I know it’s early in the year, but seriously?! They also only bothered to show Becky Downie once and she had watered down and looked tired. I am hoping for better things for her at Euros, however!

Far more interesting things that have since been afoot are Russian National Championships where little Aliya Mustafina took the title over Ksenia Semenova, who’s still coming back from injury, and where The Other Ksenia, Afanasyeva, continued to depress us all by being a headcase. Sigh.

2009 Russian National AA Champion Aliya Mustafina. She is fourteen. LOL age rules.

Then there was Gymnix which was a fairly disappointing competition in and of itself, but in a different way. Mostly in that there were so few people actually…competing in the World Cup portion of the event. BUT! Among them was my beloved Mattie Larson.

And she debuted a new floor routine which, as is common for her, excellent. Love love love her. Please let her not be broken for worlds. Please let her not be broken for worlds. Please let her not be broken for worlds.

She took floor and actually managed to stay on beam and win that. While another favourite of mine Sami Shapiro took bars. Only two girls even competed vault, but Charlotte Mackie won and I like her so, whatevs, congrats. Her 1 1/2 was very nice.

The upcoming Jesolo meet is actually shaping up to be interesting in that Italy, Romania, Great Britain, and Brazil all seem to be sending fairly A teams. *crosses fingers*

Beyond that I am just hoping Euros will be awesome (though with all the injuries who even knows). I would like to have something better to be excited about than Shawn on DWTS! She is doing well so far, barring the awful wardrobe choices and also tanorexia (though these things are par for the course on the show apparently), but uhm actual gym would be nice in my life.

Nastia models Max Azria for the Red Dress Collection

Though more exciting (to me anyway): her Max Azria campaign is finally officially released and, keeping true to the few dribs and drabs over the last few weeks, is stunning. The full image book is available for viewing at http://www.maxazria.com as is a soft focus, strummy music, artistically shadowed video lovingly depicting Nastia taking the photos for the campaign.

Nastia stars in Max Azria's Spring 2009 campaign

So. Whee! In case you cannot tell, I enjoy seeing gymnasts doing all of this kind of stuff. Except for when Shawn makes me watch Dancing with the Stars. (I still enjoy it, just begrudgingly.)

Now, moving on to gymnasts doing actual gymnastics! The American Cup is THIS WEEKEND. I feel like I have been waiting an eternity for what is arguably the first BIG competition of the 2009 season. The full roster was released a while back:

Brittany Rogers, Canada
Youna Dufournet, France
Kim Bui, Germany
Rebecca Downie, Great Britain
Koko Tsurumi, Japan
Amelia Racea, Romania
Kristina Goryunova, Russia
Bridget Sloan, USA
Jordyn Wieber, USA
Jessica Lopez, Venezuela

I have already spoken on my excitement about Bridget (paticularly since reports that she’s been training a front triple twist!) and I’m sure Jordyn will do fine. It’s also nice to see Jessica Lopez back as I felt her floor was a standout last year. Plus, Koko Tsurumi is always good to see and Brittany Rogers is one of Canada’s outstanding new seniors. But I have to say that the person I am most excited about (hopefully) getting a peek at this comp is Becky Downie.

Great Britain's Becky Downie

The British National AA Champion wasn’t super on my radar in previous years. I saw peeks of her at 2007 Worlds and heard about her getting into two finals at Euros last year. But it wasn’t until I was watching the full (full!) coverage of the Beijing AA that she really caught my eye. She was in the last group, having just sneaked into the final in 24th place after a rough prelims, and she worked herself all the way up to 12th. Also known as the highest Olympic AA placement for a British gymnast ever.

I was very impressed watching her, moreso even than various people in the 2nd and 3rd groups. She’s clean, has an entertaining and balanced floor routine, and a very nice DTY. She’s also second only to Beth Tweddle on bars in the UK and she hit an excellent set in the AA final (plus she does a Ricna which is just an awesome skill). I’m really curious to see what upgrades she might have and just her new routines in general. I think she could do some good things this year.

Though even more than I’m excited about her at the American Cup (dubious as I am about getting to actually see much of her in the broadcast), I’m excited to see what she might do at Euros. In Beijing, she dropped her second vault to concentrate on AA, even though she made vault finals at Euros. The field is minimized this year with both Chuso and Pavlova out with injury, so I’m curious about whether she’ll go for that, or continue concentrating on AA (or do both!). So, excitement everywhere. Main point being, I think she’s a talent that I would like to see grooow.

