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SophiaD
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On 7/10/2020 at 11:09 AM, ElectricBoogaloo said:

Ha, I just remembered we have a gymnastics thread here on the forum!

Simone Biles is on the cover of Vogue (and there's a great interview with her)

And FYI - there's a discussion thread for Athlete A here if you want to discuss the documentary in more detail.

That Simone cover is divine. 

I haven't had a chance to read the article, but I love her. I love every line of every muscle in that shot. I want a photo shoot of her with Serena because dammit if Serena didn't pave the way for so many women. 

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On 7/13/2020 at 7:11 PM, xaxat said:

Tomorrow, ESPN's 30 for 30 series drops a podcast on the Karolyi's.

 

Ironically, in 1984 when USAG coaches protested the inclusion of the Karolyi's, the head coach was DON PETERS, who himself has been charged with sex abuse!  

 

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On 6/25/2020 at 11:58 AM, ChicksDigScars said:

Watched Athlete A last night. Maggie Nichols was definitely screwed of her Olympic dream by Steve Penny and Marta Karolyi because she dared to speak up. What an insufferable ass Penny is. 

This is also addressed in Heavy Medals (thanks xaxat for posting that. Fantastic, hard-hitting set of episodes). Maggie thinks Penny told Marta to leave Maggie off the team, she said that Marta was crying. Even at the time, no one could understand why Gabby was chosen over Maggie or Mackayla Skinner. Maggie was better all around and more consistent, and Mackayla had a very solid shot at a vault medal. And the word was that Penny thought Gabby was...more commercial? Somethingsomething about her endorsements with big-ticket sponsors like Bank of America? And even at the time that made absolutely no sense to me. And hearing now that he targeted Maggie because she spoke up about how the USAG-sanctioned doctor who was trusted with their well-being was assaulting them???? Assaulting the children he'd been charged to protect? And this had been going on for nearly 20 years? What the actual FUCK???? And the girl who speaks up about this is left off the team in retaliation? The former girl, now woman who spoke up about what had happened in 2000 (Jamie Dantzscher) was slut-shamed by USAG?

What a greasy, repellant, corporate fuck Steve Penny is. UGH. Just fuck off in prison.

Marta is still in blissful denial, BTW. The one interview she gave after the allegations went public, she insisted she knew nothing about it (which I can believe) and is therefore not responsible in any way. She doesn't see the connection between the abusive, oppressive environment she and Bela fostered and Nassar exploiting that for his own use.

Edited by CeeBeeGee
typo
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Svetlana Khorkina is in the news again.

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Q: What do you think about the sexual abuse scandal with Doctor Nassar in the USA?

A: This is also strange. And what is happening in their movie industry? Some women come, who, I guess, don’t have enough money, and tell that, apparently, they’ve been hurting for so many years. It’s trendy now. First with directors, now in sports. Then why didn’t you talk right away? Why did you keep enduring it? And as soon as you retired, you decided to raise this topic.

Q: No everyone retired. Simone Biles also talked about abuse.

A: Then why did they stay silent for such a long time? How little respect did they have for themselves [to stay silent]? And another question – if that happened, then how honest and sincere are their relationships with their parents? If children are afraid of telling this to the people closest to them or the parents [can’t] protect them, can you imagine what kind of family crisis is happening there? It’s just horrible.

She's kind of a piece of garbage. I loved her bars work but ... 

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6 hours ago, CeeBeeGee said:

Jesus, Svetlana, SHUT THE FUCK UP. Goddamn her and her shitty sportsmanship and her racism and her utter, utter lack of empathy and compassion and just being a goddamn human being.

Ugh unfortunately she's not alone. When Tatiana Gutsu revealed that Vitaly Scherbo raped her the backlash she received from some prominent figures in Russian gymnastics was disgusting. And honestly it wasn't even better from some American fans who said stuff like "Shannon Miller has her revenge." People are garbage. 

But I don't want this post to be all negativity so here's a recent interview with Aliya Mustafina.

Love the respect she gives Simone:

Quote

Q: Does it annoy you that the Americans are so strong?

A: No, it doesn’t. Perhaps, they’re strong because they have a different approach to training or something.

Q: But is it possible to beat them?

A: As soon as Simone Biles retires, it will be possible. At the last World Championships, their team generally won only because of her. The rest of the girls are at more or less the same level.

Q: That means she’s a unique phenomenon, then?

A: Absolutely.

Q: Has there been anyone like her before?

A: No, never.

 

Edited by Growsonwalls
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Well if I ever had any respect for Khorkina that interview would certainly be shocking, fortunately I’ve always found her to be an egotistical, self centered bitch so I’m not at all surprised to find out she said things like that. 
 

I always found her vastly overrated except when it came to bars. Her floor routines were often little more than prancing and posing  and her form on vault was nothing short of atrocious. She always wanted to blame others for Russia’s losses when it was often her mistakes that lead to them. I’ll never forget her hissy fit in Sydney when she ripped off her silver medal from the team event as if Russia was cheated out of a gold medal when in reality, they were damn lucky to hold on to silver with the way they performed that night.  And of course she said  the fix was in when her past her prime ass lost the AA title in Athens.

