MCSMaria's Artistic Gymnastics Blog

Today, Inside Gymnastics released a list of the athletes that are scheduled to compete at the P&G Championships in a couple of weeks. The roster of course includes favorites that were absent from the qualifier the Secret Classic, Elizabeth Price, and returning Fierce Five members, Kyla Ross who won the all around title and McKayla Maroney, who took home the gold for the vault. Of course, several gymnasts had already qualified to the national championships and the Olympic and National team members from last year get an automatic pass to go to nationals. The list includes those who qualified at the Classic.

Kyla Ross, the baby of the Fierce Five showed everyone that she's not going anywhere with her win yesterday at the Secret Classic, the qualifier for the P&G Championships next month. Kyla took home the gold with a total of 58.650, just .4 ahead of Texas Dreams' Peyton Ernst, a first year senior. Kyla also had the highest score on the uneven bars with a 15.400, well deserved, it was a gorgeous routine and spectacular execution. 

With the US Secret Classic only a few hours away, the girls were putting on their dress rehearsal at the podium training. Here are some quick notes based on information that I am receiving:

Day one of the 2004 National Championships was Tasha Schwikert's first competition in nearly a year. As a member of the 2003 World Championship team, she helped the women of the USA win their first ever gold medal at a World Championship. Before that, she tied Hollie Vise for second place at the national championships and she also had two national titles to her name.  Additionally, Tasha already had an Olympics under her belt as a part of the 2000 Sydney team. After her long dry spell, Tasha returned to the Nationals in 2004.  Going into the championships on the first day, No one really knew what to expect from Tasha. She had been dealing with an ankle injury and during podium training it was reported that she was not as she hitting her routines during podium training. Source USA Gym

Simone Biles is just awesome. She is what they call a gymnastics unicorn. She's a mythical creature that can do anything, much like the mythical unicorn, the horse with one horn that posses magical powers. Much like this mythical creature, Simone posses magical gymnastics powers. Here's why...

This Saturday is the long anticipated Secret Classic, the qualifier for the national championships! It's all very exciting. It's the start of a new competitive season and a new quadrennium leading up to the 2016 Olympics in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil. It's full of possibilities and new beginnings. Here is a few things too look forward to for the competition on Saturday.

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.

UCLA Bruin Danusia Francis is known through out the NCAA for her sideways aerial on the beam. In this lovely gif she is seen training the aerial over the pit. It is amazing. Danusia looks like she's about 5'8' with her beautiful extension.  In the NCAA, which uses the Junior Olympic code, which is level ten, this skill is rated an E. In the FIG Women's Code Of Points, this is the same as your regular run of the mill aerial cartwheel on the beam,  a D.  Lame. Who do I need to write to get that changed?

So the ladies of the Fierce Five were nominated for an ESPY award last week, but unfortunately they did not win. They did win in the fashion department.

Kohei Uchimura is pretty much "Mr. Men's Gymnastics". He wins almost everything and every male gymnast in the world, heck the galaxy, dreams of beating him one day. Sometimes, I wonder if they give him a gold for simply breathing in the arena. The person that manages to beat him at something is McKayla Maroney who does a higher Amanar (Shewfelt MAG) than he does. I wonder if he loses sleep at night with that fact? If I could only do a higher Amanar than McKayla Maroney

Last week, some very impressive juniors from around the globe showed the world what they're made of at the European Olympic Youth Festival in Urecht, Netherlands. Source: Gymnastike Just a brief overview, since I missed missed posting a full recap due to having other things to do (I work a full-time job, sorry!)  In the team final, powerhouses Russian and Romania took first and third respectively. Team Great Britain had an excellent finish, scoring a place on the podium and a shiny silver medal.

Aliya Mustafina is undoubtedly the queen of Women's Artistic Gymnastics at the moment.  She won the all-around title at the European Championships and then scored another  gold medal in the uneven bars final. At the University Games, just a couple of weeks ago, she helped the Russian team get a gold medal in the team final, and she got another all-around gold and a bars gold and a beam silver.  It's all in a day's work for the Queen of Gymnastics. Kate Middleton may have just popped out the royal baby, but Aliya is the freaking queen of the freaking world right now.

