re: Gymnastics - 2024 Paris Olympics

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Korbut was the little darling who did amazing things. Ludmilla was an absolutely gorgeous gymnast who looked like such a grown woman at 20, compared to how 17 year old Korbut looked. Most people remember Korbut, but not Ludmilla, who actually won the gold AA.

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100% true. Every word. It's weird how good Turisheva was over the span of about a decade, but it was Korbut that really exploded in popularity.

That time period in the Cold War is fascinating to me. We in the US butchered Turisheva's name and I don't think she ever said a word about it. I think the Soviets (and now Russians and other nations where they speak Russian) just expect it from us. There is a video of Lyudmilla in America and the broadcaster interviewing her is really creepy and kisses her on the cheek - it's so weird.

Speaking of creepy, this is also creepy. These two French dudes are pretty close to drooling as they interview Nelli Kim and Svetlana Boginskaya, especially the old guy. Maybe that's French culture, I don't know:


I used to never think there was a "sexualization" of gymnasts. When I watch it, I am thinking about the human performance aspect: the biomechanics, physics, neuroscience, motor learning and skill development, etc. But, over time I came to realize the sexualization thing is very real.

Gymnastics is an odd sport and sort of insular, despite being international. Bella coached in Romania, then defected and became the head of gymnastics in the US - his path would make you believe he'd never be affiliated with Soviet gymnasts but Svetlana Boginskaya competed for the USSR, then the Unified Team, then came to the US and trained at Bella's gym, competed for him during 1996, then represented Belarus at the 96 Olympics. But, despite all of this moving around, the gymnastics world seems very closed, and maybe that's how this culture of abuse was able to get a foothold and sustain itself.

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Don Peters gym. He was a coach that was banned for life for sexually assulting 3 teenage girls (probably more).

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And there was Bob Geddert(sp?), who killed himself just before having to go to prison. I also remember hearing about a coach that was caught in a storage closet - in the dark - with a gymnast. He took her in there routinely for "massage work" after practice.

I was debating putting up a history piece to cover the abuse scandal(s) in gymnastics. I've been trying to throw in a bunch of history and stuff of a related nature since it's the Olympics.

I don't know if it would derail things or not. It's part of gymnastics history, but an ugly part.

I have always believed that if you want to keep bad men away from your children, surround your children with good men - good men are like livestock guardian dogs and will immediately become alert to predators. I always ask myself: why were fathers OK with their daughters going to these gyms that were so closed off to parents? And it happened with female coaches too. Kathy Klegis (sp?), the coach in NJ that Riley McCusker had to flee from and more.

There are some good documentaries that are free on youtube, for people to look into everything. It's hard to understand how things got so dysfunctional and abusive. For those that are not aware of all the stuff that has gone on in gymnastics, prepare to be shocked, disappointed, and very angry.

Something that confounds me about the abuse is just the issue of why do people do it - I don't understand how you can be around children and be responsible for them, and not be protective. If anything I would expect male coaches to be accused of being over-protective of young female gymnasts, not to abuse them.

The abuse saga in gymnastics is infuriating and I could ramble on about it for hours. One of the worst things that drives me bonkers is that our own government perpetuated the abuse and not a single person at the FBI was held accountable. The whole thing is insane and my brain doesn't know what to do with things like this - abuse of the vulnerable, whether it's the old, the sick, animals, the young, my brain just doesn't know what to do with it.

USA Gymnastics sent out a tweet that Jade Carey's father is sick so he's out today. He is her coach. No idea if this is just being sick or if he may have had a covid+ test or what.

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Liukin is a former Soviet gymnast and Olympic champion. He and his wife and their very young daughter moved to the US just after the fall of the USSR. Wife was a rhythmic gymnast world champ. Daughter went on to be the 2008 Olympic all-around champion. She's on TV now, doing commentary for NBC for gymnastics.

Rivera on beam, looked pretty good. She is solid.

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Video was not working well on X, so this may not look good.

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Hopefully a better video of Simone's vault will emerge. Apparently she nailed it perfectly.

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This guy brings pretty good comment and analysis at X. Here is his take on podium training.

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Get ready to see this in TV commercials to ramp up the hype for team and event finals.

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Suni Lee did two different beam mounts - one she had trouble with and her coach said it was due to the lighting in the arena. If she goes with the second type of mount, her difficulty score goes from 6.7 to 6.5.

That's all I have for podium training and I've seen no updates on the men, regarding injuries or anything like that.