GYMN-L Digest - 13 Jul 1996 to 14 Jul 1996

There are 7 messages totalling 228 lines in this issue.

Topics of the day:

1. Gymnastics - the Art of Sport
2. THE BOOK
3. Reaching too far???
4. Romanian Phelps Vaults
5. re Kulikowski
6. FIG Technical Committee voting
7. gym on Australian TV (finally!)

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

Date: Sat, 13 Jul 1996 17:50:45 -0800
From: ***@UNISERVE.COM
Subject: Gymnastics - the Art of Sport

Great book. Very inspirational. I have seen a lot of recommendations
already from IG and from the list. I just got my copy yesterday and I have
to agree with everyone that has recommended it - worth every penny of it.
My daughter has already put it in her collections.


In Canada, you can order from Gymastics Canda Gymnastique over the phone
(credit goes to Grace Chiu for passing on the information).
The phone number is 613-748-5637 and fax is 613-748-5691 (you can pay over
the phone by Visa) and it took only about a week to get it. I haven't got
my bill yet but it should be in the $50 dollar range + shipping.


O
Mario \O/ /\ (father of a young rhythmic gymnast)
l ll

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

Date: Sat, 13 Jul 1996 23:32:00 EDT
From: ***@PSUVM.PSU.EDU
Subject: THE BOOK

Okay, silly ol' Joy knows that this has been posted before, but could
someone tell me how to order the Gymnastics--Art of oSort (I mean Sport,
of cousre) in the US? Thanks, I think I'm going to get it... :) Joy

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

Date: Sun, 14 Jul 1996 00:23:03 -0500
From: ***@PRODIGY.COM
Subject: Re: Reaching too far???

I recently saw a post on the list apparently quoting in an article in
the Birmingham news expressing concerns about if Dominique Moceanu
was being pushing too far. Later, I saw a response from a woman (who
shall remain nameless), who said that she thought all of the media
was jumping on the "Little girls" bandwagon.

I haven't seen ANY negative articles even closely related to
gymnastics. Even article I have seen has been nice, glowing, and
positive. Most have been profiling Dominique Moceanu. I am going to
tell you- I am damned sick of all of this crying and screaming and
moaning about that book by Joan Ryan, the Oprah Winfrey back in April,
and other related stuff.

First of all, some of the stuff in the woman's book was true. The
lady NEVER said she was talking about gymnastics. She said she was
talking about ELITE gymnasts and figure skating. But some people went
overboard, raising hell over it. They said that they were afraid that
the book would scare people away from gymnastics, give the sport a
black eye, they said. How?

It seems to me somebody has something to hide. The point I have is,
Dominque Moceanu and some of the other "women's" gymnasts are
CHILDREN. DON'T EVER FORGET THIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This girl is a child.
She looks like a 10 year old. She is 14 years old. You can not
compare her to Joe Montana. Joe Montana is a 35 year old grown man.
You can not even compare her to Shannon Miller. Shannon Miller is a
grown woman. We have been given distinctive evidence and proof that
Dominque has not done everything she has done (involving gymnastics)
according to her own accord. We know, for a fact, that her parents
planned before she was born, that she would be a gymnast. We also
know of how they put her in gym (at 3 years old) and pushed her ever
since. Surely, if she is overzealous in her lust for the olympics, it
partly due to her being groomed her whole life to be "another Nadia"
and to worship gymnastics like a religion. Did you see that girl
crying on TV in the olympic trials TV interview. She "spent my whole
life trying to get there". Is this her whole life? From what I hear,
it is.

What I am sick of, is the criticism and hell raising from some people
in the gymnastics world, fans included, towards anybody who expresses
any kind of concern towards the well being of CHILDREN. The same
children, who are compared by some people as tough athletes like Joe
Montana and David Justice. If these men choose to go out there and
compete with broken bones (which some people don't even accept), or
sprains, so be it. They make millions of dollars a year to do it. I
don't think these kids are. If Dominique Moceanu is worth several
million dollars a year, then I'll sit down and shut up.

What some of you don't understand, I have been on this list for quite
some time. I have seen hundreds of posts from people all over the
world. Posts of all subjects. Some silly, and some profound. But what
I want to know is- Why is this particular subject so sensitive to
some people involved gymnastics? To my mind, I don't see anybody
jumping on any "Little girls" bandwagon. ALL of the articles I have
seen in the last year and a half have all been sugary sweet, mostly
hyping Dominique Moceanu and the olympics. I have been sensing a lot
of paranoia from some people about anything that can be perceived as
"negative" relating to gymnastics. If Dominique Moceanu were to fail
in her olympic quest, and in the resulting stories (there are going
to be tons of stories, regardless), some information is reported
that isn't exactly good news, will some of you trash and slam the
media?

