Thomas Bouhail and others on vault at the 2009 Europeans

Frenchman Thomas Bouhail makes a Tsukahara double pike look almost easy. The Dragulescu, not so much, but at least he almost managed to stick it. A pretty well-deserved gold medal for the Olympic silver medalist.

Second was Romania’s Flavius Koczi. His ringwork is pretty good, but this silver seemed like a gift — bent legs on that underrotated Tsuk double triple, and more of the same on the handspring 1.5 second vault. OK, the fact that those are super-difficult excuses him somewhat for the slightly froggy legs, but which would you rather see: A bent-legged triple full or a clean double?

Although his chest was low on his Dragulescu, I thought Germany’s Matthias Fahrig deserved second place. His second vault, a Tsuk 2.5, was better controlled. He was rewarded with bronze.

Bouhail is ambitious. “I hope to be world champion, and — why not? — Olympic champion in 2012,” the 22-year-old told an interviewer after his European win. He went on to say that he would like to invent a vault as well, to be called the Bouhail.

Anybody want to read about Yewki Tomita’s allergies?

See here.

Tomita at one time also earned his living playing online poker. (Really!)

A nice routine from Youna Dufournet (for a change)

France's Youna Dufournet

You can tell it’s been a hard couple of months for Youna Dufournet.

The 16-year-old has been heralded as the “second coming” of the French (Wait, who was their first coming? Ludivine Furnon? Isabelle Severino? Emilie LePennec? Marine Debauve? But whatever.) She was the 2008 Junior European vault and bars champion, and placed third in the all-around, a more promising start than any of the ladies mentioned above — more promising than anyone since Elodie Lussac took four gold medals at the 1993 Junior Europeans, then promptly went and competed for Russia.

But then Dufournet became a senior. And she grew and has stopped being able to pull around a lot of her tumbling. And those form issues, not as apparent when she was a junior, became appallingly, well, more apparent.

And the falls. First there were three from the balance beam at the 2009 American Cup. Then more disasters on beam in the all-around competition at the European Championships. There’s also the issue of her floor routine, which bloggers like me are panning as “scary” in the serious way. Rick McCharles, editor of the always excelletn Gymnastics Coaching blog, even sent an email to an FIG official asking if it’s possible for someone — anyone — to intercede on Youna’s behalf before she ends up paralyzed.

So it’s nice to see a routine which Youna not only doesn’t fall but does pretty darn well (few little leg seperations, but that’s being really picky; at this point, this blogger will cheer to see her land on her feet). Here she is on bars during event finals at the 2009 European Championships.

From the way she’s developing, it looks like Youna’s going to be tall for an international elite, or at least long-legged.

Youna Dufournet, 2009 European Championships Event Finals, Bars:

Dufournet looked a lot sharper as a junior, leading some to believe that her problems are somewhat related to growth issues.

Shawn on DWTS, week eight

Another impressive performance from Shawn. In an interview, she said that when she first came on the set of DWTS, partner Mark Ballas told her to forget everything she had learned in gymnastics, that other than athleticism, it didn’t carry over to ballroom dance. He was right — Shawn the a dancer is unrecognizable as Shawn the floor- or beamworker. I’d love to see her return to elite gymnastics, but carry over the things she learned on Dancing with the Stars.

Rarely used dismounts

Some cool stuff from Saltocafe.

Dismount no. 4 is a 70s thing, notably used by 1972 Olympic all-around champion Lyudmila Tourischeva and silver medalist Karin Janz.

Karin Janz, 1972 Olympic Games All-Around, Bars:

Japanese champion Koko Tsurumi

Koko Tsurumi, 2009 Japanese Nationals, Floor Exercise:

Good stuff from repeat national champ Tsurumi, the best women’s gymnast to come out of Japan in a long time. Unlike Mayu Kuroda, who was terrific on uneven bars but basically a level 10 everywhere else, Tsurumi is the total package — clean, graceful and relatively powerful (hey, she flips twice in the same piece of air).

Shannon Miller — mom to be

Shannon Miller is expecting a baby.

