Only 200 days to go!

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London 2012 Press Release

Despite having some pretty rough training session before their qualification competition and not having the best competition possible, the British team of Beth Tweddle, Danusia Francis, Hannah Whelan, Imogen Cairns, Jennifer Pinches and Becky Downie earned their country a spot at the London 2012 Olympics. The girls qualified in 8th place, luckily making the cut.

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

It has been an anxious wait for Salto National Gymnastics Centre in Lisburn, Northern Ireland but today they could finally announce that the centre will host the 2012 Training Camp for the Chinese Olympic Team.  After a visit by Chinese coaches Xiong Jingbin and Jin Weiguo  in mid July, Salto have managed to secure the MAG and WAG Chinese Olympic Teams for a 2012 holding camp in July prior to the London 2012 Games. The Chinese delegation of 30 people will base themselves in Lisburn for 10 days next summer.

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.

The USA will not be placing bids to host the 2020 Olympics Games, it has emerged today.

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

…until the closing ceremony of the London 2012 Olympics. It’s strange to think that this time next year we will know who our new All Around and Event Olympic Champions are.

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.

Scotland announces it’s team for the 2011 Commonwealth Youth Games, due to take place on the Isle of Man 7-12 September 2011. The below have Been selected to compete:

• 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.

It is now less than a year to go before London hosts the 2012 Olympic Games, awful scenes of rioting and looting just a few miles from the main Olympic sites have raised huge concerns about security and policing for the event.The unrest started on Saturday night in the Tottenham area of north London following a a police shooting of a civilian on Thursday night, details are this shooting are sketchy.  Yesterday the violence spread much closer to the Olympic site when violent scenes broke out in the Hackney area of east London. Groups of hooded and masked  youths attacked shops and windows in various parts of London.  They pelted riot police with pieces of wood and anything else they could find. Shops and cars have been set alight, even a 145 year old family business was set ablaze. Business owners watched their premises be broken into, looted and burnt.

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.

This weekly round up aims to give a synopsis of the week in news. 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.  You can also follow Full Twist on  Twitter and Facebook to keep up with the news.

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

Indian Gymnastics

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.”

Today is July 27th 2011, marking that we are one year out from the kick off of the London 2012 Olympic Games. On this day next year the official Opening Ceremony of the 30th Olympic Games will take place.In fact it is 366 days to as 2012 is a leap year. A few events are taking place today to mark the occasion, the media have been invited to see some of the venues, the medal designs are due to be revealed and Britain’s Tom Daley will make the first dive into the swimming pool at the Aquatics Centre when it is officially opened today. The medal designs are due to be unveiled at 7.30pm tonight, you can tune into Sky News to see this live.

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.

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 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.

Salto Gymnastics Club in Lisburn, Ireland’s only dedicated gymnastics academy has some very exciting news today. It was posted on their Facebook page as breaking news that on July 14th 2 Chinese Olympic Coaches from the Chinese Gymnastics Federation will visit Salto for 4 days. The officials will be checking out the facilities to see if they are suitable for the Chinese Artistic Gymnastics team to train in Salto for their pre Olympic training camp in July 2012.

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

The Russian Gymnastics Federation has a few new updates online about the russian gymnasts.

Viktoria Komova

Is said to be returning to full training in 2 weeks time since surgery on her ankle some months ago. Apparently Komova has had 2 surgeries on her ankle and described how her injuries occurred:

Komova said that the recovery process after the first injury lasted about six weeks, but after the second injury, she could not train for two months. “I was performing a skill and took a step back and twisted my leg — that’s how I got this injury. I got the first injury jumping off bars and the second one on floor exercise. It knocked my ankle out of place. I was taped, but it didn’t save me…And I started all over. But I don’t regret competing then. I wanted to test things…I wanted it and my coach wanted it and it looks like we we just went too fast”, she said.

Apparently Komova has also grown a little bit since being injured, she has grown an extra 11 centimeters in the last 18 months but doesn’t feel that it has affected her training.

Aliya Mustafina

World Champion Mustafina discusses her injury and we learn a little about her.In April  Mustafina underwent surgery on her ACL tear that she suffered at the European Championships, she is now in the recovery phase, she ha snow stopped limping and is carefully following the Doctor’s orders. Despite being out injured, she would still really like to compete in the World Championships in October, even if it was just to be 2 pieces, presumably bars and beam;

“Of course I’d like to return; I want to compete at world championships. There is a chance I can go and compete on two events, but we still don’t know how my leg will be and how quickly I can bring back my routines. But the most important thing for me is the Olympic Games. Even if I don’t go to Japan, that won’t be all that terrible. The main competition will be in London next summer. But if I can go [to worlds], then why not”, she told R-Sport.

However, coach Valentina Rodonenko said that her next competition will be the Voronin Cup in December.

Tatiana Nabieva, Anna Dementyeva and Anastasiya Grishina

Tatiana Nabieva was set to compete in the Moscow World cup but withdrew to injury. Rumors of a back problem circulated online and were eventually confirmed, however it was not said to be as serious an injury compared to Mustafina and Komova;

“Tanya Nabiyeva is not have an injury that would require an operation. Her back has been bothering her for a long time and she has some problems with her upper leg. We are giving her less of a load now, but loading will grow as the competition approaches”

BORIS HORVAT/AFP/Getty Images

Coach Aleksandr Aleksandrov seems to have been plesantly surprised by Dementyeva’s win at Europeans in April, however no comment was made on how she would hold up on the world stage. The Russians have worked on upgrading her routines since Europeans;

“Let’s wait and see. I did not know she could win Europeans. And she got on beam and got the highest score right off and was a point ahead of everyone on one event. She needs to improve her vault and if she does then she can be competitive. She has a good beam routine, even though you can always fall on beam, but for the all-around she has a very high difficulty score. And we are still trying to add difficulty to her programme”, Aleksandrov said.

