GYMN-L Digest - 1 Jun 1996 to 2 Jun 1996

There are 16 messages totalling 408 lines in this issue.

Topics of the day:

  1. Chari Knight-Hunter Article
  2. Romanian Gymnasts on TLC
  3. good luck
  4. Olympic Tickets
  5. GYMN-L Digest - 27 May 1996 to 28 May 1996
  6. Masters competitions?
  7. Elena Moukhina, accident
  8. GRAND PRIX OF ROME: 1996 (WAG).
  9. Adult gymnastics
 10. wrists
 11. Summer Games Video Game
 12. RSG US Natls.
 13. GYMN-L Digest - 31 May 1996 to 1 Jun 1996
 14. Chari Knight & Level 10 JO Nationals
 15. Rhythmic 96Full Team Results
 16. nude Olympians

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Date:    Sat, 1 Jun 1996 05:11:58 -0800
From:    ***@UCS.ORST.EDU
Subject: Chari Knight-Hunter Article

There was an article on Chari Knight-Hunter in the Corvallis (Ore.)
Gazette-Times this week entitled "Ex-OSU Gymnast Can't Stop Tumbling."

It can be found at the following URL:

http://www.gtconnect.com/gtonline/subscribers/sports/1996/may/27/lspo4.html

It's a well written article describing explaining her love of gymnastics,
her return to JO competition and her goal of making the 1997 World
Championships.

karen

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Date:    Sat, 1 Jun 1996 09:31:17 -0500
From:    ***@MAIL.COIN.MISSOURI.EDU
Subject: Romanian Gymnasts on TLC

I was flipping through the channels last night, and I came upon a program
that dealt with gymnastics in The Learning Channel. It was called "What
Makes Milo Fly?" It dealt with Romanian gymnast Miloscovitch (sp?) and
her attempt to compete in the Atlanta Games. It was mainly a documentary
about what happens physically to a gymnast when they are doing their
routines, with a lot of technical information like when a gymnast lands
from her vault, the force is equal to 20 times her body weight.

Miloscovitch was the main focus of the show, with a lot of interview
footage of the Romanian national team's coach. It was an interesting
program because it gave a more scientific and physiological angle to the
sport.

--Michael :)

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Date:    Sat, 1 Jun 1996 07:51:47 -0700
From:    ***@EARTHLINK.NET
Subject: good luck

I JUST WANT TO WISH EVERYONE GOOK LUCK IN THE U.S. CHAMPIONSHIPS IN
KNOXVILLE,TENNESSEE.

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Date:    Sat, 1 Jun 1996 11:10:29 -0400
From:    ***@AOL.COM
Subject: Olympic Tickets

Hi everyone,
I ordered tickets from the Olympics from the Fairtix system and I was
wondering if anyone else that ordered them this way has gotten their tickets
yet. I think they were supposed to be out in the end of May, weren't they? If
anyone knows, could you let me know? I've already had problems with them
(they charged me twice for my ticket order, making my credit card go over the
limit) and I want to make sure everything is okay. Thanks....Ellen

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Date:    Sat, 1 Jun 1996 12:47:15 -0400
From:    ***@AOL.COM
Subject: Re: GYMN-L Digest - 27 May 1996 to 28 May 1996

I would also like to comment on Jeff's statement. I totally
disagree!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I think they can be quite boring and also i think we need to add more flar to
them and make them more fun for the children to do. THese years are they
buildin block in their gymnastics expierence

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Date:    Sat, 1 Jun 1996 12:28:32 -0700
From:    ***@U.WASHINGTON.EDU
Subject: Masters competitions?

I, personally, would love to see a program where people could still
compete after they get "old" (i.e. not in high school anymore). There are
a tremendous amount of gymnasts who have no choice but to drop the sport
when they get to college--college teams are beyond the reach of most
gymnasts, and unless you're lucky enough to be at a school that offers rec
classes (as i thankfully am), you're stuck. I think gymnastics is missing
out on a potentially large group-- i know many many many ex-high school
gymnasts who would still love to compete or just have somewhere to play
with routines if they could, but there's nowhere to do it. I guess
technically you could still do J.O., but 1) it's not really fun to work
out with kids 10 years younger than you who are better than you, and 2)
training 15+ hours/week at a gym is beyond the reach, both time-wise and
financially, of most ex-gymnasts in college.

What does everyone think? Or is there already a program that i don't know
about?
-stephanie

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Date:    Fri, 31 May 1996 10:38:14 -0400
From:    ***@VAXC.HOFSTRA.EDU
Subject: Re: Elena Moukhina, accident

What incident with hwang?
Alisa

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Date:    Fri, 31 May 1996 20:16:12 -0400
From:    ***@VAXC.HOFSTRA.EDU
Subject: Re: GRAND PRIX OF ROME: 1996 (WAG).

