Olympic Alphabet - E is for ...

..... Events
The Olympics is different from all other competitions because so many varied sports take place in one city at one time. London 2012 will feature 26 sports (each broken down into different disciplines and events). At each olympics there is the potential for the addition of new events - in London this will include Women's Boxing and Vancouver debuted the fast and furious sport of Ski Cross.

8 athletes have shown they can master very different events by competing in both the Summer and Winter Olympic Games.

• Connie Carpenter Phinney (speed skating, 1972; cycling, 1984)
• Willie Davenport (athletics, 1968 and 1976; bobsleigh, 1980)
• Eddie Eagan(boxing, 1920; bobsleigh, 1932; medaled in both)
• Dave Gilman (canoe and kayak, 1976, 1984, and 1988; luge 1984)
• Arthur Longsjo (speed skating and cycling, 1956)
• Connie Paraskevin-Young (speed skating, 1984 and 1980; cycling, 1996, 1992, and 1988)
• Arnold Uhrlass (speed skating, 1960; cycling, 1964)
• Chris Witty (cycling, 2000; speed skating, 2006)

E is also for ........Eddie the Eagle

One of the most famous 'lovable losers' of the olympics - personifying the expression "It's not the winning, it's the taking part". Michael 'Eddie the Eagle' Edwards was the first man to represent GB in ski-jumping at the 1988 winter games in Calgary. He finished in last place in both the regular and large hill events but endeared himself to fans the world over.

Olympic Alphabet - D is for ...

....Dreams
Ok it's a cliche idea 'The Olympic Dream' - but there's something to be said for being on top of the World.

A young Ivana Hong with hero- Olympic Champ Carly Patterson

Ivana and team-mate Rebecca Bross with their bling from the World championships in London, 2009. They'll be hoping to match or better this in London 2012.

Quote from Rebecca when asked does she think about being the 3rd olympic all around champ from her gym in a row?
" No, I don't think about it much........but I dream about it"

....D is also for Double Gold Medallists (...or triple....or more!!)

Every medal is amazing - but these are the performances we remember most- the athletes who become national heroes and household names.

Triple gold medallist Chris Hoy and Double gold medallist Rebecca Alington

Then there are those who take it to the extremes - Michael Phelps (8 golds in 8 races in beijing- not to mention his medals from Athens) and Sir Stephen Redgrave (5 gold medals from 5 cosecutive games - 1984 to 2000!)

Olympic Alphabet - C is for ...

... Ceremonies

Ok, so I said 3 days ago that however you dress them up the Olympics are about the sports. But the Opening and Closing ceremonies of the olympics are some of the hottest tickets in town and can say a lot about the host nation and it's people- as well as being a great opportunity to celebrate the spirit of the Games

Here are some of my memories of the ceremonies from the last 3 Olympic Games.

Vancouver
High points- The Snowboarder opening the games by junping through the olympic rings, Choosing Joannnie Rochette as Canadian flagbearer for the closing ceremony, Getting the athletes in at the start so they actually got to enjoy the show for once!
Low point - the 4th leg of the torch not working- but in true canadian style they aknowledged the mistake and made 'fixing it' part of the closing ceremony.

Beijing
High Points- the spectacle, probably the largest, most grand opening ceremony we'll ever see with a cast of over 15,000 - Only china can afford that amount of money and manpower!
Low Point- Choosing one girl to sing a chinese patriotic song at the ceremony then deciding to replace her with a 'cuter' girl who mimed the song to a recording of her voice.

Torino
High Point - The Italian anthem - Always a fave of mine. Luciano Pavarotti singing Nessun Dorma in his last public performance.
Low Point - I believe pavarotti was also miming - but to his own voice this time (the organizers were worried about the effect that the cold would have on the 70 year old tenor.)

.... C is also for Coaches

It takes more than 1 to reach an olympic medal. Countries put aside millions of pounds/dollars etc every olympic cycle to nurture talented kids into champion athletes. We may not aggree with them all the time- we may think some of them are downright laughable- but great athletes need great coaches!

Add another high point to Vancouver's opening ceremony- Coaches marching in alongside their athletes for the very first time.

Hawkeye- An intimidating lineup of Olympic skating coaches in Vancouver!

Bolt from the Blue

17 year old world vault champion from the US , Kayla Willams has made the surprising decision to stop competing elite gymnastics and focus on getting ready for college gymnastics.

