Luiza Galiulina fails drug test.

From BBC Sport:

Artistic gymnast Luiza Galiulina has been suspended from the Olympic Games after failing a drugs test. Galiulina, of Uzbekistan, tested positive for the banned diuretic furosemide on Wednesday, the International Olympic Committee said. 

The 20-year-old, from Tashkent, had her case heard in London on Saturday evening and will have a "B" urine sample tested on Sunday.The IOC said she was provisionally suspended "with immediate effect".

Furosemide is a diuretic or 'water pill', there is really no reason for a young gymnast to be taking it (although it would cause initial weight loss)

Such a shame :-( Galiulina attended her first olympics in Beijing and has improved so so much since then. She would have had a decent shot at the all-around final.

Let The Games Begin!

I hope everyone has a wonderful Friday and is settled to enjoy the opening ceremony. Here in the UK it seems most of the 'bah-humbugs' have gone into hiding and people are truely excited to see the greatest sporting event on earth come to our back yard.

So far we've already had bells ring out accross the country in time with Big Ben, the olympic torch is riding on the royal barge and we're hoping for some early gold tomorrow with the cycling road race (come on Cavendish!), Judo and Swimming. Not to mention our hopes with the British men in the O2 (sorry, North Greenwich arena)

It's sad then to hear the reports of nagging injuries to McKayla Maroney (still very much the one to beat on vault), China and Romania's young talents Larisa Iordache and Yao Jinnan. Here's hoping the excitement of competition will carry them through and they can still look back on the biggest competition of their lives as a success.

Enjoy the spectacle, see you for competition tomorrow!

Just for fun: before they were olympians...

 Tiny Deng LinLin, soon to be 2-time olympian.

 SIX time olympian Oksana Chusovitina

2012 British beam Champion and 1st time Olympian Jenni Pinches 

 Gabby Douglas, hoping to add gold to her medal collection

 Canadian champ Kristina Vakulik

 Russia's top medal hope, the young Komova

 Aussie's first world champion gymnast, Lauren Mitchell

Canadian olympian Brittany Rogers

Childhood friends and olympic team-mates, Kyla Ross and McKayla Maroney

Almost time...

We have counted down to the 2012 olympics in years, months and weeks, now it is just 4 days until the opening ceremonies. Most of the teams are now settling into the olympic village and making final touches in the training gyms.

Here is a brief preview of what is to come:
(all times GMT)

Saturday 28th: Men's Artistic, Qualification
11:00 - Subdivision 1 (GB, Korea, China, France, 2 mixed groups)
15:30 - Subdivision 2 (Italy, USA, Japan, 3 mixed groups)
20:00 - Subdivision 3 (Spain, Ukraine, Germany Russia, Romania, Mixed Group)
UK Broadcast: Live on BBC sport (online or on Sky, Freesat or Virgin)
Also coverage on BBC3 between 11.00 and 14.00

Sunday 29th: Women's Artistic, qualification 
09:30 - Sub 1 (Brazil, 3 mixed groups)
11:15 - Sub 2 (Italy, Australia, 2 mixed groups)
14:45 - Sub 3 (USA, Canada, GB, France)
16:30 - Sub 4 (Germany, China, Russia, mixed group)
20:00 - Sub 5 (Japan, Romania, 2 mixed groups)
Broadcast live on BBC sport, GB's subdivision on BBC3

Monday 30th: Men's Team Final 16:30
Tuesday 31st: Women's Team Final 16:30

Wednesday 1st: Men's AA Final 14:00
Thursday 2nd: Women's AA Final 14:00

Friday  3rd: Men's Trampoline (Qualification and Final) 14:00
Saturday 4th: Women's Trampoline 14:00

Sunday 5th: Artistic Event Finals
(Mens FX, Pommels, Women's vault)
Monday 6th: Artistic Event Finals
(Men's Rings, Women's Bars, Men's Vault)
Tuesday 7th: Artistic Event Finals
(Men's P bars, High bar, Women's beam, floor) 

9th and 10th: Rhythmic Qualifications
Saturday 11th: Rhythmic Individual Finals
Sunday 12th: Rhythmic Group Final

I will of course be watching the games and keeping as much commentary and results coverage coming your way as possible.

Gymnastics: Team GB!

