Gymnastics Podcast Transcripts

Episode 26.5 Transcript
CASEY JO: [LAUGHS] So I’m probably going to do beam and I love men’s high bar, I think it’s awesome, so I’m going to do full on to the beam for the mount and layout full on the beam. And I also, because I love delchevs on women’s uneven bars, I’m learning a- basically a Gaylord but I’m learning it in straddle position on men’s high bar, so I’m really excited about that.
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[[INTRO MUSIC]]

JESSICA: This is episode 26.5 for April 1, 2013. And as you know this is the best and only gymnastics podcast in the entire world. And today is so exciting that we’re putting out this special episode because we have breaking news. We have three guests here who have incredibly exciting news, and an announcement to make. Uncle Tim, start us off.

UNCLE TIM: Yeah so going around the gymternet for quite some time have been FIG Code changes. I wrote a couple blog posts about it. A few weeks ago people were talking about the disappearance of the cat leap and the cat leap full and stuff. And most recently we had the vault changes, the averages changes. So the other night i was reading the Forward Roll gym blog and somebody mentioned that the Memmel turn is now being downgraded from a D to a B. And I don’t know, what do you guys think about that?

SPANNY: It’s an interesting step. I feel like it’s a precedent where like we’re having so many gymnasts… you can still chuck a spin, and they are chucking the Memmel. So, downgrading I think is an interesting choice. There are about 60 other things I would like to see downgraded before that.

UNCLE TIM: Such as?

SPANNY: All the twisty splity jumps that are considered artistic and beautiful dance. Like the Strug, the Gogean, everything that’s twisty and splits, and that now constitutes a good… you know, that’s supposed to be a really great floor routine if you can do that. But that’s so tragic because we just saw Ohashi do her beautiful Memmel turn at the American Cup, and now what is she going to do? I mean if you’ve seen her do the double L before. Yeah I don’t know, it’s interesting to see where they’re going to go with that.

JESSICA: I mean I just have to say first of all I think it has to be some- I go to conspiracy theory right away on this. Because I just feel like, did someone get credit for this that made them place higher than someone that the FIG thought they should because everything else wasn’t where it should be but this one turn made it for them? And the other thing is I just feel like why not give it crazy deductions? If people aren’t doing it the way they want to see it, why not increase the deductions on it so you only do it if you know you can do it perfectly. Basically if you fall out of it, then it’s only worth an A instead of just downgrading the skill. But you know I think it’s some conspiracy and someone is getting credit for it that they don’t want to.

SPANNY: Who do you think that is though? Trying to think of- I feel like everybody does it now.

JESSICA: Probably like Chusovitina or something is doing it well

SPANNY: [LAUGHS]

JESSICA: And they’re like what?! You’re only supposed to win on vault.

SPANNY: Well they did change the vault scoring for her, I don’t know [LAUGHS]

JESSICA: That’s what I’m saying

SPANNY: Yep

UNCLE TIM: So Spanny what do you have for us this week?

SPANNY: I have a very exciting story that I’ve been waiting for a chance- I haven’t gotten the go-ahead to share it and I don’t 100% have it. I can give you ti’s an unnamed source. Let’s just say that when I do recaps about a show that will remain unnamed, the source comes from that show. Let’s just keep it there. Anywho. I know we’ve all had a lifelong dream for a gymnastics reality TV show, and that is finally coming to fruition for real this time. We’ve seen the recent success of MTV’s Gymnastae and Lifetime’s Dance Moms, which I understand are not the same thing but believe it or not, Dance Moms has been a big push of this. Sponsors of our current National team have included a contractual obligation to go “deep behind the scenes with our favorite athletes.” We’ve all seen the “Behind the Team” specials from AT&T so I asked them why is this any different than that? They’re like oh no, we are going to expect more drama, more fun, and bigger characters. I was actually told, “Bela will be bigger than Abby Lee Miller.”

UNCLE TIM: Do we mean size-wise? Or…

SPANNY: Literally and figuratively

UNCLE TIM: [LAUGHS]

JESSICA: Wait, Abby Lee Miller is the dog of the…

SPANNY: What?

JESSICA: Who’s Abby Lee Miller?

SPANNY: She’s the coach on Dance Moms

JESSICA: Oh [LAUGHS] I thought Abby Lee Miller was the CGA dog!

UNCLE TIM: Sophie is! Sophie is!

JESSICA: [LAUGHS] Sophie Lee Tracy! My bad

SPANNY: No! [LAUGHS] Oh that’s…

JESSICA: There’s three names, I always get them mixed up just like the assassins, they’re all…

SPANNY: Mary Lee’s dog. No Abby Lee is again, literally and figuratively a huge character on TV. She’s no.. I mean granted it’s got to be all BS on that show, but it’s all very drama and script mongering with the moms, and they’re fighting and the kids. This is going to be more along the lines of that than it is anything we’ve seen before. And it’s sounds honestly, I’ll probably recap it. I’m so excited and I’ve known about it for a while that I’ve been really- I’m trying to reign my excitement in because it is going to be such a train wreck. It’s going to be I think the biggest trainwreck I think we’ve ever seen come from American gymnastics. And we get to see it as soon as the run up to Worlds this fall.

JESSICA: I have to say this is one of the great things about having Spanny on the show, because I don’t know if you guys know, she worked in Hollywood for a long time doing- what would we have seen you in? Weren’t you like a body double for someone super famous?

SPANNY: I don’t want to go into that

JESSICA: Ok ok, anywho.

SPANNY: [LAUGHS]

JESSICA: She has connections, that’s what we’re saying. You know we wanted a show like this for so long so like I’m really excited about it but I’m also kind of like oh God, I hope it’s not so Dance Mom-y that it tears down the image that people have in their minds about gymnastics even further. But then again, it could be awesome!

SPANNY: And honestly, I don’t know which way it’s going to go. Part of me is terrified, like you mentioned. Like they are just going to play out the- all of it’s going to be eating disorders and sexual predators.

JESSICA: [LAUGHS]

SPANNY: And it’s also going to be like exposure for- especially USA Gymnastics beyond the scripted “I just want to hit four for four” and all that. I can see positives in it. I’m terrified of the negatives.

JESSICA: Right

SPANNY: And the casting- if you google it, you will find casting notices. Yes, they have to cast for this. And they’ve been casting for characters and willing families, things like that. They give kind of a hint of what they’re looking for. So obviously it’s TV, and it’s reality TV, everything’s not going to be as it seems. You could not pick a better group of like, a more dramatic, a more diverse intertwined group of people. And I think they probably looked at the opportunity like, we have this in our hands, you know, we’d be silly not to jump on it. Crazy, I don’t know. I think we’ll have a lot to talk about this fall.

JESSICA: Oh my God I can’t wait. So speaking of this fall, we have something really exciting planned. We are announcing our first ever GymCastic throwback meet. We will be using the 1968 Code of Points. Retro-inspired uniforms will be provided for each competitor. Pianists have already been contracted to play live at the meet, please prepare your own sheet music. We are putting a spin on this and allowing any live instrument if one of the competitors provides the live instruments. So basically if you want to do a routine to guitar or drums or the kazoo, you have to bring a musician in to play the instrument. We’ll provide a pianist, but otherwise you have to bring someone in to play. So there are some other rules. So there’s no face tattoos or bed head allowed. Chest hair must be on full display for men. Bumpits, bouffants, and beehives are encouraged because after all this is 1968 Code. Men have to wear suspenders, this is an absolute, you have to wear suspenders. So stay tuned for more details, we’re super excited about this. When we mentioned it on the show we got such positive feedback that we decided yeah we should totally go after this. So we’re working on it and we’ll bring you guys more details as we have them.
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[[INTERVIEW]]

JESSICA: Now let’s get into our interview. We have three guests here who have incredibly exciting news and an announcement to make. Let me just start by telling you who is with us today. Our special guests are Jen Hansen, or Jenny Hansen as she was known back in the day. Won three consecutive NCAA all-around championships between 1993 and 1995. She is the only person to ever win three straight all-around titles. That is a record that still stands today. She has been a Hollywood stuntwoman and stunt coordinator. In 2011 at the age of 38 she qualified elite again with skills like a back handspring full on beam and double arabians on floor. She competed elite and she fell just short of making her goal of Nationals but really inspired so many people in the process. She’s just wrapped filming for a television series on a major network. It’s a huge hit, you have all heard of it, and it’s always in People Magazine, hint hint, where she worked as a personal trainer using gymnastics as the main modality to influence the training of her clients. So you can look forward to seeing her there. She was also on Make it or Break It for many years, which we know is Spanny’s favorite show.

UNCLE TIM: Also with us in Anna Li who was one of the best bar workers in the world. She was ranked in the top five on that event going into the Olympic Games. She’s the inventor of and the only female gymnast to ever compete the Rybalko for girls on uneven bars. She is the 2011 World Championship team gold medalist and an alternate for the 2012 gold medal winning Olympic team in London.

SPANNY: And finally we have Casey Jo Magee, a standout gymnast for the University of Arkansas with ridiculous record-breaking scores like a 39.5 in the all-around. She’s known for insanely difficult beam routines which were featured during her elite run in 2011. Her routine consisted of a backspin, an Okino, a Garrison mount, and a layout full. She is currently coaching at Western Michigan University which just won their fourth conference championship.

JESSICA: Thank you so much for joining us you guys. Alright let’s get started. This is so exciting, I don’t even know how to sum this up. So Jen can you tell us, first of all how do you guys all know each other?

JEN: Oh yeah, I know Casey Jo through, what was it, it was Zone meet 2012, first time I met Casey Jo. And I know Anna from working on Make it or Break It and going to UCLA gymnastics meets.

JESSICA: Casey Jo, how did you first even find out about this? Like how were you approached with the idea?

CASEY JO: It was actually kind of great. I was walking into, I was about to walk into the gym for the girls’ practice and this black Rolls Royce drives up and stops. And I’m like well that car is kind of out of place. And then this guy in a suit with white gloves gets out and he walks over to me and he goes, “Are you Casey Jo Magee?” And I said yes. And he hands me this gold envelope. Shimmering gold envelope with an invitation and a plane ticket.

JESSICA: Oh my God. So first of all what did the invitation say?

JEN: Invited us to this competition and saying that since we have competed at our levels of gymnastics and that we’ve done so well in our age that we all are. And I won’t say my own age. But anyways they were just asking us like pretty much basically told us that they would like to invite us to this meet and then we got on a private jet that had all of this craziness on it. And I’m going what?! I’m looking at the other two girls and I’m going, we’re laughing we’re like this is [inaudible] when you are able to have a drink and sit down and enjoy and talk and reminisce. And then all the sudden we were tired and here’s these beds that are filled with rose petals and all this elaborate stuff, and was just tripping the whole time going “what?!” I’m on board and I’m game for it. So I’m just kind of excited.

JESSICA: Casey Jo, like what happened when you guys arrived? Where did they take you and what’s the whole proposition for the competition? Is it one competition? Is it like a league you’re going to be in?

CASEY JO: Yeah so we got there and they escorted us in a limo to the facility where the competition would be held. And it’s going to be a competition next may in 2014. And they basically said they’ll pay for all the costs for our training and everything for the next year. And they want to find out who the best gymnasts in the world are. And so they’re having this competition and it’s crazy, they were treating us like royalty there. And the facility was amazing and so it’s pretty cool.

JESSICA: I heard that there might be prize money involved in this? Did they tell you how much it is? And are you going to compete all-around or one event?

ANNA LI: They actually said that you can pick and choose which events, and it could be any event out of men’s and women’s events. So I haven’t decided if I want to just stick with men’s high bar or the uneven bars but I for sure want to do my Kovacs. So I’m going to do either uneven bars or high bar then probably floor.

JESSICA: Jenny what events are you going to do and tell me about the prize money.

JEN: Well yeah I was kind of blown away about the whole thing. And I guess like Anna I think I’m just going to end up doing two women’s events and try for two men’s events. I’ve been doing this thing called bar stars so I’ve been doing a lot of upper body work. And I’ve been working on p-bars and I think I’ve been trying to perfect my stutz into my belle. So in doing that I think I have a pretty good chance on that and I don’t know who else would be doing p-bars, but then I think I’m going to do pommel as well. So you know I’ve got to keep it in the family. Horse, I’ll probably end up doing vault for a women’s event, then I’ll end up doing balance beam like I was for 2012 trying for. And yeah so pommel, vault, beam, and p-bars. But the prize money is ridiculous! I mean come on really? I can’t even get over- I don’t know how that would be but I mean what a great opportunity to show off all of our gymnastics abilities and say you know what, guy’s events are pretty tough, but girls can do it too.

JESSICA: Yeah! My understanding is the prize money for each event is a million dollars? Is that right?

ANNA: Yeah. Yeah.

JESSICA: And they’re paying for your training?

ANNA: It’s unreal. Yeah.

JESSICA: This is fantastic. So what would you- ok first tell us what skills you’re working on. We have to know this.

CASEY JO: [LAUGHS] So I’m probably going to do beam and I love men’s high bar, I think it’s awesome, so I’m going to do full on to the beam for the mount and layout full on the beam. And I also, because I love delchevs on women’s uneven bars, I’m learning a- basically a Gaylord but I’m learning it in straddle position on men’s high bar, so I’m really excited about that.

JESSICA: Oh. My. God. Ok now let’s go around for a second, this is so exciting. So do you guys know- ok I don’t even know where to start with my questions, it’s so exciting. Ok first of all, what would you do with the prize money?

ANNA: I actually don’t even know, it just seems unreal to actually have the opportunity to win a million dollars. And I have no idea. Vacation. I don’t know.

JESSICA: Jen what would you do with it?

JEN: Well I have always wanted to do a non-profit organization kind of thing and do work with kids and horse ranch and then just have everybody else work on it. I don’t need to work on it, let other people do the job. So I would probably do something like that. Then I don’t know if I could really say that I would probably end up just sitting back and eating a whole bunch of food and getting fat because you know I made a million dollars, what else is there?

[LAUGHTER]

JEN: I mean come on really? Do I really need to exercise or work out any more? I don’t think so. [inaudible] I mean people can work me out for my own and maybe they can move my legs.

[LAUGHTER]

JEN: Yeah I would eat all I want.

JESSICA: Casey Jo, what would you do with the money?

CASEY JO: Well I think I’d get a new car because my car is getting pretty old and it would be nice to have a new car. And then my parents have a community center back home and so I’d help them fix that up super nice. Then I’d probably get somebody really smart to help me invest some of the money. Some of it. Then like Jen said might as well enjoy some of it. I hopefully wouldn’t want to blow through it too fast, I’d try to be pretty smart with it.

JESSICA: Anna, why did this competition start? Like who’s behind it? Who’s funding it? I mean we know it’s Abu Dhabi but just assuming it’s some oil sheik or something. Who’s behind this? Because this is something fans have wanted for so long, something like a professional league and have all the gymnasts we want to see as fans who are doing the most difficult stuff, who are super artistic be seen on an international stage? So who’s behind this? Who’s funding this? Who’s idea is it?

ANNA: Well the prince, his daughter absolutely loves gymnastics. So he wanted to put something together where he could try to see the best athletes because for the Olympics and for Worlds it’s so limited per country. And some countries the US, it’s very deep and they can only take five or six people. So he wanted to get as many people in the entire world together and see all the best gymnastics. And it’s pretty awesome because it’s for his daughter that absolutely loves gymnastics.

JESSICA: Thank you guys so much for joining us today, it was an honor and pleasure to talk to you all and we cannot wait to watch this meet.
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[[OUTRO MUSIC]]

JESSICA: We want to thank Casey Jo Magee, Anna Li, and Jen Hansen for joining us today. Thank you guys all so much for listening. We’ll be back at our regular time on Wednesday so we’ll see you then. Until then, I’m Jessica from Masters-Gymnastics

SPANNY: I’m Spanny Tampson from Spanny’s Big Fake Smile

UNCLE TIM: And I’m Uncle Tim from Uncle Tim Talks Men’s Gym

JESSICA: Thanks, we’ll talk to you guys on Wednesday!

JESSICA, SPANNY, UNCLE TIM: APRIL FOOL’S!!

Episode 26 Transcript
IVANA: I never had a doubt in my mind that I wanted to do NCAA gymnastics.

JESSICA: Awesome. So you were never tempted to go pro?

IVANA: [LAUGHS] No.
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[[INTRO MUSIC]]

JESSICA: This week on the show, Ivana Hong, Jenni Pinches our favorite Brit stops by to tell us about British Championships, we talk about French Nationals with Blythe, Jesolo, Cottbus, and of course the NCAA conference championships.

ALLISON TAYLOR: Hey gymnasts, Elite Sportz Band is a cutting edge compression back warmer that can protect your most valued asset: your back. I’m Allison Taylor on behalf of Elite Sportz Band. Elitesportzband.com. We’ve got your back.
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JESSICA: This is episode 26 for March 27, 2013. I’m Jessica from Masters Gymnastics

SPANNY: Spanny Tampson from Spanny’s Big Fake Smile

UNCLE TIM: And Uncle Tim from Uncle Tim Talks Men’s Gym

JESSICA: And this is of course the world famous and only gymnastics podcast ever,starting with the top news stories from around the gymternet. And First I want to remind you this is the last week to enter our NCAA ticket contest. Five of you are going to win a pair of reserved session tickets to the NCAA gymnastics championships in April. They’re from the 19-21 at UCLA. They’re great seats. They’re the lower section reserved seats and you get all session passes. All you have to do to enter…

UNCLE TIM: …is like us on Facebook or follow us on Google+ by adding us to one of your circles. If you want to enter more than once, link to our show via Twitter or Facebook or another social media platform and email us a screenshot so that we can verify it. Also remember if you have a super private Facebook account, make sure to message us afterward so that we can tell that you have liked us. For more information go to ncaa.com/gymnastics.

JESSICA: Let’s get started by talking to Jenni Pinches about British Championships with Blythe.
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JESSICA: Jenni you just went to the British Championship, so you can you explain first what the British Championships are? Because it’s not just England. Can you tell us all the countries that are there?

JENNI: Yeah so there’s the English Championships and the Welsh Championships and other championships which are separate, so this one which is the National Championships of England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales, the UK basically.

JESSICA: Got it, ok.

JENNI: It’s held in Liverpool Arco Arena for the past three years which is a lot of a bigger stage on podium than it used to be. And yeah it’s basically always used as a big trial for the next major event. So this time it was the, for the seniors, the last trial for the European Championships as well.

JESSICA: Who really stood out for you on, let’s start on the women’s side.

JENNI: So we’re just talking about seniors yeah? Yeah ok. Well in the warm up rotation straight away I thought Gabby Jupp and Charlie Fellows both looked right on form. Very ready to compete in the competition. Obviously they’re both first year seniors this year but not too inexperienced. Members of the British team, squad. And Junior Championships they’ve been chosen before. Gabby made finals at last year’s Euros, she’ll definitely look to be selected for this year’s Euros after that final trial. And really the medalists say it all. Other than a few mishaps with the competition results, such as Hannah Whelan.

BLYTHE: Yeah.

JENNI: Yeah she was trying out new moves, new skills for mostly her bar routine. She put her double arabian back first tumble in her floor routine. Unfortunately had a bit of a tough time competing those. I mean the British Championships was a lot earlier in the year than it has been in the past. And obviously she’s the only gymnast who’s come back since the 2012 Olympics and been ready to compete. Rebecca Tunney is injured and the rest of us had other interests claim us. So she was the only one back from then. And yeah really made a bit of a tough competition for her. Finished 8th, outside of the medals but still in the top 10.

JESSICA: A lot of people were talking about Ruby Harold’s bar routine because she has some pretty cool releases and she also does the Zuchold from high to low, but she seems to keep having a problem with her full pirouette on the low bar. It’s the second time she’s falling on that in competition. Did you see her doing it well in practice? I mean I think that routine is really exciting. What did you think of it?

JENNI: Yeah Ruby has such an amazing bar routine. She’s such a natural on the bars and she genuinely enjoys doing it I think as well. She competed that routine though on Saturday of the competition in the all around final fine. She hit her routine. Sunday she had the fall, which is the video that’s up on YouTube which BGTV posted. But no I think two times falling on that skill, obviously it’s a little bit of a timing problem, but I don’t’ think it’s such a big issue. I think she can get that together. I think she can do really well on the bars. I think she can medal internationally.

JESSICA: Any other routines that- oh let me ask you for a second, what’s Tunney’s injury? What’s she out with still?

JENNI: Yeah so she hurt her toe. She broke her toe, I think. I don’t know, I think she hit the bar or something, I don’t actually know how she did it officially. But yeah she hurt her toe. She’s fit, she’s not on crutches, she’s not hobbling around or anything. She’s training, but she wasn’t quite ready to compete at this time. So. But she’ll be back.

BLYTHE: So any other cool routines or cool skills that you saw from the women? Or the men?

JENNI: I didn’t particularly see any certain skills that I noted in my head because I was so busy thinking about everything else that was going on. I know Gabby Jupp just looked amazing all weekend. So confident, like for a first year senior. She said she didn’t think she would ever medal at senior Championships. She thought that would never happen, kind of thing. Just so sweet in her interview after the competition. But she looks so mature and so kind of at ease when she’s out on the podium. And on the beam especially. She’s very business-like. She hits her moves and that’s it, kind of thing. Like she does her job. So I think she’s a really exciting gymnast to look for in the future of Great Britain kind of thing. And then again with medalist Charlie Fellows. Niamh Rippin back. Not a new senior, but proving that she used the time where she wasn’t picked for the Olympic team – she missed out on the Olympic team selection – to continue training and not let it dis-spirit her from the sport entirely. And I’m really pleased that she medaled all-around as well with the bronze medal overall. And then oh Lisa Mason was back as well.

BLYTHE: Yes, tell us about how she did.

JENNI: Yeah so she’s only been training for five, six months, she told me. And for her to be back at the British already is impressive itself I think. I mean she’s 31 years old, she’s showing that you don’t have to be 16 years old to be able to do the sport. If you have the right kind of training regime, you have the motivation, you can do that. And there was all the big stories in the media about she came back and she won the vault at the English Championships. So obviously everyone was looking to see how she did at this British Championships. You know the last time she competed on podium was the Sydney 2000 Games. So obviously quite a while ago. On Saturday did really well on the vault, nailed her landings, made the vault final. Can’t remember what she qualified, I think she was 4th or something. But she made the vault final, that’s what she wanted to do. That’s what she said she came out to do. And she knows, she’s not stupid. She knows that obviously she’s not in five months going to be back on the- like in the European team. She’s not going to be competing for Great Britain immediately kind of thing. She’s aiming for the Commonwealth Games. But on Sunday on her second vault in the vault final she just mistimed it a little bit, came up too early on her second vault and fell. So I think she finished 6th in the vault final. She also competed on beam, but she fell off twice. So I think she just needs a little more competition experience. Because you know, you can do it a million times in training, but it’s different when you’re out there in front of a whole arena on podium, you know competing. But she’s very down to earth, she knows what she’s doing, and she’s aiming for Commonwealths. And she’s a really lovely person. I chatted with her for ages actually the Championships. And her daughter was there as well, very sweet.

JESSICA: I know I saw her with her little sign holding it up for her mom in the stands. It was so cute I loved that!

JENNI: She came to get my autograph as well.

JESSICA: Aww!

BLYTHE: Is her daughter in gymnastics as well?

JENNI: I don’t know actually, that’s a great question. I don’t know. I’ll have to ask her that. I’ll ask her that. Watch my blog, I’ll let you know.

[LAUGHTER]

BLYTHE: So tell us about Dan Keatings because I saw a little tweet from whoever was doing the Twitter updates on British Gymnastics. Was that you, Jenni?

JENNI: Yeah that was me [LAUGHS]

BLYTHE: Yeah at some point you said, “Wow he’s showing he’s a bit fatigued at the end of it.” But it’s a long competition isn’t it?

JENNI: Wait, Dan Keatings or Dan Purvis?

BLYTHE: Oh Dan Purvis, nope my bad you’re right. It was Dan Purvis.

JENNI: No Dan Purvis, yeah he didn’t have a great competition on the finals day on Sunday. I don’t know, he must have been tired, shattered from the day before. He got a 0 on his second vault, he landed on his side on his rings dismount. I think it it really just wasn’t his day on Sunday. I know.

BLYTHE: Can you talk to us a little bit more about the redemption that Daniel Keatings must feel after, you know, all that buildup toward the Olympic Games and then being the odd man out, and then continuing training and obviously having a fantastic British Championships.

JENNI: Yeah so the other Dan, not Dan Purvis, Dan Keatings…

BLYTHE: Other Dan!

JENNI: …just missed out. And we all felt like- because he had a great British Championships last year as well, but it just wasn’t quite enough for him to be selected for the Olympic team. But really good on him for not letting that hold him back in his career in general. And this Championships he definitely wanted to go out and prove, you know, he is back, he is on form, he is ready to be selected for any other team this year, next year. And he beat Max on the pommel, in the pommel final. Olympic medalist Max Whitlock. Twice Olympic medalist, but Olympic medalist on the pommel. And Dan beat him to the gold and the he- didn’t, he won the, was it p-bars as well? I think it was.

BLYTHE: Mhmm.

JENNI: And yeah I think he came silver on the high bar, if I remember correctly. He had a great competition anyway. He was chuffed with his competition though, he really was. As was Max I think though. He was also…

BLYTHE: Chuffed?

JENNI: Chuffed. Really…

BLYTHE: Chuffed?

JENNI: …like, pleased. Pleased.

BLYTHE: Oh ok good.

JENNI: You don’t use the word chuffed?

BLYTHE: We do not use the word chuffed.

JESSICA: No I’ve never heard that before.

JENNI: Oh ok, yeah like…

JESSICA: I thought at first you meant he was really buff. Really strong looking.

JENNI: No like he was over the moon Relieve mixed with joy kind of feeling [LAUGHS]

BLYTHE: Did it make you want to get back out there?

JENNI: Did it make me want to get back out there?

JESSICA: Uh huh.

BLYTHE: Yes that’s my question to you.

JENNI: [LAUGHS] A little but I do really miss being kind of, you know in the loop. In the team, knowing what’s going on. When you’re in the gym and you’re training, you just kind of automatically you hear how everyone’s doing, you know what’s happening with this that and the other, you know when the competitions are, you know. And it’s just kind of fed to you because you’re there and you’re part of it. But when you’re kind of… I feel like almost an outsider now. Like, I don’t know. I’m not one of them. I’m not as welcome, I’m not a team member anymore. So I do miss being one of the squad members. I do miss that a lot. And I miss being able to do the things I could do before. I feel like I was more powerful before. So yeah I guess I do miss the sport more than I anticipated I would. Definitely.

JESSICA: So what about the juniors, how did they look?

JENNI: I know, I just mentioned that the juniors have so much power. The ones who went to AOF especially, Amy Tinkler, Tyesha Mattis, so much raw energy in those gymnasts. I mean loads of them do actually. Especially Tyesha, doing a double twisting Yurchenko. What?! As a junior. And Amy Tinkler on the floor. Like, if you haven’t seen her floor, look it up because I really like it. And then again you’ve got Ellie Downie, following in the footsteps of her sister. Hopefully not feeling too much pressure though, from Becky. And then [inaudible], they had some gorgeous choreography on the floor. Like some really- you know cute, but kind of like, it just makes you like them. Especially, I put in my blog, Louise McColgan. Her floor was just adorable. To “Waltz in Matilda,” the song, and it’s just so sweet. That was really enjoyable to watch as well. So we’re not just with the senior ranks in the British Championships, the espoirs and juniors challenging as well. And it’s a shame, I think, that we don’t have a masters finals. And the men’s, they have an apparatus finals at the same time as their all-around competition on a Saturday. And they get medals for the apparatus then. And then on Sunday they have masters finals, which is all the age groups. So under 16, under 18, and the seniors. The top scores all go together into one final to battle it out to be the master of that event. And I think it’d be really nice if we had that as well. Because I think some of our juniors could definitely could challenge some of the seniors on the events. Like some of the juniors in the mens won some of the apparatus events. But anyway that’s not how it works in the women’s. It’d be nice if it would [LAUGHS]

JESSICA: Oh weird, I thought the masters final was everybody. So it’s just the men? How weird.

JENNI: Yeah so the women have espoir, junior, and senior separate finals for their age group for each event. And then the men have all the age groups together, so the young ones and the old ones. So like a 16 year-old could be competing against Louis or whoever. Dan. And could win. Some of them did.

JESSICA: What an inspiring experience too. If you’re a junior and you get to compete with one of your idols in the same meet. I mean it’s such a great, you know just for the sport. It would be amazing.

JENNI: Yeah, especially if they medal as well. Such a confidence boost.

JESSICA: You’re going to have to lobby for that for next year and make it happen.

JENNI: Yeah maybe. This is the first year we had the men and women competing at the same time at the British as well. But that’s it really about the British Championships. It was very fun. It was very stressful because I was trying look at everything at the same time doing the Twitter. But I like it, I like it [LAUGHS]

JESSICA: And what are your plans next? What are you up to next? Are you going to Europeans? Are you working for British Gymnastics at another meet?

JENNI: Oh I wish I was going to Moscow for the Europeans. I would love to got here and watch. I’m not though [LAUGHS}. I want to but I’m not. Maybe you can bug British Gymnastics to take me [LAUGHS]

JESSICA: Ok we’ll lobby. We’ll start a Twitter lobby. Send Jenni to Moscow.

JENNI: Yeah! #sendJennitoMoscow

JESSICA: Done.

JENNI: Yeah but I am doing BBC Highlights show. So I’ll be in the BBC studio here in Britain – which is kind of near my house which is convenient – near Manchester-ish, with Louis Smith on the Sunday of the finals of the Europeans. So yeah you can look out for me there if you have access to the BBC. I don’t know if you can get it where you are but I will be there with Louis, having a little matter about what’s going on in Moscow where we wish we were [LAUGHS]

JESSICA: Well thank you so much, we love having you on.

JENNI: You’re welcome!

JESSICA: So Blythe, you were at the French Nationals, so tell us how the teams worked. This is what I’m fascinated by. Tell everybody about how people get funding and who can be on their team.

BLYTHE: For the first time this year, at the French Championships, they had a team competition. And it was the top 12 club teams in France. And they qualified and they made it and it was a team competition over three sessions on one day. And the way that it works in France, the clubs that can say that they are the number two club in France or the best club in France and they’ve won the national title, they might get a bit more funding from the city government and also from sponsors and partners and such. So they have a real incentive to do as well as they can at the national championships. And they also have the right to invite really whoever they want to come and compete for them and represent the club. So nearly all the clubs took advantage of this and they absolutely stocked their teams with Eastern European gymnasts basically. There was a joke kind of going around that this was not the French Club Championships, this was the European Club Championships. And so you had, I mean the Ukrainian team, men and women, there in force. About a dozen Ukrainian gymnasts including Maria Livchikova, Oleg Stepko, Oleg Verniaiev, you know these people who are going to be very big names at the European Championships. And some of the up and coming juniors well, which was very interesting to see. Keep an eye out for Daria Kloptsova, she should be one to watch. And, oh what was her name, Olesya- there was a couple of Olesyas, who also did really really excellent work on bars and beam. And so they’re kind of using it as a warm up competition for the European Championships. And also they get their trips compensated. They get paid a little bit of money to come and compete. I believe it was kind of incentive based. You know, so if you break 55 in the all-around, you might break a little bit more than if you break 50 in the all-around. And so it went on like that. And I also got to see Anna Pavlova, several of the people who have been on the Russian National team on the men’s side, Dmitri Gogotov, Dmitri Barkalov, world championships competitors from Tunisia, Algeria, Spain, Portugal. And it really was, I think the European Club Championships are a great way to describe it. And as a matter of fact yeah, in the team competition there were more Europeans from outside of France than there were French gymnasts competing. I think the teams were, I want to say six member teams, and there were a couple of teams that had one French gymnast and five Europeans. And yeah it was just a very interesting competition. A very high level. And it was nice to see.

JESSICA: You know what this made me think of is the people like Sho Nakamori who had to fund their own training and everything, and people like Casey Jo MaGee who could’ve been- or even Jenny Hansen who could’ve made an Olympics easily if they were from another country. But I wonder if they would’ve had an opportunity like this, if it would’ve changed the trajectory of their gymnastics. Or if they ever- if you know the French team would ever be interested in some of the Americans. Because I feel like if people knew this was an option, they might be interested. Or maybe the cost of getting them is cost prohibitive instead of taking the train from eastern Europe or something. But it’s so interesting and I wonder if people would lobby to get these positions if they knew that they were available.

BLYTHE: Yeah or you know, in other sports like basketball there’s a…

JESSICA: Yeah

BLYTHE: …huge European league. And you have Americans that are maybe not going to be playing in the NBA but have done college ball or whatever who’ve got incredible skills who can go over to Europe and play for club teams. And I think in baseball, unless, correct me if I’m wrong about that, I think in baseball that can kind of work too maybe. Although probably not in Europe.

JESSICA: Basketball and volleyball for sure.

BLYTHE: Basketball yes. You know and I wonder if kind of club gymnastics, the way that it’s organized, like in Germany with the Bundesliga, might not be sort of the next big thing. And in Germany you know they’ve done this for years, this inviting guests to compete for different club teams and they have a whole circuit. And this I think you know was organized in France specifically for the French Championships. And like I said this is the first time they have hosted a club team championships. And the day after that they had you know, only French gymnasts, they had the all-around finals. And that was very interesting as well. There’s a lot of talent in France and a lot of youngsters coming up. But what I really liked about both the senior men’s and women’s all-around competition at this French Championships, the men’s champion was Arnaud Willig, who was the alternate for the 2012 Olympic team. And he’s been to Worlds, and he’s hung out on the National team for the last several years. And there’s always more than five people in a country who deserve to make the Olympic team. And Arnaud- or they call him “No No,” absolutely deserved to have a crack at what was going on in London as well. And unfortunately he was the odd man out. And so for him to win this French Championship now, it obviously means an incredible amount to him. And everybody is just so happy that he’s having a moment right now. And I imagine he’ll be able to show it off at the European Championships as well. On the women’s side is kind of the same story. Valentine Sabatou was the champion. And she was actually named to the Olympic team in 2012, got injured, and was not able to compete. France initially named five people and then one of them got injured. And then I believe Sabatou was her replacement. Could be wrong about that. And then Sabatou got injured. And so somebody else replaced Sabatou. And for her to have missed out on that as well, it’s too bad. She is an incredibly strong gymnast. Strong and powerful and elegant. But really one of those gymnasts that just has amazing upper body strength. You know you can see it in the way that she swings bars and the way she runs into vault, that kind of thing. So I think to have her as French champion is going to lift the level in a lot of ways in France amongst the senior women right now. And so that will be very good. And they also have some just some incredibly elegant talented gymnasts coming up. And a lot of them. So it’s going to be an interesting next few years as some of these juniors turn senior and on the men’s side as well.

JESSICA: And where can people find you next? Do you have a next adventure planned?

BLYTHE: I do not. I do not think that I’m going to go to Moscow, as much as I would like to. I’m with Jenni, you know, there should be a Twitter campaign. I’d love to go, but I don’t think it’s in the cards this year.

JESSICA: Oh! You two would be my absolute, first – if we get Kyle Shewfelt and you two to cover the European Championships, that would be my dream team, oh my god.

BLYTHE: Well we’d love to do it!

JESSICA: That would be so fun! We just need a philanthropist to fund this, love it. Okay. Alright Blythe thanks so much for checking-in and will you let everybody know where they can find you?

BLYTHE: I write about gymnastics for Examiner.com, and the way that I find it is to Google Gymnastics Examiner and just hit the first link that you get there.

JESSICA: That’s true, I never thought about what the actual URL is. I always just Google Gymnastics Examiner, that’s where Blythe is.

BLYTHE: It’s a really long URL. I wish it were GymnasticsExaminer.com but, no.
–

JESSICA: So let’s talk about the Italian meet, Jesolo. First of all Biles won everything, that’s all you need to know. And the other thing you need to know is we told you so. Mm-hmm, she’s the best thing ever. What were the exact results, Uncle Tim?

UNCLE TIM: So Simone Biles came in first with a 60.4, Kyla Ross came in second in the all-around with a 58.65, and Brenna Dowell came in third with a 56.65.

JESSICA: And then overall as a team, the U.S. won by – what was it? It was like 13 points?

UNCLE TIM: Roughly, yeah. 234.25 to Italy’s 221.050.

JESSICA: Yeah so, kind of a blowout. No big deal. And Biles did her Yurchenko 2 ½ and stuck it cold. And my favorite part of this meet, not the gymnastics, no. It was the Instagram photo that Erika Fasana, from the Italian team and she’s also on the MTV show I’m pretty sure, put up on her Instagram account. It’s a picture of the expression on her face after she saw Biles. And that pretty much sums it up, like notice to the world who’s in charge now and who’s gonna win everything, just saying. On the Masters Gymnastics front, 30 year old Adriana Crisci, who we last saw in the 2000 Olympics, competed all-around for Italy’s B team. And then did you guys watch that video of Ferrari on beam when she hurt her foot?

SPANNY: Yeah.

JESSICA: That did not look good. Like I was really – I was kind of hoping it was broken and that would be just like a clean break and it would heal faster. But that was, whew.

SPANNY: Yeah.

JESSICA: So she did her full on beam and just came down weird, and she just sort of tried to get back up and… [SIGHS] Oh, the floor music!

[LAUGHTER]

JESSICA: Spanny, tell us about the floor music.

SPANNY: Well the only one I think everybody commented on was Bailie Key’s. Now, I think people had big hopes because I think before she had like one of those Texas songs, but it works for her because she’s like two feet tall, and cute, and blonde and it’s perfect for like a junior routine. But, I don’t want to use the word upgraded…but it started off as a mix of Kim Zmeskal’s 1992 music and I was so excited and I thought that’s the best thing I’ve ever heard, like oh that’s so cute she’s using her coaches music, but then it kind of morphed into Shannon Miller’s 1991 Yankee Doodle tribute and there were a whole bunch of other songs mixed in there. It was really uncomfortable.

UNCLE TIM: [LAUGHS] I agree. There are just some things you just don’t do in life. I’m trying to think, like as a kid I decided that it would be a good idea to wear underwear on my head and I decided that I liked bread, peanut butter, pickles, and pretzel sticks so I made sandwiches that way, I don’t know.

SPANNY: I was going to say I’d love to make that right now! [LAUGHS]

UNCLE TIM: Yeah you just don’t do certain things, and I think she mixed too many songs together. Do you guys think that you can actually have more than one song in your floor music and still have a good routine, or should you just stick to one?

SPANNY: You can, but it’s all about how like, how the music – this is just a pop culture reference – but if you watch the movie Pitch Perfect over and over like I do, well because they talk about that, how different songs you don’t think would go together can go together but they need to have some common elements, or some kind of common ground. Like, you know SEC floor music where they just pick like four or five pop songs and they mash them all together with really obvious breaks in-between, that doesn’t work. That’s just way too much.

JESSICA: Yeah I totally agree they can go together but not like that. And also it’s kind of like it’s too obvious, I mean you think any of the judges don’t know what’s going on there? She might as well just rip off her leotard to expose that her whole body is painted like an American flag with a gold medal on her. Like it’s too much, you know? It’s too like, “I have arrived! I am the second coming!” When really pfft, we know who the second coming is, so.

UNCLE TIM: But to play devil’s advocate here, don’t you think that if you’re wearing a pink leotard you need to make it clear you’re American in some way?

JESSICA: No, because that’s apparently our new color.

SPANNY: It is, yeah.

JESSICA: Which is getting obnoxious.

SPANNY: It could be, again to refer to 1991, it could be a Romanian using really American music and that would be more uncomfortable.

JESSICA: Yeah. I mean if she’d of had an Italian song just for this, then that might have been a little too much pandering. But this was too much pandering the other way.

SPANNY: Mm-hmm.

JESSICA: So Uncle Tim, tell us about Cottbus

UNCLE TIM: Alright well it’s an event finals World Cup event so we’re not going to talk about every single event and every single result, but there were a couple routines that I picked out that I’d like to talk about. And first let’s start out with Canada’s Maegan Chant on floor exercise. I mean she does some incredible tumbling, she opens with a double layout, a piked full in. Jess what did you think about it?

JESSICA: Okay, there’s a couple weird things going on here. First of all with this meet is I was distracted by the random people just sitting around the floor. And then I was distracted by the fact that there were no judges, or maybe there were judges but they had to sit in a tiny plastic chair with their notes on their lap. Like we can’t give them a table? We can’t give them a little desk to sit in? So there was a lot of distracting things going on at this meet. But she reminds me of Kristen Maloney, which is to say that you don’t expect the gymnastics that comes out of her, in a way. Do you know what I mean? And she also has the same body type as Kristin Maloney. Yeah, I mean I remember Blythe talking about her because Bontas is a former World Champ from Romania is her coach, but I’m not – I mean everyone’s kind of talking about her and I’m kind of like ‘eh’.

UNCLE TIM: Yeah. I mean she’s definitely a power athlete. I was impressed with how quickly she was able to spin on one foot during her triple twist…

JESSICA: That was impressive, yes.

UNCLE TIM: …but then after that she goes and does a tour jeté full and maybe hits, I don’t know how many degrees, 130 or something. And it’s just like ugh, so much potential! So I hope she works on her flexibility a bit. Spanny, did you have any thoughts?

SPANNY: Well, mostly just what you guys said. I definitely agree with the Kristin Maloney comparison, which I think people could see it as either being positive or negative, like I could see both sides of that. It’s just interesting that Canada’s become…how many girls now do you see that compete for Canada that you would consider powerhouses on floor?

JESSICA: Mm-hmm.

SPANNY: That’s just an interesting trend. It’s a good one, you know, I enjoy it.

