Going places: USA Gymnastics has announced men's international assignments for the next two months. 2009 World team member Tim McNeill, NCAA pommel horse champion Alex Naddour, NCAA rings champion Brandon Wynn and former NCAA high bar/parallel bars champion Paul Ruggeri will travel to Moscow, Russia for the Moscow World Stars meet, a World Cup event, May 14-15. Illinois's Tyler Mizoguchi has gotten the nod to go to the Joaquim Blume Memorial June 3-4 in Barcelona, Spain. (USA Gymnastics)
Strip party: The International Olympic committee's executive board is expected to strip China of the bronze medal won by its women's team at the 2000 Olympic Games at a meeting this week. The Chinese may lose the medal due to the age falsification of team member Dong Fangxiao, who was passing for 17 when she was actually 14. The International Gymnastics Federation ruled in February that Dong was underage during the Sydney Games and recommended that the IOC take China's bronze medal away. The Associated Press thinks the IOC will do it. (Associated Press)
Pacific Rim podium training: The Couch Gymnast is in Melbourne and blogging from podium training. The U.S. has sent their big guns -- Bridget Sloan, Rebecca Bross, Alexandra Raisman, Jordyn Wieber, Sabrina Vega and Kyla Ross. This is the best women's team the U.S. has sent anywhere since the 2008 Olympics, and Pac Rims should be an amazing meet for it. (The Couch Gymnast)
European Championships women's podium training: The All Around was there to watch the Russian juniros. I was around for the Romanian juniors. The All Around blogged senior women's podium training today and promises to do the same for junior preliminaries tomorrow. (The All Around and Examiner.com)
Russia's Viktoria Komova, 2010 European Championships Podium Training, Beam:
Carly Janiga's wicked skill: One of the surprises of the NCAA Championships was Stanford senior Carly Janiga's win on uneven bars (many figured UCLA's Anna Li would take the title.) Janiga is the first Stanford gymnast to win an NCAA title since Larissa Fontaine tied for first on vault in 1998. What's amazing about Janiga is how improved she is on the event from her elite days. But even then, she threw an incredible rare release skill -- a Gaylord II. (Examiner.com)
Just wait until next year: Yes, the Utah Utes finished sixth at the NCAA Championships. But sometimes not performing to expectations is just as good a motivation as doing very well. "This year lit a fire under us," Kyndal Robarts said. (The Salt Lake Tribune)
Honda Sports Award finalists: Seniors Carly Janiga (Stanford), Brandi Personett (Penn State), Sarah Shire (Missouri) and Susan Jackson (LSU). The winner of the Honda Sports Award automatically becomes a finalist for the Honda-Broderick Cup, which is awarded to the best collegiate athlete of 2010. (Kansas City Star)
In praise of Priess: Aaron Suttles, who writes about Alabama gymnastics for the Tuscaloosa News, names Bama sophomore Ashley Priess as the favorite athlete he's covered this year (and Suttles covered Alabama's National Championship-winning football team in the fall). "She gives thoughtful answers that aren’t filled with coach speak (thank goodness)," Suttles wrote. "After every interview with her, I come away with something I didn’t know or something incredibly insightful." (TideSports.com)
A new accomplishment: Florida senior Amanda Castillo, sidelined from a lot of competition by injuries during her last two years as a Gator, did not bring home an individual medal from the 2010 NCAA Championships. She did, however, become the first ever Florida gymnast to have competed in individual event finals on all four events. Castillo was ninth on uneven bars in 2010. (Orlando Sentinel)
Great Expectations: With five gold medals in the junior men's competition, British men's gymnastics is rolling toward 2012. This is a change. As BBC's Ollie Williams puts it, "It has never been like this before. People who have been in this sport all their lives remember how, decades ago, a solid performance at international level might have put a British gymnast about 90th. Now, coming away without a medal would be a disappointment." (BBC)
