Fabian Hambuchen made a joyful return to competition in November, after missing the World Championships with a foot injury. AP Photo/Daniel Maurer
What will we remember about gymnastics in 2009? Here's a quick look back at the triumphs, scandals and milestones of the past year:
January: Big talents emerge at the Australian Youth Olympic Festival in Sydney. Most notably, Japan's Natsumi Sasada, the daughter of a former Japanese National Team member, throws a layout Garrison mount on beam (roundoff, back full). Also impressive is are China’s Cui Jie, Wu Liufang and Tan Sixin, and four young British men: Sam Oldham, Reiss Beckford, Max Whitlock and Ashley Watson.
January: Back from a torn Achilles and on a tear in her senior season at Georgia, Courtney Kupets is called the Gym Dogs's "best ever" by longtime Georgia coach Suzanne Yoculan.
February: U.S. Olympic bronze medalist Joseph Hagerty wins Winter Cup, outscoring youngster Danell Leyva and Stanford's Sho Nakamori.
February: Georgia commit Christa Tanella wins the WOGA Classic over Sarah Persinger and Ukraine’s Jana Demyanchuk.
February: Shawn Johnson, basking in post-Olympic fame, announces plans to compete on the eighth season of ABC's Dancing with the Stars.
February: Former Dutch star Verona van der Leur wins a lawsuit against her father in the ugliest gymnastics family scandal since Dominique Moceanu filed for emancipation from her parents in 1998. Van der Leur's father was ordered to turn over his bank statements for inspection, return personal items and pay his daughter 1,300 euro. Van der Leur had accused her father of spending tens of thousands of euros of her prize money against her wishes.
February: Thirteen-year-old Jordyn Wieber becomes the second youngest American Cup champion in history. She does so by showing some very mature skills, including an Amanar vault, a double twisting double layout dismount on uneven bars and a back full on beam, skills even Johnson hadn't mastered before age 16. Germany's Fabian Hambuchen, rebounding from a disappointing Olympics, edges American David Sender for the 2009 American Cup men's title.
March: Jon Valdez, Justin Spring's former coach, pleads guilty to one count of unauthorized videotaping after a camera was found in a University of Illinois locker room. Valdez was sentenced to two years of probation and 50 hours of community service.
March: Glenn Sundby, founder of International Gymnast Magazine and the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame, dies at 87.
March: A Florida man named Robert O'Ryan is arrested outside the Dancing with the Stars studio in Los Angeles for allegedly stalking Johnson, who promptly hires a bodyguard.
March: 2008 Olympic all-around champion Yang Wei announces his retirement.
March: Russians Ksenia Semyonova and Ksenia Afanasyeva go 1-2 in the all-around at the 2009 European Championships in Milan. Fabian Hambuchen takes the men's title, surpassing Great Britain's Daniel Keatings in the all-around final.
March: Ariella Kaeslin makes history for Switzerland with the vault title, Demyanchuk wins beam and Beth Tweddle goes home from the 2009 European Championships as a double gold medalist on bars and floor. Six men from five different countries win gold during men's event finals: Hambuchen wins floor, Hungary's Kristian Berki pommel horse, France's Thomas Bouhail vault and Yann Cucherat parallel bars, Dutchman Yuri van Gelder rings, and Greece's Vlasos Maras high bar.
April: Courtney Kupets is the story of the NCAA Championships, leading Georgia to its fifth straight title and winning the all-around, scoring two perfect 10s in the process. Kupets also wins the individual titles on bars, beam and floor (shared with LSU's Ashleigh Clare-Kearney) to become the winningest NCAA gymnast ever, passing Kentucky's Jenny Hansen, who like Kupets only competed at the NCAA Championships three times. Claire-Kearney wins vault in event finals.
April: Stanford captures the NCAA title, while Oklahoma's Steven Legendre takes the all-around title over Cal's Glen Ishino and Illinois's Paul Ruggeri at the 2009 NCAA Men's Championships in Minnesota. Ruggeri wins parallel bars and high bar, Legendre vault and floor, Illinois's Daniel Ribeiro pommel horse and Cal's Evan Roth still rings.
April: Less than 3,000 people show up to watch the 2009 NCAA Super Six women's team final at the University of Nebraska, the lowest total in NCAA gymnastics history. In the wake of the poorly attended championships, NCAA coaches vote to move to a four-team NCAA final beginning in 2011, hoping to attract live TV coverage for the meet. The NCAA approves the change in September.
April: Spring retires to become head coach at his alma mater, the University of Illinois. 1997 World all-around champion Ivan Ivankov is promoted to assistant coach.
