MCSMaria's Artistic Gymnastics Blog

Over the past several weeks, I've been gathering a list of athletes going to the World Championships. I've gathered from various websites and the nominative list from the FIG.  I've got up as many as I can, and I will post more later. There are 58 countries represented and a total of 141 athletes listed. The list stands as of today, but could change anytime Below is a list of the athletes listed by country.

This is too epic for words. Just watch and you'll laugh and it will make your day that much brighter.

Lots and lots of drama coming out of Russia in the past couple of days. Really, E! is totally missing out. It really is better than an episode of the Kardashians. So I am just taking it upon myself to create one. On this week's episode:

A couple of days ago, Ksenia Afanasyeva made a statement saying she was to under go surgery on her leg, via her VK account (Russia's version of Facebook). Just on the cusp of this announcement, it was reported Lexie Priessman of Cincinnati Gymnastics will under go surgery as well.

For this installment of Favorite Routines, I am featuring two floor routines from some awesome juniors on the US Elite scene. Sydney Johnson Scharpf and Laurie Hernandez.

 In a series of unfortunate events, which will now be referred to as "Grishy Gate 2013", Anastasia Grishina seems to have become the scapegoat of the Russian gymnastics program. It all started with the complaint of back pain...

While browsing the internet, I found this video that once again proves that gymnastics is a sport made up of super humans.

There are truly no words to describe how awesome this is. I have only one question. What do I need to do get this to happen? More importantly who do I need to pay to make it happen?

MyKayla Skinner wowed everyone when she showed off her double double layout for the first time at the Fiesta Bowl in February.

With recent announcements of the Chinese and Russian worlds team, that leaves gym fans in the USA wondering who will go on to Antwerp to represent the USA? I'm asking you, gym-nerds everywhere, to chose your picks for the athletes you would make your worlds team with.

China's got a preliminary list of athletes selected for the World Championships in Antwerp at the end of September. This is a preliminary list and could be subject to change. So take this list with a grain of salt.

The Russian Federation has just announced their (partial) team headed to the World Championships in Antwerp, Belgium at the end of September.

Gabby Douglas is no longer training with Chow, she has left Iowa to join her family in California. The news was officially broken by the Des Moines Register today. It's been reported Gabby's family moved out to Los Angeles earlier this year to be closer to her brother, who is attending school there. Rumors were flying in Hartford over the weekend at the P&G National Championships. When confronted with the rumors, Gabby told the AP "Have I changed coaches? No...As far as I know I'm still at Chow's."

In honor of Catalina Ponor's birthday, this edition of Favorite Routines is featuring her balance beam routine.

USA Gymnastics is sending two promising juniors to the Junior Japan meet in September. Bailie Key and Laurie Hernandez have been selected to compete at the Junior Japan Competition Sept 22-25. Bailie is the newest junior national champion and Laurie Hernandez took the silver medal in the all-around.

Danell Leyva has withdrawn from the World's team after revealing that he's been dealing with a shoulder injury. USA Gymnastics released a statement today stating that Danell had withdrawn after the conclusion of the P&G Championships. Danell gave the following statement in a withdraw letter:

After being absent from the Russian Cup, it was reported that Viktoria Komova was in the hospital with a severe viral infection.

Here is the list of USA Gymnastics guys who made the team: Jake Dalton Sam Mikulak  Danell Leyva Alex Naddour  Brandon Wynn  Steven Legendre. Alternates: John Orozco, Eddie Penev, Paul Ruggeri Any thoughts?

No, you did not misread that title. It's exactly what I said it was. Paul Ruggeri, never one to shy away from anything ever, and if you saw the Pro Gymnastics Challenge on ESPN, you'll know that is true. Paul has admitted to playing around on the uneven bars and videos  have surfaced of him being coached by the lovely Anna Li during the Kellogg's Tour of Gymnastics Challenge.

On the last day of the P&G Champs, Sam Mikulak topped the podium on the final of the men's national championships. Sam won by 2.9 points over Alex Naddour. Sam stayed consistent all night with the exception of the pommel horse, which is his best event. He fell twice, but still managed to keep his lead.  He won with an all-around total of 181.4 and Jake Dalton finished third with a 177.650.

The Final Night of the P&G Championships crowned a new victor. Simone Biles managed to keep her lead over Kyla Ross and win her first national title as a senior. A close competition, Simone won with two night total of 120.450 to Kyla Ross's  120.250, both women performed with all they had, but it came down to a couple of arm swings on the beam.

 The juniors are taking over the world one back-handspring layout step out at a time and Bailie Key is their leader. Bailie won the all-around title with a total of 118.55 after a stellar performance on the balance beam. Bailie, who trains at Texas Dreams under 1991 World Champion, Kim Zmeskal, also won the junior division of the Secret Classic a couple weeks earlier.

