The gymnastics thread | Page 6 | Golden Skate

The gymnastics thread

ChrisH

On the Ice
Joined
Oct 31, 2007
I had only seen Nastia in the 2007 Pan American games, where she was injured. Then I saw Shawn win the all-around at the 2007 Worlds. Then at the 2008 Nationals, I was surprised that Nastia had come back so strong to place 2nd in the all-around. At these Olympics, she was even better. Wow.

I just read that Nastia was 2nd in the all-around at the 2005 Worlds and that she was actually tied in total points with the winner. She was 2nd due to rounding rather than tiebreakers. So I guess that everything that happened here wasn't a surprise for Nastia's fans.


I wish that the Russian women had won a medal.


My favorite tricks were:
* Xiaopeng Li's release move on the parallel bars. He swung from the bar ends to 4/5ths of the way to the other end and landed with some sort of hand press.
* Justin Spring's dismount from the high bar. He went so high and far that he landed at the edge of the matt.
 
Joined
Jul 11, 2003
Additional Medals for Figure Skating

It's a little off topic but in line with comparison of the two Sports.

Can you picture 10 top Lady Figure Skaters marching around and doing

a. A Camel Spin

b. A Lutz jump

c. A Spiral

d. A footwork sequence.

Wouldn't that be a hoot.
 

dorispulaski

Wicked Yankee Girl
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
Country
United-States
There was a pro competition like this about 1976 or so. I have some video clips of it. They had the following events competed between 2 teams and it was called the World Challenge Cup. Janet Lynn, Toller Cranston, Starbuck and Shelley, Ken Shelley as a single skater and some other great oldtimers competed::

A Team "Add On" competition (sort of like the basketball playground game "HORSE" on skates)

Butterflies Competition

Pairs Spin Competition

Split Jump Competition
You can download it here (Toller vs. Ken Shelley)
http://www.mediafire.com/?emedxqw0gwy

Fastest Spin

Longest Spiral

Throw Axel Competition

Who can do the most double axels (Toller Cranston-he did 10 in a row)

You can download Toller competing with Richard Ewell on the axels here:
http://www.mediafire.com/?mjhmhwo20oz

And Joe, you're right, it was a complete hoot. :rock::rock:
 

KwanFan1212

Joey Votto Fangirl
Final Flight
Joined
Jun 24, 2003
Here is where I’m forced to show my ignorance of even the basic aspects of the sport. :biggrin:

Listening to all the talk of how Alicia was like a mentor / advisor / older sister to the other American girls, I was under the impression that these girls were some kind of a “team”, like a baseball team or a hockey team. But I’ve been doing a little reading, and it seems like that’s not the case. It seems like the best 6 girls in the United States were assembled just for the Olympics. They are not really part of a permanent "team". Is this correct?

Actually, they are all part of the official national team for the United States so in that instance, they really are part of the same team. These six particular girls were chosen through the whole Trials process to represent the USA at the Olympics in Beijing. A lot of these girls have competed, trained, and gone to various camps together for the last four years (in addition to being on teams for Worlds and other competitions each year) so they might feel more like a team than other girls in the past.

I'm so proud of the US girls for not only how they did in the competition (I'm especially happy for Nastia as I've been a fan of hers since she was the national junior champion) but also for how they handled themselves away from the competition. They were very well spoken, never let themselves be caught up in the age thing or any other drama NBC tried to steer them towards, and they were so supportive and encouraging towards each other through both the good times and the bad. They should all be EXTREMELY proud of themselves. :rock:
 

alicelouise

Rinkside
Joined
Jul 28, 2003
FX music

In the FIG main site there's a section with the gymnasts biographies. Most of them have their musics listed, but sometimes it is from previous years...

There was a great routine by Kathy Johnson at the 1978 Strasbourg World Championships. It was a haunting Romantic Era sounding melody. I'm going batty trying to find the name of the piece and the composer.

The routine is on YouTube. I have speculated that it could be any Romantic Era composer such as Saint-Saens, Schubert, Dvorak, Liszt, Chopin, Mendelssohn, Tchaikovsky or Americans Gottschalk and MacDowell.

I've put this query on the IG website and they are as curious as I am. I'm hoping someone will know which composer Kathy Johnson used in 1978(great routine!!)

Maybe Frank Carroll would know. He and his skaters have knack for polishing up unfamiliar marvels.

Any help will be appreciated.

P.S. It was great that Nastia Liukin was inspired by Sasha Cohen's "Dark Eyes" program.:)
 

lcd

Match Penalty
Joined
Mar 11, 2007
Oh... hmmm... that Kathy Johnson program... it was a piano only version (I believe at that time, there were rules restricting floor ex program to piano only... before orchestrations came in). The piece sounded like a pastiche of symphonies arranged for the piano... what WAS that music? Not any war house that's for sure...
 

bethissoawesome

On the Ice
Joined
Dec 12, 2005
I REALLY hope Shawn Johnson sticks around for another Olympics. I was leaning towards the fact that she would until she won the Gold on the Beam Finals. I guess you can't be too unhappy with two Olympics Silvers and a Gold. Although I don't particularly like her style on beam and uneven bars (compared to Nastia), she is just so darn happy all of the time. In almost every shot of Nastia, she looked like someone just murdered her entire family, except for when she won All-Around Gold. Someone needs to paint a smile on her face!! But I really do love her style of gymnastics.

