With the 2012 London Olympic Team being chosen in July, King has expressed her interest in competing for her country at the Games this summer. She tells the Cambridge News

“The team is being selected in July, so I’ve definitely got that in the back of my mind.

“I’ve been keeping in touch with the coaches back home, but I’m still unsure whether I should go back home to Huntingdon or stay here and train once the season finishes here in April.”

“I was home at Christmas and my choreographer was very happy to help me again for another Olympics, because she has taken so many gymnasts she has that knowledge and she’s enthusiastic about it.

“But my other coach is mainly focused on the juniors coming up and Paul (Hall) is focusing on the boys more than anything, so I may train here in the States.

“I’ve also talked to Adrian because he’s the boss man, and he said he’d be happy for me to take part in the trials, and I still keep in touch with some of my old GB team-mates to get a feeling for what they’re doing.”

 

What do you think? Great Britain sure could do with another strong vaulter and no harm in adding another strong beam worker alongside Whelan and Francis. Could Marissa make the London 2012 team?

Read more here.

The Mail Online reports that the British Gymnastics Associations also shared the same thoughts as many of the media and fans in the arena and has asked for the colour to be changed for the London 2012 Games.  Women’s National Team Coach Colin Still told the Mail:

“We didn’t like the colour scheme.”

“It didn’t affect the performance but we didn’t like it visually. It was pink and we just didn’t like it. We have had yellow, we have had blue but this wasn’t nice. But I don’t think it will change. We thought the rest of the arena was good though. We are really looking forward to it now.”

Hopefully the BOA will take the hint and change the colour, being in the arena, the feeling with the pink carpet just wasn’t right. The likes of blue is a lot stronger and in my opinion more professional looking for on the world stage. Below is a picture of mine own, taken at the empty North Greenwich arena before gymnasts and fans entered the arena. Compare that to the 2009 World Championships, held in the same arena with Gymnova equipment, the blue is far more superior.

Read more from The Mail Online.

Teams who have secured a place to London 2012

1. United States
2. Russia
3. China
4. Romania
5. Japan
6. Australia
7. Germany
8. Great Britain

The remaining teams who qualified 9th – 16th will compete at the London 202 Test event in January, find out who those teams are here. The All Around explains the process for qualification to the Olympics.

Making the top 8 was always Great Britain’s aim of the World Championships, making any Event finals or All Around Final was a bonus.  Hannah Whelan will be the only GB gymnast taking part in the AA finals. Beth Tweddle didn’t have a good bars set so will not be defending her World Title but did qualify for the Floor final, a title that she last won in 2009 at the World Championships in London. View an interview with Beth below:

Tomorrow will be the turn of the British Men. The team know that they have their work cut out for them but we should expect some event finalist, Louis Smith on Pommel and perhaps another one or two for Daniel Purvis and Daniel Keatings. They begin their qualification competition at 3:15am British time with Spain in the same subdivision.

Images via Getty Images

A press conference is currently under way and the news will be covered in the media later on today. BBC News have already covered this fantastic news, congratulations to all involved.

There will be no bid from the United States for the 2020 Olympics and Paralympics it has been officially confirmed after the seven cities which had expressed an interest in putting themselves forward were told over the weekend to forget it.

The United States Olympic Committee (USOC) contacted Chicago, Dallas, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, New York City and Tulsa to tell them that they had decided if they would miss this campaign following unsuccessful bids for the 2012 and 2016 Games.

Ever since Chicago were humiliatingly eliminated in 2009 in the first round of voting for the 2016 Olympics and Paralympics, which were awarded to Rio de Janeiro, the USOC have made it clear that they will only bid when they have repaired its international relations which have been damaged by a revenue-sharing row with the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

With an agreement with the IOC reportedly close, there had been feverish speculation earlier this month that New York City would be put forward before the deadline for 2020 closes on September 1.

Those hopes have now been dashed.

“With such little time left, we don’t believe we could pull together a winning bid that could serve the Olympic and Paralympic Movement,” said Patrick Sandusky, the spokesman for the USOC.

Via Inside the Games

Who will be the next WAG All Around Olympic Champion

Who will be Queen of the Bars?