Kayla made the metioric leap from the US junior championships to world champion in a single year. We all predicted she'd be around at least until 2012 if not maybe 2016!

She was due to compete at the Classic last weekend but pulled out after a minor injury ( a torn plantar fascia tendon in her foot.) Her coach, Mary Lee Tracey said Kayla felt this would hinder her chances of making the 2010 world team so decided to start getting ready to College. Kayla committed to joining thr University of Alabama team from next summer.

Whilst I still find this a surprising decision- I wish her luck.

.....It does look then as if comeback-kid Alicia Sacramone's chances of making the world team this year have increased then, with USA minus one strong vaulter- the mighty Marta will have her eyes open!

Olympic Alphabet - B is for....

... Bringing your Best (When it counts)

Most athletes or olympic hopefuls visualise their perfect olympics- putting out your very best performance. Standing on the podium with a gold medal and the National Anthem playing. But whether or not you end up with a medal- most olympians remember whether or not their olympics performance was the best it could be.

Those who did-

• Yu-Na Kim- smashed personal and olympic records with her performance in Vancouver to win by a landslide. Under all the pressure she delivered- hence the well earned reaction from her (and her coach, Brian)
• Nastia Liukin - Won the all around competition not just on the difficulty of all her skills - but by the fact that she performed each of her routines about as well as she ever had.
• Michael Phelps - 8 golds, 8 world records- can't get much better than that!
• And many many more!

Those who couldn't

• Carolina Kostner - buckled under the pressure at her home games in Turin and missed the chance to redeem herself four years later in Vancouver- will the third time be the charm?
• Cheng Fei- gave her all for the team, her brilliant floor routine securing China's team gold in gymnastics in Beijing- but when it came to doing it for herself in the individual finals- she fell short.
  
• Alicia Sacramone- may never forgive herself for her 2 falls in the Team final in Beijing- but she's started a successful comeback in search of olympic redemption!

.... B is also for Beth

The flag-carrier for GB gymnastics and inspiration to so many young gymnasts. Beth Tweddle showed that this wasn't just a sport for tweenagers and that it is possible to develop into a champion gymnast over time.

This year Beth became an MBE - Member of the order of the British Empire- a royal honour not usually bestowed on athletes until they return home, olympic medal in hand. However the award is given for 'services to sport' - something Beth has given in bundles!

Beth did not have her best performances in Beijing- narrowly missing the bars, floor and team finals. Hopefully London 2012 will be her time. With the rapid improvements of team GB gymnasts- its looking good!

By the way- if you have any better suggestions for the Olympic Alphabet- feel free to comment and propose them!

Brian's gang - an update

Previously I wrote a blog post about Brian Orser's growing camp of talented skaters. They were a busy lot this past weekend, travelling to 3 different countries to skate.

Yu-Na Kim and Min-Jung Kwak headed home to Korea to wow the crowds in Yu-Na's show All That Skate Summer. The event was a huge hit (obviously). Maistro David Wilson went with them to choreograph the show. Min-Jung makes me smile and I hope she does well on the senior Grand Prix circuit this year. Without Yu-Na competing - all the korean eyes and camera lenses will be focussed on her.

Not that she seems to mind. On her Cyworld page (a kind of korean facebook) are hundreds of photos of her goofing around- like this one. I think she borrowed (or made off with) this medal from one of the Korean speed skaters.

Adam Rippon spent his weekend performing in Japan with Mao Asada's show THE ICE. As usual for Japan, the skaters were showered with gifts from the skating fans. Adam posted on Twitter. "Home from japan! Thanks to all the fans who made it such a wonderful trip:) xoxoxo" and also posted a photo of himself and World Champ Jeffrey Buttle.


Meanwhile, Brian Orser was in the US with 2 of his other charges, Christina Gao and Yea Ji Yun competed at Skate Detroit. Christina debuted 2 new programmes and a new triple flip-triple toe combination. She won the senior event with a very respectable score 0f 159.07. Christina will skate on the Junior Grand Prix this year and will be one of the favourites. Also with her growing reputation and arsenal of jumps will definitely be in the mix for a medal at the US nationals this year.

Korean Junior Champ Yea-Ji Yun finished 5th in the Juniors here, measuring herself against US and International skaters is a great way for her to develop and we may see her too on the junior circuit this year.

Olympic Alphabet - A is for...