UNCLE TIM: Alright, and so Megan got first on floor. And then Anna Dementyeva got second and she had some spectacular music, she had the Spiderman music. And Spanny you’ve been joking, or maybe not joking for quite some time, that you’d like to hear Ghostbusters. So how do you feel about Spiderman?

SPANNY: It’s not Ghostbusters. [LAUGHS] I’m very specific. Spider Man’s not catchy, maybe it’s just me but I could pull out Ghostbusters music off the top of my head at any point. But I appreciate it, it’s different. You know Russians aren’t always showing up with – well they up with different music, but I don’t mean that in a good way. But it’s… you know. Relatively to other Russian choices I appreciated her choice, but it’s not Ghostbusters.

JESSICA: I really liked that actually she chose one of those crazy, 60s, full horn versions of Spider Man because it was just wacky enough to be Russian. So I actually liked it, and I really liked her routine. Her tumbling was beautiful, you know her hair is a weird shade of orange now but she’s going through her Russian blonde faze and that’s okay, she’s growing up, everyone does it. But you know I liked it; it was wacky enough to fit, be Russian you know?

SPANNY: Speaking of her orange hair, sorry this is a little tangent; both she and Grishina now both look like… I can’t remember what her name was now, but on Make It Or Break It when they had the Russian gymnast with the orange bangs.

[LAUGHTER]

SPANNY: Like I want to put a picture of the three of them together because they’re triplet-sies. Sorry, that was my random tangent.

UNCLE TIM: We’ll get to Grishina in a very hot second, [LAUGHS] but to go back to what Jess was saying, I wanted a little bit more from her choreography. I mean I feel like it had kind of a jazzy, almost burlesque sound in places and I wanted that kind of dance. Like when you’re gonna have that big horn, kind of jazzy swing, I don’t know. You can’t be afraid of the hooch.

[LAUGHTER]

UNCLE TIM: Sorry, you gotta arch that back and bend over. She’s 18. But um…

JESSICA: She needed to invoke a little bit of Tasha Schwikert.

UNCLE TIM: Exactly! That’s what I wanted to say, yeah.

JESSICA: Mm-hmm.

UNCLE TIM: Going back to Grishina, she won both beam and bars. And so my question for you guys was which was your favorite Grishina routine?

JESSICA: Well first of all, she did an Onodi to an illusion, which I literally said ‘Shut up!’ to the screen when I watched that! That is so freaking cool, and the Russians are coming up with all of these really interesting gym-acro combinations with this new code, like the side flip to full turn! I mean it’s so cool! I don’t know if they’re going to get credit for the connection, but I love seeing it because it’s beautiful, and it reminds me of a better day, and I love seeing moved like that put together! So, she killed it and I loved her beam routine.

SPANNY: I think that’s the fun part about the post-Olympic year and with a new code, is that this is when we do see a lot of random things that we probably won’t see in two or three years, but for now they’re fun. I agree, her beam, like that’s the routine we know she’s been able to hit for years, we’ve just never ever seen it. So seeing her hit beam like that, it was like a tall drink of water, like you just needed it. My only criticism is that she seemed like she was really, really prepping for a full turn, I mean I’m assuming that’s where her double was supposed to go, but it was like a serious prep for like a full turn real quick.

UNCLE TIM: I like her beam, but I also liked her bars and I think that she did a really good toe-on toe-off to a full pirouette into her piked Tkatchev, her Pak salto after that wasn’t so hot. But I thought she had really good timing on the toe-on full pirouette. I also think she should’ve won a special award for the number of clips she had in her hair. This was like way more than the early 90’s, we’re talking a full head of clips. Big ones, like flower ones.

JESSICA: [LAUGHS] Definitely needs to be a new GymCastic award for clips in the hair record.

UNCLE TIM: She’d win it. On the men’s side I’m going to mention one routine and it’s mostly for Spanny, Alexander Shatilov. Most of you know probably have known about him for his floor work, he’s more known for that, but he got second on high bar! So what did you guys think about that?

JESSICA: He’s six feet tall! That’s all I have to say. I just love him, because he’s six feet tall. He’s six feet tall and he took bronze or silver in Tokyo on floor? Oh, he’s tremendous!

SPANNY: Yes he is.

UNCLE TIM: With women we talk about ‘oh longer lines’, do you think the same is true for men who are tall?

JESSICA: Yes! Yes, yes, yes!

SPANNY: Yeah, especially on floor. Granted when I watch men on floor I don’t think about their lines so much, but everything seems to take a little longer in the best way – and that sounded really inappropriate but yeah it does, it’s just visually exciting.

JESSICA: That’s right. We’re fans!

SPANNY: Yup!

JESSICA: You can see them coming from a long way away!

SPANNY: Mm-hmm.

[LAUGHTER]

SPANNY: Sorry, I’m trying not to say so many things.

JESSICA: Okay, we’re done now!

SPANNY: Okay.

JESSICA: Wait are we gonna talk about the jumps, the goofy jumps?

UNCLE TIM: Oh you want to talk about the jumps?

JESSICA: Oh, we have to talk about the jumps!

UNCLE TIM: Okay. Alright, so something that I noticed on floor exercise is the fact that the men are doing like these… I don’t even know how to describe it. Like a full twisting hitch-kick or something, I don’t know how to describe it. And Jess, on this show we love to talk about very important issues like this, and we all kind of hate the ugly stag jump into the corner, so do you think this is a viable replacement?

JESSICA: It is. It is in its infancy, they have obviously not watched enough Japanese men do floor routines, or Cubans from back in the day, or Justin Spring. But this is a good start and it’s better than the non-existent stag jump which should be a 3 point deduction if you do it without your leg up to 90 degrees. So I’m pleased with this development and I would like to see them more vigorously and with more extension.

UNCLE TIM: I really actually liked watching the floor final. I really liked Fahrig and Kosmidis. They both have very different styles, Fahrig was kind of light on his feet, Kosmidis was definitely powerful. But Kosmidis was good because something that’s been missing from men’s gymnastics is the kick-out that Kyle Shewfelt was talking about, but he had one on his double-double and I was like, ‘Damn boy, you work!’

JESSICA: Mm-hmm. Yeah that was super exciting and I’m stoked that Fahrig is back because his tumbling is insane and I would like to see him and Mister Stacey Ervin from – is it Ervin? Yeah – from Michigan in a floor final this year at the Olympics. Mm-hmm, specialist, that’s what I’m talking about

UNCLE TIM: World Championships

JESSICA: Yeah, what did I just say?

UNCLE TIM: Olympics. You wanted them again!

JESSICA: [LAUGHS] Oh the Olympics! I do! I want the Olympics again. We’re all a little tired this week so bear with us, there’s sure to be more nonsense going on. Well they should have their own Olympics, those two.

UNCLE TIM: Alright.

JESSICA: Okay, so this is kind of like a non-story, but seriously the FIG they abandoned the vault scoring.

SPANNY: That lasted.

JESSICA: Are they just…? I don’t even know what to say about this. Spanny what do you think?

SPANNY: I wish they would have stuck it out like, another month. I don’t know, I did not think it was that difficult to comprehend. I mean I don’t know if it would have solved any problems but when their reasoning behind it was oh it’s just too difficult, you’re really underestimating the mental capacity of your fans because it wasn’t that big of a math challenge. And that coming from me says something, like if I can follow it then it’s probably not that difficult.

JESSICA: And just to summarize really quick, so the old scoring was you just averaged, and the new one basically was you put more emphasis on execution so if someone fell, like say what happened with Maroney, then she wouldn’t end up with the silver medal. Or bronze… what did she get? See I can’t even remember now.

SPANNY: She got silver

UNCLE TIM: Silver, she would have been in fourth.

JESSICA: Right, she would have been in fourth, so it was kind of the Maroney fell over rule. And now they’ve gotten rid of it from one weekend to the next in the middle of two major meets they were just like, ‘Out the window! We’re done with that!’ I mean, aren’t they gonna give it a chance? Like this is the kind of thing that kills me, that it’s just from one weekend from the next, can they give it a little longer? I mean we’re hardly into the season!

UNCLE TIM: I’m okay with going back to the old scoring. The new scoring, I mean I was able to comprehend it but it definitely probably took the judges a little bit longer to figure out the scores and stuff. And generally speaking the scores were significantly lower using the new scoring system. So, I don’t know. I’m always nostalgic for things though too, so I like the vault averages.
–

[[INTERVIEW]]

BLYTHE: We are so proud to have Tumbl Trak bringing you today’s interview with Ivana Hong. As somebody who practiced adult gymnastics, I can tell you that Tumbl Trak has been a lifesaver in the gym. I can’t do everything I used to on a hard surface, but with Tumbl Trak I have been able to do everything that I was doing 10-15 years ago, and even start learning new skills. It’s not hard on the body, and it is incredibly fun. You can always use the Tumbl Trak for skill building skills, confidence building, conditioning, and a lot more. And the best part is you always land with a smile on your face. Find out more at TumblTrak.com. That’s TumblTrak.com

JESSICA: Ivana Hong is now a sophomore at Stanford University. In 2007 she was a member of the World Championships team that brought home the gold from Stuttgart. She also went on in 2009 to win a bronze medal on beam at the World Championships in London. She was an alternate for the 2008 Olympic team. She is known for her absolutely exquisite form and we talk to her about that. Hope you enjoy the interview!

JESSICA: So did you just finish your last final?

IVANA: I did this morning, yeah.

JESSICA: How did it go? How are you feeling?

IVANA: Um, I feel great it’s over. I don’t know it’s really funny, so I’ve never really had any stomach reflexes, but I kind of like self-diagnosed myself which is like really bad. But I’ve kind of realized this trend for each mid-term and final I’ve taken for this human biology major I’m doing, I get like really bad stomach churning. So I had to take some Tums this morning but it’s all good now, it’s the only time I ever get that.

JESSICA: So this never happened to you in gymnastics? Not at the World Championships or anything?

IVANA: No, never.

JESSICA: Whoa!

IVANA: I’m like, ‘Oh my gosh, I have no idea what is going on!’

JESSICA: So are you liking that major?

IVANA: I actually am. I really am. The information is super interesting; like I don’t think I would be as interested in any other major. It’s a lot of material but it’s definitely worth it, I like it.

JESSICA: And do you know what you want to do? Are you just interested in general now or is there something in the sciences or medical field that you want to do in the future?

IVANA: Um, I’m not taking the pre-med route. I have yet to decide my exact area of concentration, but I’m thinking something having to do with human performance. This is one of the questions that I don’t actually have a real answer for.

JESSICA: Totally okay! That’s what college is for! So one of the things that we absolutely love, love, love about your college gymnastics is when I went to watch the UCLA/Stanford meet, when you jumped off your – jumped off your event? You dismounted, and it was lovely of course – you then you ran over to the people in the front of the stands and then high-fived them all down the line like an NFL player or something! So awesome! So where did this idea come from and when did you start doing that?

IVANA: I think it’s just part of SWG, which is…I guess you guys already know that right? What SWG is for?

JESSICA: Yeah.

IVANA: Okay, sorry. It’s just part of our culture and tradition. We just love getting the crowd involved, and being at home in Burnham especially, I mean it’s a pretty small arena and having the audience that close is just so much fun. And so we just always try and engage them and I don’t know, it’s just so much fun to go out and compete that it was just instinctive almost.

JESSICA: So did you just start doing it one time? Because I think you’re the only one on the team, I don’t see anyone else do it.

IVANA: No there are several of us who did it. Maybe not like right away but eventually they get to the crowd.

JESSICA: I love love love that you do that. I hope that this becomes a trend. So just for our listeners, SWG is Stanford Women’s Gymnastics.

IVANA: Correct yeah. We actually abbreviate a lot of things here at Stanford.

JESSICA: Ok good to know. So for a lot of people, staying focused on beam is really difficult. But for you, it looks so easy every time since you were a little kid to now. You look like it is so simple for you. So what is your secret to staying so focused on beam?

IVANA: I wish there was a secret but I don’t really have any special secrets to tell you guys on that but it’s just a lot of visualizing. It helps a lot, like a lot of other athletes but just letting myself know that whatever I do, I’m in control and that seems to really keep me calm. And especially now with college gymnastics, SWG loves to cheer so we’re always doing it for each other and everything we do is for each other. And I think that’s just really calming and knowing that we’ve got each others backs and we’re going out there to perform for each one on our team and our staff and it just makes it that much more fun and enjoyable and I think that’s what helps a lot.

JESSICA: In college, you’re dismounting with a gainer pike off the beam which is….there should be a video for this in the Code of Points for how a gainer pike should be done because it is so beautiful and high and straight on the end of the beam. You don’t go sideways like you’re terrified to hit your head on the beam. So we all appreciate that first of all.

IVANA: Thank you!

JESSICA: You’re welcome! We do all miss your two back handsprings to double pike though. I was just wondering if we might see that in the future?

IVANA: You know, I miss it too but I’m not sure if that’s that best thing for me just now in my career in college. In college more so now, I think, you definitely do still get rewarded for doing harder stuff but at the same time, you’re competing every weekend so that pounding on your body can take a toll so it was a good decision by Kristen and the staff to say I think we should have a nicer dismount on your body.

JESSICA: Yeah that makes sense. And speaking of nicer dismounts, the long season and the wear and tear on your body, how is your knee feeling now?

IVANA: It’s doing great. I’ve had a lot of care here and the coaches have really tried to minimize the pounding and stuff and the medical staff and trainers here are amazing and that has definitely made it better. I do wear a brace now which looks kind of chunky but it helps so you do what you have to do.

JESSICA: Is there a chance in the future that we might see your lines without the brace? Or are you feeling like that’s the way to go for now?

IVANA: I’m not wearing it on floor anymore which I did last year so that’s good. For vault, it’ll probably stay on.

JESSICA: I’m so glad it’s feeling better though. That’s exciting. For all of us who are gymnastics fans and watch you all from the time you’re little kids to junior elites and then elites and then college, we always hope for everyone that they will get to the NCAA and they will have this magical experience that you see where people transform and they just look blissfully happy all the time doing gymnastics. And you absolutely look like that. You just are blowing every routine you do. Can you tell us what it is about NCAA gymnastics that’s bringing that out in you?

IVANA: Growing up and training and seeing the older girls come back from college, they always said that that was so rewarding doing NCAA gymnastics. I’ve always wanted to do it. I think a lot of the happiness and joy just comes from the whole different mindset of training, training for a team, with a team every day. Traveling with the team, competing for the team, and everyone is always there cheering and we just really love it. And the staff is amazing. I really wouldn’t want to be in any other place but here. It’s just amazing, having fun. It’s a whole different ball game for me, just the whole team atmosphere came with a lot of things. Like I said so many times, we’re doing it for each other and that just makes it mean so much more than just doing it for one person. I think that’s what really brings out the joy of doing gymnastics.

JESSICA: You are one of the few world champions that have ever done college gymnastics. Kayla’s in it now, Shayla, Sam, you’re all in college gymnastics, Bridget too. Did you always want to compete in NCAA growing up or were you kind of waiting to see what happened with elite?

IVANA: No I definitely always wanted to compete in NCAA gymnastics. I knew that after my elite career, school was definitely my priority. Not just going to any school, making sure that I had a great education and also being able to do gymnastics was the best of both worlds so I never had a doubt in my mind that I wanted to do NCAA gymnastics.

JESSICA: Awesome. So you were never tempted to go pro?

IVANA: No!

JESSICA: Ok so one of the things we love about you that we’ve only mentioned 100 times is your form and extension. And I wonder if that was something that was really really stressed in your formative years of training or were you just the kind of person that you’ve always been like that from the time you were a little kid, that is ingrained in you? Was it something that you really had to learn and concentrate on?

IVANA: You know, I think it was a combination of both. I think it really started probably at Gym Max since that was my first really serious gym. They paid a lot of attention to detail. As you guys know, when I was a junior elite, I had like no difficulty at all. I really focused a lot on execution and also myself. I don’t like to use the term perfectionist because there’s not very many things that are perfect in this world, but I had that mindset that if I was going to do it, I might as well try and make it as pretty as can be. I definitely think it was a combination of both coaches and just really paying attention to details.

JESSICA: So like many elites, you found different coaching solutions at various stages of your career which is really common. I just wonder what do you take with you from each of those coaches now? What are some of the things that you fall back on for those experiences now in college, either technically or

IVANA: Gym Max is definitely where I got my basics and when I started this whole detailed and just getting good grounds then at GAGE, Armine was always into the artistry and that part was definitely emphasized a lot. And through my elite years there, the other part of technique there as well and then at WOGA, technique was very detailed and specific and that’s where I think I learned a lot of technical corrections. Each different gym had a different stage and I was at a different stage of my gymnastics and I think each move was very unique but special to me at the same time.

JESSICA: If there was one piece of advice that you could tell younger you or a younger gymnast, I don’t know, some general advice…is there anything that someone said to you or something you would have wanted to have heard from a gymnast like you when you were little?

IVANA: Yeah. After ‘08, I kind of told myself that…..you know gymnastics doesn’t last all your life. You can’t keep doing gymnastics forever. I tried to focus on, it’s a lot easier said than done but, just not letting gymnastics engulf your entire life and your mindset but really taking it day by day and no matter what happens, everything goes on and everything happens for a reason. I think just enjoying the moment and living in the moment and doing everything that you can in your power to be the best you can be and have fun while you’re doing it.

JESSICA: That is excellent advice.

SPANNY: First of all, Jess is not blowing smoke up your butt when she says people were really excited.

JESSICA: Really excited!

SPANNY: We had so many questions.

IVANA: Online questions? How are people submitting questions? I’m just curious.

SPANNY: Mostly on Twitter because we have our GymCastic Twitter and we posted something and most people responded to that. Also a few people…..she writes a blog, her name is Bekah. She made a whole Tumblr post just dedicated to the questions that she wanted to ask because she’s just really really excited. So yeah it’s probably one of our more passionate responses to a question.

IVANA: Alright, let’s go for it!

SPANNY: The one we probably saw the most was people want to know when or if we will see the double front again because you were like legendary for that perfect double front.

IVANA: Its’ really funny that people love that. I loved doing the skill itself too but honestly I was just talking the other day when we were working on stuff here, working on sticks and stuff doing fronts, I can tell you that I definitely didn’t have great air sense but somehow I was able to manage it every single time and I can’t tell you that it will really come out again but I’m glad that everyone enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed doing it when I was doing it.

SPANNY: It seems like yeah it would be a fun skill but I would just imagine it would be a lot of wear and tear and impact. But it really was like the best one of all time.

IVANA: Thank you!

SPANNY: You’d mentioned Gym Max. Some people would probably like to know, since you are from Orange County, California and started at the same gym that McKayla Maroney, Shantessa Pama and Kyla Ross trained at. Did you train all together or were you in there at the same point that they were in there?

IVANA: So Tessa and I were teammates. She was actually there before I came there but we were good friends growing up and it was great having her as a teammate and as friend. But Kyla and McKayla, they had come after I had already left. They, I believe, started at NGCT which is where I did my very first gymnastics classes and then after I left Gym Max, they started. So I never trained with Kyla and McKayla.

SPANNY: Well still, I think it’s nice that that entire gym is getting some recognition and the one thing that comes out is like oh this is where Ivana Hong came from.

IVANA: Yeah they definitely deserve it.

SPANNY: We kind of touched on this. What kind of dance training did you have that gives you such amazing lines?

IVANA: You know, not too much actually. When I was at Gym Max, they didn’t do any extra dance training at all. At GAGE, Armine had some dance routines that we would do and then at WOGA we had a couple of dance sessions in the morning with Natalia but other than that, I didn’t really take any extra. I had been enrolled in a couple of ballet classes but they were just way too slow so I was never really taking them to work on artistry or anything. I think it was just the work of my coaches and just really being honed in on details.

SPANNY: Right, if you work towards the line, you can get the form. Let’s see. Will you be competing all around in the post season, which starts in like a day.

IVANA: Yeah right. It’s gone by so fast. Yeah that is the plan. All around for hopefully the rest of the season.

SPANNY: Awesome! What was the happiest day of your gymnastics career?

IVANA: I think one of my favorite last elite meets that I did was Visas in 2009. Just coming back from taking a break in 2008 and everything that happened in 2008, and for them to be in Dallas which was my new hometown. It was amazing to just be able to get out there again and then going on to Worlds and winning an individual medal at Worlds was amazing as well. So I think, I don’t know. I can’t really distinguish a lot but I think the 2009 from Visas to Worlds was probably my favorite.

SPANNY: I think that year really sticks out in gymnastics fans’ minds. You seemed so happy and it was so good to see you back and there seemed to be a pressure off of you entirely and the entire national team, where everyone just seemed happy to be competing. It seemed to be good but that was me sitting at home watching. Speaking of elite real quick, do you have any thoughts of returning to elite after college or maybe Cirque?

IVANA: No thoughts on returning to elite. I do sometimes get these urges like oh I want to do this skill again or I want to do that again and then I realize I was in a different stage of gymnastics when I was doing that stuff. I’m just trying to take my own advice and living in the moment and not trying to compare myself really on what I used to be able to do or what I did in the past. But for Cirque, I’m not really sure yet. I think it would be absolutely amazing. I’ve been to a couple of Cirque shows and just been awed and thinking if I could have any part in a Cirque show, I mean just being in the back, it would be amazing. Also one of my favorite moments going into a Cirque show was in the Totem, I don’t know how they pronounce it, but it was the trapeze one and it was to the music I have now so that always stood out to me. I don’t know. I’m amazed by Cirque people and If I could have a role in that, I mean I definitely wouldn’t turn it down.

SPANNY: Now they’re going to hear you say this and they’re going to come and recruit you really hard.

JESSICA: I’m surprised you haven’t already gotten recruiting letters from them but yeah. They’ll probably be at your door on Wednesday after this airs.

IVANA: I wouldn’t say I’ll go all out to try and audition but yeah like I said, I definitely wouldn’t turn it down.

SPANNY: Something to look forward to. I’m taking that as a yes. Just wishful thinking. Real quick, a school question. So WOGA is associated with a private school for kids in the area called Spring Creek but you chose to go to Lovejoy High School. Can you tell us about Lovejoy and why you made that decision?

IVANA: School was really important to me and to just be able to go to a regular public school with the few hours I had to just be away from the gym and Lovejoy worked so well with my schedule. The principal then, Dr. Goddard, was open to letting me come in the middle of the day for three hours and leaving before the day ended and the teachers worked with me very well. It worked out perfectly and everybody was just really supportive and so I thought that was just the best place.

SPANNY: Do you think it helped you with the transition when you went to Stanford then, having a more serious schooling background at least for a little bit before you went into the hardcore stuff? If that makes sense.

IVANA: I think so. I’m not saying that Spring Creek wouldn’t prepare you enough. It was just a different atmosphere. I’m not really sure how Spring Creek runs their academics but just being in a public high school

SPANNY: A nice break being around, I wanna say normal people, that’s not nice. I went to a theater school. Not saying artsy kids are weird but

IVANA: I mean I’d show up to school with chalk on my feet and sometimes they’d tell me I had powder on me but you know, its ok.

SPANNY: We’ll wrap up and this isn’t so much a question as it is a statement. A fan statement from Christina Marquez says, “Please tell her she should start a group that says ‘I mastered the non cowboyed legs double arabian.’ She will be one of only three members.” Did she mean double front?

IVANA: I did a double front but thank you very much! I’ve been told to open, that sounds weird, to cowboy a little bit just for safety reasons but I don’t know. I could never do that. It ended up legs together.

SPANNY: Well I, and again from a fan standpoint and not an athlete safety point, keep them together. I can’t think of one person who didn’t watch that and wasn’t like Oh my God! Even now

IVANA: Thank you guys!

SPANNY: Oh you’re welcome. No thank you! This was fun for us to kind of put the questions out there. Again, we had lots of feedback and I think people were really excited to hear from you and how you’re doing.

IVANA: Thank you so much!

SPANNY: You’re welcome!

JESSICA: Thank you!

IVANA: Bye

JESSICA: Alright, that was our interview with Ivana Hong and of course, I’m totally embarrassed that I geeked out so hard the entire time. I really need to like keep my coollike Blythe and I will work on that in the future but it was actually really nice to talk to her. She was like I’m nervous too. We were like ok so are we because you’re awesome. I’ve never talked to someone who has said thank you so many times and been so incredibly gracious. I felt like I was cutting her off the whole time because she was saying thank you and I wasn’t expecting it. It was just really nice to talk with her and she was very very gracious. And Uncle Tim, you had a chance to listen. What did you think?

UNCLE TIM: I was struck by how humble she seemed. And I think some gym fans wish she had gone in the nitty gritty details about all of her gym changes and stuff but I kind of respect her for saying no I really don’t want to talk about that. And it shows for me, that she has kind of moved on from that part of her life and has taken a different direction and that’s good. She’s not bitter with baggage at the age of 20 or whatever she is. So I thought that was good. One thing that I was surprised about was when she said you can’t do gymnastics forever. I mean, Jess I thought you were going to say something.

JESSICA: I had to contain myself.

UNCLE TIM: So those are my thoughts.

JESSICA: Spanny, what did you think about the whole dredging up the past and all that kind of stuff?

SPANNY: I’m glad. I as much as anybody else would love to have known all the gossip but as it is now, she’s kind of like an ambassador for positive attitudes in gymnastics. Even in her promotion of life after elite, when we asked her if she ever even considered going pro and she was like no! NCAA has always been on the table for her. Like Uncle Tim mentioned, it’s refreshing to see. We’ve all seen the YouTube videos and we all know what’s kind of gone on and she’s been through crap. Knowing that, she still competes and does as well as she does with such a positive and infectious attitude. I guess that’s not surprising but I enjoyed it.

JESSICA: Yeah. I mean the thing I think is really interesting about her, or what, I guess, stands out to me after so many years of being around gymnastics is how two people can go through the same exact situation. So with her and McCool, both of them had fractures that allegedly or whatever was not treated going into the Olympic cycle, and McCool made the Olympic team and Ivana did not. And that part of the story is the same for both of them, but that’s where it completely diverges, and some people will say, well, Ivana has this opinion because she didn’t make the team and McCool has the opinion because she did and it was all worth it for her. McCool ended up with a navicular fracture on an orthotic bone, which can be really dangerous and that’s why she couldn’t do bars or vault or anything with her hand for two years afterward. And the thing is, it’s just really interesting to see not only how the public reacts to those sort of stories, but how the gymnasts deal with them, and—I guess what I’m trying to say, what am I trying to say here? That from our point of view, we want transparency and we want people to talk about what’s going on, but we also want to see resolution. And with Gabby, she got a lot of flak for telling her story from her point of view. And whether you agree with it or not or whatever, that’s her point of view and was her experience, and in this case Ivana has found that resolution, and she’s said her piece and moved on, just as Spanny’s saying, so I appreciated hearing where she is now and that she was able to get there and being able to see both sides of this story from her and McCool being from the same gym and where they are now. It both worked out and they’re really happy in college and that says a lot, so.

SPANNY: And she’s had such an incredible career. We weren’t hurting for things to talk about, even though we didn’t talk about club, we had plenty of other topics to discuss because she’s had such an illustrious career, and we don’t always have to discuss the dirty stuff. Although it is fun.

UNCLE TIM: And I want to add that I want her to win NCAA beam this year.

SPANNY: Yup.

JESSICA: She’s really amazing at beam. And I love that old school handstand. I love her artistry. That handstand is so artistic, because at first I didn’t like it because I was like, eh, it’s not perfect. But then I was like, that’s the thing about it. She’s a little archy, she’s just pulling. It’s very artistic, that handstand, the beginning pose. And you’ll see, we have the most beautiful picture of it on our site for this episode. So. Yeah. Thank you, Ivana, for being on and being an ambassador for NCAA gymnastics and pointed toes.
–

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–

JESSICA: This weekend we had the conference championships. So, my first question for you Spanny, is, which college championship was entertaining for all the wrong reasons?

SPANNY: I think this definitely goes to the first session of the Big 10. I think a few conferences split up the sessions last year, but I may be wrong. But this year, most of the bigger conferences did do two sessions, and it was kind of unfortunate because the four teams that competed in the first session were largely hilarious and were terrifying, pretty much across the board. But Big 10—there was a skill, and this isn’t just the first session, this is throughout the entire meet—girls who kept,…I honestly saw maybe four, five, or six of these skills, and each one was awful. What do you call them, this is probably totally wrong, we called them suicides, it was front toss to sit on beam, and I didn’t see one that was landed, even at all. Just repeated crotchings and hilarious falls, it didn’t look like they got hurt though because that wouldn’t be hilarious, but they land on their butt, and they kind of grip, and then they land and they still try to get back up and it was just that one skill from teams across the board, kept trying it and they kept falling. It was really weird. I should just make a montage of that.

JESSICA: Yes, you should, cause that skill, the suicide, is already terrifying, and falls on it are always funny. You cannot fall, doing that skill, in any way that won’t make your entire team fall on the ground, laughing.

SPANNY: Yeah. It was contagious and it was just the most bizarre thing.

JESSICA: So that’s for the Big 10s, what about the Big 12s?

SPANNY: I couldn’t tell you anything about it. I guess it was aired, or it’s going to be aired, on some random Fox channel. Oklahoma was there and they won everything. That’s about it.

JESSICA: Shockingly, Oklahoma swept.

SPANNY: Yes. And they were really excited about it too, but. Although I guess relatively, they, quote unquote, only scored a 197.2 or whatever, which, again, relative to the other insane scoring we’ve seen, probably wasn’t as competitive as they’ve been, but that said, they still won everything, swept everything, so hot dog.

UNCLE TIM:…so hot dog? Ok. [LAUGHS] Alright. So in other shocking news, we hear there was some drama at the SCC championships, and it had to do with one Miss Shayla Worley, if I’m not correct, shocking there? So tell me a little bit about that.

SPANNY: Again, I’m going by reports that I’ve read because this is another meet that, in the year 2013, no-one was able to watch live. But, from what I understand, is that there was a supposed out-of-bounds on floor from Shayla. I haven’t seen her routine, I’m going to go ahead and guess that she did go out. But I guess the review process is different in the regular season versus the postseason, but I don’t know if this qualifies as regular season or postseason. But the review submitted wasn’t a video, it was pictures, I’m not sure if it was pictures from a video, or if it was an audience member’s picture, I’m not sure. But the result of that was that it was inconclusive, so it did not prove that she stayed in, I guess is the way they’re looking at it, so because the review was denied, there’s a mandatory .3 deduction off of the team score…

JESSICA: Ouch.

SPANNY…which, one might ask, why did they do it at all, because it wouldn’t have helped them? That said, it wouldn’t have moved them up or down either way, I forget, they would have dropped another score had Shayla’s routine…it wouldn’t have changed the standings. But it was still a questionable decision on Dana’s point, or on Dana’s side. But that wasn’t the only. Bama also had a weird scoring change, theirs was they competed out of order. But Sarah Patterson brought it to the judge’s attention after the meet, so she basically brought the one-tenth deduction on herself, which is kind of classy, but that said, it didn’t affect the standings, so I don’t know that, had it been down to a tenth between Bama and Florida, people would have said anything.

JESSICA: I watched the first session of Pac-12s, and I’m ashamed to say that I fell asleep during it. Did you get a chance to watch?

SPANNY: I did. And not unlike Big 10s, it was a little terrifying. This one…it was underperformance, but it was also just scary. There were a lot of balks I saw on vault. Just scary falls. Then it stopped being entertaining for me when I think they might die. What is it somebody did, they missed their foot on a dismount on beam? I don’t know what it was. But it was sort of like—and somebody did it on UCLA, too, but she turned out ok—one girl, maybe from Cal, missed her foot and then kind of did an Arabian to her back. And the judges had to conference for 20 minutes because they were like, she didn’t really do a dismount? That kind of stuff, you never want to see that. Or girls just missing hands on vault. Yeah, it was not for the weak.

JESSICA: Well, now I’m really glad I fell asleep.

SPANNY: Yeah. The second session was, I guess, a little more competent. Oregon State was amazing. That was really fun to see them compete well at home. Utah relegated to third, and that’s all I’m going to say about that. My cat is making a really weird noise.

[LAUGHS]

JESSICA: Your cat is not happy.

SPANNY: Oh my god.

JESSICA: That will be in the bloopers section. Ok. Uncle Tim. Take it away.

UNCLE TIM: So, I mean, I, being the kind-of Al Trautwig of the show, need to know, does any of this matter at all? Do the conference meets matter?

SPANNY: No. I mean, in theory, they would, because they still count towards to RQS score, but no. this year, no.

JESSICA: But who has the hardest regional to qualify out of?

SPANNY: Again, I’d like to say nobody, but that’s not entirely true because, just with the way everything ended up with qualifications, what with the top two from each regional will qualify to Nationals, but they’re all pretty obvious with what the top two teams being pretty much light years ahead of other competitors. I would take the Florida regional out of that, and obviously Florida will qualify. I mean, I will eat my hat if something happens and they do not. But the other two, the second and thirds seeds are Auburn and Minnesota, and then Auburn, which…

JESSICA: Minnesota has to make it. Minnesota has to make it.

SPANNY: And it’s just a shame, too, because those…I think if Minnesota and Auburn were in different regionals, they would each have a chance of qualifying. But because they’re up in the same one, chances are they aren’t both going to knock out Florida, whereas there are other regionals where it’s like Stanford and Penn State. I don’t know, some of the teams that probably shouldn’t make it will because they’re just in the easiest regional ever, except for that Florida one, and that said, it’s the one I’m the most excited to watch. Yeah, I’m totally rooting for Minnesota.

JESSICA: Oh my god, Minnesota. They’ve had their best year ever, it’s so exciting.

SPANNY: And I’m not sure if they’ve made—have they made it to Nationals before?

JESSICA: I don’t think they have.

SPANNY: Which is sad, because I live here. But I’m not sure. It would be really incredible if, you know, the last few years, there’s always been that one Cinderella team that no-one thought would make it, and then they did. This could be Minnesota’s year, even to just show up would be awesome.
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–

JESSICA: Let’s talk about listener feedback this week. We got a comment on our website from one of our favorite GymCastic listeners, Cordelia Price, who is Ebee’s aunt, and she competed for the MIT gymnastics team in the 80s. And she left a really interesting comment about the Glasgow World Cup and what a great format it was. She said it was the best meet she had ever been to and USA Gymnastics could really learn a lot from how they did this format. So if you’re listening [clears throat] read that comment, USA Gymnastics peeps. So basically she said that there was a big scoreboard where you could see every gymnast’s score throughout the competition, you could see where they were ranked throughout the competition, so this is the big difference. Not only can you see the ranking. And, each rotation, the gymnast’s order on the event would change based on their ranking from the last rotation, so if you moved up on the ranking in the next rotation, you could go later in that rotation and you could see, every time somebody competed, what they needed to overtake the current leader, so she said there was a flipboard-slot machine kind of thing that was animated and would flip, ta-da, here’s what a person needed to score. So she said it was really fun to watch and there was a rock concert kind of atmosphere and it was really a great meet. So that was really interesting to read about. We love to hear about meet formats that make gymnastics more exciting, especially to make it easier for the general public to understand what is going on. So if you have feedback on a meet you have gone to that had a really great format, let us know. We love to know from Cordelia about what happened at the Glasgow World Cup.

UNCLE TIM: This week’s International Listener shout-out goes to all of Japan. We don’t know exactly who you are, but you guys keep popping up on our Google stats and stuff, and so konnichiwa to you guys.

SPANNY: Yeah, those stats are…hmm.

JESSICA: [unclear]

[LAUGHS]

SPANNY: Oh, I miss Japan. Last week we kind of touched on—well, think is kind of a spin-off of a tweet our good friend Scott Bregman had left regarding a bar duel, I think we called it. Bar duel.

JESSICA: Even though he never mentioned being in the bar. I should just say that. He never actually said he peed at the bar. I think I decided it was at a bar. But it has sparked the most awesome comments on Twitter that we’re just going to go with the bar for now on.

SPANNY: Yeah. Well it could just be, if you were inebriated, let’s say. Sunny, @snoozeyoulose on Twitter, wrote “My drunk gym story: I fractured my tibia and needed stitches because I backflip off a bed and into a radiator.” Ouch. That’s totally something we’ve done. Like I didn’t break my tibia. That’s awful.

JESSICA: Oh my god, that sounds so painful it’s so funny. Into a radiator, too! That’s painful.

SPANNY: Go into the ER, like, how would you do this? Back flips.

[LAUGHS]

SPANNY: SuperGymmie, @SuperGymmie on Twitter, says, “My drunk gym story: I tore all ligaments in my ankle cause, you know, a switch ring can’t be that hard. Or so I thought. Lol.”

[LAUGHS]

JESSICA: And then, he or she goes on to say, “Oh, and I’m not a gymnast.” So SumerGymmie was just like, “Oh, I’ll try that, I’ve never don’t gymnastics in my life but I’ll just try a switch ring.”

SPANNY: That happens, too, when you’re like, “oh, that skill can’t be that hard.” I’ve tried it before and I really understood the idea of lunging and prepping and was like, eh, and l-turn, why not. My hip flexors hurt for a week after trying it. Or being like, oh, switch side leap, I could totally, and then—I clearly just have awful hip muscles and tendons and I’m completely unprepared to do anything like that, but you think it’s an easy skill and then you just, just kill yourself trying it.

UNCLE TIM: I can relate, Spanny. So you know how back in the day, back in the old days, the girls would do a jam and then put the back of their legs on the bar and go up to the high bar? I have no idea what that was called. I decided that I was going to try that, right? And so I did my jam and I shot up and I barely missed the high bar but that’s one of those skills where there’s no way to stop yourselves when you’re going for it, you either go for it or you don’t, and I just bit it, like face-floor and blue mat. And everyone at the gym was laughing at me.

JESSICA: Ok. Let I—this is so embarrassing, you guys, oh god. So I was coaching, and you know it wasn’t my turn leading warm-up so I was just helping some kids, but then I got a little bored, so I just walked over to the bar, and you know how when you’re just standing there stretching and watching warm-ups, and you know how you put, you sort of bend over so you’re in a pike position and then you put your hands on the bar and you sort of jump up so you’re going to be in a jam position? Well…[WHEEZES]

UNCLE TIM: Are you wheezing?

[LAUGHS]

JESSICA: I’m laughing! Oh! Ok! So the floor is full of like fifty kids warming up… [LAUGHS]….and I, and I walk over to the bar, and it’s totally silent, and I walk over there…[LAUGHS]

UNCLE TIM: That’s like an old smokers laugh right now. Give me another tour jete, kids.

[LAUGHS]

JESSICA: Ok, wait, sorry. Let me just compose myself.

SPANNY: We’re not editing any of this out.

JESSICA: So I just walked over there, stretched a little, and just jumped up to hand on the bar and then, like…[LAUGHS]…and my hand slipped off, so there’s giant thud, ugh, under the bars, and I’m laying there, literally on my back. [LAUGHS]. So embarrassing. [LAUGHS].

UNCLE TIM: [LAUGHS] Spanny, do you want to retell that story in a more concise manner?

SPANNY: [LAUGHS] I don’t know if I can.

UNCLE TIM: That’s ridiculous.

SPANNY: [LAUGHS] In my head, I want to jump to front-support, but I don’t know how.

JESSICA: It’s like, if you know, when you’re jumping—you know if you’re in a peach basket, and you put your feet on the ground, so you’re holding the bar still but your feet are on the ground? And then you jump back up into a peach basket?

SPANNY: Sure.

UNCLE TIM: Uh-huh.

JESSICA: Well, imagine you just do the jumping back up into the peach basket, but your hands fall off so you just fall flat on your back underneath the bar? In front of fifty little kids who are in the middle of their stretches? And you’re supposed to be the adult? Paying attention and helping them stretch? Instead you knock the wind out of yourself and are laying on the floor.

SPANNY: And then you’re trying to pretend that it wasn’t that bad and you’re trying to talk afterwards and you can’t.

JESSICA: There’s no air in your lungs.

UNCLE TIM: Like when you were laughing just now?

JESSICA: Like…[LAUGHS] yeah, it’s funny, I was talking to my sister and I was like—cause someone on Twitter was talking about how I laugh on the show—and I was like, man, my sister laughs exactly the same way, like we have this long and extended wheeze. [LAUGHS] Anyway, it’s genetic, you guys, there’s nothing I can do about it. Ok. So.

UNCLE TIM: Alright. So, moving on from that—I don’t know how we can, but we’ll try. So the Gym Nerd Challenge—I can’t talk now—the Gym Nerd Challenge is the gymnastics mythbuster challenge. We want you to ask a friend, you know, what comes to your mind when you think of gymnastics? If they present a stereotype, then you correct them, and ask if it changes their feelings about the sport. So have any of you had any luck busting myths lately?

[PAUSE]

JESSICA: No.

[PAUSE]

UNCLE TIM: We suck at life.

SPANNY: Yeah.
–

[SOUNDBYTE]

JESSICA: Remember to enter our NCAA Giveaway Contest. You have until April 5th, when we’ll announce the winners, so good luck on the contest. Next week is going to be our What Is It Like to Run Away With The Circus? show. We’re going to have Tricia Woo on, who was an amazing beam worker for the University of Nebraska and is now in Cirque de Soleil, so we’re going to ask her all of our burning questions. If you have questions for Tricia, let us know. Contact us at gymcastic@gmail.com, or you can call us at 415-800-3191 or on our Skype line, our username is GymcasticPodcast. And of course, we’re all over Facebook and Twitter and Tumblr and Google Plus. And remember you can find a transcript of each and every show on our website, and of course we always have videos of the routines we’re talking about and videos so you can follow along while you’re listening to the show. Remember you can support the show by recommending the show to a friend or teammate, let people know about the show, let them know that you like it and you found your people. You can rate us or write a review for us on iTunes. You can download the Stitcher app, and since you guys asked for it last week, you guys can now donate to the show. We have a donate button. And thank you so much to the people who have already donated! We were overwhelmed. It’s amazing. Thank you so much. And so until next week, I am Jessica from Master-Gymnastics.com.

