GYMN-L Digest - 8 Nov 1995 to 9 Nov 1995

There are 20 messages totalling 514 lines in this issue.

Topics in this special issue:

1. Reeses Cup in Portland
2. TV
3. Diving
4. <No subject given> (3)
5. Olympics (2)
6. Diving and...
7. Olympic Picks/Kim Zmeskal (2)
8. Introduction
9. No Subject (oldest gymnasts)
10. Olympic Team
11. Competitions with Brandy Johnson
12. Olympic Watch (3)
13. Olympics-reply
14. Atlanta Invitational

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Date: Thu, 9 Nov 1995 00:11:53 -0500
From: ***@AOL.COM
Subject: Reeses Cup in Portland

Does anyone know what days this is on, how to get tickets, and is the
training session(s) open to the public. Also does anyone know where (what
place) the competition is taking place in Portland and what gymnasts might be
competing there.
Thank you very much!
Emily

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Date: Wed, 8 Nov 1995 23:53:06 -0800
From: ***@SEATTLEU.EDU
Subject: TV

I just happened to catch the last five minutes of some TV special that
was featuring Bela and Dom M and "The Book". They were only showing the
first half tonight and will be showing the second half Thursday (Nov 9)
at the same time. It was on Prime Sports Network at around 7 to 7:30pm
(Pacific time). I have no idea what this show was or what exact time it
will be on, but from what I saw, it looks to be very interesting. Maybe
somebody knows what the heck I am talking about and can clarify.
Corrie

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Date: Thu, 9 Nov 1995 08:33:13 GMT
From: ***@LINCOLN.GPSEMI.COM
Subject: Diving

Just to add to what Ann Reed wrote yesterday about gymnasts switching to
diving at an early age.

I have found that some gymnasts at our club also make the the switch,
although mostly to swimming. I believe the reason is that the conditioning
for gymnastics, especially with strength and flexibility of the shoulders
does give the gymnast, going into swimming, a significant advantage.


John

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Date: Thu, 9 Nov 1995 07:43:03 -0500
From: ***@PIPELINE.COM
Subject: <No subject given>

Cc:
Subject: Re: Simona Pauca and Laura Cutina (fwd)

On Tue, Nov 7, 1995 6:15:12 PM at Cole E. Holmes wrote:

>Also, for those of you who have been fortunate enough to have seen the
last two
>world championships in person...what can you tell us about Claudia
Presecan?
>She has been on the last two Romanian worlds teams so she MUST be good,
but has,
>of course, not been featured in the broadcast coverage. She's from
Bucharest,
>so I'm guessing her style is more like Marinescu's.
>
Her style is almost a mix of Marinescu and Gogean, of all things!

Mara

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Date: Thu, 9 Nov 1995 12:48:03 GMT
From: ***@CS.BHAM.AC.UK
Subject: <No subject given>

I've found that a lot of divers swap to trampolining (and being honest the
reverse is also true). So now we know the maturation process of a good
trampolinist...

gymnastics -> diving -> trampolining (-> diving)

:-)
Christian

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Date: Thu, 9 Nov 1995 09:03:28 -0500
From: ***@YALE.EDU
Subject: Re: Olympics

> When's the last time we all had so many veterans stick around?

1984.

:)
Adriana

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Date: Thu, 9 Nov 1995 10:04:09 -18521200
From: ***@MADRAD.RADIOLOGY.WISC.EDU
Subject: Diving and...

Another sport that I find quite a few gymnasts
are good at is climbing. In fact, many gyms
now have climbing walls. Gymnasts have the
strength (not only arm and leg strengths, but
also hand strength), flexibility, balance,
coordination, grace, and courage (some have more
than others!) to do well in this sport. I
highly recommend those who haven't tried it to
do so (I enjoy it tremendously). And, in my
opinion, outdoor rock climbing is FAR better
than indoor gym climbing.

Lani.

