All Gymnastics, All the time

Yussupova got hitched

2009-12-16T16:12:00.000-08:00

Aliya Yussupova (KAZ) married Nurzhan Altaev, a high level lawyer who is working in the Kazakhstani government. She was presented from her car by Nursultan Nazarbayev, president of Kazakhstan.

Here's a Russian language news video showing the bride; groom; Yussupova's father, Maksut Yussupov; and Aleksandra Solovieva, who looks like a different person.

Yussupova, or rather Altaeva, also will not be retiring.

Sources:
1. Today (http://www.today.kz/ru/news/sport/2009-12-09/16779)
2. KTK (http://www.ktk.kz/art/?id=6628)

WTF FIG?

2009-11-28T10:30:00.000-08:00

If you look at the apparatus schedule for the next two cycles, you may notice that rope mysteriously disappears after 2010. That is because the rope will be taking rope out of the senior program... forever.

Gymnasts have been making rope routines progressively more interesting over the years (just take a look at Kanaeva), and the FIG now decides to remove it.

These are apparently the reasons why they're getting rid of it (with my rebuttals):

1. Repetition of many jumps risks to overload leg, knee and instep
(causing "minitrauma" for many gymnasts).

So jumps and leaps are so dangerous that the TC decided to make them a compulsory body group for ball and ribbon?

2. Rope as apparatus is often connected to children and, therefore,
this apparatus will only be left to categories for juniors.

Ribbons, rubber balls, and hoops are also associated with children.

3. In many cases, TV media are not interested in sending rope
finals, since the rope is not easily visible for the viewers on the TV
screen.

This can be a problem for group routines for all apparatus, but with advancements in the clarity of television broadcasts, this isn't really a problem anymore.

I'll end this post with a lovely rope routine from Kanaeva:

The things I miss about Rhythmic Gymnastics

2009-10-12T09:40:00.000-07:00

Inpired by The 10 Things I miss about Gymnastics from Gymnastics Coaching.

I miss:
1. back when the perfect score was realistically achievable.
2. when being super-ultra flexible didn't matter as much.
3. when gymnasts didn't have to put so many jetes with backbends or rings into their rope routines (i.e. pre-2009)
4. When you judges actually took execution deductions appropriately.
5. When creativity was what mattered the most, more than trying to have the highest D and A/D1 and D2 scores.

Are there any things you miss about RG?

Azerbaijan Begins Construction of a new Gymnastics Complex

2009-09-06T11:28:00.000-07:00

The FIG released this press release:

BAKU (AZE) - LAUSANNE (SUI) FIG Office, September 5, 2009: The groundbreaking ceremony for a new Gymnastics Complex was held in Baku on August 26. President Ilham Aliyev and his spouse, President of the Azerbaijan Gymnastics Federation Ms Mehriban Aliyeva, took part in the ceremony.
Representatives of the sports community and contractors attending the ceremony warmly welcomed President Ilham Aliyev and Ms Mehriban Aliyeva, who was given a generous bouquet of flowers.
President Ilham Aliyev had an opportunity to become acquainted with the project; a vast sports complex will be built, and improvement and planting works will be carried out on an area of 3.5 hectares. Training and sports halls, offices, cloakrooms, a cafe, restaurant, workshop and storehouses will be located within a three story complex on a 15 thousand square metre lot. The complex will be equipped with telecommunication and management systems. There will also be a boiler-room, a pump-house and other ancillary facilities and buildings, underground parking for 500 cars and surface parking for 100. Six thousand viewers will be able to watch the sporting events held at the complex.
All the conditions necessary for both training and national and international competitions will be provided at this exclusive complex. The venue should be operational as early as 2011.
Ms Mehriban Aliyeva placed a time capsule into the foundation and filled it with liquid concrete, ceremoniously marking the launch for construction, after which Head of State Ilham Aliyev was asked to do the same.
After the ceremony, President Ilham Aliyev and Ms Mehriban Aliyeva met with a group of gymnasts who expressed their gratitude to the delegation head and first lady for building such a splendid complex. President Ilham Aliyev and Ms Mehriban Aliyeva had their photos taken with the gymnasts.
Because of Azerbaijan Gymnastics Federation’s commitment to this discipline, the sport has seen substantial success in Azerbaijan. The European and World Championships in Rhythmic Gymnastics were held in the country, while Azerbaijani gymnasts represented their homeland with pride at the Olympic Games. At present, influential international gymnastics organisations have show interest in Azerbaijan as a direct result of the attention and concern so outwardly evidenced in the dedication of Federation President Mehriban Aliyeva.
President Ilham Aliyev once again congratulated those attending the ceremony, offered insight into the construction of the complex and wished the tradesmen successes in their work. AzerTAc

Sources:
1. FIG

Retirement Report: Anna Bessonova

2009-09-04T12:30:00.000-07:00

The Ukranian press is reporting that Anna Bessonova, 2007 world rhythmic AA champion, will retire after the 2009 World Championships. This is Anna Bessonova's 10th year as a senior gymnast.

Even though my enthusiasm waned for her this year, I'm still kind of sad about this.

Now a tribute to Bessonova:

Li Ya Suing a Restaurant for millions

2009-08-26T05:50:00.000-07:00

Intl Gymnast is reporting that Chinese gymnast Li Ya, who competed in the 2004 Olympics and won the team gold medal at the 2006 World Championships, is suing a restaurant for almost $4 million (USD):

2004 Chinese Olympian Li Ya is suing a Beijing restaurant for millions after an accident left her severely burned, Chinese media reported Tuesday.

The 21-year-old Li filed suit this week against the restaurant, asking for 26 million yuan ($3.8 million) in damages after a waiter dropped a pot of of soup on her June 29, scalding her legs and right side.

"Over almost two months, the wound basically healed, but the scar is very obvious — I have no way of wearing shorts," Li said. "The injury not only affected my life, but also endangered my financial prospects. Therefore I request compensation from the restaurant for medical costs, lost income and mental anguish totaling 26 million yuan."

Now a student at Beijing University of Physical Education, Li is also pursuing a career in performing arts.

"During the recuperation I had to turn down tapings of two shows for CCTV," she said. "Next month I will be going abroad to perform in a musical, but the scars will definitely affect the performance."

Sources:
1. Intl Gymnast Magazine

Nastia's New Floor Routine

2009-08-19T16:41:00.000-07:00

The blogger at Aunt Joycie's Ice Cream Stand says, after doing some research, that he knows what music will be used for one of the most anticipated routines of the year. The music will be from the Opera "Carmin".

Nastia earlier stated that the music selection was commonly used in figure skating. I was hoping that she would use "Young Prince and Princess (from Scheherazade)" by Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov.

Here are some of the routines that she'll want to exceed in greatness (listed by Aunt Joycie's):

I certainly think she can do better jobs than them. She won't have to put in much effort to exceed this routine (although it's not completely Kabaeva's fault):

Sources:
Aunt Joycie's Ice Cream Stand

Retirement Report: Vera Sessina

2009-07-25T05:12:00.000-07:00

According to this AllSport article, Vera Sessina (RUS), 2006 European AA champion, has retired. She will not be competing in the 2009 world championships. She will still be working with the FIG athlete's commission.

Hopefully I can get a full translation of the article soon.

Taiwanese Gymnast Sactioned for Doping

2009-07-23T16:54:00.000-07:00

Aerobic gymnast Chiu Shih-Hui (TPE) has been sactioned by the FIG for doping after testing positive for hydrochlorothiazide, a banned diuretic. He was banned from the day of the test to November 2, 2010. The FIG stated that, "Furthermore, the national gymnastics federation of Chinese Taipei was reprimanded with an accompanying heavy fine for repeatedly failing to communicate with the FIG and neglecting to assist its gymnast."

Link to the FIG press release

World Games: Days 5 & 6

2009-07-23T16:44:00.000-07:00

Days five and six ended trampoline and acrobatic gymnastics. I didn't see any of it, but there will be a little more on it later.

Results:
Trampoline (tinyurl.com/wgtrampoline)

Acrobatic gymnastics (tinyurl.com/wgacro)

Jonathan Horton's Juggling Act

2009-07-23T16:38:00.000-07:00

Inside Gymnastics published an article about Jonathan Horton, now balancing his marriage and his gymnastics career. The full article can be found here. Here are some highlights:

“The wedding was awesome,” Horton enthuses to Inside. “Amazing. Everything you want that day to be. It was outdoors, at Haley’s parent’s house, and other than being a little warm—hey, it’s Texas—it was one of the greatest days in my life.”

Despite all that success, Horton still has a lot of big dreams to fulfill. He’d like to win a world all-around title and, “maybe a floor or high bar gold too,” and his ultimate goal is to grab gold in 2012.
But first on Horton’s agenda is the U.S. Championships next month in Dallas, where he hopes to finally nab Team USA’s top spot outright, after years of disappointing Championships performances.
“I’ve increased the difficulty on all my routines,” Horton tells Inside of his Championships plan. “Every routine is way harder, with the exception of vault, and I’m working on upgrading that too.
“I feel ready,” adds Horton confidently. “I can do all my skills in my sleep, basically. My big issues have been endurance on everything, but it’s coming around. On floor, I’ve added a pass, and that’s exhausting. There’s an extra skill on pommel horse. On p-bars I added a skill and I’m doing my high bar routine from the Olympics. I’ve been able to get through them all and I feel decent. I’m preparing myself.”

While Horton says married life so far has been, “everything I imagined it would be,” he and DeProspero are already having to negotiate dueling schedules, he as a world class athlete, and she as a doctor-in-training.
“She’s actually going to miss prelims [at USAs,]” says Horton of his new Mrs. “They’re having her white coat ceremony the day of prelims, so she won’t get to drive up until after that is over. But she’s got a ton of family coming. Basically everyone on her side—like 100 people—and they’re my family now too.
“That’s why I married her,” adds Horton jokingly. “I’ll do anything to expand my fan base!”

World Games: Day 4 (beginning of Acro and Trampoline)

2009-07-20T14:26:00.001-07:00

Gymnastics events continued today at the World Games with acrobatic and trampoline events. I barely caught any of this on TV

Men's Synchronized Trampoline
Japan unsurprisingly won this event, but with different gymnasts than those who won the gold at the 2007 world championships. They had a very good score of 51.100, and their routine certainly looked good. Full trampoline results are here (tinyurl.com/wgtrampoline). Quick results:

1. JPN: 51.100
2. FRA: 50.000
3. GER: 49.500

Acrobatic Gymnastics
Acro had a little bit of a weird format. Balance and dynamic routines were used in the qualification round, but the final round was based only on the combined routine. Full results are here (tinyurl.com/wgacro).

Mixed Pair:
1. USA: 28.806
2. BEL: 28.653
3. GBR: 28.551
4. RUS: 28.860

Women's Pair:
1. BEL: 28.612
2. AZE: 28.602
3. GBR: 28.453
4. BLR: 27.650

I thought Belarus' routine was creative. That was the only one I saw.

US News

2009-07-18T16:30:00.000-07:00

A look at what's going on in the Unites States:

Shayla Worley retired from elite gymnastics

The US- oops, I meant the CoverGirl Classic (link to USA Gymnastics press release) will be held on Saturday, July 25. It will be broadcast live on Universal Sports with Tasha Schwikert and John Roethlisberger as commentators.