SPANNY: I’m Spanny Tampson from Spanny’s Big Fake Smile.

UNCLE TIM: And I’m Uncle Tim from Uncle Tim Talks Men’s Gym.

JESSICA: See you guys next week! Thanks for listening!

[[SONG- I DON’T CARE (I LOVE IT) BY ICONA POP]]

Episode 25 Transcript
WU (translating for Fan): The best part is I always dreamed to be a World Champion, they provided very good doctors and nutritionists, everybody to help me achieve my dream. And then the bad part is because I was spending so much time on training, education was a little lacking. They do have education, but still most of the time it’s doing the training so when she retired she was spending so much time catching up with the education.
–

[[“Express Yourself” - INTRO MUSIC]]

JESSICA: This week we talk about the French International, Aly on Dancing with the Stars, we have an interview with 2003 World Champion Chinese gymnast Fan Ye, and we talk about the NCAA scoring debacle.

ALLISON TAYLOR: Hey gymnasts! Elite Sportz Band is a cutting edge compression back warmer that can protect your most valued asset, your back. I’m Allison Taylor on behalf of Elite Sportz Band. Visit elitesportzband.com. We’ve got your back.
–

JESSICA: This is episode 25 for March 20, 2013. I’m Jessica from Master’s Gymnastics

BLYTHE: I’m Blythe from the Gymnastics Examiner

SPANNY: I’m Spanny Tampson from Spanny’s Big Fake Smile

UNCLE TIM: And I’m Uncle Tim from Uncle Tim Talks Men’s Gym

JESSICA: This is the best and only gymnastics podcast in the universe starting with the top news stories from around the gymternet. And before we start with the news we want to remind you about the major, huge, incredible, exciting NCAA ticket contest that we are having! So, five of you are going to win a pair of reserved section tickets to the NCAA Women’s Gymnastics Championships at UCLA Friday April 19th – Sunday April 21st. These are the good seats, they are the lower section reserved $55 seats, they’re all session passes, and we are giving them away to you.

UNCLE TIM: Yeah, and all you have to do to enter is like us on Facebook or follow us on Google+ by adding us to one of your circles. If you want to enter more than once you can also link to our show via Twitter or Facebook or another social media platform and email us a screenshot so that we can verify it. Also remember if you have a super, uber private Facebook account, make sure to message us after liking us so that we know that you have liked us. For more information, go to NCAA.com/gymnastics.

JESSICA: So let’s get to the important news now, now that you’re all gonna go directly to Facebook or Google+ so you can enter the contest or tweet about us so you can be entered twice. Shawn Johnson will be performing on three, not one but three, Dancing with the Stars themed cruise ships, – cruises, not just cruise ships, but cruises – in June and July on the Holland America line, so thank god it’s not those that keep blowing up in the Caribbean stranding people, these go to like Alaska and that kind of thing. So yeah, not one but three, her partner will join her for one, and yeah. On the one hand I’m really excited for her and on the other hand I feel like this is kind of sad, what do you guys think?

SPANNY: I don’t know that anybody aspires to be a cruise ship performer, I feel like it’s a step down. That said Dancing with the Stars is pretty high profile even still, so who knows what the quality will be.

UNCLE TIM: All I want to know is if Barry Manilow will be on the cruise with her. That’s all I care about.

JESSICA: They better be putting her up in the penthouse, that’s all I have to say about that.

SPANNY: Cruises have gotten kind of a bad rap lately.

JESSICA: Mm-hmm.

SPANNY: I feel that this might not be the best time to invest in a new cruise ship theme. Because I think the theme lately has been like, ‘are you gonna be stuck on a boat full of crap’, I don’t know.

JESSICA: [LAUGHS]

SPANNY: Maybe there’s nowhere to go but up.

JESSICA: Maybe this is what they’re hoping everyone’s forgetting about, being stranded then having to poo in a bag, and by the summertime they’ll just be concentrating on Shawn.

SPANNY: Yeah. Who cares if you don’t have water or electricity, Shawn Johnson’s dancing!

UNCLE TIM: She’ll light up the building!

[LAUGHTER]

SPANNY: Book my ticket.

JESSICA: So speaking of dancing…

SPANNY: Yeah, Dancing with the Stars premiered tonight, well the night that we’re recording, Monday night. Alexandra Raisman – just so we know, it is Alexandra – she performed tonight, she wore pink, a very… well you know what she looked cute, whatever. Yes it was hot pink, it was very low cut, I was worried about a malfunction. But we’ll start with the opening, the package they put together. For what it’s worth, I mean people give her such a hard time for, ‘oh she has no personality’ in her interviews to her floor routine, her little package fluff piece or whatever was pretty cute. The dancing… she was aggressive and she was very, uh, personable we’ll say. She didn’t shut her mouth, that’s…

JESSICA: Really? You mean she was just talking a lot or her mouth was hanging open while she danced?

UNCLE TIM: [LAUGHS]

SPANNY: No, no, no, no, she literally had her mouth open like the entire time. I’m not a good critic of ballroom dancing, I don’t know the technical details, I do know that she looked like she was trying to eat something. Her mouth was alternating between gaping open and kissy faces.

JESSICA: Hmm.

SPANNY: To the point where I would say facially she needed to take a step back from the hamming face. But that’s always, in any performance it’s better to have someone go too far and then bring them back as opposed to try and push them to put more energy into it. If our main criticism is that she was too animated, yeah okay I’m going to say it: Alexandra Raisman was too animated for her dance. Like that’s an awesome problem to have.

JESSICA: We never ever thought we would hear that.

SPANNY: No.

JESSICA: That’s huge. It’s major, major progress for her.

SPANNY: Right. Honestly, I tuned out once the judges started yapping, I think they said something maybe it was she could do more, which I guess physically she could. There was a lot of rump shaking; I think there was a pretty aggressive shimmy in there. I’d say it was – I think they gave her sevens which makes sense to me. It wasn’t the best dance I’ve ever seen but for her it was pretty good. They love Olympians on this show so. I know I will be, if not watching every week, I will be finding the YouTube video the next day for sure to see how she does.

UNCLE TIM: I’m watching the video right now and I am now seeing what you say about a wardrobe malfunction.

SPANNY: [LAUGHS] Right.

UNCLE TIM: Yeah…

SPANNY: Yowza!

JESSICA: I learned a lot about double stick tape, and taping to leotards, and taping for dancing this weekend, and I was horrified but also I feel a little better knowing what I now know. Including that not only do they tape themselves down and they tape themselves to the outfit, but then they also use like that scrunchie tape to figure eight their boobs in as well. So I feel like the dancers… like as gymnasts we may not know how to do this, but the dancers have really got the boob malfunction thing down to a science.

SPANNY: Except for Janet Jackson.

JESSICA: Except for her, because yes, clearly that was meant to happen but not meant to happen.

SPANNY: Precisely.

JESSICA: Mm-hmm.

SPANNY: Another, well if we’re talking about Olympic athletes, Dorothy Hamill competed and her little piece was like tear jerking. I don’t buy into this crap, but if you want to check out one other routine from the night if you watch her fluff piece and then watch her routine. Even though they were wearing purple onesies [inaudible]

JESSICA: [LAUGHS] I…

SPANNY: Watch it, and you’ll know what I’m talking about.

JESSICA: I totally – I think she’s gonna win. Because she’s Dorothy freaking Hamill, okay? Ice skaters will always beat everyone else’s asses. And that is all I have to say about that.

SPANNY: Yeah the kids are going to vote for the Disney girlie or Aly, but your parents are going to vote for Dorothy Hamill.

JESSICA: Yeah and everybody knows that the demographic for these shows – like that’s why I think that Shawn Johnson is doing a freaking cruise – the demographic for these shows, including American Idol is 50 and up, those are the people that watch this. And I know this because there is a meeting of the 50 and up age group at work every Tuesday to review Dancing with the Stars, and every time I walk in on it I’m like, ‘wow, so this is demographic proven. Here we go’. In other news, there was a documentary on Uchimura released which I think is called “Samurai Soul” or like the series is “Samurai Soul,” and we’ll put a link up to it. So we checked it out and it’s pretty cute. You get to look into his training, you know it was done a while ago, but you get to look into his training you find out about his family. There were some interesting things in it like his parents opened a gym in their house, both of his parents were gymnasts, and the gym is still running. His mom, oh my god, like I’ve seen pictures of her before but his mom legit looks like a teenager. She does her hair in little pig tails, she’s super, super buff, but in her coaching style she’s like so adorably youthful, just she totally looks like a kid at heart, you know? And some of the other things we see is we see the general dudes hanging out at workout and that kind of stuff, and him being shy all the time. And then you see some things about you know, he did his first ever gymnastics meet he placed last and he was crying about it, and that gave me hope like, “oh see even the best in the world like Michael Jordan. If you are last place in the beginning you can be the best in the world” [LAUGHS] Did you guys draw gymnastics routines in books like they showed his sketchbooks from when he was a kid?

SPANNY: Oh, yeah.

UNCLE TIM: I’m trying to think if I drew routines, I don’t know if I drew routines but I definitely drew gymnasts, and like every art project from like the 3rd grade into 8th grade was related to gymnastics somehow.

JESSICA: Yeah, I totally did that. I still do it sometimes just for fun. I was like maybe this is a common theme that gymnasts don’t talk about but everybody does. Also they showed at the very end his College National Championships was also an adult meet for working adults. I liked that, [[LAUGHS]] if you don’t have a job don’t freaking show up to compete! But that was really cool, it was one was of those open meets like Sho was telling us about last week. What else stood out for you guys?

UNCLE TIM: From the standpoint of fluff, I loved the fact that they included a track scene just because it took me back to a magical moment in 2005 when NBC did a little fluff piece on Nastia and I was like, ‘oh the track scene in gymnastics fluff spans languages, and crosses all linguistic barriers, and geographic barriers’, and I was like ‘aww that’s cute. What else did I find interesting, when they went to the restaurant. There’s this moment when they go to this ramen restaurant and I was thinking ‘oh they’re not that different from American students their eating ramen’, but theirs is probably a little different.

SPANNY: Lots of ramen, yeah.

UNCLE TIM: [LAUGHS] But they were eating fried chicken and I was thinking, ‘oh nooo!’ This would never be allowed down in Texas, let’s just put it that way.

JESSICA: Mm-hmm, I thought the same thing when I saw that.

UNCLE TIM: And then of course like you mentioned last week, there’s the scene where he’s just picking the dead skin off his hands.

JESSICA: [LAUGHS] I know! I was like seriously? He’s totally like, ‘this is really embarrassing…like are you seriously gonna film this right now, me picking off my dead skin?’ I like that part. He just seems like a cool, chill guy, you know? Way shyer than I thought. I think they always like ‘oh he’s shy’, but he really does seem like a very shy, quiet person. Okay so now from shy we go to…

UNCLE TIM: Not so shy.

JESSICA: It’s like the opposite!

UNCLE TIM: We’re going to Brazil. Full Twist linked to this article and it’s actually in Portuguese, but there is something called the Arnold Classic down in Brazil. Can anybody here do a very good Arnold Schwarzenegger impression for us? Anyone?

SPANNY: Get to the chopp-ah!

[[LAUGHTER]]

UNCLE TIM: Thank you.

SPANNY: Yes. My talents are limitless.

UNCLE TIM: So they have this classic, which is more of a gymnastics workshop. You show up and basically it’s for coaches and judges and whatever, you just go and it sounds like do gymnastics for fun and you get a diploma at the end of it. But our favorite, Oksana Chusovitina is going to be there. She’s like all over the world right now and she’s going to be hanging out with Arnold, so that’s kind of exciting. In other news, our favorite guest, or one of our many favorites, he had his invitational this past weekend and America sent several male gymnasts to compete. And in the senior division Akash Modi won the all-around with an 84.525 beating Canada’s Anderson Loren with an 84.075, and coming in third Sean Melton with an 83.225.

SPANNY: You know I was thinking about this, because this isn’t the first I’ve heard of this Arnold Classic, I feel like I’m not sure if it’s from when I lived in L.A., which you guys would know about it then too, when I lived in L.A. – it was definitely something held in the States at some point.

JESSICA: Didn’t they used to have it on the beach in Santa Monica? Or not Santa Monica… what’s that, is it Santa Monica where there is that ghetto ass skating area with the Muscle Beach?

SPANNY: Um, Venice?

JESSICA: Venice, that’s it!

SPANNY: Yeah.

JESSICA: My apologies to everyone who I just called your neighborhood ghetto ass, but it’s kind of… it’s like Berkeley. You know, like it’s fun but dirty.

SPANNY: [inaudible] with the rings. But I feel like that’s the image, without googling it, I have a mental image of Arnold and he’s got like two boys sitting on his shoulders or something. And there’s like black and white pictures of like on the rings.

JESSICA: Yes

SPANNY: We’ll have to do a little more research and try to figure out where this is coming from and which memory in my brain this is triggering.

JESSICA: I’m imaging one of the pictures of, oh my god I’m forgetting the original founder of IG but their offices were down there and they used to have a museum there before they moved to Oklahoma and Ziert took over, I feel like there’s a picture of that dude doing a handstand on his desk and they had that meet on the sand out there, like it was all combined. And Kathy Johnson even competed or some of the eighties Olympians… we’ll put our historian on the job.

SPANNY: Glenn Sundby.

JESSICA: Glenn Sundby, thank you! Whew! I’m pretty sure that’s him. I’m also thinking about Xanadu now.

SPANNY: Xanadu!

JESSICA: For you young kids, google it. You’ll be appalled.

SPANNY: And thrilled!

JESSICA: [LAUGHS] And thrilled, yes. All right.
__

JESSICA: So Blythe, you had kind of an exciting weekend, tell us where you were.

BLYTHE: It was an awesome weekend! I was in a place called Mouilleron-le-captif which is sort of sub-suburb of Nantes which is the big city in Western France, and that was where the French International was held this year. Normally it’s in Paris but they decided to have a change and sort of exploit this beautiful new arena that they built about six month ago to hold it at Mouilleron. Yeah, it was great. I was able to do quick hits for the French Gymnastics Federation in really terrible French, but you know hopefully I succeeded to convey some information and it was just a lot of fun.

JESSICA: So one of the things that was a… it was kind of cool when we were watching just the prelims and the warm ups on the TV is it looked like the arena was completely full and that just for practice people were totally loving it, so who was in there?

BLYTHE: Oh, yeah. So what they did on the day of open podium training, even though this is not a podium competition, it wasn’t this year, is they bring school groups in. So it’s really fun for the students and I swear, I mean the French just cheer like crazy for their gymnasts, and for everybody really. It’s the only country in the world I think, where you have somebody running down the vault runway and the crowd is going, “aaaaaaaaaaahh!” you know as they run.

JESSICA: [LAUGHS]

BLYTHE: And the atmosphere is just awesome. The Vendespace where the competition was held is 5,000 seats and that’s compared to like 15,000 or so at Bercy so it was a lot more intimate. But it was awesome, I think the school children loved it, the teachers loved that they didn’t have to teach, and the gymnasts I think really got a kick out of crowd support. I felt very sorry for the Italians. They brought them in by session and the school children only stayed for about 90 minutes/two hours, so by the time Vanessa Ferrari and Carlotta Ferlito were doing their training it was like 5:30 PM and there was nobody in the arena.

JESSICA: Aww!

BLYTHE: But the majority of the people and especially the French gymnasts, you know they made sure the French gymnasts were training when the school kids were in there, it was very, very festive.

JESSICA: That’s awesome! I love to hear that.

BLYTHE: Yeah. It was awesome!

JESSICA: So one of the things they did which they do all the time in ice skating but we don’t often see in gymnastics is they had like a kiss and cry area where they waited for the scores.

BLYTHE: They did. I think that that is kind of compulsory at FIG World Cup competitions these days, although the French sort of take advantage of it more than a lot of other countries maybe in terms of the athletes leave the floor and they actually go and sit in the kiss and cry, and I feel like that doesn’t happen at all the World Cups – at some of them, but not all of them.

JESSICA: And so one of the controversies that came out of this was the start value for Afanasyeva’s floor routine. The controversy was that she didn’t have the connection value but made it to finals anyway. Was there any buzz about that there?

BLYTHE: There was a little bit amongst the French and the federation simply kind of put its foot down and said… because it didn’t come out until I feel like several hours after the competition ended and so everybody came back for finals the next day. And the federation simply said look, we’re not changing the score, things happened as they happened, those four, well five gymnasts, you know they took Marine Brevet and they played the wild card which is a really unknown rule I feel like…

JESSICA: Yeah, what’s this wild card?

BLYTHE: The way it works is when your country is the host of a World Cup competition, you know it’s divided between men’s and women’s artistic gymnastics, if nobody from your country qualifies either a guy or a woman, and of course Hamilton Sabot qualified on Parallel Bars but on the women’s side nobody qualified for finals from France, and if that happens the country has the right to play a wild card and just sort of elevate one of their women. Or if nobody had qualified on the men’s side they would have been able to put whoever they wanted to really in finals. And so they decided with Marine Brevet you know, she finished fifth on floor, she did a very nice routine, they want to encourage her, she was injured in 2012, she didn’t go to the Olympic Games and that was really too bad because she absolutely deserved to go, you know has a very high level of skill and she’s worked very hard to get back. And I think they’re thinking towards the European Championships, they want to give her as much exposure as possible so they decided that she would participate on floor, and they have the right to do that.

JESSICA: Interesting. I like that they didn’t go back and do anything about Afanasyeva’s routine because it’s like if you don’t call it right then or someone doesn’t point it out it’s too late. Yes it’s not fair, but I like that they did the wild card!

BLYTHE: Yeah, and again you can say well maybe if Afanasyeva had had that deduction she wouldn’t have been in the top four and that’s not fair to the fifth girl, but the fifth girl was Marine Brevet so I feel like it all sort of sorted itself out.

JESSICA: Right.

BLYTHE: And Afanasyeva, I mean, you can take the deduction if you like but she absolutely deserves to be in like, every floor final. She’s an Olympic finalist, World Champion on the event; I’m willing to give her the benefit of the doubt on this one. Yeah, no hard feelings about it whatsoever.

JESSICA: Yeah exactly. So what were your impressions of the women’s competition? Who stood out for you?

BLYTHE: Oh, man. I was impressed by Brevet. I really was, you know, and I was impressed by Afan, too. She does not look like she has taken an enormous amount of time off or anything like that. You know, she didn’t do a lot in training, but that’s the Russian style. They just sort of whip it out for the competition.

JESSICA: Yeah.

BLYTHE: And Giulia Steingruber from Switzerland, also. She wins vault and she wins bars. And, I don’t really want to say those are her two events because she’s quite the all around gymnast, really, and she did terrifically. Little Anne Kuhm from France who was really the other French female who had the crowd really behind her. She actually has an elbow injury and I was told that she couldn’t actually bend her elbow to 90 degrees on the day of the competition.

JESSICA: Oh my god.

BLYTHE: So there was a little bit of choreography that was bent elbowed, but she covered up for it very well, and she did well. It could not have been easy to get up there and perform like that. She did fall twice from the balance beam, but she also, I believe she’s just 16, she has a really, really bright future in front of her, so. And yeah. Those are the people who really stood out, at least as far as the women go. Oh, I do want to say one thing about Alexa Moreno, though, from Mexico. She didn’t make vault finals but she threw a Randy and a Tsukahara Double Full. And she didn’t quite get the Tsukahara Double Full around, and so she fell, but she did it in training and it was awesome and she also looks really at the top of her form, and I feel that she’s one to watch as we move towards Worlds and those competitions.

JESSICA: So how about the men’s side. There were some unfortunate injuries and then Danell Leyva looks like he’s actually looking better even though he had a bit of a mistake on high bar.

BLYTHE: Yeah, I don’t know what to remark on on Leyva’s performance. Everyone loves him. Everybody loves Yin. The crowd totally got into—they saw the two of them preparing, and as Yin lifted Danell to the high bar they started doing that five clap thing that Yin does, and it was a really great moment and it made you understand how much the crowd was enthusiastic about gymnastics and really knew the sport, and that was awesome. And Danell—I mean, Tim has talked about this a little bit, Danell has a longer body line, he’s not short and muscle-y like a Jonathan Horton type, and it’s harder for him to get into real routine shape, he’s probably got to do a ton of numbers, and at this point in the season, maybe you don’t want to be burning yourself out by doing a ton of numbers, and so, and then at the American Cup we saw the mistakes that he made because he was sick, and he just seems to be taking his time to sort of round out his form and he definitely looked more solid here than he did two weeks ago. And, you know, yeah, that’s fine. Kristian Thomas just—god, what a shame. He did a fantastic Yurchenko double pike, just before he did that handspring double front, and just landed badly. It appears that he has just dislocated his kneecap. That’s sort of the latest. And they are that there might also be some tendon damage, but nobody is saying, yeah, he tore his ACL.

JESSICA: Well, that’s good.

BLYTHE: Yeah. It carries a recovery time of about four to six months, but certainly gymnasts, they recover pretty easily, it seems, these days from torn patellas, and so hopefully, he’ll be back doing that vault if he wants to.

JESSICA: So did he just, did he land crooked, or did he open up too soon, or did he land with straight legs? It was hard to tell, exactly.

BLYTHE: I think he must have landed a little bit straight. I saw him do the vault, and actually, I didn’t think anything was wrong. He over rotated it, and he did a forward role, and I was just occupied with writing quick hits, and so I just stopped watching him for a few moments, and unfortunately, he fell, and then looked up maybe 10 seconds later and he was still down on the mat, and that’s like oh. Oh. And then clutching his knee and everything, and they got to him right away, of course, but you just never want to see that and you always wonder when that happens, but you know, the vault itself didn’t actually look bad. The landing didn’t look bad, at least from my vantage point, but he must have landed a little bit straight legged.

JESSICA: So there has been a little bit of debate. Gymnasticscoaching.com Rick put up a note saying that he thought the FIG should change the mats, and looking at it, one of the things that stands out with these mats is that the fabric that covers the mat itself is a little bit looser than what we’re used to in the United States. Like, what we’re used to, the mat coverings are very, very tight, like, you couldn’t pinch it, the landing mats used for competition, and there they’re very loose. And what was your impression and your comments about that?

BLYTHE: Well, I think you’d have to ask the athletes. I don’t think I’ve even walked on a Gymnova mat so I wouldn’t be a person to talk to about that, but the thing that occurs to me is, yes, we maybe are seeing more injuries that we’ve ever seen on vault, but we’re also seeing vaults that are out of this world difficult, and the guys who are doing vault finals in world cup meets like this are doing not just one, but two incredibly difficult vault. In this world final, you had four or five guys who were really extraordinary, and then you had Igor Radivilov, a guy who has yet to get his due on vault, and Radivilov vaulted in prelims a Tsuk double pike and a Dragulescu. And he didn’t make finals. Granted, he fell on one of them, but this is the level of vault you are looking at these days. Just everybody does things that make you gasp and they do them twice and they do them different entries and different landing positions and, I guess, with this just astounding level of difficulty, people are going to get hurt. It’s unfortunate, and I don’t know if improving the mat is going to help that much just because these things are so difficult.

JESSICA: Yup. That’s true. And it’s good that you pointed out Igor, because as we know, he should make all finals and have a special spotlight on him at all times.

BLYTHE: Igor—you like him, yeah.

JESSICA: I love Igor. Yes.

BLYTHE: Igor. Igor! He looks exactly like a person, what I envision a person called Igor would look like.

JESSICA: Except he doesn’t have a hunchback or prongs like Frankenstein sticking out of his neck. Oh, Igor. And he’s great. So one thing I really liked about this meet, and I like about all of the European world cups, actually, that we haven’t been doing, is that they’ve been putting music on for all of the events, so women’s beam has music and men’s high bar. And especially during Danell Leyva’s routine, it sounded like they had Valhalla or some opera on that was building to a crescendo, and it was so good, it added so much. What did you think? Did you like that? Did it distract anyone? Did it add to the competition?

BLYTHE: I think it’s great, and you’re right, they do that at all the European meets, but especially at this one, and depending on the apparatus, they select things that they think will go with it. During the rings final, it’s all this low, strong person music, which is cool, and during the high bar final, it’s not quite the same as rings, but it seems appropriate. The one thing that I would remark is Vasiliki Millousi of Greece…

JESSICA: Oh, love her.

BLYTHE: …during her routine, they put on Zorba the Greek.

JESSICA: Oh no, they didn’t.

BLYTHE: And—they did. And I felt like it distracted her a little bit. The audience was clapping along and I think, did it, it might have flustered her a little bit. But I didn’t talk to her after about it, and that was kind of a general impression, and think after Tsolakidis, Vasileios Tsolakidis went on parallel bars right after her, they played a different version of Zorba the Greek.

JESSICA: Oh, god.

BLYTHE: And it was funny, but I wonder if the Greek athletes thought so.

JESSICA: We’re going to have to ask her about that. I just love her. She is so beautiful, she does little intricate things, she is so much fun to watch. Yes.

BLYTHE: She is a goddess. The liquid way in which she moves is incredible. And again, after the Olympics, you wonder if athletes, they go off, they do other things, they don’t train, whatever—doesn’t seem to be the case for her. She looks fantastic as ever and wonderful, wonderful skills on beam and presentation and choreography and all that. One thing on beam that I think we’re going to see a lot of during the next four years in this combination front aerial, front aerial, sheep jump. It must be getting people bonus in the code because there’s a ton of people working it. It’s not only Katelyn Ohashi in the US, it’s not only her who is working it, and certainly, yeah, more people than that. But it’s the new, I don’t know. It’s the new back tuck to wolf jump or what have you.

JESSICA: Yeah. I wish there was some way to discourage, like, everyone’s found the one thing in the code they can get, but what can you do? That’s what happens.

BLYTHE: I think you can do worse, for being that one thing in the code that everybody’s going to do, I think you can do worse than front aerial, front aerial. And I would rather see that than front aerial, back handspring layout.

JESSICA: One other thing that I think is remarkable about Vasiliki is that Greece is in total crisis with their economy, so she’s had to find her own funding, and she has this t-shirt clothing company that sponsors for her and she models for them and promotes this clothing company, and that’s how she gets a lot of her funding, and it’s just a great example of how a gymnast can make money from the sport to support themselves and do something really cool and fun at the same time. So I’m always impressed with her.

BLYTHE: Oh yeah. Absolutely.

JESSICA: And I think she’s 28 now, isn’t she?

BLYTHE: She is 28 now.

JESSICA: 28. Yup. Just goes to show. Yup. It can be done. Anything else that stood out to you over there that you want to remark on, or any behind the scenes stuff or competition stuff that you want to talk about?

BLYTHE: Oh my god. I think half the crowd was in love with Alexander Shatilov.

[LAUGHS]

JESSICA: Were they screaming when he competed, or what?

BLYTHE: No, but you had these sort of teenage girls in front of the press box chatting, oh, oh, que le beau, he’s so beautiful, and yeah. I think everybody agreed with that.

JESSICA: That’s awesome. I think there’s a lot more of the Beatles phenomenon over in Europe with gymnastics, and it’s not just girls for boys, it’s girls for girls. Like, the way that rhythmic gymnastics, the popularity is there, they scream for the rhythmic gymnasts like they are a rock band. They’re just absolutely idolized.

BLYTHE: Oh, they do. The rhythmic gymnastics world cups, I don’t know. It is like a rock concert. And there’s a huge level of admiration for what they’re doing. And when they completed their difficult elements, even if you don’t know, as an onlooker, quite realize that it’s a difficult element and they’ve done something really well, there is kind of a burst of applause, and that’s really interesting, because to me, rhythmic, it all kind of blends in—I hope I don’t get into trouble with anybody for saying that—but I’m not specialist in it. And so sometimes, the routine is so smooth, that I don’t necessarily realize that, oh, they just completed the equivalent of an E-level skill, but the crowd does. They get it. And they applaud. And it’s really nice.

JESSICA: Yeah.
–

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–

[INTERVIEW INTRODUCTION]

JESSICA: We’re really excited to bring you this interview with Fan Ye. And again, it’s not often that we get to hear interviews with our foreign world champions, so we have some interpreting from Jiani Wu, who Anna Li’s coach and mother, and also the National Team coach and was a five-time National Chinese champion. I just learned that, I didn’t know that. I knew she was an Olympic and World medalist, but I didn’t know that. So we want to thank them a lot for helping with this interview, and I think it was really interesting and I think it was great to hear from somebody who we normally don’t get to because of the language barrier. So I just wanted to let you know about how we will be jumping back and forth between the interpreting. Ok. Here it comes.

SPANNY: This week, we spoke with Chinese retired gymnast and beam World Champion Fan Ye. A beam fans dream, Fan Ye competed with the perfect blend of difficulty and artistry. Despite a lackluster competition with her team at the Athens Olympics, Fan Ye is still held in gymnastics fans hearts as being one of the last great beam performers. A personal favourite of mine, we are so excited to have her on the show.

[[INTERVIEW]]

SPANNY: Let’s talk about your current trip to the United States. What brings you to the States, and to Legacy Elite?

FAN: It’s my first time coming to Chicago. I came here because I wanted to take a video about gymnastics and… [JESSICA VOICEOVER] Because Anna, Jiani, and Yuejiu are very famous in China, she wants to make a video about them because the World Championships are in China. So the video will tell Chinese gymnastics fans what it’s like to train in the US and what the differences are between gymnastics in the US and China.

SPANNY: So far, how does Chicago compare to Beijing?

FAN: I think that it is very cold, but Beijing is very big. Beijing is like New York, and Nanning has many people and everybody is so fast. But in Chicago, I think it is very relaxed and I’m making fun and everybody’s very nice. Interesting.

SPANNY: Good. So, we heard you guys went line dancing last night. Did you enjoy yourself or did you like country music?

FAN: I like country music dancing. I learned many line dancing.

SPANNY: It sounds like a lot of fun, so Midwestern. What are you doing work-wise or professionally right now?

FAN: Now I’m a student. My major is journalism and communication, so in the future, I will be a journalist about sports in China.

SPANNY: A couple of questions about your background as a gymnast. Were you chosen to be a gymnast, and if so, how were you selected?

FAN: I started gymnastics because I was [inaudible], energetic, and so my parents, they wanted [me] to go to a place that could give me something to do, so I took up gymnastics.

JESSICA: In the US, we always think that everybody is specially selected and then their family lets them leave and be taken away by the state to be raised. Is that how it happened for her, and how she ended up at the National Training Center?

WU (translating for Fan): No, because she’s very elegant, her parents think that she should do something instead of be at home, and so near her house they have a children’s sports center, and anybody can go to it, and so they sent her there for training, and they saw her talent, and when you have talent, they’re going to talk to your parents and ask your parents if you would be interested in your child going into professional gymnastics at a sports training center. And the interest, that’s how she started. And she showed her talent there, and did very well after a year at the sports training center, so they selected her to the gymnastics [team].

SPANNY: What were the best and worst parts about being an athlete?

WU (translating for Fan): The best part is I always dreamed to be a World Champion, they provided very good doctors and nutritionists, everybody to help me achieve my dream. And then the bad part is because I was spending so much time on training, education was a little lacking. They do have education, but still most of the time it’s doing the training so when she retired she was spending so much time catching up with the education.

SPANNY: Speaking of the world champion goal, you were magnificent and fearless as a gymnast. What was the hardest skill to learn and what was the scariest?

WU (translating for Fan): The hard part was vault, because she’s not that strong. When she vaults she feels like she’s going to crash. So she didn’t like to work vault that much at all. And then the most scary skill is [inaudible] the back layout, even as a Chinese tradition, because I’m afraid of backwards too, and she didn’t like that skill at all.

SPANNY: And you were the best one to do it. [LAUGHS] That’s crazy. Speaking of, we’ll talk about beam and World Championships again, you hold the distinction of receiving the highest score of the 2001-2004 quad. In fact, your score was so famous that our own Jessica made a sign with your score on it and held it up at the judges at the 2004 Olympic Trials. Yes, that beam routine has absolutely left an impact on just about every gymnastics fan in the United States. That said, how do you feel about the loss of the 10.0 scoring system?

WU (translating for Fan): It did affect her, the new rules change, because her speciality is to do every skill perfect and try to get the perfect 10. And when the rules changed it made it harder on her because her speciality was always trying the perfect 10. And now if you want [to win], you have to add even more difficulty to achieve that. So that’s why it affected her a lot. She’s not too crazy about it.

SPANNY: Well, neither am I. I think fans, we appreciate that effort to achieve the perfect 10 and to have that execution and beauty. We’ll change up a little bit with one kind of random fashion question. All gymnasts have to battle dreaded wedgie. China has sometimes been known for losing this battle. As a gymnast, did you have any say in the cut or design of your leotard? And did you have a favorite leotard?

[LAUGHTER]

WU (translating for Fan): When they did the international competitions they don’t choose what they want to wear. And when you compete in National Championships, they do allow [them to] wear whatever they like. In 2005 in the National meet she actually wore a [different leotard every day] and her favorite one was the blue one because it has [inaudible] on it. And that’s when she won all-around in the national meet, so that’s her favorite leotard.

SPANNY: We’ll look it up and so we can post pictures and share with everyone. We’ll ask some questions real quick on the current state of gymnastics because we’d definitely like to know your opinions on that. It’s a popular opinion that current Chinese beamers don’t compete with the same amount of artistry as they did back when you competed. Do you know, is there a reason behind this? And what is your opinion on the artistic component of the current beam routines?

WU (translating for Fan): The rule change, because the new Code change in the last quad. And that’s why you don’t have that much artistry in there. But now the new Code changes for this quad, and they have at least a point artistry deduction. And as her right now [inaudible], hopes very soon we see the changes for the dance and artistry is important now for the next quad.

SPANNY: Team USA has been bolstered by the coaching of previous Chinese athletes. Is this a big source of pride for China?

WU (translating for Fan): Really happy for the Chinese coaches and Americans, and [they are] doing a great job. Still from China, you know, and they’re proud of that. And at the same time they’re competitive and they want to be World Champions too, so they try to work really hard. They try to [inaudible] because they’re very competitive and want to be champions too.

SPANNY: Right, sounds like a healthy competition. Competitive spirit. Alright. Did you watch the London Olympic Games? And if so, what were your thoughts?

WU (translating for Fan): She said she’s a reporter this Olympic Games and she watched the team. She feel[s] like they needed some change, and [they] need to look at the power training and some part[s] of technique [training]. Some part of the training system needs to be a little change[d]. And they did really good in the 2008 [Olympics] and they try to change but it’s still hard because the system has been there for so long and it’s been hard for them to try to change.

SPANNY: So do you believe then that the team success is in the process of changing the system? Or does it need to be completely overhauled?

WU (translating for Fan): Well Chinese gymnastics actually really, if we want to be successful like in 2008, we do need to make some changes.

JESSICA: And what kind of changes does she think should be made? Is she saying that your husband needs to come back? [LAUGHS]

WU (translating for Fan): She said that Chinese definitely [need a high training level] and she feels there’s just not enough competition for these athletes and if they add and change [to have more competitions] then that would help.

SPANNY: What, if anything, what do you want American gymnastics fans to know about China?

WU (translating for Fan): She would like to have all American gymnastics fans to know more Chinese gymnastics and go online to look up and to know how they are doing. World Champions, Olympic Champions, retired. They are trying so hard to learn English to help them communicate better. That’s what she’s doing, trying to go back and forth to have all the gymnastics Chinese fans and American fans to know each other.

FAN: Many Chinese gymnasts learn English and they want to speak English and study hard. So I wish maybe in the future we can talk [inaudible]. So it is my best wish.

JESSICA: So what can the fans here do to follow some of the awesome Chinese athletes.

FAN: Ok so in China, every Chinese athlete has Webo. Webo [is] like Twitter. So every day [inaudible] information on the Webo.

ANNA LI: Every athlete has like a Chinese Twitter on Webo. It’s just like Twitter.

SPANNY: Ok yeah I’ve seen that. You see that on all the little gymnastics sites when people steal your pictures off of there and share them everywhere.

WU (translating for Fan): Her goal is online to set up [a] gymnastics fan program. So it can be English and Chinese, both. So for everybody [to] know more about Chinese gymnastics and the whole world [can know] about gymnastics. And that’s her dream, to set up a program online.

SPANNY: I think that’ll be so much fun. I think that’s going to be really successful. There’s definitely such a huge following here in the states that I think everybody will be really excited to learn more.

FAN: Thank you very much.

SPANNY: Oh you’re welcome. Alright, if, or when, we all find ourselves at the 2014 World Championships, how would we root for a Chinese gymnast? Is there something that you would say from the stands to cheer for your favorite Chinese gymnast?

FAN: Jai yo is “come on!” [*****], “you’re the best!”

SPANNY: Thank you again so much. Yeah you are the best ever and we are all so excited that you’re here and that we had a chance to get to ask you some questions and share with everybody.

FAN: Thank you.
–

JESSICA: So that was really fun to talk to her. And we really want to thank the Li family for helping us with the translation. And so what kind of stood out for your Spanny?

SPANNY: I’m excited. Well just the fact that she’s here and they’re promoting the World Championships for next year. I’m excited to see these videos she’s here to film. I’m interested, because after like when Florida bid for Worlds and it was such a phoned-in performance, I’m excited to see what China is offering. If their plan is to fly Fan Ye out here to promote the competition, I’m excited.

JESSICA: I really love that she is so passionate about connecting fans with Chinese gymnasts because in this interview we were so excited to talk to her. Because of the language barrier it’s so hard to communicate. And so we love that she has the same passion we do about connecting gymnastics fans and getting more interviews out there and getting those connections out there. So we’ll definitely keep track of her projects and let you guys know about them as we find out. And you know maybe the Chinese gymnastics federation should fly us out to help.

SPANNY: Mhmm.

JESSICA: Just throwing it out there.

SPANNY: Remote.

JESSICA: Yeah, we’d do a great job with that I think.

SPANNY: Granted it was rough, but her almost insistence and ambition to do the interview in English.

JESSICA: Mhmm.

SPANNY: Which I felt like we almost had to pull back on because I was having a hard time understanding. But her ability was incredible.

JESSICA: We saw the tenacity that made her World champion in her tenacity to “I’m going to speak and do this entire interview in English. I can do it.” You know?

SPANNY: Right.

JESSICA: I never thought I would actually talk to the 9.812 scorer in my life. And I remember holding that sign up in front of the judges and the judges totally looked at it and busted up laughing. They totally appreciated. They were like, “Yes, yes, we wish we could give something close to a 10 too.” But she deserved to have the highest score ever in the old system.

SPANNY: She really really did.

JESSICA: That’s why we love her. The last of the great beam workers before beam was destroyed by the evil Code.

SPANNY: I will never forget. Because I- yeah we were, we all lived in LA at the time. And I was two or three rows back up from beam. And that’s all I kept saying. China’s on beam! China, beam, real life.

JESSICA: [LAUGHS]

SPANNY: And then that was, really it was the last great. Now when you think of Chinese beam you think of skill, stop, skill, stop. And they’re still very good, they still win, it’s just not the quality that we were accustomed to. And I think that, especially Fan Ye, that team was the last glorious…

JESSICA: Mhmm

SPANNY: …beam team, and in my head will always represent- like that era will always represent Chinese beam to me. From the 80s to 2004. After that, yeah not so much.

JESSICA: Yep. I totally agree.
–

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–

JESSICA: Alright it has been an insane week. I went on Twitter on Saturday night and I thought there was going to be a riot. Spanny, tell us what’s been going on?

SPANNY: Well let’s start with Friday night. An anticipated meet was Alabama vs Oklahoma. And Oklahoma did well, they just didn’t perform up to their standard, and so they did let it go to Alabama. And eh, maybe there was some grumbling, but people are like eh, you know, Bama performed better. I think they are kind of silently ninja-ing their way to finals, as they have done the last two years. That said, nobody cares, because Saturday night happened and overshadowed everything else that’s happened over the last 10 years. I put it in quotes as “Utah ‘Upsets’ Florida. Let’s discuss that. So. Utah, if we’re going by numbers, the best performance in a decade. 198.125. Nearly a full point higher than they’ve scored all year. Their last score that was even close to this was 197.9 in 2009 vs Brigham Young, also a home meet. They scored 198.125, which is nearly a full point higher than they have scored all year. We’ll start with that. Was this Utah’s best meet in almost 10 years? I say hell no. Compared directly to Florida, they were not the better team. Let’s break down a few- kind of look at how this melted down in the way that it did. So one or two judges handed out a 10 five separate times during the meet. Five. I think only one or two only ended up being 10s. Two of these routines had obvious visible errors. The beam rotation was ridiculous. These were…

JESSICA: When they got to beam and floor, I was just like what the hell is going on.

SPANNY: Yeah, is this real life? Especially because some of these deductions are textbook deductions. They’re not like ooh an amplitude deduction where it could be in the eyes of the beholder maybe. These were no, there’s a set deduction. Two routine, Mary Beth Lofgren and Georgia Dabritz, each had a break in the routine where they bent more than 90 degrees at the waist. They bent in half to save a fall. That’s more than a .15. That’s assuming the rest of the routine was absolutely perfect, which they were not. These were not- I don’t even think there were, I can’t think of one- maybe Georgia on bars, there were no stuck landings on any event.

JESSICA: Yeah and Mary Beth Lofgren’s beam routine, I had her at a 9.75 max. Max. There’s no way you can get higher than that. It’s just not possible. You just have to totally ignore- you have to close your eyes in the routine, basically.

SPANNY: The math just doesn’t work out.

