Following the 2012 Olympics, a new quad will be ushered in. Tweaks to the code of points are among the rumored changes. Much discussion is going on about the upcoming changes to the men's JO program. It appears that the current compulsory program (levels 4-7) will remain roughly the same. The big changes will be made to the optional program. Please keep in mind [...more]
Morgan Hamm posted a nicely produced video in support of his brother, Paul, who recently got himself into a little drunken legal trouble the other evening. As a result of the incident, in which he was charged with assaulting a cab driver, refusing to pay a fare & damaging a cab, Hamm was discharged from his assistant coaching duties at Ohio State. The arrest video was very damning and embarrassing for the '04 Olympic champion, and undoubtedly led to [...more]
Still thinking about the second day of the Junior men's competition in St. Paul. That was amazing. Adrian de los Angeles quietly had a great AA (84.65) in the early session. The top four gymnasts from the two junior divisions ended up competing in the evening session with the seniors. Meanwhile, the rest of the juniors, along with a smattering of seniors, competed in the early session. After a quick perusal of the math, de los Angeles had put himself into strong position [...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]
A six-man U.S. contingent placed 2nd in the team competition at the Puerto Rico Cup. The host team captured the gold by a relatively slim margin (350.00-348.80). In the same meet, Brandon Wynn (87.15) took the all-around silver medal in a tight finish. Illinois' Tyler Mizoguchi (86.45) came in 6th, while Michigan-bound Adrian de los Angeles (83.90) placed 14th. Wynn won gold on rings (15.925) and silver on high bar (14.60), while Mizo added two more medals to the U.S. total with an outstanding [...more]
A few things were settled at this weekend's Japan Cup. The nonsensical and irrational fear of traveling to Tokyo, due to the Fukushima nuclear crisis, is a non issue. Tokyo is more than good-to-go for World competition in October. The American team represented very well, and delivered sparkling performances on, of all events, pommel horse! Alex Naddour (15.40) and John Orozco (15.35) put up some big numbers, not the kind that would win an event title at a major championship, but [...more]
We finally got to see the list of summer international assignments, published by USAG late last week. No real surprises, and they should provide a good warm-up for VISAs. Headlining the assignments, are those for the Japan Cup. Jonathan Horton and Danell Leyva will be joined by Alex Naddour, Steven Legendre and John Orozco. It's assumed that Horton, Leyva and Naddour will be [...more]
