Beautiful work…

Dublin elected as European Capital of Sport 2010

I had heard about this last week on Twitter. A post has just popped up on the Irish Gymnastics website regarding it. I’m not quite sure what this means for IG but hopefully something good will come of it.

Dublin has been chosen as the European Capital of Sport 2010 by the internationally renowned European Capitals of Sport Association (ACES).

 

Dublin City Council invites everybody to celebrate the year & share in the collective pride we all feel in our achievements at local, national and international level in terms of sporting participation and success.

 

This prestigious award for the city is an opportunity to celebrate our achievements as a sporting capital and highlight the tremendous amount of work being carried out by departments, agencies, organisations and dedicated individuals, to enrich the sporting lives of our citizens.

 

The Award of European Capital of Sport celebrates our achievements in encouraging everyone in Dublin to participate in sport and physical activity.

 

In 2006, the European Capitals of Sport Association (ACES) invited Dublin City Council to bid for the title of European Capital of Sport 2010. A trans-European judging panel followed up on the bid with a site visit to the city and Dublin City Council was then asked to make a presentation to the ACES Congress in Stuttgart in 2007. After that presentation Dublin was awarded European Capital of Sport 2010.

 

According to ACES, the rationale for awarding this prestigious title to Dublin City were:-

 

•  The huge participation by people in Dublin in all levels of sport – the variety of sports on offer in the city, the high level of volunteerism – from local clubs to stadia management

 

• The city’s partnership approach to sport and recreation

 

• The importance Dublin City puts on encouraging all sectors of society to get involved in sport and recreation

 

 Dublin – European Capital of Sport 2010 is awarded to all of us. It’s a testament to the multitude of sport and physical activity opportunities afforded to everybody who works in the city, lives here or comes to visit Dublin. This award is shared by all the sporting bodies and the organisations that are the city’s lifeblood; the business community, tourism bodies, the educational sector and event promoters as well as the professional sport organisations and the many community clubs.

 

The official handover of the title European Capital of Sport took place today (Thursday 4^th Februrary) at 2pm with the Lord Mayor of Milan (2009 recipients) handing over to the Lord Mayor of Dublin. IG was represented by President Ger Rellis who was in attendance for the ceremony.

We look forward to keeping you up-to-date with events in connection with the award throughout the year…

Little Links 4/2/10

New tactics urged to fight female sports injuries

Salto Gymnastics Club – Irelands top gymnastics venue

Female athletes injured more than male athletes

Reduction in Irish Sports Council funding for Irish Gymnastics

FIG on “cracking down and easing up”

The current WAG World ranking lists

Which MIOBI character are you? I’m Payson “You’re talented and totally focused which makes you Payson. You’re the best of the best, you can afford to relax a little”

Old Adidas Commercial

This Adidas commercial was release in 2004 featuring Nadia Comaneci and Nastia Liukin. I always find it beautiful to watch.

Make It or Break It on Twitter

In recent weeks, I’ve come across the actors from Make It or Break It on Twitter lately. You can follow Chelsea Hobbs (Emily), Josie Loren (Kaylie), Cassie Scerbo (Lauren), Johnny Pacar (Damon), Candace Bure (Summer), Rosi Blasi (Ronnie Cruz – Kaylies Mom), the Creator of MIOBI Holly Sorensen , Norman Buckley - the Director and of course, the main MIOBI account .

If you know of any other actors from the show, make sure to post the link in a comment to share with us all!

Running Barefoot – The Debate

Earlier this week Rick posted “Are running shoes causing injury?”, where he spoke about a book he reviewed on his own website and about whether shoes should be worn running. I’m very interested in this book; I think it’s another one that Rick has convinced me to purchase

There is a huge debate over whether as humans; running shoes are causing more harm than good. In general, it’s not just running shoes, it’s any shoes. Many women have problems with their feet, namely due to high heels and pointy shoes where they bear pain and discomfort for the sake of  style and fashion. Bunions would be the most common form of problem caused by ill fitting shoes – although this can also be down to genetic make up, as I have discovered. As I said, it’s any shoes that can cause problems - flip flops (thongs for any Aussie readers ) have no support for the foot. My podiatrist told me that the best form of shoes are those with laces that are properly tied – thus offering full and proper support to the foot. This being the reason why I shouldn’t really be wearing Uggs boots when I have serious feet problems as I have to wear very supportive shoes to hold my prescriptive orthotics in the correct place.