JESSICA: This meet, when I was watching this, I really wanted them to have the match play format because it would make it so much more obvious how egregious the errors or favoritism or whatever it was in judging were. I really wanted them to have that format so we could see the Florida gymnast go on beam, then the Utah gymnast go on beam right after her. Because it almost seems like the judges were looking to see the other score and then matched it no matter what happened. This meet was so bad that I was trying to describe it to people, like how bad it was, and I was like, “The scoring was- “And they were like, “Oh it’s gymnastics of course.” And I was like, “No no no, like this is Romanian, like this is French ice skating judges bad.”

SPANNY: Let’s discuss this 198 because that seems to be this new benchmark that we’ve seen- you know we haven’t seen for years and this year we’ve had, what four of them now. K. So. As a team score, 198 was prevalent in the late 90s, early 2000s. When we think of that era we think of Georgia and UCLA. A top score from Georgia would be in the high 197s, except they always seemed to score really well. They did this past weekend too against North Carolina State. We did see a 198.375 in 1999 which is where my research begins. And just deal with it, I only did the top four teams until those later years. Just deal with it.

JESSICA: Until we have our own personal crack research staff, this will do.

SPANNY: Yes, yes. So scores escalated for the next four years with all top four teams scoring 198+ at various home meets. UCLA broke 198 five times in one year in 2003. Four of those times at home, one being away from home. Now you have to see, go to YouTube and watch UCLA, because this is when they led the empire. These were their glory years. So if you have not watched this team, I suggest you do, and then decide what a real 198 performance looks like. This is when the team was stacked with Olympians. This was kind of the epitome of collegiate gymnastics. But by 2004 all the top four teams were drinking the 198 juice and we saw massive team scores. As far as I know this is the record high, I’d have to look more into it- a 198.875 at home from UCLA along with two other 198 scores. Two 198s from Georgia, and a very special 198.6 from Utah vs Brigham Young. Bama, they didn’t break the 198 barrier, but they consistently went in the high 197s. That was up until 2004. After that, we did see one 198 in the next seven years from Georgia in 2009. And if you remember, Georgia won there four years in a row, they did so with high 197s from that legendary group, but no massive scores from anyone else. A good meet would see maybe 196, maybe a low 197. So this is, you know we dropped off, sort of plateaued at the level for a while.

JESSICA: And that year will become, that 2004 will become very important in a moment.

SPANNY: Yes! The next 198 we saw was from UCLA in 2012 last year, a 198.05 at home vs. ASU. So we have had two 198s since 2004. This year, we’ve had FOUR 198s. Florida has done it twice, Oklahoma has done once, and now Utah one time. What does that mean for the sport? For rankings, not so much. What does it mean for credibility? It means a whole lot. Now the sport is already battling an identity crisis where I’d say like 85% of the population already associates gymnastics with underage Chinese girls or abusive adult males. Does it really mean much in the grand scheme of things? Bekah from Get a Grip Gym Blog points out in a blog titled “Judge Well Lest Ye be Judged,” I suggest you read it. It was only this past summer that outlets were claiming that gymnastics wasn’t very difficult because all you need to do is quote unquote wink at some French judges. So I understand this is our podcast. We are geared towards the hardcore fans. So we know that it’s the most difficult sport in the world. Not everybody does. This sport is not taken seriously by enough people. This sport has already revamped itself into some unidentifiable version of what it used to be all in the name of objectivity and credibility. We’ve already ditched the 10. We’ve revamped our entire definition of what a gymnastics routine is because we were sick of cheating judges and worthy routines not winning and home country bias. So long gone are the days when judges met behind closed doors or conferred openly on the floor in order to put their gymnasts in the lead. All it cost us was everything we hold dear about the sport. We are now able to quantify things like artistry and performance. However, our one escape from this new math Olympics is collegiate gymnastics. For those who miss the perfect 10, we have that. For those who miss less difficulty but more execution, we have that. And for those that miss artistry, we have that. Which is why we here at GymCastic have been trying to spread the holy NCAA spirit. Few people realize the glory that lies within collegiate gymnastics because they become so accustomed to accepting what elite gymnastics has to give. And unless you’ve been a fan for the past 20 years, you might not be aware that this sport was not always four tumbling passes and front aerials on beam. My point is that shady scoring robs NCAA of the chance to become mainstream as it could. Even the most uneducated or casual fans read my fiance, he was like what are you ranting about and I showed him and he was like oh that doesn’t make any sense, can watch two routines and see that they should not be scored the same such as it happened at Utah on Saturday night. Likewise, even the most biased, most hardcore home team fan can watch two routines and see that they should not be scored the same. This also happened with Utah fans on Saturday night. I think it was the one time…..like even Utah fans were like that’s embarrassing. It was an accumulative, universal WTF. And some say, it was the first time that the entire Gymternet has ever agreed on anything.

TIM: I think what else sucks about this is because that happened all these people are questioning all the other scores from the weekend. I was at the Cal-Nebraska meet and all of a sudden, I was getting tweets from people asking about Hollie Blanske and Jessie DeZiel’s scores. They both scored 9.95 on vault. I didn’t see Hollie’s vault but I did see Jessie’s and yeah it was definitely worth a 9.95. But it’s just the fact that some other team had these huge scores and suddenly we have to question every single score, every single high score. I think that sucks.

SPANNY: It makes people question the credibility. If we, like the hardcore fans, are questioning the credibility of every single routine, why would someone who’s just getting into the sport care for it?

JESSICA: So how, like this is the thing I’m wondering. How do judges get assigned? I remember something changed about it right? Spanny, what happens now? Something is supposed to have happened to prevent favoritism.

SPANNY: Well, before, teams and coaches were able to pick which judges they wanted to have at their meets. That all changed and judges for NCAA have to put their availability into a computer database where assignors that change every few years assign based on the availability of judges. They choose half the judges from the hometown of the school and the other half are assigned from out of town. No judge can judge at any school more than twice a season and no judge can see the same team more than four times during the season. Two times at home, two times away. However, conference meets, regionals, and nationals do not count. It is great for judges who might not have been picked for meets otherwise. That said, it’s not a guarantee that you will be picked for any of the meets and some say that there still might be some sort of bias or favoritism, if not directly from the coaches or from the school

JESSICA: Yeah so what you are saying is that basically is that there’s a person who actually has to choose from the availability and assign someone. Even though there’s a database, there’s not a computer that just randomly matches. That would automatically take out any bias, making sure that each person was assigned the same amount of time. It’s still a person so we know that sometimes bias does happen and one judge is available for stuff and doesn’t get assigned.

SPANNY: Right, there’s still obviously, I won’t call it human error because I still think it’s more deliberate than that. I think they tried to clarify rules. You are not to be affiliated with the team you are judging for. Things like that. Kind of laughable.

JESSICA: Yeah, small community. But Uncle Tim, you read Suzanne Yoculan’s book and she had a lot to say about this. Can you read us that quote?

UNCLE TIM: Sure. So it comes from Suzanne Yoculan’s book called The Perfect Ten and some people will find irony in the quote that I’m about to read. But I’m going to read it anyway. Suzanne Yoculan said quote “Judges can be biased in one of four ways. One, judges can show favor for a specific team. To me, this is the worst example of bias judging and is probably the least prevalent.” Spanny don’t laugh at that. “Two, they can be biased in scoring all gymnasts higher than guidelines would suggest or lower. Three, judges in one region can, as a group, score higher or lower than judges in another region. Four, judges can be influenced by the reputations of teams or individual gymnasts and favor those with better rankings.” And that’s where the quote ends and she said that in 2004, when coaches could no longer choose their own judges, she really thought that things would change and at the time, Carol Ide was kind of overseeing all of the regional assignors so I’m not really sure what happened but we did notice that a lot of the 198s did disappear after 2004.

JESSICA: Yep, 2004 was a huge change. I just hope that the collective outrage about that meet reaches the ears of the judging assignors and the NCAA establishment because I’ve never heard such outrage.

UNCLE TIM: So how do you think we should remedy this problem? Because it seems like maybe we’re heading towards a pretty 2004 situation again. What are your suggestions or solutions?

JESSICA: Computer generated assignments. True random assignments. There’s no reason someone can’t put together a program to do this. No human should have to be involved at all. And there should be a review system just like, and maybe there is and I don’t know about it, just like there is in the FIG. They have a very serious review system so any irregularity stands out and they get reviewed and I think we need that in NCAA as well.

SPANNY: And I think too, there just needs to be less forgiveness or maybe it’s even expectation, I’m not sure. When you look at the difference between certain teams, look at the difference between their home scores and their away scores. If the difference between those two scores is that obvious, you need to revisit how you are scoring, probably at home. And all those people who are like well that’s “home cooking.” That’s just what’s expected or as we’ve seen in the past week or two, the “senior night bump,” and I think Uncle Tim has a mathematical equation for what that bump actually is. But people are like who it’s their senior night, it’s their last one so they deserve to get an outrageous score. No that’s not. Why are we creating different circumstances and different rules for competing in different arenas or different classes. There just needs to be less forgiveness for allowing this to happen or expecting that it should happen.

JESSICA: And of course there’s the other thing that I’ve said like a hundred times which is that all judging needs to be done on an ipad in real time and the ipad should have a camera on it so that it can be seen in the arena at all times. There should be no paper. There’s no reason for paper. Only if the lights go out like they did in Rotterdam or wherever that was that one Worlds. They should be done in real time and everyone should be able to see what they are writing down in real time. There’s no reason to do it the way it’s being done anymore. Even if the judge is questioning themselves, that would take out that moment of am I questioning myself. Because you know it’s written down. It’s permanent. Everyone can see what you are writing down. Real time ipads. Let’s get it done.

UNCLE TIM: And how do you guys feel about judges judging intrasquad? I mean I remember even when I was competing not NCAA by any means but we would have judges come in and evaluate our routines for optionals before meet season even began. What do you guys think about that? Is it a chance for favoritism to kind of come into NCAA gymnastics?

JESSICA: I mean it is but you have to have that. I mean there could be rules around it or that could also be randomly assigned. You get two intrasquads or one with a judge and it’s randomly assigned. And you have to pay for the judge to fly out from wherever and do it.

SPANNY: Yeah I agree. It’s kind of a necessary evil. I think it’s a practice you see from even the lowest levels. I can’t imagine taking it away just because some of the judges are buttholes.

JESSICA: And some of the judges are awesome. I remember my judge still from when I was little. We loved Fran Earls. She was the best! We’re friends on Facebook now. I just loved her. We looked forward to it. It was like our favorite part of the season when she would give us feedback because she was so sweet, so kind. She was amazing. I just love her.

SPANNY: Those little tidbits that you would receive, almost because it felt like special information is the stuff you really retained. I remember, this wasn’t me, this was my good friend. She didn’t realize she’d been getting deducted. She was grabbing under the beam in the wrong way. A roll or something. But the way she was grabbing the beam. Her coaches never picked out. Nobody ever picked it out that she was doing it incorrectly and the one judge. And again, it was one of those quick little, we’re just going to sit in and judge you real quick. And to this day, she still tells me that story because she remembers it from being a club gymnast. It’s because you feel like it’s special attention and you retain those little hints forever.

UNCLE TIM: This past weekend in men’s NCAA, the big long awaited matchup happened. Number 1 Penn State took on Number 2 Michigan and Penn State pretty much dominated, winning 437.3 to 430.4. We haven’t talked about men’s NCAA in a little while but Sam Mikulak is back and he’s competing on floor and vault again. So that’s exciting after his calf injury. But he’s not necessarily competing his full difficulty that you saw last summer. For instance, on floor, he’s no longer opening with a double double. He is now doing a back 1.5 to a punch double front which is still pretty awesome. Not as awesome as Fabian Hambuchen’s 2.5 to a punch double front but it’s still pretty exciting. And Sam is only dismounting with a double full right now. So we’ll see what happens as elite season comes into play in the near future.
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JESSICA: Ok Spanny, what’s happening with listener feedback?

SPANNY: An email: I’m a huge fan of the podcast. I listen to it on my commute and it always makes it go by faster. I’m wondering if there is a way to donate to the podcast. I’m sure there are some costs to making it and I want to keep it going as long as possible. Thank you, Carolyn. Why yes, we do have costs. And we would absolutely 100% worship you for donating to the podcast. We do have a donate button on the site. So by all means, please feel free and thank you 100 million times. Thank you! For our international listener shout out of the week:

JESSICA: Goes to Sweden! Thank you Mullen.

SPANNY: Our Gym Nerd created goodies of the week. Coach Cassie tweeted us about these for Uncle Tim’s birthday a few weeks back. She makes men’s gymnastics photo cufflinks.

UNCLE TIM: I’d buy them.

SPANNY: Yeah I would too actually!

JESSICA: Yes you need to tell us Coach Cassie where we can buy those. We couldn’t find them on your Etsy site. She has some other cool stuff in there but the cufflinks , we must have those.

SPANNY: Yes! Bar duel of the week goes to Scott Bregman.

JESSICA: And we mean by this, a bar where you drink.

SPANNY: Not like an upcoming professional gymnastics duel. Like an actual drinking bar. First of all, Scott is the man responsible for giving the fans what they want and succeeding. If you watch podium training at the American Cup or watched the first rotation of the American Cup. If you’ve watched any surprise broadcast of anything, he’s probably the guy responsible. He has our most heartfelt gratitude. He tweets, “last weekend I was out and was bullied into doing back handsprings. I was upstaged by someone who did a flip flop back tuck in street clothes on cement. Fail.”

UNCLE TIM: How many of you have done drunk gymnastics before? Be honest.

JESSICA: Everyone’s raising their hand. Ok so one of the guys I’ve done gymnastics with forever, who is also my dentist has a boat and he used to take us all out every year on the boat. I get totally seasick and the diesel fumes make me sick so I always take Dramamine. But I decided, because he stopped the boat off some fancy neighborhood where everybody lives on the water. He’s like oh it’s my gymnastics class. This guy is like 50 and his neighbor was like oh I don’t believe you. And I was like oh I’ll show him. I’ll do like a handstand. So I’m on a boat. I’ve just taken Dramamine and I try to do just a handstand pirouette. And about halfway through the turn, I was like uh oh and I just fell straight over. And then I just laid there because it was so embarrassing.

SPANNY: What I did, and actually it’s on the sidebar of my blog. It’s a picture of me doing a handstand in LA. We’d go to Grauman’s Chinese Theater and we would do handstands in the hands. You know, the hands in the cement of all the movie stars. So yeah, great photo opportunity. This was a bad choice. We went down there one night when we were at someone’s apartment in Hollywood and so we had a couple of drinks and we walked down there. And that picture is no joke 5 seconds before I face planted so hard. I did the handstand. I don’t know what happened. My arm just gave out. I crashed my face into Marilyn Monroe’s handprint so hard. I have welts on my face in that picture. I’m not going to pull it up but it’s me kicking and only I know and my friends who took the photo and laughed at me. I’m like here I am showing off. Any time I’ve ever tried to show off with gymnastics, it has bitten me in the ass every time. So that’s why you don’t do handstands after having indulged in an alcoholic beverage.

JESSICA: So Scott has totally outdone us already. He may have been one upped but he did not faceplant in any way. So he’s coming out of this looking pretty good. Uncle Tim, you don’t have a story?

UNCLE TIM: So I kind of have a reputation of doing gymnastics while envibing. I don’t have any really good stories though. I’ve done it several times. There are many photos of me doing it. I’ll be doing like a cartwheel backhandspring step out. That’s about as hard as it will get for me. Lots of handstands and so far no fails but that day is probably coming. I haven’t done gymnastics for a couple of months now.

JESSICA: It’s going to be a great day when it happens. You’ll get to tell us all about it on the show afterwards. So speaking of gymnastics, the gymnerd challenge.

SPANNY: Yes. Gymnastics mythbuster challenge. Ask a friend. When you think about gymnastics, what comes to mind? If there is a stereotype or myth that you know to be true, correct them and ask them if it changes their feelings about the sport. Then report back to us.

JESSICA: I did one of these at work today and I’m just going to stop this play it for you guys right now:

[[JESSICA’S RECORDING]]

JESSICA: So when I say, I’m recording you is that ok?

MAN: You’re recording me? Wait what?

JESSICA: No one will know who you are.

MAN: Ok. You’re guaranteeing my privacy?

JESSICA: Yeah, I’m guaranteeing. So when I say gymnastics, what do you think of? Anything that comes to mind.

MAN: The Olympics

JESSICA: What else?

MAN: Um, Will Ferrell. His rhythmic gymnastics moves in which movie….
–

ALLISON TAYLOR: This episode is brought to you by Elite Sportz Band. elitesportzband.com. We’ve got your back.

JESSICA: Visit elitesportzband.com, that’s sportz with a z and save $5 on your next purchase with the code Gymcast. Remember to enter our contest to win NCAA Championship tickets. Remember when you win, you’ll get a pair of tickets so you can bring a friend. All you have to do is follow on Google Plus by adding us to one of your circles or like us on Facebook. That’s all you have to do. Super easy. So tell all of your friends. Next week, 2007 team world champion and 2009 world bronze medalist on the balance beam Ivana Hong will be on the show. So remember to send us your questions for her. You can email your questions at gymcastic@gmail.com. You can call in with your questions at 415-800-3191 and if you’re on Skype you can Skype us at Gymcastic podcast and you can leave a message for us there. Any question you have for Ivana, you can let us know. You can also leave it Twitter or Facebook. We’re also on Tumblr and Google Plus. Remember you can find a transcript of all of the shows on our site and you can also find videos about everything we’re talking about on the show so you can follow along. You can support the show now by donating. Thank you Carolyn for sending in that request. You can also recommend the show to friends. You can rate us or review us on iTunes and you can download the Stitcher app. All those things will support us. So until next week, I am Jessica from masters-gymnastics.com and this week I have blogged about a story that was in the LA Times about a woman who was in her 80’s and she was the star of a martial arts action film. It’s not gymnastics related but hello you should be inspired by that.

BLYTHE: I’m Blythe from The Gymnastics Examiner

SPANNY: Spanny Tampson from Spanny’s Big Fake Smile. This week look for a recap of season 1 of Make It or Break It episode. I believe this is the one where creepy Carter gets punched in the face by Kaleigh’s dad.

TIM: And I’m Uncle Tim from Uncle Tim Talks Men’s Gym and on my site this week, my thoughts on the 2013 French International

JESSICA: That’s it for us this week. We will see you next week. Good luck in the contest.

Episode 24 Transcript
JUSTIN: By fan friendly, I don’t mean gymnastics fans specifically, maybe. And I say that because all the most die-hard gymnastics fans hated it.

[[INTRO MUSIC]]

JESSICA: This week we talk to Sho Nakamori, Justin Spring checks-in with us after his match play meet, we talk about the news, and catch up on the NCAA, and we have a huge giveaway to tell you about.
–

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ALLISON TAYLOR: Hey gymnasts!Elite Sportz Band is a cutting edge compression back warmer that can protect your most valued asset, your back. I’m Allison Taylor on behalf of Elite SportzBand. Visit elitesportzband.com. We’ve got your back.
–

JESSICA: This is episode 24 for March 14, 2013. I’m Jessica from Masters Gymnastics

SPANNY: I’m Spanny from Spanny’s Big Fake Smile

UNCLE TIM: And I’m Uncle Tim from Uncle Tim Talks Men’s Gym

JESSICA: This is the best and only gymnastics podcast in the whole entire world. Starting with the top news stories from around the gymternet, and this week Blythe is on special assignment, and so Spanny, will you tell us what’s happening in the news?

SPANNY: The Jesolo team was announced. We have our normal heavy-hitters: Lexie Priessman, Simone Biles, Katelyn Ohashi, Kyla Ross. A few…not suprises, but Maggie Nichols was added to the team, so a little Minnesota shout out there. Peyton Ernst apparently had an amazing camp. For the juniors: Amelia Hundley and Bailie Key. Now the shockers: no Mykayla Skinner, no Polina, and I heard Kennedy Baker kind of had a rough camp, hence no assignment, but I’m sure we will see her soon.

JESSICA: Polina is the one who is like the baby Nastia, right?

SPANNY: Yeah. I think that’s kind of why it’s a surprise because I think I just assumed she’d be on any team. I don’t see why you wouldn’t but I’m sure there’s something going on that we don’t know about, but I’m excited to see her compete internationally. For Italy: Vanessa Ferrari, Elisabetta Preziosa my favorite, and Mariani Enus. From Japan is another fan favorite, Mai Murakami. She of the triple twisting double layout in training, also a triple turn to standing layout, and a quad turn. While her connections are dubious, they’re always fun and I’ve never had more fun watching someone train in a gym before.

JESSICA: Seriously! I love that kid.

SPANNY: The one video of her doing the triple – no the quad…quad…quintuple? I don’t know what she does but she does it on beam and she just looks like the happiest person I’ve ever seen in my life.

JESSICA: So adorable!

SPANNY: The big news is that Aly Raisman is on Dancing with the Stars, which kind of isn’t news at all because we all pretty much knew about it. But it’s exciting anyways; it’s just exposure for the sport. It did wonders for Shawn’s dancing! Last night our very own Beth Tweddle, I call her our own because we did the interview with her one time, she won Dancing on Ice. So yay, I feel like gymnastics is kind of owning the market on reality TV right now, Louis Smith, Shawn and then Shawn’s runner up.

JESSICA: Yes! I think that basically this just proves that whoever comes on our show is super successful immediately after coming on our show, like Mincie got another 10 this week, so pfft! We call that the GymCastic bump. You know, Beth won the show, Louis Smith won, so obviously it all has to do with us. It also proves that gymnasts are the best at everything. So in keeping with that, in Louis Smith and shows like Dancing on Ice, Louis Smith is building a house and he keeps tweeting pictures of his secret room, by showing us exactly where the room is and how it’s hidden behind some bookshelves, and then he jokes that it’s his sex dungeon! [[LAUGHS]] And I think it’s hilarious that he’s doing that, and I would totally have a secret room too if I built my own house. So we love that about Louis!

UNCLE TIM: Would you use it as a sex dungeon?

JESSICA: [LAUGHS] Maybe? Speaking of sex dungeons, there is a retired Russian gymnast, Tatiana Kozhevnikova in the news this week. She previously held a Guinness World Record and she just broke her own record, and how did she do that you ask? Well, because she lifted 14kg, or about 30llbs, with her vagina. That means that she has the strongest vagina in the world. Of course this is important news for gymnastics shows, of course a gymnast would have the strongest vagina in the world, but it’s not just that I want to talk about vaginas. There’s a really important reason that I bring this up on the show that I want to talk about today, and that is because Stress Urinary Incontinence, as it is called, or when you have to pee after you tumble or jump on the trampoline, that is a really… not serious issue, but it’s very prevalent in gymnastics. And I’ve had so many friends I’ve done gymnastics with for years and they have a kid and they want to come back to gymnastics and they’re like, yeah I’m cleared by the doctor, we got a babysitter, what’s up I’m back at gymnastics. They jump on the trampoline for one second, look horrified, and then run to the bathroom and never come back to gymnastics again. And that’s because…

SPANNY: Don’t tell me about this!

JESSICA: Well it’s not going to happen to you! It’s not gonna happen because I’m telling you about what to do right now.

SPANNY: [inaudible]

JESSICA: Yes! I’m gonna direct you to the website for all your needs. So basically what happens is all of your muscles get stretched out, obviously, and you have to retrain the walls of the vaginal floor, the pelvic floor. So there’s a couple of things that you can do, especially for athletes. If you have this problem, if every time you tumble you pee a little bit, it happens to women because the forces when your landing and taking off are so great, this isn’t like other sports, and women have really small urethra and small bladders. So if you’re one of those people know that you’re not alone and if you’re someone who’s had a kid and you want to go to gymnastics and you haven’t been able to because you feel like you have to pee every time, don’t worry, I’m here to save you. So what you need to do is, there’s a couple of things, if you’re a child or a young athlete and don’t want to insert weights into your vagina like this lady did, you can basically when you’re peeing you practice stopping your pee and pee again, stopping your pee and peeing again. That’s the first step. After that you want to start doing that while you’re walking. So while you’re walking practice squeezing like you would if you wanted to stop yourself from peeing and then pee again, practice that while you’re walking. Then step it up to jumping up and down, then you step it up to jumping on a panel mat and back down, and these are things that Dr. Larry Nassar uses when he trains gymnasts who have this issue, too. I talked to him about this issue a while back because I have so many women who come to me through the Masters Gymnastics site who say they have this problem after they have kids. The other thing you can do if you want to be hardcore and show off for your friends you can go to this website called vagacare.com, and they have vaginal weights. Yeah, they have a really entertaining animated gif on the site, so when you go to the site you will be entertained and you can order some fabulous weights to use so you can strengthen your vagina, and maybe break this lady’s record. I mean, should that belong to a Russian gymnast? Maybe it should be an American or maybe a Canadian gymnast with the strongest vagina in the world. So yeah vagacare.com

UNCLE TIM: Well I have nothing to say about body parts or bodily fluids, but I do have a lot to say about the Gymnix International Cup. If you didn’t pay attention to the results Victoria Woo of Canada won the Challenge division and Maria Bondareva and Anastasia Dmitrieva of Russia tied for the junior title. There were a few routines that really stood out. Silvia Colussi-Pelaez of Spain, her beam routine was quite interesting because she did one of those sideways aerials on the balance beam, which Spanny’s favorite Danusia Francis is also capable of doing. And another gymnast Andreea Munteanu of Romania, she had a really pretty beam routine. It looked like the Romanians of old, not like Gina Gogean, but it was…

[[LAUGHTER]]

UNCLE TIM: …very I don’t know. It’s hard to describe Romanian movements on beam; it’s just very crisp and sharp. They have a very specific way of moving.

JESSICA: Mm-hmm.

UNCLE TIM: The big one that has attracted a lot of attention on the gymternet is Maria Bondareva’s floor routine. So what did you guys think of that one?

JESSICA: I thought her music was so adorable. It was totally like, throwback cartoon routine, so cute. And the musicality! Like hitting everything – doing a leap to the music, doing a move to the music everything was so precise. It was so cute, I loved it! It was entertaining.

SPANNY: I’m hesitant always to get excited about Russian juniors, only because I get over-excited. And I feel like, akin to our own junior curse, is that something happens and it breaks my heart every time I fall in love with a girl and she’s a junior…that sounds gross…but like, she’s wonderful and perfect and then the injury bug or…even it happened with Aliya a little bit. They have this great choreography and then as they become senior and they grow up, everything kind of just gets taken out and then you’re kind of watching a shell of the person. So I’m very cautiously optimistic about her.

JESSICA: [SIGHS] That was so true and depressing.

UNCLE TIM: I know! [LAUGHS] So a quick question because last week we were talking about Sydney Johnson-Scharpf, and I’m wondering who performs better: Maria Bondar…Bondar… I can’t say her name.

JESSICA: No.

UNCLE TIM: Just wait. Let me ask the question again

JESSICA: [LAUGHS] No, I already want to answer! Okay, go ahead.

UNCLE TIM: Who do you think performs better Maria Bondareva or Sydney Johnson-Scharpf?

JESSICA: Scharpf.

SPANNY: I agree in that it really depends on what type of performance you enjoy. Where I think they’re both so, almost like stereotypes of who they’re competing for in the sense that the Russians have very traditionally had a passion but it’s very controlled, their passion is in the lines and in the movement. Whereas some other countries, where the passion is not uncontrolled in a bad way, but in a more enthusiastic movement, I guess. Where I can see that with Sydney is it seems to be more of an organic performance and it’s not a practiced performance, it is a very natural…I don’t think it matters what she’s doing. She could be doing something else and still have that level of energy and performance.

JESSICA: So yes, she’s clearly far superior in the performance area, to my point. Thank you. [LAUGHS] Like, there’s someone who just sparkles from the inside out and there’s someone who has a sparkly exterior, and Scharpf has the sparkly inside that glows out like a shining light, like ET’s finger. I just love her.

SPANNY: Yeah it’s definitely a quality, I mean not to get all Tim Daggett-y about it no offense, but yeah I don’t think that really can be taught. I don’t think the term “stage presence” I don’t think that’s something you can teach, especially young girls. It’s either something you get or you don’t, or you have it, and she has it.

JESSICA: Yep.

UNCLE TIM: Alright! And so the other thing that I’d like to mention is I kind of created my own news when I was doing some unofficial reconnaissance work for the FIG, and I surveyed our listeners and asked them how they felt about the new floor corner rules. We talked a little bit about the flamingo stands last week, and the results were I guess not too surprising: 42% of those surveyed said that it’s a baby step – the new rules are a baby step in the right situation, 26% of those surveyed said that they hate it more than flexed feet and helicopter twisting legs, and 24% of those surveyed said quite frankly I don’t give a tuck, so there are a lot of apathetic listeners out there.

JESSICA: My absolute favorite comment from our Facebook page is Eric Lamp who said, “I think it is…” so this is his response to the survey, “I think it is incredibly f-ing stupid, as is most of the women’s artistic gymnastics code at this point. You don’t encourage artistry by having girls stand on one leg, you do it with a subjective code that allows a judge to reward for it and by a return to the three pass floor ex.”

SPANNY: So true.

JESSICA: Amen sir, amen. Thank you, Eric Lamp. There’s another really funny one here that I have to read too, so Sarah Benchley said, “It sucks out loud! The code of points just keeps sounding more and more like a David Lynch movie!”

UNCLE TIM: [LAUGHS]

JESSICA: [LAUGHS] …Oh my god!
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[[ADVERTISEMENT]]

UNCLE TIM: We are so jazzed to have Tumbl Trak sponsor this episode’s interview with Sho Nakamori. While Sho was learning how to do crazy release moves like Kovacs’, I was crying and throwing temper tantrums because I couldn’t do a blind change properly. For whatever reason, I decided turning while my feet were under the bar was a great idea. Thankfully, coaches knew just how to fix my problem. They sent me over to Tumbl Trak and they made me use Tumbl Trak’s Frame Bar, there’s no cheating on that thing! After doing blind changes again and again and again on the Tumbl Trak Frame Bar, I finally had the confidence to do them properly on the high bar. So thank you Tumbl Trak for putting an end my teenage temper tantrums. For more information about Tumbl Trak’s products and services, check out tumbltrak.com. That’s tumbltrak.com.
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JESSICA: Sho Nakamori is a former U.S. National Team Member who’s competed all over the world. He went to Stanford and was on the 2008 team that won NCAA’s. He’s had one of the longest Elite careers of any of the U.S. men, he first made the junior national team at age 12, then moved to the Olympic Training Center at age 16. His final competition was last year’s Olympic Trials at age 27. He has overcome so much in his career, from the sudden death of his father who was also his coach, Kazuki Nakamori, and he died from complications from strep throat while Sho was away at a meet. He’s had injuries that most people only see in car accidents, like a fractured femur that he suffered while warming up for vault at the Pan Am Games, and he’s come out all of this this amazing person. He’s really a renaissance man in every way. He is an apparel consultant for Adidas gymnastics, he’s a freelance Japanese translator, he’s a judge, he coaches open gym at Stanford, and of course he’s changing the world at his day job where he works for Google. I’ve always wanted to talk to him because I just think he’s fascinating, and he came to talk to us even though he was super jet-lagged, had no sleep, and was coming straight from the airport to do this interview with us.

UNCLE TIM: I think that a lot of our listeners probably not know who Sho is, especially if they’re recent converts to men’s gymnastics or watch men’s gymnastics every four years, but are hardcore women’s gymnastics fans. But in the gymnastics community he has been such a big deal for the past decade. I mean, Tim Daggett had so many good things to say about him on the air, and still to this day little boys when they see Sho at meets, get so excited! And so I think that’s really important to note, that he’s just so loved by the gymnastics community.
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[[INTERVIEW]]

JESSICA: So thank you for doing this.

SHO: Yeah absolutely, definitely.

UNCLE TIM: Could you tell our listeners what your connection with Japan is in terms of gymnastics?

SHO: Well my father and my mother were both gymnasts in Japan. My father actually competed at a fairly high level. Sadly, he never made the Olympics or anything, but back then if you were even on the National Team it was a pretty much lock to win the Olympic gold because they were that deep and that good, back in the day. But yeah you know, my father was my coach growing up and he essentially instilled this Japanese gymnastics in me, basics, form and stuff like that. And over the summer we would go back to Japan and train with the Japanese guys and you know I definitely had some first-hand interaction with them, so that was obviously cool for me, just to be able to get in touch with my roots not only culturally, but through gymnastics. I’ve made a lot of friends, being able to speak Japanese enhanced my ability to communicate and over the years I had the chance to compete for the U.S. National team and we would go abroad and go international and I’d see these Japanese guys and we’d quickly become friends. It’s been pretty awesome. That’s basically my connection with Japan and Japanese gymnastics.

UNCLE TIM: Okay. So what would you say are some of the differences between Japanese gymnastics and American gymnastics in terms of style, equipment, training methods?

SHO: Oh that’s a tough question, there’s a lot of differences. For one they are very diligent on basics. I believe they do compulsories all the way through high school, and so they really look at that very closely. Their whole idea is good basics will essentially lead to big gymnastics skills, and from what we see it’s definitely worked for them. In terms of the artistic side, they just have a very natural flow to their gymnastics and that’s definitely one thing that’s emphasized. It’s more artistic over powerful gymnastics, and that’s definitely carried through to today, in terms of gymnastics that’s a pretty big difference. I guess in America the power is one of our big strong points, but yeah. In terms of equipment there’s a pretty significant difference. For example the floor is way bouncier, I actually don’t know what they put under the floor but it’s like a trampoline, it’s pretty awesome

UNCLE TIM: Really?

SHO: Yeah. Pommel horse they’ve actually had the wide horse forever. I think the U.S. actually changed to the wide horse maybe last year or something, but they’ve had that forever and it’s a little bit stickier and gripier. So it’s a little bit harder to fall off which is nice, obviously. Pommels are made out of plastic so it takes a little bit of time to get used to, but once you get used to it, it’s actually not that bad. Rings are made out of wood rather than fiberglass, so it can be a little bit heavier swinging on Japanese rings. Vault’s about the same, springboard… the spring is a little bit tougher in Japan so you might not get enough lift. P-bars, it’s made out of wood than fiberglass. Personally I think that it sticks better, so it’s easier to do under bar skills and stuff like that. The high bar has definitely got a weird bounce to it, it doesn’t just bounce up and down, but it rotates 360 degrees, so you might get a bounce at a different time so it takes a little while to get used to.

UNCLE TIM: Do you think it’s hard to international athletes to adjust to the different equipment? Is it hard for a Japanese gymnast to come to America and adjust to the equipment and vice versa?

SHO: Absolutely, I know the Japanese definitely have a very tough time working with American equipment. I’ve talked to them and they think it’s such a headache. But I think for the Americans going to Japan we don’t have as much of a hard time. I don’t know it’s just more comfortable for some reason in general. Not to say any bad thing about AAI, but I think Senoh does a great job catering to less impact and stuff like that, it just feels a little more soft and comfortable.

UNCLE TIM: I suppose the tumbling passes are a lot easier on the super springy floor.

SHO: Yeah absolutely. And there’s less injury for your ankles, less stinging which is obviously a good thing. So yeah.

UNCLE TIM: Something you mentioned before is that Japanese gymnasts do compulsories maybe through high school. Can you give us some insight into how the Japanese gymnastics system works? Do they have levels or is it just age based or how does that work?

SHO: Actually, to be honest, I’m not quite sure on that point. But I think, from my understanding, it’s through levels. I think it’s fairly similar to what we do over here. But the one big thing that’s different in Japan is that high school gymnastics is really big. Certain athletes will move from their prefecture to join a high school in another place just because they have a strong gymnastics program. It’s kind of the equivalent of us going to a certain college to do gymnastics. It’s very similar to that. Gymnastics in high school is huge. High schools go against each other and winning the high school national championships is a very big deal. That whole team camaraderie has already started at the high school level. They’re very well connected.

JESSICA: Is there one high school that’s like the super bad ass high school that always wins?

SHO: The super bad ass high school used to be somewhere outside of Tokyo in a prefecture called Saitama, but I think over the years it has kind of spread out. It’s really anyone’s game at this point. It’s whoever they can recruit out of middle school. It’s amazing because these kids are living out of their dormitories. They leave their parents at such a young age. It’s a big commitment. I think it’s actually really cool at the same time that they get to do that. And they get an education at the same time so it’s not just training. It’s very well rounded but a huge opportunity for gymnasts that want to be good.

UNCLE TIM: Just to give us an idea, what kind of skills are they doing at 14-15 years old?

SHO: To be honest, I’d say the level of difficulty is a little bit higher than the US at that age. They’re still really drilling the basics. Yeah their skills are a little more basic compared to the US at that age.

JESSICA: We like to super gym-nerd out on this show and just totally go for talking about drills and skills and everything. So how are they doing like double backs on the floor?

SHO: Yeah maybe double backs, double fulls, handspring layout fulls. Whereas over here in the US at 14 and 15, kids are already throwing tucked double doubles, double fronts and all that jazz. I think that’s the big difference.

UNCLE TIM: Gymnastics is a really popular sport in Japan. In America, men’s gymnastics is not as popular and why do you think think there’s that difference? What is it about Japanese culture that makes gymnastics more popular?

SHO: I think there’s a legacy. It’s been huge in Japan for years, just dating back to the 50’s. I know it became really big after the Tokyo Olympics in 64 I believe? It was glorified. They had the athletes like Endo and Sagura and Kasamatsu and all those big guns. They were like gods essentially. And they were even revered all over the world. And so that whole history has been huge. Another big thing is that they don’t have football or basketball or those four major sports that we have in the US and so when the kids look up and see what kind of sports are popular. I guess they see baseball and soccer. Those are pretty big in Japan. But aside from that, they will essentially look at gymnastics. Another big thing is that gymnastics is emphasized at the grassroot level, even at the elementary school. There is a PE program that incorporates gymnastics so it’s still part of the school system. Essentially everybody will learn a forward roll, a handstand, or a backward roll. The basics are already there at elementary school. You don’t have to be involved with a club or anything. Another big thing is that now obviously there’s guys like Kohei who is just dominating the scene. It’s really easy to kind of get pulled into that. Again, he’s glorified. He earned it, obviously. Yeah definitely. It’s easy to look up and be like yeah I wanna be like that guy.

UNCLE TIM: While we are on the topic of domination, there’s a big rivalry between China and Japan. Do you think it’s purely an athletic one or do you think that it’s also based on the politics going on between the two countries that kind of also seeps into the athletic arena?

SHO: I think within the gymnastics community, it’s not that big. I think the cultural stuff is blown out of proportion by the fans. I actually remember competing in China in 07 for the pre test event. It was held at the same arena as the Olympics. It was kind of like a dry run. But they saw that my name was Japanese. I got some jeers in the arena. The guys get along. The athletes get along. There’s no bad taste. It’s more so within the fans unfortunately.

JESSICA: So do you think it was jeers because you have a Japanese name and not because you’re an American?

SHO: It could be the combination of both. It’s hard to tell. It’s a hybrid I suppose. We can jeer at him for both reasons.

UNCLE TIM: Earlier, you were talking about how your father was part of the Japanese gymnastics team and he was your coach growing up. Do you think he trained you more like you were part of the Japanese culture or more like you were an American or was there a fusion of the two?

SHO: I’d say it was very Japanese. I got a very different treatment compared to my American teammates. He coached some other American kids. But I think if he were to coach the same way to the American kids the way he coached me, I think they would have burned out or said I’m outta here. I definitely got the very strict you better win or go home type of deal a lot. It was interesting. It was definitely an experience for sure.

UNCLE TIM: How did that feel, being 8 and your dad saying you better win this level whatever meet or class meet

SHO: Yeah it was a class 4,5 whatever. It was a lot of pressure I guess. But at the same time it just became part of my life. I actually kind of enjoyed it. I liked the competition. I just liked having my father as my coach. It became just a way of life and a way for us to share time together and build that bond. I really didn’t mind it until I got a little bit older where I could have some say and then we kind of clashed but when I was younger, it wasn’t so bad.

UNCLE TIM: And was it hard for you? Because it sounds like your dad really stressed basics and so you probably spent a lot of time just doing handstands while all these other kids your age are starting to do I don’t know, double backs or whatever. And you kind of want to be like I want to do that too! Was that hard for you? Did you feel like you were kind of being held behind while your competition was learning all these other skills?

SHO: That’s a really good point. To be honest, it must have been a hybrid gymnastics because he did stress the basics, but at the same time, my skill levels were pretty high. Again, not to toot my own horn, he definitely made me throw some big skills. I got to say it was a hybrid of the two gymnastics. I got the best of both worlds.

UNCLE TIM: And for our listeners who may not know your gymnastics very well, please do toot your own horn and tell us what some of your hardest skills were.

SHO: At 12, I threw a giant double back. I believe I was one of the first kids to do that in the United States. And then Tkatchevs at 11, Kovacs at 13, Kolman at 14. A lot of stuff going on at such a young age. Definitely scary! Luckily my father was a good spotter. It ended up working out.

JESSICA: First I want to go back, I made a couple of notes. Let’s talk about suspenders.

SHO: Sure!

JESSICA: Because when I think, growing up when I think about who the great men were, I always think about the Japanese men. And I always think that they looked elegant. They looked like they probably smoked cigars after the meets. I had pictures of the Japanese dudes on my wall and no one else. They were just totally different. I wonder if your dad rocked the suspenders when he competed.

SHO: Totally did!

JESSICA: Awesome!

SHO: There’s some pictures in my house of him wearing the suspenders. I’m like what the heck is that? This was the norm. We had to do this. So yeah it’s funny that you bring that up. That was part of the uniform I suppose back in the day.

JESSICA: It almost looked like a suit.

SHO: Yeah! Which is funny. I wonder if they even had waistbands to keep their pants up. Maybe somebody should bring it back.