The Rhythmic National Qualifier is being held on July 18-19. The top 25 juniors and 20 seniors will qualify to nationals, along with petitioning athletes. I noticed that Rachael Marmer and Ava Gehringer will not be competing, so I presume they're petitioning

The trampoline World Games team is:

Austin White of Newport Coast, Calif./World Elite Gymnastics – Double-mini-trampoline
Aubree Balkan of Carlsbad, Calif./Bounce California – Double-mini
Sarah Prosen of Apple Valley, Minn./Gleason's Gymnastics – Double-mini
Ludvigson of Pocatello, Idaho/Team Revolution – Tumbling
Leanne Seitzinger of Stafford, Va./Novaks Gymnastics Center – Tumbling
Natalya Beneschott of Reno, Nev./Legacy Trampoline & Tumbling – Tumbling
Logan Dooley of Lake Forest, Calif./World Elite Gymnastics – Synchro
Steven Gluckstein of Atlantic Highlands, N.J./Head Over Heels – Synchro

2009 Junior Olympic trampoline nationals results can be found here.

China Boycotted the World Games 2009 Opening Ceremony

2009-07-18T12:16:00.001-07:00

BBC reported that the People's Republic of China boycotted the opening ceremony for the World Games 2009, but allowed its athletes to compete in the games. The article states:

Beijing's decision came after organisers allowed Taiwan's President Ma Ying-jeou to open the games.
Beijing considers Taiwan a breakaway province and does not recognise Mr Ma as its president.
Mr Kewitz [a spokesperson for the IWGA] said the International World Games Association had made a last-minute decision to allow Mr Ma to open the games in recognition of the effort Taiwan had made as host nation - including spending millions of dollars on building and renovating venues.

World Games 2009: Day 2 (final day of RG)

2009-07-18T11:53:00.000-07:00

I didn't see the events today, but a spectator posted this on the internet:

Every gymnast made mistakes in Ribbon Qualification & Final.
that's why everybody's score is so low.
in ribbon final, Miteva had knot at the begining, and after that many mistakes.
Maksymenko dropped, and once out of carpet. her ball final dropped twice.
Bessonova dropped, some catch and throw not good...
Kanaeva dropped once, not completed a pivot...
Staniouta has mistakes too, but I don't undersatand why her ribbon score so low. anyway, I am not an expert.
anyway, everybody made mistakes, I can't remember all detail and everybody's mistakes.

Kapranova dropped ball and out of carpet, over time about 3 seconds in qualification. her ribbon many mistakes too.

Very worried about Zhenya, obviously, her left knee injured affected her performance. Wish she will be fine before WC Mie.

Certainly not a good day for the gymnasts. Full results are here. Here are the quick results:

Ball Qualification:
1. Kanaeva 27.950
2. Bessonova 27.325
3. Staniuta 27.175

Ball Final:
1. Kanaeva 28.500
2. Bessonova 27.775
3. Staniuta 27.550

Ribbon Qualification
1. Kanaeva 27.475
2. Bessonova 26.050
3. Staniuta 26.025

Ribbon Final:
1. Kanaeva 26.625
2. Bessonova 26.250
3. Garaeva 25.250

It's good for Garaeva that she got a medal, since that was the only final she was able to compete in.

This concludes the events for Rhythmic Gymnastics at the World Games 2009. Trampoline and Tumbling and Acrobatic Gymnastics events will begin on Monday, July 20 (day 3).

Day 1 of the World Games (and how to watch it)

2009-07-17T11:21:00.000-07:00

The World Games have began, and I will talk about the Freedom Cup later!

You can find full results for day 1 (rope and hoop qualification and finals) here. Here are quick results:

Rope Qualifications
1. Kanaeva 28.025
2. Staniouta 26.525
3. Kapranova 26.400

Rope Finals
1. Kanaeva 28.475
2. Bessonova 27.425
3. Kapranova 27.350

1. Kanaeva 28.625
2. Kapranova 27.575
3. Miteva 26.350
Anna Bessonova had a big mistake.

Hoop Finals
1. Kanaeva 27.800
2. Kapranova 27.600
3. Miteva 27.025
Yay Miteva!

Aliya Garaeva (AZE) seems to be regressing with each competition!

How to watch the World Games
You can watch HiNet's broadcast online here. You can only see it on Internet Explorer and must have the latest version of Windows Media Player. The page may ask you to add an update for Windows Media Player in Chinese. It will take less than a minute to download and install.

HiNet's schedule can be found here. They will be airing all disciplines of gymnastics in the World Games. But be aware that all times are listed in GMT +8 timezone, so you may have to wake up early to see some of these events.

Watch the Freedom Cup Live

2009-07-10T12:10:00.000-07:00

I completely forgot about the Freedom Cup, an acrobatic world cup event and a competition for domestic gymnasts. An internet feed will be airing live. You can see the schedule and video here, or watch the embeded video on this page.

It starts today, July 10 at 3 P.M. Central Standard Time (GMT-6).

Free TV : Ustream

My favorite routines from the Universiade

2009-07-10T07:24:00.000-07:00

A yurchenko full from Rie Tanaka (JPN). Definitely not difficult by today's standards, but still well performed:

This is a very good bars routine from Jiang Yuyuan (CHN):

I wish the rest of the routine was better, but I love that first pass:

There's a pretty good double front vault in the video:

That's it. I'm quite picky, aren't I?

For Users of The All Around Forum

2009-07-09T12:26:00.000-07:00

If you are a user of The All Around Forum and want to know why it is not up, this message was sent from the hosting company to one of the site's admins:

During a short period of time during the attack, your site may have been redirected to a malware page promoting a "Web Accelerator" program. This file contains a virus identified as "Backdoor.Win32.VanBot!IK." Though the exposure time was very short, (less than 30 minutes) there is a possibility that users may have downloaded it. I would suggest informing your users of this and recommend that they run a virus scan and take measures to ensure their system is clean if they happened to download it.

Now the server is down while the host fixes the problem.

If you did download this program, you should use a virus scan and/or use a system restore point.

Finally posting about the Universiade

2009-07-09T08:04:00.000-07:00

I think every other gymnastics blog in the universe except mine has given coverage of the Universiade. This Youtube channel has plenty of artistic gymnastics videos. I'm going to post about something that other people probably aren't going to post about: rhythmic gymnastics. (I will have a post about my thoughts on the gymnasts there)

Like artistic gymnastics, a lot of the top athletes from rhythmic gymnastics are attending.

Results for group A after the first two rotations is up now. Live results are being posted here.

Um... Svetlana Rudalova (BLR) is ahead of Anna Bessonova (UKR) right now. That seems weird. It seems like Bessonova made a gigantic mistake on hoop. Remember back at the Olympic Test Event?:

I'll post more when more news comes up!

ETA: Now group B has performed, and the results left me scratching my head.

About that...: The Chicago Cup

2009-07-02T14:27:00.000-07:00

The inaugural Chicago Cup was held on June 19-21. Full results can be found here. The senior individual AA podium was:

1. Ellina Tregubova (RUS): 99.875
2. Julie Zetlin (USA): 94.850
3. Rachael Marmer (USA): 93.675

Zetlin performed very pretty well. Still, the Americans were not good on ribbon. There was certainly some creative apparatus work from Tregubova.

Here's a very extensive list of videos from the competition:

Juniors
Rebecca Sereda, USA
Rope- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXH688n-jZE
Clubs- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1ICoFx0Rv4&feature=channel_page
Ball- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwveCkAI1Rc&feature=channel_page
Hoop- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ot4xRFhWioM&feature=channel_page

Liudmila Grigoryeva, RUS
Clubs- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zt-nvxYlZqE&feature=channel_page
Ball- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wF5u66FXTYc&feature=channel_page
Hoop- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWlzMWEaOiI&feature=channel_page
Rope- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MT-zAv4lr68&feature=channel_page

Jasmine Kerber, USA
Rope- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hn5NnTmaDGQ
Clubs- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_NONX-iOQk&feature=channel_page
Ball- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zV4ZyPocv7E&feature=channel_page
Hoop- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBxTBzltpB8&feature=channel_page

Olga Pavlenko , USA
Clubs- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4e_TTZBwrA&feature=channel_page
Ball- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkpTbGpMTtE&feature=channel_page
Hoop- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2eF2RCY8yU&feature=channel_page
Rope- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqX4Oj5ntgo&feature=channel_page

Maria Kitarska, CAN
Clubs- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULzV1dM-VXE&feature=channel_page
Ball- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljQgEh-necQ&feature=channel_page
Hoop- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8n3amY_5Rrw&feature=channel_page
Rope- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMeErqEN9Cg&feature=channel_page

Anastasiya Muntyanu, CAN
Clubs- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pzERvj0MHQ&feature=channel_page
Ball- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGLeSJoO83s&feature=channel_page
Hoop- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MG01X9XlXVc&feature=channel_page
Rope- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5f8-U6UjOE&feature=channel_page

Karla Diaz, MEX
Rope- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNnnENGGbbc
Clubs- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RztVBFmJKXA&feature=channel_page
Ball- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWikCiLAxXw&feature=channel_page
Hoop- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGJ1KpLSiek&feature=channel_page

Kaitlyn James, CAN
Clubs- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jw_kiiUZjsQ&feature=channel_page
Ball- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfKi124EJ8g&feature=channel_page
Hoop- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Yh2fNZNJKg&feature=channel_page
Rope- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZBXESwzDKI&feature=channel_page

Inessa Rif, FIN
Clubs- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xrx-bu6rZg&feature=channel_page
Ball- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lA6YadlyHkM&feature=channel_page
Hoop- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOdIg__qJIc&feature=channel_page
Rope- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MAnbZ6ffvhA&feature=channel_page

Katrina Cameron, CAN
Clubs- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZq3_yzr_T4&feature=channel_page
Ball- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vFMHoPtsbY&feature=channel_page
Hoop- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-HtLS0jMOg&feature=channel_page
Rope- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fI6oc0iudKs&feature=channel_page

Ksenia Judakin, CAN
Clubs- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYs0RMf-wvM&feature=channel_page
Ball- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5XfAo6Otxk&feature=channel_page
Hoop- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGaljy0YCks&feature=channel_page
Rope- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XzyZNnGF1zY&feature=channel_page

Seniors
Ellina Tregubova, RUS
Ball- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6FIwOwOkvI&feature=channel_page
Hoop- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dy32qGW88k0&feature=channel_page
Rope- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZLgJlW2TZ0&feature=channel_page

Julie Zetlin, USA
Ribbon- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bP0FbaDKqys&feature=channel_page
Ball- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKFM7uLjN7s&feature=channel_page
Hoop- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0s9HEwD-448&feature=channel_page
Rope- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZrDaLiMB-8M&feature=channel_page

Rachel Marmer, USA
Ball- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZ6S4Q-fAnk&feature=channel_page
Ribbon- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_je_wMzqgs&feature=channel_page
Rope- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItjB_JVEzpc&feature=channel_page
Hoop- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDqbXevN0uM&feature=channel_page

Michelle Milstein, USA
Ribbon- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQ1t7XzO0Pc&feature=channel_page
Ball- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqcaE_2wyhQ&feature=channel_page
Rope- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lilSHDcMNeA&feature=channel_page
Hoop- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1YcTahKefU&feature=channel_page

Laura Chin, CAN
Ribbon- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRXTb96cvoE&feature=channel_page

Gala Videos
Ellina (RUS)- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3o2dLP2R4U&feature=channel_page
North Shore Rhythmics (USA)- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfWCH-SGw5Y&feature=channel_page
RhythMix (USA) Cute!!!- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhRthkKqliA&feature=channel_page
Elite Rhythmics (USA)- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZY2BwBBoXKQ&feature=channel_page
Rebecca (USA)- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dd6PqnXkZww&feature=channel_page

Mediterranean Games: AG

2009-06-30T14:45:00.000-07:00

Okay... so I missed a lot in my couples days of absence. Results for artistic gymnastics can be found here.

