I figure we would need one for gymnastics and I'm surprised one hadn't been started after the Athens games. The American Cup competition is today and I just found out that FIG adopted a new scoring system!

the American Cup was today!?! What channel was it on? Was it on TV? AAAH

In my area (New York), it was on NBC from 1:00pm - 3:00. Nastia Liukin won the women's title. There were a number of falls off the beam from her and the other competitors. There is also a new scoring system like in skating. No more perfect 10's.

I see that Brett McClure represented the US, isn't he retired yet? I miss the Hamm twins, I really hope they actually do come back from this "break" that they are taking.

I was able to watch and they didn't show Brett McClure on TV, I didn't even know he was there! All they kept showing was Daniel Durante and Jonathon Horton (who ended up wining). For the women, Nastia Liukin ended up winning and Shayla Worley (who I think is a spunk of fire, she just knew where all the cameras were during her Floor) wound up with silver. They kept saying Nastia comes from a lineage of gymnasts, but I don't remember her dad or her mom. I actually liked Shayla more than Nastia, maybe because I had an aversion to Nastia's hairline/hairstyle that made her seem bald and emaciated.

The new scoring system didn't seem that complicated to me, unlike the figure skating system where I was utterly confused. In the new system (if I understood correctly) they give you two scores- one is your difficulty, the other is for execution (which is still out of 10). Your difficulty can range from anything because it depends on the tricks you do, kind of like in diving I guess. Unlike diving though, even if your difficulty score is 5.9, you can still get a 10 (though highly unlikely) if you execute it perfectly, thereby making your score a 15.9. Other differences, a fall is a deduction of 0.8, instead of the previous 0.5, also, they were talking a lot about angles. In women's uneven bar (or even men's parallel bar), if their body was more than 30 degrees away from a handstand, then the deduction would be 0.3 (if I remember correctly). Those are the main things I remember, but I didn't see it as all that complicated. Right now, it seemed like the gymnasts were weighing whetere it was better to go with a less difficult routine that's probably a 5.2 in difficulty and be able to execute that better thereby getting a higher execution score, than go with a routine that's score a 5.9 in difficulty, but have a whole bunch of points taken off in execution.

That is very ugly hair, but Nastia has always looked bald and emaciated. I don't like her, but I'd be hard pressed to name a female US gymnast that I do like.

Oh well, I've always been more interested in the men anyway.

Her dad, Valeri Liukin, competed very successfuly for the Soviet Union in mens gymnastics. Her mother, Anna, was a world champion Rhythmic Gymnast (hence Nastia's body type) for the Soviet Union as well.



Brett didn't make the finals, which is all that they showed on NBC. The prelims were Friday and the top 8 (?) men and women, including only two from each country, competed on Saturday. For the women, this meant that although Bianca Flohr and Jacqueline Johnson finished 3rd and 4th in prelims, they couldn't compete on Saturday because they finished behind their teammates. I'm not sure how the other US men finished in prelims.

Nastia looks competely miserable to be there.Like her puppy just died or something. She looks like a conetration camp survivor w/ that skinny body and the bitch face. She probably hates competing,but her daddy wants her to.

I watched the Tyson "don't call it Visa" American Cup this weekend, and the thing that struck me is that Nastia is 16, and by the time the Olympics will come around in 2008, she will be 18, which is pretty old for a women's gymnast. There is a chance she won't make it (if her body changes and she can't keep up with it) and then it's just sad that a really good gymnast won't make the Olympics because her age just put her out of the running (IIRC she didn't make the 2004 Olympics when she was only 14).

I don't know. 18 isn't as old for a gymnast as it used to be, especialy since they raised the age cut off (the reason Nastia wasn't on the 2004 Olympic team was because she was still a junior and therefore not eligable). Two of the members of the 2004 team, Annia Hatch and Mohini Bohardwaj, were in their 20s and were both important parts of the team. Annia even got a medal on vault.
Nastia is certainly not the oldest US girl planning on sticking around to try for Beijing. So long as she stays healthy, I think she has a pretty good shot at making the team, at the very least as an event specialist.

She needs some bangs! Well according to the usa gymnastics site the next televisied competition won't be till Nationals but ESPN usually airs NCAA Gymnastics.

Nastia looks competely miserable to be there.Like her puppy just died or something.

She's probably surviving on 700 calories per day. That and training at least eight. Poor kid.