JESSICA: I know! We’ve been talking about outfit changes. The other thing I wanted to ask is how the style of when you’re training in Japan. I went to the Tokyo worlds and everybody was so incredibly nice. Everything everyone ever said about Japan was 100% true. It was so shocking to me how kind and really genuinely awesome everyone was that I kept waiting for them to turn around and make a face. Are people really like this? I’ve never experienced a culture like this. So when you’re training, is it just dudes being dudes or does that extend into training in some ways, like that courtesy and kindness that’s part of the Japanese culture?

SHO: I wouldn’t say it goes into the gymnastics arena. Man, Japanese coaches could be really stern and strict. It’s no fun for the kids unfortunately. Obviously, with the best interests in mind. That being nice and kind, that doesn’t translate into the gym unfortunately.

JESSICA: And what was it like for you going in and training with them? Were people like cool or was it kind of weird like you were going to come in there and steal their secrets? Was there any of that stuff that people imagine goes on sometimes or was it just like you’re another kid?

SHO: They’re really kind and totally open to sharing ideas and techniques and on the flip side, they were interested in learning a lot from myself and my father because we brought a little bit of flavor to the table. It was really cool just to immerse myself in that type of training atmosphere and see what they were doing differently.

JESSICA: So were you going there and throwing like a Kovacs or a Kolman

SHO: Yeah they were like what is this kid doing? We’re doing basics at this age. It was really fun.

JESSICA: One of the things I wondered about is in the Japanese culture it seems like it’s more normal for adults to do gymnastics. There’s that one meet every September. I’m totally forgetting the name of it. It’s like the elites compete with elites from the past and any adults can show up. And I just wondered if master gymnastics or adult gymnastics was more common there

SHO: It’s called the [inaudible] Championship. Essentially there’s more opportunity to continue doing gymnastics past college. In fact there are specific teams that recruit athletes after college to compete for them and they are generally sponsored by big companies. So companies like Konami, which is a gaming company. They also do like fitness stuff. There’s a company that’s sponsored by a pharmaceutical company. These athletes will become employees of these companies and they’ll compete for them. And essentially, they are just doing commercials for them and doing appearances and they’re getting a salary to be able to do that routine. There’s just more opportunities after college to make a living and do gymnastics.

JESSICA: So is this only for the elite top of the top or this like if you were good in high school or good in college you could

SHO: Well obviously it’s very competitive to get into those games, but I’d say it’s a little more than the US. There’s definitely more flexibility. You don’t have to be the cream of the crop to join these teams and get money to do gymnastics.

JESSICA: So for example, and I bring this up all the time on the show so I’ll probably cut this out because everyone’s sick of hearing about it. But I moved to Germany when I was 17. I went to gymnastics practice and there was 50 year olds, little kids, teenagers, all working out, all doing the same compulsory routines at all different levels. I went to a meet and it was the same thing. All different ages. Is that the kind of thing you would see there too? Or is it mostly only ex elites or

SHO: Yeah it’s generally ex elites but again this open competition anybody can really enroll in and participate. Yeah like I said, gymnastics is very big in Japan and so people will do it as like a recreational activity. They’ll just put together routines. It’s really fun and interesting to be able to see these “non gymnasts” I guess compete against guys that were former Olympians. It’s just very eclectic and diverse and we don’t have that here.

JESSICA: Yeah I have a friend that competes in that meet every year and she’s 56 now and she was telling me about it and I was just like wait! So so and so in the same meet and she’s like yeah she laughs the whole time. It’s so embarrassing. I scored a 3 but it was so much fun! It was fascinating. People would be horrified to compete in a meet like that here. They’d be so embarrassed. But there, it’s like a totally different

SHO: Yeah, they’re a different championships. It’s obviously very prestigious and a big competition but it’s supposed to be fun as well and people totally get into it. It’s just a real cool event.

JESSICA: So you have had some crazy training accidents. Like crazy, just gives me a heart attack reading about them. My palms are sweating and we’re just starting to talk about this. I haven’t even asked a question yet. I’m not kidding. So tell me about the time that you got grips. They were only two days old and you used them. You were going for a dismount and they ripped and broke in half.

SHO: I actually have no clue what happened. Interestingly, it happened to a few of my teammates so looking back on it I wasn’t too surprised. It was only my second or third turn. I was just warming up, doing a swing down for a dismount. And it snaps and I do a, I don’t know, a sidewinder or whatever to my back or to my side actually. I looked down and my grips were broken. I don’t know if it’s a different type of bleach that they were using to whiten the grips or if it was bad leather but I’m glad I just walked off and was okay after that. My shoulder was a little bit sore nothing too serious from that incident.

JESSICA: A lot of people wrote after you posted that blog post. A couple different blogs wrote about is this something that should be addressed? Should there be standards? Should there some kind of safety things? I mean they test condoms a million times. I don’t know of any standards like that. It was the Germans or the Dutch. Or Swiss. They’re gonna be so pissed. Sorry German, Dutch, and Swiss that I mixed you all up. I wonder if you think something like that is needed.

SHO: Absolutely. I mean we are doing some of the craziest skills these days and we’re putting our lives on the line. And so we’re cranking for a dismount and grips snap, you’re going to severely hurt yourself and I’ve seen that happen actually. And so you know, grip makers, I know it’s a tough job but definitely the safety needs to be the main priority. If it means testing and doing more of that type of stuff, I think that needs to happen for sure.

JESSICA: So you’ve come close to making the Olympic team several times. One of the reasons I always wanted to talk to you and one of the reasons I think you’re so interesting is that you’ve come so close and you’ve had tragedy in your life. You’ve had injuries and you still continue and I think that’s so inspiring. I remember Al Trautwig said something on the air at Nationals and he was like oh is that Sho? Isn’t he like 27 now? I guess he was asking Tim Daggett to be like oh he’s so old. He should’ve quit a long time ago. To Tim Daggett’s credit, Tim was like yeah he’s one of the elder statesmen of the sport and he’s doing a great job. He’s still making it at this level. I love that he said that because that’s what I’ve always thought of about you. And I wonder how you have made it past, have you found the motivation and how you’ve dug yourself out of those times?

SHO: I don’t know. It’s just like this innate desire to just do the sport. I have so much love. It essentially ran in my blood too, the fact that my parents were gymnasts. Injuries, I learned early on that it’s just part of the sport. It never killed my dreams or anything. It mostly fueled them. Yeah, after 2003, that’s when I broke my femur. I was so pumped up and ready to go and then my father passes away in 2004. Again that fuels my dream even more because being successful in gymnastics was his dream as well. Every single time that I’ve had those hiccups or whatever, it just made me more passionate about the sport. It was awesome just meeting so many cool people. It wasn’t a sport just for myself but obviously for the people around me that were supporting me. I definitely wanted to compete for them as well. It wasn’t just an individual thing.

JESSICA: And for kids who may have gone through some of the same stuff that you have gone through, what kind of advice would you give them? Do you think that gymnastics in some ways has helped you deal with your grief?

SHO: Yeah definitely it was a way for me to slam my frustration, aggression. You know there’s a lot of stuff going on these days and for today’s lives. There’s a lot of distractions, school, social media, you know people talking junk about you. Gymnastics was a place where I could forget about everything and just train. And competition was obviously a place where I could express myself. I really liked having that avenue and outlet and I’m totally grateful that I was able to do that.

JESSICA: Have you read Dominique Moceanu’s memoir that just came out?

SHO: I have not. I’d be interested in reading that.

JESSICA: Very interesting. Crazy life. Not even like the Karolyi crazy like all the other stuff. It’s really interesting. After your father’s death, you went to the Olympic training center. And in Dominique Moceanu’s memoir, she talks about her time at the Olympic training center. She talks about it as a little bit of a wild place. And it some ways, it saved her. Because she was in this situation where she didn’t have any support in any part of her life so it was comforting and saved her. But in the other side, it was a chance for her to finally like have all the experiences as a teenager that she had never had before. What was your experience like there and if there’s any behind the scenes parties you want to tell us about.

SHO: Actually, I went when I was 15, either 15 or 16 through 18, and I actually didn’t get to have that much fun. I don’t know what her experience was like, but I was finishing up high school over there, so I was obviously, you know, doing my whole student stuff and studying a lot, but the upside was that I got to hang out with the older guys like Brett McClure, Steve McCain and Jason Gatson. They’re actually good influences on me. They didn’t do anything to tarnish my image of anything, but it was fun. We got to hang out, and just the fact that I was able to train with all of these elite athletes just opened up my eyes, but I wasn’t really a partyer at the time, so. Yeah. I would be interested to see what Dominique was doing, yeah. It would be nice.

JESSICA: Yeah, that’s good. And one of the things that I think is cool about the Olympic Training Center is that you’re around all those other athletes who are doing the same thing, and it might be that in your life at home you are the only elite athlete that you know in your neighborhood or anything.

SHO: Right.

JESSICA: Is it helpful to have all of the wrestlers and the judo players and the track athletes and all these people there, is it—or is it sometimes a bit much because everyone is?

SHO: Yeah, right. No, right, totally. It was great getting the perspective of these athletes from different disciplines, just hearing about the trials and what they have to do to get up to the top level. So it definitely helped, but at times it was a little bit overwhelming, because your life was essentially sports and sports only, so I definitely had some tough periods where I had to get away, just reassess and adjust.

JESSICA: So, you have supported yourself for the past six years, is that right?

SHO: After I graduated from college, which was 2009, so about three years.

JESSICA: This is something I’ve always wondered about, especially with men’s sports, because it’s hard to imagine this because we all went and watched the meet before this, but I asked you about this, but I always wonder about why this isn’t talked about more. Because it’s not like we’re in an old-school commie country where the government pays for your training.

SHO: Right.

JESSICA: Like, even the Olympic Training Center, they have to fundraise.

SHO: Exactly.

JESSICA: And now I think it’s not talked about so much because for women’s, over the past 20 years, the women have been really teenagers, so their parents pay for everything.

SHO: Right.

JESSICA: But now women are getting older, and we’re starting to see 20 year olds more prominent in the Olympics, and I think that issue of supporting yourself and being an athlete who also has to make a living is becoming more important.

SHO: Absolutely.

JESSICA: And I’ve been so impressed by how you’ve done that, so can you tell people about how you’ve done that and what’s it been like for you?

SHO: It’s been a pretty whirlwind of a ride. I essentially, I graduated in 2009 and I was trying to figure out what to do because the university paid for my life, essentially. Food, living expenses, all of that. And then all of a sudden, it’s like, here you go, have fun, no more money. And it took a while for me to figure out what to do, but I essentially sat down with my coach and at the time he said, you know what, you have to work. There’s no other way to it. He said at some point you’re going to retire, you’re going to be done with gymnastics, and you don’t want to be a 27 year old who has zero experience going into the workforce. And in retrospect, looking back, I totally just appreciate what he said. It makes sense now. It was definitely one of the best advices I’ve gotten from a person. And yeah, essentially what I did was I started looking around for jobs. I ended up with a startup company that allowed me to work from home most of the time, so it enabled me to create my own schedule around my gymnastics training. So yeah, I was working and training at the same time, and I’ve got to say it was a good balance for me. I think I would have burnt out pretty quickly if I was just training. I’ve always juggled something other than gymnastics growing up, that thing was school, but now I have work and I was able to just forget about gymnastics and training while I was in the office, and yeah. Just doing the assignments. And at the same time, I was paid, so yeah. That was a definite upside to it.

JESSICA: So, tell us about judging. We were talking about this at the meet, and I was shocked to learn that as an elite gymnast, you’re not just ushered in automatically to the brevet level. So tell us about why you decided to start judging, and what the process is.

SHO: Well, I’ve been judging at the JO level for a while, and that is essentially taking a course and passing a test, but in terms of the brevet course, we had to go to Colorado. There were several inter-continental courses around the world, and our region was in Colorado Springs this year, and so I went and took that, and luckily after hours and hours of studying I was able to pass, but the way it works is that if you’re a first timer, regardless of your competitive level, whatever, you can only achieve a category 4. There are four levels, 1, 2, 3, and 4, 4 being the lowest, 1 being the highest. In terms of my score, if I were a more experienced judge, I would have qualified for a category 2, but unfortunately, since it was my first time going for this, I was only able to qualify for a category 4. But with more experience under my belt, I believe within the quadrennium, I will be able to go up to a category 3.

JESSICA: So, what’s the test like? Is there like a written and a shorthand part and a video, or is it top secret? Gymnastics police or something?

SHO: No, I don’t believe it’s top secret. Hopefully I won’t go to jail after this.

JESSICA: FIG jail.

SHO: Yeah, exactly. But there’s a practical test where you watch a tape on a big screen and you have to get the start value and the execution deduction right, and there’s about ten routines on each event, so a total of 60, and you have to be within a certain range of the execution and you have to get the actual start value of the routine, so. It can be pretty tough, because they’ll throw some curve balls at you, especially with the rule changes, especially with you judging a routine from the last quadrennium with the new code, so there could be some exceptions that you have to be really aware of. And then, the other part is the theoretical exam. Essentially learning all the points within the code of points, so all the important parts. Skill identification, what the deduction is for wearing shorts on p-bars, stuff like that.

JESSICA: Fashion deductions.

SHO: Yeah, exactly.

JESSICA: These are very serious, we talk about these constantly on the show.

SHO: Yup, for sure.

JESSICA: Speaking of which, some people on our show have suggested, they think that there should be fashion changes for men’s gymnastics.

SHO: Interesting.

JESSICA: Yes, they think that the spandex sports thing kind of hurts men’s gymnastics, and if there was a change, like men just wear shorts, just like they work out, because you normally don’t wear a shirt, you just wear shorts?

SHO: Right.

JESSICA: And that was just how they competed, that would A, make gymnastics more popular, and B, more boys at a younger age wouldn’t be so horrified by the fact that they had to wear a leotard to do a sport. Like I imagine wrestlers have to deal with this. What are your thoughts on that?

SHO: Sure. My thoughts on that are, I think I like the leotard and the tights. It’s just something that gymnasts have worn for, I don’t know, a hundred years. Otherwise you can’t see the gymnasts line.

JESSICA: That’s true.

SHO: If you’re wearing baggy shorts, you’re not going to be able to see knee bends and it really accentuates your body line and, I don’t know, maybe these comments are coming from people who want to see their chests…

[LAUGHS]

UNCLE TIM: Whoa.

JESSICA: That totally could be.

SHO: But I’m really a fan of what we wear, and if anything has any things to say, I mean, football players, they wear tights, right?

JESSICA: They do wear tights.

SHO: It’s just as tight.

JESSICA: It’s tighter.

SHO: It’s even tighter! So people can’t really be talking too bad about gymnasts.

JESSICA: I would totally go to see the suits, I just want everybody to look like the Japanese guys from the 50s, that would be cool.

SHO: That would be cool.

JESSICA: I don’t know how we would do that without injuring the equipment, with the suspenders.

UNCLE TIM: We have to start a hipster movement in gymnastics.

JESSICA: I know. We do. Like mustaches, but with suspenders. I’ll be totally over it.

SHO: Maybe we’ll have a turn the clock day and have a meet like that.

JESSICA: Oh my god, have a meet that was like a throwback gymnastics meet!

UNCLE TIM: The uneven bars side spill…

JESSICA: I would totally compete a routine with the ravage. That would be so fun.

SHO: That would be really cool.

JESSICA: Oh my god, that would be really fun. Someone has to do that. Ok.

UNCLE TIM: I could compete, I could still do some of the skills, too.

JESSICA: Yes!

SHO: And the women will wear the old leotards, with the tight, yeah.

JESSICA: And have the emblem be a huge patch.

SHO: Yes. Totally.

JESSICA: With the giant bouffant. Giant hair that is a miracle.

SHO: That would be awesome.

JESSICA: I’m so excited about this. Ok. So what would you say the hardest part about being a judge is?

SHO: The inquiries, and the upset coaches and parent is definitely the hardest part. We’re doing this to help the community, but sometimes we get some backlashes from the coaches and the parents. It’s tough. It kind of hurts, actually. We’re not here to kill anyone’s dreams, but we’re just here to evaluate a routine the best we could. Obviously we make human errors, and at the point, it’s great that the come in and talk to us and go, hey, what was wrong with it? But when they talk badly about you—we’re not here to do that. We’re just here to help the sport and just share our knowledge, essentially.

JESSICA: What would you change if you were Bruno Grandi? What would you change if—no, now it’s Steve Butcher. If you were Steve Butcher, what would change about the elite code?

SHO: That’s a tough question. It’s very controversial, people have a lot of things to say. But I might—I really liked the compulsories, back in the day. I might want to bring that back. I don’t know what the underlying reason was for taking that away in the first place, but yeah. Just really separate some of the athletes. The ones that have the good form and basics from the guys who can only do big skills. It would be cool to kind of throw that element back in again, because right now it’s essentially just a lot of big skills and making sure that you don’t fall. That’s a big part of gymnastics, these days. Bringing that artistic side and grace, being able to execute these simple skills with different flare. I think that would be really cool.

JESSICA: I totally agree.

SHO: Yeah.

JESSICA: Did you watch the Olympics?

SHO: I did.

JESSICA: Was it hard to watch?

SHO: Slightly. I mean, at that point, I knew I had given all that I had. So it wasn’t as bad. But yeah. Lots of emotions. Yeah.

JESSICA: Who were some of your favorites? Like, we were talking about artistry, and I’m wondering who some of your favorites were, especially on floor, and who has the most time to.

SHO: Um, I’m obviously a fan of Japanese gymnastics, so I really like their style and what they do, so. They just have this sense of aura and flare that they bring to the table, and head movements, hands. I don’t know. I definitely enjoyed watching them, although they didn’t have the best competition.

UNCLE TIM: So, Kohei and Zou Kai? Who should have won the floor finals?

SHO: Ooh. I don’t know. I like Kohei’s routine, but sadly, the artistic side is not really taken into the equation as much. I’d say, in terms of artistry, Kohei’s way better than Zou Kai. Not to rip on him because he’s actually coached by my coach’s coach.

UNCLE TIM: How’s retirement? One fun question. What’s it like?

SHO: Retirement? Well, it feels fantastic. My body feels great. Doesn’t hurt as much anymore. There’s still some creaks here and there, though. I do miss competing, though. I went to that meet today and seeing the kids have fun performing, I definitely miss that element. But sadly I don’t miss beating my body to the ground and having a tough time financially. So if there was a way for me to continue gymnastics as a profession, then I would totally be doing it somehow. But unfortunately, at this point, sometimes you’ve got to grow up and make sure that you’re making a living, you know. Things happen in life and you need savings. Eventually people have family and, you know, it’s just a part of life. I’ll always stay connected in one way or another, whether it’s judging or part time coaching, whatever, but yeah, it feels good. I’m very grateful for the opportunity.

JESSICA: And we tell people where they can find you, like, so tell people where you’re working now because it’s kind of awesome, and where they can find you and follow you, Twitter and website and the like.

SHO: I currently work at Google. I work on a team called GoogleX, and we’re working on a product called Google Gloss, but sadly I can’t go too far into detail. It’s pretty secretive at this point, but you guys will eventually find out and we’re hoping that it will change the world.

JESSICA: It fricking will change the world and it’s so exciting. Oh my god.

SHO: And as far as my website, it’s shonakamori.com. unfortunately, I stopped updating it recently, but you can backtrack and see what I’ve been through over the past few years. But as far as my Twitter, it’s @Snakamori, and you can find my daily updates and Tweets there.

JESSICA: Thank you so much for doing this. It’s been great.

SHO: No, it’s been fun.
–

[SOUND BYTE]

UNCLE TIM: In December, we had Justin Spring on our show to discuss a match-play format for NCAA men’s gymnastics. The meet took place on Friday, March 8th, when the University of Illinois took on the University of Minnesota, and they tested out this format. The gymnasts competed against each other in head-to-head battles. FIG scores were not displayed, and instead at the end of each head-to-head battle the judges indicated which gymnasts won and the respective team won a point. Illinois won with a final score of 21 to 9. You can listen to the original interview on episode 13.

JESSICA: So, just so you guys know, when he talks about Mike in this interview, he means Mike Burns, who is the head coach for Minnesota. Ok. So here is Uncle Tim talking to Justin.

UNCLE TIM: Today’s Tuesday, you’ve had a couple days to kind of digest everything, and kind of reflect on the meet, and I’m curious, what do you think went really well?

JUSTIN: A lot of things. And you know, this was a test event. We are trying to piece together a new way to market men’s gymnastics that fits into more of a fan-friendly environment. I think that’s kind of confusing as a description because by fan-friendly, I don’t mean gymnastics fans, specifically, maybe. I mean, I say that because all of the die-hard gymnastics fans hated it. Well, of course you do. You like gymnastics as it was. When you change from that, you’re going to bet with some restraint and some hesitation, so of course. You couldn’t see the scores, and that’s how you traditionally evaluate a gymnastics meet, so it was very foreign and frustrating for some people. Upon listening to some kind of mixed review from everyone, I think it is needed to show start values, so you can see at least the starting point for the athletes in the match play, and if not, possibly adding in the scores as well. But I do think that the big success, if you read Uncle Tim’s Blog, he had a student on campus here do a review of it, she said she loved it. It gave a point in time—and this is exactly what we were looking for—it gave a unanimous point in time where the home crowd or the away crowd could cheer for a success or win in a competition, and you do not have that when you have scores. You may have someone 15.6, or 16.0 on an event, and the audience—and rightly so—right now, with an audience, a 16 can be shown and people still look to their neighbor and go, is that good? Should we clap? Because there’s no defined win or loss in our competitions, and this is a problem in our sporting events. Because they want to know when it’s point Illinois or point Minnesota and give something because of that. They want to know that we won, or that we won something, or we have won some incremental step towards our goal. And with scoring, it’s just so ambiguous, you don’t know, and I think that’s a problem in today’s sport. So I think that’s the biggest advantage to this format.

UNCLE TIM: Ok. And TV-only kind of captures only so much, so I’m curious, when you were in the gym, could you feel the crowd’s excitement during the, when the scoring was pretty close?

JUSTIN: Yeah, and I think that’s a good point, and I like that you asked it that way, because no. was it exciting at the last rotation? No. Because knew we had won, even going into parallel bars. And that’s the difference between a blowout in the old scoring format or in this scoring format, because at least with the match play, you know. You know how we kind of try to keep the audience in the dark, when one team is beating another team, by 30+ points, we just pretend that it’s close, that there’s a still a chance for the team behind. That’s ridiculous. The audience should be able to follow a meet, and yeah, there was great energy. When it was point-Illinois, the crowd went crazy, and there was jumping up and sticking it to the Minnesota fans, and there’s none of that now. It’s just, our fans watch pommel horse while our fans watch floor, and if there’s a good enough score the moms and the dads yell yay, and that’s not good enough. This format is about trying to bring in outside viewers because mom and dad at the gym meet is not good enough, it doesn’t cut it. We need to bring in some college students to support. You know, we have gymnastics moms and dads and their kids, and then we have our own athlete’s parents as fans, and that’s it. And we’re a NCAA sport. We want students to get involved and to support our sport, and they struggle with it heavily because of our scoring and judging bias and things like that.

UNCLE TIM: And on Friday, was it hard to keep motivating your gymnasts to keep performing at a high level during the last event? Because in way, the meet was already over, but at the same time you had to post a good team score for your rankings.

JUSTIN: Yeah a little bit, and the hardest part, the worst part about the meet was that it took about two hours and forty five minutes, two hours and fifty minutes, and that’s because of the Big Ten Network. Big Ten Network probably added about forty minutes to the competition. There was an incremental 20, 30 second delay before and after every athlete and then before and after every flag show, we had to wait for the spot or the tag and that really killed the crowd as far as getting towards the end of the night as well. So it was a long meet, and the athletes, I think, were feeling that, they weren’t quite ready for a three hour meet, as they generally go two hours, but our guys finished strong, and Minnesota had a kind of rough high bars finish, I don’t know if I can attribute that to the format or that it was three hours or whatever, but yeah, that was certainly one of the things we have to look at with this format is that there’s a point where you’re done and you win, and a lot of the options that are thrown out there, maybe the team that is ranked lower gets to choose the starting event and is able to fix a strategy of event to event that maybe makes sense, and put their worst event last so it’s more likely to go well into the last event, or something like that. But yeah, that’s kind of a tough one. To be honest, I’m kind of for just stopping a competition, and I know that sounds crazy, and people are yelling at the thought of that, but you just wouldn’t do parallel bars or something, for instance, you started on high bar and you just wouldn’t do it? It’s so foreign for gymnastics, I know, but I’m trying to think from a completely different perspective of a general sports fan what they want to see, and when you’ve won out, you’ve won out, and that’s it. And it angers a lot of big gymnast fans, but yeah.

UNCLE TIM: Yeah but at the same time, basketball games don’t necessarily end when it’s a blowout. People might tune out, but…

JUSTIN: Sure

UNCLE TIM: …you still have to play all four quarters I guess, so

JUSTIN: Well because there’s not a finite point, it’s not indefinitely done. So like, there’s a difference. I’m trying to think of a comparable sport. Because basketball you still technically could come back. There’s enough points to be won that you could come back. Whereas in our sport at 16 it’s not possible to in this format. And that’s a problem but that’s gymnastics. And so I still that the format brought in fans. It allowed them to unite at a sporting event and give them excitement at the same time. And that’s, I don’t know about you, but that’s what’s great about a live sporting event.

UNCLE TIM: Yeah

JUSTIN: Score a touchdown. Win a point. Three point buzzer beater. It’s like, the audience needs dead set times to know when to cheer and get excited. We do not have that in gymnastics with just our normal scoring. Moms and dads, they see a 15.8 and they’re like, “yaaaay,” but the average fan is like, “Is that good? I don’t know what that means.” We have to educate our audience so that’s tough.

UNCLE TIM: Yeah I understand. And I think even as a pretty hardocre gymnastics fan, one thing that I do find really enticing about this format is the element of strategy.

JUSTIN: Yes

UNCLE TIM: And so I was curious if you saw a lot of strategy going on during the meet and if you could give us some examples.

JUSTIN: We did. I mean one of the biggest things is strategy in this format. So the ability to throw second plays in your favor and plays against you a little bit. One, the pressure’s on you to step up and rise to the occasion to beat the guy that already went first. But two, you already know what the guy did. And if it was bad, you’ve got an advantage there. The coach can throw someone who’s maybe a little more consistent but maybe doesn’t have the start value but you don’t need it because the guy before him fell. So that happened on pommel horse with us. We had to guys left. Mike led first on pommel horse. His guy fell. Horrible routine. And we had Yoshi Mori left and Logan Bradley. Logan’s been a rock for us. He’s been a stud. He’s either gone a C dismount or a D dismount, that’s been his only variance. He’s been killing it for us all year. Yoshi on the other hand could go 15.4 on pommel horse, been outstanding, or he’s fallen like two and a half times and gone 11.3. So he’s risky, but bigger start. So with Mike’s guy going first, I chose Yoshi because I think that he could still have beaten him with a fall. So I chose to go with someone a little more risky, but having seen Mike’s guy fell already, I believe his name was Montegue, then it kind of gave the pressure off Yoshi and the ability to kind of snag that point if needed. So there was a lot of these little strategy thoughts going on with every athlete that you throw in. And Mike had a lot of the strategy, trailing the majority of the meet, and throwing second. But that was one of ours on pommel horse that kind of definitely looked at and played in our favor. So Yoshi had a good routine and we got the point. I think that high bar too was kind of an interesting… it looked like, well it didn’t look like, it was a blowout. If you watched at the end of the meet, we went 5-0. But actually every score was won by three tenths or less. So had Mike throw just a couple different guys, that event- very few tenths separated us from one score to the next, but it looked like it was just a complete and utter domination when it fact it wasn’t. And so that right there is a testament to how a little different strategy, the event very well could have been three to two. But it wasn’t, it was 5-0 because a couple guys lost by literally .05. And so, that hurts. That’s a tough loss. And kind of strategy is in control of whether that event goes 5-0, 3-2, or something like that.

UNCLE TIM: So last question I guess is looking ahead, what do you foresee in the future? Do you think that match play will catch on for NCAA gymnastics? Or do you think there were too many critics for it to actually catch on?

JUSTIN: Well to change especially in this digital era, you could put it as [inaudible] online and you’ll have a thousand people step up and say how much they think you’re an idiot and how much this needs to change. I mean for real, that’s our digital world, that’s our social media world. You can put one opinion online, and very few people, until you’re attacked, will step up in your favor. But who are the people that first come out and start posting, are the people that think you’re a complete idiot. Or hate it. They’re always the more vocal. That’s the problem with kind of ratings on Urbanspoon or these restaurants. People don’t leave after a good meal and usually go write about it. It’s the people that had a horrible meal that go back and rip that restaurant a new one. And that is, I think that’s what we’re experiencing. We’ve got a lot of gymnastics fans that saw changes. And they weren’t familiar with it. They didn’t like it. And we definitely heard their voice. But I do think it’s positive to see actually we do have some people standing up and saying, “I think this is great.” So I think that’s a very strong element that a lot of people, despite the change and despite being gymnastics fans have stepped up and said, “We really do like it.” It doesn’t come without some tweaking. And I think one of the things is yes, we need to show scores and possibly start values. One or the other if not both of them, to help guide the meet a little bit better and give maybe a better understanding of why that guy beat him with what appeared to be a sloppy routine. Like oh, he had that more difficult routine, and the average public can get that. So I think that will be a huge step for match play as kind of certainly posting those numbers. I also think that possibly starting on different events. Dependent on the team that’s down in the rankings or whoever wins the coin toss decides or something like that. And making the event shorter. But TV always wants to do its thing. It’s crazy. They wanted to hold the whole meet up as I selected my athletes for the next match play, and I’m kind of putting that in perspective of like a basketball substitution. Would TV stop the meet and ask his rationality for subbing two of his players? No other meet do you stop gameplay more than gymnastics. And I think it’s because they’re struggling to try to tell the story. And I think in this format it kind of tells itself. You’ve got the start value, John Roethlisberger or the announcer, whoever it is, has got the start values behind the scenes, and he’s going to be, “ooh this is a gutsy call. Even start values. He’s going to have to outperform him execution wise, and that was a great routine so we’re going to need a really good routine from Illinois to win this point.” Versus you know the announcing now is, “He’s going to go out and do his best.” Like every other athlete is on every event every time always. And it brings an offensive and defensive type of element and strategy like you said before. So if we could make that a little bit more streamlined and try to level the playing field, I think it could evolve. I think I’ve got my work cut out for me for convincing the rest of NCAA but we’ll see.

UNCLE TIM: So do you play on doing this next year again?

JUSTIN: Well you know the next thing is, I did a tremendous amount of survey research. We have to first of all look to see if it’s statistically relevant. And I’m doing it within my masters program and I got with a marketing professor and a research methods professor. So I’m trying to bring some actual concrete data when I pitch how this went and if and when we should move forward with this to the Big 10 coaches and the NCAA coaches. I think that it’s going to take a long time. Change scares people. Strategy for coaches that have been coaching in the sport for 30 years is so foreign to them. The strategy is in training my athletes. Like what do you mean there’s going to be in game play decisions? Naturally there’s going to be a lot of resistance. And I think the results are up in the air. I can’t come back and say, “With 100% everyone thought that this was brilliant and this is what we need to do.” And even with that I still think it’d be hard to change it. This is the first step. I’m just trying to do something to make NCAA gymnastics a little more popular, put my fans in the seats. What did you guys think?

UNCLE TIM: What I really liked about what was going on Friday was the way you guys had it set up online that you had the commentators and you could kind of keep track of what was going on and I thought that was really good. As someone who was unable to attend and unable to watch it on TV, so, I really liked that.

JUSTIN: This was really a meet of Minnesota against Illinois. It wasn’t like, “Illinois is over on that event and Minnesota’s over on that event but they’re battling each other right now, we swear.” No we literally were on the same event going head to head to take the opponent down and that’s athletics. That’s NCAA sports. That’s kind of what the fans want to see I think, and from what I’ve heard.

UNCLE TIM: Yeah and if you actually go back and- so the U of I student who reviewed it, she was tweeting during it too. And her tweets are really what you want to be seeing. She said, “If we don’t get this point, if they don’t say point Illinois,” or whatever, “we’re going to be so upset.” And she was just so into it, especially during floor and pommel horse and, so yeah.

JUSTIN: I just have to say my peace. There’s been a few comments on the online blogs that I’m taking sole credit for this. This isn’t like a pure, just unique idea that I’ve just magically invented. [Inaudible] from William and Mary I guess have been trying to pitch this for a while and this idea of head to head and single play obviously has been done in other sports and things like that. The only thing that I did was pursue it. And I pushed for it and I argued for it and I campaigned for it. And that’s the only thing that I’m taking credit for. This is not uniquely my idea by any means and I have to say that. And because of the media people are coming on, “this isn’t his format, this was thought of back in the 80s.” And I’m sure it was. But people have brilliant ideas sitting on the couch every day. The hardest part is getting it put out there. Like I spent hours and hours and hours and hours and hours pushing and talking and calling and emailing and campaigning to get this, even just to run this test event. So that’s the only thing that I’m taking credit for, is actually getting the rules committee to change so we could run a test event. The ideas have been a product of talking to coaches and fans and athletes for 20 years. You know I kind of had to say that. It’s my baby only because I pushed so hard to at least just run this event. Not because it’s my unique brilliant idea that I created solely. That’s not the case at all. It’s so hard because I’m expected everyone to cup rip this thing apart now. Like, “Ah you guys won, you didn’t get the high bar?” I already see the comments. And I’m going to have to defend them all and say, “No this is not perfect.” But if change is going to come with such resistance always, then we’ll just never change. And let me tell you what happens to things that don’t ever change throughout time: they die. They go away. And the new things that evolve or emerge is what wins out. And news flash, we haven’t changed in 100 years, and how many programs do we have left? How we doing? How we doing in the NCAA guys? How many fans are in your competitions? What’s the problems here? So [LAUGHS] don’t just rip me apart without coming with maybe some new ideas is my only request.
–

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JESSICA: We are incredibly excited to tell you that we are having an NCAA women’s gymnastics championships sweepstakes. That means that you can enter a contest to win one of five pairs of all session passes to the NCAA championships in Los Angeles in April. So this means that five of you will get two tickets to every single session. That’s three days of gymnastics, it’s four sessions total. And these will be the reserved tickets. The NCAA women’s gymnastics championships are April 19-21 at UCLA. And you can win these tickets, go to all three days, and then on Sunday go to Disney Land. It’s perfect. You’re going to love it. Uncle Tim’s going to tell you how to enter.

UNCLE TIM: We’re making your life super easy. In order to enter the sweepstakes, all you have to do is simply like our Facebook page if you have not already, or you can follow us on Google+ by adding us to one of your circles. Or if you’re an overachiever you can do both and have more chances to win. So winners will be picked at random and we’ll announce who won on April 5.
–

JESSICA: Alright Spanny, what is happening in the NCAA right now?

SPANNY: Floor surprise of the week: Lindsay Mable from the University of Minnesota. It’s probably not that surprising if you follow the Gophers, but we don’t hear that much about the team or this freshman otherwise. She scored a 9.975 and she has the most incredibly insane straddle positions in the routine. Not just leaps but throughout the choreography. It was just fun to watch. And she has a really neat leap that I don’t have the name for. It was a full turn kind of in a double stag position.

JESSICA: Yes! Yes yes yes.

SPANNY: Yeah. So I don’t know if there’s a name for the double stag full turn in jump position, but we are going to call it the Mable for now.

JESSICA: It’s gorgeous

SPANNY: Speaking of Minnesota, again not to toot my home team’s horn, but they broke 197 on an away meet. Which for them is really really big, because they’ve been scoring pretty well at home and then really bombing on the road. So they went to Florida, this was two weeks ago, and had just a great meet for them. So yay Minnesota. Now it was at Florida- again maybe this was just a result of the most insane- not insane bad I guess, it was just huge scores. Florida had, I didn’t write down their team, I think it was like a 198.475 or something completely just crazy. Insanely high team score. So my question to our listeners: was that real or imagined? Both Bridget Sloan and Kytra Hunter had massive massive massive all-around scores. And this came right on the heels of Oklahoma scoring their insane home score. Their home meet score. And then I felt like the next week well, Florida had to do something. I feel… it was, I’ll say, 65% warranted.

JESSICA: [laughs] That’s very precise.

SPANNY: Yes. I feel like either I’ve noticed it more this season or it’s become more of a trend, is that outrageously high scores. Not just team scores but individually. I don’t know if it’s a momentum thing. I don’t know if it’s some of the bigger schools, you know the home cookin’. I used to always just complain about Georgia, because I was like, “Georgia overscores at home.” But not I feel like it’s become really rampant pretty much at a lot- the top four or five scores almost without fail.

JESSICA: Everywhere.

SPANNY: Yeah it’s just become more- again maybe I’m just noticing it more, it’s become egregious this season.

JESSICA: I just think, I think it’s awesome there’s more 10s, because people love 10s. Fans love 10s. And there are some legit 10s that don’t get a 10 so I’m all for seeing 10s when they’re warranted. But I think maybe I don’t know, the scores are supposed to be a ranking. So if you’re starting really high, where do you go? You have to rank that person higher.

SPANNY: Right

JESSICA: Which is why I always contend that they should bring back the quarter tenth deduction. Not bring back, they should have a quarter tenth deduction in NCAA like we do in JO and elite? We do have it in JO too right? Yeah. So that’s what should happen, that will fix everything. So whoever’s in charge of NCAA, make that happen.

SPANNY: Speaking to a few NCAA judges, I know that they kind of sometimes can group in those deductions. So let’s say you see two skills with unflexed feet, they’ll be like, “Ok we’re going to make that .5,” instead of, because they can’t do two quarter tenths. It would be much more efficient if they were allowed to officially take the deductions needed and not just clump everybody…

JESSICA: Mhmm. Yeah we need to have better differentiation and that starts with giving the judges the tools to do the differentiation which is giving them more variety or smaller proportion of a deduction to take instead of having to take half a tenth.

SPANNY: I was thinking about it yesterday during the Oklahoma, the Stanford meet. Which got some attention because whoever did the Twitter for Stanford was on a roll. Just not happy with the scores I guess. But it seemed to be a lot of misunderstanding in why. You know, I saw a stuck landing, why wasn’t it a 10. If we had more, like you just said if we had more room to differentiate and therefore kind of explain to people why people are being deducted the way they are.

JESSICA: Yeah and if a stuck landing is going to mean everything in NCAA gymnastics then make it officially mean everything and make it a bonus. A bonus .1 for a stuck landing instead of this fake, you know, you can have a bunch of deductions but if you stick the landing you get a unexplainable score. Just make it offical already. I mean bonuses are great, we’re all for bonuses. Make it happen. And that would make the teams that can’t do the insane difficulty more competitive, because they can stick a landing. I just want to give a shoutout because I went to the UCLA, Michigan, Iowa, Cal meet. Cal, looking so much better. And Michigan, oh my God amazing on bars. Amazing amazing on bars. And I think they totally deserve their ranking. They look great. So shoutout to Sara Townsend from Iowa State, the Cyclones, how is 5’9 and competes in division I gymnastics. And she isn’t just on the team, she competes. And we’ll put a video of her up. She’s freaking, I mean if anyone tells you that you can’t do something, think of her. 5’9, she was a level 10, she’s an NCAA division I gymnast, ugh! That’s all I have to say about that. It’s been a little while since we’ve done listener feedback, so Spanny what’s happening out there?

SPANNY: A photo was sent in by coach [inaudible]. The photo’s on the site. He has a United States Gymnastics Federation – if you’ve been paying attention to our history lessons you know what this is – from former Minnesota head coach Jim Stevenson designed it. He’s also the illustrator for the Code. The ones that look good and not like stick figures. Those are the most addicting things to look at- the picture books with the not stick figures. Which is interesting because I looked at a picture of this medal and on one of my ambien Ebay sprees a year or so ago, I ended up with a USGF team jacket from the 80s. But I don’t know who it belonged to. It’s pretty cool. I don’t wear it, it’s kind of itchy. But Dial was the sponsor. So if you competed [LAUGHS] for the USA under the USGF and Dial was a sponsor, just let me know, I might have your jacket. I think I paid like $30 for it. It’s pretty cool.

JESSICA: Did you say an ambien Ebay spree?

SPANNY: Yes

JESSICA: [laughs]

SPANNY: We do have a new gym nerd challenge. Well first ok, an old gym nerd challenge we’ll start with. Emma drove seven hours round trip through a snowstorm to go to the West Virginia meet with her dad. Which is incredible. But we’re going to get into another gym nerd challenge but later. First, tweet of the week goes to Vivian, who says “if gymnastics was dressage, Sarah Demeo would win FX #BamavsUCLA.” Which is just perfect. Like that makes so much sense to me and I don’t know how to explain it other than that it just makes sense to me. And now every time I see her I’m going to think of a very elegant horse.

JESSICA: The tape on the ankles makes me think that all the time anyway, and it’s just perfect. She summed up all.. and you can see her in a beautiful coliseum in Vienna doing her floor routine.

SPANNY: Yeah

JESSICA: Yeah, so her.

SPANNY: My favorite, when I was in elementary school, my favorite toys I had were fashion star fillies. And once I thought about it I was like dressage, Bama gymnastics, they are all fashion star fillies.

JESSICA: [LAUGHS]

SPANNY: Google it. Shout out to our friend Tony Retrosi from Gym Momentum for the standup comedy routine he did in an ALS benefit. If you’ve ever been a coach, you can relate to this. And we love it. The link is on the site. It was pretty good.

JESSICA: I’ve always wanted there to be a standup comedian who did gymnastics jokes because the gym is just so ripe for that kind of thing that I was just like finally! It’s really cute, I liked it a lot.

SPANNY: International listener shoutout of the week: Gubi from Arabia listening from Dubai. That was a really cool email we got because I don’t know why I think of, I watch too many movies where I think of Dubai and I can’t imagine anybody sitting down listening to a gymnastics podcast, but.