It certainly was France and Italy's year, wasn't it? They came in the top two for both team finals and both AA's were won by French gymnasts (Youna Dufournet and Benoît Caranobe). And the top two places for the rhythmic AA were by Julieta Cantaluppi (ITA) and Delphine Ledoux (FRA), too.

And now the Universiade has already began. Ri Se Guang (PRK) is training a Kasamatsu with an extra salto! Wow! I can't wait to see this guy at worlds. You can see it here.

Meditteranean Games: Rhythmic Final

2009-06-28T15:44:00.000-07:00

Results for the individual AA final can be found here. The podium was:

1. Julietta Cantaluppi (ITA)
2. Delphine Ledoux (FRA)
3. Carolina Rodriguez (ESP)

There were very good results for Cantaluppi, in front of her home crowd, no less. Also, does anyone notice that she looks kind of like Inna Zhukova?

There's limited videos on the internet now. Here is the medal ceremony. Naomival's channel also has some routine videos.

Artistic gymnastics starts tomorrow with the women's team qualifications. The rotations can be seen here. Unfortunately, Vanessa Ferrari is out because of a surgery.

Semi-Annual Roundup: A Half a Year in Gymnastics

2009-06-27T05:36:00.000-07:00

June's almost over, so half the year has already passed. Here's a review has happened in the world of gymnastics over this period:

Code changes galore!

The world of Gymnastics lost many people, including Irina Gabashvilli, Yukio Endo, and Glenn Sundby.

That 13 year old girl won the Tyson American Cup

The Ukranian federation goes through serious financial issues

Fabian Hambuechen and Ksenia Semyonova show that they still remain forces in the world of Gymnastics

Youna Dufournet scares the crap out of the Gymnastics community (this phrase was taken from The C Score)

Alina Kozich tries to compete for Uzbekistan, but the FIG won't allow it

The FIG decided that Artistic Gymnastics needed a kiss and cry area, without giving any details in regards to how it would work

Reigning 2008 European and Olympic AA champion Yevgeniya Kanaeva became de facto European AA champion (no AA final was held, but she won all event finals)

Azerbaijan has scarily high results at the rhythmic European Championships

More investigations of Chinese gymnasts

Shawn Johnson had quite an interesting semi-year:
- First, she participated in Dancing with The Stars
- Then she had a dangerous stalker
- Then she won Dancing with the Stars
- Finally, The Onion made a video with her being the subject

Now with plenty more to come in the next half of the year, who knows what could happen?

The Mediterranean Games: Day 1

2009-06-26T04:54:00.000-07:00

The Rhythmic individual AA qualification is being held today. The Pescara 2009 website is updating the results live. Results after the first two rotations can be found here.

The last two rotations of qualification will begin at 6:00 PM (18:00) GMT+1.

June and July Events

2009-06-25T05:12:00.000-07:00

There's a lot of great events going on this summer, especially during the end of June through July. Also, I missed covering the inaugural Chicago Cup, for rhythmic gymnastics. You'll hear about that a little later.

The Meditteranean Games
The Meditteranean Games will be held on June 26-July 5 in Pescara, Italy. It will have artistic gymnastics events and the rhythmic individual All-around.

The Universiade
AKA The University Games will be held on July 1-12 and will include Artistic and Rhythmic Gymnastics. There are will be many well known gymnasts competing.

The Freedom Cup
The Freedom Cup is a category B acrobatic gymnastics world cup event which will be held on July 10-12 in St Paul, USA.

The Gym for Life Challenge
The inaugural Gym for life Challenge will be held in Dornbirn, Austria on July 15-19. It is a competition between clubs to create a gymnastics show for audiences.

The World Games 2009
The World Games 2009 will be held in Kaoshiung, Chinese Taipei (Taiwan) on July 15-26. The World Games is a multi-sport event for sports not contested in the Olympic Games. It will feature rhythmic individual event finals, all trampoline events except individual trampoline, acrobatic, and aerobic gymnastics. This event will have all of the big names in gymnastics competing.

European Youth Olympic Festival
The EYOF will feature WAG and for the first time, MAG. There will be three person teams competing. Women born in 1994 and 1995 are eligible and men born in 1992 and 1993 are eligible.

Aerobic World Series
An category B aerobic gymnastics world series event will take place in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA on July 22-26.

About that...: The Asian Aerobic Gymnastics Championships

2009-06-21T13:11:00.001-07:00

This begins a series where I post things that I should have posted a while ago, but never did.

The Asian Aerobic Gymnastics Championships were held on March 27-29. You can see results here. Here are videos of some of the performances. These routines didn't impress me too much. And I swear I've heard some of these music selections in earlier routines.

Individual Men:
1. Ao Jinping (CHN)
2. Jong-Kun Song (KOR)

Individual Women:
1. Huang Jinxuan (CHN)
3. Zou Qin (CHN)

Mixed Pairs:
1. China 2 (He Shinjian & Huang Jinxuan)
2. Korea 2 (Mi-Hyun Shim & Won-Ho Cho)
3. China 1 (Ni Zhenhua & Zou Qin)

Trio:
1. China (Le Tao, Wei Yu, & Peng Zhang)
2. Korea (Jong-Kun Song, In-Chan Hwang, & Chang-Il Yoon)

Shawn Johnson's take on The Onion Video

2009-06-18T15:44:00.000-07:00

A video created by The Onion, a fake news company, is starting to become infamous. If you haven't heard about it, they say that Shawn Johnson was put to sleep after injuring her leg, referring to what is done to horses. It mainly satirized child athletes being seen as valuable as athletes and nothing else, among other topics. Here it is if you haven't seen it:

And now for Shawn Johnson's eloquently stated opinion of this, courtesy of her Twitter account: "OH & LOOK Im still racin around the world even after they tried 2 put me down haha & my leg has healed quite nicely 2! Gotta luv the ONION!"

Also, the person who was accepted into Shawn's stable was Jordyn Wieber.

Now Presenting Simona and Aleksei

2009-06-13T05:17:00.000-07:00

Here is Simona Peycheva and little Aleksei Petrov:

I still have not seen any pictures of Goran Petrov.

Béla Károlyi's Political Interests

2009-06-11T15:23:00.000-07:00

Apparently Béla Károlyi has been campaigning for The Democratic Union of Hungarians in Romania (RMDSz). The RMDSz is a political alliance created to serve the ethnic Hungarian population in Romania, Romania's largest minority group. For any of those who know Hungarian, you may find these interesting.

Simona Peycheva really was Pregnant

2009-06-07T11:55:00.000-07:00

Various news sources are reporting that Simona Peycheva (BUL), two time Olympic rhythmic gymnast, gave birth to a boy on June 6 at 10:20 A.M. The father's name is Goran Petrov and their newborn son is Aleksei Petrov.

I had reported earlier in January of rumors that she was pregnant, and whether she competed in the Olympics pregnant. She probably became pregnant in September, which would explain why she didn't compete in the World Cup Final, held in October.

So far, no pictures of Peycheva and her baby have surfaced.

ETA:Here's an article about her child, but not in English.

Outrageously Difficult Routines that no Gymnast Should Ever Try: Women's Floor

2009-06-07T07:48:00.000-07:00

Any gymnast who tries this routine is out of their mind! I decided to end it with a double tuck, just to make it somewhat realistic. Again, please add any comments correcting any mistakes I may have made.

Double arabian layout (Dos Santos II): G
Double twisting double tuck: G
4 twisting turn: E
3.5 twisting back layout (F) to punch front layout (B) (CV 0.2)
Switch leap to ring position (C) to Side split jump with 1 turn (Popa) (B)
Double tuck: D

Minimum requirements: 2.5
Top eight elements: 3.6
Connection Value: 0.2
D score: 6.3

Hm... that's not what I was expecting.

Barbosa Watch 2009: Jade's training

2009-06-02T12:32:00.000-07:00

Globoesporte posted a video of Jade Barbosa training. She is beginning to adapt to tumbling with one hand. Jade still plans on competing in nationals this year. It would be amazing if she could pull this off without putting herself in serious danger.

Here's the video:

Kabaeva is, yet again, a Victim of a Rumor

2009-05-27T13:27:00.000-07:00

Gymnastics Coaching reported that the Daily Mail reported that Alina Kabaeva, Olympic RG champion and multi-time world champion, had a baby son.

The article does not give any verification of how they found this out. Since the Daily Mail is from the UK, and RG isn't popular enough there for rumors to generate on their own, I suspect that they received information from a Russian tabloid.

Kabaeva wrote on her blog that she is in fact, not a proud mother, but does still thank those who thanked her during this time. You can see the post in Russian here.

Something I should say

2009-05-19T15:54:00.000-07:00

I've been working pretty hard to get a lot of results and previews for competitions during this two-month competition bloc. Unfortunately, I've still skipped a lot of competitions. Now I need to get away from this blog for a little while, so I'll probably just post some things that I have come across that won't take too much time to do. Maybe I'll actually use my twitter account. Now for some things I want to tell you:

Russian Rhythmic nationals apparently started today, Tuesday the 19th. A Russian newspaper is reporting that Kanaeva and Sessina's results at the European Championships have given them spots for the World Championships this year.

Kanaeva is now AllSport Athlete of the Month for April. It's pretty obvious that the gym boards took over the poll.

Viner is very excited now that Kanaeva is Athlete of the Month.

Also, I found this on Facebook, and thought it was worth sharing:

Thanks to whomever made this lolz!

And I wanted to share this: What if Grandi had his way in the 70's?:

Poll: Viner's most Outrageous

2009-05-17T07:01:00.000-07:00

Viner can have some very strange styles, but which one of them is the most wild and crazy? I'll leave this to you to pick. The captions for the photos correspond to the choices in the poll.

Viner and her weave:

Viner and the girls:

Viner bribing the judges:

Viner getting interviewed:

Viner Coaching:

Viner when her gymnasts win:

Do you have a License to mount that apparatus/twirl that ribbon/jump on that trampoline/perform that wenson/form that pyramid?

2009-05-17T06:50:00.000-07:00

Yes, I know the title is pretty long.

The FIG decided back in 2008, after the Chinese age scandal, that all elite gymnasts would have to have licenses to show authenticity of their age. Reuters is reporting that now, all member federations have to sign up their gymnasts by June 30 in order to get their licenses for free (So the federations will have to pay later once they get new elite gymnasts?). The licenses will look similar to passports.

Although this is surely targeted at Women's Artistic Gymnastics, all gymnasts in all disciplines will have to receive these ID's. The Acrobatic Gymnasts at the top of pyramids are so small, who knows what federations could be doing with them.

So... are there any takers on the "this will stop age-falsification" idea?

Glasgow Grand Prix Finals

2009-05-17T06:40:00.000-07:00

Qualification and Final results can be found here.

The Men:
Unsurprisingly, Diego Hypólito (BRA) won the floor final. Surprisingly, he also won the vault final. By the looks of the scores, it seems like Ri Se Guang (PRK) had a fall on his first vault, a piked Dragulescu.

Ri also tied for fourth in rings. It also seems like he had a fall there, too, but I haven't seen any video yet.

Otherwise, there weren't too many shockers. Louis Smith (GBR) won pommel horse and Epke Zonderland (NED) won horizontal bar.

The Women:
Again, not too many surprises here. Beth Tweedle (GBR) won floor and uneven bars.

Ekaterina Kurbatova (RUS) won vault with a 14.000. Sanne Wevers (NED) won beam with a 14.075.

