Oklahoma’s Kayla Nowak (sophomore) on beam last weekend vs Arkansas. It would be nice to see a dismount, but that’s what you get when it’s a gymnast and not gymnastike filming the meets! Teehee….I’ll get up there for a meet later this season :) I really like Kayla’s routine, though. It’s nice, not quite as cookie cutter as some routines we see in NCAA. Go Kayla, and Boomer Sooner!! (leave a comment now that i enabled them!!)
OK seriously….this routine is incredible! I dare you to find one wobble! A very nicely done routine by Canada’s Kate Richardson at the 2002 Commonwealth Games. I really love the two front aerial combination, and the backhandspring 3/4…..on par with Pavlova’s! So nice….and to cap it all off, stuck dismount!
Kelly Garrison-Steves (USA) in the 1988 Olympics EF. She only got 7th?! I love all the unique moves that you would never see in today’s routines, like the semi-Valdez, arabesque hold, back walkover-half thingy, and forward roll. And of course, I also love her because we share the same alma-mater: Oklahoma! Unlike what we see today, with the exception perhaps of Mohini Bhardwaj, Kelly competed at the Olympics AFTER she had competed NCAA, under Becky Switzer at OU. I believe she was also the first woman to score a Perfect 10.0 on beam in the NCAA!
Baby Ksenia Semenova! Here is Ksenia doing her thing on beam way back in 2003, which would have made her about 11. Love the Onodi! I actually said “awww” when she fell, and I bet you guys will too ‘cause she’s just so cute!
Rebecca Bross, Graceful?
She sure is in this picture! I used to think she wasn’t so graceful or elegant, but she’s really improved her flexibility and her leaps lately, yay! And this lovely leap is on beam, too!
This photo is one of many from a Flickr set by Kizzlexy, and is not mine.
Viktoria Komova finally had an off day during Event Finals at the Youth Olympic Games, showing she is in fact human, but this video of her beam routine from the All Around is very impressive. My favorite part is her acro series, the layout stepouts are so extended and actually laid out, she gets so much air time during them….gorgeous! She is definitely Jordyn Wieber’s biggest competition in the coming years, if we’re pitting the top dogs of Russia and the US against each other!
The great Natalia Shaposhnikova doing her thing on Beam - 1979 European Championships Event Finals.
I don’t love her form in her series, and there is an awful lot of arm wavey movements, but the rest of the routine is awesome! I especially love the handstand where she hits the flag position, it looks so nice and it’s rare to see it outside of acro, I think!