Personally I find it very difficult to source comfortable “runners”, I don’t find the standard Nike shoes etc comfortable and certainly will not pay through the roof for hi tech shoes that I won’t wear all too often.  I wear a hard prescriptive device in both of my shoes, I need a fairly flat shoe with a slight bit of a lift in the arch to accommodate the devices – these sorts of shoes are hard to come by and both the device and shoe are not suitable for running in. Luckily, I am not a runner. I enjoy running but unfortunately my feet and knees can’t take very much of it. I find I can’t walk around the gym when coaching or around the house barefoot, even just in socks. Due to the pain endured in my foot through the past few years, socks or comfortable shoes offer a physical and psychological protection to my feet. I’m afraid of anyone standing on my foot, especially the area that constantly aches so for me, they create a boundary between my foot and the world.  I know many people who wander around indoors barefoot – it’s not for me. Obviously when performing moves in the gym, I have my shoes off as it doesn’t feel natural. Running in the gym for a short while without shoes is fine but I couldn’t imagine running for longer than I would in gym.

I don’t have too much to say on the topic of whether running shoes are causing more hassle than good  as I find it difficult to tell what’s right and what’s wrong because each persons body is so different and unique (and my feet are such a huge pain in the bum) and no two people run the same way but I am open to all theories, thoughts and studies out there.  As always, I take all medical studies published with a pinch of salt. I found Ricks post very interesting, mainly because feet are an area of the body that I am truly fascinated with. 

I subscribe to The Sport of Science, a website run by Ross Tucker PHD and Jonathan Dugas PHD and this morning a great post popped into my reader about the debate of Running Barefoot VS Shoes. If you were interested in Ricks post, I suggest you have a read. It provides lots of links on the debate. You can also follow The Sport of Science on Twitter.

Make It Or Break It

Make It Or Break It has been airing in the USA since autumn / winter last year. If you haven’t seen it, it’s a show based on gymnastics centering around Elite gymnasts Kaylie, Emily, Lauren and Payson. IMDB describes MIOBI as:  “Follows a group of teen Olympic hopefuls as they train and prepare for their day in the spotlight”. MIOBI is full of gymnastics action, tears, tantrums, injuries and teenage drama and I love it!

It’s great to have a show based on our beloved sport. There was a huge surge of interest in gymnastics here when “Stick It” was released.  Gym girls were watching it with friends who then wanted to be able to do moves like the gymnasts in the film, so they joined gymnastics. Obviously, gymnastics is a huge sport in America, not so much here , so it’s great that there is a program about the sport.

I’ve been lucky enough to get the full episodes to watch but the teenagers in gymnastics haven’t. Living outside America, means that we cannot watch the full episodes on the ABC website. The girls have been attempting to watch the show on YouTube but they can’t view the last (crucial) 8 minutes, they try to watch it on TvShack and SurfTheChannel and often they can’t watch the full episode. I must admit that I download the torrents, so that’s how I can watch the full episodes but I’m in a bit of a pickle, I would love to give the girls the episodes but keeping in line with the Codes of Conduct, it’s not really the correct thing for me to do, especially because of some of the content.

Does anyone know an easy way for those outside the US to watch them, easily and in full, without hassle?

What does she mean??

Another one of Nastia’s tweets that just leaves us guessing…Any ideas?

Twitter

I’m finding Twitter to be such a useful tool for information lately. It’s quick, fun and easy as sometimes I don’t have time to thrawl through my Google Reader to view posts from blogs I subscribe to. I’ve come across a great amount of Twitter accounts offering information that don’t have an efficient website or blog to distribute their news, so Twitter is fantastic for this. I’ve also noticed that some people aren’t aware as to how to subscribe, so Twitter is an easy way to catch up with the news.   I must add that I am finding Twitter Lists  brilliant and am discovering plenty of gymnasts or gymnastics sites on Twitter that I didn’t know had an account. Mashable have an easy to follow guide on making Twitter Lists. Happy Tweeting!

You can follow Full Twist here . The blog post links will be posted there for those who dont use an RSS.

Beth Tweddle

I am a little late with this post but I would like to offer a huge congratulations to Britain’s Beth Tweddle who has been selected to receive an MBE. This is a huge achievement for the seven time British Champion. FIG have given Beth a lovely write up on their website. Make sure to follow Beth on Twitter  for news and updates. Hopefully when she has time she will become more interactive with her fans. Congratulations Beth!