Jon Valdez charged with class IV felony

Uh-oh. ESPN reports that former Illinois men’s coach Jon Valdez has been brought up on “one count of unathorized videotaping.”

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — A former University of Illinois gymnastics coach has been charged with secretly videotaping a gymnast in a campus locker room.

John Valdez, who coached Justin Spring at the Beijing Olympics, was charged Tuesday with one count of unauthorized videotaping, Champaign County State’s Attorney Julia Rietz said. The charge is a Class 4 felony and carries a potential sentence of one to three years in prison.

Valdez resigned from the university in October, citing personal issues.

A gymnast training on Sept. 25 with Valdez in the gym used by the men’s gymnastics team noticed a handheld video camera partially hidden under a T-shirt in an open locker, Rietz said.

The 22-year-old gymnast, who is a student, reported the camera to Valdez, but later called campus police and found the incident had never been reported to them, the prosecutor said.

Police who later searched the 40-year-old Valdez’s Urbana home found the camera.

“The images had been deleted, but the technicians were able to restore the deleted images,” Rietz said. She didn’t immediately comment on what was on the tape.

Strange as all this is, I can’t help wonder if it isn’t all a big mistake. Suppose Valdez brought the camera to tape his athletes for legitimate training purposes, as happens all the time. Suppose he accidentily left it on instead of off in his locker, which happened to be next to some other gymnast’s.

Suppose he took it home, saw the tape, was like, “oops, had it turned on in the locker. Didn’t mean to do that,” and deleted the images. Is that plausible?

Geez, everyone’s getting married

Latest person to get engaged: 2008 U.S. Olympian Justin Spring.

From The Daily Illini, the student paper at Spring’s alma mater:

The World Tour of Gymnastics Superstars brought more than just athletic entertainment to the crowd at Assembly Hall on Wednesday night.

Former Illini and Olympic gymnast Justin Spring proposed to his girlfriend onstage during the event’s intermission. After speaking to the crowd about his return to Champaign, Spring announced he had one more order of business to take care of.

Spring then proposed to his girlfriend, who agreed to marry him.

“I’ve won an Olympic medal, but this is the most exciting day of my life,” Spring told the crowd before getting down on one knee before his bride-to-be.

And yes, there’s video of Spring and his new fiancee’s big moment:

In addition, Jonathan Horton popped the question to longtime girlfriend Haley DeProspero, an OU senior gymnast, this summer.

U. Illinois gymnastics coach resigns — suspicious?

A scandal might be brewing in Illinois.

I say “might” because the Chicago Tribune story leaves so many questions unanswered. The gist is that Jon Valdez, part of the men’s program that produced Justin Spring and other national team notables, resigned about 10 days ago, citing personal reasons.

But a university spokesperson indicated that Valdez, who was promoted to associate head coach at the end of last season, could be implicated in some sort of camera-found-in-locker-room incident.

Assistant athletic director Kent Brown confirmed Monday that Valdez left his job on Oct. 17 for “personal reasons” but Brown would not confirm that Valdez was being investigated.

Responding to Tribune inquiry, Robin Kaler, the university’s associate chancellor for public affairs, said, “There is an investigation into a camera found in a locker room on campus.”

The school would not confirm that the investigations are connected.

Oh, dear. So he might really have resigned just for personal reasons. Or something else.

Bigger picture is this leaves UIUC down a coach right before the season. The university has apparently already begun addressing that issue.

Ivan Ivankov of Belarus, the two-time world all-around champion, is among those whom the university has interviewed to replace Valdez.

Olympic all-around gold medalist Paul Hamm, whose name has been mentioned as a possible replacement, said Monday via telephone, “I heard the job was open and discussed it with Justin, but (seeking the job) is not an option I intend to pursue.”

On the team website, Yoshi Hayasaki is listed as head coach, with Spring as the only assistant. Hayasaki, a 32-year veteran at Illinois, announced last spring he would retire after this season. The fighting Illini were third behind Oklahoma and Stanford at the 2008 NCAA Championships.

Decrying Title IX

Jonathan Horton shattered a school record to become the most decorated University of Oklahoma gymnast in history. Oklahoma is one of the few schools to have a highly successful and popular men's team.

Stick It Media, which blogs about men’s gymnastics, commented on an earlier article posted on the Saving Sports blog.

What’s aggravating is that men’s gymnastics is always given prime-time network exposure every four years at the Olympics. Not to mention the fact the ratings for that coverage are always very high. The fact that the NCAA doesn’t bend over backwards to champion more collegiate opportunities for male gymnasts is maddening. Men’s gymnastics is a PREMIER Olympic sport.

