Blogger who lives and breathes Gymnastics. Join me as we head towards the 2016 Olympics and beyond.
Liddick said she would pick a team that had proved it could handle the basics under pressure.From The Australian: Bar set high as gymnasts target medal -"The top three or four spots are pretty much secure, so for the last two spots, there are about eight girls fighting for that," she said.
"'There may be somebody who doesn't have oodles of international experience, but they handle themselves very calmly (at the trials)."
WITH world-class Perth duo Daria Joura and Lauren Mitchell spearheading her team, national head coach Peggy Liddick believes Australia can contend for a bronze medal at the Beijing Olympics.Wow, compliments of sort from Peggy? I think I might just underestimate her. Also from this article a little bit of quotes from Miss Joura and Miss Mitchell themselves. Very exciting with talks of Joura's new floor pass and Lauren's vault -Australia has never won a medal in artistic gymnastics and will be competing in the backyard of powerhouse China, but Liddick insists she has the talent to win medals, as the national championships begin in Melbourne today.
With her supremacy under threat, Joura will raise the bar in Melbourne by introducing a double back layout somersault in her first tumbling pass, boosting the value of her floor routine.
"Sometimes you have to take a risk when a skill is still a bit inconsistent, so you can get it consistent by the Olympic Games," Joura said.
"Doing something consistently in training is different to competition because you need to be able to control your emotions in competition."
Mitchell has also upgraded her vault this year to become more competitive.
Liddick couldn't be happier with what she has seen in training leading into the four-day competition.
"Through the national camps, I warned them 'don't even bother showing up if you aren't going to pay attention to landings and consistent performance'," Liddick said.
"It's not about the skills this week. It's about how cleanly and consistently you can perform it. We want the most dependable gymnasts we can find."
From the Sydney Morning Herald: Coach sets the bar high as medal hunt begins - This article talks about the same sort of things as the others, however does factor in the 3 major missing gymnasts that could have made an impact on Beijing - Hollie, Chloe and Monette and cites this in a roundabout way as the reason Peggy will have to include some relatively unexperienced girls in the team. A good quote from this article:
"What I'm looking for is the consistency, their ability to perform when the green light is on and the judges are watching, and when the pressure is on. The first four spots are pretty much secure, but it's the last two spots and there's about eight girls fighting for that. Those are the kinds of things that are going to make the difference."
Bronze Aussies - The Age: Now is that a pic of Miss Bonora?
"We're going to have every training session geared towards that … we're going to go down in a blaze of glory if we do go down, and if we hit, there's a possibility to win the medal, so that's our approach."
Although Liddick will hand-pick her team based on results from the next two days, as well as previous internal trials and external meets, and the final selection phase in Canberra next month, Daria Joura, Lauren Mitchell, Ashleigh Brennan and Shona Morgan appear ensconced, leaving Olivia Vivian, Georgia Bonora, Emma Dennis, Amber Fulljames and Melanie Jones heading the hopefuls for the final two places. Queensland's Sam Simpson will be Australia's sole men's representative.
And for some words from Dasha:
And there is more. Watch this space is all I can say. I know there was a small little write up in the West Australian today as well."We have had a few setbacks just recently with retirements in the lead-up to the trials, so that has been unfortunate, but I do believe that we do have a lot of strong contenders for the team.
"There's so much media attention around; everyone's like 'oh, 100 days, 80 days', and it seems like such a short time, but for us we don't think about it in that way, because we know there's so much work to be done."
Golden has big dreams. His tight-knit upbringing allowed him to dodge the dangers of Camden, known for its crime rate, but its troubles bother him. He wants to attract more African-Americans to his sport and envisions opening a gym and a community center. "There's so much talent," he says. "I've seen it in the inner city. I would like to expose that."
Those are long-term goals. Short term, he wants to become the fifth African-American male gymnast to make the Olympic team, following Ron Galimore (1980), Charles Lakes (1988), Jair Lynch (1992, '96) and Chainey Umphrey (1996).
The second article, from Click2Houston can be found here. It deals with Golden's upbringing, highlights his natural talent, and the fact that he loves the challenges that gymnastics throws at him, and for me the stand out point of this article was the final statement. Check it out and let me know what you think about it - powerful much?Brandy Johnson was a world class gymnast until one day she was suddenly terrified of doing her usual routines on bars and beam. She said, "My brain was telling me it was time to quit."
Life after gymnastics turned out well for her, but she said, "A lot of girls are lost after gymnastics. They've spent their whole life doing something they can't use anymore."
What Brandy says is somewhat try, but what about the courage, determination, perfection and drive achieved from gymnastics? Can these not be refocused on another aspect of their lives? I think if I can recall correctly that there are some organizations in Australia and America which assists them in life after elite gymnastics and other elite sports. I guess it largely comes down to the individual and their ability to adapt to the change in lifestyle.One of Australia’s leading gymnasts, the Queenslander suffered a series of injuries over the past twelve months, however had been working hard to regain her fitness and form in a last ditch effort to make the team for Beijing.
However this week, the 17-year-old came to the realisation that her attempt was in vain. Succumbing to her injuries, Sims made the difficult decision to stand down from Olympic contention and retire from gymnastics after 13 years in the sport.
So very sad, and only a few months away from the Olympics.Although Sims’ withdrawal is a disappointment for
“Chloe’s decision has taken a lot of courage this close to the Games, as it has always been her dream to compete at the Olympic Games,” explained Liddick.
“Obviously at this stage of our Olympic preparations, to lose someone of Chloe’s calibre and experience is disappointing, but that is the nature of the sport.
“However, Chloe’s retirement means that the door is now open for other girls to step up and challenge for one of the six positions on offer in the
Here's hoping our Aussie gymnasts triumph over the issues mentioned in this article [weight problems, injuries, the impact on the body, and the "seriousness" of the sport], and show that Australian gymnastics is not in the extreme crisis state that some are saying and that we can attempt to make our make in the gymnastics community. And may some of our seniors or most of them, continue on after the Olympics.there was a record 16 competing at next week's trials, including three Queenslanders – Naomi Russell, Amber Fulljames and Larissa Miller.2006 Commonwealth Games gold medallist Russell has overcome four operations (elbow, shoulder, knee and ankle) but still maintains her passion and perseverance.
"I really can't think of anything else I would rather be doing and I don't want to have any regrets," Russell said.
"There have been a few times I've thought, 'this is too hard' but I've always got back into the gym the next morning."
Amber Fulljames said that achieving her Olympic dream and her "pure love" of gymnastics, including executing the hard tricks and the travelling, kept her in the sport after overcoming two broken arms and a broken collar-bone.