2011: The gymnastics year in review

Hey, one out of three isn't bad in a sport where nothing's ever truly certain. With that, here's the annual blow-by-blow of the major gymnastics news stories of the year:

 

January: American Cassie Whitcomb announces that she will drop to level 10 in order to prepare for NCAA gymnastics at UCLA. 

 

January: A video of Kohei Uchimura performing a quadruple twisting double tuck on a trampoline surfaces, creating speculation that he may do the same thing on floor exercise. He doesn't do a quad in 2011, but at the World Championships 10 months later, he unveils a new triple-twisting double tuck, a skill that helps him wins the floor title. 

 

January: 2004 Olympic champion Paul Hamm tears his labrum in training and has surgery to repair the injury, effectively ending his 2011 season.

 

January: With its program facing elimination, the Cal men's gymnastics team beats reigning NCAA champion Stanford in its season opener, underscoring the Bears' guts and determination to keep doing great gymnastics. 

 

February: Jake Dalton wins Winter Cup with a killer clean floor routine, establishing himself as the new man to watch on the U.S. scene.

 

January: German star Fabian Hambuechen tears his Achilles tendon in training. 

 

February: Mykayla Skinner becomes the latest American junior to throw an Amanar in competition, and one of the few to do it without the extra spring of a podium. 

 

February: Japanese junior Yui Fujii becomes a Youtube sensation when she's captured doing a great quadruple toe turn on beam. It got better: In November, video surfaces of her doing an incredible quintuple turn. 

 

February: France's Marine Brevet takes the senior women's title at the WOGA Classic. WOGA's Katelyn Ohashi wins the junior title, and Jordyn Wieber makes an impressive senior debut (as a senior). 

 

February: Cal-Berkeley announces that it will not cut women's gymnastics after all, as it cannot eliminate the sport and remain Title IX compliant. However, head coach Cari DuBois announces that 2011 will be her last season with the team. 

 

March: 14-year-old junior Grace Williams gives a strong all-around performance to win the Nastia Liukin SuperGirl Cup ahead of Amelia Hundley and Rachel Spicer. 

 

March: Last-minute replacement Jordyn Wieber upsets 2010 World champion Aliya Mustafina to win her second American Cup title of the quadrennium, leaving the Russian delegation decidedly annoyed. Jonathan Horton wins his third American Cup title, besting Mykola Kuksenkov of Ukraine and newcomer Jake Dalton. 

 

March: The International Gymnastics Federation brings suit against equipment supplier Gymnova for providing faulty trampolines at the 2010 World Trampoline Championships. This is an embarassment for Gymnova, which had already been named official equipment supplier for the London Olympics. 

 

March: 2008 Olympic bronze medalist Joey Hagerty of the U.S. announces his retirement from competitive gymnastics.

 

March: Chinese newcomer Yao Jinnan becomes the star of the Cottbus World Cup, winning bars, beam and floor in her senior international debut. 

 

March: The 2011 World Championships are cast in doubt after a magnitude 9 earthquake hits Japan, causing a tsunami that leads to a partial meltdown at the Fukushima Daichii nuclear plant 220 miles from Tokyo. 

 

March: Smarting from her American Cup loss, Aliya Mustafina takes revenge by winning vault, bars and beam at the French International with incredibly difficult and precise routines. Olympic floor champion Sandra Izbasa debuts a new routine and wins floor exercise. 

 

March: Tan Sixin emerges as another young Chinese gymnast to watch after she wins bars and beam at the Doha World Cup in Qatar.

 

April: Kent State University makes history by earning the school's first-ever berth to the NCAA Gymnastics Championships, ending preseason favorite Stanford's season. 

 

April: In the biggest shocker of the European Championships, Aliya Mustafina tears her ACL vaulting an Amanar during the women's all-around final. Ironically, Mustafina leads the competition after the first rotation despite being taken from the arena in a wheelchair. In her stead, Anna Dementyeva emerges to capture her first European all-around title.