A brief European Championships Routine Analysis

2009-05-16T13:29:00.000-07:00

I made an analysis of the body difficulty (D1) score Yevgeniya Kanaeva's (RUS) rope routine from the team competition, and I fortunately had the community at rsg.net help me revise it. I can't guarantee that everything is 100% accurate, but you'll see why it's clear that she was overscored. The routine can be seen here.

1. Split leap with backbend. takeoff from both feet: .7
2. Stag jete leap with ring: .7 (No credit: the ring shape was not correctly shown)
3. Stag jete leap with backbend: .8
4. Stag jete leap with backbend: .8
5. Front scale pivot, 1 rotation (.6) + ring, 1 rotation (.7) (change of shape: .1): 1.4 (No credit: the ring shape was not correctly shown)
6. Split leap with backbend: .6
7. Back scale turn, 180^o, start on floor: .5
8. Ring balance without help: .7
9. Jete leap with backbend: .8
10. Jete leap with backbend: .8
11. Jete leap with backbend: .8
12. Ring pivot, 1 rotation (.7) + back split pivot (.3) (change of shape: .1) (additional rotation: .2): 1.3 (I only see two complete rotations here, so the value would be changed to 1.1)

Starting value: 9.9
Analyzed score: 7.6
Official Score: 9.7

Just with the deduction of the stag leap with ring position, even if she had a starting value of 10.0 (which she could have had), she would already be .1 under her official score. She is 1.9 under her official score. It is important to note that many other gymnasts get these kinds of gifts, too.

Since one of the Azerbaijianis is bound to get a medal, I think an analysis of one of their routines should come after that. I hope this happens.

Revision: Numbers two and seven (italicized) were incorrect. Previously, 2 was a stag leap with ring and 7 was a back scale turn with 1 full rotation. This gives her a starting value of 9.9, which means the judges probably took away .2 because she did not have an extra rotation in difficulty 12.

European Championships - Day 2

2009-05-16T13:06:00.000-07:00

The team competition is over, and the results may surprise you. Anybody who thinks that rhythmic results are becoming to predictable is seriously mistaken. Here are the top five countries:

1. Russia
2. Azerbaijan
3. Ukraine
4. Belarus
5. Israel

Yes, I'm really serious. You can find full results here. Also, you may be interested in knowing that Anna Gurbanova (AZE) scored higher than Anna Bessonova (UKR) in rope and hoop.

For individual rankings based on each competitors top three scores, click here. Here are the gymnasts who qualified for event finals, in order of qualification rank:

Rope:
1. Yevgeniya Kanaeva (RUS)
2. Vera Sessina (RUS)
3. Anna Gurbanova (AZE)
4. Anna Bessonova (UKR)
5. Silvia Miteva (BUL)
6. Irina Risenzon (ISR)
7. Aliya Garaeva (AZE)
8. Liubov Charkashyna (BLR)

Hoop:
1. Kanaeva
2. Sessina
3. Gurbanova
4. Risenzon
5. Bessonova
6. Miteva
7. Svetlana Rudalova (BLR)
8. Garaeva

Ball:
1. Kanaeva
2. Bessonova
3. Garaeva
4. Charkashyna
5. Risenzon
6. Olga Kapranova (RUS)
7. Gurbanova (won tie-break)
8. Melitina Staniuta (BLR) (lost tie-break)

Ribbon:
1. Kanaeva
2. Bessonova
3. Garaeva
4. Sessina
5. Risenzon
6. Staniuta (won tie-break
7. Miteva (lost tie-break)
8. Gurbanova

So... I just can't wait for event finals!

Glasgow Grand Prix - Qualifications

2009-05-15T15:15:00.000-07:00

The Glasgow Grand Prix is a category A World Cup event. Unlike many AG World Cup events, its athletic attendance didn't completely suck. Results can be found here. For qualification videos, visit Susan1984's channel.

Podium Training
BGTV made a preview video for the competition, where they showed some podium training footage and interviewed some gymnasts and coaches. I'm not able to embed this one, so you can see it here.

Poor Kaeslin. At least it was just her toe, and not something more serious.

On the men's side
Diego Hypólito (BRA) came in first in the qualifications with a 15.325. This didn't seem like the best performance from him, getting an E-score of 8.525. He was just .025 ahead of Kristian Thomas (GBR), who had a much higher E-score.

Hypólito was also finally able to debut his new skill, the Hypólito II, after being deffered after the last World Cup event. The Hypólito II is a tucked version of the Hypólito, which is a jump backwards with .5 twist to full twisting double layout front. Click here to see Diego perform this skill.

The big story is Ri Se Gwang of North Korea, who scored a 16.537 in the vault qualifications (16.550 and 16.525 on his respective vaults), qualifying in first place. His first vault was a very difficult Piked Dragulescu (7.2 D value), which he performed very well. His second was a Tsukahara double pike (7.0 D value), which was also performed very well. He also qualified first for rings with a 15.850 (6.8 D-score). Here is Ri's vault performance:

On the women's side
As expected, Beth Tweddle (GBR) qualified first on bars and floor. Her floor was nice, but I felt she could have done a little bit better. She had a relatively scary fall on bars. I think she'll be better in the finals.

I guess I'm less enthusiastic about the women's roster this time. Still, the finals should be pretty good.

Also, I think that there may have been enough competitors for vault to merit not having vault qualifications, but I'm not sure.

European Championships - Day 1

2009-05-15T12:25:00.000-07:00

Day 1 was the first of two days of the team competition. Here are the rankings in brief.

1. Russia
2. Ukraine
3. Azerbaijan
4. Belarus

Full results can be found here (sorry, I can only find a downloadable version). To see each individual gymnasts' breakdown of scores, click here.

A lot of people are finding the scoring frankly weird. I wasn't able to see the broadcast for myself, so I can't really give opinions myself. Apparently the Azerbaijanis had some pretty poor routines (i.e. major mistakes) and were ahead of other gymnasts who competed on the same number of apparatus with cleaner routines. And apparently this routine by Silvia Miteva (BUL) deserved only a 26.200:

2003 News Story About Shawn Johnson

2009-05-13T18:29:00.000-07:00

KCCI, De Moines' local broadcast channel, did a news story on Chow's Gymnastics, with a focus on Shawn Johnson at the end. They talk about how she is their brightest gymnast and how she shows promise.

Four years later, she won the all-around gold.

The Grand RG European Championship Preview Post

2009-05-13T15:52:00.000-07:00

The 25th Rhythmic Gymnastics European Championships will be held in Baku, Azerbaijan, this weekend (tomorrow, to be exact). Now it's time for a preview.

Where to watch it
A feed of LiderTV can be found here. A schedule for the competition can be found in the events section of this post. Note that all times are in Azerbaijani time.

The Events
The Team Competition: Teams consist of up to three gymnasts, with two per apparatus competing. The competitions will be divided over Friday and Saturday. You can see the breakdown of the teams and when each gymnast will compete here.

Event Finals will take place on Sunday.

This championships mainly serves as qualification for next years all-around final.

To see the full schedule, here.

My predictions
Team Final:
1. Russia
2. Belarus
3. Bulgaria

Maybe I'm not putting enough faith in Ukraine. Still, Bessonova can only do so much. Also, Russia is definitely in a lock position for gold, and I feel very confident in putting Belarus in second place.

Event Finals:

Rope:
1. Yevgeniya Kanaeva (RUS)
2. Vera Sessina (RUS)
3. Anna Bessonova (UKR)

Hoop:
1. Kanaeva
2. Bessonova
3. Sessina (if Sessina doesn't qualify, then I would give third to Olga Kapranova (RUS))

Ball:
1. Kanaeva
2. Sessina
3. Bessonova

Ribbon:
1. Sessina
2. Kanaeva
3. Bessonova

Two Russian Gymnasts Nominated for Athlete of the Month

2009-05-13T11:33:00.000-07:00

Artistic gymnast Ksenia Semyonova and rhythmic gymnast Yevgeniya Kanaeva have been nominated by AllSport for Athlete of the Month. You can vote for them here to vote for either one of them. If you want to vote for both of them, delete your cookies in between votes. Here are their names in Russian:

Ksenia Semyonova = Ксения Семёнова
Yevgeniya Kanaeva = Евгения Канаева

As of the publication of this post, Kanaeva is in first place with 230 votes, with Semyonova in second with 211 votes.

Now Directing You Towards...

2009-05-12T13:38:00.000-07:00

While, I'm whipping up some posts about the recent competitions, The Couch Gymnast has posted this. It talks about artistic gymnastics's extreme focus on the Olympics and how it's hurting other, smaller competitions. This is probably my biggest gripe about gymnastics.

My First Gymnastics Montage

2009-05-09T18:04:00.000-07:00

Depending on whether you're on certain gymnastics forums, you may have seen this. I made a gymnastics montage called "When Socialism Ruled Gymnastics." I like it a lot, and I hope you do, too. It mostly features gymnasts from the late 80's, but from other periods, too. You can see it here. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to embed it.

Grandi's Hypocrisy: If Tie-Breaks Are so Bad, End Them

2009-05-09T16:47:00.000-07:00

This year we have a new code of points for each discipline. Now there are new rules and regulations that the gymnasts and judges have to abide by. But one thing has not changed: tie-breaks.

After He Kexin (CHN) won the gold medal in the Uneven Bars final in 2008, despite having the same difficulty and execution scores as Nastia Liukin (USA), Bruno Grandi, president of the FIG, publicly opposed tie-breaks. He stated that "For me, it’s not correct [to require a tie-breaker]" and said that tie-breaks were, "Very disaterous." For Artistic Gymnastics, tie-breaks are only required in the Olympics and multi-sport events. At all World Championships and World Cups, ties are allowed.

The problem is that tie-break procedures are in effect for Rhythmic, Trampoline, and Aerobic Gymnastics, even in non-Olympic competitions. Gymnastics is a sport of small margins and sometimes there are ties. And tie can be, and often is, the difference between a gold and a silver medal. Sometimes it is the difference between medaling and not medaling.

Although the IOC does control tie-breaks for international multi-sport events, Grandi, in fact, does have a high amount of power over the FIG. He can help to end the injustice of tie-breaks. If he opposses them so much, why doesn't he?

Outrageously Difficult Routines that no Gymnast Should Ever Try: Balance Beam

2009-05-09T08:00:00.001-07:00

This begins a new series of routines that are very, very difficult and that no gymnast should attempt under any circumstances. Please write any corrections in the comments section if you see any errors.

Round off at end of beam to full twisting back layout to cross stand (G)
Switch leap to ring position (E) connected to split leap with turn (D) (+.1 CV)
Round-off to back handspring to full twisting layout (G) (+.2 CV)
Triple Twisting Turn on one leg (E)
Back Walkover in Side Position (C)
Round-off to back handspring to arabian (F) (+.2 CV)
Round-off to back handspring to double-arabian (Patterson) dismount (G) (+.2 CV)

Composition Requirements: 2.5
Top 8 elements: 4.4
Connection bonuses: 0.7
D score: 7.6

Quickies

2009-05-08T19:19:00.000-07:00

Yang Wei (CHN) announced his retirement, due to his age and an injury.
Daiane dos Santos (BRA) will have a plate put in her knee last October taken out. She will still be competing this year.
Marian Dragulescu (ROU) will be making a comeback to elite gymnastics.
In the USA v. FRA senior meet, the USA won. More details to follow.
In the GBR v. FRA junior meet, Great Britain won. More details to follow.
Corbeil-Essones has begun. The line-up isn't star-studded, due to the fact that European Championships will be the following weekend. A roster can be found here.