I thought Nastia's receding hairline was pure snark, but...wow, that looks scary. Something must be wrong and I tend to agree it' s living on 700 calories.

Does anyone have any updates on the 2004 Olympians? I know Courtney K. and Terin are in the NCAA and the Hamm's went back to school but what about everyone else?

I don't know if they'll be airing it again, but GSN had a show about the 1996 Olympic team. The series is called Anything to Win (Sundays at 8:00). I didn't see all of it, but it looked like they had interviews with all 7, plus Bela. Bart Conner was providing commentary too. What I saw was pretty good - hard to believe that was almost 10 years ago.

Courtney McCool will be going to college and competing NCAA in the fall, though I can't remember where.

Annia is retired. I'm pretty sure Mohini is as well, at least from competitive gymnastics.

Carley is embarking on a singing career (with the help of Joe Simpson, I believe).

You're joking right? Right?

Oh how I wish I was. But alas, I am not.
I heard a clip of her singing and while she's not terrible (she sings better than I do that's for sure), she's certainly not America's next great singing talent - of course, that's nothing a good producer can't fix. I'm sure she'll wind up sounding just like all of the other manufactured pop princesses out there when it's all over.

New movie about gymnastics coming out soon...featured on myspace...

http://www.myspace.com/stickitmovie

I watched the PAC-10 championships yesterday. They mentioned Tasha Schweikert, but didn't show her. I thought she had graduated? Anyway, Tabitha Yim won the all-around, which was sweet. I like womens' college gymnastics much better than Nationals, because the women look as though they eat. And have a life. Much less creepy!

McCool is going to join Courtney Kupets at Georgia. I know it's a longshot, but I hope she makes it back to the Olympics because the kid received some raw treatment from Maaatha.

She is just a sophomore, but having injury problems.

The women in college gymnastics are huuuuge when placed side by side with the itty bitty little elite girls.

Mr. Boogalo went to San Francisco yesterday and said he saw the gymnastics team from Virginia on BART (the train). They are in town for nationals which are being held at Berkeley.

Anyone planning to go see the gymnastics movies "Stick It" coming out in late April? According to http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0430634/

Nastia, Carly, and Allana Slater are in the film.

Also you can vote for gymnast of the year for IG mag till April 28 and the April issue of the mag also features the movie.

http://www.internationalgymnast.com/goty2005/

Hee, my sister and I have been counting the days until that movie is released for months! We are big gymnastics loving nerds. I'm interested to see it mostly because there are real gymnasts in the movie. I'm not sure how much gymnastics experience the three main characters have, but it looks like at least one of them (Tarah Paige) has some. It will be cool to see the familiar faces of the gymnasts though!

Saw the preview for Stick It last night. My husband will totally mock me, but I'm going to see it.

here's a great gymnastics site that lists the recruits for next season.

http://www.collegegymfans.com/Recruits/index.htm


ETA: Didn't anyone catch the Pacific Alliance Championships that aired yesterday?

I saw the Pacific Alliance Championships, my first with the new scoring system intact, and I thought it was. . . okay. I have to keep reminding myself that come trails/2008 is when the real superstars will come out, not to take anything away from the current crop of competitors. But there just isn't any one athlete (or athletes) I'm really rooting for right now.

Nastia Liukin is little overrated, I'm not really floored with her gymnastics just yet. Speaking of bitchface, does Chellsie Memmel ever smile?! Goodness.

Nastia Liukin's giants make my eyes bleed. Who on earth let her swing get that sloppy?

I've gotta learn this new system. So far I think it actually makes more sense than the new skating system, but that's probably because I'm completely misunderstanding it.

On Sunday Elfi(?) mentioned one of the Canadian girls had tied for first in some event at the Commonealth Games but "had to accept" the silver medal because of a new FIG rule. But did she ever explain what that new rule was? Hell, no! So can anyone, please, fill me in on what the heck she was talking about? I hate when announcers just casually mention something like that, then never elaborate on the subject.

On a more shallow note, Nastia's forehead/hairline frightens me! It seems like a lot of gymnasts have a high forehead. Is it from pulling their hair back in a tight ponytail every day since they were tots? Any hope hair will grow back once they leave the sport?

I'm SO relieved that someone else noticed this. Her hairline was so high and her forehead was so wide. Nastia could really benefit from some bangs (or something).

More shallow: Did you check out [not sure of her first name -- Shayna, maybe?] Worley's mother and grandma? Really scary-looking, like they didn't actually need witch costumes for Halloween. I thought their surname should be Chin. [rimshot!]