JESSICA: I like how she called herself Gubi of Arabia, like Lawrence of Arabia. Gubi of Arabia. That email made me so happy it was just- it warmed my heart.

SPANNY: Some of our favorite gym nerds created goodies of the week, this will be our gym nerd created goodie of the week. I’m sure you’ve all seen it. “Valeri Makes My Taco Pop” tshirt on Custom Ink.

UNCLE TIM: [LAUGHS]

JESSICA: Made by a boy of course which makes it even better.

SPANNY: We do have a new gym nerd challenge this month. As always, the purpose is to increase popularity of gymnastics, and one way to do that is to challenge stereotypes. Your gym nerd challenge for March is the know-it-all smarty leo bust a gymnastics myth challenge. So the instructions are ask a friend what you think about gymnastics and what comes to mind. And it’s just fun to ask people what do you think about when you hear gymnastics or mention Mary Lou or whatever. If they present a stereotype or myth that you know to be untrue, correct them and ask them if it changes their feelings about the sport. Then report back to us. The best response will get a custom award on our website.

JESSICA: It’ll be something awesome, you’ll love it. Treasure it forever. Print it out in color and put it on your wall. Framed, of course. I can’t wait to hear the answers.

UNCLE TIM: Yeah and advanced warning, if you’re male, you’re going to get a lot of questions about how leotards work and your male anatomy and yeah. It’ll be interesting.
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ALLISON TAYLOR: This episode is brought to you by Elite Sportz Band. Elitesportzband.com. We’ve got your back.

JESSICA: Visit elitesportzband.com, that’s sportz with a z, and save $5 on your next purchase with the code “gymcast.”
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JESSICA: That’s going to do it for us this week. Remember that you can find a transcript of each show on our website, they’re usually up a about a week after the show airs. You can also find videos and pictures of what we’re talking about so you can follow along during the show. You can support the show by recommending us to a friend or teammate or coach that you know. You can rate us on iTunes or write a review on iTunes, we love those reviews. You can also download the Stitcher app and listen to us from there. You can contact us at gymcastic@gmail.com or you can call us 415-800-3191 or find us on Skype to leave a message at GymCastic Podcast. You can find us on Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, and Google+. Don’t forget to enter the NCAA gymnastics ticket giveaway sweepstakes. Until next week I’m Jessica from Masters-Gymnastics.com where we have a list of adult gymnastics classes and open gyms around the world.

SPANNY: I’m Spanny Tampson from Spanny’s Big Fake Smile. You can find me on Twitter probably obsessing over Danusia Francis for UCLA every single week.

UNCLE TIM: And I’m Uncle Tim. And on my site this week I have a bunch of posts regarding the Illinois match play format. I was unable to attend the meet, but I had other people write some posts for me.

JESSICA: Remember to like us on Facebook or follow us by adding us to one of your circles on Google+ to enter the contest. And we’ll see you next week! Good luck!

[[OUTRO MUSIC: Chonique Seed “Pop Drop & Roll”]]

Episode 23 Transcript
LLOIMINCIA: Us being tired and not doing a floor routine was not something that she believed in.

JESSICA: Mhmm.

LLOIMINCIA: Just about, because when it got to the third pass, she believed in almost doing three or four tumbling passes towards the end to make sure that when you did that one in competition, you shouldn’t have a problem.

[[INTRO MUSIC]]

JESSICA: This week, NCAA floor superstar Lloimincia Hall. Dvora reports back from the American Cup, and tells us about Marcel Nguyen’s near wardrobe malfunction, and we have a discussion about religion in gymnastics.
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JESSICA: This is episode 23 from March 6th, 2013, and I’m Jessica from Masters Gymnastics.

UNCLE TIM: I’m Uncle Tim from Uncle Tim Talks Men’s Gym.

DVORA: I’m Dvora from Unorthodox Gymnastics.

JESSICA: And this is the best and only gymnastics podcast in the whole entire world, starting with the top news stories from around the gymternet. This week we are going to start with talking about the American Cup, and first and foremost I want to give a huge shout out to USA Gymnastics, for doing an amazing, amazing job covering the American Cup. We got everything we wanted. We had live streaming podium training. We had men’s and women’s. We had the Nastia Liukin Cup, we could see everything. We had all of the routines not shown on TV, we had a live stream up until the TV started, and then all of the shows that weren’t shown on TV, we got archived on YouTube—and not only archived up on YouTube, they are up with the score, the difficult score, the execution score, it was just fantastic. This was everything fans have wanted, and have, you know, I just thank the gymnastics gods and whoever at USA Gymnastics decided to either hire the people who fought for this, or made this happen—you guys are doing a great job. Giant thank you from all of the fans. And if you guys like this and are happy about this, let USA Gymnastics know, and copy the sponsors, like AT&T. Do a Twitter, copy AT&T on the tweet to USA Gymnastics and let them know thank you because they’re the ones footing the bill for this, so we have to give them a shout out. Ok. So. Now. Onto the important things. Dvora, you were at the meet, so tell us, what were your favorite routines that you saw at the American Cup?

DVORA: Well, obviously like everyone else, I love Simone Biles in general, but especially on vault she was—I saw her stick an Amanar, a gorgeous, McKayla Maroney-level Amanar in the warm ups. Cold. And I really, really like Katelyn Ohashi’s new floor routine, I think it’s charming, I think it is so unlike a lot of the WOGA choreography, there’s some interesting movements and moments in there, and she really does a great job performing it. So that was my favorite floor routine of the meet. And can we please talk about Gabby Jupp? Because I’ll admit, I didn’t know anything about her before. I kind of came in and looked at the roster and went, and saw that she was there. So I had no background on this gymnast, and she was just—and I noticed her right away, because I’m watching training, and I’m looking across the arena at the bars, and I’m wondering to myself, who has that magnificent toe point and that great swing? And I looked down at the list and through deduction realized who it was, and I then followed her the rest of the meet because I was just so captivated by her form, and then I looked over at beam and there she was again with amazing execution. On floor: just fantastic form, fantastic dance. The only place where she’s pretty weak is vault, where she only vaults a Yurchenko full and her timers did not look particularly powerful. But she was the standout, because I didn’t expect her at all. I didn’t know anything about her and now I’m obsessively looking up videos of her on YouTube to see what else she is doing.

JESSICA: I bet that she’s one of those ones that has a hard time with vaults because she only weighs like seventy pounds. I bet she needs a couple years, and then she’ll actually be, her vault will catch up, you know?

DVORA: I suppose, but she is bigger than Ohashi, who manages to pull around a double.

JESSICA: Really? She looks so tiny.

DVORA: I’m pretty sure Ohashi is smaller. If you see the lineup of the athletes on floor, it’s Biles and Ohashi, who are the shortest, I believe. I could be wrong, and there is that picture from Brigid of The Couch Gymnast of Biles and Ohashi just laughing. You know, I wish I was just close enough to hear what they were about, because they’re in the middle of a big meet, and they’re just cracking each other up.

JESSICA: I love that picture. Oh, and can we just walk about what geniuses we are on the show that we predicted exactly who was going to be chosen? And yeah, shout out to us for talking about that last week and correctly choosing the lineup for the American Cup. I have to say about Gabby Jupp, back to her for a second, I like her, and definitely her form stands out and I enjoyed watching her on bars and on beam. And on floor, it was nice and clean and I like the effort that was made, but again, it’s like with elite, the routines that stand out are just mediocre, really. So I liked her dance, but again, with her facial expression and the intention in her dance were totally removed from her body, and then you have Victoria Moors who did her routine and you’re like, this is what gymnastics routines are supposed to be. Her entire body, her expression, her intention were all in line with the movement and the music that she was doing, and she stood out about everyone else in the competition, I think, in terms of the whole package.

DVORA: And I think, because the previous night I had watched the Nastia Cup which had featured a lot of really great routines. There were a lot of really good floor routines, very well performed. I mean, some of them were as you expect them to be. But for me, the standout, other than Sydney Johnson-Scharpf, who is Brandy Johnson’s daughter who basically just brought the house down, out-sassed everyone, was Alicia Boren of Northstar’s, I believe. She did a fantastic routine that was kind of like, to kind of African sort of beat, but committed. It had those moments where she was pausing, but with intention. And I was just so excited because clearly somebody taught this girl how to dance and how to express and how to perform. And yeah, you go to the following day, you go to the elites, and you don’t see the same level of performance in their dance. So it is kind of like they are grading a bit on a curve, that the level 10s, for various reasons, are able to do more expressive floor routines, maybe because they have three tumbling passes instead of four and they have a little bit more time to focus on the choreography. For whatever reason, I think that there were more standout floor routines at the Nastia Liukin Cup.

JESSICA: So speaking of the floor routines, they have this new rule that was supposed to make it so that you couldn’t stand in the corner and catch your breath for ten minutes before you did you tumbling, but now it’s like, so you would see everyone doing these floor routines where they just sort of step into a corner on one foot and stand in the corner on one foot like a flamingo. The only person who I thought really embraced this type of what the new code intended, the spirit of the code, was Gabby Jupp, who danced on one foot into the corner, and then turned around and ran and did her passes. And that really stood out and I was like, gasp, it’s like a throwback to the 70s, even, the way she was doing it. But everyone else looked like a flamingo.

DVORA: Or everyone else was standing on one leg and you half-expected them to touch their nose or something.

[LAUGHS]

JESSICA: DUI test on floor.

DVORA: Yeah, I know. Gabby Jupp definitely danced that was incorporated into her choreography, and everyone else kind of just stands on one foot for a second so it doesn’t look like I am standing in the corner, which I am. Waiting in the corner and catching my breath.

JESSICA: It so stood out, like, it kept making me laugh. I was like seriously, guys, this is the new code whoring. It’s not like the double twisting tuck jump, it’s now that standing on one foot in the corner. Come on. Be more creative than that, please.

DVORA: As for code whoring, though, I think I still like it better than ugly jumps out of tumbling passes and double twisting tuck jumps. I’m just going to say that. I think that it is less of an eyesore than the other versions of code whoring that we’ve seen in the past.

JESSICA: Yeah. This is true. Yeah. You’re right. I totally agree with that.

DVORA: No, it’s a little ridiculous, but less bad than other things. And I would like to see someone touch their nose, that would be just…please, someone. Please.

JESSICA: Please, someone, put that in their NCAA routine this weekend. If you are listening to this podcast, I would love to see that. That reminds of, who was it, this one girl at Fullerton, I want to say her last name was Baker, she did just out of the blue, it was like her senior year last routine ever, she just turned to the judges and just totally did—what’s the one where you’re totally in a wheelchair? That’s not the Dougie. Is that the Dougie?

DVORA: No, the Dougie definitely doesn’t look like you’re in a wheelchair.

JESSICA: No, the Dougie is the one where you go around your head and then you do the wave.

DVORA: Yeah.

JESSICA: And the body roll. Anyway. Whatever that one where it looks like you are in a wheelchair, that is the one that she did right to the judges, and her coach was looking, like, what? And then was looking at—clearly some kind of bet, like, throw this in your routine at the last second! So. Someone touching their nose in the corner would be awesome. Just for us. Just throwing it out there if someone wants to do it. Ok so—go ahead.

UNCLE TIM: I was going to say, to go with the throwback theme, I thought that, speaking of Boren’s routines, I think it was awesome that she dismounted with a full twisting double back. I was like, this is like Shannon Miller from 1996. Do I need to put on my slap bracelets while I’m watching and play with them, or what? And then also, I don’t want to take Dvora’s thunder or anything, but I know that she is a huge fan of Biles’s dismount, which was also like a throwback.

JESSICA: On beam? Yes. Let’s discuss the beam dismount.

DVORA: To Dominique Dawes. I mean, I’m wracking my brain, so I wanted to ask this question out there to the gymternet, has anyone else since Dominique Dawes in 1996 done that dismount series of two back handsprings to full-in? I feel like there is someone, and for the life of me I can’t remember who, so if you know who this person is, please let us know, I’m going crazy.

JESSICA: Yeah, I was looking at that question too and I asked my friend and he was like, yeah, Marinescu did it, Gogean …

DVORA: Yeah, but…

JESSICA: But that was same era, right?

DVORA: Yeah, last time Marinescu did that was 1996 as well. And yeah, Gogean didn’t compete it in 1997, no no no no no. She won that beam title in 1997 with a no-frills routine.

JESSICA: Yes.

DVORA: So, it was—she was perhaps doing it in 92, when she did more difficulty in her routines, but by 96, she wasn’t doing that level of difficulty.

JESSICA: Did Carly Patterson ever do it? Or did she always do the Arabian?

DVORA: Always has done the Arabian, since 2001 when I first saw her at the Goodwill Games, she was doing that dismount already. So she would have had to have been a very young junior if I haven’t seen it.

JESSICA: Ok, gymternet, save us with this and let us know.

DVORA: Anyone post-96.

JESSICA: Ok, speaking of Biles, back to Biles on beam. Ok first of all, I have to say how much I love, love, love, love, love, love this gymnast. I mean, outside the gymnastics, how she just looked super focused during her gymnastics, and then she could enjoy the meet and be—not that that means that someone’s happy or not happy and someone’s game face is different for different people, but I just love seeing her having fun, and I love the fact that she ran up to Ohashi after every routine and just gave her a hug. She just seemed so excited to be there, and she seemed like a little NCAA athlete in the floor, really, with the camaraderie and running up to people and enjoying it and kind of having the team spirit, which you don’t see a lot with elite. So that made me so happy to see. And then, of course, she’s just a maniac. Her tumbling is so crazy. And then on beam, she did that ugly double turn thing but she made it look really good. Like, the squat turn, that double squat turn. Everybody who does that looks like they’re going to fall off.

UNCLE TIM: I didn’t think she did it that well. There was a lot of arm flailing as she was going.

JESSICA: But it was so fast, though!

DVORA: That’s why it looks better when she does it. She’s going so fast that she gets around faster than everyone else, while everyone else, the first turn goes around pretty fast, but then the second one is like, will she make it around? We don’t know. There is some arm flail with her but at least she doesn’t have any problem getting the revolutions around. So fast.

JESSICA: Seriously. I mean, I watched it, and I was like, oh! And then I paused it, rewound it, and watched it again, and I was like, oh! That’s how it’s supposed to be done. Really, that’s what I thought to myself, because it’s basically an ugly turn no matter what who does it. But done that fast, it didn’t make me nervous, and I think that took away part of the ugliness.

DVORA: That turn is the side somi of turns on beam. It just—no-one will make that look good, just no-one. If you do it above one revolution, it’s going to look bad. I don’t know, it’s just my feelings. Yeah, her turn was better than other people, but Rebecca Bross had the right idea, just go around one time. [LAUGHS] And that’s it. Can we talk more about Biles because I don’t think we’re done?

JESSICA: Yes. No. Because she is, like I said last week, she is going to be a World Champion, she is the greatest thing ever, and yes. Please continue.

DVORA: I’m so nervous because I don’t want to overhype her, not because she doesn’t deserve it, but because I’m so nervous about jinxing her. But she has so much potential. This is what’s so exciting about her, is that you watch her, and you know that she had a million upgrades up her sleeve. Whereas as much as I love Katelyn Ohashi at this meet, and she is also adorable on the sidelines, is so charming in interviews, she’s such an easy, she giggles at everything. And just a real charmer, and those dimples are freaking adorable. But it seems like she just has to work a little harder for it, and you wonder, how many more upgrades does Katelyn Ohashi have? Now granted, on balance beam, she never has to upgrade again because she has so much difficulty. But what about the events? But with Simone Biles, you kind of just feel like the sky is the limit. Her double-double on floor? I’ve never seen a double-double with the twists go around that quickly. I leaned over to Blythe and said, she could throw another twist in there, right? Am I crazy to imagine that? But I don’t think I am. And she discussed the fact that she has another twist for her double layout in the second pass, but it wasn’t ready for this meet. But she seems to be limitless potential with her. And it feels like she’s only getting better. She’s getting better at competing, she’s going to get better with her form hopefully—that’s not necessarily given, but you hope. And you just feel like she could do anything, and yeah, just overhyped her a bit.

JESSICA: No, that’s the thing with her. You know, with Ohashi, Ohashi’s won everything as a junior. And we’ve all just been waiting, waiting, waiting for her to be a senior. And now she’s finally a senior, and we’re like ok, good. She’s steady now. Now please just don’t get hurt and keep going. But with Biles, I don’t think she was really on the radar until last year at Classics, and then she and Laurie Hernandez just blew everybody away with their performances, and I think that’s really when they got on Marta’s radar, and the thing that I really like about her coaches is that they’re really aware of this transition phase to being a senior elite and how her training and her mental training and all of that are really important right now, and I think that she’ll do really well because she has really smart coaches who aren’t going to get caught up in the glamour of being on Marta’s radar, and they’re really going to take care of her as a person and make sure she’s still having fun and making sure that training is still going well for her and all of that stuff. And I also know that they spend twice the time on bars, I think, than they do on other events with her, because she doesn’t need it on the other events, but she needs it on bars, you know? So I think they’re really smart with her training and I really like her coaches.

UNCLE TIM: And I want to add that—oh. Sorry.

DVORA: No.

UNCLE TIM: I just wanted to add that she, part of the reason she is so good at tumbling is that she has such a strong roundoff back handspring…

JESSICA: Yes.

UNCLE TIM: …because when you watch it, she…if you’ve ever been a gymnast, your coaches always tell you, stretch out your roundoff back handspring, and she has one of the longer back handsprings that I have seen from an elite for a long time, and so that’s what allows her to get in the right position and to take off and to do all the twists and perhaps, one day, do a triple twisting double back, which would be awesome, and yeah, so yeah. I think it’s really basics that really, really help her, especially on floor.

DVORA: I kind of notice that, and I do kind of remember my coach telling me to stretch mine out and I never listened. If only I had listened, I could have been Simone Biles, right?

[LAUGHS]

JESSICA: No, I’m so glad that you brought that up because I watched her tumbling over and over and I just—the thing about her tumbling is that it is so beautiful because her technique is so precise and so good, it’s like watching Podkopayeva. Last week I compared Podkopayeva and Prudnova and said if they had a little gymnastics baby in the United States it would be her, and ok, she doesn’t have the polish of Podkopayeva, but she could get it. That’s what I’m saying. What were your biggest surprises while you were there? Who totally stood out for you? Who did so much better than you thought, or worse than you though, or who was more impressive in person or less impressive in person?

DVORA: Ohashi was a big surprise. I think that there had been a lot of negative talk about her, and she did not look great at the WOGA Cup, or Challenge, or Invite, I don’t know what that meet is actually called, and she didn’t really have a great 2012 National Championships, and there’s just a lot of talk about, well, you know, maybe she was going to be a really spectacular junior and not really have an impressive senior career, and she just looked so much better at the American Cup. And not only that, like we saw from the photo I mentioned earlier, she was just happy also. She was joking around, she was a delight to talk to, she really, really surprised me. I was really pulling for her. I really wanted her to have a great meet and I heard all the whispering, and part of me also kind of believed it but I really didn’t want such a spectacular junior talent to have a bad senior debut. And she didn’t. She had a great senior debut, and she looked really happy and relaxed throughout. So that was a big surprise, and I was really happy about the result. Because it’s like you said, with someone like Simone Biles, she doesn’t come into this meet with any sort of pressure, and the feeling everyone got after watching her was that she’s only going up. And I don’t think Ohashi had that kind of talk attached to her before she came to the American Cup, so I was really pleased about that.

JESSICA: And what about Seitz and Ferrari? I’m very interested in Moors, Moors really stood out to me, what did you think? I mean, Seitz kind of watered down on bars. I was all excited to see her bars and then I was like, oh, this is why they didn’t show it on TV. She really watered down. I understand, it’s really early in the season, but I thought Ferrari looked good.

DVORA: Ferrari looked great. And she’s also a workhorse. And her timers on vault were so powerful. And everything. Her timers on floor, she would do like three floor routines without tumbling, and then do full tumbling on her floor routine.

JESSICA: Dang.

DVORA: She is a workhorse. She really looked fantastic throughout, and she’s clearly busting her ass to be in this kind of shape, and this early in the season. Ok. I’ve never been a big fan of Seitz. I, you know. She does have a style on bars that I tend to favor, which is the powerful swing, I’m more of a release move person than an in-bars, Stalder-work kind of person. But she does a thing where she sticks out her head on her bail, her form is kind of loose, and also, she has the same composition to her bars routine that somebody like Shayla Worley did, where it’s like release-cast handstand-release-cast handstand, and so I’ve never really been a big Seitz fan. She had a really good beam routine from what I could see on the other side of the arena after kind of having a rough warm up, so I was happy for her, but she’s, you know, waiting to see what the rest of the quad will bring for her, but she’s never been a particular favorite of mine. And Victoria Moors is just great. She’s beautiful to watch, but I didn’t see much of her in training, I didn’t really see anything that stood out, and what you saw in the meet was kind of how she trained. I’m not a huge fan of that dismount on bars. It’s different, but she doesn’t really stretch the layout out.

JESSICA: Yeah, it’s supposed to be a layout, but I don’t know how they gave that layout, it’s clearly not laid out. Like, maybe she did it to get credit originally it was, but I was like, that’s totally like a pike if you’re asking me.

DVORA: And it’s like, it seems too easy for this level of competition. I mean, I don’t know how difficult it actually was, my frame of reference was that it was the 96 compulsory dismount in a tuck position, so in my mind I’m think, well, if it was a compulsory dismount, then it’s not the most difficult dismount. But yeah. It seems a little too easy. She’s lovely on beam and floor, and she vaulted a really nice double. But she was the person to be excited over on floor was great. Maybe it’s kind of because I miss her floor from last year.

JESSICA: Her floor was fantastic. I loved, loved, loved watching her on floor, I just loved it. Uncle Tim, let’s start with some of your favorites. Let’s talk about Kristian Thomas on floor.

UNCLE TIM: Alright, so I think that Kristian Thomas on floor was interesting, because he included a skill that almost no-one ever does, it’s called a Merinitch, which is basically a front handspring and you miss your feet and then you roll out into a dive roll, basically. And so it’s almost like a handspring front to dive roll onto the floor, which is so cool, and I was thinking about this because we just interviewed Kyle Shewfelt a few weeks ago, and he was talking about how it’s very important to set yourself apart in some way, and I was thinking, well, this is interesting, because everyone else is doing the same rollout skills, but he does a different one. Granted, it’s only a C, but it’s still sets him apart. Also, one thing that was interesting about his routine was that he does a Shushunova. For all those people out there who always ask, oh, but wouldn’t that hurt your private parts? It doesn’t. I’m sure that Kristian Thomas can tell you that he has not really hurt or bruised or risked having progeny in the future by doing the Shushunova. And so, I think that, you know. I think it was interesting that he did that, and it’s another little thing that sets him apart, so.

JESSICA: You know, a little tidbit on that is that the British team has an artistic advisor who works with the men. And that artistic advisor as Carol Angela Orchard who has coached many of the great Canadians. So they specifically are working on this as a team. So I think it’s great that you’re recognizing this and it’s something that they really work- it’s not an accident that this happened. And I love that skill and I think it’s insane. And I love seeing the Shushunova, so. Ok let’s talk about my non-boyfriend, who is not Igor, but Oleg.

UNCLE TIM: [LAUGHS] So, right. And I was thinking about Oleg. Oleg is very consistent and he, you know, finished second place. And he had a couple rough spots, like his handstand on parallel bars, which he managed to save, which was incredible. He was basically on one rail and bent almost at I would say a 45 degree angle sideways from handstand and still managed to fight back up to handstand. It was crazy. Anyway. I was thinking about him and he just does not have something that really sets him apart. He does you know pretty standard routines. You know like for instance, Jake Dalton has his toe point, Marcel has his full twisting double back off parallel bars that everyone talks about. I feel like we need to find some way to get Oleg some hype. Like we need a “Tim-tervention” or something to help him like, you know, like give him a mullet or something to get people talking. Jess what do you think? Or, Dvora?

DVORA: There was a coach there with a mullet, that’s all I wanted to say. And I couldn’t stop staring at it.

JESSICA: [LAUGHS] What country was he from?

DVORA: I couldn’t remember [LAUGHS] not American

JESSICA: Oh my God, well he should totally compete with an actual mohawk. Not a faux-hawk, but a real mohawk. Like spiked up. Like it doesn’t have to be liberty spikes so it would touch the ground when he did a handstand, but a legit mohawk. Like we haven’t had a punk rock gymnast really totally compete like that. We probably have in NCAA but I can’t think of who now. So yeah we need someone to actually rock a mohawk. So Oleg, if you’re listening, this is your way to do it. So.

UNCLE TIM: With some like “guy-liner” too, or no?

JESSICA: Oooh. Guy-liner would be awesome! I mean you have- so let’s talk about for a minute everyone else’s boyfriend from Germany, Nguyen. He competed with the tattoo out. So I said last weekend I wanted to see what he would do, and he didn’t cover it up. He went full nude chest and showed us his tattoo. And I love seeing that. I think that’s great. I think it reflects the culture, and I was happy to see that someone didn’t cover their tattoo but just went for it. And did he get a deduction? No. Hm! As far as we know, he didn’t.

UNCLE TIM: And so I think Oleg is my new favorite. Like I, I don’t know, I have a greater appreciation for him and I just want him to win. And I think that something that we forget about is that he’s in Ukraine, and Ukraine recently sent all their gymnasts home from the National training center to their you know regional training center or to their gyms basically. I don’t know what his conditions are in his gym, but I feel like if he were in another country, he would have probably better equipment, better medical attention, and, I don’t know, I think it’s so impressive that he finished second at this meet, and probably is training under suboptimal conditions.

JESSICA: One note, is that confirmed about the Ukrainian team?

UNCLE TIM:I interviewed him actually at the American Cup, and yeah they were sent back to their gyms

JESSICA: Oh so it is confirmed!

DVORA: And so now it just makes me even sadder for what happened to them at the Olympics. Do you think they would have been sent back had they won the team bronze?

JESSICA: No because they totally would have gotten money! This is probably why!

DVORA: Exactly! So that just you know, given the whole mess that happened with Uchimura’s dismount from the pommels. But look at- the Japanese are not going to lose their training funding if they didn’t get a medal but, the Ukrainians might. Or have.

JESSICA: Ugh. That’s so sad! Aw, this makes me totally want him to stand out with his little mohawk. You know what, we should start some kind of fundraiser for them. Like every time he competes with a mohawk, everyone that likes it or just wants to support him, $5 for the mohawk or something. To do like a PayPal account for the Ukrainian men’s team. Oh maybe they should make a calendar with Igor in it. I would buy that. Just saying. Fundraising ideas you guys.

DVORA: Oh my God, have him dress as David Bowie.

JESSICA: [LAUGHS] Ok we have to go back for a second to Marcel Nguyen, sorry I interrupted the tattoo conversation.

DVORA: And his shorts?

JESSICA: And his shorts.

UNCLE TIM: [LAUGHS]

JESSICA: So what was going on with the shorts?

UNCLE TIM: Dvora, you were there

JESSICA: Yeah you were there

DVORA: I was there. I mean it was, as you saw on TV throughout the entire routine he like- and Jon Horton noted as you guys heard, because you guys were listening to the in-house commentary until after pommels. But he kept like, I don’t understand. Did he pick up a pair of shorts with the elastics stretched out? Like they were falling down the entire meet!

JESSICA: [laughs]

DVORA: I don’t have any special information except for the fact that I saw it closer than you guys did. But it was his shorts- I’ve never seen tha. His shorts were falling down, and I was worried on the last tumbling pass they weren’t going to make it.

JESSICA: They were going to fly off, fling off into the audience.

DVORA: Or around his ankles. I was so convinced they were going to slide down to his knees or ankles, and I kind of wanted that to happen.

[LAUGHTER]

JESSICA: That would be hilarious

DVORA: Not just because, you know, he’s a cute guy, but you like his legs are kind of thin so it’s not really for that. It’s just because I wanted to see the reaction of his reaction, the arena’s reaction, the commentators’ reaction, the judges’ reaction. I wanted to know what would happen if something like that happened in competition. I just was very curious.

JESSICA: Oh my God

DVORA: And it seemed we got tantalizingly close to finding out

JESSICA: [LAUGHS] Tantalizingly close! I wonder if, I really wonder if he lost weight since he last wore that uniform, or if it was a new manufacturer and he hadn’t tried them on, or he was wearing someone else’s because he forgot his or lost his or something. You never know. But you know a lot of people wait till the last minute with these uniforms for competition instead of having a full practice in them. But let’s talk about Danell for a second. You guys were there. And oh I have to mention you guys totally totally go to the Gymnastics Examiner and read all the quick hits from Blythe because she has great behind the scenes notes in there. She has a great report that she wrote afterward. And Dvora is also going to have something up on the site. But definitely go to Gym Examiner and check out what she wrote because she has really great insight. And she’s resting from her adventure this weekend. But anyway Dvora, so tell us.

DVORA: So basically I mean the whole training session he did not have very good training. He looked very low energy. And in the warm-ups again he was kind of falling all over the place. He was falling on vault pretty badly. And I saw quickly that Paul… is it Ziert? Or Ziert? I don’t know how to pronounce it.

JESSICA: Ziert.

DVORA: Ziert. At IG had posted on Facebook that according to Yin Alvarez, Danell was sick. And then watched that floor routine. And I had never seen a balk on a tumbling pass on floor exercise routine. And it was just kind of shocking. So then after we went over to Paul, Blythe and I, and went and spoke to him, and he basically said that he had been throwing up the night before and that Yin was actually quite worried but Danell kept reassuring his step dad that he was fine. He was fine. And we were just kind of speculating on the sidelines, you know and first of all Paul kind of praised how smart Danell was in the sense that he knew he could not get that tumbling pass around. He was going to probably crash. And so he made a smart call to balk there and just take another pass at the tumbling pass. And he later said in the post interview that he was just out of gas. Like someone asked him if his steps were off. He said no my steps weren’t off, I just knew I wasn’t going to make it around. And he just had, he just looked really low energy. You know normally Yin and Danell are pretty energetic on the sidelines, the camera’s always going to them, they seem happy, they’re talking. And it was just very very somber. And the whole meet was just really really rough. I was really pleased to see he did well on vault because he was crashing those in the warm ups left and right. He was not making any of them around. So it was quite impressive that he managed to pull a vault around.

JESSICA: I was worried the whole time watching him. I was just like oh please please just only do pommel horse and p-bars and then like go sit down.

DVORA: Well, we were kind of wondering if he was going to be pulled out because he had pommels coming up next, at least that gave him a shot at- you know, no danger attached to doing pommels. But I was nervous about vault, I was nervous about high bar. I mean and thankfully, I mean he took a big fall on the knee, put his hands down on the dismount. But you know, just seems like he got up- it couldn’t been so much worse considering how weak he seemed.

JESSICA: Definitely.

DVORA: So just glad he wasn’t injured. And it’s the American Cup in the year after the Olympics. Doesn’t feel good to perform like that, but it’s not really- no one is worried that Danell is now not going to be…

JESSICA: Right.

DVORA: …not going to do well in the future.

JESSICA: Yep. And did you, ok so last week we talked about who was the heir apparent to Alexei Nemov. And of course, Jake Dalton won the competition. So I felt like it was sort of like an underwhelming win in a way, even though he did a really great job. But I have to wonder, because I was watching the women in the crowd every time that he competed because I couldn’t help but notice that all the moms that were there with their kids would sort of smile at each other and look around at each other for confirmation like, “You watching this? Do you see him? Do you see him?” And it was very entertaining to see that on TV. But what was his performance like and also how was the crowd reaction to him? Did he get as many wolf whistles as we anticipated?

DVORA: I did not hear any wolf whistles from where I was sitting. I mean mostly the crowd was pretty tepid on all of the men to be honest. Danell would get a bigger cheer, and obviously Danell and Jake for the men got the biggest cheers. I don’t understand why Kristian Thomas, who’s my husband, did not get louder cheers. But you know it was pretty quiet. The crowd reserved their shrieking – and it was shrieking – for Gabby- I mean not Gabby, sorry, for Simone and for Kaitlyn. And the crowd was pretty quiet on the men. And sometimes I would kind of forget, not forget that they were competing, but you know normally when a gymnast goes up and salutes and everyone cheers for them it’s kind of like my cue to start paying attention. And they didn’t have that kind of reception on the men’s side, so I would all the sudden look over and one of the guys was in the middle of his routine. And I hadn’t even noticed that he had started. So unfortunately I don’t think the crowd appreciated that they were getting to see some of the best gymnasts at the London Olympics compete, which was unfortunate. But yeah, Jake- I mean and Jake also has a new tattoo as well. So if we’re going to talk about tattoos…

JESSICA: Yeah!

DVORA: …that are visible. He has a Olympic tattoo on his back. Not, thankfully not as big as John Geddert’s

[LAUGHTER]

UNCLE TIM: Blythe wrote that in her quick hits

JESSICA: [LAUGHS]

DVORA: I saw that, yeah. I was just like, when she said that, she’s like, “Maybe they went and got them together.”

JESSICA: [LAUGHS]

DVORA: But I don’t know. I mean I’m really into, like you said, like I’m really into I think the ink and I’m really into all the ink on the male athletes. And on the female athletes. Like Vanessa Ferrari has a tattoo. You know I like that. I like that, because I think it’s good for the image of the sport. Do you agree? I think this is a really good thing that the guys…

JESSICA: Yes

DVORA: …get to do what you know other guys their age are doing and show it and have some sort of way of distinguishing themselves. Especially because they’re forced to wear those kind of nerdy looking outfits. You know let them do something…

JESSICA: Yeah

DVORA: …that makes them look a little better. Or at least different.

JESSICA: Yeah like a little personal expression. And it reflects, you know, I think gymnastics, and I said this a couple episodes ago when we had Kyle on and we let him have a cuss-athon. No it wasn’t that bad. But he, I said that I think gymnastics suffers from a goody two-shoes kind of image, and I think that it’s good for people to see like oh, that person looks like me or they look like my friend or they look like I do. Whatever you know. It’s normal you know. It’s not a big deal. So let’s move on to Russian Nationals. So Uncle Tim, what did you think?

UNCLE TIM: Right so, Mustafina won the all around with a 59.850 and David Belyavskiy won with 87.950 on the men’s side. And so the big talk of the gymnternet right now is Mustafina’s new routines. So what did you think about her balance beam routine, first of all.

DVORA: I liked it. I’m trying to think whether or not the combination of an Onodi to double turn is an actual combination [laughs]. Was that what she did, right?

JESSICA: Switch half, Onodi, double turn, yep

DVORA: Like, none of that was connected. Like, no way. Just from the physics of it it’s impossible to connect those elements. To do a switch half and then, I mean I don’t know as much about the mechanics of the sport the way that you, that like Jess and Uncle Tim do. But the physics of it seem impossible, to really actually connect it. And though it’s beautiful, she does all the skills beautifully, they’re all done singly. But that said, I love her. I’m so happy to see her less than a year out of the Olympics competing again at this level. That you know she took a little time off but she… I don’t know, will she reclaim her all-around title in 2013?

JESSICA: You know what? She has a good chance. Except there’s Simone Biles of course, but [LAUGHS] Who will…

DVORA: [LAUGHS] Who will win everything!

JESSICA: But this is, it will be an interesting match up though because the score- you know they are comparable in that they both have a weak event. Which is Mustafina, her vault is not as strong as Biles’ is but her bars is extremely strong where Biles is not as strong. Yes I am already putting her up there on the podium. But you know I really like that switch half, Onodi, double turn even though it’s probably almost impossible to connect, especially the switch half to the Onodi. But the fact that she’s actually put it in the routine makes me think she probably has it more consistently than she showed it during that competition routine. And I really liked her new floor routine. Like it’s still not, you know, epic Russian, when you emote in your dance.

DVORA: Expressive

JESSICA: Expressive yeah. It’s not up there. But they’re just so beautiful. They have such beautiful lines that it’s- I like watching her routine. And I loved watching Anna Pavlova. I don’t care that she only did a layout for her bar dismount. I could watch her all day. Please let her continue competing for the rest of her life. She’s beautiful.

DVORA: How old is she now?

JESSICA: 25?

DVORA: Sorry

UNCLE TIM: Yes, she is 25, she was born in 87.

JESSICA: Hm! Look at me! I’m good. [laughs] Very proud of myself. Yeah, I mean, phew. Ferrari’s still looking good. Yeah, why not.

DVORA: Ferrari is, I would say almost looking better.

JESSICA: Ferrari’s kind of a little beast.

DVORA: Yeah her bars look better than they have in a really long time, her tumbling- that’s what was so impressive, just going back to American Cup for a second. You had three of the eight female competitors do double doubles.

JESSICA: Mhmm

DVORA: Like, that’s pretty cool

JESSICA: Yep

DVORA: Yeah I love Mustafina

UNCLE TIM: So what do you guys like about her floor routine? Because I’m not a huge fan. So try to convince me of why I should like this floor routine.

DVORA: I’m not going to be the one to do that, just because I think her routine in 2010 was just much better.

JESSICA: I mean for me it’s like, it’s- ok we’re judging this on a curve for elite. For elite gymnastics, where almost all elites look like they never took a dance class in their entire life, for which their coaches should be shot, she actually looks like she took a dance class and she actually has correct basic positions, which makes it pretty to watch because she has correct technique. And she leads from the elbow instead of from the wrist when she does a movement. So grading on a curve it’s pleasing to the eye. Is it incredibly artistic? Is it the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen? No. But compared to other elites, I enjoy watching her.

UNCLE TIM: Ok, because I felt like the routine was a lot of walking with more arm flicks and then some huffing and puffing in a corner and some one foot, you know like

DVORA: Standing on one foot

JESSICA: [LAUGHS]

UNCLE TIM: Ninja stand, like stork stand contest. And then tumble tumble tumble, and then walk walk walk, arm flick arm flick. And of course she does the arm flicks with more sass and more

JESSICA: Grace

UNCLE TIM: Grace and beauty than other gymnasts, especially like when you think about that routine we saw how many once ago with the seven tumbling pases from Korea or whatever. But like I was just like, it’s a lot of very basic arm flicks and she doesn’t ever really go sideways when she’s walking. It’s just, walk arm flick arm flick. So.

JESSICA: So you’re saying she’s like an egret among storks.

UNCLE TIM: [LAUGHS] I guess

JESSICA: [LAUGHS]

DVORA: I feel like she’s late…

UNCLE TIM: Whatever that means

JESSICA: [LAUGHS]

DVORA: …she’s late Svetlana Khorkina in the sense that she just kind of walks around [LAUGHS]. You know early Svetlana Khorkina had some more choreography, but late Svetlana Khorkina just kind of walked and strutted and sold it.

JESSICA: [laughs] She was like, “Bitch please! You know who I am!” Alright now I’m going to do a double twisting shushunova then I’m out. You’re totally right.

DVORA: And Mustafina doesn’t quite have that ability. I mean, Khorkina could pull it off. It kind of bothered me that everyone would talk about her like she was the queen of you know artistry. It a little bit bothered me because I was like well she’s not really doing anything. But she was doing something, she had an ability to sell a routine that the other gymnasts just didn’t have. Mustafina has similarly has similar not choreography happening, but doesn’t have quite the same salesmanship quite yet.

JESSICA: So speaking of older gymnasts competing, like Pavlova, the English Championships were this past weekend. And that’s just England, not Great Britain or the British Empire which are different. They’re the ones that compete at the Olympics as a whole, so this is just England. Which I had to remind myself when I was like, “What, how did I miss the British Championships?” Then I was like, “No no no, that wasn’t it.” So let’s talk about, first of all, Lisa Mason, who was at the Sydney Olympics. She’s now 31. She’s been a sports model and a stunt woman. She has a daughter. She has now made a comeback. She’s 31 now. And I put up some videos of her on my site training and also the videos of the beam routine and vault that she competed at English Nationals. She won the vault title at age 31. Having said that, her skills- she does some cool stuff but basically she’s at the level right now of a good division I NCAA gymnast. She does a really cool back handspring full on beam. But her vaults are handspring pike front and Yurchenko, what’s the Yurchenko where you do like a forward…

UNCLE TIM: Arabian

JESSICA: Arabian, yeah. I mean these aren’t the skills that are going to get her on the British team or to the Olympics. But, having said that, she’s just started back and it’s very intriguing. And I mean it just goes to show that you can do gymnastics for a long time. That’s fine. So anyway, let’s talk about some of the other routines. What stood out for you guys?

UNCLE TIM: So the big routine that everyone’s talking about and we posted it on our Facebook page this weekend was Ruby Harold’s bar routine. And I was just impressed with her insane transitions from high to low and low to high. Like doing, I’m trying to remember what she all did, a Bhardwaj, what else did she do Jess? Help me out here.

JESSICA: Yeah she does a Bhardwaj with an actual straight body. Which everyone looks like they’re doing a hula hoop or they’re going to break their back when they do that or they’re going sideways. But she looks really straight when she does it. And it’s super high. Then she does the toe-on half into an immediate bail, which you reminded me is caled a Zuchold. So she does, it’s so cool looking because basically she’s facing away from the low bar, she does stoop through and just shoots her legs straight back to the low bar. Which is, you have to be so powerful to make that on the FIG bar setting. Like seriously that’s so far to go, it’s got to be a solid four feet. And it’s just so cool. You know she fell once and had almost fall another time, but that routine is going to be really exciting. And it’s all these fun transitions that she does.

UNCLE TIM: Yeah it’s another one of those throwback routines that we were talking about. Because they didn’t do that stoop through transition recently, it was like 70s and 80s probably last time we really saw that. So I was like, “Whoa! What is this going on?” It was exciting.

JESSICA: Yeah that routine is really fun to watch. And then what about Becky Downie?

UNCLE TIM: Yeah she did a lot of releases, I’m trying to remember what she all did. She did the stalder version of a Hindorff, which I can’t remember, somebody will tweet us the answer, I’m sure. I can’t remember the name of that skill, pardon, someone will tweet us the answer. But it was just like wow, maybe Khorkina? Is it called a Khorkina? Khorkina did it. Anyway I’m rambling. So yeah I was impressed with her large variety of releases.