The most decorated American gymnast has another reason to celebrate. Celebrity Baby Blog has the scoop:

Is there a future balance beamer in the oven? Olympic gymnast Shannon Miller and her husband John Falconetti are expecting their first child together, the mama-to-be announced to viewers during an appearance on Oklahoma’s Channel 4 news. Revealing that her due date is November 5th, Shannon shares that her parents are simply “over the moon” with the upcoming arrival.

Giving birth will be one more accomplishment to add to the 32-year-old’s long list of life’s achievements: As the most decorated gymnast in U.S. history, Shannon is the proud owner of seven Olympic and nine World Championship medals.

We all know about Shannon’s gymnastics accomplishments. But she also had what sounds like a tough, tough seven-year marriage to Chris Phillips, an ophomologist who later turned up in Seattle, opened an eye clinic and then vanished, leaving his patients hanging. Phillips later declared bankruptcy, and there was a bit in the Seattle newspapers about his partying and general irresponsibility.

Anyway, enough of Shannon’s (or rather, Chris’s) dirty laundry. Miller married Falconetti, a Florida politician, in 2007. And now baby!

(via Gymnastics Coaching)

An interview with Simona

Look here. Do you recognize Simona Amanar?

New blog Inspired by Nadia has posted a new interview with the longtime Romanian champion of the mid-to-late 1990s. Since her retirement after the 2000 Olympics, Simona has married and become a mother to a boy who should be at least eight by now.

She’s also become the Vice President of the Romanian Federation of Gymnastics.

Reaching a level that I would be considered a “symbol” of Romania makes it difficult for me now to say that I have paid a price in my life so far. It’s true that there were times when kids my age were playing in the streets, around the block, and although back then I wanted the same thing, I had to go to the gym for my daily training. Fortunately, I am a former gymnast who has also benefited of the joys of childhood. I was not far from home until the age of 14, when I was selected into the national gymnastics team at Deva, otherwise I was always near my parents and brother, friends from the neighbourhood, that I saw daily. At the same time, I realize that nothing in life can be done without work and discipline, so that I am satisfied with everything that I have achieved.

Chinese bars boring?

I’m getting hammered for my contention that Russian bar routines lack orginality.

What commenters do seem to agree on is that the Chinese team’s bars are boring. Stunningly beautiful, yes, but boring because everyone does the same skills.

A typical example:

Jiang Yuyuan, 2008 World Cup Final, Uneven Bars:

The Chinese are all very heavy on inverted giants and stalders, Pak saltos, Jaegers and Tkatchevs. Many do double layout dismounts.

But not all of them. Reigning Olympic champion He Kexin, whose Jaeger-half, Jaeger combination elevates the whole exercise. The first to perform the combination, Li Ya, also had a unique Arabian double pike dismount that’s now performed by Ksenia Semyonova. (She also did a full-twisting double pike off the uneven bars, which is rarely seen.)

2000 Olympic beam champion Liu Xuan also performed Li Ya’s combination — 11 years before Li brought it out in international competiton. Liu Xuan is probably more famous for the one-armed giant through to a Geinger that she performed in 1995. The judges thought it was too dangerous and made the element a C in the code of points to discourage other athletes from doing it.

And oh yes, those Gaylords? From Mo Huilan, Bi Wenjing and Zhang Yufei in 2005.

Mo Huilan, 1995 World Championships, Uneven Bars:

Zhou Duan (why, oh why didn’t she stick around longer?) threw a Gaylord II and did a Geinger-Pak salto combination.

Zhou Duan, 1997 East Asian Games Team Finals, Uneven Bars:

And here’s Xiao Tingting, who packs a whopping six release skills (only two are either Tkatchevs or Jaegers) into this routine at the 2006 Shanghai World Cup Final. I’ve posted this before, but it’s a good video to trot out every once and awhile.

Hardest beam routine ever done?

Three come to mind:

Shawn Johnson, 2008 Olympic Games:

Kui Yuanyuan, 1997 World Championships, Event Finals:

Catalina Ponor, 2004 Olympic Games:

But which is the hardest? Any others that should be considered here? What do you think?