And her dig at Simone is cute, but 20 years she lost the AA title while still in her prime, lost it in 1996 too. Have a seat. 
 

 

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45 minutes ago, WhitneyWhit said:

Well if I ever had any respect for Khorkina that interview would certainly be shocking, fortunately I’ve always found her to be an egotistical, self centered bitch so I’m not at all surprised to find out she said things like that. 
 

I always found her vastly overrated except when it came to bars. Her floor routines were often little more than prancing and posing  and her form on vault was nothing short of atrocious. She always wanted to blame others for Russia’s losses when it was often her mistakes that lead to them. I’ll never forget her hissy fit in Sydney when she ripped off her silver medal from the team event as if Russia was cheated out of a gold medal when in reality, they were damn lucky to hold on to silver with the way they performed that night.  And of course she said  the fix was in when her past her prime ass lost the AA title in Athens.

And her dig at Simone is cute, but 20 years she lost the AA title while still in her prime, lost it in 1996 too. Have a seat. 
 

 

In Khorkina's defense in Sydney the vault was set 5 cm too low and so many people bombed their vaults. An incredibly dangerous situtation and I;m shocked it even happened.

But I also wondered why she was considered the star of that Russian team when so many wonderful gymnasts were also on the team. For instance they had Yelena Produnova who might be one of the best vaulters of all time. 

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12 hours ago, Growsonwalls said:

In Khorkina's defense in Sydney the vault was set 5 cm too low and so many people bombed their vaults. An incredibly dangerous situtation and I;m shocked it even happened.

But I also wondered why she was considered the star of that Russian team when so many wonderful gymnasts were also on the team. For instance they had Yelena Produnova who might be one of the best vaulters of all time. 

Yeah, that mess up was crap. They should have started over. But I never liked Khorkina because she always did blame others for her or Russia's mistakes. Russia had other gymnasts that were better then her.

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Heres a vintage bitchy Khorkina moment: after Elena Zamolodchikova rocked the FX watch how Khorkina doesn't even get up to congratulate her. Gives her the most half-assed hug while seated. Granted she was disappointed about dropoing to 2nd in floor exercise but ... still.

 

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10 minutes ago, Growsonwalls said:

Heres a vintage bitchy Khorkina moment: after Elena Zamolodchikova rocked the FX watch how Khorkina doesn't even get up to congratulate her. Gives her the most half-assed hug while seated. Granted she was disappointed about dropoing to 2nd in floor exercise but ... still.

 

The link doesn't work. At least for me. But Elena was awesome.

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7 hours ago, peachmangosteen said:

You have to watch it on youtube itself. After you push play on the video, there will be a link to watch it on youtube.

 

32 minutes ago, Sew Sumi said:

Click on Watch on YouTube. 

Thanks I'll go do that.

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21 hours ago, HartofDixie said:

Chellsie Memmel is back! Announcement at the end of the video.

 

Is she going to be a specialist like Oksana Chusovitina? 

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On 7/27/2020 at 4:58 PM, Growsonwalls said:

In Khorkina's defense in Sydney the vault was set 5 cm too low and so many people bombed their vaults. An incredibly dangerous situtation and I;m shocked it even happened.

But I also wondered why she was considered the star of that Russian team when so many wonderful gymnasts were also on the team. For instance they had Yelena Produnova who might be one of the best vaulters of all time. 

And Produnova was competing with a broken foot as well.

 

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20 hours ago, Growsonwalls said:

Some tea being spilled about Texas Dreams:

 

Considering that she trained with the Karolyis for so long, it's not really surprising that Kim Zmeskal is the kind of coach who yells at her gymnasts and sees injuries as a sign of weakness. I'm not excusing her attitude, but that's the kind of gym she grew up in so it makes sense that she thinks that's normal behavior.

But this really points to why it's important to break the cycle and coach without being an asshole. Valorie Kondos Field (the former head coach at UCLA) has shown that you can be a kind, supportive coach without humiliating and abusing your athletes. We really need to stop perpetuating the idea that screaming at athletes (in any sport, but especially sports like gymnastics where they start training so young) is motivating and acceptable. It's not tough love. It's abusive and damaging.

After watching the first four seasons of Last Chance U, I was sick of hearing the football coaches berate their athletes and tell them what worthless pieces of shit they were every time they made a mistake. You can coach and direct and enforce with rules without being an abusive asshole. If your friend or spouse yelled those things at you constantly, people would say that you were in an abusive relationship and to get the hell out, yet somehow it's perfectly acceptable for adults to yell these things at children for not performing perfectly at sports. It's mind boggling that this is considered acceptable behavior just because you have a visor and a clipboard.

Edited by ElectricBoogaloo
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If you are looking for something gymnastics related to watch, there is a webseries about UCLA's 2020 season. They began filming during the spring before the COVID shutdown.

Warning: the first episode was not edited well so it looks like exactly what it is - a bunch of footage slapped together with no narrative. And unfortunately, whoever shot the actual gymnastics footage for this episode think that we've all wondered what a bars routine looks like from the chest up. But from the second episode on, the editing improves and I ended up really enjoying this mini series.