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Date: Thu, 9 Nov 1995 13:01:22 -0500
From: ***@EXPERT.CC.PURDUE.EDU
Subject: Olympic Picks/Kim Zmeskal

In my opinion, these are the definite; Miller, Dawes, Strug, Moceanu,
and Borden...I belive Chow is a VERY strong contender.
The last postition will be the toughest; Phelps, Thompson(s), Zmeskal.
My opinion on Kim Z. is that she won't make it. She has a "name" in the
sport, but she doesn't have the skills and recent competition
background. I saw her on a special that Bart Connor and Nadia Comeneci
had with gymnastics and dance...they did a "Grease" bit, and had Paul
Hunt doing "clown gymnastics". Anyway, her biggest pass was 3 whipbacks
through to a double-twist. If she is to go anywhere with her
"come-back", she needs a double-layout, a full-twisting double-back, and
some nice forward tumbling. Sorry to say, but over-all I think she is
inconsistent now-a-days. It would be great to see her have a successful
comeback...her and Bogi competing against each other again. I just don't
want to see a younger girl get rejected because her name isn't as big as
Kim's. I wish her the best though, hopefuuly we'll see her "stuff" at
the World's...then we will all be able to put something behind our opinions.
Gymnly Yours,
Aaron

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Date: Thu, 9 Nov 1995 13:49:47 -0500
From: ***@MOOSE.UVM.EDU
Subject: <No subject given>

I was sitting in my Political Science class about an hour ago bored as
can be and was thinking about gymnastics. I was just wondering who were
the oldest gymnasts, male and female, to compete in the Olympics? How old
were they?


Jennifer

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Date: Thu, 9 Nov 1995 14:58:06 -0400
From: ***@FOX.NSTN.CA
Subject: Introduction

Greetings from Nova Scotia! As the parent of two competitive gymnasts (one
now retired) I have become a fan of the sport over the years. I have been
very active at the club level being on the Board, fundraising, working
competitions and general support. Further to this, and because of my
frustration that theme gifts were not readily available in the Canadian
marketplace, I have developed a business providing gymnastics theme gifts
both for retail by mail and wholesale to clubs for fundraising profits.

I am really enjoying this group, although my knowledge of the technical
side of the sport is pretty limited! We did attend the first Soapberry
International Challenge in Toronto and MacDonald Cup in Orlando so have
actually seen some of the big name gymnasts compete. I am having a good
time *impressing* the kids at our club with my new found knowledge and up
to date information on World results, gymnasts' skills, injuries, etc.,etc.
Thanks to GYMN, my daughter was delighted when an autographed poster from
the 1994 Worlds arrived at the door for her! I purchased extras to have for
a door raffle or something at our next meet.

Our girls are very interested in competing in an away meet over the March
break - March 9-17/96. They are Level B, A and National in Canada which I
believe would be levels 6-10 in US. Any help in locating a meet or a list
of meets taking place would be very much appreciated.

Also, I would love to share fundraising projects and ideas with members
from other clubs as we are constantly challenged with the need to raise
more money.

Regards,
Margi

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Date: Thu, 9 Nov 1995 18:50:29 -0500
From: ***@AOL.COM
Subject: Re: Olympics

On November 8, 1995 Jennifer wrote:

>The Olympic team...

>Shannon Miller V B B F
>Dominique Dawes V B B F
>Dominique Moceanu V B B F
>Kerri Strug V B B F
>Jaycie Phelps V B
>Amanda Borden - - -B F F
>Doni Thompson V B B

Would you really leave Jaycie off of balance beam and floor exercise? This
is a gymnast who placed *third* at the U.S. Nationals and probably would have
qualified for the all-around in Sabae, if not for her recent knee injury
(which caused her to scratch optional FX). She tumbles an excellent double
front and, IMO, she has great presentation and terrific form (she had the
highest FX score - 9.825 - tied with Shannon Miller - during the optional
session at Nationals). I know that she can be shaky on BB, but when she's
on, her array of skills is fantastic! I'm a big fan of Kerri and Amanda
also, but I think the coaches might opt to give Jaycie a shot at the
all-around. I would take Kerri off of beam, and possibly Amanda off of FX
(*great* presentation, but not always the strongest tumbling), substituting
Jaycie in both cases. It's truly is a tough call, but I had the chance to
see Jaycie in person at Nationals this year and I was incredibly impressed!
I really think she is way underrated and as long as she recovers from her
injury, her star is definitely on the rise! Am I the only one that feels this
way or are there other Phelps fans out there?