Wasn't Fabrichnova supposed to compete her?  Does anyone know:
A) who is the womens russian team,
and
B) if fabrichnova has a chance of being there
Thanks
Alisa

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Date:    Sat, 1 Jun 1996 16:35:25 -0500
From:    ***@ASTRO.OCIS.TEMPLE.EDU
Subject: Adult gymnastics

Does anyone out there know of recreational classes or open workouts for
adults in or near Philadelphia?  Gymn-l has me inspired to lose a little
weight (so as not to destroy my wrists, ankles, hips, etc. while tumbling)
and find out what this old body can still do.  No need to suggest that I
check out the Temple U. gym; they don't have any kind of open hours.

On a related note, this question goes out to all the ex-gymnasts out there.
Is there an event you think you might be better at now than you were back
when you were competing?  Although it would take a year or two of training
to get me there, I think I might become better on beam (my worst event at
the time) than I used to be.  I don't know if I'd ever have the difficulty
I used to have (and even that would be worth much less today), but I know
how to keep excess adrenaline from getting in the way much better than I
used to.

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Date:    Sat, 1 Jun 1996 17:48:53 -0300
From:    ***@CCN.CS.DAL.CA
Subject: wrists

Hi all,
        With these recent posting concerning adult gymnastics, I have a
question for anyone who may have a suggestion. I am 5'2, 120 pounds. My
body is well proportioned except I have very very small wrists.
Children's watches from The Disney Store are still too big. My wrists
weren't always so small, when I was competing a few years ago I didn't
have this problem. Now though when I do go to the gym the strain on my
wrists is unbelieveable. Does anyone have any suggestions as to how I
could protect such small wrists and keep some of that pressure off? Any
help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance, Keep gymning!

Also, I am late posting an opinion on this but I wanted to throw it
anyway. I had missed the Worlds and just saw them today here on the
Canadian French channel. So all that talk about stoop on/squat ons wasn't
making any sense to me until I saw it today. Ohmigawd, I agree that's
gotta stop! I'm horrible with names, but who was the Negro gymnast from
France who did that rather unusual bars routine? I liked it...

Well that's it for me today.

Lisa

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Date:    Sat, 1 Jun 1996 17:12:49 -0700
From:    ***@MCN.ORG
Subject: Summer Games Video Game

Hi everyone,

I've recently been playing a famous olympics video game called Summer Games
for the Commodore (it's made by Epyx and it's also available for a couple of
other platforms). It came out in 1984, probably to capitalize on the LA
olympics craze. It's a very well designed game and it features gymnastics as
one of the events. It has been mentioned on the list in the past when people
discussed gymnastics in video games. Since I just got a chance to play it
after not seeing it for many years, I thought I'd write a little about it
for anyone who might find it interesting.

The gymnastics competition consists of the women's vault. You vault twice
and your scores are added together, for a maximum possible score of 20.

You hit the joystick button once to start your gymnast running, again to
make her jump onto the springboard (trying to time it right to get her to
the very end of the board without going to late and having her miss it), and
again when she's vertical on the horse to push off. Then you can hold the
joystick up if you want her to tuck, or don't hit anything for a layed-out
position (unfortunately there is no piked position). When she's about to
land you push the joystick down to ready her for the landing, then if she's
off balance and takes a step you can correct in the opposite direction with
the joystick to prevent her from falling. You can also hold the joystick to
the right or left during the pre-flight to do a half twist onto the horse.
It would have been great if they would have incorporated post-flight
twisting and the option of a piked position, but you can't have it all.

Having this much control lets you do a variety of different vaults, and
makes it difficult but realistic.

The scoring is quite interesting. The good parts are that a step is a tenth
of a point deduction, and you are deducted for lack of height or distance
(which you control by how accurate you are landing on the springboard and
your timing pushing off the horse). There are some great innacuracies
though, like the fact that a fall counts for 2.9 points! Below I'll list all
the possible vaults and what the maximum score (start value) is for that
vault in the game. The game does not list names for the possible vaults or
anything, I just figured these out by doing all the possible vaults as well
as the game allows and seeing what the highest score was.

(HS = handspring, Tsuk = Tsukahara)

Front HS = 6.8
HS Front Tuck = 8.4
HS Front Layout = 8.4
HS Double Front Tuck= 9.2
1/2 on, Back HS = 8.0
Tucked Tsuk = 9.2
Layout Tsuk = 9.2
Tsuk Double Back = 10.0

As you can see, it is not exactly realistic, especially by 1984 standards! A
handspring double front and a tucked Tsuk rated as the same value? That
would be like rating a Rudi the same as a triple back on floor! Oh, wait,
that has been done. Maybe it's not so unrealistic.

Anyway it's quite fun because it's very tough but you do get better. Getting
two tens in a row is very hard, which is why it's a great feeling when you do.

It's a silly topic but I though some people might want to try it out or just
see a good example of gymnastics as a video game. I'd love to see a game
some day that tried to do all the events. That would be a real challenge for
a game designer.

Bye,
Orion

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Date:    Sat, 1 Jun 1996 17:48:55 -0700
From:    ***@NETCOM.COM
Subject: RSG US Natls.