As far as the new scoring system goes -- not that I would even pretend to know what the actual point values are for the various skills, but the concept itself seems pretty self-explanatory (that is, unless I'm totally misreading things). If I'm understanding it right, the first score is a cumulative total of the point values of the actual skills performed and the second score is the level of execution, which works down from a 10 point maximum. I THINK (though I may be confusing diving and gymnastics) there are two sets of judges for each mark. And I'm pretty sure that falls (which have gone from a .5 to a .8 deduction, ouch) and step-outs are deducted from the second score.

Nastia looked completely miserable during the Pac-Am competition, not even hiding her disgust when Marta was trying to talk to her. I hope her demeanor is due to fierce competitiveness, and not to genuine unhappiness, ala Vanessa Atler. On the other hand, the Australian gymnast, Hollie Dykes, was a joy to watch. Stylistically, she reminds me of McCool.

I'm not familiar with the latest rules and regulations on scoring, but I remember disliking the ones that were in place during the 2004 Olympics because they didn't reward originality. Instead it seemed like there were a few tricks that EVERYONE was doing because of the point values. There was no incentive to take risks or be innovative, and it made me wonder how gymnasts like Oksana Omilianchik would have fared under those point systems.

I'm a huge die hard gymnastics fan and I really really don't like the new code. As I understand a lot of the same judging scandals are happening under the old code as in the new- for example when Nastia fell on on floor at the PAC championships she should have been deducted for a fall and for loss in start value becuase she failed to compete a skill, but the judges only took off for the fall, and so she tied with Chellsie Memmel.

Anyway if you want to learn more about the new scoring systemThis website does a very good job of explaining how the code works, and also does profiles for different gymasnts so you can see who is compete what skills.

Anyway, it's a pity NBC did not show the junior competition as I think the junior girls competing this year are going to be major factors at the 2007 words and of course the Olympics which is when most people tune in. Shawn Johnson, Shantessa Pama, Bianca Flohr are all going to be seniors next year and I imagine we will see some exciting things out of them.

That's right. IIRC, Elyse Hopfner-Hibbs (Canada) tied with Chloe Sims (Australia) for the women's all-around at the Cth Games, but due to some tiebreaker formula was awarded silver. While I was happy that an Aussie won, it struck me as unfair that they didn't simply award two gold medals. There was some sort of weird countback that they had to do, but how it's calculated I have no idea. The commentators tried to explain the new rule at the time, but they lost me about halfway through. Sorry I can't be more helpful MittenGirl!

There was also a bit of annoyance in the British camp about one of our other gymnasts who managed to fall on every apparatus during the all-around and still managed to get the bronze - I can't say I blame them, she was lucky to score as well as she did.

So it's a leetle bit off-topic I guess, but hopefully within bounds. And I'm not the first person to mention it.

Subject:
Stick It

Awesome movie. I recommend it highly.

CBS is airing the NCAA Finals this saturday but check your local station to see when it airs in your area.

When are nationals? I have this sneaking suspicion that I missed them...

Nationals will be in August. I believe that the World Cup will be held at the end of the year. Is there going to be an event only worlds this year?

ETA: The 2006 Nationals link...

http://www.usa-gymnastics.org/events/2006/championships/

ETA: Shannon Miller getting divorce!

http://celebrity.aol.com/people/ataol/arti...1211649,00.html

I didn't know this existed!! When is Nationals?

Next week!

Apparently Dominique Moceanu is trying to make a comeback

According to that article it doesn't sound like she's ready to go just yet but just because she's a former champion doesn't mean they should have the benefit of the doubt.

I went to that Nationals website, and maybe I'm a complete dunce, but I didn't see when/who was going to televise the event.

Anybody know? I'm going to be out of town, and I'd like to set my TiFaux to record it.

ETA: Thanks, Indy!

TV schedule can be found here:

http://www.usa-gymnastics.org/events/tv-calendar.html

Thanks Indy! I just wish they would air more than that since they will show the same 4 or 5 gymnasts. Anyone want to make predictions? I am going with Nastia Liukin for the AA title.

Forgive me if this is a stupid question, but who all is competing? I think Chellsie Memmel will beat Nastia this year, if not she'll come close like last year.


ETA: Thank you, Indy1!

Carly Patterson is going to be on Celebrity Duets on Fox this fall. I really don't know what to think about that.

I guess anybody and everybody is a celebrity these days.