Now, let’s hope I didn’t jinx her!

Here’s Becky at the 2008 British National Championships. I WANTED to post her Beijing AA final floor (which was better), but I was thwarted in numerous ways.

The thirteen stars taking part in Dancing With The Stars 8 are singer Belinda Carlisle, comedian and actor David Alan Grier, singer/songwriter Jewel, Olympic athlete Shawn Johnson, singer and actress Lil’ Kim, actor Gilles Marini, rodeo cowboy Ty Murray, comedian and actor Steve-O, entertainment anchor Nancy O’Dell, actress Denise Richards, NFL legend Lawrence Taylor, country singer Chuck Wicks, and computer icon Steve Wozniak.

Dancing With The Stars 8 premieres with a two-hour episode on Monday, March 9 from 8 PM to 10 PM on ABC. The first Dancing With The Stars results show airs on Tuesday, March 17 from 9 PM to 10 PM on ABC. The Dancing With The Stars season finale will air on Tuesday, May 19 from 9 PM to 11 PM ET.

Source

If it proves true, it would certainly explain why she hasn’t been back in the gym.

Some people have expressed concern about this rumor given Shawn’s age (and she is indeed being touted as the youngest competitor yet on the show) and the show’s apparent lean towards highly sexual costuming and dancing.

I can’t personally comment since my profound lack of interest in Dancing With the Stars cannot be properly expressed in words or even real numbers. But good on Shawn riding the fame wave if that’s what makes her happy.

Saturday, January 10, 2009
American Cup Competitor
Jordyn will be competing in the 2009 American Cup competition which will be held on February 20th-21st in Chicago, IL. Jordyn will be joining 2008 US Olympian, Bridget Sloan. The United States will be naming two additional athletes to their squad and many international athletes are also expected to participate. The finals portion of the competition will be broadcasted LIVE by NBC Sports on February 21st at 3:00 CT.

This is a surprising twist given that the 13-year-old US junior national champion won’t be a senior international elite until 2011. Wieber’s camp has come under a certain amount of criticism and concern in the past from gym fans who worry that Wieber is doing too much difficulty too soon and will burn out if she isn’t paced better. These concerns weren’t alleviated by the fact that she’s been throwing Amanars at training camps for quite some time now.

Wieber at 2008 US Nationals

Have juniors ever competed at the American Cup before?! For the last few years it’s basically been used largely by USAG as the coming out party for the new seniors that were expected to make a splash or a little ball in honor of the current It Girl. (ETA: Apparently various juniors have actually competed at SCAM in the past, though, unfortunately, very few of them ever went on to anything notable once they turned senior!) For this very reason, people, myself included, were very interested in who was going to get the rather plum assignment with all of the big names currently out of competition.

I don’t think anyone guessed that any juniors were in the mix at all. Especially with new, untested, and promising seniors like Mattie Larson and Samantha Shapiro about. If the announcement on the site is accurate (and not someone in her camp jumping the gun) then this is a huge vote of confidence in Wieber and definitely an investment in her being one of their big stars when the London Olympics are about to roll around.

It also means that Bridget Sloan, many people’s first choice for the headliner of this year’s AmCup (once again, myself included), is definitely getting the assignment that everyone expected her to. It also means that there will be prelims (an issue of much confusion even for people planning to attend) for the competition and two more open spots. Though whether everyone will get to compete in the broadcast final is still unclear. There were four American girls competing at 2008 SCAM though, so it’s a possibility.

Those last two spots, again assuming this update is accurate, will be interesting. I would think that the people really vying would be the aforementioned Mattie Larson and Samantha Shapiro; along with Chelsea Davis, coached by Kim Zmeskal, and who copped to upgrading at the end of last year in an interview over at the excellent Gymnastike; Corrie Lothrop, who exceeded all expectations (including her own) by becoming an Olympic alternate and got some assignments post-Olympics at which she performed well; perhaps Olivia Courtney who was also sent out a bit at the end of last year; and, of course, the ever dogged Jana Bieger. (Is Sam Pezsek back in shape? How’s her ankle? How is her transition to Sharp’s going? Does anyone know anything about what’s up with her?!)

