The 2009 World Gymnastics Championships have come and gone.  The all-around finals did not excite much except for Kohei Uchimura.  Although Tim McNeill and Jonathan Horton qualified, neither seriously challenged for the top spot.  In fact, Horton’s session was disastrous, given his falls on floor, pommel horse and high bar.  His bad luck continued on high bar in the event final where he once again tumbled doing a Kolman.  Knowing Horton, he will be highly motivated to make 2010 a season to remember, with a lot fewer distractions.  McNeill had a solid 7th-place finish and is now poised for another break-out season as one of America’s top all-arounders and pommel horse specialists.

Although Team USA did not come home with any medals, they did qualify two all-arounders (McNeill and Horton) and four in the event finals (McNeill, Horton, Danell Leyva and Steve Legendre).  It was encouraging to see so many of our younger guys not only get chosen for Worlds, but also qualify for the finals.  Leyva and Legendre have very bright futures.  After all, Legendre won the 2009 NCAA all-around title, along with floor and vault titles.  He is America’s version of Marian Dragulescu, with greater potential in the all-around.  Leyva, only 17, has massive talent as an all-arounder, not to mention possessing the skills to win Olympic medals on high bar and parallel bars.

Speaking of potential, it’s obvious that the makeup of our 2012 Olympic Team is completely up in the air.  We have young guys with so much upside it’s not even funny.  John Orozco is definitely one of those guys, and there are a few other clubbers with much promise.  More gymnasts deserving to be mentioned are Paul Ruggeri, Daniel Ribeiro, Glen Ishino, Kyle Bunthuwong, Thomas Kelley, Chris Cameron, Alex Naddour and 2009 World Team member Jake Dalton.  Ishino’s talents are incredible.  He consistently had some of the highest NCAA all-around scores as a freshman and is one of the better talents on pommel horse.  His high bar routine is simply spectacular.  As he continues to add difficulty to his routines, like rings, he will be all that more formidable.

Let’s not ignore the veterans like Sho Nakamori, Sasha Artemev and Joey Hagerty, as it is highly probable that these gymnasts will be in the 2012 mix.  With so much young talent pushing them, they’ll be all the better for it.  We’ve undoubtedly left out some names, veterans and clubbers alike, but we hope you get the picture.  The two seasons leading up to 2012 are going to be a free-for-all.  America’s future is bright!

It was great to see Dragulescu win two gold medals.  Romania’s gymnastics version of Brett Favre still has plenty in the tank.  The greybeard from Bulgaria, 36-year-old Jordan Jovtchev, was an inspiration as he earned silver on rings.  After watching the high bar competition again, it’s hard not to believe that Uchimura was underscored.  His amplitude on his release moves was superior to everyone in the field, and his overall execution was very precise.  Kudos to Zou Kai for winning the gold, but he was nowhere close to being as fun to watch as Uchimura, Epke Zonderland, Igor Cassina and Leyva.

Zhang Hongtao and Krisztian Berki were fun to watch on pommel horse.  Their single leg work is phenomenal.  Perhaps that may be old school to some, but it’s great to see horse specialists kick their legs up parallel to their bodies, with their pointed toes above their heads.  Their amplitude on everything else was outstanding.  Those two guys simply blew away the rest of the field, no contest.

Back to Uchimura… Wow, what a classy gymnast.  He’s spectacular on floor and high bar, and comes close to that on pommel horse.  An incredible all-arounder, he is so consistent, polished and artistic.  Perhaps he’s a  throwback, but Uchimura is able to keep up with brilliant skills on every event.  In the all-around finals, he could have taken it easy on his final event, high bar.  Not a chance.  As great as he was, it was still sad that he wasn’t able to compete against the injured Fabian Hambuchen.  Uchimura is only 20, a daunting thought, and we have yet to see his best.

2009 was a watershed year for gymnastics.  The amount of media coverage of VISAs and Worlds was unprecedented.  Universal Sports provided great webcasts, and Twitter and Facebook debuted as a very practical and efficient means to provide real-time updates.  Thanks to @intlgymnast, @gymnastike and @InsideGym for all the instant tweets at both events.  Gymnastics Examiner, Blythe Lawrence aka GymBlog, was in London for all the fun, and she provided some great updates on her popular blog. Let’s keep this juggernaut going.  Yes, we’re going to say it again:  it’s time for the JO Nationals to be webcast!

All right, enough about Worlds and such.  It’s getting to be about that time when colleges start to announce signings for their 2011 recruits.  Some big names are about to be announced, and one of the west coast teams will soon be announcing a doozy.  This freshman class will be yet another reason to get excited about men’s college gymnastics.

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