Miss Christine "Peng Peng" Lee

Lee is my favourite Canadian gymnast. She has loads of personality and energy. She's definitely a lock for the Canadian Olympic team. She can really sell a floor routine. Her beam is full of difficult skills and she does two flairs as her mount! I'm not crazy about her movements (a bit spastic) but it works for her. She will be a Canadian star at the Olympics. I know she has to go through all the competition process to become an Olympian but I'm confident she will make the Canadian team. I'm so proud to be a Canadian and my bias heart will be cheering for the Canadian team at the Olympics.

A Short Danell Leyva Interview

Uchimura Triple Double Tuck Gifs

The owners of the wonderful tumblr blog gymnasticsgifs.tumblr.com made me two gifs of Uchimura's triple double tuck salto or known as the Ri Jong Song.

(Source: gymnasticsgifs)

 (Source: gymnasticsgifs)

Japan For Team Gold 2012

My favourite team to win the men's gymnastics team finals is JAPAN. A lot of MAG fans are favouring Japan to take the team title. They will have competition from China, USA, Great Britain and many other great countries like Russia and Germany. Japan last won the Olympic team gold in Athens 2004. One of my favourite gymnast Hiroyuki Tomita helped his team to victory. Watch his amazing performance from 2004. I want this for Japan in London.

Uchimura's 2011 HB AA

I can't wait for this moment for him in London at the Olympics. He's a true champion.

Beth Tweddle Minor Injury & New Russian Training Video

Ah my favourite for the Olympic gold medal on bars just had knee surgery. Why are all my favourites getting injured or sick? Kohei Uchimura better be safe. Click here for the mini article of Tweddle and the British European squad. I pray for Tweddle and hope she will recovery well and fight for that UB title.

And now to the main event. I'm not sure how new this video clip is but KSENIA AFANASYEVA is training in this clip. She is just getting more beautiful everyday. You can hardly see her but she's in there. I know I talk a lot about Afanasyeva but she is the main girl that got me into being a crazy gym fan. While everyone talks about the other Russian superstars I'll talk about Afanasyeva. I don't even know what's going on with her lately. Will she all of a sudden be at the European championships? We'll see. I also spot Anna Dementyeva. I hope everything will work out for her. She has been a big part of Russian gymnastics this quad. Mustafina and Komova are looking in great shape. I can't wait to see how Komova's new floor routine will look like. I hope her new floor music will grow on me. Komova is my favourite to win the Olympic all-around title. Ok enough with my blabbing and here is the new training video.
Edit-This video is indeed old. It was at least 3 weeks old. There was another video clip of Mustafina 3 weeks ago with the same gymnasts and outfits. The video link is here Aliya Mustafina ready for London Olympics 2012

Ksenia Afanasyeva will miss the 2012 European Championships

I just read that Afanasyeva will definitely be missing the European Championships. This doesn't look too good for her. I suppose she will still be a top contender for the Olympics. The article source Click here. Alexandrov who is the head coach of the Russian women's team said that she is very sick and the top 3 gymnasts, Mustafina, Komova and Grishina will definetly be going to Europeans. The other two spots have not been decided yet.

Afanasyeva at the 2009 European Championships. 2nd place all-around.

New Ksenia Afanasyeva Interview

There is a new Ksenia Afanasyeva interview. I didn't re-edit/translate the google translation. I don't know Russian and didn't felt comfortable in re-editing a translated article. I will post the whole interview down in this post. Click here for the original source 

Ksenia is a realistic person and that's what I admire about her. She does not get as much attention and credit for her work as one of the leaders for Russian gymnastics. She is very humble and only has respectable things to say about the other Russian star gymnasts. Some interesting things I thought I should point out. Afanasyeva will not debut a new floor routine at European Championships and will unveil it at the Russian Cup. She's been working on trying to find new floor music. She talks about her relationship with her coach. She also does not want to stay in the sport for a long time. She wants to try something new after when she retires from gymnastics. Afanasyeva is a typical 20 yr old women.

Click "please click to read more" to read the poorly google translated article:

Quick Thoughts on Russia at the SUI-GBR-RUS Tri-Meet

Thanks to maddie1976ch's youtube channel that I got to see the Russian gymnastic team performed this weekend at a Switzerland - Britain - Russia tri-meet. The members at this meet were Mustafina, Komova, Grishina, Dementyeva, Sidorova and Paseka. They took gold as the top team.

The Russians were obviously not in top shape and form. They were not peaked and some were recovering from injuries but I still wasn't impress with some of the gymnasts. The scores should not be taken seriously (click here for results) because it was not a FIG competition. Beam scores were in the 15.000 range when really should have scored between 14.500-14.900 range. Russia had visible execution problems and I hope they can get it all sorted out by the Olympic games. Now, you're probably thinking why I'm being so negative to one of my favourite team, well they did not deserve some of the scores especially on BB.

