The 2011 season was a coming out party for Chandler Eggleston. After placing 12th All Around at JO Nationals in Long Beach, Eggleston added a 4th place finish on vault and won his first national title on floor. Qualifying for his first VISA U.S. Championships, Eggleston placed 3rd on floor. In perhaps the most impressive performance by a junior this season, Eggleston turned in the [...more]
The 2009 season was a turning point for Jake Martin. After topping out in the top 36 as a Level 9 at the 2008 JO Nationals, the next season became Martin's breakout year. A 7th place AA finish (Level 10/14-15) at the '09 JO Nationals in Cincinnati led to a 3rd place AA that summer at the U.S. Championships, where he also had top 5 placements on four events (FX, PH, VT, HB). Many club gymnastics fans were wondering where this kid came from. Well, after the '09 season, [...more]
Swiss Turners Gymnastics Academy, in West Allis, WI, is one of the top men’s club programs in the country. Their optional program had five boys place in the Top 36 at JO Nationals this past May. One of these young men, Dmitri Belanovski, has been a perennial top all-arounder and Junior National Team member. If the last name sounds familiar, it’s because his father [...more]
2011 was a watershed year for U.S.A. men’s gymnastics. So many notable achievements, and so little time as we close out the year. We have thought long and hard about the year’s top stories, and we finally came up with one that we believe will significantly help shape the U.S. program for many years. This was the year of the youth movement. There were three young gymnasts that really [...more]
Danell Leyva followed up his Day 1 performance (92.50) with an equally outstanding one in the finale (91.30) as he coasted to his first Senior U.S. Men's Gymnastics all-around title. Leyva hit 12 for 12 as he bested his World teammate Jonathan Horton by 2.75 points. Horton kept it close until he fell doing a Cassina on high bar. Leyva is now arguably America's premier gymnast, and still has room for growth. Also packing his bags for the Tokyo World Championships will be young [...more]
Danell Leyva posted a career high all-around score of 92.50 to easily outlast Jonathan Horton (90.40) in Day 1 competition at the 2011 VISA U.S. Men's Gymnastics Championships. Who needs to put up huge floor and vault scores to win a title? Not Leyva, especially when he's busy cranking out parallel bars (16.20) and high bar (16.90) scores like nobody's business. It's only one day, however, and he has one more day to prove he's America's best gymnast, but his 2.1 lead over Horton is [...more]
Guest blogger Matthew Rusk is back with part 2 of his analysis for this week's U.S. championships. In this installment, he highlights C.J. Maestas, Tim McNeill, Alex Naddour, John Orozco, Paul Ruggeri and Brandon Wynn. Rusk, a native of Houston, TX, will be enrolled as a freshman at Indiana University this fall. He doesn't pull any punches, and tells it how he sees it. Without a doubt, Rusk is a gifted gymnastics analyst and a remarkably [...more]
For the third August in-a-row, talented young gymnastics analyst Matthew Rusk is back to dish out his commentary on 12 American gymnasts who will be battling it out for 6 spots on the 2011 World team. 2012 and the end of the quadrennium are rapidly approaching, and as Rusk points out, the U.S. roster of 2012 Olympic hopefuls is deep. Well, the 2011 World Championships is one step closer to that Olympic dream, and next week's VISA U.S. Championships will be the [...more]
Swiss Turners Gymnastics Academy, located in West Allis, WI, is developing a most impressive roster of young optional gymnasts. Vitali Kan and Josiah Eng both placed in the top 36 in the Level 9 AA competition at the recent JO Nationals. Steven Jaciuk and Paul Montague ended up in the top 50 in Level 10 (16-18). Jaciuk will be competing for Coach Mike Burns at Minnesota in the upcoming season. Meanwhile, Swiss had two of the top 5 all-arounders in the Level 10 (14-15) division. Dmitri Belanovski and Marvin Kimble placed 4th and 3rd, respectively. This powerhouse club, former training home of Paul and Morgan Hamm, [...more]
Here’s a young man who has had a charmed gymnastics career. While not heavily recruited in high school, Kent Caldwell chose to take his shiny academic credentials to the University of Michigan, where he was also given a chance to shine in the gym. Caldwell trained at the Charlotte Gymnastics Academy during his club years, and, known for being a floor and vault specialist, his contributions to Michigan gymnastics [...more]
