BACK IN ACTION!

Well, hello there gym fans! It's your friendly blogger friend Kayleigh here, with some good news - I'm back to blogging! I know it's been a while, but I am back and ready to rock. However, Gym Chat is no more. You can now head on over to Tumblr and find me at my new blog, Fantastic Gymnastics!

Thanks for the ride, Gym Chat. It was fun, but I'm moving on... and I hope to see you all there!

NCAA Super Six Live

I know I suck... badly. More on that later.

Here's some live commentary on the Super Six final!

6:08 - Touch for rotation 1 just started - I'm game! Rooting for UCLA or Oklahoma to pull this one out. :)

Nastia Essay

This was an essay for my sports psychology class... it's on Nastia Liukin and how she's my role model for many many reasons. I thought I'd share it with you guys, seeing as it's, uh, gymnastics related. Haha.

Nastia Liukin – My Hero

Nastia Liukin is twenty years old and has already accomplished more than the average person will in their entire life – not only does she have five Olympic medals, she’s been featured on TV shows and video games, modeled for Max Azria, and designed a line for Vanilla Star jeans. Many might say she’s just a lucky girl… but without the hard work and long hours she put in at the gym, she would not have the story she has today.
Anastasia “Nastia” Liukin was born on October 30, 1989 in Moscow Russia. Her father, Valeri Liukin, was the 1988 Olympic champion in the team and high bar competitions – her mother, Anna, was the 1987 world rhythmic gymnastics champion in the clubs. Whether Nastia wanted it or not, gymnastics was in her blood – and it just so happened she wanted it more than anything else in the world. When Nastia was just two years old, her family up and left Russia to start a gymnastics facility in the United States, taking former Russian gymnast Evgeny Marchenko with them. Their gym, WOGA, opened in Plano, Texas in 1992. Unable to afford a babysitter for little Nastia, her parents would bring her to the gym with them and let her play. Nastia quickly fell in love with gymnastics, begging her parents to let her try. Sure enough, they put her in a class and she progressed with great speed. Though Valeri and Anna had not intended for their daughter to become a gymnast, it was happening before their very eyes. Nastia quickly moved through the levels and made it to junior elite. She qualified to her first national championships, where she did well enough to make the national team. The next two years at nationals, she was the back-to-back all-around champion. Had she been just one year older, she likely would have made the Olympic team traveling to Athens. However, she set her sights on Beijing, still four years away.
Nastia’s first year as an elite was full of highs and lows. She won her first senior national title, and easily made the team that would be traveling to Melbourne, Australia for the 2005 world championships. There, she missed out on the world all-around title by the slimmest of margins - .001 – to teammate Chellsie Memmel. Not to be discouraged, Nastia looked to the beam, bars, and floor finals. She won two of the three – bars and beam – and earned a silver on floor. One year down, three to go.
2006 was off to a great start. Nastia won her first American Cup and another senior national title. Then, disaster struck – an ankle injury that would require surgery. She rehabbed the injury quickly enough to go to 2006 Worlds, but she would only compete bars. She earned a silver medal for her efforts in Denmark. 2 years down, 2 to go. Halfway to Beijing.
2007 was a hard year. Nastia opted to sit out the first half of the year to let the ankle injury heal as much as possible before nationals. She only started doing the pounding events again – vault and floor – a week before nationals started. It was not her best showing, counting many falls and mistakes, and new competition was emerging in the name of Shawn Johnson. Nastia lost her first national championship in four years, ending the meet in third place. Many people ruled her out for 2008, saying she was “too old”, “too broken”, or “too inconsistent”. She still qualified to the 2007 worlds team, and vowed to make an impact there. She helped team USA earn only its second world title, and qualified to the all-around competition. Things were looking good until beam, where she fell and ultimately gave the title away. Shawn Johnson went on to become world all-around champion, while Nastia sat in fifth. Nastia still had bars and beam finals, and she wanted nothing but gold. She surprisingly lost out to Russian Ksenia Semenova in the bars final, but beam turned out to be her shining moment. She was again world champion. Just one year to go until Beijing.
2008 proved to be one of the greatest of Nastia’s life. The year began with nationals, where an uncharacteristic mistake on floor ultimately gave Shawn Johnson the title. On to Olympic Trials, where (again) mistakes put Nastia in second place. Shawn looked nearly unstoppable, having only lost one meet since the beginning of 2007. Since they’d finished one-two at Olympic Trials, Shawn and Nastia were automatically named to the Olympic team. Who would win?
Beijing brought tears, joy, and heartbreak. Team USA went in looking only for the gold, but wound up with the silver, losing out to home team China. Nastia and Shawn were both qualified to the all-around final, and tensions mounted. If neither of the girls made mistakes, the competition would be even – it would go to whoever performed and executed their skills better. Ultimately, Nastia was the better gymnast that night, performing near flawlessly on vault and floor. She was on top – Olympic champion. What she’d worked 19 years for. In her own words… “I was physically and mentally more prepared than I have ever been in my life. I was so ready to be there and to have the best performance of my life. And I was excited. I think that is the most important thing. I was excited and confident.” She is living proof that if your have confidence and belief in yourself, you can do anything, no matter what everyone else says. Nastia wound up leaving Beijing with five medals – all around gold, team, beam, and bars silver, and floor bronze. She tied with Mary Lou Retton and Shannon Miller for the most medals earned in one Olympic games.
After Beijing, Nastia took a bit of a break, taking time to model, design, and appear on tv shows. In January of 2009, she started to get back into the gym. By July, she was in competition shape on beam, and appeared at the 2009 US Classic and US Nationals. She was in contention to make the worlds team, but felt she should withdraw in favor of someone who was more prepared. She’s now taking another break and setting her sights on the 2010 season.
When asked how Nastia accomplished what she did, she replied, “Set goals for yourself. I always set daily, weekly, monthly, and longterm goals. Strive to achieve them! Whether it be running a mile every day for a month, or winning a gold medal at the Olympics, setting goals has played a huge role in overcoming obstacles and achieving success in my life and my sport.”
Nastia is a great example of sports psychology at its finest. She’s the definition of mental toughness. When people were doubting whether she would even make the Olympic team because of her ankle injury, she came back and proved each of them wrong, making the team and doing the best of any competitor. She sets goals and strives to achieve them. She’s also a good sport in everything that she does. And that’s why Nastia Liukin, 2008 all-around Olympic champion, is my hero and my role model. ☺