May: Longtime Brazilian National Team member Daniele Hypolito has liposuction to drop about nine pounds.
May: He Ning and 2001 World all-around champion Feng Jing win the Chinese National Championships.
May: In an attempt to thwart potential age cheating, the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) introduces licenses that competitors will have to apply for before international competition.
May: Johnson and partner Mark Ballas win "Dancing with the Stars" season eight over Gilles Marini and Cheryl Burke and Melissa Rycroft and Tony Dovolani.
May: 2004 Olympic floor gold medalist Kyle Shewfelt retires.
May: The FIG announces plans to have kiss-and-cry areas similar to figure skating's for gymnasts to receive their scores. Gymnastics fans let out a collective shudder.
May: Sixteen-year-old Kayla Williams from West Virginia makes waves with her triple full side pass on floor. At the Level 10 Nationals in Seattle, Williams wins the all-around, vault and floor in her age group. She also places second on beam.
June: Longtime Nebraska men's coach Francis Allen retires. His longtime assistant Chuck Chmelka takes over, assisted by 1984 U.S. team gold medalist Jim Hartung.
June: The ABC family drama "Make It or Break It" makes some gymnastics fans roll their eyes. But the show is a great success for the network, becoming ABC Family's second most watched show after "The Secret Life of the American Teenager."
June: The question of whether 2000 Chinese Olympians Yang Yun and Dong Fangxiao were too young to compete at the Sydney Olympic Games is turned over to International Gymnastics Federation disciplinarians. But even if the FIG found the two to be underage, only the International Olympic Committee has the power to take medals away.
July: North Korea's Ri Si Gwang debuts a stunningly hard new vault -- a Kasamatsu with an extra flip -- in training at the World University Games. Video footage becomes an instant internet sensation.
July: Russia's Yelena Zamolodchikova, who won vault and floor at the 2000 Olympics, closes out her lengthy career at the World University Games. Zamolodchikova plans to become a coach and judge.
July: Attempting an Amanar at the Japan Cup, 2008 Junior European all-around champion Tatiana Nabieva does a Yurchenko 2 3/4 twist and dresses it up to look like a Yurchenko triple. Cheated as it was, it underscored Nabieva's vaulting capacity and made it seem likely that this is will be the quad that a woman finally lands a TTY.
July: 2005 World rings champion van Gelder is suspended from the Dutch National Team for testing positive for cocaine taken three days before June's Dutch National Championship. Van Gelder calls his drug use "incredibly stupid" and pledges to seek professional help. He says he will not quit gymnastics.
July: 2008 Olympic alternate and Utah commit Corrie Lothrop tears her Achilles tendon in training.
July: Wieber goes down with a hamstring injury and withdraws from the U.S. Championships a few weeks later. She does not compete for the rest of the season.
July: Nastia Liukin makes her much-looked-forward to return to competition at the CoverGirl Classic, performing only on beam but looking impressive on bars during training. Olivia Courtney wins the senior all-around title, and Sabrina Vega emerges as a bright new junior talent.
August: Alicia Sacramone announces her comeback plans just before the 2009 U.S. Championships begin.
August: CoverGirl Classic champion Courtney breaks her ankle training for the U.S. Championships.
August: Twelve-year-old Kyla Ross wins the Junior National title over Bridgette Caquatto and Aly Raisman, vaulting herself into the next big thing speculation. New Yorker John Orozco won the men's junior title in the 14-15-year-old category, despite being 16 at the time; Cameron Rogers of North Carolina wins the 16-18-year-old junior championship.
August: Bridget Sloan wins the U.S. all-around title over Ivana Hong and senior newcomer Rebecca Bross amidst a very thin senior women's field.
August: David Sender crashes and burns on his most difficult skills during the men's all around final, falling on five of his six events during the second night of competition. Despite not being in top shape, Jonathan Horton takes his first U.S. all-around title over Cal's Tim McNeill and a much improved Wes Haagensen.
August: Sender is named to the U.S. World team despite his awful night two at the U.S. Championships. He declines the invitation in favor of going to veterinary school at the University of Illinois. His gymnastics career is over -- at least for now.
September: After competing only on balance beam at the 2009 U.S. Championships (and placing fourth on the event), Liukin withdraws from the 2009 U.S. women's World Championship selection process, citing a need to take a break from the sport -- and a vacation.
September: Olympic floor champion Sandra Izbasa tears her Achilles tendon while training on floor prior to the Romanian Championships. With Izbasa out, newcomer Ana Porgras, one of the most artistic Romanian gymnasts of the past 20 years, becomes the Romanian to look to at Worlds.