After the first day of competition for the men, Sam Mikulak  emerged the trimphant leader with Jake Dalton trailing behind in second. Sam managed to secure his lead when he went on pommel horse, which is his best event and an Achillies heel for the USA men in general. Sam hit his routine with a clean, stylish routine that catapulted him to the top of the leader board after the third rotation. In doing so, Sam managed to break a streak of falls seen by many of USA's top men.

Today, the list of competitors for the Russian Cup, happening this weekend, in Penza was released on sportgymrus.ru .

USA Gymnastics has announced that Madison Kocian of WOGA has withdrawn from the P&G Championships after injuring her ankle on the floor exercise.

Tonight is the first night of the men's competition at the P&G National Championships.  The men's field is ripe with hopeful young men vying for the national team. The returning favorites include Danell Leyva, the 2012 All-Around Bronze medalist. Danell won the qualifier event in the Springs back in July. He didn't really need to, but it's always good to know that you rock. With Danell comes his dad/coach/personal cheerleader, Yin Alvarez.

Nationals is off with a bang.  Quite literally. A challenger to the throne. After the first night of competition at the P&G National Championships, Simone Biles has managed to overthrow Kyla for the top spot. Kyla Ross, who is favored to win it all, started off on floor exercise.

MyKayla Skinner or Desert Lights, in Gilbert, Arizona trains on vault during today's podium training. She trains her Cheng vault literally blocking off of only one arm. I wonder if she's really Wonder Woman masquerading as a normal teenaged girl.

USA Junior Polina Shchennikova of Arvada trains on the uneven bars during podium training. Polina's lines are so beautiful and I am totally wanting more of her in this quad.

Lexie Priessman has withdrawn from the P&G National Championships. The first year senior has withdrawn from the competition due to a strained Achilles' tendon, per Gymnastike.

USA Gymnastics posted the first videos from podium training this evening. We're seeing the first of Elizabeth Price, whom I've definitely been looking forward to seeing, McKayla's bars and Kyla working on her artistry.

Earlier this summer, British Olympian Jennifer Pinches announced with great excitement that she is attending the University of California in Los Angeles and competing with their gymnastics team. UCLA put out an online release stating Jennifer, also known as "Jenni" had been signed under a grant-in-aid. Source:  http://www.olympics.org.uk/ "Jenni is not only a powerful tumbler and vaulter, but a great competitor. We're looking for her to fill in on all four events," said UCLA head coach  Valorie Kondos Field . "With her wide and diverse range of interests and talents, we're extremely excited to have her join our program."

While the P&G Championships will be happening in Hartford, the Russians will be competing in Penza at the Russian Cup. The competition will be held August 17-21 and will be a deciding factor on who goes to Antwerp in the fall to represent the Russian team. It won't be an easy selection, since Russia is a team knee-deep with talent. According to an article on Penza-sport.com, some 42 women 44 men are slated to compete. Aliya Mustafina, Ksenia Afanasyeva,  Denis Ablyazin, Nicholas Kuksenko, Emin Garibov and David Bielawski will not make an appearance at the event. Source: "Penza-sport» - http://penza-sport.com/news/gymnastics/9297-2013

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.

There's been a slight shake-up in the roster for the men's team at the P&G National Championships. 2008 High Bar Silver Medalist and 2012 Olympic team-member, Jonathan Horton, has withdrawn from the competition. Source: NBC   Gymnastike reports that new daddy, Jonathan, is recovering from shoulder surgery last year and he is not quite competition ready yet.

A video surfaced of Aliya Mustafina as a junior before her world championship win. This is at the Doha Gymnasiade in 2009. So, Aliya was about 14 or 15 depending on what time of the year this meet was held (Aliya's birthday is September 30, making her 19 at the Worlds in Antwerp and 21 for the 2016 Rio Games).

This edition of Juniors to watch is featuring Russian European Olympic Youth Festival All-Around gold medalist, Maria Kharenkova. Vital Statistics Age: 14 Date of Birth: October 29, 1998 Hometown: Rostov-on-Don, Russia Coach: Rusian Larov Maria Kharenkova is rising the ranks of the Russian team. She gained international attention in 2012 with her performances at the Pacific Rim Championships and the junior European Championships in Brussels, Belgium.

The P&G National Championships are less than a week away, the athletes are putting their final polishes on their routines in hopes of making that national team. Since nationals performances will weigh heavily on who will be selected to go to Belgium for the World Championships in September, let's look at that athletes and what can be expected of them for a worlds team. Keep in mind, since this is the year after the Olympics, this is an individual all-around and event finals only meet, only four girls will be selected to go. The returning Fierce Two, McKayla Maroney and Kyla Ross. They are the only two members of the gold medal winning fierce five to return to competition. Kyla has been traveling on the international scene to various competitions and is now a certified veteran instead of the baby of the team.

