Monday November 23, 2009
For the third year in a row, the Georgia women's team and Stanford men's team have been ranked #1 in the pre-season coaches' poll.
Georgia has won the last five NCAA titles, so it's not surprising that the team received 13 first-place votes. Utah is ranked second, while Alabama is third. (The two teams placed in the opposite order at the 2009 NCAAs.) Looking for a sneak peek? Georgia has some practice highlights up on its website, Gymnastike has a bunch of Utah videos, and there's a clip of a recent Alabama intrasquad on YouTube.
On the men's side, Stanford is also the defending NCAA champion, so its first-place rank is also expected. California is in second, with Oklahoma in third. I haven't found pre-season videos of the men, but here's a quick rundown of the Stanford freshmen class. I'll add video if some goes up.
(Pictured above: Courtney McCool, a senior on the Georgia gymnastics team; Stephen Dunn / Getty Images)
Monday November 16, 2009
Soviet gymnast Olga Mostepanova won the all-around at the 1984 Alternate Games (held by the Eastern Bloc countries that boycotted the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles) in unprecedented fashion: She scored a 10.0 on every event. Most experts feel that she would have beaten Olympic champion Mary Lou Retton had they gone head-to-head.
Check out this video of her floor routine at the 1983 worlds. Don't miss her incredible dance -- she truly looks like a dancer who can also tumble -- and her very-cool second tumbling pass.
And here's her beam routine at the Alternate Games. It's hard not to love her amazing mount, which includes an "Onodi" long before Onodi herself performed the skill. (It's thought that Mostepanova never submitted the skill for name consideration.)
(Pictured above: Olga Mostepanova; Tony Duffy / Getty Images)
Monday November 9, 2009
The US women's team (Kyla Ross, Sabrina Vega, Alexandra Raisman, and Bridgette Caquatto) took team gold at the 2009 Junior Pan Ams in Aracaju, Brazil. Canada won second, while Brazil earned the bronze. The US women also swept the top four spots in the all-around: 1) Ross 57.40 2) Vega 56.25 3) Raisman 56.20 4) Caquatto 56.10.
In event finals, Raisman won vault and floor, while Ross took gold on bars and beam. There were lots of silver medalists too: Caquatto on vault, Vega on bars, and Ross on floor.
In the men's competition, Brazil earned team gold, with the US in second, .55 behind. Colombia placed third. American C.J. Maestas took silver in the all-around, while teammate Sam Sam Mikulak ended in fourth. The other American men, Jake Martin and Jesse Glenn, were 11th and 14th, respectively.
Maestas had a great event finals as well, winning rings and earning silvers on pommel horse and parallel bars.
Mikulak placed second on floor and third on vault.
Video:
Results:
Thursday November 5, 2009
