MCSMaria's Artistic Gymnastics Blog

There are new elements being submitted to the FIG today for addition to the code of points and to have the athlete's names forever synonymous with the skills. Here are the elements being submitted:

Podium training for the World Championships in Antwerp have finished, and all the gymternet will dream of seeing their favorite gymnast up on the medal podium and the gymnasts dream of beating their competitors for their shot of glory.

Russian newbie Anna Rodionova has been out and about during today's podium training. The featured routine from the tiny blond newbie is her training the uneven bars. She has some form issues, namely a leg separation on her Shaposh half and she catches her straddled Jaeger a little close to the bar and bends her arms to compensate. she makes up for it with a nice Tkatchev and a clean landing on her dismount.

Here is Asuka Teramoto of Japan on the floor exercise during podium training. It's a very nice routine and cleanly done. All of her routines are looking like this from what I have seen. I'm wanting to see what she'll do when the competition starts. Perhaps she'll blow everyone out of the water and medal.

McKayla Maroney is looking as fierce as ever, especially on floor.

The burning question is always, where and how can I watch the World Championships. For USA Gym Fans: the folks at USA Gymnastics communications department have put up this wonderful website www.usagymworlds.com specifically to watch the men and women of team USA.

Victoria Moors has in fact gone back to her 2012 "Assassin's Tango" floor routine. She's seen training in a turquoise metallic leotard.

Here is Aliya Mustafina training on the uneven bars during podium training for Worlds. I expect a knockdown, hair-pulling brawl for the uneven bars gold between her and Yao Jinnan.

More podium training awesomeness. Yao Jinnan shows everyone just how much of a bad ass she is with her uneven bars routine.

It really is too bad she will only be an alternate. That routines is looking solid. And she is nailing that Tweddle release move!

Inside Gymnastics has the official word from the team USA camp at worlds. Marta Karolyi has spoken and she is decreeing there will be three all-arounders.

International Gymnastics Magazine has graciously posted podium training videos of Kyla podium training at worlds. Kyla is looking lovely in a raspberry pink leotard with white designs. It's a nice departure from the horrendous bubble gum pink that's dominated this past (no thanks to you, Nastia Liukin).

Victoria Moors has been training the double double layout. She competed it at the Canadian nationals and at the Pan American Games. The latest news is she has submitted it to the FIG for approval and they have given it a conditional rating of "I".

More training videos are being posted by the hour. Gymnastike has posted several already and it's like feeding candy to a baby. We just want more! Here are some of the videos:

Over the weekend, Bailie Key killed her competition at the Junior Japan Invitational. She won every single gold medal there was to win. Bailie and Men's AA Winner Kazuma Kaya of Japan Photo: Intlgymnast.com Yep, just another weekend in the life of Bailie Key.

More Worlds training videos are surfacing from team USA. Here are two videos showing Kyla Ross and McKayla Maroney training their floor choreography.

This edition of Favorite Routines is featuring an awesome routine from a post-Olympics Worlds from Elena Prudunova. Elena was the McKayla Maroney of the Russian team back in the late 90's leading up to the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia.

Gym Power posted a video of Team USA during an open practice in the Netherlands. The video shows the girls training on beam and bars.

The second day of the Japan Junior International became "Let's Just Give Bailie Key All the Golds." She literally won gold on every single event. I'm just warming up! I am going to kill them all in Rio!

The results of the Junior Japan International All-Around Final and event qualifications are in. Bailie Key of the USA was the star of the show.

Aliya Mustafina has been seen training a new floor exercise she plans to use in Antwerp next week. In the photo below, Aliya is doing the ending pose to a dance through of her floor exercise. It looks very similar to the ending floor pose of Kaylie Cruz from the TV series, Make It Or Break It .  Below is the GIF image showing the floor pose of Kaylie (played by Josie Loren) as she ends her floor routine that makes her National Champion over rival Kelly Parker (played by Nicole Anderson).

Kohei Uchimura's name is synonymous with Japanese men's gymnastics. He wins so many medals, he will probably need to build a trophy room in his home just to house all of his awards.

The best bro-mance to tug at our heart strings, and it's two of the sexiest men in gymnastics. This is a trailer of the webseries, "The Hard Way To Success" which is not unlike the Gymnastike series "Beyond the Routine." The episode that is being promoted will feature Fabian Hambuchen of Germany and Epke Zonderland of the Netherlands. Epke was the 2012 Olympic Champion on High bar and Fabian was the silver medalist.

On this episode of Keeping Up with The Kardashians (aaahhem) Round Lake Gymnasts, a fan favorite returns and someone else is sick... again.

The fourth gymnast to compete for Russia at Worlds has been chosen and her name is Anna Rodionova. Anna is more than likely going to compete beam and possibly bars. The word on the street is that Maria Paseka is dealing with a back injury and will probably not be doing bars as she has done earlier this year.

Sweden will be represented by only one gymnast as  European silver medalist Jonna Adlerteg will sadly miss the World Championships this year. According to an article on svt.se, Jonna is dealing with health issues that may be related to some previous injuries.

Lifetime is developing Gabby Douglas's life story into a "made for TV movie."

The ice bath. It's like the water cooler at the office. Except this office is the Karolyi's property. I wonder what the hot gossip is around camp these days. Maybe they're talking about their animal encounters? Maybe, they're talking about what will happen on the season premiere of Revenge . Speaking of which, time for moi to go find spoilers!

After dealing with a torn ACL and sitting out the Olympic Games, Peng Peng Lee is back, ready and raring to go. The Canadian gymnast is entering her sophomore year at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).

