Videos of Chinese Nationals are up! See here. As I said before, there will be a slew of retirements next year of the old faces so look out for the new. Scoring is notoriously harsh, so ignore that. Love the exciting release combinations going on.
There will be another training camp for the US juniors in 2 weeks. It is expected that some will be added to the team at this one..though it was expected of the last one too. Most likely additions are Polina Schennikova, Nica Hults, Laurie Hernandez, Alexis Buecler (on a side note- she uses Ukraine Eurovision 2007's entry as her floor music, which is mental) Nia Dennis and one or two others- maybe Arianna Guerra. Verifications included new beam combinations from Nica Hults and also a 1.5 Yurchenko, from her previous FTY. This was reported as being an amanar initially! Texas Dreams and CGA look set to dominate the gym scene as having the best athletes. Sadly USAG seem determined to keep focusing on the tour instead of uploading photos and/or videos from camp. Okay I have mixed up Nia and Nica. Nica has a verified 1.5 Yurchenko which is an upgrade for her. Nia reportedly has an amanar.
In other USA news, Lizzy LeDuc has switched gyms and dropped to Level 10 for the time being. McKayla Maroney has filmed a guest appearance on a TV show called Dixie Hart. She has also had surgery on her broken toe which was successful, in her own words. Sounds like she will be all in one piece when her recovery is over. Kennedy Baker is now not competing in the Mexican Cup. No word on whether she is being pulled due to injury or actually any valid reason. This is very dissapointing as Kennedy is reasonably strong on all 4 events, particularly floor and would have been a worthy opponent for Demy.
It looks like Sarah Finnegan is injured or sick. Lots of 'not good :(' tweets and flowers and get well soon stuff going on. No word yet. Not a bad time for it to happen though if it had to happen at all. Looks like it can't be that bad though as she seems to be out and about, judging by her last photo.
Aliya Mustafina has dropped out of competing at the Stuttgart World Cup. This is not due to injury or coaching fuckery, moreso the need to preserve gymnasts in the off season and not overwork them. The injuries to McKayla Maroney and Aly Raisman were cited in the same interview that confirmed Mustafina's pulling out..looks like it spooked the crew at Round Lake. Mustafina will still be competing at Voronin Cup in December. This is the same competition that witnessed her return last year. Other competitions this year are the Mexican Open and Massillia Cup. The line-up for the former has been confirmed (Baker, Dowell, Dementyeva) while the latter remains a mystery. It usually attracts star gymnasts from Romania in particular. While seeing a healthy Larisa Iordache and Diana Bulimar would be great, I'm probably most looking forward to their juniors- Silvia Zarzu is my favourite.
(...tumbleweed...not much news going on...)
Hi!
ReplyDeleteYour blog is one of my favorites out of gym blogs. Since there's not so much going on in the off season, maybe you could do an analysis of the 2008 olympics WAG? I've recently rewatched the team final, and there seems to be a severe lack of good commentary out there on the net.
^ I concur! I'd love to hear your analysis/"live blog" of any of the world championships. I think the best part of your writing is that since you're not blogging for an organization/publication, you're not obligated to refrain from your opinion, which is quite humorous. Yet, you balance opinion well with information (unlike most other personal gymblogs).
ReplyDeleteWhat do you mean by the awesome picasa skills? Were there good photos up..?
PS: Hart of Dixie = SUCH A GREAT MEANINGLESS SHOW. Really brings out CW's trademark: using a love triangle to drag out the main plot for several seasons. Not better than gymnastics, but better than most tv.
Thanks anon. Yes I don't have any patriotism bias so I think that helps to remain objective. I do have favourites though, and not speaking the language of other gymnastics powerhouses is kind of hindering. I reckon I come across as American most of the time with the majority of news coming from there.
ReplyDeleteHa that was a mistake, that tag was from when I changed the header. It took me forever because I hadn't a clue about what to do really. Before it was just a giant picture of Maroney that was annoying me after a while.
It really sounds meaningless! Almost all great shows from HBO etc. are exported here (and all of the vampire stuff to MTV) but this one was new to me. Anyway, good that she gets stuff like that out of the way while she's resting I suppose.
I'm not sure how I'd go about commenting on an 'old' competition. I'll try it out in draft probably. Because I am a 'new' fan I don't feel like I have the insight as I do with today's current gymnasts because I wasn't watching them rise etc.
Okay I tried 2010 Worlds AA! I have exactly 3 weeks left of unemployment so I might do another one in a while..
ReplyDeleteI don't have high hopes though- would love it if she pulled her famous meme face. Nastia also starred on another CW show (Gossip Girl) post-Olympics- quite hyped compared to her 5 seconds onscreen.
ReplyDeleteI like your blog too, I just tend to lurk. If you need a blog partner, let me know :P I don't speak Russian (yet) but I do speak Chinese (long story) pretty well. But other than that I'm just a boring American :p
ReplyDeleteI'd like to see you live blog 2011 Championships AA since it was so controversial.
I'd like to do 1992 or 1996 AA next, and then maybe 2011.
Delete1992 would be a good one. Another controversial decision.
Delete