I have all figured that Dominque Moceanu hype out. 1) She has a
sparking personality and is good at giving interviewing and talking
to the public (where as, Shannon Miller was very shy during the 1992
olympics), 2) she is trained Bela Karolyi, 3) Her parents are
Romanian (home of the best gymnasts in the world), 4) She looks a
little like Nadia Comeneci at aged 14, 5) She's cute, and 6) she
plays well for the little prodigy hype. Look at number 6 again.
Remember the Jessica Dubroff debacle? The media is GOOD at digging up
little kids, especially girls, to play the role of little genius
prodigys. I never liked that. Putting kids up before the public, just
to yell, "See, see, look how smart, etc, this kid is". That whole
Jessica Dubroff thing was a farce. The same thing is happening to Dom.
That's another reason she is pumped up so much. You would have
thought she was the greatest athlete of all time. What happens if she
bombs out at the olympics? Think about that?

And forgive me for having two ounces of compassion toward Dominique
and any of the other young gymnasts. Oh, but I don't own a gym. I
guess that would make a difference, huh?

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

Date: Sun, 14 Jul 1996 01:46:14 -0400
From: ***@AOL.COM
Subject: Romanian Phelps Vaults

>And those horrible piked late twisting Phelps that much of the Romanian team
does so badly???

The irony here is that Octavian Belu used the Phelps vault as a specific
example of what was wrong with the Code during a press conference in Sabae .
. .

Mara

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

Date: Sun, 14 Jul 1996 01:46:57 -0400
From: ***@AOL.COM
Subject: re Kulikowski

>At what point can the US add Theresa Kulikoswki to the "official" line up.
I have a fear that Dominique will be pushed into competing, get injured
badly early in the competition and then the US will only have 6 gymnasts.
Does anyone else see this happening?

Once the team takes the floor no substitutions can be made.

Mara

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

Date: Sun, 14 Jul 1996 01:05:55 +0000
From: ***@RMII.COM
Subject: FIG Technical Committee voting

submitted by Steve Whitlock, USA Gymnastics

Results of FIG Technical Committee Voting

The Technical Assemblies began their meetings this morning. Of primary
interest in the first Women's Technical Assembly was the elections for
the new Committee members.

President - Jackie Fie, USA
1st Vice President - Agneta Goethberg, SWE
2nd Vice President - Millie Simionescu, ROM
Members: Nelli Kim, BLR; Teresa Oliva, CUB; Esbela Miyake, POR; Kym
Dowdell, AUS

The Men's Technical Assembly resulted in the following members:

President - Hardy Fink, CAN
1st Vice President - Sawao Kato, JPN
2nd Vice President - Julio Marcos, ESP
Members: Adrian Stoica, ROM; George Beckstead, USA; Li Ning, CHN; Istvan
Karacsony, HUN

----------
Congrats to Hardy!

Rachele

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

Date: Sun, 14 Jul 1996 16:16:18 +1000
From: ***@OZEMAIL.COM.AU
Subject: gym on Australian TV (finally!)

Oh joy of joys!

With the Olympics coming up, gymnastics is finding it's way onto Australian
TV. Did any of the other Australians on the list catch the interview on
"Sportsworld" today with Brennon Dowrick and Bret Hudson? For those of you
who don't know, these two are the Australian male gymnasts in Atlanta. It
actually wasn't a bad interview. Brennon is competing in his second
Olympics and seems quite confident.

Highlights :

* both feel that Sherbo will add at least two more gold medals, thus
equalling Sawao Kato (sp?) of Japan, in the Olympic gold medal tally
* Brennon says that this is likely to be Joanna Hughes' last competition,
and to expect great things from her
* Brennon's goal is to make AA, Bret hopes to have two good rounds of
competition
* Lisa Moro will turn 15 this week, but the youngest member of the
Australian women's team is Kirsty-Leigh Brown (who is 14). According to
Brennon, she is so excited to be on the team and is grinning from ear to ear.

Also, one of the Melbourne papers, in its Olympic preview, says that the
Australian women are aiming to make the Top 12 (doesn't it make you sick?),
and that the competition for the media darling will be a three way tie
between Mo, Moceanu and Marinescu.

Simone

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

End of GYMN-L Digest - 13 Jul 1996 to 14 Jul 1996
*************************************************