OKLAHOMA CITY (USA) – LAUSANNE (SUI), February 27, 2009: The traditional Induction Ceremony of the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame will take place on May 30 in Oklahoma City (USA). Four gymnasts will be honoured during this 13th edition: Dominique Dawes (USA), Elvira Saadi (UZB), Viktor Chukarin (UKR), Vitaly Scherbo (BLR) and the coach Octavian Bellu (ROU). The 2009 International Order of Merit will be awarded to Margaret Sikkens Ahlquist (SWE), the President of the FIG Gymnastics for All Committee.
Particularly exciting to see Saadi, who was a great gymnast in her own right but also for coaching notable athletes and choreographing notable floor routines. Here’s the one she did for Tatiana Groshkova of the USSR (performed at the 1989 Chunichi Cup):
Saadi also did Canadian Aisha Gerber’s 2006 routine from the American Cup.
According to the International Gymnastics Federation, Slovenian Aljaz Pegan will be back in action at Gymnix in Montreal March 6-8. Pegan, a high bar specialist whose internatioanl career is almost 20 years old, has never been to an Olympic Games. What a shame. The man deserves a place among the sport’s high bar masters.
Aljaz Pagan, 2008 European Championships, High Bar:
She smiles! That's Brazil's Jade Barbosa beaming for the camera for a change during Carnival celebrations. The gymnast, who has been diagnosed with necrosis in her wrist and has been unable to train, is brightened by something new in her life: a boyfriend, according to her father Cesar Barbosa.
This is according to Globoesporte, which also reported that Jade’s father as saying that she has been able to do more and more gymnastically despite her wrist problems. But in the face of those who think she’s done (including this blog), he says: “She is sad because of not being bring in 100 percent, I cannot lie. But each day that passes, she manages to do something more…We are doing from everything in order that she competes again. She is a new girl, she still has other Olympiads ahead. We are going to support so that this problem in the fist is resolved.”
In the Men’s competition line-up is 2005 World Champion and 2006 and 2007 Silver medallist on Horizontal Bar Aljaz Pegan (SLO). Also registered is 2008 Olympic Silver medallist and winner of the 2008 World Cup Final in Madrid (ESP), Thomas Bouhail from France on Vault. On Pommel Horse, spectators can look forward to taking in the performances of Croatian Robert Seligman, who ranked 5th on the FIG Ranking List of the past Olympic Cycle and Hungarian Krisztian Berki, Silver medallist in Madrid.
Canada Gymnastics and its CEO Jean-Paul Caron have the expertise required to host the discipline’s international elite, and are sure to spur their gymnasts to a place on the podium. The young Brittany Rogers comes to mind, an up and coming star who won the first Individual All-around at the Elite Canada 2008 competition. Keep an eye on her!
Austrian champion Barbara Gasser, who has been training in Canada since 2003, has also signed up for the event. Gasser aims to participate at the European and World Championships this year.
It’s been observed, but the FIG could be a bit more…professional in its press releases. Besides its poor grammar, on the website, Berki’s name is “Berki Krisztian” and there are some random capitalizations (Silver medallist).
I’ve taken to looking to Getty Images for photos of big meets like last weekend’s American Cup. On the rather fuzzy Youtube videos I’d seen, I thought everyone looked like they were making an effort to clean things up.
The Getty Images show differently. In a word: Yikes!
The form on Kristina Goryunova's Pak salto could be worse, but only if her legs were bent.
David Sender lets his feet come apart on pommel horse.
Canada's Brittany Rogers lets her legs come apart on a handstand.
Kim Bui's feet are badly flexed on her Tkatchev, and her legs could be straighter.
Fabian Hambuchen could do a better job of pointing his feet during his twists.
Bui on vault. Enough said.
We need a pretty picture to round out this post. Thanks, Youna Dufornet!
France's Youna Dufonet performs at last weekend's American Cup.
I don’t have a good feeling about this quadrennial for the Canadian team. We still have not named a new National Coach. A training camp scheduled for Vancouver was cancelled.
He has reasons to worry. National coach Carol-Angela Orchard emigrated across the pond to marry a Brit, leaving her protege Peng-Peng Lee without much of a program.
New senior Brittany Rogers bombed at the American Cup last weekend, finishing ninth out of 10 competitors.
Junior sensation Charlotte Mackie, sister of 2004 Canadian Olympian Gael Mackie, has reportedly transferred gyms. She trained with Rogers at Omega Gymnastics and has now gone to train with David Kenwright at Surrey Gymnastics in British Columbia. This might be in part due to her decidedly lackluster performance at Elite Canada in December, where she failed to finish higher than third on any event.
And of course, promising junior Taylor Lindsay-Noel was paralyzed in training while the Olympic Games were going on. Lindsay-Noel’s mother, Rowena Lindsay, publicly decried the fact that Gymnastics Canada Gymnastique, remained completely silent in the wake of the injury before sports columnists raised an outcry.