Who will own the Beam?

Can Alicia Sacramone add to her World title on Vault and become Olympic Champion?

Is Uchimura on course to be the next MAG All Around Champion or who can knock him off course?

Leave a comment with you predictions below.

Follow all of the 2012 news in Full Twists dedicated London 2012 section.

• Carpenter, Jamie - Newcastle - 14yrs
• Davie, Liam - Cambroe, ML5 - 18yrs
• Ross, Douglas - Johnstone, PA5 - 17yrs
• Archer, Shannon - Edinburgh, EH52 - 13yrs
• Kennedy, Cara - Paisley, PA2 - 13yrs
• Smith, Carly - Glasgow,GA15 - 14yrs

Luke Folwell the most successful British gymnast in Commonwealth Games history is on the road to recovery after injuring his shoulder and is now focusing on London 2012. He hopes to make the team for both the World Championships and next years Olympic Games.

The London Borough of Hackney is in North London and forms part of inner London. It  is one of the five boroughs that borders the Olympic Park. Last night’s violence took place about four miles from the Olympic park itself. This park hosts the Olympic Stadium where the Opening and Closing ceremonies will take place as well as track and field events. Of course there are many other Olympic sites spread around London, which at the moment have not been touched by any violence.  Currently over 450 arrests have been made in London in the past two nights.

The second event of the Olympic Test events is due to kick off today at the Horse Guards Parade in London, beach volleyball. 200 delegates from the IOC are  in London for the event, the event is scheduled to last until Sunday 14th. These riots are displaying terrible images of London and the UK broadcast to the world ahead of the Olympic Games this time next year.

Prime Minister David Cameron made a statement this morning at 11am, after he chaired a meeting of his emergency Cobra committee. Cameron completely condemned the riots, calling them “sickening scenes” and stating that “robust police action” is needed. 16,000 police officers will be deployed on the streets of London this evening to help combat youths, tripling the amount that were on the streets last night. David Cameron certainly has his work cut out for him to try to render the scenes that have been broadcast abroad ahead of the Olympics.

The beach volleyball event is still scheduled to be going ahead as riots have really only been taking place at night but security will be reviewed and the event may be postponed. The security currently deployed at the test event could probably be best used elsewhere but the MET Police want to show IOC delegates that security is fine.The IOC is quoted as saying:

“Security at the Olympic Games is a top priority for the IOC. It is, however, directly handled by the local authorities, as they know best what is appropriate and proportionate. We are confident they will do a good job in this domain.”

Nick Pearcy from The Telegraph however feels it’s time that the test events are called off. The English football team were due to play a friendly game against the Netherlands in Wembley Stadium on Wednesday night, the FA confirmed the decision on their website today. All other matches set to take place in London these week were cancelled yesterday evening. The Guardian reports that the IOC and the British Olympic Association has declined to make statements.

The rioting and looting means terrible embarrassment for the London 2012 Games and venues are at threat of being damaged. It’s hard to believe that this is the same city that hosted wonderful events 2 weeks ago to mark “One Year to go” until the 2012 Olympics.

The big event this week was the European Youth Olympic Festival in Trazbon, Turkey. It was at the previous EYOF in 2009 that the gymnastics world had it’s first proper introduction to Russia’s Viktoria Komova.  This years EYOF belonged to Romania’s Larissa Iordache who came away with the silver medals for Uneven Bars and Vault at the apparatus finals and gold medals for Beam and Floor at the apparatus finals. She also took the overall AA gold medal and a silver team medal.  The future Italian seniors Elisa Meneghini, Erika Fasana and Francesca De Agosti look promising, I can’t wait to see more of them. See all results and reviews below:

EYOF Day 1 Results: MAG Team

EYOF Day 2 Results: WAG Team

EYOF Day 3 Results: MAG AA Final and WAG AA Finals

EYOF Day 4 Results: MAG Apparatus Finals and WAG Apparatus Finals

Another London 2012 hopeful from Britain, Reiss Beckford released a montage of the skills he is currently working on perfecting. You might remember Reiss from the 2010 Commonwealth Games.

