GYMN-L Digest - 10 Jun 1996

There are 4 messages totalling 148 lines in this issue.

Topics of the day:

1. NBC coverage of men's nationals - long
2. More WAG:National Championships
3. Kratsov injured, will miss Atlanta
4. Mens Nationals

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Sun, 9 Jun 1996 21:32:34 -0700
From: ***@IX.NETCOM.COM
Subject: Re: NBC coverage of men's nationals - long

>
> The coverage was pretty good although Tim Daggett made some interesting
useless
> comments. In talking about Mihai Bagiu's pommel horse routine he said, "when
> he's bad, he is also bad."

I saw Tim on his way out of the arena, before post production on the coverage
started,
and I asked him to be kind-- my family is watching. And I think he actually
restrained
himself.

> I'm a little baffled as to why Tim keeps saying that pommels is Mihai's best
> event. Unfortunately, almost every time I have seen Mihai compete on pommels,
he
> falls off. Has he won Nationals on this event?

Mihai won the '94 competition on PH, and was a finalist at '95 Worlds. He and
Roethlisberger were the only US finalists. Mihai has competed in a lot more
events than
you've seen, since it is actually a rarity for him to fall.

(Interesting note: There were a lot of complaints on the placement of the
pommels
(slanted) and that the rings were hung unevenly, however these problems were not
fixed.
There were reports of a board cracking in the floor during a routine...but it
wasn't
checked out until the competition was over, before the girls competed.)

> (I'm sorry, Kris, I'm
> sure you have mentioned the name of your child before, but I cannot recall
it.)

Gabriela...:)

------------------------------

Date: Mon, 10 Jun 1996 00:32:42 -0400
From: ***@GROVE.IUP.EDU
Subject: More WAG:National Championships

I thought that the coached being miked was annoying, but one must admit that
Steve Nunno was the worst of all of the coaches, Bela was actually pretty quiet
during the exercises.

Stress -- Shannon didn't een seem pleased with her performances, she kept
referring to her "mistake".

Score carryovers -- The Men's scores carry over 40% to trials, why don't the
womens? Is no one planning on petitioning into the trials?

Dom M. -- I don't like her FX, "The devil went down to Georgia", while kinda
cute when you think about it, wasn't really a great show of Dom's talent. The
coreography (sp) reminded me a lot of Kim Z.

Bela -- I think that he needs to come up with a different style for his
gymnsats. The cute little butt shaking really annoys me. I also felt he should
have re-assured Dominque instead of criticizing her after her bars exercise.

Steve -- The "go baby" comments made my conserative parents uneasy.

Shannon -- I am really glad that she did well. I liked her FX a lot! It was the
most mature shown (IMHO). I was wondering about the comment she made about her
vault during the AA. She told the reporter that if she did the first one ok she
got to try out her new vault. Shouldn't she choose what to do or not do?

Jayci -- She is really great. I didn't like the fluff about her family though,
call me what ever you like, but do these gymnasts really want their lives
shared with the public? What do you think Kris?

Friendliness -- I hope the U.S. Team will become better friends. I find it
saddening that no one seems to even like each other. Well, the womens team
anyway. The men seem to like one another.

All for now.

------------------------------

Date: Mon, 10 Jun 1996 16:04:29 +1000
From: ***@OZEMAIL.COM.AU
Subject: Kratsov injured, will miss Atlanta

"The Age" reported on Friday that Andrei Kratsov has been injured and will
miss the Atlanta Olympics.

For those of you who don't know, Kratsov is the current Australian champion,
defending his title successfully in March this year. He also finished 27th
AA at the Sabae Worlds, and is the first Australian male for ages (possibly
ever) to qualify for AA at Worlds or Olympics.

No other details were provided, and I'm not sure who will replace him, but I
suspect it will be Bret Hudson as I'm pretty sure Brennon Dowrick was the
other Aussie male going to Atlanta.

Simone.

PS Congratulations to Shannon, let's hope she repeats at Atlanta. As for
Dominique M - maybe she's not as good as she's been hyped up to be. I
really think this "too much pressure"/"let's hope she doesn't do a Zmeskal"
argument is crap, IMHO.

------------------------------

Date: Mon, 10 Jun 1996 00:32:04 -0700
From: ***@VALLEYNET.COM
Subject: Mens Nationals

This is my first time posting to the forum and unfortunately it is
not to praise US mens gymnastics. We are so far behind the other top
Nations in the world it is sad. For someone like John Mcready to place
third is a sad. He would not be even the alternate on any other respectable
team i.e. China, Belarus, or Russia.
I know the networks think that Rothlisberger is a great gymnast, and
the best in the US, when in reality he is neither. Well I take that back,
by US standards he is great. But by international standards he is less that
average. How can the networks hype him as being the best when he can't win
any single event and at most major championships he finishes behind another
US competitor.
I know this all sounds harsh and unpatriotic, but it is reality. In Atlanta
look for Rothlisberger to do nothing. Mihi (sp) Bagiu will qualify for
pomel horse finals, and J. Lynch will place on Parallel Bars. Our top AA
finisher will be Blaine Wilson but he wont be in the top 15.
The US program for mens gymnastics lacks the ability to produce an
AA gold medalist. The only time the US mens team has done well is when the
Olympics were Boycotted. The US needs to scap the current JO and senior
programs which make it easier for gymnasts to get higher scores ( i.e.
developmental D's in JO) and get rid of the politics and judge straight FIG
code gymnastics and let the best gymnast win. None of this protesting and
getting back .4 of a point.



Kris

------------------------------

End of GYMN-L Digest - 10 Jun 1996
**********************************