Kyla Wins Jr. Pan Ams

Supposedly... according to Bogwoppit over at the Chalk Bucket.

The US Women were strong, finishing 1-2-3-4.

1. Kyla Ross
2. Sabrina Vega
3. Alexandra Raisman
4. Bridgette Caquatto

They were all sporting (ugh) the pink leo. BLAH. Can't we at least wear American colors, ladies? The pink is old. I never want to see it again. Unless it's on Nastia. But NO ONE ELSE! :]

(ps - new layout on the way)

Shannon Has Her Baby Boy! :D

His name is John Rocco Falconetti... and he was born this evening at 6:46 PM, weighing in at 7 lbs 11 oz.

See HERE for more!

Congratulations! :D

Ryazanov Killed in Car Accident

WOW.

I'm in shock.

He was only 22, and had just won the bronze in the men's all-around in London.

Click HERE to see what the Gymnastics Examiner has to say.

Rest in peace.

Montage Contest

I'm having a montage contest through my youtube... check it out and enter! :D

Finals Day #1 - Live Blogging

VAULT:

8:33 - Kayla, the current leader, will be 4th up. She's rockin' the old flame leo - you go girl!

8:34 - What's with all the sleveless leos? Not a fan.

8:35 - Myzdrikova of Russia will be first. Nice 1/2 on... uh, something off. 14.275 for the first vault. Sloppy yurkchenko double, stepped out of the corridor, so there will be a penalty. 2'd vault - 14.1. Average -14.225

8:40 - Kaeslin vault one - very nice front layout 1 1/2. Very close to stepping out, but she saved it. Score: 15.075.

8:44 - Kaeslin vault two - nice yurchenko 1 1/2, decent landing. Very nice.