Hell, since Wieber is, at the very least, in the mix, maybe even maybe Kamerin Moore, Wieber’s adorable bespectacled teammate, who brought home some hardware from Top Gym in late November, will make a run. Apparently this is already Crazyville!

I, for one, am quite interested to see how this situation further develops! Especially when gossip starts leaking from the upcoming National Team training camp.

(FTR, my picks for the last two spots with be Larson and Shapiro.)

As a clarification, particularly since I just got a pretty hilarious comment on my previous post, I have no pretensions of being a gym news blog or offering you up-to-date “coverage” of anything in particular. Places like Triple Full have that well covered. Much like when this was just a tag on my personal LiveJournal, I post whatever I feel like posting about at any given moment. And though I still laugh at aforementioned commenter’s assertion that covering a single Nastia article makes this The Nastia Fanatic Blog…if that was what I wanted it to be, then it would and without shame and you would have my cordial invitation to suck it! <3

At any rate, what I have actually been mulling over posting about for all this time is the (weeks-ago) World Cup Final. Most specifically the beam final, but I’ll get to that.

First I want to note my ambivalence about the discontinuation of the final. I think that in theory it’s a great thing and probably was in the past, but in practice…yeah, not so much. Which I feel was most exemplified by the fact that to get a full roster for various apparatus they had to dip down into the teens and twenties in the rankings. I watched the Universal Sports coverage of the event in full (which I much appreciated) and, honestly, found it very lackluster.

Lots of falls on floor, the disappointing withdrawal of Yang Yilin from bars, and what seemed at the time an abundance of bad Yurchenko 1 1/2s (so many tucked final 1/2s wtf) in the vault final did not give me much to cheer about. Sure, I’m happy for Cheng Fei for a bit of redemption for her ridiculously heartbreaking Olympics (and also for Ariella Kaeslin and Aagje LastnameIcan’tspellorpronounce) along with feeling bad for poor, tired Sandra Izbasa and a disappointing third on floor.

What I did find most of my interest invested in was the beam competition and some genuine, serious surprised joy was evoked by Lauren Mitchell’s win. In my prior LiveJournal posts it’s been mentioned fairly often, though not previously here, but I am very fond of Lauren Mitchell. Particularly, every time she competes, I am always, always wishing for her to do well on beam. So there was EXCITEMENT! EXALTATION! she won a pretty, freaking prestigious beam title! (And had a really cute conversation with Cheng Fei!) Glee.

Such glee, in fact, that I cut her beam from the coverage and sent it to a friend. And when I did that, and as I talked to my friend about it, in essence, I prefaced my commentary with “She’s wobbly, BUT…”

And that got me to thinking. I think that on paper, Lauren’s 2008 beam set is one of my absolute favourites of the quad. I like the combinations she tries and that she does something different on the turn (even though I do not actually like the Humphrey as a rule because it is ugly imo) and there is just a certain quality of movement she has on beam that I like.

But, beam being my long time favourite event, it kills me that I have to caveat showing someone a beam champion’s performance with PLZ IGNORE HER WOBBLING EVERYWHERE. And I’m not picking on Lauren, who, as mentioned, I love, but I feel this is just so endemic to this quad and this code and I don’t know if I feel like there’s a solution.

In theory (in theory!), I actually agree with the goal of the 2006-2008 Code of Points when perfectly applied. I agree that there should be more separation between gymnasts. I think they should lower the number of counting elements (as they are in this year’s code) and there are various quibbles with certain skill and connection values, but the basic premise, to me, is sound. I do believe that someone doing something significantly harder (but still well within their ability!) should be rewarded more than the 10.0 allowed. I do believe that someone executing their exercises significantly better should be rewarded in a way that the open-ended system allows for when applied correctly.

In my ideal world, the code would ensure that someone doing an amazing beam set would not lose it on a single adjustment to someone with a significantly less amazing beam set. But what we actually get seems to be a lot of people contending while wobbling after half their skills.

I remember witnessing one conversation about Nastia Liukin and Shawn Johnson’s incredible consistency on beam in 2008, where neither of them missed a single beam routine the entire year. Many felt it was worth note (I agree!) and, in response, some people (not specifically talking about Liukin and Johnson) essentially wondered when we started giving people cookies for staying on the beam. Which is pretty valid I have to say.

