MCSMaria's Artistic Gymnastics Blog

She may not have won the mirror ball trophy on Dancing With the Stars , but Nastia's longtime boyfriend, Matt Lombardi has given her a much more meaningful gift. The 2008 Olympic All-Around champion shared this photo on her Twitter account with a special announcement:

The big news of the week is the Nastia Liukin has signed on to do "Dancing With the Stars," following the footsteps of her teammates Shawn Johnson and Aly Raisman.

A little Friday fun... I found these series of images on Tumblr this afternoon while going on there to post a blog entry. This is a series of images of the 2008 US Olympic team with captions as to what they were "really" thinking. These Mystery Science Theater ad libbing is via SparklesandChalk on Tumblr.

For this installment of Favorite Routines I'm featuring Ekaterina Kramerenko of Russia on floor exercise.

In 2008, at 16, Yang Yilin was an Olympic Gold Medalist with the Chinese team and she also had a bronze medal in the all-around and on the uneven bars. Today, the former Olympic champion leads a very different life from the life of a Chinese Gymnast. The 20-year-old is now a college student at Beijing Sports University in the department of competitive sports. Much to the horror of some die-hard gymnastics fans,  Yilin is now a cheerleader. Considering her competitive sports history with gymnastics, this is not an unusual transition. Her squad recently took first place in a competition.

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.

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.

There's no doubt that He Kexin is one of the strongest bar competitors in the world. This summer in London, she returned to defend her Olympic uneven bar championship title. Former world champions Aliya Mustafina beat her out for the title, but it still didn't stop her from gaining a place on the medal stand with a silver medal. In Beijing, four years earlier, she faced a lot of speculation on whether or not Kexin was even old enough to compete. At the time, she was 16, a lot of critics did not believe it and accused chinese officials of falsely representing her age. In 2012, Kexin came to London looking a little taller and a little more like a young woman and less like a pre-pubscent girls. For this favorite routines installment, I am featuring He Kexin in 2008 and in 2012. The routine hasn't changed that much, but four years makes a huge difference in her age. What do you think? Post your thoughts in the comments. He Kexin, Beijing, 2008, uneven bars event finals ...

I apologize to my loyal readers if I haven't been as on top of blogging lately. I'm in the middle of the holiday season and on top of that, I have just finished moving. Now that I'm all done moving and unpacking, I'm back with this week's Gymnast Profile: two-time Olympian and gold medal winning power gymnast, Cheng Fei. Vital Statistics: Date of Birth: May 29, 1988 Age: 24 Height: 4'8" (142 cm) Birthplace :Huangshi, Hubei, China  Hometown: Wuhan; Hubei Coaches: Lu Shanzhen and Liu Quin Lin Events Known For: Vault, Floor Exercise & Beam Also Known For: Consistency, power, grace, leadership                            Eponymous Skills: On Vault: round-off onto the spring board with a 1/2 turn on to the vaulting table laid out salto with 1 1/2 twists. Two-time Olympian, Cheng Fei is a rarity among the Chinese. She's known for her work on the vault and floor exercise...

Alright kids, I'm back. My spidey sense is a little off this week due to the news of George Lucas selling his soul to the mouse. But this is not a blog about George Lucas putting the final nail in the coffin of the Star Wars as we know it. This is a blog about GYMNASTICS and dammit all, we're talking about gymnastics! This week's gymnast profile is a tiny little Italian who shares a last name with a luxury car also has an element named for her in the Code of Points and was Italy's first Women's Artistic Gymnastics world champion at 15. If you guessed Vanessa Ferrari, you're awesome and win a prize. A lot of the gymnasts I've profiled are from big gymnastics countries Vanessa Ferrari Vital Statistics: Age: 21, soon to be 22 Birthday: November 10, 1990

This week's favorite routine is Shawn Johnson's gold medal winning balance beam routine from the 2008 Olympics. After being bested by Nastia Liukin in the all-round final (perhaps she was blinded by that hot pink leo), Shawn's next chance to win a gold was the balance beam