2009 was a great season for men’s gymnastics!  Japan’s Kohei Uchimura and Germany’s Fabian Hambuchen dominated.  It’s too bad that Hambuchen’s injury prevented a match-up of the two best gymnasts at the London Worlds.  Still, these two gymnasts are pretty much locked in as the two All-Around favorites at the ’12 Olympics.  Uchimura is now unquestionably the world’s top gymnast.

On the U.S. side, Jonathan Horton has moved into the role of elder statesman and leader.  Tim McNeill had a break-out season with his strong performances at the U.S. Championships (2nd AA) and at Worlds (7th AA and 5th on pommel horse).  Wes Haagensen also hit the big time with his strong 3rd place AA finish at the U.S. Championships and by making his Worlds debut.  Danell Leyva was the first of our current young crop of talented gymnasts to make a strong statement.  He finished 5th AA at the U.S. Championships and placed 4th on high bar at Worlds.  It was also encouraging to see 2009 NCAA AA Champion Steven Legendre and his new Oklahoma teammate, Jake Dalton, make the World Team.

John Orozco completely dominated the junior competition in 2009 by winning the JO Nationals and the U.S. Championships.  Many say he deserved inclusion on the Senior National Team, but his time will come in 2010 and beyond.  Lining up very close behind Orozco are CJ Maestas, Cameron Rogers and Sam Mikulak.  All three have signed with Illinois (Maestas and Rogers) and Michigan (Mikulak) for the 2011 NCAA season.  We are looking at one of the strongest club seasons ever.

The 2010 NCAA season is shaping up to be one of the most closely contended ever.  2009 champion Stanford is the pre-season favorite to repeat, but don’t take that for granted.  It’s going to be a five-team race… Stanford, Oklahoma, Illinois, Michigan and Cal.  Among these teams are several 2012 Olympic Team hopefuls:

• Oklahoma:  Steven Legendre, Jake Dalton
• Illinois:  Daniel Ribeiro, Paul Ruggeri
• Michigan:  Chris Cameron, Thomas Kelley
• Cal:  Glen Ishino, Kyle Bunthuwong
• Stanford:  Alex Buscaglia, Tim Gentry

We don’t want to leave anybody out, especially Raj Bhavsar, Joey Hagerty and Sasha Artemev.  Sho Nakamori is making an amazing comeback from his unfortunate knee injury last summer.  From our perspective, 2012 is completely up for grabs… juniors, seniors and veterans.  The current code dictates a lot of difficulty and it’s going to be fun to see who rises to the occasion.  Plus, only five gymnasts will be chosen.  In the meantime, we’re quite content to see how everybody does in 2010.

Happy New Year!

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