Yao Jinnan takes Chinese Nationals!

credits to: thecouchgymnast.com

You may have noticed I've been AWOL for the past while. I've been going through a really busy time, and probably won't be updating anything major for the next week or so, but I couldn't resist the opportunity to do a quick update. Yao Jinnan has won Chinese Nationals AA! Hopefully this means good things for her at worlds?

In lieu of a real post, if you haven't seen it yet, check out my Ode to the Lovely Yao Jinnan.
I cannot wait until I can do real updates again.

Ode to: Gabby Jupp

(source not found)

Even in the midst of all the great gymnastics going on at Euros, there was a blot in the festivities. The storm cloud, of course, was the injury of new Great Britain senior Gabrielle (Gabby) Jupp. After completing a steady beam routine, she went for her double pike dismount, landed, and fell clutching her leg. The news just came out, and Jupp has torn her ACL, an injury which will sideline her for at least six months. She'll have surgery in May. Realistically, she is now definitely out of Worlds, and probably won't be back to competition shape until next year.  When Mustafina tore her ACL at 2011 Euros, she wasn't really back to her peak until summer 2012, and even then still messing up beam.

But anyway, here's a look at the career of Gabby Jupp, and the amazing accomplishments she's made within such a short competitive career.

Random Routine: Anastasia Grishina Floor Exercise Euros 2013

credits to RGF, via http://rewritingrussiangymnastics.blogspot.com/

Whenever I'm browsing through routines on Youtube, I like to find interesting bits to hopefully feature on Random Routine. Of course, I'm not organized enough to have a notebook or something to jot down ideas and my thoughts, so I usually just bookmark the link and leave it for later. This leads to a mess in which I have to rewatch many videos to find the part that caught my eye in the first place. Then, like now, I end up with three random routine posts in a row. I promise I'll get back to other posts soon (I'm actually working on an ode to Grishina right now.) Consider this a sneak peek!

Random Routine: Ksenia Afanasyeva Floor Exercise Euros 2013 and Diana Bulimar Floor Exercise Euros 2013

love all these leotards so much

Look at me getting up two posts in two days! I wanted to interject my opinion on the floor exercise final without making a whole long recap post, so I'm just talking about two random routines today. For more, read on!

Random Routine: Anastasia Grishina 2013 European Championships Beam

credits unknown (but lord Iordache's leotard)

You know, before Euros came up, I was planning another 'ode to' post featuring Anastasia Grishina and other known headcases. (I have lofty plans for this blog. So many good ideas, and so little time to actually research and write them.) Well, she fell during qualifications, but her beam is steadily becoming more reliable. And oh so brilliant, with the onodi to illusion turn. Brilliant enough to be featured in this random routine post! To see, read on

2013 European Championships All Around Results Recap

credits Mikhail Metzel

Well, beginner's luck maybe, but my podium predictions HERE turned out to be exactly correct! For all the details, and my thoughts on what I've been able to catch through videos, click below!

(Also, the livestream link I posted turned out to be for European views only. Actually, it seems that that they didn't post that fact until the competition started? Unless I was so oblivious in my excitement I missed it...)

2013 European Championship All Around Predictions

This photo has been used so many times I can't find the source, if it's yours, please let me know

 These are my first predictions for a major competition, so don't judge me if they're completely wrong, kay? For my podium predictions and more, read on!

2013 European Championships Gymnastics Predictions

This is going to be pretty slapdash, considering I waited until qualification results came out to start making predictions. I promise I wasn't just being lazy, I felt I'd have the best predictions if I saw who actually qualified, considering I'm not so familiar with most of the European field.

My predictions are split up with each apparatus, so this post will just have the link to each post as I get them up. Hopefully this post lets readers know that I'm going to get them up?

All Around Predictions

Guide: For New Readers +Euros

I've been getting what looks like quite a few hits from new readers recently, so I thought I'd take the opportunity to write a quick guide for some features of my blog. (If that's you, hi! Thanks for reading this blog! ). To read it,  go to the link at my header titled 'For New Readers'

What if: Alicia Sacramone Olympic Beam Medalist?