In an interview translated by the All Around, Bruno Grandi mention he wants to reduce Olympic team sizes from five to four athletes. Grandi gave an interview with LEON magazine and cited this and the age of athletes, World Cup attendance and sponsorship.

After this weekend's worlds selection camp, USA Gymnastics had named their official team for the World Championships later this month. They are as follows:

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.

Peyton Ernst has been making her rounds on the international circuit in her first year as a senior. Earlier this year, she took second in the all-around at the Tokyo Cup and she won golds for the floor exercise and vault.

First year senior Peyton Ernst has come from unknown junior to a standout on the senior national team and a contender for a spot on the World Championships team for the USA.

This edition of favorite routines is featuring Anna Pavlova on the balance beam. Anna has always been a fantastic beam worker. She works the beam in all directions and she always shows flexibility and elegance along with power.

Larisa Iordache proved herself the queen of the Romanian Gymnastics team, not only winning the all around, but taking home gold medals on the balance beam and big shocker here, the uneven bars, her weakest event.

This is a feature on the science of gymnastics on ESPN's "Sport Science".

Five years after she won the gold medal in Beijing at 16, and a year after taking the silver in London, He Kexin retired from the sport of gymnastics. The 21-year-old gymnast, who has been the uneven bars pinch hitter for the Chinese women said last year that she would retire after this year's Chinese National Games. 

Sandra Izbasa brought up the possibility of her retiring after the World Championships in Antwerp at the Romanian National Championships. Sandra only competed on floor exercise at the Romanian nationals and scored a 15.1, an improvement over her score at last weekend's Dutch Friendly. Per Romgym.ro , Sandra said she's not going to Antwerp to win a medal, but really just to do her routine. After Antwerp, Sandra said she wants to keep going to the gym, but without pressure.

On the first day of the Romanian National Championships was the all-around competition. Larisa Iordache took home the all-around national title to add to the growing collection she's been amassing all year.

The IOC announced today that Tokyo would host the Olympic Games in the summer or 2020. Tokyo hosted the games back in 1964, making Tokyo a second time Olympian city. With that it's time to put your hair up in that beehive and shellack it with so much aerosol hairspray that it does not move. Get out your record players and your 8-tracks and your Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan (pre-electric) and Janis Joplin records, we're going back to 1964...

After much speculation, International Olympic Committee has announced it's 2020 Summer Games host city. The competition was fierce. The cities that were vying for the coveted Host position were Istanbul, Turkey, which would be a first since it is a predominantly Muslim country. But the news surrounding the historic city has been focused on the protests that took place in early May. Then, there is Madrid, Spain. The last Spanish Olympic games was held in Barcelona and it is marked for Gymnastics fans as the year the Unified Team won the gold medal before the Soviet Union officially broke up.   Don Quixote author, Miguel de Cervantes called the city home. The city is also home to the largest bull fighting ring and is considered the center of the bullfighting universe. Last but not least, there is Tokyo. Tokyo was host to the 2011 World Championships where Jordyn Wieber won her world championship title in the all-around. Viktoria Komova won her bars title, Sui Lu won the beam ti

The list of World Championship athletes who are injured/sick keeps getting longer. The Couch Gymnast reported that Diana Bulimar injured her left knee right before the start of the Romanian Nationals.

This edition of Favorite Routines is featuring Svetlana Khorkina's gold medal winning uneven bar routine from the 1996 Olympic Games. Any gymnastics fan is in awe of Svetlana Khorkina. Whether it was for her innovative routines and skills or for her badass attitude. Khorkina was the diva of the Russian Gymnastics team, winning medals before Aliya Mustafina made her grand entrance into the world of gymnastics.

In 1992, Dominique Moceanu was a baby junior gymnast with big dreams. The ten, soon to be eleven-year-old had started training with Bela and Marta Karolyi after her family moved to Texas in 1991.

It was officially confirmed today the Viktoria Komova will not be representing Russia at the 2013 World Championships after all.

The FIG has released a nominative list of competitors for Worlds.  Romania, USA and Russia have both named complete teams after much speculation. This is just a nominative list, so it is subject to change.

Valentina Rodionenko confirmed today that Ksenia Afanasyeva will not be in attendance at Worlds after all. Ksenia recently had surgery on her ankle from an old injury and it widely speculated amongst gym-fans if she would even be at the World Championships, which will be held later this month in Antwerp, Belgium.

This weekend saw the return of Sandra Izbasa at the Dutch Friendly meet this weekend while the Chinese Nationals got underway.

Carly Patterson is best known for being the 2004 Olympic All-Around champion. Before Carly was an Olympian, she was a thirteen-year-old junior on the national team dreaming of her time in the spotlight.  At the 2001 National Championships in Philadelphia, Carly and teammates, Holly Vise and Nina Kim were bright, eyed bushy tailed juniors bouncing around the arena with anticipation.

This edition of Favorite routines is featuring junior British gymnast, Catherine Lyons. Catherine is an up and coming junior on the British Gymnastics scene.

After months of anticipation and waiting very, very patiently, Sandra Izbasa has returned her awesome self to competition. Great timing with Worlds in a few weeks. Sandra made her post Olympic debut at the Dutch Invitational this weekend in, Alphen aan den Rijn. Sandra only competed on the floor exercise. But she debuted a new routine and she took second behind Olympic teammate, Diana Bulimar.

I'm spending time with everything gymnastics related this Labor Day weekend. Okay, I'm really just goofing off. But give me credit, it's a three day weekend. I'm spending my time making GIFs of Aliya Mustafina on the uneven bars.

This installment of favorite routines is featuring NCAA gymnast and former Cirque Du Soleil artist, Tricia Woo.