..... Adventure

Being an olympic athlete isn't about your one day in the spotlights with the cameras rolling and the pressure on. It's about the thousands of days in the gym or at the track or at the rink, working in persuit of a dream. It's all part of the journey - enjoy the ride.

(young gymnasts, including one future olympic champion)

..... A is also for Amy

Team GB's one and only reigning winter olympic medallist. Be proud!

2 years and counting....

Time flies doesn't it? We seem to have just wrapped up in Vancouver and already we have a Youth Olympics on our hands and tomorrow it will be only 2 years until LONDON 2012!

I've heard so many interviews with olympic athletes and hopefuls who always say 'The next four years will fly by' and they're right.

Ollie from BBC sport posted a great video on his blog of Team GB athletes sharing their excitement for the approaching home games. Our track and field athletes will be testing themselves out this week at the European Athletics Championships.

The London games (like any other games) have already recieved criticism on many counts - mainly money related, and of course the 'love-them-or-hate-them' official logos and mascots.

But however you wrap it up- the Olympics will always inspire!

In honour of this milestone I've come up with the idea of an Olympic Alphabet!

Classic - Seniors

I have managed to get a video link of the Senior event- makes the late night worthwhile!

I'll be updating as much as I can, probably between rotations.

Rotation 1
Vanessa Zamarippa - started off with a good vault - but with some big steps on landing - 14.5
Mackenzie Caquatto - came out fighting on bars- looking great 15.05
Alicia Sacramone - got the job done on beam- announcing her comeback - 14.8
Kytra Hunter - threw some massive stuff on floor (full twisting dbl layout, piked + tucked dbl arabians) same music as last year.
Ali Raisman- started a bit wobbly on beam but finished with a dbl arrabian dismount 14.3
Cassie Whitcomb - strong on floor- great landings. - It's all going well so far...
Mattie Larson - looked awesome and so sure of herself on beam - until she sat down on the dismount :-( 13.45
Sam Shapiro - solid on beam, over-time on her routine. Still has a cool beam mount, lots of standing on the top of her toes though - ouchy
After rotation 1 - 1 Caquatto, 2 Sacramone, 3 Hunter, 4 Shapiro, 5 Zamarripa

Rotation 2
Amanda Jetter - double twisting yurchenko
(whoever is on floor in the background is using shawn johnson's old music)
Briley Casanova - bars, good handstands, slightly sloppy releases, big fall on dismount though. She has to do well today to qualify for nationals
Kytra Hunter- dbl yurchenko, small step fward
Ali Raisman - good on floor, 2 tumbling passes stuck. dbl arabian pike and tuck.
Rebecca Bross- fast and furious as ever on bars, stuck dismount, business as usual. 15.45
Mattie Larson - means business on floor - stuck almost everything until last pass- o.o.b.
Sam Shapiro - floor- slightly simpler tumbles, beautiful dance.
Mackenzie Caquatto- wobbly on beam- 1 fall and almost another on dismount.
Katelyn Clarke - pretty good on floor, not all that memorable though.
After Rotation 2 - 1 Hunter 29.45, 2 Zamarripa 29.05, 3 Shapiro 28.8, 4 Jetter 28.7, 5 Raisman 28.6, 6 Whitcomb, 7 Lee, 8 Larson

Rotation 3
Rebecca Bross- hard day on beam, sat down her dbl arabian dismount
Bridget Sloan- squeaks it on bars- a few tricky moment but made it
Ali Raisman- went for an amanar vault, under-rotated and fell. not even close.
Kytra Hunter- landed splat on her bars release.
Mattie Larson - good double yurchenko vault, maybe I will get my wish!
Cassie Whitcombe- good and tidy bar routine - a good day for her.
Sam Shapiro- bad landing on vault - likely done herself an injury (again)
Alicia Sacramone - 2 big vaults, handspring 1/2 and only a yurchenko full - but very well done
Vanessa Zamarippa- painful looking fall off beam, otherwise v. pretty
After 3rd rotation: 1 Whitcomb, 2 Jetter(-0.25) 3 Larson (-0.6) 4 Shapiro (even with the vt crash) 5 Raisman, 6 Lee, 7 Zam, 8 Macko