8:46 - VT2 Score - 13.975 Average - 14.525

8:46 - Hong Un Jong, reigning Olympic champ, falls flat on her butt on her amanar. Make it to your feet, Kayla! 14.425. Jeez... that seems a bit high to me.

8:48 - Un Jong's VT 2 - Falls again! Oh my. No medal for her, I'd assume. Wow. Second vault - 14.100. Average: 14.262

8:49 - Kayla is up... lovely front 1 1/2! Little bit loose, but solid all the same. 15.200.

8:50 - How much do I want to see her first world medal be a gold?!

8:51 - Vault 2 - Yurchenko double... STUCK. GO KAYLA! Vault 2: 14.975. Average - 15.087!

8:54 - Elsa Garcia... coming off of her win of the Longines prize for elegance yesterday. Good yurchenko 1 1/2. Back step on the landing, but a nice, clean vault. 14.000.

8:56 - Second vault... Ooof. Rough fall... kinda flat on her face. She seems to be taking it in stride. :P Her hair looks funny after that one... she's too cute! Score on that one - 12.575. Average - 13.287

8:58 - Brittany Rogers of Canada - nice yurchenko double. 14.425.

9:00 - Brittany's 2'd vault - yurchenko 1/2 on 1/2 off. Decent... stepped out of the corridor. Score: 13.975. Average: 14.2

9:02 - Kurbatova: very high, powerful yurchenko double. Biggest threat to Williams so far. 14.725.

9:03 - Second vault for Kurbatova... 1/2 on, front pike 1/2 off. A little bit of a sloppy landing... buckled her knees alot. Score on the second - 13.95. Average: 14.337.

9:05 - Dufournet - uh, what just happened? Universal sports just totally passed over her first vault. :P 14.275

9:06 - Dufournet - yurchenko 1/2 on layout 1/2 off. Very clean... she's definitely one to watch out for! Score 2: 14.625, Average: 14.450.

KAYLA WINS! :D Unreal. What a story this girl has. Crazy.

Final results for vault;

1. Kayla Williams
2. Ariella Kaeslin
3. Youna Dufournet

Bars later!

Live Blogging

AA Finals Live Blogging!

1:33 - USA girls in the pink. Gack. Sorry, but Nastia is the only one who can pull this off and look good, IMO.

1:35 - Lauren Mitchell will be leading off on vault.

1:36 - Yang Yilin just took a nasty spill on her dismount during her touch on bars.

1:38 - Nice DTY from Lauren Mitchell. Step on the landing. 14.400.

1:40 - Porgras VT - Nice clean full twisting yurchenko. Lacking difficulty, but clean nonetheless.

1:41 - Decent routine for Kaeslin on UB. 13.875.

1:42 - Bross VT - Nice! Forward step on the landing, but should be a decent score. 14.525.

1:44 - Yilin UB - lacked some height on the releases, beautiful pirouette work. WOW, fell right on her head on that dismount. Saw that one coming! Bye bye title! 13.950.

1:46 - Clean DTY for Kurbatova. 14.625

1:48 - Lovely bar routine from Tsurumi! 15.050

1:48 - Bridget on vault - clean... step back on the landing. 14.825.

1:50 - Linlin - she's so stinkin cute... however, I still have a hard time believing she's 16. :P 14.225

1:51 - Dofournet on bars - sloppy, but great double layout dismount. 14.600.

1:52 - Loved Tamirjan's mount on beam - otherwise it looked very rushed. 14.125

1:54 - I LOVE the UK leos. Downie's tumbling is quite clean looking and nice to watch. She stuck her double pike cold. Very nice. 13.525.

1:56 - Rough fall on Semeynova's pak salto. Wow... two botched bar routines in a row.

1:58 - Galante on beam. WOW, awful leotard for Italy. Looks like zebra print sleeves and turquoise flowers on the bodice? Yeesh. Sloppy routine. 13.625.

2:01 - How many people can use the same music? Mattie Larson, Dasha Joura, now Becky Wing too... 12.550 ouch.

2:03 - First rotation complete.

