuing downunder over Australian sports funding in a recent ABC Sport article. This battle has begun because, according to budget recommendations, there may be $108 million dollar extra to be used toward sport in Australia next year. Now there is just the tricky question of where it will go.
That gymnastics found itself mentioned at all is particularly surprising since gymnastics has barely rated a mention in sports debates over the last, well, two centuries since Australia was settled.
There has been a fair amount of debate on which way to focus funding for sport and on how it should be governed. In one faction, led by a business man, David Crawford, who is responsible for a national review into soccer, there are those who believe that the greatest portion of funding should go to sports that attract mass participation such as football, soccer, surfing, swimming, tennis and cricket. Crawford told press he believed that these sports "carried the national ethos" more and were practiced every day by the average Australian. This group is described as believing that Olympic sports should be self-funded.
In the other faction , led by John Coates, a new board memeber of the IOC, are those who believe that the sports that have a lower participation rate, but continue to win medals for Australia on the world stage, such as rowing, water polo, diving, and of course, gymnastics, should still retain a good share of funding.
This is where gymnastics came in;
John Coates asked, "Who is to say Australia is not a dominant force in gymnastics in five years? We won three medals in that sport in the recent World Championshsips. Gymnastics doesn't rate a mention in Mr Crawford's list of popular sports."
This is a tricky debate.
The self-funding option is quite out of the question. According to this particular article, swimming is the only Olympic sport that comes close to self-funding. Gymnastics would not have a hope in hell. We do not have the sheer numbers of private gyms, staffed by ex-european coaches that theUnited Sttates does, nor the population from which to find a talent pool, and of course, for both these reasons, mass participation. Unlike selffunded sports like AFL (one of our main football leagues), gymnastics could not get paying people through the door on a regular basis.
I do sincerely like the idea that sports that are practised on an everyday basis by Australians receives good funding. That promotes general good health, fight our obesity problem as well as hopefully maintaining our international excellence in sport. But what scares me about that, is that nearly every sport mentioned by Crawford (swimming aside) is a male-dominated sport. In fact the one other female sport that I believe women, or young girls participate in enmasse, netball, did not even rate a mention.
Also, Crawford argues that money was better spent on these participation sports because they were practised for a lifetime, rather than spend it on "a small group of elites who will remain at that level for just a few years." Most elite sports are still practised for a long time, even if the elite competitive phase is short. Gymnastics is probably the shortest, yes. But that doesn't mean the gymnast stops. Also, these elite athletes often become coaches, passing the sport on to more athletes. They often still participate in the sport on one level or another for a lifetime.
Another pertinent aspect of the Olympic vs Everyday sport debate the article touches on is that Olympic success attracts participants to the sport. This article cites a medal-winning Olympic rower who says participation has swelled since Beijing. This is a great point. We all know that international gymnastics would never have had the boom it did if the Munich games hadn't been televisied and the whole world wouldn't have had the chance to fall in love with Olga Korbut, and millions of girls want to be her! Mary- Lou Retton had the same affect on the USA. Beth Tweddle and Louis Smith and Daniel Keatings, by all reports lately are doing the same thing in the UK. Without a continuance of funding, gymnasts like Lauren Mitchell and Prashanth Sellathurai won't be able to do this for kids in Australia.
It will be interesting to see what comes of this debate. Obviously I hope funding stays in place for elite 'Olympic sports,' not just so gymnastics gets to keep trying to be competitive on a world scale, but so that the success it brings attracts greater numbers to the sport on an every day level.
Also, we Australians take great pride in our ability to rate so highly at the Olympics despite our fractional population and comparative lack of funding to the big powers we find ourselves amongst. To me, this is as much a part of our "national ethos" as male-dominated sports like football, cricket and surfing. Olympic success in gymnastic might give another reason for us to be proud.
Oh I am glad I went on the college hunt today. Just when I was beginning to wonder just how long we were going to have to wait to see more Bruins routines, Operation Peacock turns up!
So, those funny Bruins decided to dress up as the part while they performed their routines for Miss Val, adopting the costume of the character they dance. I have to say, it's a bit of a relief after re-watching the Georgia floor routines. I though I might like them a little better this time. Hmm. Maybe marginally.