That’s certainly enough to worry any gymnastics fan.
Brazil's Daniele Hypolito is gunning for her fourth Olympic Games.
From Brazil’s Gazeto do Povo (again, my translation comes from the internet, so this is meant to be read for the gist, not as a word-by-word translation)
Daniele plans future as sports manager: Brazil’s first medalist in World Championship competition is waiting to assure classification to the 2012 Olympic Games in London, and later hopes to work to help athletes obtain sponsorships
Daniele Hypolito is 10 years older than Nadhine Silversmith, the youngest gymnast in the new permanent election of artistic gymnasts (I assume this means a team identified as gymnasts to watch for the next four years from a selection camp). At 24, she is called “Grandma” by her younger teammates. Recovering from injuries, Daiane dos Santos, Lais Souza and Jade Barbosa did not participate in the selection camp initiated this month for the new Olympic cycle.
To go to London in 2012 is Hypolito’s last objective as a gymnast. The hard days of training are shared with the conclusion of a course of physical education and the elaboration of a master’s thesis in sports management, the basis of a future far from bars or floor.
Responsible for the country’s first medal in world competition (silver, floor exercise, 2001), Daniele wants to use her contacts and her name to open doors to athletic sponsorship and help athletes manage their careers.
“I do not want to be a trainer…But I go to continue in the gymnastics helping with a proper company. It will be very good for me for working in this branch, because new athletes will be the vision of an athlete helping to attract investors. I know sufficiently as the things happen and find that my experience goes to help,” she affirmed. (Yes, this is badly translated.)
Hypolito’s career has been one of good and bad experiences. The more awkward recent event involved the threat of not having her contract renewal with the Flamengo club, where she trains by the side of her brother Diego Hypólito and Jade Barbosa.
Coming of humble family, Daniele arrived at Carioca Rubro-Black in 1994 as contracted athlete, an uncommon situation in Brazil. She received from the club housing, school and a wage, without counting that her father became the driver of the bus of the club and her mother confectioned clothes for the gymnastics team. The long and strong linking increased the recent drama of the end of the gymnastics in the club.
The city hall of Niterói offered an aid of R$ 80 a thousand for month to the team and other supports are being negotiated. Thus, the native of São Paulo who has the River as house will continue training in the Topsail.
The episode strengthened the insatisfaction of the small notable (I take it that’s Daniele) with the routes of the Brazilian sport.
“Is as soon as Brazil wants to organize a Olympics (the country concurs for the headquarters of the Games of 2016)? It has of being equal to the Pan [American Games, which Brazil had in 2007], when it had investment and the country had a great performance…it was a party for us. If to continue as it is, we will make a party for the others in 2016…” she criticized.
London would be Hypolito’s fourth Olympic Games, and a huge achievement. She’s no longer competitive in World Championship-level competition, but her experience and leadership abilities will hopefully help Brazil in the post-Oleg Ostapenko era.
Ukraine’s 2009 season is at risk due to a lack of funding, the president of the Ukrainian Gymnastics Federation announced last week.
Budget cuts likely mean Ukraine’s artistic and rhythmic gymnasts will be unable to participate in any World Cup events this year, president Viktor Korzh said during a press conference.
Ukraine’s presence at the European Championships also is unsure, Korzh said.
How could this happen in a country that’s produced an Olympic champion (Lilia Podkopayeva) and an almost Olympic champion (Viktoria Karpenko) and a World Champion (Irina Krasnyanskaya, beam, 2006) in the past four Olympiads? Not to mention all the wonderful Ukranians who competed for the USSR a generation ago. The men aren’t that bad either, despite not qualifying a team to the 2008 Olympics. They do have 2008 Olympic rings bronze medalist Alexander Vorobiov.
Triple Full reported in December that the lack of funds for gymnastics in Ukraine was so alarming the gymnasts had stopped training at their national training center.
The country has other problems, including a fairly public dispute with former champion Stella Zakharova about the Zakharova Cup, which is scheduled to take place in March.
Zakharova said her competition receives no funding from the Ukrainian Gymnastics Federation, while the federation insists the private and government funding the Zakharova Cup receives could instead go to other gymnastics competitions on its calendar.
Gymnastics fans everywhere lament the loss of Ukranian elegance and style, even among the Ukranians themselves (the 2008 effort was a far cry from the 2000 or 2004 women’s teams.)
Lilia Podkopayeva, 1996 Olympic Games All-Around, Floor Exercise:
Viktoria Karpenko, 2000 Olympic Games Team Final, Floor Exercise:
Irina Krasnyanskaya, 2006 World Championships Event Finals, Balance Beam:
Anastasia Koval, 2008 Olympic Games Event Finals, Uneven Bars:
