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The Gymnastics has started!!

I love gymnastics too! I was Berkshire county champion at bars and vault :cool:

I'm not that interested in the men's gymnastics, I just love watching the women's. They're amazing.
 
Minnie_the_Minx said:
except the Chinese. :D

The Romanians don't seem to be performing as well as normally or maybe I was just tired when watching it and they weren't holding my attention.

Glad that diva Khorkina isn't there this year.
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The Chinese do seem suspiciously small actually. Especially as almost every other team (with possible exception of Russia) has stronger, taller, more powerfully built athletes now the coaching teams have given up doping them to restrict their growth.

I think the Chinese are going for artistry and delicacy- more old fashioned view of the female gymnast. They want dancers as well as powerful athletes.
Its pretty, but I prefer the modern look.
 
Melinda said:
The Chinese do seem suspiciously small actually. Especially as almost every other team (with possible exception of Russia) has stronger, taller, more powerfully built athletes now the coaching teams have given up doping them to restrict their growth.

I think the Chinese are going for artistry and delicacy- more old fashioned view of the female gymnast. They want dancers as well as powerful athletes.
Its pretty, but I prefer the modern look.
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There's a tiny one, Lei I think, but she did a floor routine and was lovely.

The bigger, more serious one, seems a pretty normal build
 
missfran said:
I love gymnastics too! I was Berkshire county champion at bars and vault :cool:

I'm not that interested in the men's gymnastics, I just love watching the women's. They're amazing.
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:cool:

I wish I had carried on with gymnastics, I always enjoyed it. But I got hips and boobs, plus hockey and rowing seemed more fun and social. :D

The upper body strength of the male gymnasts is staggering. I love them.
 
Anyone remember when Newsround sent 4 young British Gymnasts to Russia for a week to train? The girls were yelled at and *hit* by the hardline Russian coaches!

They endured hours of terribly painful physio sessions which made them cry and cry. There was a scene where two of them were having their feet and calves stretched and they both had tears streaming down their faces!

Their parents back in the UK went 7 kinds of wappy when they saw the footage! Those Russian/ CIS gymnasts have most probably survived a lot, the Chinese too.
 
I was awake when the coverage of the women's started last night (1:30 AM here), but I had to go to sleep. :(

I watched an internet video of the US women's team practicing. It's so fantastically exciting and I can still remember how it felt to do some of that stuff. :cool: And, of course, I fully understand why my mother was virtually shitting herself through most of my childhood. ;)
 
D, You have kept hold of your physicality :) Using your body in so many different ways. :cool:

Was there ever a time when you kinda gave it up?



Im loving the Brazilian girl, Daiane de Santos! Lovely stuff.
 
Melinda said:
D, You have kept hold of your physicality :) Using your body in so many different ways. :cool:

Was there ever a time when you kinda gave it up?
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Yes.

1990? I think it was... head smashed into the side of a balance beam shortly before or after I also battered my knee skiing and then broke a finger. The knee and the finger actually weren't so terrible in the end...Cue several years of jaw and neck pain, though, and ongoing ultraviolet therapies, weird things between my teeth, etc.

I basically stopped all gymnastics and then stopped dancing for a while too.

Dance I resumed. Tumbling I resumed 12 years later. :cool:

Then I tore my ACL and meniscus at the age of 24. Stopped tumbling/flying again.

But has there ever been a time when I wasn't active at all? No.

Even during the no-acro and no-skiing/snowboarding periods I ran track, rode horses, played tennis, climbed things, rode bicycles, etc...

The process of the surgeries I had in 2003-2004 and the subsequent recoveries introduced me to a whole new way of moving/training/exploring the body. And of course a cessation in the more impactful acrobatic training introduced me to yoga. :)

I don't really miss the beam or vault much, but watching that video yesterday made me remember how fucking cool the uneven parallel bars were. And tumbling will always be magic to me.

/emotional musing over (for now ;))
 
And, actually, one more thing:

when I was in high school, after I quit track and then throughout university, I had what I'd call a sort of disembodiment period...I was active compared with many, but compared with how I had been...this huge gulf opened between my brain and my body. And I seemed to live - rather ambivalently - on the brain side.

When I came back to performing - and to the physical rigors of that world - the gulf began to disappear and life (and my body) became...lighter...as in more full of light.

:)
 
Melinda said:
D, You have kept hold of your physicality :) Using your body in so many different ways. :cool:

Was there ever a time when you kinda gave it up?



Im loving the Brazilian girl, Daiane de Santos! Lovely stuff.
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Yeah, she was great fun. The French seem to be playing very safe which makes them not too exciting to watch.
 
those gymnasts get really high when they tumble in the floor exercises, why can't they enter the high jump and tumble to glory? i'm sure they could clear 9ft with a decent run up...
 
I am loving the commentary by Matt Baker. He keeps gasping when they almost make mistakes, and going Ohhooohhhhh when they do something excellent.

:cool:
 
Minnie_the_Minx said:
I was a bit too young to appreciate Olga Korbut but it was watching Nadia Comaneci that got me hooked on watching gymnastics
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Same for me really, i was aware of Olga but more interested in playing. By the time Nadia i was hooked as well. Sadly the only gymnastic moves i could ever do were a cartwheel and the crab :oops: :D

Minnie_the_Minx said:
Still can't believe all these years later how faultless and effortless these routines were, and she seems so fast :eek:

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=V5gR0g8lHIs
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She was so dynamic :cool:
 
ScallyWag II said:
Same for me really, i was aware of Olga but more interested in playing. By the time Nadia i was hooked as well. Sadly the only gymnastic moves i could ever do were a cartwheel and the crab :oops: :D



She was so dynamic :cool:
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Did you see the next video I stuck up? That's even better
 
wow, that performance by Olga Korbut is amazing,right from the strat she gets momentum up and doesnt even use the spring board and the way she stands on the high bar to flip back off... then swings form the high bar, folds herself around the small bar then swings back up to the high bar again, it's amazing :cool:

i wonder why they aren't recognised moves now?
 
The Olga Korbut routine is fantastic.

That stuff makes me cry it's so inspiring!

:eek::cool:
 
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