>From the AP, Jessica Davis won her 2nd AA national title with a 2-day
score of 74.663.  Behind her was Natalie Lacuesta with 73.413.  In the
junior division, Johanna Shoemaker was 1st with 73.2, followed by Tara
McCargo (72.65).  Sorry, but no other information was given.

Debbie

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Date:    Sat, 1 Jun 1996 19:41:16 -0700
From:    ***@SONIC.NET
Subject: Re: GYMN-L Digest - 31 May 1996 to 1 Jun 1996

Rachel wrote;
>> I was just looking at the results of the '96 Jr. Olympic
>> Championships that was held in Georgia earlier this month, on USA
>> Gymnastics Online
>>  and it had Chari Knight Hunter as the AA winner in the 17 an up
>>  group.
>> This couldn't be the same Chari Knight formerly of Oregon State
>> could it?

>Yes, it's the same one!  She decided she wasn't finished competing,
>and so six weeks before JOs she went into the gym, trained her sets,
>and tied for first AA.  I think it's great!  Reportedly she looked
>fantastic. However, some parents were disgruntled, saying she
>shouldn't be allowed to compete since she was so much older and had
>so much more experience.

Not just parents, some of us coaches felt a bit put off by Chari being =
there. Many of us  (Men) competed after college also, but never in the =
JO program, but as Elites. I for one wondered why Chari didn't elect to =
go Sr. National instead of Level 10, certainly a bit more of a challenge =
in line with a gymnast of her caliber. Level 10 Nationals is also an =
event of high visibility for gymnasts seeking a scholarship, an =
opportunity denied to one gymnast in Region 2 because of Chari's =
participation. To go back to the JO program seemed a rather easy way for =
Chari to simply go win another meet.

On further reflection those arguments don't hold up so well. Level 10 =
and College rules are much closer than College and Sr. National, much =
closer to the rules that Chari has competed under for the last 4 years. =
Chari and any gymnast should be allowed to compete regardless of age or =
experience at the level they feel competent at. her gymnastics was great =
( although a bit overscored IMHO ) She was an inspirational gymnast to =
watch in that she displayed a high degree of competency in her work.

I don't think I would want to send the message to my kids that to walk =
into the gym and just train for 6 weeks and earn a berth on the regional =
team is the way to go about training, but that's another issue.

All in all, a rather complex and from what I have gathered, emotion =
packed issue. Comments?

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Date:    Sat, 1 Jun 1996 21:23:38 CST
From:    ***@MAROON.TC.UMN.EDU
Subject: Re: Chari Knight & Level 10 JO Nationals

>I was just looking at the results of the '96 Jr. Olympic Championships
>that was held in Georgia earlier this month, on USA Gymnastics Online
> and it had Chari Knight Hunter as the AA winner in the 17 an up group.
>This couldn't be the same Chari Knight formerly of Oregon State could it?
>
Shawn--Yes, it is Chari Knight who graduated from Oregon State and is now
23 or 24 years old.  (She looks about 17 in person though because she is so
tiny).  I judged beam, and she TIED for 1st on beam and also in the
all-around.  On my paper I had stars and WOW! and YES! in addition to my
normal judging shorthand.  Chari did a pike jump to double stag ring jump
that was AWESOME (B+D plus connection bonus).  Her pike jump was pancaked
(chest on legs) and the height of her stag jump and her head back was
GREAT.  She also did a sheep jump (E move), with great height, and her head
back.  It was the "model" of how those leaps and jumps should be done.  In
addition to great dance, she did a front tuck mount and, I think, back
handspring, layout, layout.

I "snuck a peek" at her bars routines in finals.  (We had to wait for TV
time outs so alternated events and had long breaks in between routines.)
Chari's form is wonderful on bars too.

--Robin

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Date:    Sat, 1 Jun 1996 22:15:19 GMT
From:    ***@YUCCAMAN.DEMON.CO.UK
Subject: Rhythmic 96Full Team Results

I've now got the full positions and scores for the Team event in the 1996
European Rhythmic Championships....


   1. Ukraine                   79.898
   2. Belarus                   79.065
   3. Bulgaria                  78.364
   4. Russia                    78.063
   5. Spain                     77.396
   6. France                    76.929
   7. Greece                    76.731
   8. Germany                   76.497

No sign of the All-Around result yet.....but I'm working on it !!!

Rob
--

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Date:    Sun, 2 Jun 1996 19:40:53 +1000
From:    ***@OZEMAIL.COM.AU
Subject: nude Olympians

Some of you may be interested to know that the latest issue of "Black and
White" magazine features nude photographs of many Australian Olympians (or
Olympic contenders).  As far as I know, this mag is only available in
Australia.  It features Brennon Dowrick and Bret Hudson, two of our best
male gymnasts, in several photographs, including handstands and an
L-straddle (that's what I call it anyway).  While the photos leave nothing
to the imagination, there are no full frontal shots.  The handstand shot is
a bit on the risque side, so hopefully it won't start another "guy gymnasts
are gay" thing.

Simone

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End of GYMN-L Digest - 1 Jun 1996 to 2 Jun 1996
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