 

April: World all-around silver medalist Philipp Boy is in fine form as he wins his first European all-around crown. The competition also marks the return of Marcel Nguyen from a broken leg suffered in 2010. Nguyen wins parallel bars with an immensely difficult routine that includes a rare full-twisting double tuck dismount.

 

April: At 20, Sandra Izbasa shows she's still competitive by winning event titles on vault and floor in Berlin. Her new floor routine, to "Tango Amore," is one of the high points of the meet.

 

April: A beaten up Beth Tweddle nevertheless wins her fourth European title (and third in a row) on her specialty. Not bad, considering the bars in her gym fell on her while she was practicing a few weeks before the European Championships.

 

April: Putting a scandalous year behind him, the Netherlands's Yuri van Gelder rteurns to major competition, finishing sixth on rings in event finals at Europeans. Russia's Konstantin Pluzhnikov becomes European Champion on the event.

 

April: Anna Dementyeva builds on her success by winning the European title on balance beam ahead of Italians Carlotta Ferlito and Elisabetta Preziosa. 

 

April: The Flying Dutchman, Epke Zonderland, unveils a spectacular Cassina to immediate Kolman combination on high bar in training but manages to secure the European event title without it, mostly thanks to his 7.7 start value on the event.

 

April: Germany's Kim Bui, recovered from an Achilles tear that kept her out of competition in 2010, returns to win the bronze medal on uneven bars at Europeans in her home country.

 

April: World champions Thomas Bouhail and Krisztian Berki secure European titles on vault and pommel horse, respectively, while all-around silver medalist Flavius Koczi of Romania wins the European title on floor. 

 

April: Daniel Purvis and Amelia Racea win the all-around titles at the Glasgow World Cup in Scotland. 

 

April: Riding the wave, the University of Alabama wins its first NCAA title since 2002, foiling a late season surge by defending champion UCLA.

 

April: The Stanford men recapture the NCAA title they won in 2009 and lost to Michigan in 2010, upsetting a strong Oklahoma team that counted national team members Steven Legendre and Jake Dalton.

 

April: Michigan's Sam Mikulak, a freshman, and Kylee Botterman, a senior, win the NCAA men's and women's all-around titles. 

 

April: Jake Dalton wins vault and floor exercise at the NCAA Championships, depriving senior teammate and Nissen-Emery award winner Steven Legendre a record-breaking seventh NCAA championship.

 

April: NCAA pommel kings Alex Naddour and Daniel Ribeiro share the NCAA title on their specialty, setting up a battle for reigning U.S. pommel specialist.

 

April: Brandon Wynn (Ohio State) and Tyler Mizoguchi (Illinois) cap their collegiate seasons with the event titles on rings and parallel bars, respectively. Stanford's Alex Buscaglia wins high bar. 

 

April: After three years of waiting, Kat Ding finally wins uneven bars at the NCAA Championships. Florida's Marissa King wins the title on vault, while Olympic silver medalist Samantha Peszek nails a standing full on beam to win that event for UCLA. Geralen Stack-Eaton's dramatic and classy floor routine earns her an individual NCAA crown as well.

 

April: As Japan recovers from the Tohoku earthquake, Tokyo and Moscow vie to host the World Championships. Friction escalates between the two cities as Moscow makes a formal bid to the FIG to host Worlds. The Japanese retort by pointing to a report that says there's more radiation in Moscow than Tokyo.

 

April: Kohei Uchimura posts the second highest all-around total ever under the open-ended code, scoring 94.9 to run away with the Japanese National title. The high score, 95.65, was set by 2008 Olympic champion Yang Wei during the 2006 Asian Games.

 

May: The Netherlands's Suzanne Harmes, who competed at the 2008 Olympics less than 18 months after giving birth to her son, announces her retirement.