Rotation 4
Sam Shapiro apparantly hyperextended her knee back on vault. Not too serious but definitely the end of her competition today.
ASac says she is like a fine wine 'I get better with age' !!
Ali Raisman- a great bar routine by her standards.
Cassie Whitcomb - lookied like she had it in the bag until a fall on beam- open door.
Mattie Larson- great bar routine - I have my fingers crossed for her :-)
Vanessa Zamarippa- very expressive floor ex, lack difficulty but great to watch.
Amanda Jetter- no fall but some mistakes on beam, gonna be close...... 13.7

Mattie wins- yipee!!
Jetter 2nd, Caquatto 3rd, Whitcomb 4th

However - Larson's winning score was 57.1 - The Jrs wiped the floor with the Srs today

Anyway - its now 3am UK time --> bed time zzz

Classic- news, results, pics

The Junior session of the Covergirl Classic just wrapped up. The final standings at the top were

1 Jordyn Wieber 59.95 - no surprises there.
2 Katelyn Ohashi 59.1 - Woga's newest star
3 Kyla Ross 58.7
4 Sabrina Vega 57.25
5 Madison Kocian 56.2 (right- beautiful to watch)
6 Lexie Preissman 55.9
7 McKayla Maroney 55.65
8 Mackenzie Brannan 55.45
9 Gabrielle Douglas 55.25
10 Claire Boyce 55.15


Photos are appearing on the Gymblog and on Gymnastike. Seniors start in a little over an hour on Universal Sports. Full results go to USAgymnastics


Junior AA medal presentations


Last minute seniors preview- from the draw on the USAG page- Rebecca Bross, Sam Shapiro, Bridget Sloan and Sophia deJesus are just competing Bars and Beam. Alicia Sacramone is competing vault and beam.

My sensible pick for the all around would be Ali Raisman, although my sentimental fave is Mattie Larson.

Classic Time Again

Today is podium training for the US Covergirl Classic tomorrow.


Gymnastike has already posted several interviews and training videos, like this of Alicia Sacramone on balance beam

Word is World Vault Champ Kayla Williams has injured her foot and won't be competing, also Rebecca Bross and some of the other seniors that are already qualified for Nationals may not compete all-around.

Universal Sports is showing the event online tomorrow- whether that means it will be watchable here in the UK remains to be seen.

Yu-Na does it again.

I just got back from the gym in time to watch the second half of Yu-Na's show. Thanks to 'Aunt Joyce' for posting a link on their blog to a live feed.

Videos and photos are already popping up everywhere on the web. As expected it was a great success and the crowd went crazy. Yu-Na's hip-hop exhibition to Bulletproof was lots of fun and similar to her 'don't stop the music' piece from last year.

Sasha Cohen broke the mould a bit with her sexy fun performance from cabaret- fishnet stockings and all. Watching Michelle skate was as ever a treat - even though her music choices were a bit poppy and didn't show her off as well as a beautiful classical piece would. Yu-Na and Michelle's duet to hero was a tad cliche, but still special.


My favourite performance was in fact Min-Jung Kwak's performance to 'Don't rain on my Parade' She too has come on leaps and bounds in Brian Orser's camp and is now quite the performer. Great news for Korean skating as Yu-Na likely waves a gradual goodbye to competition.

Click HERE for more photos
Below- click the song titles for video links
Also try visiting to YuNa forum.


ACT 1

All Skaters - Get the Party Started by Pink
John Zimmerman - I’m Gonna Crawl by Led Zeppelin
Minjeong Kwak - Canon in D major by J. Pachelbel
Jamie Sale & David Pelletier - Try by Blue Rodeo
Silvia Fontana - Boom Boom Pow by Black Eyed Peas
Jeremy Abbott - At this Moment by Michael Buble
Tanith Belbin & Ben Agosto - If It Kills Me by Jason Mraz
Brian Joubert - Love Is All by Roger Glover
Sasha Cohen - Hallelujah by Jeff Buckley
Aliona Savchenko & Robin Szolkowy - Barbie Girl by Aqua
Stephane Lambiel - Let the Good Times Roll by Ray Charles
Yu-Na Kim - Meditation for Thais by J. Massenet
Michelle Kwan - Primitive by Annie Lennox
Yu-Na Kim & Michelle Kwan - Hero by Mariah Carey

ACT 2

Haejin Kim - You Raise Me Up by Celtic Woman
Jeremy Abbott - Viejos Aires by Ensemble Nuevo Tango
Silvia Fontana & John Zimmerman - Purple Rain by Prince
Minjeong Kwak - Don’t Rain On My Parade by Glee
Brian Joubert - Aerodynamics by Daft Punk
Tanith Belbin & Ben Agosto - Bleeding Love by Leona Lewis
Sasha Cohen - Mein Herr from Cabaret
Stephane Lambiel - Wilhelm Tell Overture by G. Rossini
Jamie Sale & David Pelletier - Scream by Michael Jackson
Michelle Kwan - No One by Alicia Keys
Aliona Savchenko & Robin Szolkowy - Gee
Yu-Na Kim - Bulletproof by La Roux
Special Guest - singer YounHa.