And now for that Super-cool 3 ribbons 2 ropes routine from Italy

2009-05-06T08:48:00.000-07:00

Italy creates yet another impressive routine with a great opening. I was frankly bored with so many of the routines that I've seen this year, but finally some of the gymnasts and groups are really making their routines much more interesting. I was especially bored with group routines, but the Italian group has taken away that boredom.

Daniele Hypólito got Liposuction

2009-05-06T06:51:00.000-07:00

Globoesporte is reporting that Daniele has been having trouble getting off some extra pounds she gained in between the 2008 and 2009 season. She wanted to lose about four kg (approximately 8.8 lbs) before going back to competition. Her mother also said in an interview with a magazine that Daniele was unhappy with her body. She'll need to recover for 15 days before going back to training (the article does not specify the date when she received this operation).

I also wanted to report, but never got to reporting, that Laís Souza decided to get out of the gym and started running in order to lose weight, according to UOLEsporte.

It's important to know that liposuction does result in weight-loss, but the correct diet and exercise regimen is required to maintain this weight loss.

Ultra-High Scores in Pesaro

2009-05-02T17:48:00.000-07:00

The Italian Gymnastics Federation, and not the Pesaro World Cup website nor RAI during their broadcast, released the results for the finals. There were two very high scores. The first was from Yevgeniya Kanaeva (RUS) in the hoop final, where she scored an amazing 29.000. The Italian group scored an amazing (albeit slightly less amazing that Kanaeva's results) 27.350 on their five hoops routine, with a D2 (apparatus difficulty) score of 9.700.

Kanaeva won the, rope, hoop, and ball finals, and only lost the ribbon final to Vera Sessina by .025 points. Italy won both of the group finals.

Individual Results
Group 5 hoops
Group 3 ribbons 2 ropes

I now present Italy's 5 hoops routine. I will share other routines as they are uploaded to the World Wide Web.

Watch the Pesaro Finals Live

2009-05-02T05:59:00.000-07:00

They can be seen on RAI3 beginning at 5:00 PM (17:00) GMT+1. To see time conversions, click here. For a live feed of RAI3, click here.

Results are posted on this page. Note that the Group AA results are listed in order of their three ribbons two ropes rank, not by their overall rank.

About those Azerbaijani Commercials

2009-04-29T11:57:00.000-07:00

If you remember this interview with Aliya Garaeva and Anna Gurbanova, they talked about how they were going to be in a commercial to publicize the Rhythmic European Championships, which will be held on May 15-17 in Baku, Azerbaijan. Those commercials have aired and are on the internet. I see Garaeva in this commercial (she's the one with the ribbon) and Gimatova (the first person who says "Good Luck"), but no Gurbanova. Maybe I'm mixing up Gimatova and Gurbanova. Also, (presumeably) Gimatova said two words, "Good Luck," in her "native language."

The native Azerbaijanis are getting in on the action, too. Here is a commercial with Zeynab Javaldi for LG and its sponsorship of the championships:

Inernational Assignments for upcoming competitions

2009-04-29T11:44:00.000-07:00

Pesaro Category A Rhythmic World Cup (April 30-May 2)
Bessonova is coming back to World Cup competition. This will have a very deep field in both the individual and group competitions.

Borovets Category B Aerobic World Cup (May 1-3)
I can only find a file that shows which NOC's will be sending delegations. This is a good way to begin the World Cup Series, even though China and Brazil will not be there.

European Rhythmic Gymnastics Championships held in Baku, Azerbaijan on May 15-17.
There will be more to come for one of the most important events of the year.

Maribor and Sofia World Cup Results

2009-04-29T11:22:00.000-07:00

Maribor RG World Cup:
Results can be found here. Olga Kapranova (RUS) took home gold medals on rope, ball, and ribbon. She really messed up her hoop routine. Videos can be found here.

Sofia Trampoline World Cup:
Results can be found here. Jason Burnett (CAN) came in first in the qualification round, scoring 73.700. He is now the unofficial record holder for the highest scoring compulsory routine, scoring 31.6.

The Pesaro Rhythmic Gymnastics World Cup will begin tomorrow in Pesaro, Italy.

Interesting Interview with Nastia Liukin

2009-04-29T09:37:00.000-07:00

Lemondrop interviewed Nastia Liukin, asking her how her life has been. Here are some of my favorite questions they asked:

What's harder -- walking down a runway or walking on a beam?
Beam! Beam is harder! ... I was really nervous because it was my first time walking in a fashion show, but everyone was so friendly. I talked to Hilary Duff and her mom a lot before, and she was really nice. And I talked to Brittany Snow. They were all nervous too, which made me a little less nervous. It was a really great experience.

You have the most amazing death stare when you're competing. That must have come in handy for the fashion show.
Oh, gosh, the look! People always tell me I look so mean and rude on TV. I know a lot of my friends get asked, "You know Nastia? Is she really that mean?" But I'm really not! Everyone's different, Shawn [Johnson, Nastia's Olympic teammate] smiles all the time, but that's just not me.

The full interview can be found here.

Bessonova talks about her emotions

2009-04-28T17:43:00.000-07:00

DontMessWithBess has translated this interview of Anna Bessonova with "Tut."

Anna Bessonova: If I fall in love, I can hardly control myself!

April 23, 2009

The Olympic champion, Ukrainian gymnast Anna Bessonova opened up a little about her personal life exclusively for E-motion.

Q: Every fan is interested what is going on in your personal life. Have you settled your emotions?
Anna: No, I have not settled anything with my personal life, because my life is mostly in the training center, tournaments, or traveling. Unfortunately, I don’t have any time on my personal life, but of course I would have loved to. But I am completely not worried about this, because I know that life in gymnastics is really short and that it will end someday. So at the moment I have choices, I decide who suits me or who doesn’t.

Q: Have you ever found yourself in a position where you had to make the choice; a relationship or career?
Anna: I think that I am very lucky regarding this; I have not had such temptations (choices). I always knew that gymnastics is number one in my life, in any case, at this stage in my life. In principle, I have never met this type of a guy for which I could have quit my career in sport for.

Q: The type of man that can please you, does he have to be far away from sports or are you trying to find someone more close to you in your circle of friends?
Anna: No, I am only looking for a man that is close to my soul, who can understand me; he does not have to be sportsmen, an oligarch or a businessman. He would understand me from a half-stare or half a word.

Q: At this moment, are you in love?
Anna: NO!

Q: What can make you fall in love?
Anna: I think that it depends on the stage in life. The time of year, location, and the city does not influence the feeling of love. Initially, if there is a personal interest that appears, I become automatically comfortable with a man anywhere. There can be a brief feeling of love associated to a special place, and then time passes, you leave the city or the country and then forget all about it.

Q: When you fall in love, do you do any mindless (reckless) things?
Anna: Again I will repeat, I have never been in love to such a degree for me to do such things. But in general, if I do find myself in a love situation then I would have a very difficult time controlling myself in the emotional sense. I truly have a change in moods every second; I can cry, laugh, jump like a child, but I have never done reckless things.

Q: What is possible to surprise you in terms of caring, gifts?
Anna: I don’t like predictable things, for example, flowers on dates. I don’t need something over the top, I just want for a man to pay attention just like no other man. It is easy as anything to surprise me, I love surprises and enjoyment.

Q: What kind of guys do you find attractive?
Anna: Guys who are natural are attractive to me, who do not play (act), which stay true to themselves and can tell the truth to a face.

Longform 1988 Olympic RG coverage

2009-04-28T17:27:00.000-07:00

Lyssenk0's Youtube channel has uploaded longform coverage of the 1988 RG Individual AA final. This is one of my favorites events ever. You can find a playlist of the parts here (this playlist only contains 14 of the 20 parts. The rest can be found on his channel page).

I've uploaded the routines of the top five gymnasts and one routine from Qiong Pang (CHN). Here's one of my favorite routines, from gold medalist Marina Lobatch (URS):

Oksana Chusovitina plans on Retiring

2009-04-28T12:20:00.000-07:00

Oksana Chusovitina (GER), who previously had no plans of retirement even after tearing her achilles tendon and receiving back surgery, announced that she will be retiring after the 2009 World Championships in London. The All Around reported:

Five time Olympian Oksana Chusovitina is considering calling it quits later this year, according to German newsagency Sport-Informations-Dienst. The 33-year-old told the agency that she wants to compete at the 2009 World Championships in London in October "but that's enough then." Chusovitina is still unable to train fully following surgery to repair a torn Achilles tendon and another operation on her shoulder. The annoucement of her impending retirement is a surprising change of heart from Chusovitina, who had until very recently angrily brushed aside any claims that her competitive days were numbered.
Earlier this year, she was appointed head coach Uzbekistan's women's artistic gymnastics team and has since recruited 2004 European champion Alina Kozich, formerly of Ukraine, for the Central Asian country. Kozich represented Uzbekistan at the Stella Zakahrova Cup in March but has not competed since.

I caved into Twitter

2009-04-27T12:23:00.001-07:00

Honestly, Twitter disturbs me and I've always wondered how it became such a big phenomenon. Now I have a Twitter account to give quick updates. I thought that it would make things easier for me to put some quick updates on the Twitter account and put more detailed updates here. I'll see how it works. Please read it and give feedback on how both this blog and the Twitter blog are working out for you.

My Twitter blog can be found at: http://www.twitter.com/cidlover

I'm back

2009-04-26T17:21:00.000-07:00

I'm back from my trip, and I have plenty to update you guys on.

I'll have the full stories out soon, but I wanted to inform my readers that a Rhythmic World Cup and a Trampoline World Cup took place this weekend.

Another break

2009-04-22T16:22:00.000-07:00

I'm gonna be gone for a couple days. Unfortunately, I won't be able to post any information on the Maribor Rhythmic World Cup this weekend. Also, sorry that I couldn't post results for the two World Cups last weekend. You can find results on gymnasticsresults.com.

I did want to share these results with you. When I saw them, I thought "WTF!!!!!" This just shows how unpredictable these 3 ribbons 2 ropes routines can be.

What American Gymnasts are up to

2009-04-21T14:07:00.001-07:00

While I am completely avoiding actually releasing World Cup results, I'll give you some updates on American gymnasts:

Nastia Liukin has a Twitter account, which is now becoming popular among American gymnasts. She's been hanging out with Ivana Hong (and the fact that I now know this frankly scares me).

Samantha Peszeck also announced over her Twitter account that she is commited to UCLA.

Chellsie Memmel went to Dallas gymnastics clubs to help promote the 2009 Visa Championships.

It's rumored that maybe Shayla Worley will try out for 2009 worlds.

USA Gymnastics Enters the World of Gymnastics Montages

2009-04-19T16:12:00.000-07:00

USAG's Youtube channel has a montage of some of the US artistic gymnastics teams' highlights from the 2008 Olympics. I can't embed it, so you can see it here

Portimão Quick Hits: Hoop

2009-04-19T08:20:00.000-07:00

Liubov Charkashyna (BLR): Well performed. She made it look efortless. Score: 26.725
Aliya Yussupova (KAZ): That was so much better than her rope routine. She had a nice catch: bounce off her foot into her hands during a balance. Score: 25.900
Yevgeniya Kanaeva (RUS): She fell out of some of her turns and had a questionable risk, but overall a good routine. Score: 27.950
Aliya Garaeva (AZE): She used the same exact music as Alina Kabaeva's ball routine in 2004. She was unsteady with many of here elements at first, the dropped her hoop during a balance. She tried to kick her hoop into the air for a toss, but instead it went way out of bounds and she had to go out of bounds to get it. Score: 22.450
Anna Bessonova (UKR): Basically what we've come to expect from Bessonova on hoop, although she had some poorly performed turns. Score: 28.150
Irina Risenzon (ISR): I liked her handling. She had to reach for one toss. Score: 24.250
Neta Rivkin (ISR): I felt like she was too focused on performing her elements quickly that she didn't perform them too well. Score: 25.525
Vera Sessina (RUS): She was unsteady on many of her elements. She messed up her last catch and finished without her apparatus. Score: 26.175
Inês Gomes (POR): She messed up a catch, her hoop went out-of-bound, and she went out to get it. Score: 22.775

Rankings:
1. Bessonova
2. Kanaeva
3. Charkashyna
4. Sessina
5. Yussupova
6. Rivkin
7. Risenzon
8. Gomes

Portimão Quick Hits - Rope Rotation

2009-04-19T07:47:00.000-07:00

I don't know if these will really do anything for RG fans.