I know, it sounds completely crazy, but hear me out. Alicia had arguably one of the worst Olympic experiences ever, what with falling twice during team finals, and then getting robbed of a medal in the vault final, the only one she qualified for. However, did you know that she was less than .025 from qualifying? For more, read on

The Original Not Impressed

This post really has no connection to anything meaningful about gymnastics, but I was going through old archives researching for my last post, and I came upon an interesting picture. Who knew that McKayla Maroney wasn't even the first gymnast from the USA to be anything less than happy on the podium? To see who it was, click below

Missed Medal: Jiang Yuyuan 2008 Olympics Floor Exercise Final

 credits unknown, but isn't she a cutie?

Of course, one of the most hotly contested gymnastics events during the 2008 Beijing Olympics was the uneven bars final, with that mess between He Kexin, Yang Yilin, Nastia Liukin, and Beth Tweddle. (for what it's worth, I'm of the opinion that Yang Yilin was the clear winner) A less debated topic is the floor final. I firmly believe that Jiang Yuyuan should have ended up with the bronze. For why, see below

Guide: Watching Gymnastics on Youtube

Unfortunately, real life has come back to me, so I probably won't be getting posts up as often. While I'm working on some of my other posts, which require more research, I thought I'd put up a quick guide to watching routines on youtube. There's some basic terminology that's really easy to figure out, but having it out there can't be such a bad idea, right? To see more, keep reading!

EDIT: added more with advice from http://beautifulgymnastics.blogspot.ie/  !

Random Routine: Zeng Siqi at the Doha World Cup

Zeng Siqi; credits unknown

Today, I thought I'd take a chance to showcase one of my favorite routines from the Doha World Cup, Zeng Siqi on balance beam. It's early in the quad, but already it's looking like beam routines are starting to look more original, although it's probably because I'm thinking of the recent lovely routines of Grishina and Iordache. Anyway, on to the routine!

Recap: Jesolo Part 1

credits to www.intlgymnast.com

So I'm almost a whole week late, and should probably be recapping the Doha World Cup, or the Friendly meet (USA vs Romania vs Germany) instead, since Jesolo's been done to death, but this is really the first major international competition that's happened since I started my blog, so I figured I'd do an intro to the Jesolo meets, quick recap, 2011 vs 2012 vs 2013 (I found some really interesting stuff), and then what it all means. Basically, I'll be rambling on for way too long. Click below if you want to keep reading

Recap: Jesolo Part 2

For Part 1, click HERE

 It's fascinating to see how things in Elite Gymnastics have changed since 2010, which is when I'll start, since I can't find the standings at USAGYM for earlier than that. (actually, I just went to check, and US didn't attend Jesolo in 2009)

For more, click below!

Random Routine: Deng Linlin vs Sui Lu 2012 BB EF

Credits: AP Photo/Gregory Bull

So I recently discovered one of the coolest things ever on Youtube. Someone made a comparision video of Sui Lu and Deng Linlin at the Balance Beam Event Final at the 2012 Olympics. And it's not just two videos spliced next to each other, it's two videos spliced on top of each other! So it's like a direct comparison of one of the most controversial podium placings of the Olympics! 

For the video, and my thoughts on that placing, click below!

Skills of: Double Layouts

To see the original video, go to  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGSChVk0xnE

So, a video came up this week of Aliya Mustafina training a double layout, and the gymternet exploded. I thought I'd take this opportunity to talk about the double layout, one of my favorite moves on floor. To keep reading, click below! (And also, can I just say that I love that she trains in red sweatpants)

Aly Raisman on Dancing with the Stars

Aly Raisman FX credits to ksemenovas

Now let us compare this to the Aly Raisman that was on Dancing With the Stars tonight. To see the video, click read more

An ode to the lovely Yao Jinnan

Photo Credit: AFP

The lovely Yao Jinnan, like many others, had the talent, but was plagued by bad luck. Along with Larisa Iordache, McKayla Maroney, and Jordyn Wieber, Yao was a stunning talent who should have made a much bigger impact on the podiums in London than she did, due to injuries. Victim to an untimely pulled thigh muscle, she pushed through as best she could, but just couldn't do it. For a trip down the memory lane of Yao's senior career, click read more

Favorite Gym Blogs

this picture has no relation to the contents of this post

So, eight months after I first got back into gymnastics, eight months after lurking on every gym blog on the planet, I'm finally getting off my behind long enough to start writing my own. I thought it would be fitting to make my first post a compilation of some of my favorite gymblogs.