MCSMaria's Artistic Gymnastics Blog

We know what Aliya Mustafina is thankful for this holiday season.

The latest news coming from Russia is Anna Pavlova and Yulia Inshina will now be competing for Azerbaijan.

Vasiliki Millousi is known for her elegant beam work. She is so light on her feet and she carries herself with beautiful presence.

It's that particular Thursday in November where we Americans stuff ourselves full of turkey and gravy and give thanks. Hence,  Thanksgiving. Today, I would like to express my gratitude for everything that has made me happy this year in the world of gymnastics.

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

Before she was a UCLA Bruin, Mattie Larson was an elite gymnast training with McKayla Maroney's coach, Artur Akopyan.

What has Simone Biles been doing since her world championship win in Antwerp? To answer that question, the FIG recently caught up with Simone Biles and her coach, Amy Boorman nearly two months after her world championship win in Antwerp. She and Amy told the FIG she's just back to training again after having surgery to remove bone spurs from her ankle.

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.

The last USA women's training camp for 2013 concluded today, at the Karolyi Ranch outside of Houston, Texas.

Set your DVR's, gym fans!

I found this confession on the Gymnastics Fans' Confessions wall. This prompted one of the moderators of the blog to share some very poignant and well spoken thought. Below the cut, I've posted the original confession and the text that proceeds it.

Romanian Gymnast, Daniela Silivas is known for her many unique skills. Notably, a double double on the floor exercise and the wicked cool beam chest stand turn that Dominique Moceanu did in her 1996 routine. Mad props for the latter skill, the coolest beam mount in the world.

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.

Aliya Mustafina will represent Russia the the DTB Cup in Stuttgart Germany. Not to be confused with the Stuttgart World Cup, which will be held the same weekend.

Simone Biles spreads joy where ever she goes. Her happy, up beat attitude touches us all and she makes friends with athletes from around the world.

On the Late Night with Jimmy Fallon show, rapper turned actor, Ice-T revealed his past as a gymnast when Jimmy brought an old photo from his gymnastics career.

This weekend, Larisa Iordache continued her winning streak from the Swiss Cup and the Arthur Gander Memorial by winning the all-around title and the beam title at this weekend's Elite Gym Masilia in Marseilles, France.

Who doesn't love adorable baby gymnasts? It's like watching a little puppy.  They're so determined. This is the case with a little Nabieva from the Friendship Classic and I am assuming it's 2005.

 Bust out the aerosol hairspray and get your Bret Michaels bandana on, it's time to go back to 1983 and the World Championships podium training.

While perusing Tumblr, I found a GIF of young Bailie Key, the current junior national champion and wonder kid that reminded me of a certain gymnastics idol of mine from the 90's.

Jordyn Wieber has lived several different lives in her 18 years. Most notably, her 2011 World Championship win and her contribution team USA during the London Olympics as a part of the "Fierce Five." Her stellar resume includes three American Cup championship wins and countless other medals and awards. via Twitter These days, Jordyn is doing what many young men and women her age are doing and striking out on her own as a college freshman at the University of California in Los Angeles. She talked to USA Gymnastics earlier this week about her experiences as a college freshman and being recognized in the dining hall of all places.

The field of athletes have been announced for the Mexican Open. Peyton Ernst and Maggie Nichols have been selected to fill the spot left vacant by Elizabeth "Ebee" Price, who will be competing at the Stuttgart and Glasgow Cups that overlap the competition.

The University of Florida and Stanford University have announced very exciting additions to their teams.

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.

While he was with Brenna at the World Championships in Antwerp, Al Fong got a chance to scope out the competition. Or as some people might call it, creeping. Al Fong comes right out and just says it, he was snooping. Al Fong (L) with 2012 Olympic Alternate, Sarah Finnegan and his wife, Armine Barutyan Fong While being a double operative, Al scoped out a beam routine that he quite enjoyed. A beam routine by a certain Sanne Wevers of the Netherlands.

The ever hilarious McKayla Maroney posted a photo on Instagram today of her beginning pose for her floor routine.