Just my thoughts :)

Amy

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Date: Thu, 9 Nov 1995 19:01:42 -0500
From: ***@AOL.COM
Subject: Re: No Subject (oldest gymnasts)

Funny you should ask...my son was just reading to me yesterday from a
children's book called Olympic Sports: Gymnastics, about some really OLD
gymnasts:

At 1904 Olympics gymnastics competition, "one of the more unusual events in
these Games was club swinging, in which a competitor performed with two
portable clubs. It was won by an American, Edward Hennig. He was very proud
of the sport and won the American championship in 1951, when he was an
incredible 71 years of age." (don't suppose that counts, though, huh? :-)

The second *old guy* was a Finnish gymnast, Heikki Savolainen, who won medals
in 5 consecutive Olympics. "He won his final medal as a member of the third
place Finnish team, in 1952 when he was 44 years old.

The same book mentions a Hungarian woman, Agnes Keleti, who won gold medals
in both 1952 and 1956 Olympics at 31 and 35 years old.

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Date: Thu, 9 Nov 1995 19:10:37 -0500
From: ***@AOL.COM
Subject: Re: Olympic Picks/Kim Zmeskal

On November 9, 1995 Aaron wrote:

>My opinion on Kim Z. is that she won't make it....I saw her on a special
that Bart >Connor and Nadia Comeneci had with gymnastics and dance...they did
a "Grease" bit, >and had Paul Hunt doing "clown gymnastics". Anyway, her
biggest pass was 3 >whipbacks through to a double-twist. If she is to go
anywhere with her
>"come-back", she needs a double-layout, a full-twisting double-back, and
>some nice forward tumbling.

Are you referring to the "Superstars of Gymnastics" special that was
televised on USA Network a few months ago? If so, during that exhibition,
Kim *did* perform a double layout on FX, as well as 3 whips to a double tuck
and a concluding double tuck (albeit underrotated). I agree with you that
her chances of making the Olympic team are quite slim because of the current
depth of the U.S. team - but she is performing more difficult tumbling than 3
whips to a double twist. :)

Amy

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Date: Thu, 9 Nov 1995 19:42:14 -0500
From: ***@AOL.COM
Subject: Re: Olympic Team

Moceanu
Miller
Dawes
Strug
Zmeskal
Borden
Phelps

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Date: Thu, 9 Nov 1995 20:44:45 -0500
From: ***@AOL.COM
Subject: Competitions with Brandy Johnson

Does anybody have tapes of gymnastics competitions (or exhibitions) with
Brandy Johnson? Please e-mail me at ***@aol.com. Thanks.

Dave
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Date: Thu, 9 Nov 1995 20:55:53 -0600
From: ***@ZEPHYR.MEDCHEM.PURDUE.EDU
Subject: Olympic Watch

I've brought this up about a year ago when people were talking about the
Olympics and the team. Well, I just have to remind everyone that back in
1988, several TOP athletes couldn't go to Seoul due to problems at trials.
Our national champ (Phillips) hopped out of bounds on FX and missed the
team, both Doe Yamshiro (sp?) and Mar also had to withdraw due to injuries
at trials. (Mar's absence was a HUGE dissapointment for me, since she
had been the ONLY US gymnast -male or female- to qualify for event finals
in the 1985 and 1987 Worlds. I was so bummed for her). And over on the
men's side, who can forget seeing Dan Hayden miss his Kovacs twice and
miss the team.

Things happen. You never know, Zmeskal could make it due to her own abilities
or by virtue of the fact that others can't qualify. If I could chose a
trainging squad for the team to pick the top seven, it would be:


Miller, Zmeskal, Strug, Dawes, Chow, Thompson, Moceanu, and Gordon.

Now, two jobs I wouldn't want. One: picking the top seven out of that
line-up. And two: deciding who competes AA and who only does a few events.


Jeff.


P.S. In retrospect, I am amazed at Dawes. When I first saw her at Barcelona,
I was amazed at her abilities but thought that she would just be a "fad: in
US gymnastics. I personally hope that she gets to do AA, along with Strug,
since they both know what it is like to go up early at Olympics to help
your team, but not your AA score. These two, along with Miller, DESERVE to
do AA (IMHO).

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Date: Thu, 9 Nov 1995 21:50:03 -0500
From: ***@AOL.COM
Subject: Olympics-reply

11/9/95

This is who I think will make the team, although anything can happen and even
our top athletes can end up not making the team...

Shannon Miller
Dominique Dawes
Kerri Strug
Amanda Borden
Doni Thompson
Kristy Powell
Theresa Kulikowski

I was fortunate to spend 2 months at Aerials Gymnastics, interviewing the
girls and watching workouts. Theresa is not a big name b/c of her
competition results, but she is probably the best one at their gym and is an
incredible gymnast. I was very happy to see her make the world team. If she
can just get her nerves together, she could be one of the best in the world.
She is amazing in workouts. She, along with everyone else I got to know at
Aerials, is very friendly and down-to-earth. It's the most positive gym
environment I've seen in a long time.