Stick It goes on to call out California, Texas and Florida schools for not having much in the way of Divison I competition. There’s no doubt that Title IX, which stipulates that “No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance,” has hurt men’s collegiate gymnastics. In the U.S. today there are fewer than 20 Division I men’s NCAA gymnastics programs.

But the unfortunate thing is that in most places, Utah, Oklahoma and the Southeast excepted, gymnastics brings little revenue to the universities that have it. Equipment and coaching is expensive. Meet attendance is tiny.

10 things that should have happened during the Olympics…

Nastia Liukin was fabulous in Beijing -- as it should have been.

…and did.

1. Nastia Liukin should have won the women’s all-around. With a highly respectful nod to 2007 World Champion Shawn Johnson, only Nastia combined the balletic artistry that makes gymnastics a truly special sport with the difficulty that makes people say wow. Not only that, she stuck almost all her critical landings during the all-around final — on vault, off beam and on that tricky front-full, front double full first pass on floor.

Liukin’s performance in that all-around final was a throwback to the “perfectionist” gymnastics of old — and hopefully, an inspiration to the perfectionist gymnastics to come.

Chinese men: Gold!

The Chinese men's team reacts to winning the team competition in Beijing.

It was expected — and not.

Everybody saw the Chinese men grabbing gold in spectacular fashion in team finals. But few could have seen the American resurgence. This blogger predicted to a friend that the team would finish fifth — the same as in Atlanta in 1996.

Put aside the whole Chinese domination thing for a minute. We’ll get there. To me the most compelling, most unexpected, most redeeming story of the Games thusfar is that of the U.S. men’s gymnastics team.

Jonathan Horton reacts to a hit parallel bars routine in team finals. The U.S. men, sixth after preliminaries, captured a surprising bronze medal in team finals.

A team bronze is better than anyone — except maybe the U.S. men themselves — could have anticipated. They were sixth after prelims with very few errors. Few could have forseen Fabian Hambuchen faltering on high bar on his Takemoto, or Russia’s dismal rings performance.

Still, it was the U.S. who powered their bronze-medal run. They earned it, rather than achieving it because other teams faltered, which may explain why the Japanese looked a little disappointed on the podium. But in another four years, Japan may be an Olympic competitor again.

Somewhere around rotation three, a Canadian commentator noted that the U.S. men loved reading media reports saying they had no shot at anything, particularly after injuries forced Paul and Morgan Hamm off the team. And there was plenty of that to go around.

Maybe this was a gathering of strength for the U.S. men. Jonathan Horton finally showed a level of maturity and quality to match the difficulty that’s always been there. Sasha Artemev finally seemed to shrug off his demons, step out of his father’s shadow a bit. Wild Justin Spring delivered big scores and solid performances. I hope all three continue. They could be the lynchpins of a huge U.S. team come London 2012.

For a second after the fifth rotation, it even looked like the U.S. had a chance of upsetting the Japanese, the only team expected to be able to challenge China. But a biffed pommel horse routine from Kevin Tan in team finals resulted in a dismal 12.775, effectively eliminating the U.S.’s three point lead after five. Raj Bhavsar followed up with a 13.7, and Artemev’s hit routine wasn’t enough to make up the deficit.

Still, we knew pommels were the weak link. Perhaps we underestimated how strong everything else could be. “Nobody expected this from them,” Kyle Shewfelt said. “This is redemption. This is them saying to everybody, ‘We are a very strong team. We are someone to be reckoned with.'”

Japan's Takehiro Kashima vaults during the Olympic team finals. Japan was a distant second behind China.

Silver medalist Japan didn’t perform to the standard they expected. But they’ve certainly come a long ways from the drought that plagued them for 20 years after Japanese coach Koji Gushiken’s all-around victory in 1984 — beating Li Ning and U.S. star Peter Vidmar. It’s a big competition for 19-year-old Kohei Ujimura, who may well be the next Hiroyuki Tomita.

You can sort of see the sun setting on Tomita, who qualified in sixth place to the all-around behind two of his teammates. Because he’s the Hiroyuki Tomita, Japan is withdrawing fifth-place finisher Koki Sakamoto.

It may be a good decision, and it may not. Tomita was the tiredest-looking competitor at the 2007 World Championships during the men’s all around competition only a day after the team final.

As for China, it was simply one of the great Olympic performances, from start to finish. Home turf? Who cares. China Syndrome? What China Syndrome? By the end of the fifth rotation, China would have needed all of its gymnasts to fall off high bar, multiple times. Instead, they get still-relative-newcomer Zou Kai, who behaves like the Olympic veteran he is now, with a Paul Hamm-like finish — a stuck double-twisting double layout.

Expected for China, but still incredible. Not for U.S. fans, and even more amazing because of it.

Artemev’s Olympic dream comes true

Morgan Hamm on pommel horse at the 2007 U.S. Championships.