I love seeing gymnasts who improve with age. I love it especially because since the days of Olga Korbut and Nadia Comaneci, this has been a sport that is being viewed as dominated by little girls. That's not necessarily true. The FIG's technical report from the last Olympics said that the average  age of Olympic gymnasts was over twenty years old. That means that the athletes representing their countries for the most part, were actually women and not little girls. Much like a fine wine, there are certain things that get better with age. 18-year-old Tatiana Nabieva of Russia is a perfect example.

This edition of Favorite Routines is featuring Great Brtiain's Danusia Francis on the floor exercise. Danusia was an alternate on the 2012 Olympic Team for Great Britain,  States-side, Danusia has been studying at the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA)

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 .

In an article on SovietSport.ru , Valentina Rodionenko, the head of the Russian Women's Gymnastics team, confirmed that Aliya Mustafina is training a triple twisting Yurchenko. It's becoming very apparent that the TTY will be the Amanar of the last quad. Simone Biles is training the TTY, as evidenced by her recent episode of Gymnastike's "Beyond the Routine" series. McKayla Maroney is also rumored to be training it as well.  Aliya Mustafina's teammate, Tatiana Nabieva, was training the TTY in 2010, but never got it competition ready.

A year after the infamous vault final in which McKayla Maroney famously landed on her rear end giving her the silver medal after being favored to win gold. Sandra Izbasa took the gold over McKayla, the current world champion. On the podium, McKayla gave her now infamous scowl that launched a thousand memes. From Kim Kardashian to Star Wars and everything in between. The question however still remains, is McKayla still not impressed?

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.

This edition of Favorite Routines features Australian gymnast, Daria Joura aka Dasha on floor exercise at the 2007 American Cup. Daria has a story very similar to Nastia Liukin. She was born in Russia and moved to Australia with her parents as a young child when her father accepted a job at the Western Australian Institute of Sport. She spent most of her time in the gym as a child with her gymnastics coach parents.

After days of speculation, it is official, Alicia Sacramone is engaged. Alicia officially confirmed on today's Gymcastic podcast her engagement to NFL quarterback Brady Quinn. Boston news reporter Dan Hausle posted an announcement about Alicia and Brady on July 20 via his Twitter account about the engagement: Congrats to USA gymnast and fam friend Alicia Sacramone just engaged to NFL QB Brady Quinn! Her mom says I can let the cat out of the bag, — Dan Hausle (@dhausleon7) July 20, 2013

For this edition of juniors to watch, the featured gymnast is Texas Dreams' Bailie Key. Source: USAgym.org  Vital Statistics: Date of Birth: March 16, 1999 Birthplace: Augusta, GA Current Residence: Montgomery, TX Club: Texas Dreams Coaches: Chris Burdette and Kim Zmeskal-Burdette  Fourteen-year-old Bailie trains under the tutelage of former World Champion, Kim Zmeskal and her husband, Chris Burdette. Bailie started gymnastics much like many gymnasts, as a child she had lots of expendable energy and was doing tricks of the couch on her head and her parents enrolled her in gymnastics so she'd have a place practice her tricks safely.

It's the 50th anniversary of USA Gymnastics, the governing body for gymnastics in the United States.They're celebrating their birthday by having fans pay tribute to them with video montages. TM USA Gymnastics How 21st century of them. You can vote for your favorites on their Facebook page by visiting this link: https://www.facebook.com/USAGymnastics/app_214224245382377 Participants were asked to create a 50 montage featuring their favorite athletes. Many from around the gymternet submitted videos, including Spanny Tampson who submitted her video entitled "50 Shades of Lay(out step outs)", featuring Dominique Dawes' beam tumbling pass with her doing three layout step outs all the way to the end of the beam. The girls from Triple Twist Gym Blog have each submitted their own video. Gymnternet editor Chris Sacullo have submitted their montages. Chris has a very cool montage of Gabby and Carly on the beam side by side. There's one that's titled 50 Y

Chellsie Memmel announced today that she is returning to the world of elite gymnastics. But there's a twist. She's returning to competition as a power tumbler. Chellsie is going out for the national team for trampoline and tumbling with the ultimate goal of competing at the World Cup and then hopefully, go on to the World Championships this fall. She said this opportunity was presented to her "out of left field." " I never imagined that at 25 years old I'd be working towards making another World team, much less on the Tumbling side of gymnastics, but I am and it feels great to be doing it!"