Last Wednesday marked one year to go until the kick off of the London 2012 Olympics. The new Olympic medals were unveiled at a ceremony in London’s Trafalgar Square by the Princess Royal.

Other interesting titbits:

More photographs were released of the Russian Gymnasts training
Lauren Mitchell launches her Official Facebook page
Bits on Nastia Liukin, Alicia Sacramone, Gabrielle Douglas, Beth Tweddle

Silver and Bronze Commonwealth Games medalist Asish Kumar and the MAG Indian team are currently training in England with Coach Vladimir Cherktov. After crisitcising Kumar for not winning more medals, the Gymnastics Federation of India is doing all it can to support the gymnasts. The MAG have been training at the  Basildon Sporting Village in Essex from July 8 and  will  continue to do so until August 30, this is with the hope of performing well at the World Championships in October.So it seems that Cherktov is still coaching the team anyway and his contract was renewed, in January he wasn’t sure where he stood.

Nastia Liukin

Does a day go by when we don’t have some Nastia Liukin news? Nastia has been named to “Team USA: Britain Bound”. Ms Liukin will tour Britain with other former American Olympians… in fall/ autumn. You know, when she is to announce whether she is coming back or not…

Beth Tweddle

Wants to finish her career in style at the London 2012 Games but reminds everyone that the World Championships are first.

VISA Championships

The start lists have been drawn up for Nationals in August. Mattie Larson is missing from the line up and Sloan is listed.

 Rebecca Bross

Sports Illustrated writes that Bross could become the USA’s third straight golden gymnast. On this Valeri Liukin says:

“The goal is to become Olympic champion,” Valeri Liukin said. “We don’t talk about the medals normally, but I’m sure that’s what her goal is. That is my goal. Working that hard is not that interesting if you don’t dream big.”

The FIG has posted some information regarding gymnastics at the London 2012 Games. Artistic Gymnastics will begin on July 28th, following the Opening Ceremony and will continue right through until August 7th. Shawn Johnson is excited:

http://youtu.be/s_r0fNBZHqU

As always keep an eye out on Full Twist’s dedicated London 2012 section for more news on the 2012 Games.

 Xiong Jingbin and Jin Weiguo currently train the Chinese Olympic gymnastics team, but called into the Salto National Gymnastics Centre in Lisburn to provide a coaching master-class for the club’s gymnasts.

China is renowned for excellence in gymnastics, topping the medals table in the sport with an amazing 18 medals at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.

Carál Ní Chuilín said: “This is a proud day for the Salto Club and it gives me great pleasure to welcome Xiong Jingbin and Jin Weiguo. The facilities here are world class and I’m sure Mr Jin and Mr Xiong will be impressed.

“China is renowned for excellence in gymnastics, topping the medals table in the sport with an amazing 18 medals at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.

“It is wonderful to welcome two of their most successful coaches to the North and have them work with and inspire our young people which will contribute to our plans to deliver a local legacy from the London2012 Games.

“Mr Jin and Mr Xiong will also have the opportunity to experience a true taste of the North of Ireland and sample what is on offer; to understand our total passion for sport, and not least our warm and genuine welcome.”

Eamonn McCartan, Chief Executive of Sport Northern Ireland was also in attendance and added: “Sport Northern Ireland is delighted to welcome two of the most successful coaches of the Chinese team to these excellent facilities, and to sample the hospitality Northern Ireland has to offer.

“It is great to see representatives from a team of such high calibre considering Salto as their base for pre-games training. This will act as a great catalyst to encourage and inspire all of our young people to participate in sport, which will be an important legacy from the London Olympic and Paralympic Games.”

If they select Salto National Gymnastics Centre the Chinese team will train at Salto for up to 14 days before travelling to the Olympic Games in London in July 2012.

During their visit to Northern Ireland they will be meeting with officials from Stormont, Lisburn City Council and Sport NI. Olympic Gold Medallist and Salto club president Dame Mary Peters will be welcoming them to Northern Ireland spearheading Salto’s and Northern Ireland’s bid to host an Olympic Pre Training Camp.

Very exciting news Salto, lets hope they approve! It would be a great boost for Ireland.