Aliya Garaeva (AZE): Her leaps are well performed. It looks like rope will still be her best apparatus. Score: 26.275
Irina Risenzon (ISR): Again, nice leaps and some nice rope work. Score: 25.425
Yevgeniya Kanaeva (RUS): She was quite unsteady on many of her turns. She had a beautiful catch around her ankles at the end. Score: 27.950
Caroline Weber (AUT): She performed some great risks. She definitely didn't hold her balances long enough. Score: 25.025
Anna Bessonova (UKR): The crowd was really excited once they saw her. Very well performed. For some reason Irina Deriugina was sitting next to her after the routine, even though she's been suspended. Score: 27.750
Marina Shpekht (RUS): She had some issues controling the rope. She fell out of two pivots. She did not look happy after she was finished. Score: 25.250
Aliya Yussupova (KAZ): She really looked like she was struggling. She lost control of the rope at some points. Score: 25.650
Melitina Staniuta (BLR): She completely missed a catch. She also looked like she was struggling. Score: 25.925

Watch the Portimão World Cup Live

2009-04-19T07:39:00.001-07:00

The finals are being aired right now. Click here to see.

I'll discuss both the Maribor and Portimão World Cups in due time.

Barbosa Watch 2009: Jade Plans a Comeback

2009-04-16T14:41:00.000-07:00

And Globoesporte isn't, in fact, the first source to report this. International Gymnast is reporting that Jade Barbosa plans on competing in the 2009 Brazilian national championships in August. She said, "What I don't want is to spend all year without a tournament. You lose the rhythm. And if I stay away for too long, it will feel like I never competed before."

You can read the full article here.

Do you think she will compete as an all-around gymnast, or just on apparatus where her right wrist won't take a pounding? Here's a way Jade can compete on beam without using her arms courtesy of a WWGym user:

Izbasa mount A
Piked punch pront E
Front Aerial - back tuck DC 0.1
Side switch leap D
Punch front D
Tour jete half D
Side Somi D
Switch leap -wolf jump CA
full spin A
Double front dismount F

D score 6.0

Anna Bessonova... OMG

2009-04-16T09:57:00.000-07:00

DontMessWithBess translated an interview back from February. Bessonova modeled for "XXL," a men's magazine. Lyaisan Utyasheva of Russia has also modeled for this magazine. Here is the original interview with some of the photos of Bessonova (Warning: These photos are not appropriate for fundamentalists or children whose parents are hovering over them).

Anna Bessonova took off clothes for a men’s journal

The world champion in rhythmic gymnastics, 24 year old Anna Bessonova took part on a men’s magazine “XXL.” She was photographed in latex shorts, tiny jean shorts, and dresses without straps. On her head-an artificial tied back braid that reaches the waist. Supporters of Bessonova write on the internet that her feminine-vamp (vampire) appearance does not suit her. They see it as (too) aggressive.

“I don’t plan to go into the modeling business, but I really liked being a model”—the gymnast admits. They say that for the session she did not take money, even though usually magazines pay $10,000 for such photo sessions.

Anna trains in Kiev, in the rhythmic gymnastics school of Albina and Irina Deriugina. “She goes early in the morning and returns at 10 at night”-said the “GPU” mother of Anna, (lol, GPU is the Ukrainian police), the world champion in the group competition Victoria Bessonova. “We can only talk to our daughter on the weekends. On the weekends Anna likes to go shopping and to the discotekas (clubs or dance halls). She does not have a boyfriend.” “I don’t have time for romance”—says the gymnast. “The ideal guys for me are my father and my brother.” The father of the gymnast-is the former soccer great Vladimir Bessonov. At the current moment he is training the soccer club “Dnepr” (a Ukrainian Premier League club located in Dnipropetrovsk). Her brother is a professional tennis player. “In our childhood, my sister and I were not still like water,” (don’t know how to translate that part) “when we were 5-6 years old we decided that when we were going to grow up that we would marry. But our mom saddened us when she said that it is not possible.” –Alexander recalls. Vladimir Bessonov calls his greatest pleasure his family. “In the year 1990, I refused to play for an Israeli team because I wanted to spend more time with my loved ones,” he explained. “Sometimes I taught Sasha to cut things with a saw, that was my childhood pleasure. Till this day there are some toys that remain that I did for Anna.” Anna Bessonova wanted to be a ballerina when she was younger.

And now for Bessonova's post Deriugina Cup Interview

2009-04-16T09:33:00.000-07:00

Anna Bessonova was interviewed by Ukrainian Sport after her performances at the Deriugina Cup. The original interview in Russian can be found here. DontMessWithBess also translated this interview.

Bessonova: “I have the right to choose.”

The Ukrainian gymnast commented on her performance at Deriugina Cup.

Yesterday after the competition, Anna Bessonova chooses not to ease off of her sporting ammunition- additional performances were awaiting her. Delighting the crowd with exquisite demonstrations and collecting hard earned medals of honor, the winner of the Deriugina Cup answered questions for “CE”.

Q: For you it has been the first tournament of the season. Was it hard to deal with the tension?
Anna: Of course, I was a little nervous as to how the public is going to like my new programs. And the rules have changed as well. Maybe that’s why the public had such an impression. But, in my opinion, I showed everything that I was capable of. And the results speak for themselves.

Q: Did you miss the competitive atmosphere?
Anna: Yes, especially since the last I went out on the carpet was in December. All this time I have been waiting for a meeting with the crowd. I am very happy that people came to cheer for me.

Q: You showed the viewers three new programs, in which of the three does your soul like more?
Anna: I would not have stepped out if I was dissatisfied with an exercise. I think that I have the right to choose, what and how I should do it. It’s hard to say that what happened today was the best of all times. Probably we would have to ask the audience or the judges. I am very self-criticizing, and found flaws in every program, which I will have to work on to improve.

Q: On the first day you lost the hoop, on the second day you lost the ball, what caused this?
Anna: The new rules. They were forcing us to risk. Whoever does not do them does not lose the object, but at the same time they are not winning anything. Sometimes risks justify themselves, sometimes they don’t. This is sport, where it is impossible to be without mistakes. Mistakes are a stimulus to again go back to the training gym and train even more. I am upset that I committed such stupid mistakes. But I am not getting too distraught and blaming myself at anything.

Q: Maybe it was necessary to try out the new programs sooner?
Anna: I asked Irina Ivanovna myself to start the season at the Deriugina Cup. I wanted to give my home crowd a surprise, to cause a uproar. I think it worked out. Right now I am not chasing after many competitions. In this season I want to go to the places where I find it delightful to perform.

Q: And where I are you going next?
Anna: Tomorrow we are traveling to Portugal for the World Cup. No time to relax.

Q: How are you feeling now?
Anna: Massive exhaustion, because I labored a lot of make the audience happy. I heard the reaction from the crowd, and judges. They were all on noticing my new programs. For me it’s very important.

Yep, the Portimão World Cup is beggining. More on that and the Artstic World Cup in Maribor, Slovenia, soon.

Natalia Godunko's recent actions

2009-04-16T09:29:00.000-07:00

Natalia Godunko (UKR), a Ukrainian rhythmic gymnast who has competed in the 2004 and 2008 Olympics and many world championships, retired at the end of 2008. "DontMessWithBess" translated this interview with Natasha that talks about what she's been doing since her retirement and her thoughts on the Deriugina Cup.

Godunko: I am not going to the Deriugina Cup

April 11th in the Capital Palace is where the international tournament dubbed the “Deriugina Cup- Naftogaz” is going to take place where our national team is going to be present in its entirety. For the first time in many years the Ukrainian public is not going to be graced with Natalia Godunko, who announced that she is ending her sporting career recently. She talked about her future plans in an interview with turnir.com.ua.

Q: Natalia, will you go to the Deriugina competition this weekend?
Natalia: No, I already completely decided, that I am not going to attend this tournament. The desire is not there to come to this competition. Firstly, after ending my career, I don’t want to watch from the tribune the performances of other gymnasts. It would be psychologically difficult. Secondly, at the tournament in Kiev there would be an absence of first and second placed gymnasts representing the strong nations, that is why I think it would be very uninteresting to view the performances of the reserves (the coming gymnasts). I talk to the girls from different countries and I know who will be in attendance, which will perform in Kiev. In particular, the representatives of Russia will be fifth and sixth placed gymnasts (reserves), because Kapranova and Sessina are resting. From Bulgaria, there are younglings coming who are still relatively unknown in gymnastics. From Azerbaijan, the second and the third gymnasts are coming. If the strongest gymnasts on the planet were competing in Kiev, then I would have thought about it, whether I would want to watch from the tribune (audience).

Q: Did you receive an invitation for this event?
Natalia: Yes, my friends and colleagues from the national team invited me to Capital Palace.

Q: How about Mrs. Deriugina?
Natalia: Irina Ivanovna called me on the telephone and we could not talk to each other for a very long time because I was busy outside of Kiev and I did not have the time for talks. It is possible that she wanted to invite me or even maybe to come for a public appearance. But unfortunately, we did not talk.

Q: So you decided to completely ignore the battle between the rhythmic gymnasts? You are seriously not wanting to see the performances of our athletes, whom we can say, you passed the torch to?
Natalia: No, open to criticism, but Daria Kushnereva and Alina Maksimenko are not yet mature to the level required to be interesting for the audience. The public loves to indulge themselves with the performances of the older ladies. Unfortunately, the performances of my successors seems very “crude” (raw). I can see that in Kiev Anna Bessonova is going to be performing. I wish her success.

Q: Are you really resting at this time and enjoying your life after sports or are you still a busy person?
Natalia: No, at the moment I have training activities. I train the kids from one club, which is close to Kiev. I have dreamed for a long time to work with kids. So I am going to try. I feel that this work brings me pleasure, I have enough free time, because I work only 2 hours a day. Therefore I can spend time at the fitness center, the pool, study English and Ukrainian languages.

Q: You sort of admitted that a collection of your sporting medals weighs around 17 kilograms. Do you have a home museum set up?
Natalia: Not yet. Every medal is placed in a travel bag that was given to me specifically for the trip to the Olympic Games. There are also toys that the fans gave located there. I am thinking of what place I can find to build a champions corner. All of these medals mean a lot in my life. That is why; I honestly, cannot say which of these medals is the most precious.

These are some interesting thoughts. DontMessWithBess is on a translating frenzy, so there will be more interviews to come

Now Presenting a Gymnastics Fail Picture

2009-04-14T14:09:00.000-07:00

I wanted to use Photoshop to make this, but it was giving me problems, so I had to use Microsoft Paint. It's not pretty, and I'm having sizing troubles with it, so it looks a little blurry here. Still, the point remains the same:

Deriugina Cup Results

2009-04-14T13:08:00.000-07:00

I've been away, so I wasn't able to post them sooner. Anyways, the Deriugina Cup was held in Kyiv, Ukraine. It has been demoted from a World Cup event to a Grand Prix event. This marks Anna Bessonova's (UKR) return to gymnastics after taking a pause after 2008.