New U.S. Men’s team: Bhavsar, Tan, Spring, Horton, Hagerty…and Artemev.

From International Gymnast Magazine:

Two-time Olympian Morgan Hamm withdrew from the Olympics in Beijing on Thursday because of an ankle injury, and has been replaced by alternate Sasha Artemev.

“I have been dealing with this for the last year and it has gotten worse here in Beijing,” Hamm said in a statement Thursday. “Right now I am unable to perform my tumbling skills at the level that I need to. This has an impact on my ability to contribute to the team’s goals and I believe by continuing I would be putting myself at further risk.”

During podium training on Wednesday in Beijing, Hamm’s ankle was clearly bothering him. He tumbled only one pass on floor exercise, a 2 1/2 twist, and fell on it. He watered down on vault as well, performing a double-twisting Tsukahara instead of his usual 2 1/2.

U.S. men’s head coach Kevin Mazeika said he needed to be able to see a full floor routine from Hamm during Thursday’s practice.

It’s a very sad ending to what began as a hugely promising comeback for the twins who literally did half the work in the 2004 Olympic team finals. Paul and Morgan’s comeback was supposed to herald the return of U.S. men’s gymnastics as a true international contender — at least for these Games.

It’s hard to know what to expect from the two they’ve been replaced by, except form errors (and thus lower B scores) from Bhavsar and inconsistency from Artemev — the most notable things about each one’s gymnastics, respectively.

This seems a slightly more advanced prototype of the team that finished a respectable fourth at the 2007 World Championships. It’s strength on rings is excellent thanks to Bhavsar and Tan, and Artemev, provided he hits his pommel horse routine in team prelims, has a good shot at moving to finals on that event.

Artemev, who once said in an interview that Paul Hamm’s return took the pressure off of people like him to be as “perfect”, is a brilliant gymast on nearly every event. His lines, form and artistry are truly Olympic-caliber. Even with a fall, he’ll carry in a better score on pommels than literally everyone else on this team.

Two withdrawals before anyone even salutes a judge in competition is a lot, and even with alternate David Durante still waiting in the wings, one wonders if it wouldn’t behoove the U.S. to fly another person out to Asia to train — just in case. David Sender, anyone?

Getting to know Joey Hagerty

Joey Hagerty proved that he’s got the skills at the 2008 U.S. Championships and Olympic Trials, but the 26-year-old came out of nowhere so quickly that it’s hard to sum him up.

Putting the rest of the team in a nutshell is far simpler. Example:

Paul Hamm — U.S. savior
Morgan Hamm — Like Paul Hamm, but not as many events and with that cool new floor skill
Jonathan Horton — Short daredevil
Justin Spring — Slightly taller daredevil
Kevin Tan — That rings guy

What about Hagerty? Obviously, he’s got an artistic streak.

Joey Hagerty, 2008 Olympic Trials Finals, Floor Exercise:

Otherwise? Hard to tell. Here’s some personal stuff:

– Trained at Gold Cup Gymnastics in Albuquerque, the same gym that produced 1992 Olympic high bar champion Trent Dimas

– Father Mike Hagerty was in a terrible car accident in March and had to be cleared to fly to Philadelphia to watch his son at the U.S. Trials

– Three older sisters, including former level 10 Alena Ziska

– Told his parents he made the team via text message

– Was attending the University of New Mexico, but gymnastics has taken precedence for the time being

– Now trains in Colorado Springs at the U.S. Olympic Training Center, and was spending weekends commuting between it and New Mexico to visit his father

U.S. men’s team is…

From NBCOlympics.com:

1. Paul Hamm

2. Jonathan Horton

3. Kevin Tan

4. Justin Spring

5. Morgan Hamm

6. Joseph Hagerty

Alternates: Raj Bhavsar, Sasha Artemev, David Durante

For a U.S. men’s program, this is probably the best of all possible combinations. Hagerty and Hamm will make excellent lead-off men on almost any event, Paul Hamm can be put anywhere, Tan can contribute on pommel horse and of course rings, and Spring and Horton provide flair and extreme difficulty on nearly all their events.

As for the alternates, it’s where Durante, “the ultimate filler” probably belongs. Too bad his flair and elegance won’t see Olympic competition, but hopefully even from the alternate’s seat his leadership will be given a role.

2008 U.S. men’s team prediction

The final four members of the team will be announced Sunday. Gymblog’s prediction:

2008 U.S. Men’s Olympic Team:

1. Paul Hamm
2. Jonathan Horton
3. Kevin Tan
4. Justin Spring
5. Morgan Hamm
6. Sean Golden

Alt. 1: Raj Bhavsar
Alt. 2: David Durante

This is not going to be fair. One way or another, someone deserving is going to get burned.