And I’m no longer sure where I’m going with this, so I’ll just ask a question!

What’s your stance? Do you prefer it being decided by absolute perfection or can you stand a minor adjustment or two in an otherwise great performance taking the prize? Or something else entirely?

If you're wondering, her medal fell off!

WELL…

Nastia Liukin on the Cover of WWD Beauty Biz

WWD Beauty handed her over to fashion photographer Guy Aroch to get some pictorial accompaniment for their piece on her and her marketing and endorsement adventures…

Long, lean and willowy in a sport where the athletes tend toward the prepubescent, the blonde-haired, blue-eyed Liukin personifies fresh young beauty. But those who saw her compete in the Beijing games know she’s got a game face as inscrutable as a Xi’an warrior. Liukin’s ability to focus during competition is legendary. Her mother gave her the book The Secret shortly before the Olympics, and its message about visualizing success resonated. “I’ve always been so focused when I compete,” she says. “I don’t like to look around me. I do a lot of visualization. I think about my routines over and over and the right way to perform them, from sticking the dismount to saluting at the end.”

Split leaps in Norma Kamali

Now, she’s bringing that same single-mindedness to bear on her life beyond gymnastics. Liukin—who is a five-time Olympic medalist, four-time world champion, nine-time world medalist, four-time U.S. national champion and, in 2008, also won both the Pacific Rim and American Cup titles—counts AT&T, Adidas, Visa and P&G as sponsors, all of whom signed the 19-year-old before she won gold. She’s also got deals with the jeans company Vanilla Star, the sports equipment manufacturer AAI and Beacon Street Girls, a social networking site aimed at teens. In the spring, she’ll appear in ads for MaxAzria, while a fragrance deal and line of jewelry are in the planning stages, though nothing has yet been signed.

Posing in VPL and Rick Owens

The deals range in scope: For P&G, Liukin acts as a spokesperson for the various brands. For Vanilla Star, she is featured in the ad campaign and is also introducing a denim line under the moniker Nastia’s Gold. Her goal—representing a new direction in sports marketing—is to be more than just a talking head. It’s to be a vested partner. “She owns equity in some of the companies and projects,” says Morgenstein. “You’re not having to go through a sieve of endorsement deals forever, where you get one one millionth of a penny for every dollar a product you endorsed brought in. There’s so much opportunity now for athletes to take the risk and be rewarded for it.”

In the pit in VPL

Still, it’s a feat that’s as difficult to pull off as a full twisting double back. “Our biggest question is, how long is the window?” says Mark Levy, president of Vanilla Star Jeans, questioning how long an athlete can maintain public interest. “We think Nastia will turn into the exception because of her goals and what she stands for. She’s aspirational because she wants to prove that any girl can live her dream, and her appearance on Gossip Girl will definitely rekindle excitement.”

Beauty shot in VPL and Vanilla Star

 
 
To transcend her life beyond the gym, Team Liukin has created a brand positioning centered around promoting healthy living for young women. “Her message is about fighting teen obesity, getting kids active, giving kids the opportunity to have fun and be healthy,” says Morgenstein, who speaks as quickly as a Liukin tumbling pass. “There’s a certain reality to how sports works, and our goal is to put her in a position where her success isn’t tied to sports.

To be sure, it’s possible: Tiger Woods, Michael Jordan and Mary Lou Retton all have widespread appeal beyond athletics. P&G’s Dial thinks Liukin has crossover potential, too, particularly because, like Barack Obama, her story epitomizes the American Dream. “At the end of the day, the appeal has to go beyond the sport,” says Dial, “and for Nastia, there’s a wonderful story of how she’s Russian born and has a long lineage in gymnastics. She has the potential to broaden her appeal and connect with consumers and fans in a way that goes beyond gymnastics.”

Full Article Here

SO…that said shown:

PLEASE FORGIVE ME FOR DOUBTING YOUR FIERCENESS, NASTIA. I SHOULD HAVE KNOWN BETTER.

Have a stamp of approval:

In these travels, I occasionally come by videos containing really great routines or skills that I often didn’t know said gymnasts had done or were not widely broadcast, etc. This is fun! And exciting! To me, anyway. And in the hopes that it will be, at least, mildly entertaining to you, I’ve decided to share these as I encounter them. You may have seen them, you may not have, but either way, they’re worth remembering.
 