Individual AA:
1. Anna Bessonova (UKR): 111.075
2. Daria Kondakova (RUS): 105.875
3. Irina Rizenson (ISR): 104.800

Rope:
1. Anna Bessonova (UKR): 28.200
2. Daria Kondakova (RUS): 27.000
3. Alina Maximenko (UKR): 26,900
4. Irina Rizenson (ISR): 26,375
5. Silvia Miteva (BUL): 26,250
6. Monika Mincheva (BUL): 25,750
7. Anna Gurbanova (AZE): 25,100
8. Neta Rivkin (ISR): 24,900

Hoop:
1. Anna Bessonova (UKR): 27.750
2. Daria Kondakova (RUS): 26.925
3. Alina Maximenko (UKR): 26.675
4. Irina Rizenson (ISR): 25.825
5. Neta Rivkin (ISR): 25.250
6. Silvia Miteva (BUL): 24.900
7. Svetlana Rudalova (BLR): 24.775
8. Joanna Mitroz (POL): 23.725

Ball:
1. Daria Kondakova (RUS): 27.150
2. Silvia Miteva (BUL): 26.525
3. Svetlana Rudalova (BLR): 26,125
4. Irina Rizenson (ISR): 25.825
5. Anna Rizatdinova (UKR): 25.850
6. Anna Bessonova (UKR): 25.350
7. Neta Rivkin (ISR): 25,150
8. Dora Vass (HUN): 24.250

Bessonova dropped the ball in this routine, pun intended.

Ribbon:

1. Anna Bessonova (UKR): 27.850
2. Daria Kondakova (RUS): 26.600
3. Alina Maximenko (UKR): 26.450
4. Irina Rizenson (ISR): 25.125
5. Silvia Miteva (BUL): 25.100
6. Svetlana Rudalova (BLR): 24.850
7. Anna Aliabieva (KAZ): 24.000
8. Ulyana Trofimova (UZE): 23.900

The scores for Bessonova seem quite high. Either she has made a gigantic improvement during her break, or she was overscored. I'll look at videos of it later to put out my opinion.

Videos and interviews are coming up.

Skills Gymnasts perform even though they can't perform them well

2009-04-08T17:12:00.001-07:00

This is something that I've been wanting to post for a while. There are a set of skills that gymnasts perform frequently, but never manage to perform them well.

The Double Pike Salto

This is a great example to start with. Performing the double pike in the dismounting tumble-run for fx routines has became very, very common. As frequently performed as they are, so many gymnasts still manage to perform them with poor form. They are so often plagued by flexed feet and leg separation. Gymnasts, spare out eyes from these monstrosities you call elements!

Back Scale Turns

Back scale turns are difficulty elements in RG that take advantage of the back flexibility rhythmic gymnasts have. The problem is that many gymnasts perform it poorly enough that it doesn't receive difficulty credit. Very often gymnasts do not have the proper back bend or don't rotate the amount written on difficulty cards.

The Horizontal Leg turn on the beam
Nastia Liukin (USA) seems to be the only gymnast in the world who can actually perform this well. So very, very often the free leg is not at a horizontal, and often the gymnast looks very unsteady. Now the FIG has allowed the turn to be performed on any part of the body. Still, I think most gymnasts would feel most comfortable performing it on one foot. Hopefully they'll perform a turn that doesn't look bad.

I personally would like to see a gymnast perform a back scale turn on the beam, presuming they can perform it well. I don't think we'll be seeing that anytime soon, if we ever see it at all!

St. Petersberg World Cup Results

2009-04-08T09:20:00.000-07:00

Groups:

5 hoops:
1. Belarus: 26.375
2. Italy: 25.555
3. Russia: 23.175

3 ribbons 2 ropes:
1. Belarus: 25.450
2. Italy: 24.900
3. Russia: 24.100

Indiviuals:

Rope:
1. Yevgeniya Kanaeva (RUS): 28.150
2. Vera Sessina (RUS): 27.025
3. Melitina Staniuta (BLR): 25.250

Hoop:
1. Yevgeniya Kanaeva (RUS): 28.300
2. Vera Sessina (RUS): 27.800
3. Liubov Charkashyna (BLR): 26.325

Ball:
1. Yevgeniya Kanaeva (RUS): 28.300
2. Olga Kapranova (RUS): 28.150
3. Liubov Charkashyna (BLR): 26.500

Ribbon:
1. Vera Sessina (RUS): 27.850
2. Yevgeniya Kanaeva (RUS): 27.275
3. Melitina Staniuta (BLR): 26.075

Good news for Kapranova haters and Shpekht lovers: Shpekht came ahead of Kapranova in the qualification round. Also, bad news for Ermakova lovers: she was way, way behind everybody else in the qualification round.

A retrospective on the European Championships

2009-04-06T13:02:00.000-07:00

Albert M.C. of The All Around posted a good retrospective view of the European Artistic Gymnastics Championships. You can read it here.

Something you may Want to Know

2009-04-05T05:43:00.000-07:00

Natalia Pichuzhkina (RUS) has made the switch from competing as an individual gymnast to competing in the national group.

Also, there are a lot of competitions going on this month, so it may be a little hard to get info in a timely manner. The next posts will be about the St. Petersberg rhythmic world cup and the American Classic.

This Routine left me Speechless... in a Bad Way

2009-04-04T14:07:00.000-07:00

Here is Youna Dufournet's (FRA) floor routine from the AA. Saying that that routine was a meltdown of Kapranova-like proportions is really an understatement.

We Have our European Champions

2009-04-04T13:32:00.000-07:00

Men's AA:
Gold: Fabian Hambuechen (GER)
Silver: Daniel Keatings (GBR)
Bronze: Yuri Ryazanov (RUS)

Women's AA:
Gold: Ksenia Semyonova (RUS)
Silver: Ksenia Afanasyeva (RUS)
Bronze: Ariella Kaeslin (SUI)

See Women's AA quick hits live

2009-04-04T04:37:00.000-07:00

The All Around is posting quick hits for the women's AA right now. It gives some good information.

See them here

An Interesting Interview with Garaeva and Gurbanova

2009-04-03T14:55:00.000-07:00

Aliya Garaeva (AZE) and Anna Gurbanova (AZE), "the exports" as I like to call them (yes, I usually only refer to the exports Azerbaijan receives as "the exports"), were interviewed by the Azerbaijani Gymnastics Federation to talk about their preparation for the Rhythmic European Championships, which will be held in Baku, Azerbaijan in May. They also talk about their past, present, and futures in rhythmic gymnastics.

And Garaeva said that you have to be very impartial to be a rhythmic judge. This is news to me!

Azerbaijani gymnasts Aliya Garayeva and Anna Gurbanova: "During the forthcoming European Championships in Baku, our results, at the least, don’t have to be worse than in Euro 2007"

The audience, with surprise detected our strongest sportswomen, Aliya Garayeva and Anna Gurbanova, among people watching the events of Baku championship in rhythmic gymnastics, which came to the end on February 7. The gymnasts, who usually train in Novogorsk, situated near Moscow, at this time of the year, were very busy with giving autographs to young gymnasts and posed before the photographic cameras several times.

“How did you get in Baku?”

Aliya Garayeva: “We have come to take part in shooting of video-TV spot dedicated to the European Championships to be held in Baku on May 15-17 of the current year. It is a big responsibility for us, as we understand that it will be broadcasted on Azerbaijan television and become a main advertisement of the forthcoming event. It is very important for attracting of fans and all TV viewers.”

Anna Gurbanova: “Please do not ask us about the plot. We will not tell you. Let it to be kept in secret and be surprise for the gymnastics’ fans.”

“What performance should our fans expect of Azerbaijani national team during Euro-2009?”

A.Garayeva: “If we work hard at trainings, then the chances of good results will be high. The next Olympic cycle has come, everything starts from the beginning. A rivalry will be more serious than it was. I became a European champion in Baku in 2007. I will do my best in order to repeat that achievement.”

A.Gurbanova: “I am trying not to think about concrete places. My goal is to exploit all my potentialities to the maximum and not to make mistakes. We will perform at home and it makes us twice responsible. You cannot put your onlookers on the spot. It is a little bit more difficult for me to perform in front of my own audience than during other competitions. Nevertheless, I will try to demonstrate everything that I can.”

“From this year clubs have been replaced by a ball. How is work with this apparatus going?”

A.Garayeva: “It is all right. We are working, making an effort, trying to tame it. I think everything will be all right. Tournaments will start from the first days of March, where we will perfect the material mastered.”

”Have you renewed the program?”

“Yes. We have chosen the ballet “One thousand and one nights” by Fikrat Amirov for the performance with a rope. It is very interesting, I like this music. For other apparatus we have chosen “Sirtaki”, “Granada”, and “Scheherazade”. But there can be some changes in the program before the European Championships.”

A.Gurbanova: “I have a new program as well. National music for a ribbon, dynamic for a rope, the classical music in processing for a hoop, namely, the music by a well-known Hungarian violinist Edvin Marton, and tango for the exercises with a ball.”

“Before the European Championships, you will perform at many competitions, including Azerbaijan Championship to be held in April. Can it be considered as a dress rehearsal for you before the continent’s championships in Baku?”

“Every competition is as a dress rehearsal for me. I think there is no need to spare strength in any of them, it is necessary to do the best in all tournaments. Azerbaijan Championship – is a very important event, it gives a chance to show yours worth in front of your own fans. I plan to demonstrate all my skills there which I will have at that time.”

“The previous Olympic Cycle was very successful for Azerbaijani national team. What did you remembered best?”

A.Garayeva: “McDonald’s which was free of charge at the Olympiad in Beijing! (she is laughing). If to be serious, from the point of view of results, there were many remarkable events for the rhythmic gymnastics of Azerbaijan in the course of the past 4 years. I became a European champion; the team took prize-winning places in the World and European Championships, and, of course, the performance at the Olympiad remained in my memory. I think our whole team with dignity demonstrated their skills at the Olympic Games. It should be continued in the same spirit.”

A.Gurbanova: “Our results, at the least, don’t have to be worse in this cycle that it was in the previous one. Dinara Gimatova has left the big-time sports, but Zeynab Javadli and Samira Mustafayeva, who were performing as a junior last year, have joined the team and now Mustafayeva is also training with seniors. In general, it is good that we have many promising and talented gymnasts. It is splendid when there is a great rivalry. It urges forward.”
“As to me, I performed at the Olympiad in Athens and I am intended to fight for the permit to take part in the Olympic Games in London-2012. I must say, an age is not a hindrance in the modern rhythmic gymnastics. It is possible to perform at the highest level for a very long time. One more proof of it is a gymnast from Spain Almudena Sid (sic), who is getting on for thirty.”

“Apparently, Sid’s (sic) case has not inspired Dinara Gimatova mentioned by you.”

“It is particularly individual. Everybody decides herself when to leave the big-time sports. It depends not only on the sportswoman’s physical state but also on her state of mind.”

“Dinara joined the coaches’ staff of the national team and she is also going to act as a judge. Will you follow her after completion of your gymnastics career?”

“I would like to be a judge.”

“Will you underestimate gymnasts’ performances?”

“No. I will do it on no account. Judging attracts me for another reason. In my opinion, I understand gymnastics well enough, I can do it. Maybe, thirst for judging is also bound up with the fact that I succeeded in exact sciences at school – algebra, geometry, physics. I think I know how to make correct calculations (she is laughing).”

A.Garayeva: “But I am not going to judge. You should have to be extremely unbiased. You should neither overestimate nor underestimate. Probably, I will not be able to do it.”

