The United States will be represented by five Junior National Team members later this week in Medellin, Colombia at the 2012 Pan-American Championships. 15 nations will be competing in a field that will include [...more]
Donnell Whittenburg and Marvin Kimble enjoyed their seemingly unsurmountable leads from the Day 1 competition and rode them all the way to All-Around Titles at the 2012 U.S. Men's Gymnastics Championships in St. Louis. Both powerful gymnasts relied on their consistency in executing their difficult routines in a remarkable show over two days. The two completed their clean sweep of [...more]
The Big 5 blew into St. Louis like a spring tornado. Big 5, as in Danell Leyva, John Orozco, Sam Mikulak, Chris Brooks and Jonathan Horton. Each of these gymnasts posted all-around scores of 90-plus to stake their claim on a potential Olympic Team spot. Really, the only thing surprising about Day 1 at the 2012 U.S. Championships was just how many great performances there were. More than just a few guys grabbed the bull by the horns to show the selection committee that they [...more]
A terrific spreadsheet is making the rounds, detailing the recent results of every Senior qualifier in the 2012 VISA U.S. Championships field. It was published under the nickname Ono No Komachi, who happens to be a very loyal and knowledgeable men's gymnastics fan and commenter. As Ono points out, the men's Olympic selection committee will also be taking these results into consideration, along with those accomplished at VISAs and Trials. The committee is looking for consistency, so if four days [...more]
No list of Junior qualifiers to the VISA U.S. Men's Gymnastics Championships has been posted thus far, so I thought I'd compile a list of gymnasts whom I believe will be competing next week in St. Louis. I'm leaving out [...more]
It's an Olympic year and new changes to the men's JO program are about to be implemented across the country. Changes include the usual routine tweaks to the compulsory levels (4-7), but the major ones are being unveiled for the optional levels. The key phrases being bandied about are "we're going to slow things down," and "we're going to clean things up." The long-term thinking is not necessarily concern about the American men's program not having [...more]
Here are some videos from JO Nationals that have so far been posted on YouTube. We will continue to add more [...more]
The 2012 men's JO Nationals concluded with Sunday's event finals. This year's meet, although I did not attend, was truly quite a spectacle, and offered a huge glimpse of the future of our sport. The senior 10s put on quite a show, demonstrating a very high level of skills and execution. This year's field was arguably one of the deepest, if not the deepest, in many years. The junior 10s were very impressive, with many of the top finishers scoring right up there with [...more]
In a much anticipated contest among a deep field of talent, Donnell Whittenburg put together two spectacularly consistent displays of gymnastics over two days to win the 2012 JO Nationals Level 10 (16-18) all-around title. His two-day tally said it all -- 88.80 & 88.75. It had to be that way to overtake first-day leader Trevor Howard by a slim .35 margin. Howard also had a remarkable two-day performance -- 88.90 & 88.30, but [...more]
With the Level 9 prelims now complete, the stage is now set for Saturday's all-around finals at the 2012 JO Nationals. SCATS' Cameron Bock (83.15) is sitting comfortably on top of the leader board by 1.3 points, which is exactly the point spread between 2nd and 10th place. Bock had his best meet of the season, hitting all six events and earning the day's top scores on [...more]