This Gymnast Profile is featuring 2004 Olympic Silver Medalist Terin Humphrey. Full Name: Terin Marie Humphrey Date of Birth: August 14, 1986 Birthplace: Saint Joseph, Missouri, USA Hometown: Bates City, Missouri Height: 5'0" or 152 cm Club: Great American Gymnastics Express (GAGE) Coaches: Al Fong and Armine Barutyan Fong College Team: University of Alabama Known For: Uneven Bars, Balance Beam, Artistry                             Eponymous Skills: The Humphrey, on balance beam,  2 1/2 turn in tuck stand position with free leg horizontal, rated "E" American Gymnast Terin Humphrey is most remember for her contribution to the US Olympic team's silver medal in Athens in 2004.  Beyond the Olympics, she had a successful career in the NCAA competing for the University of Alabama's gymnastics team before officially retiring in 2008. Born in Missouri, she is the youngest child of Steve and Lisa Humphrey who already had one son, Shannon

The makers of the Pro Gymnastics Challenge announced yesterday via their Facebook page that the PGC is returning. The event is said to return in the spring, although the event creators do not have a specific venue in mind just yet. More specific details will be posted at a later date. The PGC was created by ESPN who created the X-Games in an attempt to make gymnastics more popular with a wider range of audiences.  One thing I do have to say is that  if Nastia Liukin returns for the sophomore PGC event, she's going to have to trademark her Nastia Hair Flip. While she's at it, maybe she should trademark "It was a Deltchev, NOT a GIENGER! IT'S A DELTCHEV!" ala Donald Trump, maybe with a little more success. Deltchevgate 2013 has been shared 'round the gymternet and oh how awesome, there's even a GIF. Nastia, it's time to start collecting some royalties! Will there be a Deltchevgate the sequel?

This edition of Juniors to watch is featuring latest junior national team member, Laurie Hernandez. Laurie Hernandez Date of Birth: June 9, 2000 Age: 13 Residence: Old Bridge, New Jersey Club: Monmouth Gymnastics Academy Coach: Maggie Haynes Thirteen-year-old Laurie is a kid of the new millennium. Born in the year 2000, she'll turn 16 in just enough time to qualify for the Rio De Janeiro Olympic team in 2016. Laurie recently qualified for the first time to the national team as a junior. She competed elite last year and qualified to compete at the National Championships but did not make it to the national team. This year after an excellent showing at the American Classic, Women's Team Coordinator, Marta Karolyi named Laurie to the team.

Today, the Brazilian Gymnastics posted photos of the first official Brazilian national team training camp  with new head coach, Alexander Alexandrov on their Facebook page. The gymnasts convened this week for the first week long training camp that is being held July 15, Monday through this Friday, July 20. From what I gather from the translation that Bing translate told me, this training camp is supposed to be targeting potential athletes for the Rio 2016 team.  The present gymnasts included Daniele Hypolito,    Adrian Garcia, Flávia Saraiva, Isabelle Cruz, Leticia da Costa, Maria Cecília Cruz, Milena Tan and Rebecca Andrade.   The photo that is making it's way around the Gymnternet is a photo of Alexandrov greeting each of his new athletes after a morning practice.

Earlier today, I was at lunch waiting for my friend to join me. A click on the Twitter app on my phone brought me to this awesome tidbit. Best Robot Gymnast Video EVER: this one lands a quadruple backflip! http://t.co/2vhwA8cmWH — Neil Patrick Harris (@ActuallyNPH) July 16, 2013

This Favorite Routines edition is featuring Henrietta Onodi on the balance beam. Henrietta's name is mostly associated with the Onodi flic flac on balance beam. For those who may not know what I am talking about, this skill is a backhandspring with a half twist to a walkover on balance beam. Nastia Liukin does this skill, so does Aliya Mustafina, Catalina Ponor and Larisa Iordache, just to name a few.

British Olympic team member Jennifer Pinches confirmed today via her Twitter account that she is going to Hollywood. The british pixie is not going to seek her shot at fame and fortune on the big screen however. She's going to the University of California in Los Angeles to be a part of the Bruins gymnastics team. Jennifer, also known as "Jenni" announced last September via Twitter that she wouldn't be competing for Great Britain anymore. Now, we know why.

