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As most of you reading this know, the path of a serious female gymnast usually follows one of a handful of familiar patterns. Of course I’ll first mention that anywhere along these various paths, injury may also bring the end to a career, which is an ever-present risk at every level of the sport (and I know there can be other paths for a gymnast’s career, I generalizing here). In some cases, the gymnast may [read more]

[The post about the Soviet documentary with Mukhina referred to in this post was lost in the site crash; I have recreated it here] I mentioned in a previous post about the Soviet-era documentary, how Yelena Mukhina, who was featured prominently in it (including clips that clearly showed the pressure her coach put on her), was only months away from her tragic injury. Well, in an attempt to counter that depressing story a bit, I [read more]

In the second part of my interview with actress, screenwriter and former elite and NCAA gymnast Maddy Curley gets a little more serious. She talks about : Hollywood casting biases regarding women and the difficulties getting roles as a muscular, powerful woman; a wave of former elite women gymnasts hired to top NCAA coaching jobs; the current crisis in USA Gymnastics caused by the Dr. Nasser sex abuse scandal and the wider zeitgeist revolving around [read more]

(Photos: 1. Courtesy Disney 2. fotosportif.com/J. Bierbaum 3. Courtesy Maddy Curley) I recently had the opportunity to chat via email with multi-talented Maddy Curley, and she graciously agreed to an email interview for Gym2Day. Maddy is probably best known for her role as “telephone girl” Mina Hoyt in the 2006 gymnastics film “Stick It” (starring Jeff Bridges and Missy Peregrim), but she is also a former elite, a UNC Tar Heels all-arounder, an actress, screenwriter [read more]

(Photo by JB) You might think that USAG elite events like the Secret US Classic or P&G Championships are judged according to the FIG Code of Points, period. The Code of Points is the Code of Points, right? Well…not quite. One difference is that in domestic meets, USAG has added a “stick bonus” onto all four apparatus. The stick bonus is (as of 2016) .1 for really nailing a landing. All USAG international elite and [read more]

Something I didn’t previously mention in debriefing the P&G Championships bears pointing out. After seeing her compete in both 2014 and 2015 and seeing her progress in that time, I’d like to make special mention of Morgan Hurd. I want to highlight her both because she shows all signs of being a rising star destined for great things, but also because she is from my home state and trains at a gym just a dozen [read more]

The first big-time gymnastics event I ever attended was the 2001 U.S. National Championships in Philadelphia. One of the juniors was 13 year-old Carly Patterson (that’s a photo of her on beam I took there). Though she had recently won the US Classic, she had a disastrous day one, and while she climbed back to third overall, she only placed in the top six on one event. Not the kind of consistency that usually impresses [read more]

[Photo is a selfie I was lucky enough to get with the wonderful and gracious Mohini Bhardwaj Barry, when I spotted her outside the Bankers Life Fieldhouse; I’m lucky enough to be Facebook friends with Mo, and a few days before this she had publicly thanked me on FB for a sincere tribute to her distinguished career, which I had posted on the occasion of her upcoming induction into the USA Gymnastics Hall of Fame. [read more]

[Written in my Indianapolis hotel room the night before competition starts] The women’s competition looks to be outstanding, with a fistful of world champions and ’12 Olympians, including Simone Biles, Gabby Douglas, Aly Raismann, MyKayla Skinner, and junior national all-around champion Bailie Key from powerhouse Texas Dreams gym, who made her senior debut at the Secret US Classic and placed an impressive fourth all-around against much the same field. have tons of experience, with fully [read more]