In somewhat of a comeback, Marvin Kimble led all scorers at the 2017 U.S. Championships Qualifier in Colorado Springs. Kimble topped the standings in the 20 Point Program (91 points), and he put up the highest AA score (83.55), posting top-3 event scores on SR (3rd-14.50), VT (2nd-14.75), PB (2nd-14.20) and HB (1st-13.80). After moving back to his home state of Wisconsin earlier [...more]
The other night, a male gymnast was featured in a prime-time television broadcast for the first time since the 2016 Olympics. Joshua Karnes (Lakettes-Erie, PA) appeared on NBC's Little Big Shots, a series that showcases the unique talents of kids from all over the world. Karnes performed some skills on SR, PB and PH, drawing big cheers from the live audience. No stranger to gymnastics fans, Karnes won back-to-back [...more]
This time the axis are set up so the actual rate of decline can be easily compared. Up until about 1992, the NCAA sponsorship of both men's and women's teams was declining at almost identical rate - something partly masked by the greater population of women's teams. One of the women's teams cut during this period was at University of Texas (Texas AD Donna Lopiano, famous as a Title lX advocate, [...more]
Most of the men’s teams were lost during the era of the 10.0. The naïve interpretation of this picture is that open ended scoring actually halted the decline! The more likely answer is [...more]
Once again, technical sequences were no equalizer in the Junior Elite finals, and the first day leaders easily hung on to win AA titles. 2016 Level 8 champion Joshua Karnes was a repeat winner as a 12-year-old. Karnes (139.75) had six top-4 placements, including the top scores on three events (FX, SR, HB) to win out over [...more]
Shane Wiskus went wire-to-wire to defend his Level 10 Junior Elite title at the 2017 JO Nationals in Kissimmee, FL. The future Minnesota Gopher is now only one contest away from completing a grand sweep of all the major Junior titles over the past two seasons (JOs/P&Gs). Wiskus (143.85) clinched his second straight JE AA championship by compiling the highest scores in Saturday's technical sequences (56.25) in the 18-year-old division. His two-day total was over [...more]
2016 JO Nationals Level 8 (age 11) champion Joshua Karnes is well on his way to a repeat performance in the 12-year-old division. Karnes (82.20) posted the highest scores on three events (FX-14.25, SR-14.55, HB-13.20) to lead the Junior Elite field after the first day of competition. His closest competitors going into Sunday's technical sequences are [...more]
One night in August 2004, I turned on the TV to watch whatever Olympic stuff happened to be on at the moment (I had no idea in advance what that stuff was going to be). That moment happened to be the one where Paul Hamm fell on his butt in the men’s all-around. The announcers seemed to think he had no chance for a medal. Knowing nothing about the sport of men’s gymnastics, I had no reason to think they were wrong. But they were. Paul Hamm’s last two routines were like [...more]
Many of the top NCAA Men's Gymnastics recruits made a big splash on opening day at the 2017 Men's JO Nationals. Shane Wiskus (age 18-Minnesota-87.60) and Bennet Huang (age 17-Iowa-85.80) are atop the leader board for the Level 10 Junior Elite Division after Day 1 for their respective age divisions. Wiskus, the nation's top-ranked Junior, is aiming to defend [...more]
Yes, you read that right. Growth in the number of men’s NCAA sports teams. Most of them, that is. Some of this was due to teams migrating from the NAIA to the NCAA, but men’s teams have also been added. By far the largest growth has been in the sport of Lacrosse. Is there something the men’s gymnastics community can learn from Lacrosse? I believe there is. The Lacrosse community is concerned with adding teams, but some of their strategies could be applicable to preventing men’s gymnastics teams from [...more]