Back in December, Glassboro High School Senior, Leon Purvis famously took to YouTube to ask 2012 All Around Champion, Gabby Douglas to his senior prom in May. Gabby unfortunately turned him down. But she gracefully turned him down, citing scheduling conflicts. Leon is back and he's courting Gabby for a date. Gabby and Leon have been communicating a little bit via Twitter. It's small things, he's asked Gabby what her favorite restaurant is, her response was BangBang. She wished him a happy birthday on Twitter and later, followed him back. Recently, he tweeted her and asked if he helped her get to 800,000 followers on Twitter, would she go out with him then? Her response...

USA Gymnastics has released the official list for the competitor field for the Secret Classic on July 27. McKayla and Kyla are just as excited as we are for Classics! Source: Teen.com Returning Fierce Five members, McKayla Maroney and Kyla Ross have been officially confirmed to the field. No surprise, McKayla and Kyla were spotted at National team training camp in early June working on new floor routines. Kyla was seen doing some gorgeous beam connections which we hope to see at the Classics in a full routine.

Results are in from the first day of the men's qualifier for the P&G Nationals next month. 2012 All-Around Bronze Medalist and all around cutie, Danell Leyva qualified in first for the senior guys in the all around.

This junior's to watch edition is featuring Mary Lee Tracey disciple, Amelia Hundley Vital Statistics: Date of Birth: January 21, 1998 Age: 15 Club: Cincinnati Gymnastics, Cincinnati, Ohio Coach: Mary Lee Tracey Amelia is the latest disciple to come out of Mary Lee Tracey's gym. This is the gym that famously produced 1996 Olympic Team Champions Amanda Borden and Jaycee Phelps.

A Brazilian TEAM! That's right, it's official, famed Russian coach and Aliya Mustafina whisperer, Alexander Alexandrov is headed to Brazil to coach the national team. Fulltwist.net broke the news this evening after it was officially posted on the Brazilian Olympic Committee's website. The Brazilian team is up and coming team with a lot of strong individual gymnasts including Floor World Champion, Daiane Dos Santos and Jade Barbosa who finished third in the 2007 World Championships.

This weekend, the men of USA gymnastics are headed to the Springs to qualify for the National championships. The boys are headed to the Olympic Training center in Colorado Springs where the men's team practices.  Colorado Springs has been in the news lately because of those ridiculous wild fires, the training center is out of the path of those fires, FYI. Expected to make an appearance are Dannell Leyva, who's flight was apparently delayed because he posted pictures of him goofing off at the airport.

News broke this week about a scandal involving a rhythmic gymnastics judging class in Romania. According to WRAL Sports Fans the FIG has stripped Maria Sysyzkowska of Poland of her judging duties and she's now banned from FIG events. This is due to "judging irregularities". Ok, sure...

The 2013 Gymnastics Universiade is behind us. Russia was unstoppable of course scoring medals on what it seems like every event final. Just another day in the life of the Russian Gymnastics program. I would like to start out with the positives as always. Russia was amazing and it was nice to see some old familiar faces like Anna Dementeyva and Tatiana Nabieva. It's nice to see them because it's just nice. Tatiana is fantastic on bars and I really enjoyed her bar routine. Anna was beautiful on beam, at least in the qualifying. I haven't seen an individual video of her on the beam (I'm sorry! I have a full-time job!) during event finals.

The event finals marked  the last day of gymnastics at the Universiade in Kazan. It also meant more medals for the Russian team and a few upstarts who snuck onto the podium. Miss Ksenia Afanasyeva was Miss Bad Ass vaulter.

Aliya Mustfina took home another gold medal in the all around earlier today at the Universiade/University Summer Games in Kazan. I'm ready to join the X-Men, Professor X! Aliya won the gold ahead of teammate, Ksenia Afanasyeva who took silver in the all-around. Kim Bui of Germany took home the bronze.  As per usual, Aliya was beautiful on bars and had a kerfluffle on the beam when she fell coming out of her double turn. She looked great on floor. She opened with a pretty impressive  double arabian and finished with a nicely landed double back tuck. A nice change from the sea of double pikes we usually see at the end of a floor routine.

Welcome to the 74th Annual Hunger Games, I mean, the 2012 London Olympics. This is awesome. It's the trailer for Hunger   Games , the movie based on Suzanne Collins' novel of the same title, with all gymnastics.

