I don’t want to ruin the book for anyone who hasn’t read it but it really is fantastic, Marta and Belas move to America was brave and obviously a brilliant choice! I especially enjoyed reading it since I had also previously read Nadia Comaneci’s autobiography “Letters to a Young Gymnast” so I could read situations from both Bela and Nadias sides. I urge any big gymnastics fans to read this book, I got mine as a very cheap second hand version on Amazon.

I would really welcome a new book from Bela. This book was published in 1994 so you can only imagine what situations and stories would be involved in a new biography from 1994 to 2012.

I am now about halfway through reading Vladimir Zagladas book “One Coaches Journey From East to West”,  I thought it would be more like Belas book, it started off that way but is turning more technical and educational. I’m finding the heavy Russian to English translation hard so it’s not as fluid and easy to read as. It’ll take a me a couple of days but should be able to update you on my thoughts by the end of the week.

Have you read either of these books? What are your thoughts on them? 

Well, this was another big week for the gymnastics world. The biggest event that occurred was the 2011 CoverGirl Classic in Chicago where we saw the return of Beijing 2008 veterans Shawn Johnson and Chellsie Memmel. Some have described it as underwhelming but I really enjoyed it. Maybe it was the fact that I stayed up until after 3am on Sunday morning watching the sport I love but it gave me a chance to have a look at the new seniors that I’ve not met before and some of the other seniors I’m not too familiar with. I’d never seen much of Gabby Douglas, Aly Raisman, Jordan Wieber, Mackenzie Wofford so it was great to be able to see them.

Overall it seems to be that Alicia Sacramone and Chelsie Memmel were the stars of the event. Shawn Johnson, a little nervous, was at her best but we never expected her to be. There is no doubt in my mind that Alicia will make the 2011 Worlds team later this year.

View results here

View videos here

View the criteria on which Shawn Johnson petitioned to compete at VISA’s was accepted

Following on from last weekends Australian National Championships where he (unofficially) won the National Title, Naoya Tsukahara is said to be applying for Australian citizenship in order to be eligible to compete for Australia at the 2012 Olympics. Some may say that he is desperately needed.

With one year to go until the London 2012 Olympics, Royal Mail have released their final set (3 of 3) of stamps to mark the 30th Olympics. One of the stamps issued is a gymnastics stamp.

Last weekend many blogs picked up on the news circulating that the former Chinese gymnast Zhang Shangwu had been living on the streets of China, doing street performances to earn money to feed himself. Luckily many companies and people came to Shangwu’s aid, offering him work, money, jobs etc. This brought another flurry of articles up about China’s treatment of gymnasts. John from the Chinese Gym Blog put up some great links to reports and studies of China’s Athletes post- retirement life.

Other interesting titbits:

Irish Gymnastics names it’s gymnasts for Worlds

Details of the upcoming Russian Cup were announced

On July 18th it was 35 years since Nadia Comaneci made history in Montreal
Building a dream, brick by brick, child by child

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 Nationals as part of the team. Her first major success was at the European Championships in 1975 which was a springboard to her soon to be historic success at the 1976 Olympics. In Norway she won the All Around Gold, gold for Bars, Beam and Vault and silver for Floor.

On July 18th 1976 Nadia earned a perfect 10 on the Uneven Bars during the team compulsaries. She followed this up on July 19th with a perfect 10 on Bars and Beam during the team optional exercises to help secure the silver medal for Romania. On July 21st during the All Around competition Nadia scored a perfect 10 on both bars and beam earning the gold medal. On July 23rd she secures two more perfect 10′s during the event finals on bars and beam. She also places third on floor.

This launched Nadia into the spotlight and to date she is still one of the best know former Olympians. There are many books and articles available about her. I enjoyed the book “Letters to a Young Gymnast”, written by Nadia which tells her story.  You can read more about Nadia on Wikipedia or on an unofficial fan website.