2:05 - Becky Downie on VT - nice, clean DTY! 14.5

2:07 - Porgras will lead off on bars.

2:08 - Clean routine from Porgras. 14.675.

2:08 - Yilin on beam. She looks shaky. 14.225. I have a feeling this will turn into the Bridget-Becca-Porgras show. :P

2:10 - Tsurumi on beam. Beautiful skills and dance, albeit an itty bit shaky. 14.800.

2:12 - Bross on bars - Please no meltdown!

2:13 - WOW, GREAT routine for Bross. Very big on her releases and stuck the (huge) dismount cold! 15.075.

2:14 - Dufournet on beam - I don't know whether I like the fact that she stopped in the middle of her Onodi or not... I think I like it??? :P 14.450.

2:17 - Kurbatova UB - nice bars set. 14.700.

2:18 - Love Tamirjan on floor - you can tell she has training in ballet. She could present it more, but she's on her way! 13.600.

2:20 - DEAR GOD BRIDGET POINT YOUR TOES! Other than that... good routine for her! :P 14.800.

2:22 - Decent routine from Semenova. Missed the score... sorry. :S

2:24 - Linlin UB - she is so tiny! Nice routine! 13.900. I think this is a bit low, personally.

2:26 - 13.950 on vault for Rebecca Wing.

2:30 - I want to see Lauren Mitchell take the bronze... she had a good bar routine. Slight hop on the dismount. 13.625.

After 2:

1. Tsumuri
2. Sloan
3. Bross

2:33 - Koko on floor - oh my gosh, I love her. So clean! Stuck her 2 1/2 to front layout. Her dance is gorgeous. Lovely routine. 13.725.

2:35 - Bross on beam. Standing arabian - solid as a rock. Side somi (gack). Lands the dismount! As long as she doesn't botch floor, she'll be world champion. 15.300.

2:38 - Dofournet isn't very expressive on floor - get this girl a choreographer. :P 13.300.

2:40 - Kurbatova BB - fall on BHS back layout. 12.850.

2:42 - Tamirjan VT - so-so DTY. Holy leg separation! 14.275 (overscored, IMO).

2:44 - Sloan on BB. Baby wobble on back layout and full turn, but she made the front tuck. Ooh, she's shaky. Nice double pike dismount. 14.000. Ouch.

2:48 - Linlin beam - touched her hands on the beam on her front pike. She's shaky too. Foot slipped on her layout, but she stayed on. Fell on her sheep jump. I think it's safe to say the chinese will be leaving without a medal. 13.500.

2:51 - Yilin floor - I can't tell if her dance is artistic or if it looks like she's spasming. :P She isn't finishing her passes either (she's not raising her arms after she lands, I mean... she just moves right into the next part of the routine). This bothers me. 13.700.

2:53 - Downie - rough fall on her first Tkatchev. Bummer. :[ 13.600.

2:55 - Porgras waiting to go on BB... long wait beforehand. Judges are still working on Mitchell's score. Where was Mitchell's routine, anyhow?

2:59 - About time. Porgras on BB. She has lovely lines. Falls on her layout. Congrats Becca, it's yours unless you completely choke. 14.125.

After 3:

1. Bross
2. Sloan
3. Tsumuri
4. Mitchell
5. Porgras

3:02 - recap of Mitchell's beam routine - 15.100!

3:06 - Not feeling any of these floor routines. Come on, girls... make me watch! Kurbatova - 13.300.

3:08 - Dofournet on VT - interesting, different vault. 14.300.

3:09 - Sloan on floor - come on girl! Nice triple. Nice full in pike and dance. GO BRIDGET! Nice layout 2 1/2. LOVELY double pike! Love her! Aaaaah! 14.200, actually one of the higher scores of the day.

3:11 - Semenova - blech vault. :P

3:15 - Kaeslin VT - 15.125 (wowie!)

3:16 - Mitchell on floor. Nice double arabian. OOB on full-in pike. Turn in wolf (very cool). Clean routine all-in-all, but that out of bounds is going to cost. 14.025.