 

May: Fundraisers pull the Cal-Berkeley men's program back from the brink of elimination by raising more than $2 million in pledge promises. The team is reinstated by the school's athletic department, but without scholarship support. However, enough money is been raised that the team will endure for at least the next five to seven years. 

 

May: 1984 Olympic gold medalist Peter Vidmar steps down as Chef de Mission for the 2012 U.S. Olympic team after it comes out that he has spoken publicly against gay marriage and donated to anti-gay marriage groups. 

 

May: China's Olympic heroine Cheng Fei returns to competition following an ACL tear at the Chinese Nationals. Though not as fit as in previous years, Cheng's work on floor is still impressive -- especially for someone with a rehabbed knee.

 

May: Tan Sixin, Yao Jinnan and Zeng Siqi go 1-2-3 at the Chinese Championships, while Teng Haibin and Guo Weiyang share the men's title.

 

May: The FIG opts to keep the World Championships in Tokyo at its executive committee meeting in California. The FIG also announces that Antwerp, Belgium will host the 2013 World Championships, while Glasgow, Scotland is awarded the 2015 Worlds over Paris and Orlando, Fla.

 

May: FIG President Bruno Grandi calls the code of points a "time bomb." 

 

May: Supertumbler Diego Hypolito posts a video of him training yet another new skill on floor: an Arabian double front with two twists on the second flip. If named for him, it would be Hypolito's fourth floor skill in the code of points. He also shows off a very ambitious tumbling pass: a 2.5 twist to immediate front full to immediate front double pike half out.

 

May: Viktoria Komova travels to the same Munich clinic where Aliya Mustafina had her ACL surgery to see a specialist about her still-injured ankle. Days later, she undergoes arthroscopic surgery, performed by the same doctor who repaired Mustafina's knee.

 

May: Madeline Gardiner and Jackson Payne come out on top at the Canadian Championships in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, while Victoria Moors and Shallon Olsen take the junior and novice titles.

 

June: Celine van Gerner and Anthony van Assche win the titles at the Dutch National Championships. 

 

June: Hungary's Tunde Csillag becomes the first known elite to refuse to go to the World Championships in Tokyo due to fears about radiation. For her decision, Csillag is suspended by the Hungarian Federation. 

 

June: Shawn Johnson announces plans to compete at the CoverGirl Classic, sparking a frenzy of speculation about her new skills and routines.

 

June: Former Arkansas star Casey Jo Magee turns heads with videos of her unique beam routine and thoughtful blog chronicling her progress as she attempts to make the U.S. team. 

 

June: Paul Hamm joins the Ohio State men's team as an assistant coach, a position that allows him to do a master's degree at the university free of charge. Hamm was also recruited by Oklahoma, but opted to remain in Ohio, where he trained before the 2004 and 2008 Olympics.

 

July: The Chinese men and Japanese women cruise to the team titles at the Japan Cup, while the U.S. men have a great performance on pommel horse.

 

July: Canada's Jessica Savona tears her ACL doing a DTY at the Japan Cup, ending her 2011 season.

 

July: Swiss star Ariella Kaeslin calls an end to a long and successful career.

 

July: WOGA's Grace McLaughlin wins the American Classic, one of the elite qualifiers to the CoverGirl Classic.

 

July: Reigning World floor champion Lauren Mitchell debuts her new floor routine, an Aussie-ified version of "Besame Mucho" (with vocals by Freddie Mercury) at the Japan Cup. The routine is amazing in the effort it makes to infuse itself with real choreography.

 

July: South Korea's Yang Hak Seon throws an amazing handspring front triple full on vault, becoming the first gymnast to perform that element in competition. With great form to boot.

 

July: Hannah Whelan wins her second British all-around title, while Beth Tweddle debuts a new routine on bars in the midst of winning her upteenth British title on that event.

 

July: The host men's team wins the inaugural Puerto Rican Cup, besting the Brazilians and Americans. U.S. hopeful Sam Mikulak reportedly fractures both ankles on a bad landing on floor, ending his elite season.