Anyway, the Bruins look hilarious! And cute.The pictures are kind of fuzzy but you get the picture. The first film is a series of pics of them followed by a little vid In the second we actually get to see some of the routines which is exciting for all those who have been waiting, like me, to see what Miss Val has cooked up for this season. We especially get a good look at Vanessa Z's which looks like it's gonna be hella cheeky and fun. My internet is so crap right now I have only seen half of each and am still waiting for the rest of the vids to load. You guys might see all of it before I do!!
Mostepanovafan has put up another great gymnastics guide on Youtube. This time it is a guide to leaps and jump on floor. Lovely to watch, and, as usual, very informative.
The one thing that will strike you, is how very low the difficulty scores are for leaps and jumps. No wonder no we don't see much beauty or innovation in this part of the floor exercise. The code simply does not make it worth it, does it?
I mean look at Pavs straddle jump full turn to front support. It's worth a pissy (excuse my language but it makes me cross) B grading. We are luck she bothered at all. It's a fantastic looking move and gets nothing.
Also, bring back the butterfly (Dobre does it in this montage). It's so, so pretty. And I love me a tour jete too, and the one into ring Maloney does. Very balletic. I kind of love these turning cat leaps Hypolito and Ban did too and Zammos wolf jump into front support. Very Cool.
Question, does that leap, I am fairly sure it is called a cabriole, that Nastia did in her floor routine, a leap I loved soooo much (in fact it was my favorite thing she did) rate in the code of points? Or was it just for some pretty?
You have to wonder what will happen to British gymnastics now. Beth Tweddle Worlds gold has done a lot, it seems by the media reaction, to lift gymnastics' profile, but is it enough to bring more money to the sport? I hope so.
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A recent Guardian article by Anna Kessel spoke of the incremental rise in funding since Louis Smith's Olympic gold last yeat. She also mentioned that at the bottom end of gymnastics, where the kids do club gymnastics, the situation is far more dire.
Apparently gyms like Huntingdon have huge waiting lists. Huntingdon's is supposed to have up to a four year waiting period before some kids can see inside of a club. But then, Huntingdon's has a track record for producing great elites. I wonder if similar clubs down the road have the same problem? The problem is, that these gym are probably far less equipped to produce well-trained gymnasts, and, I am guessing, lack the funding to do anything about it.
It's funny, because the thing that always struck me about British gymnastics was that I knew they had a very high participation rate in gymnastics, and that it is a very popular sport over there, but somehow, the talent pool at the elite level was never that great. But that is probably more to do with funding than talent.
Obviously things has changed quite a bit in recent year. The men have made themselves know and Tweds is no longer a lone star, but a star among a team of talented gymnasts. And this is great. I hope that funding is increased to get more of the kids who want to do gymnastic, wether for fun, or seriously.
And I have a question for my British readers. I know that the USA received so many migrating Eastern European coaches and their Soviet-style training methods. Did the same happen in Britain too? Are there a lot of Eastern European coaches working in Britain?
*****
Saturday, November 14, 2009
Strictly Petra, who commented on the last post is right. I wish the elites would take a leaf outta the Bruin books and get themselves some choreography that don't hurt to watch!!
I don't get it. Sam knows the value of Miss Val. So does Cassie. Hell, Nastia adores Mis Val. So why in hell doesn't Martha know about her? Why on God's green earth don't they haul Miss Val into one of their ranch camps and put her to work whooping all those generally spazzy elite routines into shape?
The only problem would be where to start. It'd be worse than triage in a packed E.R. Who to start with? I'm thinking it's Rebecca Bross..... but then there's Kayla Williams....
Aunt Joyce called this a gymgasm. Correct. Finally, a choreographer and a gymnasts who understand that if you are going to do a floor routine to music as BIG and melodramatic as this, you got to have some personality under the hood and some damn fine choreography to sell it.
It took Anna Li and Miss Val to do the job.
And lordy it is exciting to see someone choreograph slow dance. It seems these days everyone is afraid to let their gymnasts dance slowly- lest we see the flaws!
Anyway, I love this very much. Can't wait to see what else is coming from the Bruins floor this year.