JESSICA: And then Hannah Whelan won. And she is of course, she competed at the Olympics so it’s great to see that she’s still going. And I love to see that continuity. What about on the men’s side?

UNCLE TIM: Yeah so Max Whitlock won the men’s side. Obviously Kristian Thomas was in the United States competing. He outscored Jake Dalton actually. Max scored an 89.4 in the all around and Jake scored 89.398 so he outscored him by .002 of a point. But I thought that was very interesting. And he probably could have done much better because he scored a 13.9 on vault I wanna say and his scoring potential on that vault is probably higher. And he scored a huge 15.97 on pommel horse.

JESSICA: Dang!

UNCLE TIM: I know, yeah. Compared to Jake who scored in the low 13s but you know, I was just impressed with his pommel horse routine which is available online. Yeah those are my thoughts on the English Championships for the men.
–

SPANNY: This week’s interview with Lloimincia Hall and DD Breaux is brought to you by TumblTrak. Did you ever think to yourself while watching the London Olympics, “I wish I could tumble like the big girls?” Or in my case, tumble like the little girls? I know I did! But when I was afraid to go for that round off backhandspring or try that new layout, my coach said try it on the TumblTrak. You’ve got nothing to lose but your fear. Protect your body and your brain while learning skills worthy of the title “big kid skills.” Try it on the TumblTrak! Check them out at www.tumbltrak.com.

JESSICA: Lloimincia Hall is from Dallas, Texas. She’s a sophomore at LSU right now. She is currently ranked 2nd on floor, tied with Vanessa Zamarripa. But she’s the only one in the top three to have scored a 10 this year. And before she came to LSU, she trained with Kim Zmeskal, world champion Kim Zmeskal at Texas Dreams and she also participated in the inaugural Nastia Liukin Supergirl Cup back in the day. So we will ask her about that. And DD, her coach, has been at LSU for over 35 years, and just in the last 10 years, she has produced seven individual NCAA champs. So LSU is coming up. And we’re really excited to have them on the show today. You know, before you came to LSU, you were one of the top level 10s in the country and I just wonder if you were overwhelmed with options for college and being recruited and how you decided on LSU.

Lloimincia: Definitely when it came down to deciding where I wanted to go, the letters did come in. However, me and my family, we are a very religious family and I come from a very religious background with my dad being a pastor and we took everything in prayer. And LSU was always there, but for some reason, we always tried to look elsewhere and look at different other places when God had our answer there the whole time. We were always trying to say ok let’s way our options and see what else is out there but LSU was always on my top list and I always wanted to make sure I wasn’t overlooking anything and overlooking what God had in store for me. So therefore, LSU was there from the very beginning and for some reason, we just continued to see what else was out there, whereas just following what God had in store for us would have been a lot cheaper when trying to decide different trips, if we would have just came to our first instinct and first decision of trying to come here first.

JESSICA: Before you came to LSU, you had the opportunity to compete at the very first Nastia Liukin Cup. Tell me about that experience. What was that like?

LLOIMINCIA:Competing at the first Nastia Liukin Cup is definitely something I will always remember because that was the beginning. That was the first. And the way that Nastia Liukin has done so much, contributed so much to this sport, she’s humbled herself so much to give back to a grand meet of that occasion. Being part of that was definitely the highlight of my JO career because I was able to actually meet her, be amongst people that I share, that’s in NCAA collegiate gymnastics along with me and we were able to say hey we were at the first and we still have leotards where we were at the first. We have different apparel. So just being able to be a part of that and be part of that community service and giving back is just what it’s all about and I was very honored to be part of that competition.

JESSICA: I agree. I love how Nastia gives back and does that meet on the podium and all that. I think it’s fabulous. Some people have said that the Nastia Liukin Cup is a great showcase for for level 10s but there’s also elites there. It could be a better opportunity for JO athletes to stand out. Do you feel like there was an equal playing field? Do you feel like you were able to stand out the way you wanted at that meet?

LLOIMINCIA: I feel like that that meet is, Nastia coming from an elite background, it was focused a lot on the elites but us JO kids being part of that, was more of a highlight in my life. Let me speak from experience, more than trying to win or more than trying to get in front of Martha’s eyes. I was more looking at it like this was an experience that I could check off that not many JO kids trying to pursue college can say that done. That’s how I looked at the experience. I looked at it as such an honor rather than trying to be number 1 or be number 1 or trying to get on the Olympic team or even try out to be part of that.That wasn’t a goal of mine. It was just try and enjoy the meet. I think that’s the difference or the mindset that a lot of JO kids look at that meet versus a lot of elite minded kids look at it as an opportunity or stepping stone to the elite process. The JO kids are looking at it as an opportunity and an honor to be on stage and a podium for that matter because JO kids don’t really get that option, other than of course at the Metroplex Challenge. That’s really it for us. So I think the podium is more of an awesome highlight for JO kids as well as the experience.

JESSICA: Yep totally. I totally agree. And I think that’s exactly what she wanted. And that’s great to hear that that’s what you got out of it. That makes me happy. So you trained at Texas Dreams. And I wondered when you started there, were you aware of what a legend Kim Zmeskal was before you went there?

LLOIMINCIA: Absolutely! I was part of quite a few gyms in Dallas so just going to compete at Texas Dreams was such an honor, I felt. When I walked through that door, no matter what gym I had on my back, I felt how much legendary success Texas Dreams has because they’re under the direction of Kim Zmeskal. I walked into that gym each time and she greeted everybody the same way. She’s very loving. Very caring. So I saw that just from them hosting many state championships. So just walking in there as a competitor, I felt the love and being at home. So being able to just go to the gym was definitely a highlight in my career. Because I know I was there as a competitor, I felt the love. So training there, there was so much love for being part of that gym.

JESSICA: Aw that makes me happy because that’s what I feel like it’s going to be like when you walk in there and I feel like she’s so amazing. Ok so I have to ask because you have incredible conditioning and incredible endurance. And that’s the same way that Kim Zmeskal was. She could’ve done 10 floor routines in a row. That’s what it looked like. So what was your conditioning or your floor complex like at Texas Dreams and is that something that you think helped you get to where you are now?

LLOIMINCIA: Kim Zmeskal is big time on conditioning. Definitely big time. Definitely one of the top. And she was someone who devoted a whole entire hour to conditioning. So therefore, I can say truly the conditioning that I have on the floor routine definitely plays a part into what I received back at Texas Dreams. I was someone who was like if you’re gonna be there, you’re gonna have to give your all. She was someone who believed it took no ability to do conditioning. Therefore, someone that does soccer can do the same conditioning as someone who does gymnastics because it’s all about giving your all into exercises that produce when you get tired a little bit or produce when you have to have momentum, exercises that require perseverance, things like that. That’s what she puts in. She has so much of a teaching tool that she puts into conditioning more than so when it comes to gymnastics. So I can truly say when it comes down to floor, that yes being under the direction of Kim Zmeskal and having that conditioning under my belt, being tired during a floor routine is something I haven’t felt while doing the floor routine because of stuff that I have learned back when I was under her. Because doing an entire floor routine was not something that she believed in. When it got to the third pass, she believed in doing almost three or four tumbling passes towards the end to make sure that when you do that one in competition, you shouldn’t have a problem. So I could definitely see the results of that each and every time I’m doing a floor routine here, now that I’ve been removed from Texas Dreams for about 2 years. I still see the results of that and definitely if anybody was to say does this conditioning help. They are tired right then and there. They’re upset. They’re like I can’t do it. I can say, I’m in college for two years so far and I’ve seen the results of something I’ve done back when I was in high school under her direction.

JESSICA: So, let me see. I can’t remember what year this was. 2007 or so? Were you coached by Marina and Gina?

LLOIMINCIA: Marnie and Gina.

JESSICA: Marnie and Gina. Sorry. So I know that this happens at a lot of gyms and when I was training, we changed gyms like a hundred times and coaches moved all over the place. Marnie and Gina left to go to Metroplex I think. And you decided to stay with Kim and I know this is a really hard decision for a lot of gymnasts because your coaches are everything. A lot of the gymnasts left but you chose to stay. Was that a really hard decision to make?

LLOIMINCIA: Absolutely! Marnie and Gina are two individuals that to this day, I give every credit for my gymnastics career. If it wasn’t for them, I know I wouldn’t be sitting here at LSU because they pushed me to a limit that I didn’t know I could do. Marnie and Gina were a dynamic duo to the point where when I walked through Texas Dreams’ door, nobody knew who I was. To them, actually having people recruit me. So Marnie and Gina are people that definitely to this day, I think I just talked to Gina two days ago on Facebook. They are people that I definitely never never lost contact and it was the hardest decision not to follow them. The only reason I did not follow them was because I was a senior when they went to Metroplex and that was a major move, financially a major move, financially and it was just too much for my personal family. Too much on me as a gymnast to make that much of a dynamic move when I was about to go to college, not even a full year because I came to college in June. So therefore, it wasn’t going to be a full year to the point where that was too much of a dynamic move to make that drastic change in my life.

JESSICA: So let’s talk about the floor routine. The floor routine that has everyone in the whole country talking right now. It’s one of the most popular routines. And we just absolutely love it on this show. I think we’ve talked about it almost every single episode since NCAA season started. So tell us about the process of creating this routine and who did the choreography. And I have to ask, it seems like it’s different every time. Did you always improvise or did you do this when you were in JO or is this something you just started in college? Start from the beginning with this routine. I’m sorry I just jumbled all my questions in one because I’m so excited to hear about it.

LLOIMINCIA. Ok. My floor routine process begins at the end of last season of course. I had a vision of trying to create a floor routine that implemented Christ but still not forgetting my success of my freshman year. I still wanted that to be put in place as well. So therefore, like I told you earlier, I am strictly religious and I’m trying to find something that can show the world that it’s all about Christ in my life. It’s not about who I am. Christ is who I represent. So therefore, I wanted to do a gospel floor routine that really hasn’t been done in NCAA gymnastics. That’s how my process started. My floor routine is mixed with African-American gospel artists at the beginning which is Kirk Franklin and Mary Mary, which are known African-American gospel artists that have won many Grammys, many Stella Awards in that genre of music. I put them in there at the beginning. Of course, at the end is drumline which I was known for my freshman year. I still wanted to incorporate that at the beginning. So Ashleigh Clare-Kearney, she is a national champion here, she choreographs all of our floor routines. I brought the idea up to her. How I did it, I wanted to start out with a big bang but that is gospel, and then continue with the gospel and then something at the end that got people’s attention, which was of course the drumline, like she never forgot her freshman year success and I’m very grateful for that as well. But that’s how the construction of it goes. The movement is to the song.

JESSICA: And then it seems to me like the routine is different every time. So do you interpret the part with the Kirk Franklin and Mary Mary lyrics that go on in the song that we don’t hear, do you interpret those differently each time? Is that what the improvisation is from?

LLOIMINCIA: Absolutely! When I’m trying to improvise or something of that nature, the improvisation is mostly to get the crowd going. But sometimes the movements that are already in the floor routine are representing the song. So basically the improvisation is getting the crowd excited and seeing what else is in the floor routine. That’s part of the choreography. The different improvisations, the different every now and then, no telling what I’ll do, that stuff is to get the crowd excited. Basically gospel is all about touching the lives and touching the hearts of others. So to get in their head, you have to sometimes knock on the door with something that they recognize in order for them to get the message. So that’s kind of what it’s all about when the improvisation comes.

JESSICA: I’m so glad that you just explained it that way because I was reading the article where you talk about this and the gospel part of it and how you want to bring your religious views and having Christ in your life as part of your routine. And I was telling a friend about that and they were like that’s not a religion. That’s not how that works. I don’t believe that for a second. I was like hello! Everyone has a different religion. Just because your religion is that you sit in church and are really quiet doesn’t mean that that’s how everyone else represents their religious views and how they feel about spirituality and it kind of made me mad obviously when he said that. I remember when Brittani McCullough, when she won the floor title in 2010 and she said the same thing about her floor routine. That it was worship dance and it was something she did in church and she brought that into her routine. And I feel like one of the things I really like about, ok I’m totally giving a lecture now on how I feel about this. One of the things I like about you talking about your floor routine is that part of college is learning about other people. Part of college is getting an education about the differences in the world and how people are different from you and how everyone can get along and growing your world view. I feel by you explaining how your religion is and you’ve expressed that in your floor routine is part of educating the general public about differences in the United States.

LLOIMINCIA: Right. Exactly. Definitely. Most definitely. That’s what I was trying to do. It’s not about, it’s not just entertainment. It’s all about trying to get a message over that it’s all about Christ in my life. It’s all about how I want to help the hearts and touch the lives of others of how much Christ has blessed me to be able to do what I’m able to do because of Christ. Most definitely, that’s my mission. Each floor routine, it’s how can I help others. It’s how can I give back. Which again goes back to LSU and how much they believe in giving back and helping others and just being in the community. All that plays in part to the floor routine. If you can get all that message all in one, then it’s hey let’s get a good score. But that’s what it’s really all about.

JESSICA: Our sport is artistic gymnastics and art is supposed to communicate a message and I think that you’re so successful in that because everyone is touched by what you do. People are getting it. They feel something when you perform and that is really the essence of artistic gymnastics and I think that’s why you’ve made such a big impact on so many people because I think a lot of gymnastics is losing that artistic part and you are the essence of it. I feel like you really touch people with your routines. I just want to thank you for that from all of the gymnastics fans out there.

LLOIMINCIA: Thank you so much! I appreciate it!

JESSICA: And now we’re going to change gears and talk to D-D. You have hired this year, one of your biggest rivals. You hired Jay Clark from Georgia. I’ve heard you’ve let him implement changes and bring things in from his experience to the program. Can you tell us about what changes he’s made and how that transition has been? I really admire that, as the head coach, you’ve been open to this.

D-D: Well it goes back to that question you asked me about why is the SEC so good. I’ve been at LSU for 36 years and we’ve had a great program and we have had a wonderful tradition but have never won a national championship. There are only four schools that have won national championships, NCAA championships in gymnastics: Utah, Flo- not even Florida. Utah, Alabama, Georgia, and UCLA. The opportunity came for me to enhance my staff, to upgrade the quality and experience of my staff and to be able to bring somebody like Jay on board and make him an associate head coach, somebody that can make decisions, somebody that’s forward thinking, somebody that’s been there done that, it’s been incredible to have another head coach in the gym. It’s been great for the kids, it’s been great for our staff and certainly great for our program.

JESSICA: And so what kind of changes has he brought in? What has he revitalised or moved things around?

D-D: Well he has experience with this age group of kids and a lot of times in the sport of gymnastics, we’re bringing up and elevating age group coaches and they’re great coaches. And the difference between Jay who is a college coach that has coached age group but has spent most of his coaching career on a college campus and has been an integral part in every championship that they’ve won there. He’s either recruited all the athletes on the team, has been on the floor coaching at the championships, has just been in the decision making process of every one of those championships and he brings that experience with him. The thing that we have enjoyed is his independent thinking and what he brings to our practices and to our staff meetings and to our entire LSU experience. We’re embarking right now on building a new training facility. Well, he’s done that. So you sit across the table and he goes no that won’t work because when we did this at this other place, this is what happened. But if we do this, this is what’s going to happen. It’s a wealth of experience that I would be a fool not to draw from.

JESSICA: Speaking of that and all this experience that he has, I wonder if that has played into, I feel like this is a huge get for you guys, that you got Savona from Canada and that she is doing one of the most difficult routines ever done in NCAA. It’s amazing. So tell us about recruiting her and getting that floor routine.

D-D: Well we had her recruited. We recruited her to come to LSU while Jay was still at his other university. She made her decision to come to LSU because she wanted the family atmosphere, she wanted our climate. She liked her experience when she was at LSU on her recruiting trip. Her parents came with her and it was a real family thing. She enjoyed that. And of course the promise of a new facility and incredible apartments right across from the gym. Our new gym is going to be located in the same locale, just right across the street. Our arena is going to be 50 yards from where we train and where she lives. It’s a fabulous situation and then couple that with the fact that she’s surrounded by kids from other teams that also win national championships. We think we’ve got something really special going and bringing Jay in at this time has been a real bonus for us. Savona has enjoyed the level of coaching and propensity that she gets here in our training center but she also really enjoys the nurturing and the help she gets in our academic center.

JESSICA: Her routine has got to start from like an 11 or something. It’s so much difficulty right? So tell us to put that in. I mean she seems to love that and thrive on doing that kind of thing but what was decision like risk vs reward in terms of deductions for all of the difficulty that she’s doing?

D-D: Well in her floor routine, we allowed her to keep her floor routine. We modified the music a little bit, made it a little bit shorter. And she does so many tumbling passes, we were able to sit down and make a decision. Which ones do you like the best? Which ones do you feel like you do the best? And which ones on a week basis, every week you’re going to have to do this routine and be successful. And on top of that, every week you’re going to have to train this in practice and be able to compete to beat out your teammate to be able to compete on Friday night. And she sat down and said the 1.5 stepout to double tuck, the half half, I really like. I can finish with a double layout or a double pike. So right now, we’re just really being conservative and letting her finish with the double pike because we’ve got some other things like her bars. We’re trying to change her bars and just some other events that we want to put more emphasis on and really try to change her mindset from that elite mindset where you gotta stack so much difficulty to the mindset where you do less difficulty and everything you do has to just be impeccably perfect. And that quest for perfection has been something that she has really struggled with. Like you said, she can stack the difficulty. She can do difficulty all day long. But does she keep her legs straight? Does she keep her body line nice? Does she keep her body erect on beam? There’s a lot of things that she has really begun to focus on here at LSU that she wasn’t aware of when she was trying to do all that difficulty to make the Olympic team.

JESSICA: Well I am a big fan of all of the difficulty she does and I can’t wait to see it like, even more clean, because she is amazing.

D-D: Yeah, she is amazing. And she’s an incredible young lady.

JESSICA: You are building a new facility, and that brings me to my next question which is, you know, we’re seeing a pattern of stronger storms throughout the country. You know, we had superstorm Sandy fresh in our minds and you’ve…

D-D: Wait, stronger what? I didn’t hear what you said, stronger what?

JESSICA: Oh sorry, storms. Storms.

D-D: Oh, okay. Like, snow storms?

JESSICA: Well, like Katrina and hurricanes and all that kind of stuff.

D-D: Oh, okay. Okay. Yeah.

JESSICA: So, you’ve given a lot of interviews about what it was like there during Katrina, and you have a kind of insight and experience that a lot of other coaches and gymnasts don’t have but I feel like they’re going to need in the future because I’m thinking about just what happened with Alabama last year with the twister they had there.

D-D: Yeah.

JESSICA: And you’re talking about building the new facility and so I if you could share some of how that experience has helped you prepare for how you’re building the new facility and just how you’ve adapted your coaching, or maybe the organization of the team from that.

DD: Well, first of all let’s understand from the get-go that the Katrina disaster that we experienced here at LSU was not hurricane related. A hurricane is a wind event, a rain event, and we had a lot of rain, we had a lot of wind, we had trees down, it was a normal hurricane event. But what happened to LSU was post hurricane was because the levees broke in New Orleans, because that infrastructure was not adequate enough to hold back the amount of water that came in from the Gulf, from Lake Pontchartrain in the Gulf of Mexico because that wetlands are so severely devastated. Okay, so first thing we need to do is focus on preservation of our wetlands. Getting passed that point, LSU became the evacuation center for most of New Orleans. Overnight our field house, which is where our track team trains, our field house became a triage, our Pete Mac where we compete became a medical hospital, our outdoor track stadium became a helicopter pad and we were flying in people from nursing homes and emergency situations, people from rooftops, and bringing them into LSU and our field house became a multiuse center with hospital beds and cots, just rows and rows and rows of them. And our student athletes were our first line of volunteers, came in and they helped feed people, prepare food, we washed sheets, we washed towels, things that were donated from the community because were not prepared for as many people as were brought to our facilities, so all of our athletic facilities became emergency evacuation centers. And, you know after about four days when the University got a grip on the whole thing, and the city and the state got a grip on the whole thing, it slowed down and the National Guard came in and began to take better care of the situation. What we have learned from this is we really circle our student athletes in and when we have a hurricane, or even the threat of a hurricane… we’re really just far enough north, I mean we sit on I-10 so it becomes a giant rain and wind event, we don’t get the massive amount of rising water that we get in the coastal areas. The first thing we do is shut the campus down and the kids are asked to stay inside and stay in, and to make sure they have the proper amount of water. We never lose power on campus because we have our own generator system on campus and we have our own power source on campus. So, the kids are all in the dorms, they’re in their apartment’s right here right across from the gym. Since Katrina we have been able to maintain life as usual as soon as the storm goes through.

JESSICA: Is there any specific advice that you would…

D-D: The tornado situation that you talked about, you know that went through Tuscaloosa, that happens in moments without any warning. That is something that is just unfathomable that that happened, and it happened all across that belt, you know Oklahoma, all through Tennessee and Alabama. We have tornados, but hurricanes we get so much warning! I mean, we know days in advance and anticipate and anticipate and anticipate, and pretty much can really be prepared for these kinds of events.

JESSICA: And did the planning of your new facility have any… is there any extra you guys have done or was it even needed to do anything extra if there was flooding or…

D-D: We have a generator now in the event that we do lose power in the field house, which is going to be not connected to but within 20 feet of our training facility, it has its own generator power. So if we do lose power, we’ll have access to the generator power here in the field house. Our facility will not have its own generator power, but of course our locker rooms and everything will have the kind of comfort in it that if we do have to bring our kids all in one place, we’ll have a very comfortable place to bring our kids. The football program, our football coaches, whenever there’s a hurricane they bring all their staff, all of everybody over to their football operations, and they stay there so that everybody knows where everybody is during the hurricanes. And you can prepare for this in advance because it’s a hurricane and you can anticipate where it’s going, but a tornado it’s truly, truly a mystery. I mean it comes on so quickly and there’s no warning. Give me a choice, give me a hurricane – give me a good hurricane any day.

JESSICA: Well, I’m hoping my mom is going to listen to this interview because I’ve been telling her to get a generator. So now I’m going to tell her to listen to this and follow your advice.

D-D: I have two. I have two at my house. So, yeah, where does your mom live?

JESSICA: Well she lives in Pennsylvania but she had like these huge storms and they had a twister there, too, which they never used to have! And so I’ve been telling her…

D-D: Yeah, everybody in South Louisiana has a generator. A lot of people have them connected to their houses, so when you lose power your generator kicks on.

JESSICA: Yes!

D-D: It’s pretty automatic, so that would be good advice to your mom.

JESSICA: Yes! Okay, and to the other coaches who might have this happen, get a generator in your break room.

D-D: Yeah, yeah. Go through it with the kids. We go through it with the kids, we have conversations about it. When we get in hurricane season and there starts to be a threat about a hurricane, here’s what you do. I live two minutes from campus, Jay lives about three/four minutes from campus, Bob lives about five minutes from campus so I mean, any emergency, we’re here; we’re here in a heartbeat.

JESSICA: So let’s move on to a happier topic

D-D: Good!

JESSICA: I want to talk about – although this is actually really good to know. I feel like I learned a lot and I feel more secure having talked to you about the safety of all of my beloved gymnasts at LSU.

D-D: Good! Yeah! I’m sure we get some negative recruiting, you don’t want to go to LSU they have hurricanes! Well, give me a good hurricane any day!

JESSICA: Okay so, every school or every gymnastics team is kind of known for something, or has something that they’re known for, and our sport is after all is called artistic gymnastics, and I think the thing that LSU has a reputation for is really embracing the culture of Louisiana and kind of showing that, especially in the floor routines. And I wonder if… is that a conscious thing? How does that all work? How is it that it translates to what we see in the floor routines there?

D-D: Well, I think that the other thing that we like to try to capture here is the fact that it’s fun. I’m a pretty intense person, so practice is not always fun. We get pretty intense and the kids get pretty intense, and we want them to work hard so that their products going to be good. And we really coach our kids hard, and we want them to do difficulty and we want them to be successful. The kids feed off of that energy and enthusiasm that we have, and then that is the energy and enthusiasm, I think, when we get into a competitive situation, transforms itself into excitement and fun. I think that our kids when they step out on the floor and things start going and we get a little momentum, they’re having fun. They’re having a good time. LSU is known for its enthusiasm and I think that permeates through all of our sporting events at LSU. If you’ve been to a baseball game or a football game or a basketball game at LSU, gymnastics meet is no different. You get crazy fans in the stands and painted bodies screaming and hollering.

JESSICA: I noticed you guys seem to have a – like instead of having, like an outside choreographer, you seem to bring in alumni over a certain time to do your choreography. Is that in an effort to keep things current and, you know, just reflect what’s going on in the culture, too?

D-D: Yeah, and I think that we’ve of course had some kids that have been incredible floor workers, April Burkholder, Nicki Arnstad, Ashleigh Clare-Kearney. And Ashleigh’s in law school now and she’s here in Baton Rouge and has been our volunteer coach for three years now, and has done a tremendous job. She comes in and does choreography and works with the kids day-to-day, and takes a lot of pride in it and she puts a lot of energy into it. And I don’t think that anything great has ever been achieved without enthusiasm, and she gives the kids that and not only does she talk about you know, you have to have your leap combinations, but she talks about the presentation of the corners. What you do, and how you look, and what you feel when you step out there. She enjoys their victory, it’s an intrinsic thing for her, when they do well she does well.

JESSICA: Well, that is all I have for you today.

D-D: Oh wow, that was quick! I think [inaudible]’s phone is making a bell sound, I think his battery is going dead. Except for that you know, we’ve got some international kids on our team besides Savona. We’ve got a girl on our team from Mexico, Erika Garcia and have enjoyed having international kids on our team. It’s a great thing. Hawaii is not international, but we’ve got a gymnast on our team from Hawaii. Kids around the world need to understand that you can go on the internet and research the school that they’re interested in. Research us! Look at us, they can see in-depth into our program. Our Media Guide is an online media guide where you go online and actually see it move and talk and really experience the LSU experience.

JESSICA: Awesome! I’m so glad you said that because I think that’s one of the things people love about the NCAA and why it’s getting so – I mean we interviewed Beth Tweddle the last show, which is up right now, and she talked about NCAA and how a lot of her teammates have gone and how much they love it, and we were all like, “Yes!” It’s like our international gymnastics fantasy league in the NCAA.

D-D: Yeah! Liz Kincaid, a friend of mine from England who coaches some of the best kids in England, constantly we’re talking to her about the NCAA program and trying to get her involved in sending us some kids! It’s a world thing and kids need to understand the academics has got to be a driving force in what they are doing because the requirements are strict, and what you have to do to get into a University is pretty much the same across the board. If you can qualify to get into one school, you can qualify to get into most of them, you know, Stanford has its own standards. But it’s an incredible experience and if international kids are not that as a viable option for them, then that’s too bad.

JESSICA: Well thank you so much! I really appreciate the interview and I’m so glad we could have a wonderful coach from the SEC, and that you could be our first representative from that.

D-D: I’m probably the oldest one so it’s probably very appropriate that I go first.

JESSICA: [LAUGHS] Yes, of course.

D-D: Well I appreciate y’all calling me and anytime I’d be happy to chat with y’all.

JESSICA: Great, thank you so much. I really appreciate it.

–

JESSICA: So, that was our interview with Lloimincia and D-D. So what did you guys think? Uncle Tim, what are your reactions?

UNCLE TIM: I guess I want to address the issue of her dance and kind of the history behind her song selection and everything. Before I go into my spiel I should preface this by saying that I was subjected to many liturgical dances at some point in my life, and they always looked like terrible rhythmic ribbon routines and I was just very opposed to them. And so it was interesting to hear her talk about her routine, because I had no clue that her music actually came from African-American gospel singers. I remember seeing the article about, oh her routine is like kind of offering to god, and kind of being like yeah right. But now that I know that the music is kind of from the African-American spiritual song tradition and everything, and that kind of changed my perspective on it. What did you think, Jess?

JESSICA: Yeah, I – you know when I hear that kind of stuff I sometimes react poorly because coming from a half Quaker, half recovering Catholic family, I sometimes have a knee jerk reaction to anything that has to do with religion. But, I have through her discussion of it and how she presented that, that she wasn’t trying to convert anyone, she wasn’t trying to push her beliefs on anyone, she wasn’t trying to tell people how they should act or what is correct or what is incorrect, she was trying to touch people with what made her happy in her life, this is how I interpret what she said, and what was meaningful to her in her life. That made me actually appreciate her routine more, and I found it more interesting to listen to the songs. And I actually looked up some of the songs by Franklin, Kirk Franklin, and I found that I actually liked one of his songs, and it actually made me happy. I was like, okay I get behind of thing, I can get behind something that is moving towards happiness, and seeing the good in life, and reaching out to other people and helping them feel good, too. That I appreciate, and I like the way she explained it, it made me feel more open to what she was doing and made me like her routine more, which really surprised me.

UNCLE TIM: Right, and I think that, kind of to combine our two ideas, it sounds like you like the fact that it’s very personal. It’s not necessarily an in-your-face kind of witnessing…

JESSICA: Right.

UNCLE TIM: …which is if that’s what your religion does, more power to you, but there are some people who are opposed to that. And so I think that it’s cool because it’s a fun routine for those people who don’t know the background, for her though it’s this very personal, spiritual experience, I’m sure, every time that she performs it, and it means something to her. And so I think that’s a cool blend of both fun and, you know, her personal faith. And I think that a lot of churches are trying to find a way to make spirituality fun for young people, and I guess if it deals with floor routines that are cool and fun, I guess more power to them!

JESSICA: Spanny, what did you think?

SPANNY: I appreciated her willingness to be open about her faith and her dedication to the floor routine. I think, and she’s probably not as familiar with the gymternet as I am because she’s working out and going to school and doing things. There seems to be like an undercurrent in the community that – a lot of people, myself included – I’m a Jewish girl that’s very involved in gay rights. I’ve had my own very personal – I’ve had my battles with Christianity, and I feel like when people feel they’ve been persecuted it makes it a little easier for them to turn around and kind of persecute those people back, if you will.

JESSICA: Mmhmm.

SPANNY: I don’t know if that’s the issue going on in the community, but I feel like there is a lot of backlash with the athletes that are open about their faith. And there are different levels, like Uncle Tim said it’s clear she’s not out to convert anybody, she’s not out to judge anyone, she’s not out to teach any lessons, it’s clearly an outlet for her passion. I would hope that she can continue, and all the athletes, regardless of what either their faith is, or what their passions are, or what they dedicate their routines to, or even their performance, that we as fans and as members of the community don’t judge them for it in negative ways. Um, Oh my god, I’m just rambling.

JESSICA: No, that totally makes sense. I think you put it very well, you put it in the current political and cultural context in which the backlash is happening, and it’s very real. So.

SPANNY: Yeah, and two we saw a lot of it – say what you want about Gabby Douglas’ book, about any part of it. But I feel like a lot of the more negative attention to it was because she either mentioned God, or she mentioned religion at all. When really what she said was the least offensive, least – I mean it was very inclusive. The fact that she spoke about her Mom involved her with any number of religions, I don’t understand how anybody could have read what either she or her ghostwriter said and feel excluded by it. You know, I would assume that our community, even if you believed in the flying spaghetti monster, that you would in some way be able to kind of interpret what these athletes are trying to say outside the lines. That’s it; I just hope we could be a little less judgmental in the community where we judge our favorite sport.

JESSICA: Yeah, that’s true. And I think part of that is just kind of recognizing your own emotional issues or your own feelings of persecution and not projecting that onto an athlete who you have no idea if they’re actually part of the group that’s doing the persecution or not, and take them as an individual each time. So, I like how you put that. One of the other things I found interesting, was during the interview with DD that she brought up environmental stewardship when I asked her about storms and preparing for climate change and stronger storms. I wasn’t really expecting that and I was really glad she brought that up because we don’t normally think about environmental stewardship, or lack thereof, and how it affects gymnastics. And then I thought it was really funny that she totally had the Freudian slip, I’m going to call it the Freudian slip, where she was talking about which four teams have won NCAA Championships and she was like, “Utah, and Florida – wait, no, Florida hasn’t won” and I was like “OHH! Everyone’s thinking the same thing!” [LAUGHS] So, I enjoyed that little moment.

UNCLE TIM: Yeah, and I also liked hearing about adding Jay to the coaching staff just because I thought probably like you did, that there probably be, you know, some tension or anything, and she was very open and honest and said no it’s great because he adds a new perspective and we’re building this new gymnasium, this new training facility and he can really give us some guidance on that, and I was like, huh, that’s cool, I never really thought about that. And also as someone who doesn’t follow NCAA as closely as you do Jess, I thought that hearing their story about what happened with Katrina was really great. And I’m sure there were some other gym fans out there that had no clue that LSU Gymnastics had problems because of it.

JESSICA: Some of the stories that happened, that came out of that, is unbelievable. I mean literally the school was a triage, literally the students were holding up IV bags for surgeries happening on campus. That’s pretty amazing. And you know, I felt kinda bad because I asked her about that, and I was just interested in it for how stuff like this might affect gyms and why people should be concerned about it, but I didn’t even think about it in terms of people might have negative connotations associated with attending the school because there’s an increased risk of hurricanes and I was like, oh crap, sorry I didn’t mean that! But I’m glad she explained it the way she did because I learned something, too.
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ALLISON TAYLOR: This episode is brought to you by Elite Sportz Band. Elite Sportz Band: We’ve got your back!

JESSICA: Visit EliteSportzBand.com, that’s ‘sportz’ with a ‘z’ and receive $5 off your next purchase with the code: gymcast
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JESSICA: That’s gonna do it for us this week, remember that you can support the show by recommending us to a friend or to a teammate, tell someone at the gym, post it on Facebook: ‘I love this gymnastics podcast, you should check it out. It’s the only one in the whole wide world and it’s the best!’ You can also rate us on iTunes or write a little review on iTunes, you can download the Stitcher app and listen to us from there. And of course we love hearing your feedback so you can contact us at GymCastic@gmail.com, you can call us by calling 415-800-3191, or leave a message: our Skype username is GymCasticPodcast and of course we are all over Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, and Google+. You should especially check out our Tumblr because I have to say it’s pretty awesome, Uncle Tim has done some amazing work there. And so, until next week I am Jessica O’Beirne from Masters-Gymnastics.com and this week I have a feature about a dentist who went back to gymnastics at the age of 33 and is competing again!

UNCLE TIM: I’m Uncle Tim from Uncle Tim Talks Men’s Gym, and I will be adding to my rings primer shortly.

DVORA: I’m Dvora Meyers at Orthodox Gymnastics, and I’m going to have a post on GymCastic actually about some theories as to why gymnastics becomes a lot less popular the year right after the Olympics, and some suggestions as to how we can take the momentum from the games forward.

[[OUTRO MUSIC – SMILE BY KIRK FRANKLIN]]

Episode 22 Transcript
BETH: Actually as I got older, it was to my advantage because I learned a lot of my skills with my body at the size and shape that I am now so I didn’t sort of have to suddenly at the age of 16, 17 when my body changed, relearn a lot of the stuff which I think a lot of gymnasts do.

[[INTRO MUSIC]]

JESSICA: This week, we talk about the rise of the United States Gymnastics Federation, the AAU scandal, preview of the American Cup, and we chat with Beth Tweddle.

JESSICA: This is Episode 22 for February 27, 2013. I’m Jessica from Masters Gymnastics

BLYTHE: I’m Blythe from The Gymnastics Examiner

SPANNY: Spanny from Spanny’s Big Fake Smile

UNCLE TIM: Uncle Tim from Uncle Tim Talks Men’s Gym

JESSICA: And this is the best and only gymnastics podcast in the world starting with the top news stories. Blythe, what’s going on this week?

BLYTHE: Alright well this week, everybody is talking about it. It’s the American Cup. It’s the first big international meet of the year after the Olympic Games. And you know, there’s a lot of shifting going on. As of right now, the men’s field is complete. The women’s field lacks two gymnasts according to the official American Cup website. And so let’s just start with the guys first of all. We have two strong members of the US Olympic Team, Danell Leyva and Jake Dalton. A newcomer from Japan in Hiroki Ishikawa. Jorge Hugo Giraldo Lopez from Columbia, the two time Olympian. And he is something. He’s in his early 30’s and he’s something else. He just keeps pounding out great gymnastics, fabulous on pommel horse, fabulous on parallel bars. Watch him on those two events. Germany’s Marcel Nguyen, the Olympic silver medalist, he’ll be there. He was really dominant in the World Cups leading up to the 2013 season and it’ll be interesting to see if these guys can challenge him. One who could challenge him is Brazil’s Sergio Sasaki. He is still a pretty young guy although he has a few years of international experience behind him. It wouldn’t be surprising if the Brazilians really look to him as the new leader of their team going into this quad where Brazil will of course end up hosting the 2016 Olympics. Great Britain’s Kristian Thomas will be there and Ukraine’s Oleg Verniaiev will be there as well.

JESSICA: Heyyyy.

BLYTHE: Very very promising young gymnast. Who are you guys excited to see?

JESSICA: Well you know how I feel about Oleg so that’s number one!

BLYTHE: And he’s got some amazing skills as well. I wouldn’t be surprised, you know traditionally the American Cup has seemed slanted towards the Americans. Of course they’re confident. They’re in their home arena. They’re playing to their own crowd. But he is just such an incredible gymnast. And I’m sure he’s very hungry for it. He’s a young guy. He’s got great tradition behind him, very beautiful gymnastics. And it wouldn’t surprise me. If he can just stay clean, if he can just hit his routines. They’re very difficult. I think he could sneak in there and take it.

JESSICA: Oh not wait! This is the wrong Oleg!

BLYTHE: You like Oleg Stepko. The little dude.

JESSICA: I feel like a total pedophile because I just said that. Oh my God! I totally take it back.

BLYTHE: I feel like Vernaiaiv is older than Stepko.

JESSICA: Is he?!

BLYTHE: Yeah! Maybe. I’ll look it up.

JESSICA: I like the beefy one that made vault finals at the Olympics and rings. Right? Yeah.

BLYTHE: That’s not Oleg Stepko either. That’s Igor Radivilov.

JESSICA: That’s right! (laughs) I’m sorry.

UNCLE TIM: All those Ukrainians, they’re just the same.

JESSICA: Yes, I just like those beefy Ukrainians. Anywho, carry on. Carry on. I’m ready to go on now. Spanny, anyone you’re interested in seeing?

SPANNY: I’m interested to see how Danell shapes out. I know the Winter Cup wasn’t his premiere showing. But I think he has it in him. He’s got that showmanship quality. When there’s money on the line, I think he’s going to show up. I don’t know why I said that, but that’s what I think.

UNCLE TIM: I anticipate waking up on Saturday and reaching for the vodka to immediately calm my nerves. I don’t know why. Danell makes me so nervous. It’s like watching Amanda Borden back in the day on balance beam or Mattie Larson nowadays on pretty much anything. There just seems be this mental block and it’s really hard for him to go 6 for 6. I really hope he’s able to do that. I’m excited for Marcel. I feel like he could actually probably win it. I wish that his gymnastics were kind of as slick and stylish as his haircut. It tends to be a little sloppy. I look forward to seeing Marcel.

JESSICA: I kind of want to see if he uses makeup to cover his tattoo and if so, if it stays on the whole meet or if when he gets sweaty, it’s like drizzle and by the end, he’s got like half a tattoo going on. And I think we talked about his tattoo. It says “Pain is temporary. Glory is forever.” Something like that right? So I’m looking forward to that and I’m looking forward to hearing millions of girls screaming their heads off for him. Because I think they’ll be more for him than anyone else competing really. So that’s always good times.

BLYTHE: Marcel is the babe magnet. And last year, I went to New York for the American Cup and stayed with a friend who doesn’t watch gymnastics or know anything about gymnastics. I treated her to tickets to the meet as a thank you for staying in her apartment. And she came with a friend. And about halfway through the meet, I got a text message and she goes who is that guy from Germany?! He’s gorgeous! I’m watching gymnastics at the Olympics because of him! And that’s very cool because it’s Marcel and Marcel did very well in London. Yes, this is how you pull your non gymnastics friends into the sport of it.

JESSICA: That’s right!

UNCLE TIM: It’s kind of a question of who’s going to be Sexy Alexei’s heir right? Because is it Marcel Nguyen or is it Jake Dalton? Because I feel like either of them, if they pulled down their singlet a lot, they’re going to get a standing ovation at the American Cup. I don’t know. Who do you think? Is it Marcel or is it Jake?

BLYTHE: Neither.

JESSICA: [gasps] Who is it?

BLYTHE: No I don’t know. I don’t think that we’ve seen that person yet. I mean can you think of anybody who….

JESSICA: has the universal appeal that Alexei did.

SPANNY: You are all forgetting Philipp Boy. I’m ashamed of all of you!

JESSICA: But he’s done! He’s done!

SPANNY: Girl needs to eat. He’s alive. He’s still very much fresh in my memory. He’s not retired in my head at all.

BLYTHE: He’s not retired in your heart?

SPANNY: That’s right. First place.

UNCLE TIM: Alright, before we turn into our New Years show again, what about those women huh?

BLYTHE: What about the women? Well right now, the women’s field is a little bit incomplete. They have six competitors at the moment. And we know that there is kind of a national team camp/selection camp taking place perhaps at this moment at the Karolyi Ranch in Texas to determine who’s going to be that second American woman. There is actually another spot as well that is up for grabs. It appears that Koko Tsurumi of Japan has dropped out although her teammate Asuka Teramoto will be competing. And so I don’t know. Who do you guys think? You have two slots open. Who do you want to see?

SPANNY: I would really, if we’re going to go with the second American spot, I’m gunning for Simone Biles.