 

July: Almost 13 years to the day after she was paralyzed vaulting at the Goodwill Games, Sang Lan reaches a deal with insurance companies that will allow her to receive ongoing medical treatment in China.

 

July: Former Chinese national team member Zhang Shengwu becomes an unlikely advocate for retired elite athletes in China after he's busted for busking performing gymnastics at a metro stop in Beijing. Zhang's story struck a chord because it seemed to be a microcosm of a larger problem in countries where child or adolescent elite athletes train so hard they receive inadequate education and then cannot figure out a way to support themselves after retiring from sports.

 

July: Chellsie Memmel demonstrates that she is near her 2008 fitness and difficulty levels, making her an instant favorite for the 2011 CoverGirl Classic title.

 

July: Aly Raisman overcomes a fall on uneven bars to win the 2011 CoverGirl Classic all-around title. Alicia Sacramone is first on vault and ties bars champion Jordyn Wieber for the beam title. Raisman's new floor routine to "Hava Nagila," includes an eye-catching 1.5 to Arabian double front to immediate punch front, as well as Arabian double pike.

 

July: Comeback kids: Chellsie Memmel hits all her routines (especially beam and floor) to finish second at the CoverGirl Classic in her elite comeback debut. Shawn Johnson's competiton is rougher and includes falls on her bars dismount and flight series on beam. Still, there is enough of the old spark there that Johnson is not written off as a contender for the 2012 Olympic team.

 

July: Triple Olympic gold medalist Catalina Ponor, who returned to the Romanian national team after a three year abscence from gymnastics, undergoes surgery to repair a cogenital heart defect.

 

August: Mattie Larson announces that she is on hiatus from elite gymnastics and plans to enroll at UCLA for the 2011-2012 school year. She leaves the door open as to whether she will try for the London Olympic team.

 

August: Fabian Hambuechen shows a new and improved high bar routine in a German Bundesliga meet, signaling his return from the torn Achilles. 

 

August: Youngsters Mariya Livchiokova and Mykola Kuksenkov win the Ukrainian Championships.

 

August: Daniele Hypolito defeats Jade Barbosa to win her 10th Brazilian national championship, while Francisco Barretto wins the men's title.

 

August: Bridget Sloan withdraws from the U.S. Championships, saying she needs more time to be fully ready following a February bicep surgery.

 

August: Unknown Xiao Kangjun wins the women's all-around at the World University Games in Shenzhen, China, while Ukraine's Mykola Kuksenkov is the men's champion. The Japanese men's and women's teams each win gold in the team competition, the Japanese over China and Romania, the women over Ukraine and an obviously disappointed Russia.

 

August: Katelyn Ohashi shows that she has mastered more of her incredible difficulty by running away with the U.S. women's junior title as the U.S. Championships begin in St. Paul, Minn. In the men's junior category, Sean Melton (14-15 age group) and Adrian de los Angeles (16-18) are crowned new national champions.

 

August: Rebecca Bross dislocates her kneecap attempting a DTY during the women's all-around final at the U.S. Championships. The injury sobers the all-around final, which is won by Wieber in the largest margin of victory since the code of points became open-ended. McKayla Maroney finishes second, boosted by huge scores on vault.

 

August: Danell Leyva and Jonathan Horton battle it out for the men's all-around title, but Leyva edges Horton for the win after Horton falls from high bar halfway through the meet.

 

August: Chellsie Memmel's U.S. Championships comes to an abrupt end after she subflexes her shoulder on a full pirouette on uneven bars. Memmel does not finish the routine for safety but assures everyone that she'll be back even better.

 

August: The splatfest that is night one of the women's competition at the U.S. Championships is made more distressing by strong performances at the Russian Cup. Anna Dementyeva wins the all-around title, while Viktoria Komova appears in competition for the first time in several months and finishes second all-around.