September: The Japanese women stun everyone at the International Junior competition in Yokohama. Among the good stuff is tiny 13-year-old Mai Murakami, a Johnson-like gymnast with a double double second pass on floor and an Okino (triple turn) to immediate back layout stepout on beam. Japanese junior Seira Suzuki lands an Amanar at the same meet, and Russian Viktoria Komova, daughter of 1986 Goodwill Games champion Vera Kolesnikova, continues to impress.
September: U.S. men's National Team Coordinator Ron Brant announces he will step down from the position after October's World Championships to take a job with the U.S. Olympic Committee.
September: 2008 Olympic team gold medalist Deng Linlin establishes herself as China's hope for the 2009 World Championships by winning the all-around at the Chinese National Games. 2004 Olympic pommel horse champion Teng Haibin wins the men's all-around title but does not make China's World team.
October: Hambuchen withdraws from the 2009 World Championships after sustaining a foot injury during podium training on floor exercise.
October: Bridget Sloan recovers from a fall on balance beam during preliminaries to win the World all-around title in finals. Bross comes within a single tumbling pass of winning the World title but falls five seconds before ending her floor routine. By winning all-around bronze, Japan's Koko Tsurumi gives her country its first World medal in women's gymnastics in more than 40 years.
October: 2008 all-around silver medalist Kohei Uchimura cruises to his first World all-around title, easily winning over Keatings and Russia's Yuri Ryazanov.
October: The gymnastics world mourns after Ryazanov is killed in a car accident en route to his hometown in Russia after returning from the 2009 World Championships.
October: China's event specialist stars -- He Kexin on bars, Zhang Hongtao on pommel horse, Wang Guanyin on parallel bars and Yan Mingyong on rings -- win on their best events at the World Championships. Williams caps off her meteoric rise by winning vault over underprepared Olympic champion Hong Un Jong. Britain's Tweddle thrills the home crowd in London by taking gold on women's floor exercise, while Marian Dragulescu of Romania, still newly out of retirement, wins men's floor and vault. Zou Kai defends his Olympic title on high bar and China's Deng wins gold on balance beam.
October: Van Gelder is suspended for one year by the Royal Dutch Gymnastics Federation, meaning he won't be able to compete at the 2012 Olympics. International Olympic Committee rules stipulate that athletes who receive suspensions of more than six months are automatically ineligible to compete at the next Olympic Games. What it does mean is that van Gelder will be eligible to compete at the 2010 World Championships, which will be held in his home country.
October: The FIG announces that 2003 World floor champion Daiane dos Santos of Brazil has tested positive for furosemide, a banned diuretic, during a summer out-of-competition test.
November: NCAA signing day carves up the country's best gymnastics talent. Based on the results of an Examiner.com poll, UCLA's signing class of Courtney, Mattie Larson, Samantha Peszek and Sydney Sawa is the best in the U.S.
November: Russia's Maxim Devyatovsky wins the Champions Trophy circuit, a series of four competitions in Germany. His prize includes a new Mercedes sedan valued at 50,000 euro. Hambuchen joyfully returns to competition.
November: Brazil’s Diego Hypolito unveils a new skill on floor at the Brazilian Championships. The Hypolito III is an Arabian double front with 1.5 twists on the second flip.
November: After a long absence and much physical drama concerning necrosis in her right wrist, Jade Barbosa makes a fairly promising return to competition at the Brazilian Championships. Whether she'll be able to make as big a comeback on the World stage remains to be seen.
November: Lotto of the Netherlands announces that it will continue to sponsor van Gelder despite his cocaine suspension.
December: Nadia Comaneci launches the Nadia doll in Romania. Money from sales of the dolls goes to help Romanian gymnastics clubs.
December: Rising Russian star Viktoria Komova debuts an Amanar en route to winning the Voronin Cup.
December: 2004 and 2008 U.S. men's Olympic coach Kevin Mazeika is named new National Team Coordinator, replacing Brant. Whether or not Mazeika will coach the 2012 Olympic team is TBD.
December: Johnson returns to workouts at Chow's School of Gymnastics and Dance in Iowa in what could be the beginning of a return to competition.
Follow Gymnastics Examiner Blythe Lawrence on Twitter at www.twitter.com/GymExaminer.
Comments
hi there, natsumi sasada's mount was actually a layout full :)
Got something to say?
Examiner.com is looking for writers, photographers, and videographers to join the fastest growing group of local insiders. If you are interested in growing your online rep apply to be an Examiner today!