And we thought last years recruits made a freshman-heavy squad! Looks like the Bruins are just gonna get younger and better now that Miss Val has officially signed on Sam and Olivia Courtney and Mattie Larson and Sydney Sawa!
That is a whole swag of talent right there! Olivia Courtney is the fabulously under-rated winner of this year US Classic. Miss Val described Olivia and her consistent gymnastics as a "quiet storm" for the Bruins.
Mattie, a Californian native who has reportedly gone to every Bruins home game since she could sit up in a chair, has been much-missed this year due to injury. I am very happy we will be able to see her nimble and graceful form in college.
And Sydney Sawa, of course, is Canadian national champion, and represented Canada at the Worlds this year where she qualified 33rd in the AA.
I am also very much looking forward to Florida's line up over the next few years which will include one of my faves, Marissa King, as well as the excellent Mackenzie Caquatto and the dynamic Kytra Hunter. Things are looking real good there!
Not only am I glad that UCLA and Florida (and most of the other major colleges) are attracting some fabulous gym stars because it will improve the team performances. But I am also glad because getting big names like Peszek, and Georgia getting Worley, Utah, Lothrop etc, means that college gymnastics will only get more popular. This is a good thing.
The other reason is that I hope it will encourage as many gymnast who can financially afford to avoid taking sponsorship and paid work, will consider college gymnastics as a means to an education and a way to continue in gymnastics if they don't make it to an elite career. They get to continue the sport they love and have worked for all their lives, while paving the way for the next phase of their career.
Not only does the option of a college career take away the intense pressure on making it in the elite world, but it is physically safer, promotes more well-rounded individuals through the college experience and above all makes gymnastics fun.
I am also glad to see that we are continuing to see international gymnasts go into college sport too. Hopefully, we will see more of the likes of Lopez, Bijak, Hopfner-Hibbs, King and Vivian.
I know all I seem to be doing this week is posting vids, but Munchthesilivasfan has posted her latest montage, featuring her (correction!) favorite AA gymnasts of the decade. Most of them are really interesting choices. I don't want to say too much and give it away, because that is half the fun of watching those montages- wondering what's next!
There are certainly a couple I wasn't hot on, but so many i agreed with!
Watch and tell me what you thought, or better yet, tell Munchthesilivasfan what you thought!
Martina Polcrova the innovator of former Chzechoslovakia on bars. This routine rocks! I adore the mount, with the bounce to swing backwards. It must have been nearly impossible to maintain good leg form as she bounced. I loved that she released from the low bar too AND that she obviously had great strength too. And I aslo dug the hand hop to grip change. Nice. I'd seen her mount in a Mostepanovafan montage, but not the whole routine.
Thanks, Youtuber Chocdave, for reminding me about her. I loved it all over again, and yes, she was the first woman to do a double arabian on floor. If you want to check (hee!) more of her, be sure to look up Martine Polcrova, not Polchrova, as chocdave spells it, because there are more routines under that spelling.
Enjoy her melodramatic 1982 floor exercise wile you're there.
1. I can totally totally see why Aunt Joyce calls her Alicia II. That vaulting and tumbling? Total shades of Sacramone.
2. Whoever commented on Youtube that Alexis just seems to walk into her tumbles- so true! In fact she seems to just wander into them! She looks like she could just be sauntering down the street, chuck a triple twist, and keep walking without blinking!
3. I wonder, as she gets older, if, like Alicia, she will have to curb a tendency to over rotate when she gets nervous and excited, especially on her first passes because of all her power. And also when she gets older and has to work a bit harder for those tumbles. Lucky her tumbling is so big she doesn't take much of a run-up!! Though maybe she won't have the same problems because she tumbles quite slowly.
4. I don't know who does the chorey at Brestyan's but my, aren't they big fans of the butt shake- wide arms- butt thrust dance series over there?!!!
Just another reason to appreciate Britain's new world floor champion, Beth Tweddle. Not only has she come back at least as many times as original comeback kid Chellsie Memmel, proved age is no obstacle AND won a world championship on the apparatus she wasn't expected to win it on, but she has also proved she is not afraid to tell it like it is.
According to many news sources, when Beth took her WC gold, there was an expected media frenzy at the championships. But things were a little quiet outside the o2.