 

August: Flavius Koczi and Ana Porgras win the Romanian National Championships.

 

September: Paul Hamm is arrested for alleged assault of a cab driver in Ohio after refusing to pay a $23 cab fare following a night on the town. The dashcam video of Hamm being apprehended by police shows the 2004 Olympic champion drunk and disorderly. The incident costs him his assistant coaching job at Ohio State, but Hamm vows to fight the charges.

 

September: Chinese veterans dominate the Ghent World Cup, while Mariya Livchikova's wonderful floor and beam routines give the Ukrainians hope for medals in the women's competition at the World Championships. 

 

September: Nanning, China is awarded the 2014 World Championships.

 

September: ABC Family's gymnastics drama "Make It or Break It" is renewed for a third and final season.

 

September: Worlds hopeful Mackenzie Caquatto sprains her ankles on a beam dismount at the final women's selection camp, ending her hopes of competing in Tokyo.

 

September: Beth Tweddle shows off a full twisting Arabian double front in a practice video.

 

September: Initially named to the U.S. Pan American Games team, Chellsie Memmel withdraws due to a torn biceps tendon. Memmel has surgery for her shoulder issue, which will inhibit her training for about three months.

 

September: The Orange County Register publishes an exposé on 1984 Olympic team coach Don Peters after former national team member Doe Yamashiro comes forward saying that Peters forced her to have sex with him when she was 17. Peters, recently retired to Pennsylvania, does not talk to the press, but USA Gymnastics eventually bans him from coaching and strips him of his position in their Hall of Fame.

 

September: Germany's Elisabeth Seitz unveils a toe on Shaposhnikova with a full twist on uneven bars. Between that immensely difficult skill and her Def, her bar routine could be considered the hardest in the world today.

 

October: Sandra Izbasa withdraws from the World Championships with a foot injury, which is not serious, Romanian coach Octavian Bellu assures reporters in Tokyo. 

 

September: Alicia Sacramone bares all for ESPN The Magazine's "Body" issue. The magazine hits newstands Oct. 7, the same day Sacramone tears her Achilles tendon in training at the World Championships. 

 

October: U.S. bars specialist Anna Li is relegated to team alternate after an abdominal strain limits her training time in Tokyo. When Sacramone tears her Achilles one day later, national team coordinator Martha Karolyi decides to compete with only five U.S. gymnasts, a very gutsy move.

 

October: They shouldn't have worried. The five U.S. women -- Jordyn Wieber, McKayla Maroney, Aly Raisman, Gabrielle Douglas and Sabrina Vega -- nail all their routines in women's team prelims and finals at Worlds, erasing any earlier doubts about the preparedness of the team. "The kids were all right," Nancy Armour of the Associated Press writes. The Americans won their third team gold of the past decade in Tokyo.

 

October: Jordyn Wieber and Viktoria Komova duke it out for the women's all-around title. Wieber makes the competition's most obvious mistake of the competition on uneven bars and adds an out of bounds on floor, but does serious damage control with a flawless beam routine. Komova's bars are obviously superior, but her weaker vault and lackluster floor tumbling allow Wieber to walk away with the gold medal by a narrow 0.033. Rematch in London?

 

October: After falling on vault during the men's team prelims, Kohei Uchimura gives a master class in the all-around final, winning a third consecutive world all-around title and cementing his legend as one of the best of all time. Philipp Boy finishes a distant second, Japanese ringman Koji Yamamuro third.

 

October: Japan's Yusuke Tanaka suffers a concussion after hitting his head performing a roll out skill on floor during men's team prelims. Tanaka, of a great Japanese gymnastics family, returns to compete in the team final, where he falls on high bar, as well as on high bar in event finals.

 

October: Mariya Livchikova, the great hope for Ukraine, withdrew from Worlds after sustaining a knee injury in training. It is unknown how serious the injury is. 