3:19 - Tsurumi on vault. Clean yurchenko full... unfortunately she'll lose the difficulty points, but a great meet for her! 13.600. Lauren Mitchell will wind up in 4th if Becca doesn't completely bomb.

3:21 - Porgras on floor. Messy legs on first pass. Lovely balletic lines and dance! Stuck double tuck. She's definitely one to watch in the future. 14... something too quick for me to catch. :P

3:24 - Bross on floor. If she lands on her feet, she wins.

She fell on her 2 1/2!!!!!

Bridget or Becca?

Bridget or Becca?

BRIDGET OR BECCA?!?!?!

Becca gets 12.875 - BRIDGET WINS!

BRIDGET WINS!

BRIDGET WINS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Final results:

1. Bridget
2. Rebecca
3. Koko Tsurumi!

Prelims - Results, Pics, Notes, and Quotes!

To no one's surprise, Becca and Bridget are both headed to AA finals. Surprisingly, though, there's 4 places between them - Rebecca led the AA, with Bridget in 5th!

Oh, such dramz.

Anyhow, Bridget fell on beam. Give her just that point back, and she would have been at least third. Who knows what Friday will bring?

In addition, Bridget and Rebecca are headed to bars finals - surprised? Me too. ESPECIALLY Bridget - who woulda thunk it? Not I! Of course, He Kexin stole the show with a score of 15.975 - a whole .925 ahead of Bross, who is in second with a 15.050. Barring no injury or meltdown, I think we know who will be the bars champ. :P

Says Bridget, "Bars were the highlight of my day. After beam, I wanted to do everything as cleanly as possible. My floor was a little rough and as I moved to vault and bars, I knew what my priorities were. This was a good learning experience for me. Every day I learn a bit more and (today) I learned a lot. I’m very excited to come back Friday and show them what I can do.”

Bross is also headed to floor finals - score 13.95. Kayla WIlliams is first reserve for that.

Speaking of Kayla... guess who's at the top of the vault charts? Though it's by a very slim margin - 14.812 to Hong Un Jong's 14.787 - Kayla couldn't be happier! “I had billions and billions of nerves,” said Williams about her first international event and World Championships, “but I think I handled it pretty well. I think I channeled my nerves into making my routines better. I was nervous on floor because it was my first time out.

“I did well on both (vaults), but especially my second one, the Yurchenko double full,” said Williams. “I think that is the best I can do. I am really proud of how I did, and I hope when I come back to finals, I can learn from this and do even better.”

Very excited for her... what a story!

Finally, Ivana qualified to beam finals, with a score of 14.400 - good enough for 4th place. She bombed bars, but I'm glad she didn't let that affect her on beam. Baby steps! :]

Oh, Bross is 1st reserve for beam as well. Woohoo.

A full list of qualifiers can be found below;
http://www.usa-gymnastics.org/PDFs/Results/09artisticworlds_wq_101409.pdf

Pics can be found all over the web... some links below;
http://usagymnastics.zenfolio.com/p363723007/h32887b71#h4107442 (US Women)
http://www.insidegymnastics.com/content/show/09WorldChamps.aspx?articleid=649&zoneid=53 (Inside Gym)
http://www.charlotteobserver.com/galleries/gallery/1001046.html?spill=1 (Charlotte Observer)
http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2009/10/artistic_gymnastics_world_cham.html (The Big Picture - GREAT pics!)

More to come - and expect the gossip to start flying!

No Worlds for Ksenia Afansyeva

Ksenia Afansyeva is reportedly out of worlds with a back injury. I feel your pain, Ksenia! :[

What a bummer... she really had a shot at bringing the all-around title back to Russia. Of course, there's still Semyonova, who also has a decent shot... but it definitely is a blow to their chances.

Only 6 days to go until the all-around final. And I will be in school while it happens. UGH.

Domi!

"Hi, my name's Dominique Moceanu. Remember me? I was the cutsie at the '96 Olympics with the scandalous Devil Went Down to Georgia floor music. Anyways, I just had 2 kids... but no worries, I can still do double fulls on floor and back tucks on beam! I'm just awesome like that!"

