USA Gymnastics hosted a media tele-conference this morning featuring Jonathan Horton, Chris Brooks and Danell Leyva. The 45-minute conference offered the first soundbites from prominent gymnasts about Paul Hamm's comeback announcement. Horton and Brooks had nothing but glowing things to say about Hamm, and they expressed a lot of excitement about the [...more]
Paul Hamm has rocked the men's gymnastics community by announcing that he is back to training full time with aspirations of making the 2012 Olympic Team. While he definitely kept the door open to a potential return to the sport, his announcement will likely send shockwaves to our current crop of Olympic hopefuls. If his comeback is successful, Hamm will be America's only gymnast capable of scoring [...more]
We've been hearing rumblings about the possible demise of the Cal Men's Gymnastics program. Even the women's program is also presumedly on the chopping block. In light of all the budget cuts and the state's overall fiscal degradation, both programs' subsidization is ruffling the tender feathers of the more militant, sports-averse members of the school's faculty. Apparently Cal's athletic department racked up a $1.7 million deficit this past year and received a loan from the school's general fund. We've heard that the guillotine is poised over [...more]
Sam Mikulak and Jesse Silverstein put on another show for the ages in today's Level 10 (16-18) All-Around finals. After Thursday night's showcase, we figured that would be hard to top. Well, they did it again. With four events in the books, a mere five tenths of a point separated the two. Both gymnasts set things up nicely by nailing their fifth events. Silverstein's outstanding 15.50 on rings was countered by Mikulak's explosive 16.75 on vault. Leading by 1.45 going into the final rotation, Mikulak undoubtedly knew he needed to do something special on parallel bars to have a shot at winning. After all, Silverstein was [...more]
Today, Michigan finally made a highly anticipated announcement. The Wolverines have pulled off one of the top 2010-2011 recruiting hauls in the country by signing SCATS' Sam Mikulak and Jordan Gaarenstroom, Surgents Elite's Alex Bubnov, All American's Mike Myler and Josephson Academy's Dylan James. The prize nugget, of course, is [...more]
We received word that Nebraska has pulled off a great 2010-2011 recruiting coup with the signings of WOGA's Presten Ellsworth, Eric Schryver, Orlando Metro's Wyatt Aycock and Cypress' CJ Schaaf. Head Coach Chuck Chmelka and Assistant Coaches Jim Hartung and Phil Cahoy are wasting no time with their efforts to re-establish the Cornhuskers as a [...more]
The gymnastics world received the horrible news that Russian gymnast Yury Ryazanov was killed in a car accident Tuesday morning just outside of Moscow. Ryazanov, the recent bronze medal winner in the all-around at the World Championships, was returning to his home in Vladimir when tragedy struck. He was Russia’s brightest star over the past [...] [...more]
Romania's Marian Dragulescu has done what Brett Favre probably won't be able to do, which is to retire, unretire and win a title. Dragulescu not only won a title, he won two! He was the surprise winner on floor, easily overcoming the heavily favored Kohei Uchimura. He then topped things off by hitting two outstanding vaults to capture yet another world championship. The 28-year-old Romanian was the only gymnast to [...more]
Japan's Kohei Uchimura started the evening with a brilliant 15.625 floor routine, and after he turned in a 14.90 on pommel horse, it became a foregone conclusion that the World title was all his. Uchimura blitzed the field of twenty-four to win his first world men's gymnastics all-around championship with a big score of 91.50. His nearest competitor was Great Britain's Daniel Keatings, who finished a staggering 2.575 points behind. Uchimura hit on all six events in a dominant display of consistency, style and confidence. He was clearly in a world of his own. Although American Tim McNeill [...more]
After a marathon of three qualifying sessions in London, Japan's Kohei Uchimura was the leading qualifier going into Thursday's all-around finals at the 2009 World Men's Gymnastics Championships. Uchimura was at the top of his game tallying the day's highest score of 90.925. Hitting on all six events, Uchimura had scores of at least 15.00 on every event except for pommel horse (14.75). His floor and high bar routines were outstanding, and his 15.775 was the highest score of the day on floor. Uchimura undoubtedly remains the prohibitive favorite to win the all-around title. Tim McNeill and Jonathan Horton finished in the top five in the [...more]
