Who will win the 2009 Worlds?

Hmmm...could Bridget Sloan win the 2009 World title? She's posted the highest competition score of eligible competitors so far this season.

New blog Tsuk the Pain has made a list of likely contenders.

1. Bridget Sloan – USA
(scored a 59.6 at the Tyson American Cup, a 59.55 at USA vs. GER, and a 58.95 at USA vs FRA)
2. Jiang Yuyuan – CHN
(scored 58.55 in the Prelims and 56.95 in the Finals at the University games)
3. Ksenia Semenova – RUS
(scored a 58.175 in the Euros AA final)
4. Youna Dufournet – FRA
(scored a 58.0 in the Prelims at the Mediterranean games)
5. Ksenia Afansyeva – RUS
(scored a 57.600 in the Euros AA final)
6. Ariella Kaeslin – SUI
(scored a surprising 57.275 in the Euros AA final)
7. Elisabetta Preziosa – ITA
(scored a 56.45 in Finals for Mediterranean games and 55.55 in Prelims)
8. He Ning – CHN
( scored a 55.7 in the Prelims at the University games)

Seems like the most open field in awhile, especially if Olympic champion Nastia Liukin opts to specialize on bars and beam this go round (and maybe even if she doesn’t; all-around gold medalist or not, Liukin has not been the model of consistency in her senior career that she was during her junior one. Attribute that to the 18-month ankle ordeal if you’d like.)

Right now, I’d vote for Jiang, who just added the World University all-around title to her resume. But I’d add Sloan’s training partner and fellow Olympian Samantha Peszek to the list (if she’s still training whole hog), as well as Jana Bieger (out for redemption for being left off the 2008 Olympic team) and even Shayla Worley (ditto).

There’s also an outside chance for someone completely surprising (Aagje Vanwallegham, anyone?) to have a Kaeslinesque breakout performance and steal the crown.

Poor Jordyn Wieber. She’d be such a favorite if only the FIG would hurry up and abolish that pesky age requirement.

Amazingly hard new vault

Oh my goodness, look at this vault from North Korean Ri Se Gwang, during podium training at the World University Games:

Wow! But of course, there’s the downside of competing a skill like this, even in a sport rife with skills like this. Gymnastics Coaching says:

Most are impressed. But very worried about what happens when he “misses”.

Men’s vault is by far the most dangerous apparatus right now. We might need to cap difficulty at some point. Or improve the landing surface to something like what is used in Power Tumbling.

We should ask Ronny Ziesmer, the German gymnast paralyzed training Tsuk double back in preparation for the 2004 Olympics, what he thinks of this vault.

(via Gymnastics Coaching)

My favorite floors — Vanessa Atler

A masterpiece of choreography. Atler wasn’t exactly a ballerina and might have looked too springy doing something really soft, but this piece, choreographed by Nancy Roach and Beth Rybacki, manages to be both energetic and majorly classy.

The choreo changed some in 1999, but I never liked it better than at the 1998 U.S. Championships.

Why Shawn Johnson deserves to go to Stanford

One of Shawn Johnson's biggest accomplishments.

It’s easy to get used to seeing mean comments at the bottom of online news articles, especially when they concern local matters.

Nonetheless, I was shocked to read the downright nasty things being written about Shawn Johnson on the Des Moines Register’s website yesterday after the paper printed a story where Johnson stated that she’d like to attend either UCLA or Stanford.

The response was more than 20 pages of comments, many filled with vitriol, directed at Johnson for apparently taking it for granted that she’d get into either of those schools. Johnson has also said that she’s fallen so behind on her schoolwork that attending her senior year at Valley High School in West Des Moines is out of the question, and that she’s taking online classes to finish her diploma.

For this post only, I’d like to respond to some of the mean-spirited but more importantly inaccurate assumptions made by the commenters of the Des Moines Register article, and explain why Shawn Johnson indeed deserves to go to Stanford.

Johnson looking to go to Stanford, UCLA

Olympic beam and Dancing with the Stars champion Shawn Johnson has big plans, but returning to her West Des Moines High School for her senior year no longer appears to be one of them.

The Des Moines Register reported this morning that Johnson’s goals include coaching at some point, but that she’ll pursue her high school diploma via online classes. In the midst of all the opportunities that have come her way since the Olympic Games, Johnson has been keeping up with her studies through online classes.

Johnson before an appearance on Letterman last summer.

Johnson did say after the Olympics that returning to high school for her last year was a priority, but she couldn’t have forseen the publicity and stardom that came with winning Dancing with the Stars within 12 months of four Olympic medals.

She also said she’d like to attend either UCLA or Stanford for college and may pursue coaching opportunities wherever she goes. Most schools’ gymnastics teams have volunteer student coaches, and having Johnson in that capacity would be a huge marketing bonus for any gymnastics program in the nation.

Johnson, who hinted that she has big, “entertainment-related” news, has stated that she hopes to return to gymnastics, but many are skeptical. The results of a Gymblog poll to the question “Will Shawn Johnson return to elite gymnastics?” showed that out of 269 voters, 77 percent (208 votes) believed she wouldn’t. Seven percent (18 voters) believed she would come back, while 16 percent (43 votes) thought she might make a full return to gymnastics in 2011.

In an interview with Microsoft News last month, Johnson candidly stated a truth about American High Schools — that there’s generally “a group” of mean people.

Former world team member Heenan expecting

Former World Team member and Georgia Gym Dog Katie Heenan is expecting a son.

2001 World team member Katie Heenan Dodson and her baseball player husband Stephen Dodson are expecting a baby boy in September.