XD

Seriously, though... that's relatively awesome. I'll be lucky to still touch my toes when I'm 28. :P

The gymnastics part starts at about 5 minutes. Worth the watch!

Mohini...

has evidently given birth to a baby boy! Tristen Jai Barry was born Friday, October 2'd at 5:32 PM, and he weighed 7 lbs. He's 19 1/2 inches.

I didn't even know she was pregnant!!! Jeez!

Congrats to the family! :]

(via mandusky at the IG forum)

Good Luck Team USA!

Let me know what you think! Good luck to Bridget, Rebecca, Ivana, and Kayla!

Worlds Team

According to live.breathe.love.gymnastics:

The 2009 Worlds team has not changed from the nominative roster;

Bridget Sloan
Kayla Williams
Rebecca Bross
Ivana Hong

Alternates: Kytra Hunter and Mackenzie Caquatto

As for the other girls... they've been given assignments as well! Jana and Kytra are going to the Croatia World Cup, and Mackenzie and Cassie will be going to the DTB World Cup.


So excited to see how everything shakes out. Should be an interesting worlds!

Rumors???

From The Couch Gymnast:

A commenter said that Hong's facebook says she is headed to London. Someone on IG Forum reported that Sloan's does too. So, what will the final announcement say? Just what it says on the Nominative roster? Those two, Williams and Bross. Probably.

What I expected. We shall see.

I WANT OFFICIAL WORD, DANGIT!

EDIT: 9:32 PM

"@bridgetsloan: alright we're ready..but the question is, is London ready ? =]"

Obviously Bridget is in... but who is "we"?

EDIT: 10PM

WHAT THE HECK IS TAKING SO LONG?

Almost Here!

I'm talking about the worlds team selection, of course! According to Kim Zmeskal Burdette, anyways

@KimZB0217 - "Final verification before World Team is selected will begin in 1 hour... Go USA! I'm so proud of you ALL!
about 1 hour ago from Tweetie"

Which means said verification should be starting right about... now.

I CANNOT WAIT ANY LONGER.

Pet Peeves -Part Uno

There are many, many things I could go on and on about that are wrong in the sport of gymnastics today - but there are a few that really irk me.

1. The Side Somi



(No, Nastia, even YOU, the 2005-2008 patron saint of graceful gymnastics, can NOT make this look good)

Ah, the side somi. WHY would anyone look at this and say, "gee, that's attractive! I think I'll put that in my routine!" I don't care who you are, it's ugly. Do an aerial or something instead. Chellsie Memmel got the hint... her aerial is beautious!

2. Flexed Toes (I'm looking at you Bridget!)



This is one thing that I just don't understand. How can you go to throw a Tkatchev, for example, and get a deduction because your friggen' toes aren't pointed? I don't get it. It's one of the first things you learn in the sport. It's not much more of an effort, so just DO IT ALREADY!

3. The Cowboyed Front Tuck



Is it really that hard to pull your legs into a real tuck? (I can answer that - no, it's not. :P ) Just like the side somi, THIS IS NOT ATTRACTIVE. End of story.

4. Arm-Flailing Dance



Come on, people, can we be a little original here? Make up some real dance, not "arm here, pose, arm here, another pose, arm waves, skill". Be unique! I love Alicia to death, but she's definitely guilty of this one.

5. The Un-180 Degree Split



One word (or is it two?); oversplits. Do them.

More to come.

Rio Gets the Games

Good. I was hoping Rio would get it!

This is the Olympic of the babies now... i.e. Lizzy Leduc. Even my friend Shantel... who isn't far behind Lizzy. She'll be 10 this year, and she's competing level 8 or 9 this season. She's crazy. Look for a potential talk with her in the future!

Go Rio!

New Layout

Just in time for worlds! I know this one was long overdue, so sorry for that. Let me know what you think!

Also, I plan on making this site a whole lot more interesting - not just news posts, but more commentary and fun posts. I'm also hoping to broaden my horizons and get more involved with international gymnastics - so keep your eyes peeled for that!

I'm hoping to get a fun post up tonight. :D

Latah,
-Kayleigh