U.S. women at the Pacific Rim: USA Gymnastics confirms that the U.S. is sending its women's A-team to Melbourne, Australia for the Pacific Rim Championships. Bridget Sloan, Rebecca Bross, Jordyn Wieber, Kyla Ross, Alexandra Raisman and Sabrina Vega will be going for gold against China, Mexico, Australia, Canada and of course Australia. It will be especially exciting to see Sloan, who hasn't competed since Worlds, and Wieber, who hasn't competed in any high profile meet since winning the 2009 American Cup. (USA Gymnastics)
Photo galleries galore: The women's competition at the French International, the 2010 NCAA women's championships (team qualification, Super Six finals and event finals) as well as the men's portion of the European Championships -- team and event finals. Also beautiful pictures of the women's competition at the French International from Parisian photographer Joël Olivier. (Examiner.com)
Live coverage of the men's European Championships: Including live hits from the junior men's all-around and apparatus finals, as well as the senior men's team and event finals. (Examiner.com)
Daniel Keatings interview: The British are extremely proud of European pommel horse champion Daniel Keatings, who recovered from a fall on pommel horse during men's team finals to come back in event finals and win the British men their first ever European championship gold on the same event. Turns out the Scots have a lot to be proud of as well. (Herald Scotland)
Oklahoma men reflect: On their season in general and the very, very long NCAA men's team final. "At the end of the day, I have no regrets," coach Mark Williams said. "The effort was there and we did the best we could." (OU Daily)
So was Janiga nervous about performing at the NCAA Championships for the last time?: Nope. "I knew this was my last routine on bars ever, so I wasn't nervous," the new NCAA bars champion said. "I was just going out there to enjoy gymnastics, which is what I fell in love with as a kid." (San Jose Mercury News)
Who's going to host the 2012 U.S. Championships?: St. Louis, Missouri would like the honor. (Associated Press)
Hold on a second, I'm cheering for my teammate: The University of Denver sent two athletes -- sophomore Brianna Artemev and senior Kelley Hennigan -- to the NCAA Championships, and as luck would have it, both of them were scheduled to compete at the exact same time. But Hennigan asked the judges to give her a minute before she performed so she could watch Artemev do her round. Now that's teamsmanship. (Denver University Clarion)
Kerri Strug scores a husband: Seems like the wedding of 1996 Olympic team vault hero got almost as much ink as the event that made her famous in the first place. People Magazine had the most comprehensive report on the guy, the gown and the goodies. Money quote: "I'll be honest: I'm really excited about the cake," said Strug. "Remember, I was on a diet for a lot of my life!" (People.com)
British juniors dominate in Birmingham: Young Sam Oldham is a rising star in the sport. Oldham won the junior men's all-around at the 2010 European Championships and followed up by winning the high bar title, while teammate Max Whitlock finished second all-around and won floor exercise and pommel horse. I sense a very strong British men's team come 2012. (Examiner.com)
NCAA prediction results: I predicted that Vanessa Zamarripa (vault), Anna Li or Hollie Vise (if Li had problems on bars), Ashley Priess (beam) and Brittani McCullough (floor) would win NCAA titles. UCLA was the pick to win the team final. Three out of five isn't too bad...Zamarripa and McCullough took the events they were favored to win, Stanford's Janiga pulled out a victory on bars and all-around winner Susan Jackson added another NCAA title to her collection on beam. Favorite UCLA won the team title. (Examiner.com)
Other NCAA prediction results: 55 percent of Examiner.com readers who voted in the "Who's going to win the NCAA team championships?" poll guessed correctly that UCLA would be the 2010 National champions, 16 percent each thought Oklahoma or Florida would win their first national title, 8 percent said it would go to Alabama and 3 percent each picked Stanford or Utah to pull an upset.
Follow Gymnastics Examiner Blythe Lawrence on Twitter at www.twitter.com/GymExaminer or click the "Subscribe" button above to recieve the latest gymnastics news and results via e-mail.
Comments