The Big 5 is now the Big 6. NCAA champ Jake Dalton had a tremendous Day 2 at the 2012 U.S. Championships, garnering a 90.05 to tie Chris Brooks for 5th place. But the story of Day 2 was seeing John Orozco nailing one landing after another on his final event. Before then, it was looking pretty good that Danell Leyva was going to [...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]
International Gymnast yesterday posted a spirited article by Ward Black about Paul Hamm. Black lamented the lack of USAG press coverage about Hamm's upcoming appearance at Winter Cup. Compounding the challenge of generating earned media for Winter Cup is that it's once again being held on Super Bowl weekend. Also making a comeback to the big stage at Winter Cup is [...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]
John Orozco's Wednesday night tweet posed a great question. "To go pro or not to go pro! #indecisive" Should John Orozco turn pro? Aly Raisman and Jordan Wieber made the headlines recently with their announcements of turning pro. Well, let's face it, the harsh reality is that there are far more money-making opportunities for female gymnasts than there are for [...more]
Paul Hamm has rocked the men's gymnastics community by announcing that he is back to training full time with aspirations of making the 2012 Olympic Team. While he definitely kept the door open to a potential return to the sport, his announcement will likely send shockwaves to our current crop of Olympic hopefuls. If his comeback is successful, Hamm will be America's only gymnast capable of scoring [...more]
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]
Jonathan Horton signed an endorsement deal with GK Elite Sportswear, the world’s leading supplier of gymnastics apparel. The 2008 Olympic silver medalist on high bar, Horton is America’s leading gymnast and a force on the world scene. The former All-American Oklahoma gymnast is now training in Houston under Coach Tom Meadows. Horton, the newly crowned […] [...more]
Part 2 In part two of our series analyzing our top elite gymnasts, guest blogger Matthew Rusk examines Steven Legendre, Danell Leyva, Tim McNeill, Daniel Ribeiro, Paul Ruggeri and David Sender. Rusk goes into much detail as he explores the strengths and weaknesses of each gymnast. How well they perform at VISAs will determine whether or not they will be chosen to represent Team USA at the the 2009 London World Championships. Rusk wraps things up with his predictions [...more]
StickItMedia is pleased to have guest blogger, Matthew Rusk, present his pre-U.S. Men's Gymnastics Championships analysis of the major players vying to make the World Championships squad. Matthew is a 16-year-old gymnastics enthusiast from Houston, TX and is the former editor of the blog Polished Gymnastics 101. As you will see, he has very impressive writing skills for such a young man. He leaves no stone unturned as he diligently dishes out the details for the top 12 gymnasts he believes will be fighting it out for coveted spots on the World Team. In his first post, [...more]