My Russian Olympic team prediction of Mustafina, Komova, Grishina, Afanasyeva and Sidorova are still the same from after seeing the videos of this tri-meet. Now, I know Afanasyeva did not compete and has a minor injury but she will have time to recover. She is a strong competitor. Based on the tri-meet the Russian gymnasts were having a lot of problems on floor and the world gold medalist on floor Afanasyeva is clearly still their leader on this event. Dementyeva scored well on beam but with missed connections, shaky and other execution faults, she will have to look more improved to make the team. Paseka didn't prove anything well worth it and she will not make the cut on my prediction list. I still think Sidorova can make the team she wasn't completely 100%  free from her knee injury. I don't have much to say about Komova because she didn't compete on all events and just had a minor surgery. Komova did do decent routines but was a bit overscored on bars and a bit on beam. Komova had new floor music but did not compete floor. I don't like her new floor music. Click here to hear new floor music.The team leader Mustafina did well but will have to be even better in London. She is doing well considering coming back from a serious injury. And then there is Grishina who did a water down UB, hit VT, fell on beam and two out of bounds on floor. She will still most likely make the Olympic team.

Komova on UB D-6.7 E-9.15 = 15.850

Ksenia Afanasyeva, Minor Leg Injury

I'm feeling kind of sad right now. Apparently she sustained a minor leg injury at the Russian Championships and is currently trying to heal it and be back for the European Championships in May. She said she will mostly train for floor and beam now. She also noted that it will not be easy to make it to the Olympics if she does not make it on the Russian European team. BUMMER! You can read the translated article here CLICK HERE. Get well soon Afan. I just want her to make it to the Olympics. I don't even care if she doesn't make it to any event finals.

The interview was at a press conference for the 101 days before the Olympics hosted by VTB. CLICK HERE for more pictures VIA the Russian Federation website.

100 Days Till the Olympics Begins

There are 100 days left until the Olympics officially begins. I'm so excited. Here is a new video of what the Chinese are up to lately. It doesn't show much but it features men gymnasts Yan Mingyong and Chen Yibing, female gymnasts, He Kexin (trains on vault), Sui Lu and Cheng Fei. It's so great to see Cheng Fei try to make it to another Olympics.

[100-day Countdown] Chinese gymnastics team is well prepared for the London Olympic Games

Here is a new video that features Aliya Mustafina & Viktoria Komova training for the 2012 Olympics. Oh and the Russian media couldn't resist in talking about the He Kexin and Chinese underage scandal.

Quick Thoughts on Kyla Ross

I LIKE Kyla Ross's gymnastics! It's really rare for me to really like an American gymnast. She does have her flaws but what I like about her gymnastics is that she doesn't do the highest UB and BB difficulty and can still get scores in the 15.000 range. She has an ideal body type for gymnastics (lean, which shows off great lines) but she does lack a bit in artistry. She doesn't quite move her body in a elegant way but I still like her for some odd reason. I really hope she can make the USA Olympic team. I think she is clearly able to upgrade some of her routines but based on the scores that she has been receiving, I think she kind of doesn't have to upgrade.

Here are some of Ross's best Events with D-Scores.



Inbar + VLW (D+E)
Inbar 1/2 + Jaeger (D+D) 0.1CV
Inbar 1/1 + Bail + Inbar Shoot (E+D+C) 0.3CV
DLO (D)

3.3 + 0.4CV = 3.7 + 2.5CR = 6.2 D-Score



Switch Ring + Back Tuck (E+C) 0.1CV
Front Aerial + ff + loso (D+B+C) 0.2CV
Aerial Cartwheel (D)
Switch Leap + Back Pike (C+C) 0.1CV
Full Turn (A)
Side-Somi (D)
Split Jump + Sissone (A/A)
Front Tuck + Sheep Jump (D+D) 0.1CV
RO + Dbl Tuck (D)

3.2 + 0.5CV = 3.7 + 2.5CR = 6.2 D-Score

Early Russian Olympic Team Prediction 2012

Doing early predictions can be very hard to do but my predictions will be based on current and past videos of the gymnasts. I will also consider what the coaches have said to the media. Recently the Russian gymnastics training center "Round Lake" held a media day for journalists to visit the center. Coach Valentina Rodionenko basically said there will be four all-rounders and a vault specialist who can do the Amanar vault. The four all-arounders are; Viktoria Komova, Aliya Mustafina, Anastasia Grishina and Ksenia Afanasyeva. The last gymnast would most likely be Anastasia Sidorova because she has two vaults competitive enough for a event finals (click for source). I personally think this is not the official team yet and obviously the coach was probably just throwing names to get ideas out. Regardless, I think this team is very good and is actually my early prediction.

Some of the Russian Team Members

Only 5 girls on the Russian team will make it to the Olympics. In parentheses will be the girl used in prelims. Prelims will be 4 gymnasts used on a apparatus and the 3 highest scores count, the 4th score will be dropped. The outer names will be used for prelims and the team finals. In team finals there will be 3 gymnasts used on a apparatus and all three scores will count. My team is basically Mustafina, Komova, Grishina, Afanasyeva and Sidorova. Mustafina, Komova & Grishina will basically be doing all-around in prelims to vie for the top 2 all-around spots.

Vault: (Grishina) Sidorova, Komova, Mustafina
Bars: (Afanasyeva), Grishina, Komova, Mustafina
Beam: (Grishina) Sidorova, Komova, Mustafina
Floor: (Grishina) Komova, Afanasyeva, Mustafina

Kohei Uchimura's Japan Nationals AA Routines

He's the man. Watching this video gets me very excited about the Olympic games. I can't wait to be shouting and cheering for Uchimura on my laptop when the Olympics begins (hopefully there will be Olympic coverage online, I don't have cable).