Sarah Hamilton, a Level 9 from M&M, on beam during the Event Finals today. She won her age division with this pretty routine!
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!
Vanessa Ferrari (ITA) only placed 6th in the Floor Event Final, but she must have had one of the highest execution scores based on her stuck landings. Yes, there were multiple! I also very much like her music. A great routine from Vanessa!
This floor routine is by Ioannis Melissanidis from Greece in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. His landings are incredible and he makes it look effortless! This routine scored a 9.85, which won him the gold medal in the event finals, well deserved! It was the first Olympic gymnastics medal for Greece since 1906!
European Championships - Women’s Schedule
Podium training for the junior and senior women’s divisions of the European Championships is taking place today and tomorrow in Birmingham, England.
Here is the expected schedule, and I’ll be sure to update during the week with the resuts of the competition as well as my opinions!
April 26 - Podium Training
April 27 - Podium Training
April 28 - Junior Qualifying and Youth Olympic Games Qualifying
April 29 - Senior Qualifying
April 30 - Junior All Around
May 1 - Senior Team Final
May 2 - Junior Event Finals and Senior Event Finals
There is no Senior All Around listed nor Junior Team Final. Does anyone know if that is right? Send me a message on Twitter @amygymnastike if you have details!
Who are you most looking forward to seeing compete?
Super Six Results & Thoughts!!
EXCITING NEWS, the Super Six competition is over and the results are in!
- UCLA 197.725
- Oklahoma 197.25
- Alabama 197.225
- Stanford 197.100
- Florida 197.000
- Utah 196.225
HERE is a link for full results from Friday’s Super Six Team Finals. I think it is SO CRAZY that 5 out of the top 6 teams broke 197, and places 2-5 are verrrry close! I wish I could have seen the meet! Sadly I was at work, which is where I will be during event finals too, booo.
HERE is a link to the live video for Event Finals which begin at 6 pm Eastern on Saturday.
While I’m happy for all the teams, I’m especially excited for Oklahoma. Mainly I’m biased since I go to school at OU but it’s really thrilling for them that they did so well this year. This is the first year that they have EVER reached the Super Six, and to top that off they went and got second place! They were even leading at one point! So you know what? Hats off to you Oklahoma! I think they’ve set a wonderful standard for next season and I can’t wait to see how the remaining gymnasts (ie: not graduating) embrace their new positions as one of the “top dogs” of NCAA gym! Very sad to see the seniors go, this was a batch of lovely and talented gymnasts: Oklahoma City’s own Kristin Smith, lovely and expressive on floor and beam; World medalist Hollie Vise, who turned out to be quite the All Arounder in her last season as a Sooner; Mary Mantle, the vaulting powerhouse out of Colorado; Jackie Flanery, always the showman on floor and a contributor on every event through her time at OU; and lastly Julie Kramer, the transfer student who was unlucky with injuries and never got to compete, but always stood by her teammates offering support.
KJ Kindler is certainly going to need to replace Hollie and Kristin’s beam scores as well as Jackie and Kristin’s (and even Hollie’s) floor scores. I suspect Candace Cindell will step in and take one of the beam spots. Melanie Root and Brie Olson are also strong on beam. KJ’s got a talented crop of freshmen from this year (Nowak, Neubauer, Olson, Ramaswami), and I’m sure she’ll now be flooded with interested recruits after their strong showing at NCAA’s!
Sorry for all the OU ooey gooeyness, can you tell I like this team? I really, really just love that they shook up the rankings this year. It is good, I think, for NCAA gymnastics, for a team like OU to come out and say “this is who we are, we’re here now and we aren’t going anywhere!”, I had really hoped that a “new” team would win NCAA’s than one of the usual suspects, but 2nd place will do just fine :)
Congrats UCLA! Job well done :)
