MCSMaria's Artistic Gymnastics Blog

Gymnastike's popular web series, Beyond the Routine  is debuting the latest series this month. The subject of the newest subject is a former world all-around champion, a member of the 2003 World Championship team that brought home the first ever world team gold. She's also an Olympian, and has recently reinvented her gymnastics life. Have you figured out who it is yet? She was a member of the 2008 Olympic Team in Beijing... She was a world champion on the uneven bars.... If you haven't figured it out yet, you never will.

Date of Birth: May 3, 1942 Place of Birth: Prague, Czechoslovakia (Czech Republic) Height: 5'3" (160 cm) Years Active: 1958-1968 Fun Fact: Holds 22 International Titles, Including 7 Olympic Golds Vera Caslavska is a gymnast known for her outspoken political actions as much as she is for her gymnastics.

It's been exactly one year since Great Britain's Elizabeth "Beth" Tweddle took home the bronze medal on the uneven bars at the London Olympics. The 28-year-old British gymnast marked the occasion by officially announcing her retirement from the sport of gymnastics. “It’s been a hard decision to make; gymnastics has been and always will be a massive part of my life," Beth sad in a statement to British Gymnastics .

Nadia Comaneci is a gymnastics legend. Nadia is credited with receiving the first ever perfect 10 in gymnastics. First at the inuagural American Cup in Madison Square Gardens and then making it an encore performance by doing the same thing at the Olympic Games in Montreal, Quebec, Canada in 1976.

Nellie Kim is seen quite frequently these days on the floor of international gymnastics meets. She's not a competitor, she's the president of the women's technical committee for the FIG. Ms. Kim's job duties involve the overseeing of  the creation of new rules. she had a hand in the changing of the 10.0 system to the current difficulty plus execution system that has been in place for the past six years. Source: FIG Before she was gracing her presence in the FIG, she was a fierce competitor on the podium.

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,

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.

In this edition of Favorite Routines, I'm featuring America's most decorated gymnast and one of my childhood idols, Shannon Miller. At the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, the United States women's gymnastics team had won their first ever team gold medal.

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

In honor of her recent book release, I am profiling former Romanian gymnast, Andreea Raducan. Andreea Raducan Vital Statistics Date of Birth: September 30, 1983 Current Age: 29 Born: Barlad, Romania Current Residence: Bucharest, Romania Club: Deva National Training Center Coaches: Octavian Belu and Marian Bitang Current Occupation: Sports Announcer, Media Personality and Author Former Romanian Gymnast, Andreea Raducan is best known for winning the all-around gold medal in Sydney

This week's favorite routine is an oldie, but a goody. I'm featuring the 1996 Olympic all-around champion, Lilia Podkopayeva. Going into the all-around final, Lilia was the current reigning world champion. Only a handful of gymnasts before her had went on to become subsequent Olympic champions. The weight was definitely on her shoulders going into the all-around final.

I have a secret. I'm turning 30 on Monday. I've been mourning this fact for about a month now and Alicia Sacramone had a birthday and turned 25. This made me even sadder. I love gymnastics, but every year, the gymnasts get younger and younger and everyday inching closer to 30 makes me feel even older. With only three more days left of  being my 20's and in the effort of making myself not feel so old, I thought I'd round up gymnasts over 30 who are still competing and kicking ass. My favorite gymnast over 30 is world and Olympic Medalist, Oksana Chusovitina.

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...

Today, Chellsie Memmel is retiring.... from gymnastics. She's not collecting Social Security since she is only 24 years old.  It's more like moving on to the next phase of her life.