The big buzz this week is the upcoming decision as to which city will host the 2016 Olympics. Seems like everybody and their brothers and sisters are descending on Copenhagen in a bit of eleventh-hour lobbying, which should make K Street blush. Representing the gymnastics world are Nastia Liukin, Nadia Comaneci and Bart Conner. The four finalists are [...more]
John Orozco added a silver medal on rings to go along with his all-around bronze at the 2009 Junior Japan International Competition. Orozco had qualified on five events to advance to today's event finals. His 14.60 on rings wasn't enough to overtake Japan's Ryuzo Sejima (14.75). Jake Dalton, also a qualifier on five events, failed to match his opening day score of 16.10 on vault and finished in 5th place with a 15.45. Russia's David Belyavskiy scored a 16.10 to take the gold. Overall, the Japanese men [...more]
2009 U.S. Junior all-around champ John Orozco took the bronze medal in the all-around at the 2009 Junior Japan International Competition in Yokohama. World Team member Jake Dalton had the day's top vault score (16.10) and ended up finishing 6th place in the all-around. Orozco finished in the top [...more]
2008 Olympian Joey Hagerty placed fifth in the all-around at the second stage of the Champions Trophy, which was held yesterday in Berlin. Germany's Fabian Hambuchen trounced the field with a winning score of 91.575. The hard-working Hambuchen will next compete at the World Championships in London, where he will be considered one of the [...more]
NCAA head honcho, Myles Brand, sadly succumbed to that cruel killer, pancreatic cancer. Brand was probably most famous for firing Bobby Knight back in 2000 when he was the president of Indiana University. He established most of his legacy at Indiana, where he helped transform the university with his leadership and fundraising skills. His tenure as president of the NCAA was productive as he [...more]
The World Team camp concluded on Saturday at the U.S. Olympic Training Center, and the official squad was announced. Oklahoma freshman Jake Dalton and former Illinois All-American Wes Haagensen were named as replacements for David Sender and Sasha Artemev. Sender, of course, is now enrolled in vet school at Illinois and Artemev has not quite [...more]
Over the past several months, StickItMedia has really enjoyed interviewing many of the nation's top men's gymnasts. The fun part about it has been to get to know many of the athletes' parents and coaches, and to learn what makes these guys tick. Whether it's a funny story about how a gymnast got into the sport, or the inspiring tales about how a gymnast has battled through injuries, these young men deserve to have [...more]
Max Mayr is known at Universal Gymnastics in Miami, FL as the "Training Machine." According to his coach, Yin Alvarez, "Max walked into the gym at the age of five and showed that he was a very mature boy. Believe it or not, at that age, Max knew what he wanted in the sport of gymnastics. He was like a little old man paying attention to everything I said and following instructions better than any of my older gymnasts. He is a very, very hard worker. He always wants to do everything perfectly. He is a perfectionist. He never gives up and gets upset when he doesn't do the skills how he wants to." Up until the 2009 JO Nationals, injuries had limited Mayr to only one [...more]
We wish much luck to Stanford grad and '08 Olympic Team alternate, David Durante, as he prepares to take time off from gymnastics to live in Europe. Durante's friends and former teammates recently gathered at Stanford Coach Thom Glielmi's house for a farewell bash. Read about it at [...more]
