Imagine if, alongside dressage, bowling, and BMX racing, a major sports network would spotlight men's gymnastics. Imagine a major men's invitational on your HDTV, with not only some of the best college athletes in the country showing off their routines, but also some of the best high school club gymnasts competing for medals as well. Imagine American sports fans finally seeing just what it really takes to get to the top of a sport they usually only see at the Olympic level. Seeing the years of hard work and dedication in action will wow the public.
The 2009 Stanford Open will be held January 23-25. 41 men's club gymnastics teams have confirmed their participation, along with Cal, Stanford and Nebraska. The three-day meet will be dominated by [...more]
Gymnast.com has a great post challenging readers to predict who will be America's top gymnasts in 2009. The challenge was issued for both women and men, but StickItMedia will stick to the men. We agree with Gymnast.com about Jonathan Horton. He is now the de facto leader on the men's side, especially after his great performance in Beijing.
2009 is going to be a great year for the men. We've got some great clubbers and incoming college freshmen who are going to [...more]
The most comprehensive men's gymnastics website in existence is arguably that of USA's Region 5, which encompasses Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio and Kentucky. The website was created and is maintained by Sonja Rupe, a gym mom from Indiana. Sonja wanted to create a place for other parents to go to find answers to questions that can't typically be found easily anywhere else.
The feature that most amazes visitors is the "rankings" page, which shows the scores of almost every gymnast in the region. At any point during the season, [...more]
According to USA Gymnastics, Glen Ishino and Danell Leyva have been tapped to compete in the Pan American Gymnastics Union Individual Event Championships November 19-23 at Rosario, Argentina. In essence, Ishino and Leyva are being groomed for the 2012 London Olympics, which confirms what we’ve been thinking for awhile. Ishino won the 2008 J.O. Nationals […] [...more]
Thanks to Gymblog for responding to our recent post about Title IX reform. Gymblog worries, "But the unfortunate thing is that in most places, Utah, Oklahoma and the Southeast excepted, gymnastics brings little revenue to the universities that have it. Equipment and coaching is expensive. Meet attendance is tiny." Gymblog is correct about the revenue aspect and attendance. However, attendance is robust for many of the bigger meets. Meets held early in the season, such as the Stanford Open, often are standing-room-only, [...more]
Savings Sports blog has an interesting post about Title IX . One quote in particular caught StickItMedia's eyes -- "the NCAA cannot be considered an objective source. The NCAA leadership is on record as being closely aligned with groups fighting all forms of Title IX reform and has attempted to quash any debate about the effect of Title IX on decreasing collegiate participation opportunities in the Olympic sports."
So true. [...more]
MeetScoresOnline (MSO) is America's premier website for club gymnastics scores for men and women. Gymnasts, fans and parents race online to MSO after every meet, generating over 15 million visitors over the past seven years. MSO is an indispensable tool for those interested in scores. There is no better way to research the historical archives of scores since MSO began keeping stats.
It is very easy to find your gymnast or particular meet with MSO's robust search engine. You can access a gymnast's entire [...more]
Gymnastics is a sport for shorter people, right? It's true that the average height for adult male gymnasts is around 5'4" to 5'7". Jonathan Horton is listed at 5'1". Paul Hamm measures in at 5'6". Russia's Alexei Nemov is 5'8", and he won 12 Olympic medals before retiring after the 2004 Athens Olympics. Recently deceased Russian Olympic champion, Boris Shakhlin, was also 5'8", and always considered tall.
Get on your tiptoes, guys, because coming up through the elite level are some serious six-footers. Here is at least a partial list of [...more]
Once every four years, the sport of gymnastics sees a huge increase of interest. After all, each and every night of Olympic gymnastics is broadcast in prime time. Many of the world's most popular sports, like basketball, soccer and baseball, don't even come close to that kind of Olympic coverage. Those sports are usually relegated to late night/early morning broadcasts, usually on alternative networks.
After the Olympics, gymnastics amazingly disappears from the radar screen, save for annual tape-delayed broadcasts of the U.S. Nationals and World Championships. Need further proof? [...more]
From The Washington Post Friday, August 22, 2008; 1:00 PM Washington, D.C.: If you wanted to get more American kids to do gymnastics, and to compete in these events, how would you go about encouraging them to do so? And if we did encourage more competition, should we recruit more Latinos, African Americans, Native Americans […] [...more]