Olympic Fire.

The Flame of the first Youth Olympic Games was lit today in Ancient Olympia.

The Games begin in Singapore on August 14. 22 Days to Go....

All That Skate Summer

Yu-Na's ice show is taking place in Korea later today. In an interview David Wilson said Yu-Na had been preparing for this almost like an international competition.

Rehearsals seem to have been going well and I'm sure with the cast of big names and Yu-Na fever still raging in Korea- photos and videos will be swamping the internet instantly.

See more rehearsal pictures here


With Mao having her own show, THE ICE, in Nagoya this weekend - maybe 'international competition' was right!

News etc

Australia has named it's gymnastics teams for the 2010 Commonwealth Games
Men: Phil Rizzo, Prashanth Sellathurai, Sam Offord, Thomas Pichler + Josh Jefferis
Women: Lauren Mitchell, Ashleigh Brennan, Georgia Bonora, Emily Little + Mary Ann Monckton.

The alternates for the womens team are Shona Morgan and Georgia Wheeler. All these, as well as Emma Dennis, Britt Greeley, Georgia Simpson, Larrissa Miller and Natasha Hammann will attend a camp on 12 September from where the World team will also be chosen.

The FIG has announced the 2010 world championships will be the biggest ever, with 690 gymnasts due to compete. Brazil's Daiane Dos Santos is also hoping to make a comeback at Worlds this year.

The British mens gymnastics team (Yevgeni Gryshchenko, Sam Hunter, Ruslan Panteleymonov, Daniel Purvis, Theo Seager, Kristian Thomash) have headed off to train with the Japanese men for 2 weeks. (British Gymnastics)

The British Trampolining Championships take place this weekend at the NIA in Birmingham. Definitely worth a look if you're in the area. If you're in a completely different area the US Covergirl Classic is also happening.

2004 men's Olympic all-around champion Paul Hamm is planning a comeback in time for London2012. Hamm looked a safe bet for the '08 olympic team but had to withdraw at the US olympic trials after injuring his hand. He intends to begin competing again from 2011.

As was going around the rumour mill earlier - US skater Caroline Zhang has indeed changed coaches to Tammy Gambill. The announcement was posted on icenetwork and universal sports.

NISA has posted their assignment of GB skaters for the Junior Grand Prix this season.

Skating forward.

Last weekend one of the first 'big name' competitions of the 2010/2011 skating season took place - The Liberty summer competition in Pensylvannia. Universal Sports gave this report of how some of US and Canadian skating's big names did.

Patrick Chan

The two-time world silver medalist accomplished a major first at Liberty - first quad landed in competition.

In the debut of his new short program to "Take Five," Chan opened with an effortless quad toe.

He intended to add the element last season, but a series of injuries and illnesses prevented him from competing the quad in the Olympic season.

Now, with the jump planned in both programs, Chan could be difficult to beat. His ability to weave through a charismatic short program and re-choreographed free skate make a complex scoring system seem simple. Throw in a quad and Chan is in a class with few others.

Ashley Wagner

Wagner debuted a new short program set to Led Zeppelin's "Kashmir." The 2010 U.S. bronze medalist completed a triple flip - double toe combination, but was most excited about landing her triple Lutz.

In past seasons, Wagner was victim to deductions for an incorrect entry-edge. She spent the "off-season" re-learning the Lutz in order to correct her take-off edge.

It appears the hard work paid off, as she did not receive the deduction at Liberty.

With improved technique on the Lutz and a planned triple-triple in the short program, Wagner joins a strong field of U.S. ladies set to compete in the Grand Prix series this fall.

Watch Ashley's video blog about the competition here.

Agnes Zawadzki

The 2010 U.S. junior champ proved she's more than ready to make the jump to senior. The 15-year-old showed maturity in both programs to compliment impressive triple jumps and improved spins.