Lori

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Date: Thu, 9 Nov 1995 21:59:42 -0500
From: ***@YORKU.CA
Subject: Re: Olympic Watch

> Things happen. You never know, Zmeskal could make it due to her own
abilities
> or by virtue of the fact that others can't qualify. If I could chose a
> trainging squad for the team to pick the top seven, it would be:
Miller, Zmeskal, Strug, Dawes, Chow, Thompson, Moceanu, and Gordon.
Does Gordon mean Amanda Borden? Also, which Thompson are you picking,
Doni or Jennie?
> Now, two jobs I wouldn't want. One: picking the top seven out of that
> line-up. And two: deciding who competes AA and who only does a few events.
>
> P.S. In retrospect, I am amazed at Dawes. When I first saw her at
Barcelona,
> I was amazed at her abilities but thought that she would just be a "fad: in
> US gymnastics. I personally hope that she gets to do AA, along with Strug,
> since they both know what it is like to go up early at Olympics to help
> your team, but not your AA score. These two, along with Miller, DESERVE to
> do AA (IMHO).
I totally agree with you here. Back in 1992, I thought that Kerri got a
raw deal in terms of her postition in the team lineup. I personally thought
that she deserved to be in the AA instead of Betty Okino, who, in my opinion
was one of the most overrated gymnasts I've seen. Don't get me wrong, I
enjoyed watching her perform, and I think she had a nice elegant style, but I
really felt that Strug was a better gymnast at the time and could have done
quite well in the AA. Hopefully she'll make the AA in Atlanta.
Chrstopher

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Date: Thu, 9 Nov 1995 21:57:15 -0500
From: ***@PHOENIX.PRINCETON.EDU
Subject: Re: Olympic Watch

I know I've asked this before, but with all the talk about the Olympic
team, I'm still wondering about AA qualification. I thought someone
mentioned before Sabae that there may be a way for gymnasts who don't
compete all 8 events for the team to perform all events with some being
an exhibition (scored only for the purpose of AA qualification) If this
is not possible, the 7-6-5 rule could be very detrimental to team
spirit. Each team's coaches of the top level could pick the country's AA
competitors before the event by only allowing three girls to compete all
8 events. Now, we've seen Olympic favorites falter in team competitions
of the past. It would be a sham if those with less famous names
performed beautifully on 7 events but were kept out of the AA because the
favorites
did 8 events, even with major mistakes (though I'm not wishing that on
anyone). Any ideas?
-Emily

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Date: Thu, 9 Nov 1995 22:03:43 -0500
From: ***@PHARM.MED.UPENN.EDU
Subject: Atlanta Invitational

Hello:

Here are the names of who is supposed to be in the
IBM Atlanta Gymanstics Invitational:

Women:

Svetlana Boguinskaya, Belarus
Elena Piskoun, Belarus
Liya Ji, China
Xuan Liu, China
Laetitia Begue, France
Elvire Teza, France
Miho Hashiguchi, Japan
Risa Sugawara, Japan
Alexandra Marinescu, Romania
Mirela Tugurlan, Romania
Rozalia Galieva, Russia
Elena Grosheva, Russia
Joanna Juarez Roura, Spain
Mercedes Pacheco Del Barrio, Spain
Oxana Knijnix, Ukraine
Lyubev Sheremeta, Ukraine
Mohini Bhardwaj, USA
Katie Teft, USA

Men:

Andrei Kan, Belarus
Vitale Rudnitski, Belarus
Krasimir Dunev, Bulgaria
Jordan Jovtchev, Bulgaria
Huadong Huang, China
Peter Nikiferow, Germany
Oliver Walther, Germany
Masayoshi Maeda, Japan
Masanora Suzuki, Japan
Hong-Chul Yeo, Korea
Alexi Bondarenko, Russia
Eugeni Podgorni, Russia
Rustam Sharipov, Ukraine
Alexander Svetlichny, Ukraine
Mihai Bagiu, USA
Jair Lynch, USA
Kip Simons, USA
Blaine Wilson, USA



Mayland
Mayland

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End of GYMN-L Digest - 8 Nov 1995 to 9 Nov 1995 - Special issue
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