Britain had many reasons to celebrate that weekend. Not only had Britain whooped some serious gymnastics butt, but British driver Jenson Button won the Formula 1 world title. Button of course, got plenty of accolades, much media attention (hell, even I heard about it) and the golden prize, a statement issued by British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, offering his congratulations to Jenson Button.
Beth received no such congratulations. And she wasn't afraid to say so to the media at large, drawing attention to the fact that gymnastics, as a less popular sport, and, dare I guess, one of the few sports dominated by the women's side, just didn't seem to get the attention it deserves in Britain.
Beth conceded to the press that Button's sport was much higher profile, and that compared to when she won her last world championship title, where there was a brief mention in the results page of the paper, with no picture, things had changed a lot.
But as for the congratulations from the Prime Minister? "Maybe the letter is on its way. Maybe it got lost in the post?" She joked to reporters.
Beth did concede that F1 was a far more popular sport, and that gymnastics though gymnastics is getting more high profile, it is still nowehere near the elevl of F1. She also pointed out that Jenson Button would have earned far more than Beth will ever earn for her gymnastics, and that it is hard to take.
She did tell journalist Donald McRae; "If I was doing this for fame or money, I would have retired a long time ago." It is about her love for the sport. But I am sure the lack of attention to gymnastics irks her from time to time, just as it does we the fans.
She was quick to assure reporters; "I don't really mind. I'm very happy."
Wether Beth ever actually got that congratulations from the Prime Minister is not as important to me as the fact that Beth wasn't afraid to point out the discrepancy in the treatment of a Worlds champion in a popular male dominated sport and the world champion in a less high-profile women-dominated sport. Good on her.
I understand that often gymnasts are too young, too closeted in the world of gymnastics to actually understand or speak out about the politics of our sport, but Beth is an adult, and a fiesty intelligent one at that. I am so glad she is willing to apply that plucky spirit she uses in her gymnastics to the advancement of her sport as well.
But we (UCLA) have Cassie Whitcomb! Glad to hear Cassie has verbally commited to the UCLA program. She is a terrific gymnast. It was sad to see her so overlooked in the Worlds selection process, given that she might have made bars finals.
I am excited to hear that Chelsea Davis committed to college full stop and I hope she gets to perform a lot for the Georgia team.
I am also excited to hear Amber Trani is finally good and ready to begin, officially, her Georgia career. She was a lovely gymnast before her inury.
And here's hoping Mattie Larson puts off the acting dreams for a few years and commits to UCLA.
Oh bless, bless, bless the British commentators. I do love them. Look at how they analysed each specific vault, discussed varying techniques, honestly debated scores. It was interesting. It was honest. It was educational. They speak like coaches, as well as commentators. It was NOT the great big cliched sound and fury signifying absolutely nothing we have come to expect from some other commentators whose names I will not mention.
It's amazing how they talk in a relaxed, slow way, even joking sometimes, and still manage cover so much, while others yap and yip and never stop but manage to say very little at all.
(Christine Still)
And they don't go on talking about other gymnasts while a new gymnast whom they might not be as familiar with is performing. They give every gymnast, no matter how big her chances of a medal, no matter where she comes from, her due.
Sure, they are biassed and excitable when there is a Brit gymnast up, but not at the cost of the others. Even though Christine clearly wanted Beth to win floor, she still insisted Porgras was her favorite for elegance, and really admired Lauren's dance.
And I really, really hope Larissa Miller gets to here how admiring they were of her bar work.
I know they make mistakes too, like Mitch saying Larissa narrowly missed out on an AA medal the day before, but at least he actually remembered that Australia used to have a great bars reputation. Some commentators would still be hard pressed to name more than one Australian gymnast before this past quad!
And I just love how excited they get about the gymnastics- not just the sob stories, the dramas, the rivalries, though those are fun. They love the gymnastics, the moves, the techniques of moving and connecting skills. Look at how they were going off about Bross's "body discipline" and Bridget's "strength" and Ana's stoops?!
It was just sooooo refreshing to listen to.
Koko Tsurumi is so dang cute, and the funny thing is, she look exactly what my Japanese friends, a married couple, Atsu and Yuki's kid would look like if they had a little girl. Makes me laugh! And she and He Kexin's little medal winning love-in was really cute.
