Former gymnast jailed for fraud

Former gymmast David Simpson has been jailed for 24 weeks after claiming a disability allowance after a car accident left him 'virtually an invalid'. However, he was caught performing as a children's entertainer at parties.

Read the full story here

Commonwealth Games Videos

The Commonwealth Games are getting near and the BBC has put up a few videos about the gymnastics:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/commonwealth_games/delhi_2010/9040457.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/other_sports/gymnastics/9040191.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/other_sports/gymnastics/9040189.stm

Aussie Gymnastics Team Arrives in Delhi

Watch here

Romanian Nationals

Mihaitza48 has posted some videos from Romanian Nationals
here

Gymnastics death drug claim

Some might remember the tragic death of Michelle Maitland in Townsville about a year ago. A hearing has begun which has revealed that she was under the influence of marijuana at the time. The hearing is trying to determine if Townsville Gymnastics breached WH&S standards. Read about it here:

http://www.townsvillebulletin.com.au/article/2010/09/09/169111_news.html

Talk about short careers

Women's gymnastics is renowned for it's short careers, but this is ridiculous! Apparently Kayla Williams is retiring from elite gymnastics, barely a year after she started competing in elite competitions. Although she does plan to compete in the NCAA for the University of Alabama, it is still really sad to see her leaving elite gymnastics.

Doritos Ad

Gymnast turned pole-vaulter Joel Pocklington has created the following ad featuring some gymnastics for a Doritos competition.

http://www.doritos.com.au/#/gallery/week-5/id/1080


Also, see some of his showreels:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHhUuGheOY8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Y-lOys6qFQ

Australian Womens Commonwealth Games Team

The Australian Womens Commonwealth Games team is:

Georgia Bonora
Mary-anne Monckton
Ashleigh Brennan
Lauren Mitchell
Emily Little

Reserves:
Shona Morgan
Georgia Wheeler

It is a little interesting that they have taken 3 injury petitions. But it is certainly hard to go past Lauren Mitchell. Emily Little also put up a good case with her recent results and I guess Ashleigh's 2nd place on day 1 at nationals was enough to lock in her position.

Shona Morgan signs with Stanford

View on the stanford site here.

Initially I thought that this might mean an end to her international career, but the article does say that she will stay on the national team, so that is good news. Some international gymnasts such as Daria Bijak have maintained their international careers while competing in the NCAA. The team environment of NCAA can be very motivating, however, I believe there is a limit to the amount that athletes can train while competing in the NCAA. I think this is about 20 hours per week, which is much less than most international gymnasts train. Still, it will be interesting to see how she progresses and we wish her the best of luck.

Pit System

Check out the pit system in the video below. It looks like an interesting way to convert a multi-purpose hall into a gym.

Ads with gymnastics

The recent Toyota Hybrid Camry ad here in Australia featured some gymnastics. Watch it below:

Rizzo has surgery

The shoulder injury that caused Philippe Rizzo to withdraw from the Pacific Rim Championships turns out to have been more serious than initially thought. He has recently had surgery on his shoulder, which now puts both Commonwealth Games and Worlds in doubt for him this year.

Keatings tears ACL

See press release by British Gymnastics here.

Oh No! This will be a big blow for Great Britain, and I was really looking forward to see how he backed up his all-around silver medal at worlds last year.

Rhythmic Gymnastics Improves Bone Density

An interesting study was done that shows that Rhythmic Gymnastics can improve bone density which can reduce the risk of bone fracture in later life.

See the article here: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-05/tes-gti050310.php

I wonder if Arstistic Gymnastics has the same benefit. My guess is that it would, since the article mentions that it is the weight bearing exercisea that produce the benefit.

Interviews with Stephanie Moorhouse

Gymnastics Australia has put up a couple of interviews with Stephanie Moorhouse here:

Aerial Skiing

With the Winter Olympics here, let's look at the Aerial Skiing. In Australia there have been quite a number of ex-gymnasts who have gone into Aerial Skiing including 2000 Olympian Trudy McIntosh. This year former gymnast Bree Munro has qualified for the Olympics. Here is an interesting video about how Aerial Skiiers train:

Larissa Miller Interview

From News.com.au. Watch it here:

http://player.video.news.com.au/news/#fedqYxGwN9uqiVZh1_b9cc6pcgXGQueD

It is interesting that many gymnasts still see 17 as old even though many more gymnasts are now competing into their 20's. In fact, according to the stats from the FIG website here:

http://sportcentric.lg1x1.simplecdn.net/vsite/vfile/page/fileurl/0,11040,5218-198717-215940-156385-0-file,00.pdf

the average age has increased from 16.85 at the 99 worlds, to 18.79 at the 2009 worlds. So in fact 17 is now young, although admittedly there are a few top gymnasts who could not compete at worlds due to age restriction. However, I do hope that many gymnasts start to realise that they can continue to compete for longer if they look after their body.

Using Gymnastics to break world records

I have often pondered the use of gymnastics to do things faster or better than traditional methods, but this PE teacher has broken a world record in a way that I never would have imagined. He does a handspring to get the speed to do a soccer throw in. He throws it an amazing 49.78m.

View the BBC story here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8469341.stm



There are also some YouTube videos of it: