MCSMaria's Artistic Gymnastics Blog

Morgan Hurd's life changed forever last night when she became the all-around World Champion. Morgan, an adorable, whip smart little sprite is an avid reader and a huge Harry Potter.  Today, Morgan received a congratulatory tweet from Harry Potter author, JK Rowling. The gymternet at large rallied together to retweet to Rowling to tweet to Morgan. Their efforts paid off greatly.

Another day, another withdrawal. Today, Alyssa Baumann joined Jazzy Foberg, Bailie Key and Norah Flately in the ranks of fallen athletes in this Olympic Trials/Hunger Games. Cue the three fingered salute

British Olympic Bronze and World Champion, Beth Tweddle has injured her back while skiing for the British skiing reality competition.

Today is March 14th. It's also pi day (3.14 from your high school geometry classes) and it is the eighteenth birthday of the one and only, the fabulous and fantastics, the Simone "$eamoney" Biles, two time world all-around champion.

During Senior Night at the University of Alabama versus Oklahoma gymnastics meet, Alabama senior and former vault world champion, Kayla Williams got a sweet surprise.

Recently, young upstart vault and floor worker MyKayla Skinner has taken the USA Gymnastics scene by force. She's gained much attention this year for her powerful floor routine and her extremely powerful left arm. She's being compared to 2008 Olympic Silver Medalist and former World Champion, Alicia Sacramone. Like her counterpart, Alicia is a strong vaulter and a powerful floor worker and has contributed greatly to team USA on those events. Their similarities do not end there. Here are some comparisons of these two dynamic athletes:

Today, Kohei Uchimura  of Japan took home his fifth consecutive world all-around title. An impressive feat. He won with an admirable 1.492 points over Great Britain's Max Whitlock.  They don't call him King Kohei for nothing, he's in the Guinness Book of World Records for goodness sake. He dominated the 09-12 quad and it's looking like he'll dominate the 13-16 quad. That's Queen Simone to you! Tomorrow, Simone Biles of the USA will contend for her second all-around title.  If she does so, she will be the first US woman since Shannon Miller in 1993 and 1994.On Sunday, Simone took the top spot in qualification with 59.599, following her was Russia's Aliya Mustafina with a 58.874 and Romania's Larisa Iordache with a 58.365. She became a repeat national champion back in August, and she and team USA have already scored their  second consecutive world title and their first title of the new quad.  Could she be women's gymnastics version of Kohei? ...

This week at the Doha World Cup, gym fans saw the returns of many favorite athletes, including 2010 World Floor Champion, Lauren Mitchell of Australia.

The big news to hit the gymternet is 2013 World All-Around Champion Simone Biles is switching gyms. The almost 17-year-old was training at Bannon's Gymnastix, where she'd been training since she was a young child.

Jordyn Wieber is an incredible athlete. The girl is so tough, Superman is jealous of her. (She doesn't need to be from the planet Krypton to have the ability to fly!)

The last USA women's training camp for 2013 concluded today, at the Karolyi Ranch outside of Houston, Texas.

McKayla Maroney is looking as fierce as ever, especially on floor.

Svetlana Boguinskaya is known as the "Belarussian Swan". She's a three-time Olympic veteran and her routines are still beloved. This edition of Favorite Routines will feature Svetlana's perfect 10 scoring floor exercise from the 1989 World Championships in Stuttgart, Germany. This routine won Svetlana her third gold medal of this championships, she'd already brought home a gold in the team competition and the all around. This routine is perhaps best known for it's choreography.

My over 30 idol, Oksana Chusovitina is going for Rio! The Federation International de Gymnastique (FIG) announced Friday 37-year-old World and Olympic champion and medalist many times over would be going for her seventh Olympic championships

Now earlier this week, Alicia Sacramone "officially" announced her retirement. It's for real this time.  Alicia, who has been an elite gymnast for over 10 years,has served as team captain for the USA in Beijing and has been a steady leader on the USA Gymnastics scene.