If we were still on the 10.0 system, Nastia probably would have swept all of her individual events... taking the beam title over Shawn (her start value was just too low for the new system), uneven bars (He's style wouldn't have scored as well under 10.0 when they emphasized artistry and grace more than tricks.. actually maybe second to Yilin Yang, she was very underscored IMHO), and 100% Gold on floor as well (again, her start value was too low with the new system).

The new system is doing what CoP did to figure skating... it's taking out the grace and artistry and replacing it with packing your routine with as many difficult tricks as you can muster. It's a shame. I also wish there was at least one more apparatus for women, since they only compete on 4 as compared to 6 for men. I'm a big fan of adding trapeze in. :) Do a trick, catch it to a bar. Just like the vault, but in the air. LOL

I'll always wonder why they separate trampoline from gymnastics. You'd think basic trampoline routines would be a pretty logical thing to have in gymnastics considering you learn many of your tricks on a trampoline first... or into a foam pit.



And if I heard the announcer say "in bounced Shawn Johnson" about her coach's gym ONE MORE TIME I thought I was going to stick a pencil in my eardrums.


Also....

Here is where I’m forced to show my ignorance of even the basic aspects of the sport. :biggrin:

Listening to all the talk of how Alicia was like a mentor / advisor / older sister to the other American girls, I was under the impression that these girls were some kind of a “team”, like a baseball team or a hockey team. But I’ve been doing a little reading, and it seems like that’s not the case. It seems like the best 6 girls in the United States were assembled just for the Olympics. They are not really part of a permanent "team". Is this correct?

It is true and untrue. No, these specific girls are not a "permanent" team, but each year members of a "Senior National Team" are listed, and they go through similar competitions nationally (just like in figure skating) to see who will compete on the team internationally in Worlds, etc. So, it's not like the girls don't know each other. Many have been together on the Senior National Team and competition together at Worlds for many years prior to the Olympics. Sometimes a member is changed here and there. Outside of getting to know each other when competiting as a team, you can obviously tell they have to compete against each other quite frequently... whether it's in a national event, the all-around competitions, or event finals in Worlds, Olympics, other events, etc. So the long and short of it is yes, to an extent, they are a team... but they are also rivals as well as teammates... and the best on the list make the team each year (the best are usually the same people, except when someone is injured,an up and comer ousts someone, or someone retires).
 
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bethissoawesome

On the Ice
Joined
Dec 12, 2005
It's a little off topic but in line with comparison of the two Sports.

Can you picture 10 top Lady Figure Skaters marching around and doing

a. A Camel Spin

b. A Lutz jump

c. A Spiral

d. A footwork sequence.

Wouldn't that be a hoot.

LOL If you really want to make it correspond....

For ladies -

Balance Beam: becomes the straight line footwork sequence inclusive of easy jumps in skating (obvious reasons there)

Vault: becomes the most difficult figure skating jump you can muster (two different ones if you are in finals). (obvious reasons again)

Uneven Bars: becomes the spiral sequence combined with a spin (since uneven bars are really about balance and clean lines)

Floor routine: becomes a 1 minute 30 second program with only jump combinations, one spin, and a very short footwork sequence.



So there's the gymnastics of figure skating... haha, for a "figure skating" vault finals, we'd see a triple lutz and triple flip from almost every single female skater, spare maybe Mao and Yukari who would do a triple axel. :laugh:
 

Bennett

Record Breaker
Joined
Nov 20, 2007
What I loved the most throughout the event was Jiang Yuyuan's floor. She has great charm. I am ignorant of this sport. But I could still tell that she is a fantastically wonderful dancer. Is that a Chinese music? He Kexin's uneven bar was also spectacular.
 

DragonPhoenix

On the Ice
Joined
Dec 12, 2007
What I loved the most throughout the event was Jiang Yuyuan's floor. She has great charm. I am ignorant of this sport. But I could still tell that she is a fantastically wonderful dancer. Is that a Chinese music? He Kexin's uneven bar was also spectacular.

I completely agree. He Kexin was spectacular on uneven bar. I also liked Yang Yilin's uneven bar too.

Jiang Yuyuan was wonderful. Really loved how she used her hands and fingertips, very artistic. She rocks !! :rock:
 

agua bendita

Match Penalty
Joined
May 23, 2009
Because I realized we didn't have one and this board feels naked without one.

Also because I've been watching some videos on YouTube. The highlights:

Aurelia Dobre 1988 Olympic Floor Exercise

Svetlana Boginskaya 1988 Olympic Floor Exercise to Carmen

Daniela Silivas 1988 Olympic Floor Exercise to Mozart

Bi WenJing 1996 Olympic Uneven Bars Event Final
(She does a Gaylord and it's pretty cool.)

The bar routines in the 70s and 80s were pretty damn amazing and, dare I say, look much more difficult than the routines of the past twenty years or so (because the bars are farther apart now).

Nadia Comaneci 1980 Olympic Uneven Bars

Olga Korbut 1976 Olympic Uneven Bars

Teodora Ungureanu 1976 Olympic Uneven Bars

I'd also post the links to the videos at shanfan.com, but there are too many. Just go there and search. Smile

http://static.photo.net/attachments/bboard/00S/00SNwT-108825784.jpg
 
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