MCSMaria's Artistic Gymnastics Blog

Today, my thoughts and heart are with Paris after last night's devastating attacks. To honor the victims and to show global solidarity with the Parisian citizens, I am featuring Claire Martin's bronze medal winning beam routine from this year's European Championships in Montpellier, France.

Who knew Svetlana Khorkina was a Tarantino fan? This floor routine of Svetlana's at the 1998 European Championships in St. Petersburg, Russia. It's set to the music from the film by Quentin Tarantino,  Pulp Fiction .

I love a glorious beam worker. Mostly, I like seeing what gymnasts can do on a four inch (ten centimeter) wide piece of wood. This is Icelandic born Dutch gymnast, Eythora Thorsdottir on the beam at a meet in Hamburg, Germany.

Since Bailie Key's junior career has come to a close, I decided to feature her last routine as a junior in this edition of Favorite Routines.

It's official. I'm hooked on this routine. Claudia Fragapane's floor routine is definitely a huge favorite of this year so far. Claudia goes just as hard on her dance as she does her tumbling. This is the type of routine the new floor rules were made for.

Summertime, that time of year to sit by the pool or the beach sip margaritas (if you're old enough to drink) and go see the latest summer blockbuster. Feeling inspired by the slew of summer movies I'm dying to see, for this edition of Favorite Routines, I'm rounding up some past floor routines featuring movie themes for their floor music. The young lady in the below screen shot performed to a very familiar movie theme very recently.

Over the weekend, the University of Oklahoma won the Metroplex and took the top ranking in Women's NCAA gymnastics with a score of 198.175 just beating out the Lousiana State University Tigers with 197.875.

For this edition of Favorite Routines, I'm featuring Katherine Grable of the University of Arkansas on Floor Exercise.

It's easy to see why Ana Porgras was awarded the Longines Prize for Elegance in 2011. The retired Romanian gymnast became a balance beam world champion in 2010.

In honor of Sarah Finnegan's return to competition after sitting out all of 2013 due to injury, I'm featuring Sarah's floor routine from the 2012 Visa Championships. Sarah displays the beautiful artistry that seems to be a staple of GAGE, the gym she trains at.

For this installment of Favorite Routines, I am featuring Courtney McCool on the balance beam. I wanted to feature this routine for several reasons: obviously it's beautiful. Next, Courtney's execution is superb.

There are very few beam acro series more glorious than Dominique Dawes' back-handspring to three layout step outs in a row.

Elvira Saadi is one of many prominent gymnasts to come from the former Soviet Union. She was a gold medalist with the Soviet Team in 1972 and 1976. For the past 22 years, Saadi has resided in Canada where she is now an elite coach. Her most notable pupils include Victoria Moors and Oregon State Gymnast, Maddie Gardiner. The gymnasts she coaches are known for their unique skills and presentation.

Vanessa Atler was one of the most talented gymnasts on the US scene from the 1997-2000 quad. She was powerful, she could throw a Rudi that would make the likes of Alicia Sacramone and Giulia Steingruber jealous. Vanessa was the feature of many NBC fluff pieces. Vanessa had plenty of difficulty on all her events, but she really shined on the floor exercise.

In honor of Nadia's birthday I am featuring her gold medal winning balance beam routine from the 1976 Olympics in Montreal. This particular routine is from the event finals where she won gold with her seventh perfect ten of the Games in Montreal. I looked at a lot of her routines and I have to say I really prefer her beam over any of her others.

I thought I had featured this routine a long time ago, but apparently, I did not. So I am featuring it now. This is Sanne Wevers' gold medal winning balance beam routine from the Osijek Cup back in September. Her routine is probably the most unique beam routine of the quad so far. Sanne knows what her strengths are and she uses the code to her advantage with connections of front aerials, side aerials, double turns and twisting elements.

This edition of Favorite Routines features Russian Gymnast Ksenia Semenova on the Floor Exercise at the 2010 European Championships. This was Ksenia's last European Championships before she presumably retired later that year after the world championships.

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

In 2011,  night two of the VISA National Championships, Jordyn Wieber was only one event away from securing her first all-around National title. Jordyn had been quietly drawing attention for years, winning the American Cup twice, once as a junior in 2009 and just earlier that year, beating world champion, Aliya Mustafina.

Before Viktoria Komova became an Olympic and World medalist, she was an outstanding junior gymnast. Her highlight is her all-around win at the Youth Olympic Games in Singapore.