Zawadzki makes her senior Grand Prix debut at Skate Canada and might surprise there. Her speed across the ice and triple-triple in the short program could put her in contention for a medal.

Good and Bad news.

The Spelbound boys showed they can carry out a 42 show tour of the UK and still be the best in the world. Adam Buckingham, Adam McAssey, Alex Uttley, Jonathan Stranks won the gold medal for men's group at the world championships in Poland. Also Douglas Fordyce & Edward Upcott won the men's pair and team GB brought home a collection of other medals too. British Gymnastics says the aim now is to get Acrobatic Gymnastics recognised as an olympic Sport.






Yu-Na Kim has announced what will be disappointing news for her fans in Korea and elsewhere in the world. She will not be skating in the Grand-Prix season or at the Asian Games in February. She still plans to compete this season but only at the world championships. Having felt burnt out after the olympics she has chosen to only compete as she feels ready too. On the upside she has just arrived in Korea to take part in her own ice show with Michelle Kwan and others. The announcement appeared in The Korea Times

A medal winning tradition.

I was browsing through the photos on WOGA's website recently and smiled when I saw this-


During a celebratory photo-shoot of WOGA's World and Olympic medallists- Carly Patterson, Holly Vise and Nastia Liukin. You can see a young Rebecca Bross, still working away in the background.

Well- all that hard work seems to be paying off. She is now a 2 time world medallist herself and highly likely to add olympic medals to her collection in time.


Team WOGA (minus Nastia and Ivana) will be dominate the Covergirl Classic and US championships in the coming weeks.

Golden Girl

Susan Russell from International Figure Skating posted photos of a celebration for Yu-Na Kim at the Toronto Cricket Club, where she trained for the last 4 years.

Yu-Na was congratulated for her many achievments - including a commemorative plaque that will be displayed at the club. She was also thanked for the inspiration she was for all the young skaters in the club - showing them what it takes to reach the very top of the sport.

Comings and Goings.

Two of Canada's best skaters have hung up their competetive skates this week - Pairs skater Craig Buntin and singles skater Vaughn Chipeur.

Vaughn Chipeur was Canada's silver medallist for the last 2 years behind Patrick Chan. I first saw him at 2007 Skate Canada- (incidentally the first major skating event I went to). He had a great freedom in his skating. He finished 12th at the 2009 Worlds and represented Canada at the 2010 olympics, finishing 23rd. Chipeur plans to do professional ice shows across Canada then aboard Royal Caribbean Cruises (Doesn't sound like a bad life to me!)

Craig Buntin won the Canadian pairs title 3 years running with Valerie Marcoux and finished 11th at the 2006 Olympics. In 2007 he paired up with Megan Duhamel. The pair finished 6th at the 2007 Worlds. After skating their socks off at the 2010 Nationals they were devistated to finish 3rd and narrowly miss an Olympic place in Vancouver. They did however win a bronze at 4 Continents a few weeks later.

My favourite memory of Craig was at the 2008 Trophee Bompard where in the free programme his hand was accidentally sliced by Megan's blade. He was quickly patched up by his coaches and they went on to complete the programme, all the while blood seeping through the thick bandage onto Megan's dress. Despite the automatic 2pt deduction for stopping the programme, they went on to win a bronze that day.

In his spare time Buntin started the company 'teabean white coffee' specialising in baked, rather than roasted coffee beans. He has been accepted onto the MBA programme at McGill university from August. Megan will continue to Skate with new parter Eric Radford.


Also a farewell in the Gymnastics World. Romanian talent Claudia Voicu has chosen to retire, aged only 16, due to recurrent knee injuries. European silver medallist Anamaria Tamarajan is also very likely to retire too. The ranks of healthy gymnasts in Deva are getting a bit thin.

Spelbound- ready for Worlds.

BBC news has posted a great behind-the-scenes video of the Spelbound gymnasts getting ready for the World Acrobatic Gymnastics Champs in Poland.

Adam Buckingham, Adam McCassey, Alexander Uttley and Jonathan Stranks are competing in the men's Four. I believe other Spelbound members are due to compete in the World Age-group championships, also taking place in Poland.

You may have to be in the UK to watch it. If the vid makes it onto youtube I'll replace the link.

Click the picture to go to the link (BBC) Good luck to them all!

More good news!

Britains skating stars Sinead and John Kerr posted this on their website this evening.

13 July 2010

Sinead and I thought it was about time we made some kind of statement as to our future plans….

