Gymnastics Today

In June of 2022, there occurred probably the most encouraging sign yet since the dark days of the Nassar/Penny/Károlyi regime that indicates USA Gymnastics is truly attempting to transform the organization’s governance and the the management of the US national elite program to include the interests and perspective of the athletes themselves. That sign was when Alicia Sacramone Quinn and Chellsie Memmel were appointed to top USAG leadership positions. Memmel, 2008 Olympian and former world [read more]

[There is nothing particularly disturbing to watch in this video as far as falls or injury, but the kind of training it depicts provides a sobering reminder of the danger and occasional tragedy of the sport, especially when coaching ignores athlete safety] Years ago I found a fascinating late-1970s Soviet gymnastics documentary (link below), which seems intended to show the very hard work required for a gymnast to achieve world class excellence — to deconstruct [read more]

I was there at Parkettes on January 29, 2005, the night Alicia Sacramone’s career almost ended. I had made the hour and a half drive up to Allentown and was excited to see Alicia compete in person, as she was already a star, having won vault at the 2004 World Cup in Birmingham a few months before, more than 3 years before the 2008 Olympics. That chilly January night in Allentown, she originally had planned [read more]

Please forgive me for not having posted in such a long time, but I’m going to try to make up for it in the coming weeks. To start off with, here is something I posted to my personal Facebook page (for all of my Facebook friend, few of whom are gymnastics fans at all) on February 5th, with just a few relatively minor edits. It’s pretty off the cuff and there are parts I would [read more]

The site experienced a crash in late December and I have not been able to recover it, so I am rebuilding, redoing each post one by one from text files, adding images and captions by hand. This will take a little while to complete, but I hope to have things close to back the way they were before the end of January. I’ll be leaving out a few old posts that may not be worth [read more]

The February 2019 issue of Inside Gymnastics contained the surprising news that Kristal Bodenschatz (née Uzelac) is back in the gym in a capacity other than coach: she’s training for an attempted comeback competing in International Elite gymnastics. The story of Kristal’s career is one of unprecedented triumph & seemingly limitless promise at the junior level, followed by a senior career marked by injuries and disappointment, culminating in not even being invited to the 2004 [read more]

(all photos are mine) In her first competition since the 2016 Rio Olympics, Simone Biles of World Champions compiled an astounding 58.7 score to handily take the all around at the 2018 GK US Classic July 28 in Columbus, Ohio. And if not for an unexpected fall as she absolutely attacked the uneven bars, she would have swept all four events and set some kind of record for combined score. MG Elite’s Riley McCusker came [read more]

Kayla Di Cello of Hill’s had a good day, winning UB, with only a poor BB routine keeping her from challenging Wong for gold.(all photos are mine) Leanne Wong’s 55.35 all-around total was 1.35 points ahead of second place Kayla Di Cello of Hill’s at the 2018 GK US Classic, held Saturday July 28th at the Schottenstein Center in Columbus, Ohio. Wong, of GAGE took first on vault (14.65) and floor exercise (13.4) and third [read more]

(All photos are mine) Alicia Zhou of Love Gymnastics took the all-around in the 10-11 year-old class by more than 2.5 points at the 2018 GK Hopes Championships held July 27 in Columbus, Ohio. Zhou took first on BB and second on VT and UB on her way to a total of 50.4 on the day. Baylie Belman of WOGA came in second AA with 48.7, despite a second on BB being her only placement [read more]

David Hunn’s 1978 book, “The Complete Book of Gymnastics”, cover photo is USSR’s Maria FilatovaFor the next few days, I will be totally focused on the gymnastics of today and tomorrow, as in less than twenty-four hours I will be leaving for Columbus, Ohio for the GK US Classic to watch today’s top stars, along with the GK Hopes Championships, which is all about the future of the sport. This promises to be an exciting [read more]