MCSMaria's Artistic Gymnastics Blog

Aly Raisman is an Olympic Gold Medalist, a Dancing Star, World Champion and fashion designer.  Like many notable World and Olympic Champions, Aly has her own line of leotards through GK Elite. Today, yours truly was surfing Twitter while doing the laundry (ok, I'm procrastinating the laundry, whatever!). I came across this photo of Aliya Mustafina wearing what looks like an Aly Raisman original.

It was the week of gymnastics babies. Earlier this week, US Gymnastics legend Shannon Miller welcomed her second child, a baby girl into the world. Source: USAGym.org The baby girl, Sterling Diane joins Shannon, her husband John Falconetti and their son, three-year-old Rocco on June 25 at 11:49 eastern time. The 1992 Olympic Medalist and the member of the Mag 7, the 1996 Olympic Gold winning team,

With the Olympics having concluded almost a year again, it's the beginning of a new quad for the bid for Rio.  The next major competiton is the world championships in Antwerp. For the USA, they need to get through nationals, but to get through nationals, they need to get through the Secret Classic. Here is some information regarding the classic.

Age: 15 Residence: Arvada, Colorado Club: Tigars Gymnastics and Cheer Coaches: Mom Katia and father Alex Born in Moscow, Russia The inaugural junior to watch is Mile-High city gymnast, Polina Shchennikova. Polina's backgroud is much like that of 2008 Olympic All-Around Champion, Nastia Liukin. So much so, that Polina is referred to as "Baby Nastia" around the Gymternet.  Like Nastia, she is the daughter of two former junior soviet gymnasts and it shows in her gymnastics. She exhibits beautiful long lines and flexibly and elegance that is reminiscent of the artistry of the Soviet Union gymnastics machine.

Jonathan Horton is a daddy. The 2008 Team Bronze Medalist and 2012 Olympic Teammember announced via his Twitter account that he and his wife Haley, a former University of Oklahoma Gymnast, have welcomed a bouncing baby boy into the world today. Jonathan and Haley welcomed baby David Travis Horton today, what time, I am not sure, but at 11 a.m. today (I am assuming central time because he lives in Texas), he tweeted this message: Via Twitter Baby Horton has arrived! He's freakin awesome! — Jonathan Horton (@J_Horton11) June 24, 2013 Congrats to the proud parents! Via Twitter

A weekend excursion to Portugal and Anastasia Grishina, Sam Mikulak, Larisa Iordache, Jade Barbosa went home with gold medals at the Anadia World Cup Event. Not a bad weekend. Here are the highlights.

It was announced today that Procter and Gamble has extended their sponsorship of USA Gymnastics through the 2016 Olympics in Rio De Janiero. That also means that the national championships gets a new title sponsor. Until today, for quite sometime, the national championships title sponsor had been VISA. "It's everywhere you want to be!" P&G has been a sponsor of USA Gymnastics for quite sometime, they have products branding the qualifier for the Nationals, the US Secret Classic.

This week, USA Gymnastics posted videos from the Women's National Training camp a couple of weeks ago. Per USAGym.com, new videos will be posted on their YouTube Channel over the next three weeks. The ladies are working on the next goal, making the worlds team.

For over forty years, gymnastics has been a sport dominated by teenagers. At least on the women's side. Men's gymnastics seems to be dominated by men in their early to mid twenties. But there are veterans of the sport that defy all age barriers and statistics. Previously, I featured a couple of gymnasts who were over the age of 30 (in light of my 30th birthday). I've always found it ironic that a man or woman in his/her prime is considered "ancient" by gymnastics standards. In honor of the prime time players, this blog will feature gymnast who defy age stereotypes.

For this edition of Gymnast Profiles, I am featuring Anastasia Grishina. Olympic Team Silver Medalist and 2013 All-Around Bronze Medalist at the European Championships. Vital Statistics: Full Name:Anastasia Nikolayevna Grishina Date of Birth: January 17, 1996 Age: 17 Height: 146 Centimeters, 4'9" Hometown: Moscow, Russia Current Residence: Moscow, Russia Club: CSKA Moscow Current Coaches: Victor and Irina Razumovsky Parents: Nikolai Grishin and Galina Grishina Anastasia, also known as Nastia, is one of Russia's up and coming gymnasts. In her first year as a senior, she was a part of the silver medal winning teams at the 2012 European Championships and the Olympic Games in London.  Anastasia was born in Moscow, Russia to Nikolai and Galina Grishina. The couple already had three sons, Vadim, Yuri and Evgeniy. Little Anastasia began gymnastics at the age of seven. Her mother, Galina said that they were going to have her do figure skating, but go...

For this edition of Favorite Routines, we're re-visiting the women's uneven bars final of the 2008 Olympic Games. I'm featuring Nastia Liukin's gold/silver medal winning routine. I say "gold/silver" because she was awarded the silver in a tie breaker for the gold medal.

McKayla Maroney will be forever known as the face that launched 1000 Memes. Her now famous scowl on the podium after her fall during the event finals has spawned an entire website devoted to McKayla not being impressed with...anything and everything.  She's been not impressed with Jared Leto, President Barack Obama and her Olympic teammates. However, yours truly recently discovered that Svetlana Khorkina, always the innovator, made the "not impressed" face at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens.

Updated 7/7/13. Alexander Alexandrov is moving on. Alexandrov left Moscow at the beginning of the month and he is seriously considering  an offer from Brazil.  Alexandrov has been coaching Russsian Olympic and European Champion, Aliya Mustafina since 2008.

It's no secret that Oksana Chusovitina has an impressive gymnastics career that has spanned over 20 years. The 2012 London Olympics were her sixth Olympic games and she is making a bid for Rio in 2016 which will be her impressive seventh consecutive games.