 
Few would accuse Carly Patterson of being an especially exciting gymnast and, truly, I would not be one of those few. She always seemed to lack a certain amount of feeling, to be a little robotic. Frankly, she just wasn’t that interesting. And while I don’t hold the fact that she parlayed her Olympic glory into a “singing career” against her in the way that some gym fans do, let’s face it: it is and probably always will be a very hilarious development. Not really in a good way. But one thing that I could never fault Carly Patterson for was her almost freakish ability on balance beam. Everything she did was so preternaturally light and floaty it was almost mesmerizing. This video is from a 2002 podium meet.

What’s most remarkable about this (besides her being like 13 and doing the double arabian dismount), I feel, is her back full (:16). Not only does she do it with actual, honest-to-goodness true full-in technique (i.e. doing a full twist and then the salto, instead of twisting during the salto), but it’s not even really tucked. I look at this and feel like she could have trained up to a full-twisting layout. But then when she dropped the tucked/piked back full for a plain layout, it wasn’t that great, so who knows. What I do know is that this is pretty awesome and that it’s disappointing that by the time Carly made her successful run for the Olympic AA title in 2004, there really wasn’t much left of interest in her balance beam routine outside of her bitching dismount. But, oh, there was a time!

Three more, after the jump!
 

 
I make no bones about the fact that I am very fond of Bridget Sloan. I love her clean lines and tumbling, her candid nature, and her potential. Like many, I’m also a sucker for an underdog story so from Worlds team alternate, to dark horse, to Olympic silver medalist appeals to me a lot. In addition, going from guaranteed only a single event in prelims to doing all around there and placing 10th in the world (with errors) isn’t too shabby either. All said, I’d love to see a time when the stars all align and Bridget does some great(er) things. Until then, however, I do enjoy watching this floor set of hers from 2007 US Nationals.

This is not her best performance of this floor routine. Not by far. You would probably want to check out the Beijing Test Event for that. She has some control issues here, bounces about a bit, but the reason I always come back to this routine again and again is because she opens it with what might be the best piked full-in I’ve ever seen. Sky high, great form, and cold stuck.
 
 
 
I count myself among the many, many people who were deeply disappointed that Chellsie Memmel was injured yet again before she could actually show off what she had been building towards leading up to the Olympics. Another disappointment of mine was the fact that on the one event that she did get to do, Chellsie wasn’t really at her best. There was, of course, her wildly uncharacteristic fall in prelims; then, in team finals, it was passable, but it also wasn’t approaching as good as she could do it. Different code acknowledged, this routine from the 2005 US vs. SUI meet is a great snapshot of her capability.

While, of course, the Hindorff immediate Pak salto immediate stalder Shaposhnikova combination that makes up the meat of this routine is sick as all get out, what actually catches my eye the most is the fact that she takes the jam before her dismount straight up to handstand. Something that, in later years, one almost forgot that she could do. Of course, in later years, she was somehow still doing the jam-to-handstand after completely screwing up the rotator cuff in her shoulder, so, as always in the case of Chellsie Memmel, there’s something to be said for her drive.
 
 
 
I always feel sort of bad for Jana Bieger. She came up to senior at the same time as Nastia, so she was never going to be the big story, but she started off right there in the thick of it. 2005 US Nationals was nothing but her, Nastia, Chellsie, and Alicia. I don’t think NBC even showed anyone else. Not even once. Then the Fab Four all trooped off to Worlds and not only was Jana the only one who didn’t walk away from Melbourne a world champion (or triple double world champion in Nastia’s case), but she only competed bars and didn’t make it to any finals at all. Then she came in third at nationals again in 2006, but no one really seemed to care since they were too busy fantasizing that Natasha Kelley wouldn’t be completely torn to shreds by international judges. Then 2006 Worlds should have been her moment to shine! Chellsie and Nastia went down with injuries, landing her in AA finals. She hit, hit, hit, and won silver. Then, she went on to take silver again in the floor final. Aaaaand…still no one really seemed to care. Indeed, no one cared to the extent that by 2007 Nationals, she went from #2 gymnast in the world to not having a single one of her routines broadcast over the two day competition. Sure, she was out of shape and had a meet so horrible that she was left entirely off the worlds training squad. And sure her form and general…energy seemed only to get worse and worse as the years passed. But it’s sort of hard to take such a intense case of Always the Bridesmaid Never the Bride.