Since a young girl, Nadia has always been a hero of mine, a beautiful gymnast. When I first got involved in gymnastics I always remember my parents telling me about seeing her on television, it was only years later when the internet and YouTube became available that I could see these routines for myself. The young gymnasts that I coach, who’s heroes include Nastia Liukin, Beth Tweddle and Shawn Johnson know her as “the girl who got 10″, wait until they release how truly beautiful a gymnast Nadia was.

Let’s take a look at those amazing routines:

Bars

Bars

Beam

Floor

Vault

Vault

Thank you Nadia for everything that you have given (and still continue to give) the gymnastics World. Thank you for giving me inspiration when I was a young gymnast.

Nadia with nine-time track and field gold medalist Carl Lewis and London 2012 Organiser Seb Coe

Nadia was in London this week for the launch of the London 2012 Olympic ticket sales. She’s been tweeting from London. This week she did an interview with Jessica Whittington of SportSister Magazine. She discusses the London 2012 Olympics, her memories from the previous Olympics and why people should buy tickets to the London 2012 Olympics.

Who will you be looking out for?

Well there will be a lot of new faces, I’m talking specifically gymnastics, but here you have great potential with Beth Tweddle in two events on bars and floor and Louis Smith on pommel horse.

There’s still a little more time, we don’t know exactly how the team will look because it hasn’t been decided yet, but gymnastics is always a hot ticket for people to watch.

 

And what has been your most memorable Olympics experience?

Well when you go there and compete you are very focused on what you have to do. Gymnastics lasts for a couple of days because we have prelims and team preliminaries and team finals. I remember mostly that I got to meet a lot of high profile people and athletes that I had read about.

 

You obviously inspired a lot of people with your incredible performances – how does it feel to know people may have taken up gymnastics, or sport in general, because of you?

I am always very surprised that people remember me after so many years, some people come to me and say you were my idol, I grew up, I did gymnastics but I was not as good as you were! It is very nice to hear. And its amazing that people still remember something that happened all thoses years ago.

 

Read the full interview here

Photo: www.romgym.com

In 2010, Larissa placed 5th in the junior individuals at the European Championships in Birmingham, placing behind Anastasia Grishina and Victoria Komova. At Europeans she won gold on floor, silver on beam and silver All Around, the Romanian Juniors also grabbed the silver team medal.

Larissa speaks to Prosport about London 2012, the 2010 Europeans and gymnastics in general.She is very optimistic about London 2012 and has high hopes, considering she will only turn 16 just two months before the Games kick off.  It’s a nice short interview. Check it out on Prosport, Google Chrome will translate it into English for you.

Prosport also presented her with an award, maybe someone can clarify what exactly the name of the award is?

It’s only about time that Nadia got her place on the show. To date we’ve already seen both Nastia Liukin, Bela Karolyi and 2004 All Around Olympic Champion Carly Patterson’s music featured on the show. I wonder what her involvement will be… any thoughts?

Who else would you like to see featured in the show?

Geoffrey Taucer is looking for suggestions, what would you like to him him write about in his blog? Technical of course!

Nadia Comaneci calls for more opportunities for women in their sport

CBC has compiled a list of what they consider to be the top 10 most influential (and bizarre) drugs scandals in sport

Watch some Women’s Podium Training videos via Gymnastics Australia

Shawn Johnson tweeted that she is getting a new website

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

I recently bought “Letters to a young gymnast“, a book  by  Nadia Comaneci. It just arrived today so I’ll be snuggling up in bed to read it tonight. I must be honest and say that I have not read many gymnastics books that aren’t directly about coaching. I have read Chalked Up by Jennifer Sey, I enjoyed the read.It was interesting to find out how gymnasts conducted themselves and the lengths they would go to to achieve their dreams goal, even if compromising their own health.

 I’d be interested to know what other coaches, gymnasts and even outsiders views are on  the various gymnastics books you have read and of course I’d appreciate any recommendations you might have!