After much thought and cogitation we have now decided that we will be participating in the 2010-11 season. Sinead and I had always thought that the 2010 Olympic season would be our last but we both feel that there are still things in competitive skating that we would like to achieve before we retire.

We also felt that we would like to end our competitive career on a high and, despite some good results, we didn’t feel like we achieved that last year. The pressure of it being an Olympic season possibly got on top of us last season and we weren’t able to match our own, or others, expectations.

That is something we hope to remedy this season and we have brought in some interesting people to help us do that.

One of those people is Peter Tchernyshev who took charge of creating the Free Dance for us this season. Sinead and I have created a lot of our own work during our career so it was nice to have someone else take the reins. Even though we have always enjoyed choreographing it was nice to not have the pressure of having to come up with something new and original. Peter was awesome to work with and it really gave us fresh inspiration and impetus for the year ahead.

Sorry for keeping everybody waiting, especially all you guys and gals on the messageboard (we love you all), but I hope you understand that this was something we had to think long and hard about.

Sinead and I have always felt that we should leave the stage with the audience wanting more which is why we felt that staying till 2010 might be a good time to call it quits.

Let's call this our extended curtain call then ;-)

Hugs and kisses,

S&J

I'm so glad to hear this news. With several big names retiring this year (Belbin & Agosto, Delobel & Schoenfelder, Domnina and Shabilin) it's a great opportunity for Sinead and John to shine and win some more medals.

Plus with a lack of other skaters competetive at the international level - Team GB NEEDS them around for as long as possible.
Good luck this season, Sinead and John!

USA smiles

Cincinatti Gymnastics posted this photo of Team USA Junior and Senior gymnasts at the most recent national team camp. The girls are gearing up for the Covergirl Classic and Visa Championships.

Youth Olympics Teams

The British Olympic Association have announced the names of those they will send to Singapore for the Youth Olympic Games. The list includes diver and 2008 Olympian Tom Daley and Gymnasts Laura Mitchell (Jr National Champ) and Sam Oldham (Jr European Champ)



Read the article and see the full list here.


Australia has also named its new junior champion, Angela Donald as their female gymnast.
The USA has confirmed it will NOT be sending a female gymnast.
Looks like an easy win for Komova then.......
I'll update when a more complete list becomes available

Edit- thanks to the good people on the international gymnast forum answering my post, here are some more names for the list.
China - Tan Sixin
Romania - Diana Bulimar
Italy - Carlotta Ferlito

Bouncing Back.

Two skaters looking to bounce back from disappointing 09-10 seasons are Mira Leung (of Canada) and Caroline Zhang of the USA.

Mira recently took part in the Heart Truth Fashion Show, looking elegant and mature in a one-of-a kind designer red dress. Mira gave her own story of how heart disease had affected her family.

“My grandmother is active and has never worried about her health, yet she suddenly had a heart attack. Seeing her so sick in the hospital was very shocking, especially in such stark contrast to her usual vivacity. Today, she is back to her usual self, but that experience made me realize how important heart health awareness is, and how vital it is to look after your heart no matter how healthy you are. I am excited to be taking part in the Heart Truth fashion show and supporting this wonderful foundation. It means the world to me to be able to help spread the message about heart health awareness!”


Joannie Rochette also took part in the show in honour of her mother, and looked down right fabulous!

I personally have been a big fan of Mira's skating. She's recieved a lot of slack over the years for her odd jumping technique and lack of maturity, but I've always found her fun to watch. I also feel the Canadian Skating Federation turned its back on her as soon as she stopped winning national medals - not giving her a single international assignment to try and prove herself. I felt she was much improved at the last 2 Nationals but they didn't seem to think so.

I hope she bounces back and can show some of this new found sassy-ness on the ice.


Caroline Zhang had a disaster at the 2010 nationals - finishing 11th, but revived her season by winning a bronze at 4 Continents. She too has a lot of technical issues to fix if she's going to stay competetive. But I hope she can as she still has beautiful qualities.

This is still all unofficial but word is that Caroline's coach Ming Xu Li has moved back to China and she is now being coached by Tammy Gambill. If this is so, it should all be confirmed at the US champs camp later in the summer.

Caroline has bounced around coaches before, but I hope she can settle down and make it work this year.

(Mira & Joannie's photos came from the Heart Truth show's Flikr Account. Caroline's photo was taken by my friend and skating photographer Phil Culhane)