She’s USAG’s very own Fallback Girl, who keeps hanging around, doing her thing, like in 2008 going for the Olympic team despite the fact that Marta clearly had little interest in her, only to be named alternate and not be called in despite the numerous injuries. And she seems to be right back at it again going for 2009. And at this juncture I’ve completely lost track of where I was going with this. Anyway, all this said, Jana doesn’t tend to even garner much sympathy from the gymnastics fandom at large because of the almost universal derision for her gymnastics. I won’t say said dislike of her gymnastics is not understandable; there are her form problems, her aversion to ever pointing her toes, and complete lack of artistry. Then her gym has a plodding feel to it, sort of heavy all around. Which is why, having known this Jana Bieger for these past few years, it’s weird, refreshing, and a little sad to look at this routine of hers from the 2004 American Classic.

It’s actually…sort of lovely. I don’t believe that choreography has to be balletic to count and she works with this to make it count. Then there’s the tumbling. Even in her current incarnation, Jana still tries for some big tricks, like including both a full-twisting double layout and a double layout in her floor routine, but she chronically goes out of bounds and also seems to run out of gas halfway through every routine. But here, she’s bouncing from beginning to end and manages to include a double front, a tucked front full through to triple twist, a Randi (!), and finish with a double arabian. Every twist fully completed, every salto high and tight, and good landings throughout. So, kudos, Jana Bieger. Whatever may have come later, this is some badassery worth remembering.

At any rate, I shall dive right into The Latest.

Rumors slash reports abound currently that the minor, preventative knee thing that kept Rebecca Bross out of PAGU was actually major knee surgery to remove a bone chip. As it stands, she may be out for up to the entire season with this and some other growth-related issues.

Even if it’s not as bad as that, it’s highly doubtful that she’ll be showing up for the American Cup which I find intensely saddening. I was really, really looking forward to seeing Bross make her senior debut in spectacular fashion. Also with her absence, since she would likely have been guaranteed a spot, it’ll be interesting to see who ends up with that rather plum assignment.

Reports from the most recent camp were that Bridget Sloan was angling hard for it which is why she passed up other assignments AND Jana Bieger was also chugging right along with her sights set on it. I’m not sure how many girls Marta will decide to send, but I’d love to see Bridget come away the star of the show. I’d also like to see nice things from Sam Shapiro or maybe Mattie Larson. I also confess to a certain curiosity about where Sam Peszek is currently after her move over to Bridget’s gym (and Bridget’s coach Marvin Sharp, as well, I assume). But with Nastia, Shawn, Chellsie, and Alicia all out for the moment or forever, Bridget is essentially the biggest name they have on hand.

I find myself actually really excited about SCAM if for no other reason than the opportunity to see the spotlight shined on different people. It’s been a very long time in US gymnastics since a competition has been anything but the Nastia and/or Shawn Show. I mean, they’re obviously great and, frankly, deserve the spotlight being the two best gymnasts in the world and all, but there are other very nice gymnasts who get lost in the glare coming off of them if you know what I mean.

At any rate, before this news came down my original plan for a post (that will wait until next post or so now) was to post a small collection of videos that I find myself watching again and again on YouTube that I like to call Performances Worth Remembering and comment on why exactly I feel that they’re worth remembering. The following Bross floor exercise was among them and I figured I’d include it here.

Her opening pass is so open and effortless. <3 The rest aren’t shoddy either. She could probably get some choreography that suited her a tiny bit better OR she could grow into that style. But it’s still quite good and deserved the 1st place finish it got. Also that’s a super cute leo that I have been wondering for a year now why the National Team doesn’t make more use of.

All said, I wish her a speedy recovery so that she can show up and be excellent at us ASAP.

And as an addendum, everyone’s pretty much already linked to my cut of Nastia’s brief cameo on Gossip Girl this week, but here it is one more time for anyone who might not have been paying attention.

Everyone I know who has ever watched this show assures me that Chuck Bass is gross and horrible, but this lolaritizes me nonetheless. (Her eyebrows may have waggled. I am uncertain!) I am also glad that the costuming folks seemed to immediately figure out how nice Nastia looks in white.