 

October: McKayla Maroney and her incredible Amanar vault win the world title that Sacramone won in 2010. Maroney seems a likely candidate to be the first woman to compete a Yurchenko triple full, and she may also attempt a Cheng as her second vault in 2012.

 

October: Kohei Uchimura competes a triple twisting double tuck on floor exercise during event finals in Tokyo, adding floor gold to his all-around title.

 

October: The British men record numerous errors during the men's team prelims in Tokyo, finishing 10th, which forcing them to compete for a team berth to the London Olympics at January's London Test Event.

 

October: Disappointed by her second place finish in the all-around, Viktoria Komova revels in winning the gold medal on bars. Teammate Tatiana Nabieva finishes second.

 

October: The Romanian women come away from the World Championships without winning a medal for the first time in more than 20 years. Ana Porgras, sixth all-around, wins the Longines Prize for Elegance, but Romanian coaches Octavian Bellu and Mariana Bitang make it clear that it not a substitute for actual medals.

 

October: Kohei Uchimura wins the Longines Prize for Elegance for his all-around performance at Worlds, delighting the Japanese crowd. Uchimura himself looks thrilled to receive the beautiful Longines timepiece from the company. 

 

October: Following in the footsteps of great Hungarian pommel master Zoltan Magyar, Krisztian Berki defends his World title on the event and earns his ticket to the London Olympics. 

 

October: Vietnam's Phan Thi Ha Thanh wins bronze on vault at the World Championships with two solid efforts, earning her the right to compete in London next summer.

 

October: China's Chen Yibing wins his fourth World gold on rings with a perfect looking routine. In what has become a tradition for him, Chen kisses the rings tower before leaving the podium.

 

October: Left off the 2008 Olympic team, China's Sui Lu has a career performance at the World Championships, winning gold on beam and silver on floor. Sui immediately begins work on a new floor routine, a peppy Indian piece that she'll debut in 2012.

 

October: After missteps by Thomas Bouhail on his second vault in event finals, Yang Hak Seon's clean handspring front triple full helps him earn the World title on vault.

 

October: Hitting his chin on the high bar during the men's all-around only made Danell Leyva hungrier for gold in event finals. He got it on parallel bars, becoming the first U.S. man to win a World title since 2003.

 

October: At last! Ksenia Afanasyeva of Russia took full advantage of going up eighth in the women's floor final, charming the judges with an edgy and stylish new routine and winning her first individual World title.

 

October: The U.S. men merit a team bronze at the World Championships, their highest finish in eight years.

 

October: It wasn't a perfect performance, but the U.S. women win team gold at the Pan American Games in Guadalajara, Mexico, and 17-year-old Bridgette Caquatto wins the women's all-around in spite of a badly tweaked knee that would require surgery late in the year. In all, Caquatto scored three gold medals at Pan Ams.

 

October: Shawn Johnson's performance at the Pan American Games showed upgraded difficulty on both beam and bars but lacked the consistency shle's shown in the past. Johnson assured reporters that she is still hoping to compete the Amanar vault in 2012. 

 

October: In a dogfight, the Brazilian men beat Puerto Rico's "Los Golden Boys" for the men's team title at Pan Ams. But it's 17-year-old Jossimar Calvo of Colombia who makes the biggest impression, winning the all-around over teammate Jorge Hugo Giraldo (who is almost twice his age) with exciting, rarely seen skills like a 3.5 twist on floor and a full twisting double tuck dismount off the end of the parallel bars.

 

October: Guatemala's Ana Sofia Gomez Porras continues to put her country's gymnastics reputation by winning gold on balance beam at Pan Ams. Other event champions are Brandie Jay of the U.S. (vault) and Ana Lago of Mexico (floor). 

 

October: Daniel Corral of Mexico adds apparatus gold on his best events, pommel horse and parallel bars, while Americans Paul Ruggeri and Brandon Wynn clean up on high bar and rings, respectively. Brazil's Diego Hypolito continues his Pan Ams success with wins on vault and floor in event finals. 

