Tweet The highly anticipated CoverGirl Classic will take place this weekend in Chicago, Illinois. In the senior competition, all eyes will be on the return of 2008 Olympic team members Shawn Johnson and Chellsie Memmel.
Shawn Johnson isn’t expected to medal as she is using this event to test the waters, to get back out there and return to the competition arena for the first time since Beijing in 2008. We should hope to see her in full form and competing All Around at the Visa Championships in August. In Illinois, she …

Tweet According to Kyodo News Naoya Tsukahara, the son of five time gold Olympic medalist Mitsou Tsukahara, is to apply for Australian citizenship as a prerequisite to taking part in next year’s London 2012 Olympics.
Tsukuhara, 34, has been training in Australia since 2009, following the Japanese team’s capturing of gold for the first time in 28 years at the Athens Games in 2004.
Currently, Tsukuhara has not satisfied all of the requirements to claim Australian citizenship, but taking permanent residency should clear the way for him to do so.
“If I can represent the Australian national team, …

Tweet Irish Gymnastics today named the gymnasts who will represent Ireland at the 2011 World Championships in Tokyo.
MAG
Rohan Sebastian, Kieran Behan and Luke Carson. Kieran Behan from Tolworth Gymnastics Club made himself well known on the European Circuit last year by placing 8th on floor, just missing out on qualifying for the final. Luke was injured back in March and April and couldn’t compete in the Cottbus Cup or in the European Championships, hopefully he will be ok for Worlds. Luke competed in the Commonwealth Games last year and was …

Tweet Last weekend, there were various reports circulating about former Chinese  gymnast  Zhang Shangwu who is living on the streets  in China and begging for money. A few blogs and gymnastics news websites picked up on the story – Gymnastics Examiner, International Gymnast – which has helped to draw interest to Shangwu’s situation.
It seems now that things may be looking up for Shangwu thanks to the  media coverage that has been drawn to him since a passerby took a photograph of him during a street performance;
A non-profit organization, and the owner …

Tweet 35 years ago Nadia Comaneci made history at the 1975 Montreal Olympics by scoring a perfect, unheard of 10.00 on the Uneven Bars.
Nadia began gymnastics at an early age in a new gymnastics club “The Flame” in 1967 where she was coached by Marta Karolyi. In 1969, she joined the Karolyi’s new experimental gymnastics school where Marta was her main coach,she was assisted by Bela. In short, Nadia won a string of titles in her early years, in 1970 she became the youngest gymnast to ever win the Romanian …

Tweet The schedule has been released for the upcoming Russian Cup, taking place August 15th – 21st in Ekaterinburg. The schedule has been posted on the Russian Gymnastics Federations website. A list of competitors has not yet been posted but obviously Mustafina and Komova will not compete.
Tuesday August 16th
12pm – 2pm – WAG Training
3.30pm – 6pm – MAG Training
Wednesday August 17th
2pm – 4.30pm WAG Qualification
5.30pm – 8pm MAG Qualification
Thursday August 18th
5pm – 7pm WAG All Around Final
Friday August 19th
5pm – 7pm MAG All Around Final
Saturday 20th August
4pm – 7pm MAG …

Tweet Here are some videos from the 2011 Australian Nationals from the event finals:
Lauren Mitchell
Floor (I love the split jump out of the second pass, the wolf turn looks more secure)

Vault
Beam
Larissa Miller
Vault
Chloe Sims
Bars
Vault
Ashleigh Brennan
Beam
Vault
Many thanks to YouTube user Gemeanie who has been uploading great videos from the competitions.
 
 

Tweet If you haven’t already subscribed to Full Twist by adding the URL to your Google Reader or by entering your email address in the subscribe button on the website, then you may be missing out on some of the exciting gymnastics news. This weekly round up aims to give a synopsis of the week in news. You can also follow Full Twist on Twitter and Facebook to keep up with the news.
The biggest news and biggest shock of the week was Swiss gymnast Ariella Kaeslin‘s retirement announcement. Kaeslin felt that her …

Tweet Alan Owen has posted another fantastic update on the recovery of Aliya Mustafina and Viktora Komova on their websites. He explains that both gymnastics have returned to Round Lake following a two week break away to Spain.

Whilst Komova is training for the 2011 World Championships in October, she is only performing light training since back in Russia. It is hoped that she will be able to compete on at least some apparatus in Tokyo. Presumably vault and floor are debatable.

Mustafina has not been granted permission to train just yet, …

Tweet Below are a few videos from the recent Japan Cup of the Chinese girls looking great. It’s been a while since I’ve seen anything from the Chinese girls, they’re looking great.
Huang Qiushuang VT

Yao Jinnan UB

Yang Yilin VT

Yang Yilin UB

Huang Qiushuang FX

Is it just me or does Qiushuang look older and a bit taller?
You can view these and other videos from the Korean Cup on YouTube User zihan0107′s channel.
 

Tweet Earlier this month Full Twist announced the fantastic news that two Olympic Chinese Coaches were planning a visit to Salto National Gymnastics Centre in Northern Ireland with the view to using the venue as for their Pre-Olympic training camp next year.  Coaches Xiong Jingbin and Jin Weiguo arrived in Ireland yesterday to begin their visit to Salto and hosted a coaching masterclass for the gymnasts in the club.
 Xiong Jingbin and Jin Weiguo currently train the Chinese Olympic gymnastics team, but called into the Salto National Gymnastics Centre in Lisburn to …

Tweet Lauren Mitchell has reclaimed the title that she last won in 2009 and has once again been crowned Australian National Champion. Lauren took the lead on the first day, winning top marks on every apparatus. She held a four point lead over Georgia- Rose Brown going into the second day of competition and looked like a sure thing to win the Championships.

Georgia Rose Brown maintained her second place lead with Mary Anne Monkton  finishing in third place. Results are due to be posted on the Gymnastics Australia website soon. …