Speaking of He Kexin, she kind of reminds me of an airplane (oh just go with my whimsical metaphors will you?!) When she is in the air she glides perfectly, as if she belongs there, as if she should always be in the air. But when she is on the ground she is kind of clumsy and awkward and needs a bit of help moving along. She was kind of tripping off the podium, sideways hugging Yilin and nearly backing into a coach after her routine. It's completely adorable!
That was a really nice interview they did with Nadia Comaneci, and the fact she gave Ana Porgras a little pep talk before beam was quite sweet too.
I also have to say, that the one thing I really noticed about the Romanians, particularly Forminte, is what good care he took of little Porgras. He was always by her side. Just look at how he is looking at her during this clip, all fatherly and proud and 'how exciting is that you are meeting Nadia?'
I mean, they seem to take care of all the other girls too. The Romanians have such a family like vibe about them. Not lovey- dovey, but just a practical, healthy family dynamic that probably comes from living together all year round.
Anyway, as I was saying, the other girls have been out to major comps before and are old hands. But Porgras is almost ridiculously new to the game. Her third competition. I saw Ana surrounded by girls getting autographs one night, maybe after qualifications. It was getting late, and they were leaving. Anyway, Forminte let her sign a bunch of autographs, but then told the girls no more, saying "it is too much". He knew she was getting overwhelmed and just seemed to want to protect her.
Then I noticed, during the floor final, when Ortiz was hurt, he was kind of shielding her from watching what was happening. He seems happy to let her just stay the child she is, which is more than I can say for Belu and Bitang whose baby gymnasts looked like careworn war widows by the time they'd made it onto the senior national team.
She is just the baby of this family and I am so glad they seem to be letting her mature in her own time.
What else? Oh, vault finals. Another reason to love Elsa Garcia, aside from the fact she is funny. When she congratulated Kayla Williams, hugged her and said something nice, but actually made eye contact while she did it. I think this is one of the reasons I hate the whole huggy thing. Most of the girls don't even look at each other when they are doing it. It seems so in-genuine. But maybe its just the whole awkward teenage thing.
I was really interested to hear Beth Tweddle say that Amanda Kirby decided to give her the day off before floor finals. I'd be really interested to know more about their dynamic as athlete and coach, considering Beth is basically an adult, but yet they have been together since she was little so they totally have the coach/pupil relationship in place. Anyways, it was nice of her to give Beth the day off. And it worked!!
I didn't see Peggy Liddick put Lauren Mitchell's hand on her heart after she came off the beam podium, as if to say "feel my heart beating madly!" Cute!
Cha Yong Hwa's bar routine seriously rocks my world. It is really cool. And she hit a perfect handstand out of that squat dislocate thingy!! I love how she was hooting and talking after her routine, but her coach looked really, really cross.
Who is the Japanese coach and where does he come from? He doesn't look entirely Japanese to me. Which one of you Japan fans can tell me something about him?
I am really sorry I took a photo of you looking like this, Peggy. It might have been just after you heard what Martha K said about your beam difficulty scores. Comfort yourself in knowing your photo isn't as bad as the one I took of....
Ivana Hong after beam!
This moment made me laugh because Kayla was sooo overwhelmed after vaulting so well, that even though she'd already hugged him and then stood there a while, she turned back and clung to him for dear life for a minute because, it seemed she just didn't know what else to do! Seriously sweet. To me, Kayla won the US's most well-earned medal for the women. She was consistently brilliant on vault.
I'm sure she's not actually praying she stays on, but it sure looks like it!
This one made me laugh too, because Anamaria is still trying to play it all cool after her beam fall though she is clearly crying, the very reason Forminte is comforting her. Poor Ana!
I really, really wish this photo had turned out better- the double coach/gymnast stare down! The look on Porgras's face here would scare a gymnast twice her size. But she's got nothin' on......
this crew! How much does Koko Tsurumi look like a baby homegirl threatening to beat some Buffy's down right now!!!
And my personal favorite, Elsa' Garcia, winner of the 2009 Longines prize for elegance..... and her post face-plant hair malfunction!!! What a good sport she is for laughing it off!