Finally getting around to reporting this. My apologies. Last Sunday, Gabby Douglas won two BET awards. She took home the Young Stars Award and the Sportswoman of the year. It was a year ago that she was named to the Olympic team after beating national champion, Jordyn Wieber for the top spot and the only guaranteed spot on the team. Just a few weeks later, Gabby and the rest of the Fierce Five won the team gold medal with a nearly five point lead over Russia.

Did you miss the University Games team finals and individual qualifications? Were you away from the internet or overslept and totally missed out? Don't fret! Gabrielmcdonough on YouTube has posted the repeat on his page . Watch it now, watch it later, watch it again, and again and again. What is Tatiana Nabieva staring at? I have posted them all here for you. You can choose to watch them here, or you can watch them on YouTube. Regardless of what you do, enjoy them to your heart's content, gym fans!

Day One of the Gymnastics competition at the Universiade Games was yet another success for the Russian team. Coming out with a gold medal in the team competition and putting gymnasts in all four event finals for the women's gymnastics. After a competition of clean routines and high difficulty, Russia took the gold with 175.5, ahead of Japan who scored a total of 165. Japan's girls had beautiful, clean routines but they were nowhere near enough to match the difficulty of Russia. Coming in third was Germany who finished with a 162.05 total. Impressive since they were not billed among the top four teams who competed in the final subdivision. Princess of the Russian Gymnastics team, Aliya Mustafina came out qualifying in the top spot for the all-around final and the uneven bars final. Aliya had the highest score on the uneven bars with a 15 even. Not bad for a girl who's just gotten over the flu. additionally, she qualified for the beam final with 15.2 and floor finals

At the opening ceremony of the Summer University/Universiade Games, Aliya Mustafina gave the athletes oath at the ceremony. It's pretty hilarious, only because the woman who introduces Aliya mistakenly says that she is the World and Olympic Champion in Rhythmic Gymnastics. No one bothers to correct the announcer, and Aliya continues with her oath. Looks like she got over that nasty flu that according to the Couch Gymnast, landed her in the hospital. This is the athlete's oath in English: "On behalf of all the student athletes, I promise that we shall take part at the Universiade, respecting and abiding by the rules which govern them, committing ourselves to a sport without doping and without drugs, in the true spirit of sportsmanship, fair-play, for the glory of our country, for the honour of our teams and for the achievement of International University Sports Movement."  Translation Source:  FISU Regulations

Summer University Games (or Universiade Games) are here! They're going on as we speak. Tomorrow, the gymnastics competition starts (although since I'm 10 hours behind Kazan presently, it's closer to tomorrow there than I am here). Elizabeth of Rewriting Russian Gymnastics posted podium training pictures on her Facebook page of the Russian team training on the podium. The girls are training with new head coach, Evgeny Grebyonkin and newly transplanted coach, Anton Stolyar, the former Italian junior national team coach. Nice shorts, Stolyar. He looks like he's ready for a dip in the pool. Aliya Mustafina looks like she could use one too. Although I think she looks so wiped because she's getting over the flu . Ick. No fun. Here is Tatiana Nabieva, whom we haven't seen in a couple of years. Ksenia Afanasyeva listing to Evgeny Grobyonkin.

Former University of North Carolina teammates, Maddy Curley and Brooke Buffington are gymnastics answer to Matt Damon and Ben Affleck. The two former gymnasts are working on creating the next gymnastics movie, Chalk It Up. Chalk It Up  is the story of Hannah, a former elite gymnast who gets back into the sport in the college athletics sphere and forms a team of rag tag gymnasts.

Happy Fourth of July, loyal readers! To celebrate the birth of the United States of America, today, I'm going all red white and blue and I'm dedicating this article to the favorite routines of USA Gymnastics athletes.

 

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.

A random YouTube search brought me to this gem this fine evening. This is a trailer for the 2010 movie Black Swan starring Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis. Here's the kicker, this is made up of clips of Aliya Mustafina and Viktoria Komova. Viktoria is Natalie Portman character, Nina and Aliya Mustafina is Mila Kunis's character, Lily. Also making an appearance are, Vera, Viktoria's mom and Alexander Alexandrov.

It has been confirmed Tatiana Nabieva is making a comeback as a part of the Russian team going to the University Summer Games in Kazan, Russia, or Universiade Games. The 2010 World Champion was an alternate on the team going to London after experiencing some setbacks due to injury