American Cup winner Katelyn Ohashi has been out of competition for a while due to injuries. Since she won the American Cup in March, she's been largely absent from the USA Gymnastics scene. In April, she turned down international assignments at the City of Jesolo Cup because she was recovering from shoulder surgery. She was absent from the national championships in August, presumably for the same reason.

This edition of Favorite Routines is featuring Japan's Mai Murakami on floor exercise. This is a great routine. The tumbling is clean and powerful, the landings are good and she completes a bad ass quadruple turn. The music is an interesting choice, but it adds a mysterious aspect to it. Plus, she is just so cute, it's hard not to like her.

Kennedy Baker. Teenager, gymnast, coached by 1991 World Champion Kim Zmeskal, awesome beam worker. Gymnastics narrator?

Back when she was on the competition floor as a gymnast, Kim Zmeskal was coached by legendary gymnastics coaches, Bela and Marta Karolyi, whom you might know as the national team coordinator for the women's team at USA Gymnastics.

After suffering from an injury and missing out on the World Championships in Antwerp, Anastasia Grishina has resumed training. Oh yes, Anastasia is back and she's setting her sights on 2014 and beyond (cue " Eye of the Tiger "). She's wanting to get back into shape for next year's Euro's and Worlds.

So as you are aware, the amazing side aerial that Danusia Francis does on the balance beam has been named in the FIG Code of Points for Spain's Silvia Colussi Peleaz. Whatever, I still think Danusia should charge Silvia royalties for that skill. A training video surfaced of Danusia training her copy right skill to a full twisting dismount from the side of the beam that is beautiful and amazing. Danusia is gorgeous on the beam and that side aerial is perfection and her full twist dismount off the side of the beam? Gorgeous! She may just need to copyright all of that. Post by UCLA Gymnastics .

McKayla Maroney and her off the cusp commentary on her various social media sites is hilarious. She never ceases to make me laugh.

2012 Olympic Alternate, Elizabeth "Ebee" Price is making a comeback to the international scene. Yesterday, USA Gymnastics announced that Ebee will attend the Glasgow and Stuttgart World Cup events for the second year in a row.

Since I am currently reading Nadia Comaneci's book Letters to a Young Gymnast , I was inspired to feature her routines on my blog this week since I've been majorly slacking. This video from Sport Everywhere on YouTube shows the start value of Nadia's gold medal winning balance beam routine from the 1976 Olympics in Montreal. Set to the Cary Brother's "Alien" (choice of the editor), it's beautiful and almost ethereal. It's quite fascinating to see the stark difference 37 years of code changes makes.

So first, Oksana Chusovitina competed for the Soviet Union before it's demise. Then, she competed for her home country of Uzbekistan. Later, when her son got sick, she and her husband moved to Germany where she competed for their national team for years. She's back in Uzebekistan now, but she was on loan to Japan for their National championships on Sunday. A video surfaced of Oksana competing at the Japanese Nationals. Why? I do not know. But does it really matter? She is seen competing her vault , uneven bars and floor exercise.

Elena Prudunova was fierce. Whether it was the red hair (I'm voting for that option) or her incredible power, she was just awesome.

Sadly after sitting out last season,  Christine, also known as "Peng Peng" Lee of UCLA will sit out another season due to her nagging ACL injury. Peng Peng, who tore her anterior crutiate ligament (ACL) last year and missed out on competing with her native Canada at the 2012 London Olympics. She joined the UCLA Bruins, but sat out most of the season while healing her injury. UCLA announced today via their Twitter account that Peng would again not compete for UCLA for the 2014 Gymnastics season.

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.

A GIF set of Russian Gymnast Ksenia Semenova surfaced on the gymternet today. The GIF is from a floor exercise routine of Ksenia's from way back when. And by way back when, I mean I have no idea when this routine happened. She looks a little older so I'm assuming it's sometime between 2009 -2010.

Larisa Iordache and her partner Andrei Muntean took the top spot at the Swiss Cup, winning the title for Romania for the first time since 2007.

US Gymnast Phoebe Mills is best known for winning the bronze medal on the balance beam at the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul, South Korea. Present day, Phoebe is still involved with team USA as a judge, but not for gymnastics.