 

October: New World champion Jordyn Wieber decides to forgo her NCAA eligibility and become a professional athlete. Aly Raisman follows suit in November, and U.S. men's breakout star John Orozco does the same in December.

 

November: Switzerland's Giulia Steingruber and Claudio Capelli become the first Swiss pair to win the Swiss Cup mixed pairs meet, held every year in Zurich.

 

November: Aliya Mustafina makes headlines by entering the Stuttgart World Cup just eight months after tearing her ACL, fueling speculation that she is trying to do too much too soon. Mustafina is cleared to compete after a visit to her surgeon in Munich, but withdraws from the Stuttgart World Cup after her knee swells during warmups. She announces in an interview that in her mind her injury is "finished" and says she will compete the Amanar vault in 2012, as that's what it will take to win the Olympic all-around title.

 

November: Newcomer Shogo Nonomura of Japan wins the Stuttgart World Cup over more seasoned competitors, including World silver medalist Philipp Boy and Daniel Purvis.

 

November: The FIG announces it is canceling the 100,000 Swiss Franc World Cup jackpot prize for the men's and women's overall all-around winners, but pledges to fund the prize purse in 2012.

 

November: After an inconsistent World Championships, Huang Qiushuang goes a ways towards redeeming herself by winning the all-around at the Stuttgart and Tokyo World Cups. Her victories there give her the most points in the final World Cup all-around standings, making her 2011 World Cup women's champion.

 

November: After a scary fall off high bar at the Stuttgart World Cup, Philipp Boy emerges unhurt and goes on to close out his year at the Tokyo World Cup. 

 

November: Capping off his banner year, Kohei Uchimura wins the Tokyo World Cup in front of a home crowd. But it's Daniel Purvis who wins the World Cup men's all-around title with the most combined points spread over the four all-around meets.

 

November: Russian and Canadian juniors impress at Top Gym in Belgium. Russia's Evgenia Shelgunova wins the all-around, while Briannah Tseng and Shallon Olsen, among others, have highly successful performances.

 

November: After withdrawing from the German Bundesliga team final, Fabian Hambuechen's KTV Straubenhardt coaches opt not to extend his contract, leaving him without a team in the league for 2012. Hambuechen, who opted to do the Swiss Cup and Arthur Gander Memorial before the Bundesliga final, pleaded exhaustion and a need to rest his Achilles, but it was obvious Straubenhardt felt it had been put on the back burner.

 

December: Viktoria Komova wins the title (with stronger performances than she showed at Worlds), but Aliya Mustafina is the big story of the Voronin Cup, where she finishes sixth all-around with watered down routines. Still, she shows a far higher level of preparedness than anyone could have expected, raising her stock for 2012.

 

December: The failure of Swiss teams to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics brings a raft of retirements on the national team as the country begins rebuilding toward 2016. 

 

December: The U.S. announces that Jordyn Wieber, Aly Raisman and John Orozco will compete at the 2012 American Cup. 

 

December: The FIG cancels the 2012 Paris World Cup based on low interest levels from top gymnastics countries. The World Cup was badly scheduled for the Olympic year, being the same weekend as the Pacific Rim Championships. But it will resume again in 2013.

 

December: Thomas Bouhail undergoes surgery on his knee after a freak fall off high bar in training results in . It seems unlikely that he will be at full strength for the Olympic Games, or whether he will compete at all.

 

December: Japan's Junpei Oka wins the Valeri Liukin Invitational over top challengers from the U.S. and Ukraine.

 

December: Ksenia Afanasyeva and Danell Leyva celebrate their 2011 accomplishments by winning the men's and women's titles at the inaugural Mexican Open in Guadalajara. Their prizes include sombreros and the ability to let their hair down and do silly routines during the competiton's gala night.

 

Happy New Year, everyone! 2012 is going to be amazing.