Heenan Dodson, who trained with Ashley Postell for several years, competed on the first day of the 2004 Olympic Trials and became a star gymnast at Georgia, graduating in 2008.

In 2001, Heenan Dodson became the first U.S. woman to score an individual medal at a world championship since Dominique Dawes’s bronze on beam in 1996, breaking the American drought of the 1997-2000 quad. The 2001 World Team — Heenan, Mohini Bhardwaj, Tasha Schwikert, Ashley Miles, Rachel Tidd and Tabitha Yim – won bronze as well.

From Online Athens, in an article that catches up with each of the 2008 seniors:

Just after Heenan Dodson competed for the last time, she was awarded the 2008 Honda Award for Gymnastics and got engaged. She married in November and found out she was pregnant this past January.

“Stephen and I are so excited about our baby, and we love being married,” Heenan Dodson said. “So life is good. No complaints.”

After graduating in May when she finished her student teaching this past semester, Heenan Dodson traveled to Arizona to see her husband, who was in spring training after being drafted by the Colorado Rockies last year.

“I spent two weeks in Tucson until he got called to Asheville, N.C.,” Heenan Dodson said. “The next thing I knew I was on a plane out to Asheville.”

The couple will live in North Carolina until September when Stephen plans to finish his degree at Georgia. And Heenan Dodson is due on Sept. 24 with their son, who they plan to name Charles “Charlie” Winston Dodson.

“I’ve had a fairly easy pregnancy so far,” Heenan Dodson said. “Other than being tired in the first trimester, everything has been great.”

Katie Heenan, 2001 World Championships Event Finals, Uneven Bars (3rd):

Heenan’s best at the 2008 NCAA Championships, won by Georgia:

Johnson prepping for ‘entertainment-related’ announcement

Shawn Johnson has an announcement.

In an interview with Inside Gymnastics this week, the 2008 Olympic beam and Dancing with the Stars champion insisted that she’ll return to gymnastics, but also added that she’s got a big announcement in the works.

Shawn Johnson hasn’t given up on gymnastics, not by a long shot, but she might have to put her plans on hold for some big news coming soon.

“I’ve got some things I’m really excited about,” she teased Thursday in a chat with Inside, “but I’m not sure what I can release yet. I’ll let [my fans] know as soon as I can though. Promise!”

Johnson concedes the surprise project(s) are “entertainment-related, yeah,” but that doesn’t mean she’s ready to call it quits on gymnastics.

“I hired a personal trainer and I’m working out really hard right now,” she insists. “In fact, I just got back from a training session.

“I knew I needed to get back into shape, get prepared, before I get back in the gym,” she says. “That’s definitely something I’m planning on doing. Definitely.”

Johnson told one press writer that she’d been offered movie and TV deals after her DWTS win.

Half-year roundup

In case you’ve missed some things, Cidlover at All Gymnastics, All the Time has the report:

Code changes galore!

The world of Gymnastics lost many people, including Irina Gabashvilli, Yukio Endo, and Glenn Sundby.

That 13-year-old girl (Jordyn Wieber) won the Tyson American Cup

The Ukranian federation goes through serious financial issues

Fabian Hambuechen and Ksenia Semyonova show that they still remain forces in the world of Gymnastics

Youna Dufournet scares the crap out of the Gymnastics community (this phrase was taken from The C Score)

Alina Kozich tries to compete for Uzbekistan, but the FIG won’t allow it

The FIG decided that Artistic Gymnastics needed a kiss and cry area, without giving any details in regards to how it would work.

Shawn Johnson had quite an interesting semi-year.

Dong Fangxiao revisited

In hindsight, how anyone could have thought she was really 17?

Dong Fangxiao, 2000 Olympic Games Team Final, Balance Beam:

Gorgeous height on the roundoff, layout though.

Committee approves NCAA rule changes — with a few caveats

The ruling is in: The NCAA Women’s Gymnastics Committee officially likes the idea of turning the Super Six into a Final Four (er, “Four on the Floor”), and implementing six-up, six-count at collegiate meets.

But only at Regionals and the NCAA Championship. And not until 2011. And not before the the rule changes flip over one more hurdle, an organization called the Championships/Sports Management Cabinet.

That’s the news at NCAA.org, which has posted a news story on its site detailing the committee’s thoughts.

The NCAA Women’s Gymnastics Committee is recommending changes in both the championship format and the scoring system to make the sport more appealing to spectators and television.

Instead of the top six teams competing for the team title on the second day of the championship, the gymnastics committee wants the top four teams to advance to the finals (a concept the committee has dubbed “four on the floor”). The change would eliminate byes during the NCAA finals, making it easier for fans to follow the standings. The change also would shorten the competition, making it easier to broadcast live, which in turn could give college women’s gymnastics more fan appeal.

The top 12 teams would still compete to earn one of the top four spots, with the top two from each of the semifinal sessions earning their way to the finals. The top 36 teams still will compete at the regionals.

“The four-on-the-floor concept received great support from our coaches association,” said committee Chair Paul Plinske, athletics director at Wisconsin-Whitewater. “It has the potential to create a more exciting, fan-friendly and understandable championship final.”

Plinske said the committee thought it was in the best interests of the sport to explore an option that is consistent with other NCAA championship sports and that offers more appeal for live television.

Other small differences: The NCAA Championship will be held in neutral territory in Cleveland, Ohio, and be held from Friday-Sunday, rather than Thursday-Saturday. It will also be held the third week of April, after The Masters’ Golf Tournaments and NCAA basketball tournaments.