Women’s Artistic

• Imogen Cairns
• Jennifer Pinches
• Rebecca Tunney
• Elizabeth Tweddle
• Hannah Whelan

Men’s Artistic

• Sam Oldham
• Daniel Purvis
• Louis Smith
• Kristian Thomas
• Max Whitlock

Trampoline Individual Female

• Katherine Driscoll

Rhythmic Individual

• Francesca Jones

Rhythmic Group

• Georgina Cassar
• Jade Faulkner
• Francesca Fox
• Lynne Hutchison
• Louisa Pouli
• Rachel Smithre

http://www.teamgb.com/news/eighteen-gymnasts-selected-team-gb-london-2012

Congratulations to all the selected gymnasts.
BG has not yet announced the reserve athletes. Many are disappointed by the absense of Dan Keatings and Becky Downie.

UPDATE
From the sounds of it the reserve gymnasts for women's are Danusia Francis, Becky Downie and Niamh Rippin.
Downie on twitter: It's finally out & unfortunately I'm a reserve for Team GB !! I've had a very tough ride these past 2 years but this is NOT the end ....

Olympic training gyms unveiled.

Thanks to Full Twist for linking this. Equipment provider Gymnova has unveiled their MASSIVE olympic training gym for the olympic games. There seems to be 3 or 4 or 5 of everything all in one big space! It's a very impressive facility although I wonder how frantic it will be when filled with athletes and how easy it will be to maintain temperature etc in such a large space.

It doesn't say where exactly the facility is but it will likely be a short distance from the North Greenwich (O2) arena. At the 2009 worlds the training venue was the David Beckham Football Acedemy.

Any gymnasts out there, would this be your dream or nightmare training space?

More photos here. 

Team GB Gymnastics Announcement: Wednesday 1pm

Unfortunately I'm going to be in a seminar at 1pm tomorrow, so here is the link to the British Gymnastics page where it will be announced and also to the live video announcement.

The GB gymnastics olympics teams will be announced Wednesday at 1pm GMT.

Good luck to all the gymnasts in the mix!

Return of the Queen: Yu-Na Kim targets Sochi

Great news for figure skating fans. World and Olympic champion Yu-Na Kim has announced she is going to make a shot at another olympics. 

Kim raised the bar and smashed records in Vancouver, but her overwhelming fame in South Korea and across the world led her to take some time away from the spotlight after the games.

At a press conference in Seoul Kim had this to say, (source: Korea Real Time)


“I skipped last season and had a lot on my mind about my career, even until last week,” she said, “I had trouble finding my next goal after winning a gold medal at the Vancouver Olympics but the interest of the public and my fans in me got even bigger.”

“I wanted to get away from the pressure, even for a single day,” she confessed.

“I always thought the Vancouver Olympics would be my last destination, but I’m extending it to Sochi……I want to start anew, not as an Olympic medalist but just as yet another figure skater,

This is great news for a sport which has lacked some star power since the absence of Queen Yu-Na.

USA vs the world.

Unless you've been living under a rock, it's pretty unlikely you missed the announcement of the USA's olympic gymnastics teams yesterday.

Men's team: 
Danell Leyva, John Orozco, Jonathan Horton, Sam Makulak, Jake Dalton
Men's Alternates:
Chris Brooks, Stephen Legendre, Alex Naddour
Women's team: 
Gabrielle Douglas, Jordyn Wieber, Alexandra Raisman, Kyla Ross, McKayla Maroney
Women's alternates:
Elizabeth Price, Anna Li, Sarah Finnegan.

There were few surprises on either side, most bloggers and readers picked the ten team members back even before Visa Championships. It was pretty clear who the favourites were as long as they hit respectably.

Marta has played it smart with the ladies alternates too, picking a specialist on each of the events, able to fill a team final spot if one of the favourites goes down (Price: Vault, Li: Bars, Finnegan: Beam and floor).

The USA are the definite favourites (at least on the strength of numbers) for the women's team, all around and vault golds and also have definite medal contenders on the other events too: bring it on world!

Also definitely worth a mention in this olympic focussed post. Germany's matriarch of gymnastics, Oksana Chusovitina has been named to her SIXTH olympic team! She will compete in London 20 years after she won gold with the unified soviet team in 1992 in Barcelona. She should at least be able to make Maroney work for her vault gold!

German Men's olympic team 
Fabian Hambuchan, Philipp Boy, Marcel Nguyen, Sebastian Krimmer, Andreas, Toba. Alternate: Thomas Taranu
German Women's olympic team 
Elisabeth Seitz, Nadine Jarosch, Oksana Chusovitina, Kim Bui, Janine Berger. Alternate: Lisa Katerina Hill.