“Have there been any cases when you received from the judges obviously underestimated points?”

“Yes, there have been such cases. But I do not want to talk about them. It is the judges’ job, and they carry it out in the way they think it is right.”

“Did you expect that the group team’s performance would be so successful at the Olympiad in Beijing?”

A.Gurbanova: “Yes. They worked hard and the result did not keep us waiting. The group team was fairly included into the list of the strongest gymnasts during the Olympic Games. Mariana Vasileva and other coaches played a great role in this success.”

“After the Olympiad Vasileva has been appointed head coach of the national team of Azerbaijan…”

Aliya Garayeva: “It is good. A Bulgarian school is famous for its specialists. Mariana Vasileva is a strong coach. The gymnasts whom she trained in Bulgaria achieved great successes. At present, she successfully works with Azerbaijani gymnasts. At the same time, Irina Aleksandrovna Viner diligently gives her advices to us in Novogorsk. I think these specialists’ joint efforts must give a very good result.”
A.Gurbanova: “I am pleased that we are training under the delicate direction of such strong tutors. I also express my gratitude to Mrs Mehriban Aliyeva, the president of Azerbaijan Gymnastics Federation. Thanks to her, we have excellent conditions for training.”

A.Garayeva: “I would also like to express my gratitude to Mrs Mehriban Aliyeva. She always supports us. I hope we will not disappoint her during the European Championships. Taking an opportunity, I call everybody to come to watch the forthcoming events. This is a great festival of the European gymnastics. People will talk about us in all parts of the continent. Please come, you will not regret. We will really need your support.”

US National Chamionships Tickets on Sale

2009-04-02T12:54:00.000-07:00

If you're planning on being in Texas this summer, why not go to the Visa Championships, AKA US National Championships held in Dallas Texas.

USAG is selling all session tickets for all of their disciplines.

Artistic Gymnastics

Events	Dates	Price	Venue and seating
Rhythmic, Trampoline and Tumbling, Acrobatic gymnastics	August 12-15 (morning and midday)	$45	Dallas Convention Center; general admission
August 12-15 (midday and evening)	$95-350	American Airlines Center (pre-assigned seating)

I think the "other disciplines" tickets are a good value. In acrobatic and trampoline gymnastics, there will be many world class athletes. For more info, visit here.

Maybe I should talk about the European Championships

2009-04-02T12:40:00.000-07:00

Now it's time to talk about something that I have completely ignored: The European Artistic Gymnastics Championships. I wanted to let you know that I will mainly be posting results and aggregating news from people who can cover it. The writer for The Couch Gymnast and the webmaster from The-all-around.com are there covering it.

Women's qualifications are over, here are links that you will find useful in giving info on what happened:

The All Around (links to quick hits can be found at the bottom of the home page)
The Couch Gymnast
Updated results from the 2009 European Championships Website

Asian Aerobic Gymnastics Results

2009-04-02T10:56:00.001-07:00

The FIG has posted a page of the senior results for the Asian Aerobic Gymnastics Championships. China, South Korea, and Japan were the only countries who won medals. Strangely, the group competition wasn't contested. Maybe not enough countries had groups in their delegations.

They also show the scores and sub-scores. I originally thought that now that less elements were being counted towards the difficulty scores for individuals (it was decreased from 12 to 10), difficulty scores would be lower. That doesn't appear to be the case.

Results are here.

April Fools

2009-04-02T10:52:00.001-07:00

In case you haven't figured out yet, Anna Bessonova will not be competing for Uzbekistan. It was an April Fools Day joke.

Now back to real news!

Interesting Anna Bessonova news

2009-04-01T12:31:00.000-07:00

I haven't talked about Anna Bessonova (UKR) in a while. She will go back to competing soon later this year, but the state of Ukrainian gymnastics has influenced her to have a new decision for the future. There have been rumors spreading that like Alina Kozich, she will compete for Uzbekistan. She feels that although there is enough money to send gymnasts to some events thanks to a donation, Uzbekistan will have more stable funds over time. There is little news on the details of this.

My opinion: It does look like Uzbekistan may have more stable funds than Ukraine, this may be hard to accomodate. I doubt that the Deriugins will want to coach her while she competes for Uzbekistan. Viner will probably also be pissed now that a Ukrainian is invading her territory. I can't wait until another gymnast decides to switch to Azerbaijan!

Final Thiais Results

2009-03-31T12:32:00.000-07:00

Here are the results from day one and two of Thiais. I may post my thoughts later.

The First Ever Asian Aerobic Gymnastics Championships has begun

2009-03-28T16:06:00.000-07:00

The inagural Asian Aerobic Gymnastics Championships began Friday, March 27 and are being held in Bankok, Thailand. It will end on Sunday, March 29. They were originally suppossed to take place in December 5-7, but they had to be postponed.

As usual, the FIG nor the Asian Gymnastics Union is willing to post any results at all, but I'll post them as soon as they arrive.

Thiais Qualification Results

2009-03-28T13:30:00.000-07:00

Apparently I'm not going on a break. Here are the results, courtesy of gymmedia.com

1. KANAEVA, Evgenia (RUS) 111,900
2. SESINA, Vera (RUS) 109,575
3. KAPRANOVA, Olga (RUS) 107,200
4. RISENZON, Irina (ISR) 105,175
5. KONDAKOVA, Daria (RUS) 104,50
6. YUSSUPOVA, Aliya (KAZ) 103,9507
7. CHARKASHINA, Liubov (BLR) 103,125
8. MITEVA, Silvia (BUL) 102,550
9. GARAEVA, Aliya (AZE) 102,100
10. WEBER, Caroline (AUT) 99,850

Great Rhythmic Montage

2009-03-27T15:17:00.000-07:00

I wanted to show you a montage before I went on break this weekend. This is a montage of original skills in rhythmic gymnastics. Most, if not all, of these are apparatus originalities. Original skills give gymnasts and groups small bonuses on their difficulty score (pre 2009, apparatus originalities gave bonuses on the artistic score).

I'm taking a (very short) break

2009-03-27T13:55:00.000-07:00

The World Figure Skating Championships has begun. I know a lot of gymnastics fans are also interested in figure skating. You won't be seeing any news on Thiais until Monday.

Anyways, congrats Evan Lysacek (USA) and Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy (GER)!

Watch the Thiais Grand Prix Live Online (and general information)

2009-03-27T13:12:00.001-07:00

Orange Sports will be broadcasting the senior individual and group finals of Le Grand Prix à Thiais, held in Thiais, France.

The program begins Sunday, at 2:00 GMT+1. The broadcast strangely begins at 3:40, which would cut out the first two individual apparatus and the first group rotation, according to the Orange Sports Website. Hopefully this is just an error. You can see the live broadcast on this page. If you receive Orange Channel on your television, you can see it live there.

According to the Thiais website, these NOC's will be sending junior participants:

Junior Individuals:
Belarus, Bulgaria, China, Czech Republic, France, Greece, Italy, The Netherlands, Poland, Russia, and Spain.

Senior participants can be found on page nine of this press packet (note that there have been some changes, listed below). Here's what you'll want to know, since it's in French.

Allemagne is Germany, Chypre is Cyprus, and Polonge is Poland.

Changes to the Roster:
Anna Bessonova will not be competing. She will start again in the Deriugina Cup. Alina Maksimenko will be taking her place
France and Spain's groups will not be there. France's withdrawl was caused by an injury among one of the gymnasts.

Also, Irina Kovalchuk (UKR) is coming out of retirement and will be competing as a group gymnast.

A Victory for Three Ribbons Two Ropes Haters

2009-03-26T12:42:00.000-07:00

The FIG technical committee recently met and one of the things they discussed was the apparatus schedule for this quad. They decided that the three ribbons two ropes combination will only be used this year and next year. It had been previously scheduled for the whole quad. The years 2011 and 2012 will use three ribbons two hoops.

For the apparatus schedule for this quad, click here.

RIP Yukio Endo

2009-03-25T15:43:00.000-07:00

Yukio Endo, multi Olympic and World medalist in the 60's, inventor of the Endo skill on the horizontal bar, and inductee into the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame, died on March 25 of esophageal cancer.

This International Gymnast article gives a detailed explanation of his career. Here is a video narrated by Bart Conner that shows some of the highlights of his career.

Yukio Endo (JPN)

USA Gymnastics Pays Tribute to Gabashvili

2009-03-25T15:35:00.000-07:00

USA Gymnastics released this press release:

Former world rhythmic champion Gabashvili dies at 48

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind., March 24, 2009 – Irina Gabashvili of Tigard, Ore., a former world rhythmic gymnastics champion who has coached in the United States since 2000, died today at age 48 after a five-year battle with cancer. A memorial service is scheduled for Wednesday, March 25, at 1:00 p.m. at Holy New Martyrs of Russia Orthodox Church in Mulino, Ore.
“Irina was a valued member of the rhythmic gymnastics community, and she will be missed,” said Caroline Hunt, rhythmic gymnastics program director for USA Gymnastics. “Irina was known for both her elegance and grace, and she put up a gallant struggle in her battle with cancer. Our thoughts and prayers are with her family at this difficult time.”
Gabashvili won the world title for ball at the 1979 World Championships in London, England. After joining the Soviet National Team at 16 years old, she competed for the former Soviet Union for seven years. A graduate of Georgia State University in the former Soviet Union, she immigrated to the United States in 2000 after a seven-year stint as the head of the Malaysian Rhythmic National Team. She was a coach at Westside Gymnastics Academy in Portland, Ore., where she worked with Danielle Lord who was a member of the 2001 U.S. World Championships Team. In addition to coaching, Gabashvili was a rhythmic gymnastics judge. She recently became involved with aesthetic gymnastics and her team medaled at the 2008 World Aesthetic Championships in Spain. Gabashvili, who was born in Tbilisi, Georgia, is survived by her husband and sister.

Irina Gabashvili

RIP Irina Gabashvili

2009-03-24T13:16:00.000-07:00

On Monday, March 24, Irina Gabashvili passed away. Her husband, Sergo, and her sister, Erka, who had recently arrived from Georgia, were by her side.

Irina Gabashvili is Facing Hard Times

2009-03-22T19:39:00.000-07:00

Irina Gabashvili, a rhythmic gymnast who competed for the Soviet Union and became 1979 world champion in ball, has faced tough times during the last few years. She moved to the United States in 2000 where she taught at the Westside Gymnastics Academy in Tigard, Oregon. In early 2004, she was diagnosed with breast cancer and began intensive chemo therapy. By May, the cancerous tumor had spread to both breasts and to other organs.

As of today, the news is still not positive. Mellanie Heniff of Rhythmic Northwest stated in February:

The Chemo has not shrunk the cancer and the cancer has spread to other organs. The doctor has put in an order for hospice. Irina may still try another chemo treatment that will slow down the cancer. She is weighing the pros and cons of doing this, because the chemo has made her very sick in the past. She is having a difficult time coming to terms with her prognosis, as we all would. Please be very sensitive.

On March 11, they said, "We thought we might lose her Tuesday night [March 10]. Amazingly she started regaining her strength on Wednesday afternoon and is now stable." She has now been moved to a hospice in Vancouver.

On the Rhythmic Northwest website updates are listed and there is an address to send cards to her.

Here is a video of an exhibition from her in 1980:

Announcing the 2009 Latin Cup

2009-03-21T17:36:00.000-07:00

The third annual Latin Cup is a tournament for aerobic gymnasts in the senior, junior, and age group ranges. It is held in Outorela, Portugal. This year it will include delegations from France, Spain, Romania, Finland, and Portugal held on Sunday, March 21.