Initially you will recognize Kyla Ross and Madison Kocian but you get to know a lot of the other gymnasts as the season goes on.

Episode 1:

Episode 2:

Episode 3:

Episode 4:

Episode 5:

Episode 6:

Episode 7:

Bonus: first day of practice (shot last month):

 

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7 hours ago, ElectricBoogaloo said:

If you are looking for something gymnastics related to watch, there is a webseries about UCLA's 2020 season. They began filming during the spring before the COVID shutdown.

Warning: the first episode was not edited well so it looks like exactly what it is - a bunch of footage slapped together with no narrative. And unfortunately, whoever shot the actual gymnastics footage for this episode think that we've all wondered what a bars routine looks like from the chest up. But from the second episode on, the editing improves and I ended up really enjoying this mini series.

Initially you will recognize Kyla Ross and Madison Kocian but you get to know a lot of the other gymnasts as the season goes on.

Episode 1:

Episode 2:

Episode 3:

Episode 4:

Episode 5:

Episode 6:

Episode 7:

Bonus: first day of practice (shot last month):

 

I accidentally got hooked on college gymnastics in the spring after giving it a try because I missed gymnastics so much. I forgot until I started watching that Madison and Kyla had gone to UCLA. It was so great seeing them! Through reruns of previous seasons seeing Jordyn Wieber, Maggie Nicholas and others. There's a lot of other good gymnasts too.  

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9 minutes ago, andromeda331 said:

I accidentally got hooked on college gymnastics in the spring after giving it a try because I missed gymnastics so much. I forgot until I started watching that Madison and Kyla had gone to UCLA. It was so great seeing them! Through reruns of previous seasons seeing Jordyn Wieber, Maggie Nicholas and others. There's a lot of other good gymnasts too.  

I'm super lucky because I live near a PAC-10 campus which means I can go watch the meets live. It's so fun! Somehow I've never seen UCLA though. Usually that's either an away meet or I totally forget about it until two days after it happened.

I LOVE college gymnastics. It's so much more fun to watch than elite. Watching the girls dance along to each other's floor routines always makes my day!

I really enjoyed the behind the scenes stuff and getting to see the girls outside the gym. After knowing how high stress it was to compete as an elite, it makes me so happy to see them having fun and being silly with each other.

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8 minutes ago, ElectricBoogaloo said:

I'm super lucky because I live near a PAC-10 campus which means I can go watch the meets live. It's so fun! Somehow I've never seen UCLA though. Usually that's either an away meet or I totally forget about it until two days after it happened.

I LOVE college gymnastics. It's so much more fun to watch than elite. Watching the girls dance along to each other's floor routines always makes my day!

I really enjoyed the behind the scenes stuff and getting to see the girls outside the gym. After knowing how high stress it was to compete as an elite, it makes me so happy to see them having fun and being silly with each other.

I love watching the girls dance to each other's floor routines! It was so nice and so cool. I wasn't sure what to expect since but the floor routines are so much fun. Lots of dancing along with plenty of skills. Their all well choreographed. I remember when the elite used to have that. So far I like UCLA the best but don't have a team I dislike. Some of the balance beam routines have been amazing too.

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11 minutes ago, andromeda331 said:

I love watching the girls dance to each other's floor routines! It was so nice and so cool. I wasn't sure what to expect since but the floor routines are so much fun. Lots of dancing along with plenty of skills. Their all well choreographed. I remember when the elite used to have that. So far I like UCLA the best but don't have a team I dislike. Some of the balance beam routines have been amazing too.

That's why I hate the new code of points for elite gymnastics. They have to pack as many tricks and elements into their routines to increase their start value that they don't have time to dance and have any fun.

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29 minutes ago, ElectricBoogaloo said:

That's why I hate the new code of points for elite gymnastics. They have to pack as many tricks and elements into their routines to increase their start value that they don't have time to dance and have any fun.

So do I. I liked it best when it was a mixture of dance and skills that was choreographed. The routines were so great and gymnasts looked like they were having so much fun. The floor routine was the only one you really got a chance to see gymnast's personality. It was always fun to see what each one came up with. I love tricks and watching them get more and more difficult especially Simone's but I never wanted to lose the dance.

 

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New York Times did a interview with Maggie Haney but in my opinion it's a complete puff piece.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/30/sports/olympics/gymnastics-abuse-laurie-hernandez-haney.html

From the Article:

“I think my mistakes were that I cared too much, and wanted them to be a little too perfect every day, when maybe that’s not possible,” Haney, one of the most prominent coaches in the sport, said this month in an interview with The New York Times

She seriously said her mistake was she cared too much 🙄

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50 minutes ago, ElectricBoogaloo said:

UCLA's Nia Dennis (who graced us with her amazing Beyoncé routine last year) is back with another floor routine that's already gone viral:

 

I love the team mates and coaches along the sidelines grooving right along with her.

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5 minutes ago, doodlebug said:

I love the team mates and coaches along the sidelines grooving right along with her.

That is one of my favorite things about watching college gymnastics! I love seeing everyone join in like they're having a dance party in someone's dorm room.

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