Grishina will be too young to compete at Worlds in October but will be eligible for London 2012. Aleksandrov compared her to other gymnasts on the world stage, stating that she is very talented.

Konstantin Pluzhnikov

The Russian men’s national gymnastics team member feels that he is not ready to compete all around. Whilst he has increased his difficulty on the rings since winning gold at the European Championships in April, Pluzhnikov feels he should be ok to make the Russian team for Worlds.

“Everyone is trying to do all-around now; without that, you won’t get chosen for worlds or the Olympic Games. There is just no other way to get on the team. But don’t I think I am actually ready to compete in the all-around. Anything is possible, of course, but I have a hard time imagining that I will compete all-around at worlds”, Pluzhnikov said.

He stressed that his main events are rings and parallel bars. “I have a new skill on bars and I’m not quite used to it yet. The other events are average, but with my rings, I think doing all-around would be okay. What I do should be enough (to make the team). If all goes smoothly and on schedule, then everything will be fine”, he said.

On London 2012 and Worlds Championships 2011

Russian National Team Coach Aleksandr Aleksandrov told R-Sport that the number of medals won at Worlds will not play as significant a role as the fight for the right to compete at the Olympic Games in 2012. All teams know that they must place within the top 8 at Worlds in order to qualify for the London 2012 Games.

“If we miss out on a couple of medals or don’t finish in the sports we would like to take but everyone is healthy, then that won’t be so bad. Since we are in the situation we are in, the main objective will be to compete as well as possible and earn our ticket to the Olympics”

MAG gymnast Sergey Khorokhordin told R Sport that Russia are likely to do well at World this year but doesn’t comment on his own chances of going to Worlds;

“I missed Europeans with an injury and did not compete at Russian nationals. For the first six months of the year, I was essentially lost. The guys who went to Berlin (at the European Championships) were more worthy of it than I was at the time and I went home to nurse injuries. As far as my own chances are concerned, I’m not the kind of guy who talks ahead of time. The main thing is to be healthy. At any celebration the first toast is almost always for health. For athletes health is even more important. If I am healthy, the team will need me; that’s what I think about it”, Khorokhordin said.

The gymnast admitted that long workouts in the hot summer were hard. “This year means going to the Olympics, so they let us know there would be no rest. In a few days we are going to Spain for training camp. These kind of camps used to be for recovery, but now they are for preparation. Sure, the sun and the beach are there, but we will be working 90 percent of the time in the gym. A lot of people are saying a lot about our chances at the Olympics, but you have to earn the trip there first”, Khorokhordin stressed

London 2012 Olympic Athletes have been  issued with social media etiquette ahead of 2012 games. The International Olympics Committee (IOC) has issued a document of guidelines for athletes “IOC Social Media, Blogging and Internet Guidelines for participants and other accredited persons at the London 2012 Olympic Games“.

Athletes at the Olympics will be allowed to blog and post updates on Twitter but could face disciplinary measures if their musings breach guidelines. Competitors may only post updates in the “first person” type but should not report on events. Whilst the IOC does actively encourage and support athletes and other accredited persons (bloggers, journalists etc) at the Olympics to take part in social media online and to post, blog and tweet their experiences. Such activity must respect the Olympic Charter and must comply with everything listed in the newly released document. Of course the IOC does want the athletes and those accredited to share their Olympics experience online and spread the news of London 2012 but ti has to be done so in the right manner, especially not for advertising or commercial purposes. Broadly speaking, the IOC wants people to share their experiences through social media.

The following are the main points covered in the document:

Blog Posts &Tweets

• The IOC are encouraging those athletes and accredited persons to participate in social media (tweeting, live updates, blogging etc)
• Any such postings, blogs or tweets should be in a first-person, diarytype format and should not be in the role of a journalist
• Postings, blogs and tweets should at all times conform to the Olympic spirit and fundamental principles of Olympism as contained in the Olympic Charter, be dignified and in good taste, and not contain vulgar or obscene words or images (no one wants an Anthony Weiner moment to overshadow the Olympics!)

Photographs

• Participants and other accredited persons can post still photographs taken within Olympic Venues for personal use.
• It is not permitted to commercialise, sell or otherwise distribute these photographs

Video / Audio

• Athletes and accredited persons are not permitted to post any video or audio of the Olympic Events
• Videos may be used for personal use only and should not be uploaded to the Internet

Media

• Accredited media may freely utilise social media platforms for bona fide reporting purposes.
• Photos taken by accredited photographers may be published for editorial purposes on social media platforms in accordance with the Photographers Undertaking.
• All other provisions of these Guidelines apply.

Links

The IOC are asking that blogs and websites who have been accredited link to the official London 2012 website or the Olympic Movement.

It’s a good thing that athletes can take photographs and upload them online, as at the Beijing Olympics this was frowned upon and mostly banned. I think that the social media guidelines and are fair and need to be issued. There have been many public twitter postings and rants from sports stars before that have caused a lot of chaos and drama, it would be a major disappointment to have something like that over shadow the games.