JESSICA: Yes!

SPANNY: I’ve been excited about her for a few years now. If we’ll go back, we’ll journey back to 2010 and it was a similar situation where Ivana Hong was supposed to have that second spot. Unfortunately she busted her knee up at camp and it was an eleventh hour substitution with Aly Raisman. And suffice to say, she did pretty well throughout the quad. I would like to see it go to someone who is like a breakout star, who could really use the performance experience and build up over the next few years. So that’s why I’m gunning for Biles.

JESSICA: I would love to see Simone Biles too because she is everything. I was actually thinking about her today and she’s like if you have the performance quality of like Podkopayeva with the explosiveness of Produnova. She’s got it and she’s so fun to watch and she’s such an entertainer. She’s going to be a huge star. She’s going to be a World Champion one day. I’m just saying that right now. So I would love to see her. I also think that hello, they should have alternates for this. It’s not fair to the athletes to be like ok train like crazy and with absolutely no notice, you’re going to go to this huge World Cup meet, because now it’s a World Cup. I just don’t think that’s fair. They should have alternates. You should know who’s going to be picked. I would hate it if I was a coach and I did not have that warning. It’s not safe for the athletes to be basically competition ready for like three or four months in a row. They need to have breaks. They need to cycle on and off. You want to stop the overuse injuries. So I don’t care for this no alternates business.

UNCLE TIM: Personally, I want to see them add someone from another country who can beat an American. And let me explain why. I’m going to get slaughtered for saying this on here. But since Tasha Schwikert won in 2002, an American woman has won this meet every year which obviously brings out the conspiracy theorists in a lot of people. And so I feel like some other country needs to win. I’m just so over Americans winning this meet. I’m hoping for the sake of the integrity of this meet, that somebody else wins.

JESSICA: Like someone who trains here but is not from here?

UNCLE TIM: Pardon. I mean a foreigner who could beat an American.

JESSICA: Oh beat! I thought you meant be. It’s an international citizen [laughs] Citizen of the world! I have to mention that note Jessica Lopez reminds me a lot of little Laurie Hernandez. I don’t even know if she’s at the camps. If she is right now, she is freaking amazing. Total star. Like if no one’s ready to be the next world champion, like if Ohashi isn’t ready or whatever, send someone out who’s going to electrify the crowd. Just like the next little, the way Korbut did back in the day. Everyone will be talking about the performance. Give us that you know! That’s what I’d like to see.

BLYTHE: The thing about this year’s American Cup is that it’s got to be a senior who does it because it is an FIG World Cup Event so no sneaking in juniors our outstanding juniors like Jordyn Wieber in 2009. So it narrows the field a little bit.

JESSICA: Oh this following the rules nonsense. See, this is why it wasn’t a real World Cup all those years.

SPANNY: When was that, I wanna say they had like a field of 8 and there were like 4, was this 2008, where they had 4 Americans…

BLYTHE: Oh yeah that was 2007 I think right? You had Shayla Worley and Samantha Peszek and Shawn and Nastia

SPANNY: Yeah

UNCLE TIM: I think that’s still when you had qualifying session no?

BLYTHE: Yes!

JESSICA: Qualifying…Speaking of qualifying, there was an award given out this year. Uncle Tim, will you tell us about that?

UNCLE TIM: Sure! So the FIG gave out their first award called the Most Commendable Program and it went to the British Gymnastics. Congratulations, British Gymnastics! They won a prize of 15,000 Swiss francs, which is roughly $16,000. And the way they decide it is kind of based on how involved with FIG sanctioned events you are. So do you go to the Artistic World Championships? Do you go to the Rhythmic World Championships? Do you go to the Trampoline, the Acro, the Aerobic World Championships? And you can also get deductions for things like doping and lack of respect in financial matters, not meeting deadlines, things like that. Probably getting kicked out like North Korea, those kind of things. And so it was interesting to see the list. Great Britain as I said was first. Belarus was second. France was third. Russia was fourth. And Germany was fifth. The United States was 14th, behind countries like Kazakhstan. So yeah that’s just something to think about.

JESSICA: I love that GB won because I think they have really incorporated, they took this Olympics and they were like we’re going to incorporate every single thing and bring everyone in society into our sport. They incorporated adult gymnastics, parkour, the gymstrada, like there’s something for everyone. Incorporating parkour and freerunning, that’s genius! You already have those guys show up at adult gymnastics class and all those women that show up wanting to set up obstacles and use the bars like they’re the side of buildings. I think they totally deserve this. In other news, Time Magazine, you guys are going to have to bear with me here ok. Time Magazine put out an article this week, actually it’s like they made the entire issue of their magazine this one article. It’s called Why Medical Bills are Killing Us and it is by Steven Brill and the reason this is so important and why I think all gym owners and gymnasts and parents should read this is because how much are medical costs are translates to how much our liability insurance costs in the US. So in the US we have liability laws so you can hold someone accountable for an accident. And in turn, when insurance, when you go to the hospital and insurance pays the hospital for whatever happened to you, the insurance doesn’t like to pay that. They want to find someone else to pay it. So you get this nice letter that’s like you know we’re so sorry about your injury. We want to make sure that whoever is responsible for this pays. Can you tell us how exactly you were injured? And then you’ll say oh I was at gymnastics and it was totally my own fault. And then they’ll go to your gym, and they will try to get your gym’s insurance to pay for that. And in turn, then the gym’s costs for liability insurance can go up and then can affect whether or not the gym wants to take the risk of having a class like a trampoline class or a parkour class or an adult gymnastics class or if they want to have elite gymnasts because they get hurt a lot. So this article is shocking, shocking, shocking. It basically follows a couple of different medical bills and shows why they’re so incredibly insanely expensive and I’ll just give you one example. They talk about acetaminophen tablet which is like Tylenol cost is 1 ½ cents. That’s actual cost. But the hospital marks it up. Are you ready for this? This is not an accident what I’m about to say. The hospital marks it up to the patient 10,000%. Not 100%. Not 1000, 10,000%. So everyone of us in the United States should be outraged after reading this and we should try to make something change, something happen because if that happens, it will translate to more gyms having more gymnastics classes and not having to worry so much about their insurance costs. Ok that’s the end of my rant for this week. Did that make sense?

BLYTHE: Yes.

JESSICA: Uncle Tim has a special treat for us this week. I have been waiting…you guys have heard me talk about this a bazillion times which is the rise of USGF or the AAU scandal as I like to call it. So let’s check in now. Uncle Tim, last time we checked in with you, you mentioned AAU’s beginnings. So can you tell us about the AAU’s demise?

UNCLE TIM: Dum Dum Dum! Yes I can! So the AAU’s demise really started because the NCAA was ticked off. In the 1950’s the AAU was governing all the gymnastics meets in the United States, including the NCAA meets which is a little bit different than what’s going on nowadays. And the thing is, at the time, the NCAA coaches had no representation among the AAU officials. And if you’ve ever studied American history you know that is a big no-no. You know there’s that whole thing called no taxation without representation. So the NCAA coaches were already all like no no no! We are preparing the gymnasts that eventually represent the United States. These are primarily male gymnasts and lots of them did go on to world competition. If we don’t have something to say in the organization, we are going to start our own. Don’t do us like that!

JESSICA: So did they start their own organization then, the NCAA coaches?

UNCLE TIM: Um kind of. So what ended up happening was the USGF was formed, or the United States Gymnastics Federation. And Jess, do you know where that started?

JESSICA: Um it was like in some guy’s basement or his garage or something.

UNCE TIM: Yeah! So starting in 1962, the USGF’s headquarters were located in Frank Bare’s house, which if I recall correctly, was in Arizona. And it’s kind of like the podcast, in the sense that it started at your house, Jess. And so I’m saying there’s a chance for us. Anyway, so they also started with a very modest budget of roughly $35,000.

JESSICA: That would be awesome if we had that budget. So how did they get that money? Where did it come from? Did they steal it out of the coffers of these scandalous AAU?

UNCLE TIM: No they patented both the rhinestone and crushed velvet leotard…..I’m just kidding. So the NCAA gave them some starter money. So yeah. Anything else you want to know Jess?

JESSICA: Yes! How did the USGF get recognized by the FIG? Because before, the AAU was recognized by the FIG but then it switched right?

UNCLE TIM: Yeah exactly. So right away, right after they started in 1962, the USGF started hosting meets. In 1963, they hosted the first national meet. They also started hosting international meets. In addition, they sold a lot of copies of the Code of Points which the FIG produces and they hosted the only international judges course for men ever held in the US, again run by the FIG. So basically they did a lot of butt-kissing. We’re talking Melissa from Dance Moms level, if you’ve ever seen that show. And it ended up working though. In 1970 in Yugoslavia, the FIG recognized the USGF as the official governing body in the United States. So 1970 was the big year for USGF.

JESSICA: Wow. So let’s see. Is there anything else that came out of this, your research that you did on this?

UNCLE TIM: Yeah so while I was doing this, I read a lot of articles and there’s even a book about it. But one article stood out in my mind and it was from a 1982 issue of International Gymnast. And they predicted that the problem of representation that I was talking about would pop up again. Frank Bare said quote “The coaches will find themselves wondering once again how it happened that those who control the sport now are not active coaches. And someone once said, history repeats itself. Could it be so for gymnastics?” And obviously, none of us can speak for the coaches, but I’m curious what you think. Do you guys think that former or current coaches should be in charge of gymnastics federations whether it be British Gymnastics or the USAG or the FIG? What are your thoughts?

JESSICA: This totally makes me think immediately about USAG right now. And I guess yeah, I mean we have a president, or CEO, who’s not a gymnast, has nothing to do with gymnastics. And then we had Kathy Kelly who also had nothing to do with gymnastics. Wasn’t a coach or a gymnast. And they held the most important positions. Kathy Kelly’s now gone but Steve Penny’s still there.

UNCLE TIM: Yeah I’m just trying to think how coaches who are full time coaches currently would actually have time to be the president of a giant organization or something like that. And while I was at the Winter Cup I actually got to meet some of the USAG workers. For instance I met Lisa Mendel. She is in charge of the men’s program, running the events and stuff. And she was just fantastic, she was the nicest woman ever. And so I feel like if you have people like that who I don’t think she has much experience with men’s gymnastics, obviously she was never a former male gymnast. But I think if you have people like that running it, I think it can be great. Yeah I’m just trying to think of if it’s a question of do you have to understand everything about the sport in order to be able to run an organization.

JESSICA: And I guess the whole thing comes down to representation too, like you’re saying. Does it matter if these people weren’t former gymnasts or coaches as long as they are taking into consideration the gymnasts and the coaches. And I think you have some coaches like running their gyms but kind of retiring into these positions. And we definitely have the majority of USAG is definitely coaches and gymnasts. But yeah, it’s interesting.
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[[INTERVIEW]]

JESSICA: We are very proud to tell you that this interview with Beth Tweddle is brought to you by Tumbl Trak. And it’s apropos that we’re interviewing Beth Tweddle and Tumbl Trak is sponsoring it because Beth is one of the queens of bars. And I remember back when I had one of the original prototypes in the gym I was training in when Tumbl Trak first started. And we kept looking at this weird looking cut off black trampoline with red sides on it that was right next to the bars and had a bar on top of the trampoline. And we were like what is that crazy looking thing. And then we discovered that you could do magical things on it. And we discovered that even if we couldn’t do a giant yet or a tkachev, we could learn the most fun insane drills on it. And I even had a friend that learned a tkachev in one day from that thing. She learned lots of things in one day. But seriously it looks so fun so I love to play on it and I love to pretend like I could someday also do a tkachev but at least I could do the super fun drills. And I still love to use it when I go to adult gymnastics class. Thank you Tumbl Trak for sponsoring this interview with Beth. Remember that you can find Tumbl Trak and their fabulous frame bar at tumbltrak.com.
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JESSICA: Next is our interview with Beth Tweddle. We are so excited to have her on the show. And she is… if you don’t know her, you must look up her routines. She’s absolutely amazing. She won her first, that’s right I said her first World Championship when she was 21. She won a World on bars. Then she went on to win again. Then she went on to become a floor world champion in her mid 20s despite having a serious foot injury because her and her coach are so incredibly smart about her training plan. And then she won the bronze on bars at the London Olympics at the young age of 27. And she does one of the most difficult bar routines in the world, connecting basically her entire, every single skill in her routine almost. She is incredible and she is a testament to what smart training can do. And she talks a lot about that in this interview. So I hope you guys enjoy it.
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JESSICA: Ok so, the most important question to start with: are you getting confident enough to try a backflip or layout stepout on ice skates yet?

BETH: So in week 4, we had school disco week. You had to pick a track from [inaudible]. So I had “5,6,7,8” from Steps. And we actually did a tuck back on the ice then. Obviously it wasn’t on my own, but my partner kindo f just had his hands behind my back just to protect me. So I’ve tried out that and I’ve tried a layout on the ice. But other than that, I haven’t tried much else.

JESSICA: That’s so exciting! Do you think the layout stepout might make it into the routine for the finale? I mean you don’t have to give anything away. I know it’s like, you know.

BETH: It’s really difficult. We have a lot of tricks, and we’ve still got a lot of tricks in the bag. But it just kind of depends what music you get for the final or semi final, depending where I make it up to in the competition.

JESSICA: Oh so you guys don’t pick the music?

BETH: Yeah it depends on what goes with the music. So if you’ve got a nice slow bit, a tuck back or a layout doesn’t really fit in with the music. And then this week we’ve got props week so I’ve got hula hoop which is really restrictive.

[LAUGHTER]

BETH: I do obviously, normally I have [inaudible] to do any lifts, and then suddenly I’ve got to have hula hoops. So all the lifts and tricks I’m doing this week, I’ve got to make sure that one, it’s not too dangerous that if I step on the hula hoop I’ll kill myself. Two, it doesn’t get in the way.

SPANNY: So with the hula hoops, what I immediately had in my head was that you were hula hooping on the ice. But are you using it in that way or kind of like a rhythmic hoop, like will you toss it in the air?

BETH: A bit of a mixture. So we do obviously the show’s skating steps would be hula hoop. So myself and Dan, we’re connected by the hula hoop, showing my skating steps. Then we do some lifts where either the hula hoop is attached around my neck or around his neck then I’m connected in some way. Then I do do a little bit of hula hoop halfway through the routine.

SPANNY: That sounds like a death trap to me [laughs] just being on the ice. I mean that sounds scarier to me than the layout stepout would be, is trying to skate with a big hoop around your neck.

BETH: You know it’s been quite a scary week because literally I’ve stepped on it a couple of time and I’ve just gone flying on my face. And then a couple of lifts I do, I do one where I wrap around and I have to put the hoop onto my feet, and I’ve completely missed my feet and hit Dan in the head with it. So it hasn’t been our friend, but hopefully by Sunday night it will be.

SPANNY: I’m excited to see it. And I just [laughs] hope that it goes well because again, that sounds scary.

BETH: It is. And also you never know what’s going to happen. It’s so inconsistent.

SPANNY: Right. I suppose that’s what’s exciting about skating. In a previous interview, you mentioned that you do not, no wedgies in skating, which is a blessing. But you mentioned a tights hook thing. How… I’m having a hard time picturing this.

BETH: Obviously in gymnastics everyone knows that’s a gymnast’s worst fear, so get a wedgie up their bum.

SPANNY: Right.

BETH: So that was my first question when I went to costume. We actually wear tights or fishnets underneath the costume. Obviously I can’t glue the costume straight to my skin, so instead they put hooks on the bottom of the costume which then attach to my fishnets. So the costume can’t ride up.

SPANNY: But they’re not like sharp hooks right?

BETH: No no. Like if you have a dress and you’ve got a zip, and it has that hook and eye.

SPANNY: Oh, ok.

BETH: It’s like that. So it’s not sharp or anything. It’s just sewn to the ends of the fishnets.

SPANNY: Ok that seems better. In my head I was like is it a fishhook? That doesn’t seem safe.

BETH: [laughs] No no

SPANNY: Do you think there’s any way that we could make this work for gymnastics? I mean I guess we can’t really compete with tights.

BETH: Um, no not really because we don’t wear tights or anything so we wouldn’t have anywhere to hook it onto.

SPANNY: We’ve got all sorts of other devices to keep from the dreaded wedgie, so we can keep experimenting.

BETH: Yeah it’s just the glue spray for the wedgies.

SPANNY: Right, yeah exactly. Are there any other… so obviously skating fashion is different from gymnastics fashion. It seems a bit more detailed and extensive. Are there any other skating fashion trends that you’d like to see applied to gymnastics?

BETH: I think it’s really difficult, because obviously with the skating it’s all about the music and how your costume fits to the music and how your skills fit to the music. Whereas obviously we’ve got four apparatus. So obviously you’d look at costume to match to the routine on floor to music, but then it would totally get in the way maybe on bars or beam. And there’s a very sort of strict sort of what you can wear with the leotard, whereas obviously in skating you can have a catsuit, you can have shorts and a crop top, you can have. So there’s so many different variations. So I don’t think you can really cross it into gymnastics. But the attention to detail with the skating costume is just unbelievable.

SPANNY: Oh I can imagine. I mean, it’s yeah it’s incredible. Not only the cut but all that they put into it.

BETH: That’s my favorite of the week. On Friday we get to see our costume, and obviously they check – on Saturday morning we have dress rehearsal – so I get to check whether the costume fits. And then if it needs any slight alterations, they have people on site that will either add hooks or they’ll take it in slightly. So it always fits perfectly for the night.

SPANNY: So you’ve been happy with everything they’ve presented to you? Is there any situation that they’d be like, “Here, wear this,” and it would be so horrifying that you’d say no?

BETH: No, they kind of on the first weeks that we were here, they asked was there anything I wasn’t happy wearing. And I was quite laid back about it. I was like well, if I’m going to embrace this show, I might as well try everything out. So I’ve been quite laid back about what they give me, and actually I’ve loved all my costumes.

SPANNY: Well good. And I think it does give you an opportunity to try new things, and people can see you outside of just the normal leotards.

BETH: It’s been really nice. I said to them I wanted to try and get away from – obviously I am a gymnast by nature – but I wanted to try to get away from straight back hair, ponytail, just leotard look. So they have completely changed my look every single week which has been really nice to sort of see a different character.

SPANNY: Right. That’s fun.

JESSICA: So we were talking to, we had Jenni Pinches on the show two weeks ago, and then I was talking to Danusia last night and I was like “we’re interviewing Beth what should we ask her oh my gosh tell us everything about her!” So and they both told me that you use sudocrem on your hands for bars. And of course I look this up and I’m like what is this stuff? And [laughs] the description says “the nation’s favorite nappy rash cream.” [laughs] So can you tell us what this is and how you use it?

BETH: [laughs] It’s not a good advertisement actually. But I got recommended it by someone. I used to get really sore wrists obviously from my hand guards and my wrist bands. So I just tried it one session and it just stops the friction between the tape and the hand guards. So it’s primarily in this country known for nappy rash and putting on babies’ bums. But it works on hand guards as well, or on your wrists. [laughs]

JESSICA: So do you use it on your hands too? Or just on your wrists?

BETH: No just on my wrists. I don’t use it on my hands. Unless if I get a rip on my hands, I’ll use it after training when I’m just at home. But I wouldn’t train with sudocrem on my hands. Only on my wrists.

JESSICA: Ok. Very good. This is important clarification because I was like oh my God, this is the secret, everyone’s going to start doing this, like China and Russia are going to sell out of this nappy cream stuff. Oh my God. Ok. This is very good to know.

SPANNY: Butt cream on bars, pretty much

BETH: Is that all they had to say about me? That I wore sudocrem?

[LAUGHTER]

JESSICA: No, no! Actually Danusia said that you are very caring and thoughtful, and that you’re the person who always thinks of really thoughtful little gifts to give to people.

BETH: Awww, that was nice of her.

JESSICA: Yes! She also told me that you have a fear of fruit peels or banana peels?

BETH: Can’t believe she told you that! Yeah I do. I don’t know what it is. I just hate it. Just old apple corps, orange peels, anything like that. It goes moldy too quickly, and it just

SPANNY: They are gross when you think about it.

JESSICA: They are. So it’s not like if you saw one across the room you’d have to run from it, it’s just something you don’t like.

BETH: Yeah I just don’t… they used to wind me up and like try and block it in my face and stuff and I’m like get out of my face. Especially Imogen. Imogen is the worst for it.

JESSICA: [laughs] Oh my God. Ok so let’s get to the hardcore gymnastics questions.

BETH: Go ahead.

JESSICA: Alright. So you know we’ve always wondered if you keep an eye on the other competition and the difficulty rankings and look at who else has the difficulty scores ands stuff like that going into meets?

BETH: Not really. I mean the main thing I’ve always, between myself and my coach, I can only control what I do. They might have a higher start value, but their routine might be longer so their execution might go down. So I’ve only ever worked on what I can do to the best of my ability. And Amanda says oh they might have like a, I don’t know a 7 depending on what code we’re on, but she said their routine might be a bit longer. Or I might only have a 6.8 but I’ve got everything connected so there’s no extra swings. So to be honest I’ve never really kind of took note of what other people’s difficulty was just in case. There’s nothing I can do to control it.

JESSICA: Gotcha. And being American of course I have to ask if you were aware of Anna Li and her routine and her new skill and that kind of stuff leading up to the Olympics. Did you ever watch it?

BETH: Obviously you hear about stuff and you see stuff on YouTube, but until they turn up to a competition, it’s always the asme. Like people might have seem training videos of me at competitions where I’m doing different things. And they can start panicking about it, there’s nothing you can do about it. And it might start to affect your performance. So to be honest I was aware there was stuff going on, but I never really took note of it.

JESSICA: Got it. That makes sense. Who did you consider kind of your biggest competition on bars leading into the Olympics? Or did you even think about that?

BETH: Obviously people always ask me, and there was a lot of competition. I mean everyone’s going to be ready for the Olympics. So I knew Mustafina, even with the big injury, she was going to be back. She wanted to prove herself. Then obviously you’ve got Komova, because she was reigning World and European champion. Kexin. So there was so many that could be up there. And you know what, it’s down to a little bit of luck, whose day it is on that 30 seconds.

JESSICA: I gotcha. Yeah it is one of those weird things. It’s not like other sports where you have to watch out for that kind of stuff. But I do have to ask, because you competed again, back in the day, against “The Queen” Khorkina. Was there, like we’ve heard stories about competing with Khorkina or being on the stands. Like, who was it, Carly Patterson said that when she was on the stand in Athens with Khorkina, they were like smiling for pictures and Khorkina was like “Smile, I just lost the Olympics!” That kind of stuff. I have to ask if there was any behind the scenes stuff with Khorkina, not necessarily trash talking, just what it was like. Because she’s such a personality.

BETH: Yeah, I mean I never had anything like that. But I remember my first Europeans, my first senior one in 2002. I had my water spray and she was using it and I was really scared to go and get it back off her. And my coach was like ,“go get it, it’s yours, don’t you need to use it for competition?” So I was like, “Please can I have my water spray back?” And she gave it to me, she was really nice about it. She just thought it was one there to use. But I was quite scared to ask her for it.

JESSICA: [laughs] I totally would have been too. Ok so we saw videos of you working on a double arabian full out. And we have to ask how close were you to competing that? Or might we see that in the future?

BETH: Well I had it on the floor area. I was just really unlucky with injuries. So I had it was it, I think it was a year and a half ago, and then I had a calf tear. Was literally out for the first three months of the year. Then I had to get ready for Nationals. Then it was a case of we had to qualify for Olympics so I couldn’t’ risk it for the team performance. Then at the beginning of last year I tore the cartilage in my knee. So I couldn’t risk anything with that. It was just a case of I needed to try and get fit to actually be able to go to the Olympics. So I have it and I was training it in routines on tumble track and stuff but I never actually put it in a routine on floor.

JESSICA: So do you think if your knee is feeling good and everything’s going well, maybe later we might see it?

BETH: You never know. I mean it’s really difficult because also the other problem was, the upgrade of it, it was something like a tenth or maybe two tenths. And for the inconsistency it could cause, if the floor area wasn’t very bouncy or you had to go in cold, it was quite a risk for the one tenth. Where you could just do a double arabian, land, do a split jump out of it. It just didn’t seem worth it.

JESSICA: That totally makes sense. But that’s the thing that kills me about the code, because I feel like the way you did that was beautiful. And I would rather see you do a beautiful new innovative skill than someone do a split jump out of it. Do you think, because there are people that do it with their legs so far apart it’s practically a straddle you know?

BETH: Yeah it’s really difficult, because obviously you’ve got to play to the code. And the code, it was last season and obviously I think it is this season as well, you can jump out of everything. So one, it takes away your deduction from landing, and two, you get a connection bonus. So you’re pretty stupid not to play to the code.

JESSICA: Yeah that’s totally true. Well you and your coach take over the FIG, you can change all those rules

BETH: [laughs]

JESSICA: I mean I’m just saying. I would totally vote for you. I don’t know how you get to vote for that but I’m going to find out and make sure. So Anna Li and Chellsie Memmel were on this tour that went around the US after the Olympics, and they started playing around with men’s high bar skills. And both of them said they wanted to learn a kovacs. And they did a little men’s high bar thing at the beginning of the tour. I don’t know if they ever did it in public, but they were playing around with it. So I have to ask if you have also thought about playing around on men’s high bar, learning any of the men’s high bar skills?

BETH: Definitely not kovacs. I not in a million dreams try that. Obviously a lot of my skills I took from men’s high bar. So my markelov. My coach’s husband at the time, he taught it to me because he was coach for the lads in our gym. And then also stoop half and the forward stoop half that the lads do. So kind of squat through half. I was working that for a bit. But again it was just getting it into the routine. The consistency changing with the routine. And was it worth it for the tenths that you were gaining. I might as well just do toe-half or toe-full and get the same thing for it.

JESSICA: Yep. That makes sense. So, no plans to put together a men’s high bar routine for fun? I mean I’m not saying I would pay to see that and it would be awesome and [laughs]

BETH: I know, we’ll have to see

JESSICA: Ok well I mean if you want to you can make a video out of it and you know

[LAUGHTER]

JESSICA: Just from the fans. Just putting it out there. Ok. So I was also asking Danusia if you had any crazy wipeouts because your bar routine is amazing and all of those, I mean your connections you have to have had them. And she was like no not really. And I was like come on.

BETH: See the routine being put together. So I only ever see… like obviously Jenni, she might have given a bit more away. But Danusia I only saw at competition or at camp, so I was usually pretty competition fit by then. The routines were pretty ready. Whereas learning some of the new skills in the gym was, to be honest, I could’ve got a lot for [inaudible] because there’s so many funny moments. So the first time I did my catch [inaudible]I nearly flew off the high bar because I was so surprised I had actually caught the bar. When I learned my under healy or the full turn from the invert, I used to not out of 20 a day and literally catch the bar and fly and [inaudible]. And I’d have a right face on. And Amanda was like “just keep at it, we’ll get it, we’ll get it.” I had so many stupid moments just even little things like doing Pak and missing my hands and ending up wrap round the bar. So yeah, plenty of moments where I’ve messed up big style.

JESSICA: Ok, well that’s good to know because I was like, “Oh my god, she’s really, like, superhuman. She doesn’t even wipe out!” [laughs]

BETH: I was [inaudible] aware of where my body was, so even if I wipe out, I usually got to a safe enough position that I would just land flat on my back or on my stomach, there was nothing too drastic that I can remember.

JESSICA: So, what was the scariest skill for you to learn, and it could be something you learned as a kid, it could be on a different event. But what was like…

BETH: The scariest thing that I did – well I always did – was vault, 1 1/2 Yurchenkos scare the living daylights out of me.

JESSICA: Wow, really? More than a regular Yurchenko, or just any Yurchenko scared you?

BETH: It’s just, for some reason the 1 1/2 twisting Yurchenko, I had a fear of it. If I had to do it now it would scare me. My coach would say, “Now, you’re not scared on the ice!” and like, doing the tuck back on the ice. Then I did wind walking after the Olympics, where I was just on the plane in the air, and I was more scared of the 1 1/2 Yurchenko than I was on the plane in the air.

JESSICA: Wow! Was it – now I know fear can be totally irrational – but was it the landing? Because that’s what would scare me, I’d be afraid I was gonna, like, hyperextend my knees.

BETH: No, it wasn’t the landing at all. I guess I don’t even know why I had a fear of it because I never did anything in training that freaked me out on it. I just, I don’t know, I just didn’t like it.

JESSICA: And what was the hardest skill for you to learn, even from when you were a little kid? Like, that just took the longest to get?

BETH: The longest probably was the endo healy from the invert. It took me the whole summer of doing twenty, thirty a day, of ‘pinging’ off left, right, and center. But luckily back in that day I was young enough that I had the whole summer to just learn it. So, yeah, probably the endo healy.

JESSICA: Um, and you’ve talked a lot about how you and Amanda took steps to limit the stress on your body, including, like you were saying that you would only tumble on the rod floor until it was right before a meet and then you’d take it to the regular floor. I just wonder with training at Lilleshall and having a national team program with national camps, how you guys maintained that, like, awareness and limiting stress on your body but also did the national team programs and stuff?

BETH: Yeah, it was difficult, obviously. But the older I got the more the national team was supportive of me. They knew my feet couldn’t take that impact, obviously we’ve got the medical team there the whole time and they understood that my feet just couldn’t take that impact. We only ever spend, leading up to a major event it’s quite different, but at camp it’s three or four days at a time. So I would do one day off, one day on, one day off, so that they could see that I was tumbling on hard. And then obviously the older I got I was able to control my program. I would do what they needed, but maybe on soft whereas some people would be on hard. And no one ever questioned it. It was just a case that they knew that I was a little bit older, because most of my teammates were maybe six, seven years younger than me. So they didn’t question it, they knew when I came to competition I did what I needed. If we had a control comp I would show that I could do it on hard. If we had a competition they knew I would do the performance they needed. So, no one ever questioned it.

JESSICA: Good, that’s what we like to hear. Speaking of that, try to follow me with this train of thought here. I just feel like you, one of the things that’s so inspiring about you is you just shatter every single stereotype about gymnasts. Your age, number one, you just get better, and better, and better. And not just, like, winning, but you’re doing the hardest routines in the world. I feel like you also break that stereotype with your body type. Like, you don’t have this stick figure, no hips, and giant shoulders like the typical gymnasts. And I think you have such a beautiful figure, and it’s not the typical gymnast, twelve year old, never-gone-through-puberty figure. And I wonder if anybody ever questioned your ability, or told you, “Well, you’re not going to be successful because you’re too tall” or “Oh, you’re too old” or “Your figures not right” or anything like that?

BETH: As a youngster, they did. I grew when I was 12, 13. I had quite a bad injury in my ankle and I grew, so when I was in junior squads and start squads, obviously I was just like, the tallest, I was the biggest, I had a proper older girl’s shape rather than your typical young gymnasts shape. So, there were times then when people were like, “She won’t be able to do it, she’s the wrong shape, she’s the wrong height.” But I think people then realized that I might not have had that factor, but I had the mind frame, I had the determination and the mental sort of side where if someone told me that I couldn’t do something, I wanted to prove them wrong. And then from the age of about 14 I literally didn’t grow, I’ve been the same height and weight since, I think… in fact I probably weigh less than I did at my first world champs in 2001. So, as I grew older my body settled into it’s own shape.

JESSICA: I think that’s very inspirational to hear because I think that’s also the age a lot of female gymnasts are told – or feel like, looking around the gym – like, “Okay, I hit puberty. This is going to be it for me.” And knowing that you…

BETH: I hit puberty quite early, and I was quite… not embarrassed, but in the gym it was quite hard when my teammates, they hadn’t grown and I was kind of like, “Well, why have I and no one else has?” But then,actually, as I got older it worked to my advantage because I learned a lot of my skills with my body at the size and shape I am now. So I didn’t sort of have to suddenly at the age of 16, 17 when my body changed, have to relearn a lot of the stuff, which I think a lot of gymnasts do. They get all of these big tricks as a youngster because they weigh nothing [laughs] and they’re these small little things, and then suddenly they hit puberty and their timing has all changed.

JESSICA: Yep. Totally, you’re totally right. I wonder also if that allowed you to have more power? Like, people talk about this with men having more power as they get older, but I feel like no one – you know, Shannon Miller is one of the only people that really talked about, like ‘I felt when I hit puberty I had all of this power I didn’t have before’, did you feel like that after you got used to…

BETH: Yeah, as a youngster I was a lot more powerful on floor and vault, I guess, than what some of my competitors were, sometimes too much power. I mean, I had the problem in the fact that I was injured, so it restricted me quite a lot on the floor and vault. But, yeah, I guess. I learned how to do the skills with that power, whereas I think some of the youngsters learn to do the skills with the power but without the technique, whereas I already had the technique because I was that little bit heavier.

JESSICA: Yeah. The average age of Olympic gymnasts is now over 20, so 55%, I think, are 20 years or older now, and you’re kind of leading that guard of female older gymnasts.

BETH: [laughs]

JESSICA: I have decided that you are the leader. Chusovitina is in her own class, and then you’re leading the new guard. Do you think that’s because you’re just extra awesome or do you think- no, I’m just… [laughs] The age shift that were going to with the older gymnasts, do you think that’s because the age limit was raised or do you think it’s because there’s more opportunity for specialists? This is a huge debate in the gymnastics community.

BETH: You know, I think that it’s a mixture. Obviously the age being raised obviously helped, but I think maybe one or two of us have done it. So, obviously Chusovitina did it, I did it, and then other people started to say, “Hang on a minute. They’re still doing it, they’re still enjoying it, they’re still achieving, and they’re still representing their country, what’s to stop us doing it?” So, I think there are other people who have followed track and they’ve carried on, and we didn’t feel like you were on your own out there because there was just myself competing in their twenties, because you’ve got other gymnasts. You’ve got the girl from Poland, Marta, you’ve got Hypolito from Brazil. So there’s a group of us who are of similar age and we kind of grew up the ranks with each other from the 2001 Worlds and just carried on. So, I think there is, just that change in belief within.

SPANNY: Alright, these questions are from Twitter fans who follow the podcast on Twitter. People were so excited when we told them we were interviewing you, we’ve got a lot of submissions but we picked the few top questions. This is from Emma G, “Beth is known for her crazy combos, is there anything you wanted to do but couldn’t? Either due to the code, it wasn’t humanly possible, you either couldn’t learn it or perform it consistently?”

BETH: Um I really love stoops on bars, so like the stoop stalder, but my body just – I just couldn’t do it. I couldn’t do stalder, I couldn’t do short clear, I couldn’t do stoop stalder, but I just think as a skill itself, stoop stalder is just a beautiful skill. Especially when you start turning it and you start release and catching with it. But I was just never able to do it. I tried so hard. [laughs]

SPANNY: It’s interesting, because then you’ve always managed to replace it with other skills like it’s – I’m trying to imagine your routine now with those stalders. But yeah they seem impossible.

BETH: I was trying to add the stoop stalder in for the Olympics, but it just didn’t work. And obviously you need it turning and there just wasn’t enough time for me to get it in, and that’s when I made the decision that the dismount had to go in instead. It’s just that obviously with the stoop stalder you could put it at the beginning of the routine so you’re not as tired. The problem with using a brand new dismount is you’ve got to do it at the end of the routine, there is no other option, and obviously that brings the risk.

SPANNY: Right. But I loved your dismount so much!

BETH: Thanks!

SPANNY: Yeah, it’s one that we’ve seen other people do, but in my opinion it’s always been kind of shady, where I fear for their lives when they do it. And yours is the first safe one that I would watch and I would be like, “Oh, this is exciting and entertaining to watch!”

BETH: It took so long to get into my routine. I mean, I’ve had my double double for like, maybe four or five years, but just with the code – especially when you used to have to have ten elements in your routine – by the time you’ve done the nine elements that you needed to count, by the time I got to my dismount it was impossible to be able to double double. And there’s only literally, after the world champs last year, I had a period of I think it was about three, four months before I was competing again that I was able to just literally work on routines with the double double. I wouldn’t necessarily do my full, complete bar routine. I would do ten upstart handstands, then do a release to catch, and then go straight into the dismount. So it worked as a way of getting the stamina to be able to do it, so by Christmas 2011, I had a basic structure of a bar routine that I was able to do with a dismount, whereas I’d never had that in my life. So, it just took so long to get into the routine because it is just so difficult.

SPANNY: And it was worth the wait. I remember hearing – we hear rumors, we’d see podium training videos, and we hear like, [gasp] “Beth did the dismount!”

BETH: Yeah. I could do it quite easily from a 3/4 bar routine by the 2011 Worlds. And I had done it a few times with a full bar routine, but to be honest it was never really ready. I would never risk it during the team competition, I would only put it out for an individual competition.

SPANNY: The finals. Well it was very worth the wait. Emma also asks, “Can you think of any other current or rising UK gymnasts that have the potential to be your successor on bars?” Or she wants to know, “Who is the next Beth?”

BETH: It’s really difficult. There’s so much talent that we’ve got at the minute, and it’s obviously just making that transition from the junior levels to the senior levels. Obviously we saw Rebecca Tunney last year coming and storming the world, storming British gymnastics obviously, and she had an amazing Olympics and she’s only 15, so she’s got the potential to grow. And then we’ve got Gabby Jupp, who medaled at the junior European level and she’s a fantastic beam worker and a really good all arounder. So I really hope that they’ve got that thing that will just carry them through, and they’ve got that belief that they can medal.

SPANNY: And I think we’d have to ask this again in ten years, to see. I don’t know that in 2001 we’d have been like, “Wow, Beth is still gonna be the top competitor for the country…”

BETH: I don’t think anyone thought that. It might be a dark horse now, they might just be sort of sneaking through the junior levels and then they might come into their own. I never won a national title until I was a senior, and I never came into my own until I was 17, 18 years old. So that’s what I want the youngster to realize that they don’t necessarily have to be Junior British National Champion when their 13, 14, they don’t have to be medaling. As long as they’re just like, sort of going along with their game, and keeping their mind straight, and working hard towards that one goal, then they’ve got time. They don’t need to do it all at 15, 16 years of age.

SPANNY: I hope they listen to that, because we had just mentioned there’s the potential for success for years and years and years if you’re smart about it. Alright, Alyssa Nambiar would like to know who your gymnastics inspiration is, being in a country that didn’t have the super powerhouse teams like the Russians, the Romanians.

BETH: Yeah, I mean it was really difficult. Obviously I looked up to Annika Reeder and Lisa Mason because at the time I was growing up they were Britain’s top stars. They were the ones that were going off to Europeans hoping to win medals, and getting finals, winning Commonwealth medals. So on the British side, obviously we had the role models but they weren’t picking up the international medals. On the international basis, I just loved Lilia Podkopayeva and her floor routine.

SPANNY: Yes!

BETH: I just watched it over and over again from the ’96 Olympics. So, I think her and also Zamolodchikova, I loved her from when I was younger as well.

SPANNY: So and then you got to compete, well did you? Now I can’t remember. Did Zamo compete in 2001? Also in 2003 she was there.

BETH: I competed [inaudible] first time, so that was sort of surreal to sort of think a few years ago I was looking up to her and then suddenly, I remember going to Europeans in 2000. I was still a junior but she obviously was competing in the senior competition, but my coach introduced me to her and I was like, “Oh my god!”

SPANNY: Is it weird to think there are probably a billion little girls who – not little, they’re probably teenagers now – probably feel the same way about you?

BETH: It is weird because, look, I still see myself as the same person. I still get back in the gym, I still get back in the gym, I still work hard, and I’ve still got that same ambition. It’s only when I go to competitions, like I’ll go to Nationals next month, and so many little kids, they send me letters, they send me pictures, and they’re like, “I want to be the next Beth!” And you don’t realize until you turn up to events like that how much you do have an impact on this younger generation.

SPANNY: Right. I imagine they’re just excited when they get to the age of, if they do get to compete, with you or in the same arena, that’s got to be pretty overwhelming.

BETH: Yeah, it’s pretty cool. I always try and spend a lot of time with my fans whether it’s at competitions signing stuff or whether it’s on Facebook or Twitter I always try to reply to everyone.

SPANNY: That’s good. One final question, this is from Ninja Editor, “Now the new code favors your style of bar work, have you given any thought to coming back or perhaps another event final medal at Worlds?”

BETH: It’s really difficult and I haven’t made any final decisions. I’ve still been in the gym doing bits and pieces, I’ve been in contact with my coach everyday. I’ve taken a break from competition so I definitely won’t be at Europeans, but I haven’t ruled anything out. I have heard the code does work in my favor on bars, but you know, I’ll just have to see. Once I get done with Dancing on Ice and I get back in the gym full time, exactly how I feel. I want my heart fully in it, I don’t want to be remembered as the one who was up at the top and then dropped again. So, I need to know my heart’s in it 100%.

SPANNY: Right. I can imagine you won’t know until you’re working out.

BETH: Yeah, I’m still in the gym. I’m still doing bits and pieces. But I’m definitely not going to be competing in 2013.

SPANNY: Well, either way, you know. We’re excited to either see you compete again, or even if you just put up training videos, excited to watch those.

JESSICA: Do you love how we’ve hinted like, twelve times? Like, if you want to put up training videos, we’d love to watch! [laughs]

BETH: Blog a video and just superimpose my body over it just to send to you.

SPANNY: Well that’s all we have right now, it’s kind of the off season. This is a random question because we’ve spoken about Danusia, and there’s also Marissa King. There’s a lot of girls who come over to compete for our gym system.

BETH: Yeah. Before 2004, I think there’d only been one or two, and then one of my teammates, my best friend from 2004, Nic, she went to Gators. And then I think people started to realized if you weren’t quite ready to finish gymnastics but you’ve finished with the National team, it was the perfect step. You got to have another life, you got to experience college, and obviously you get to go to America. And everyone seemed to love it out there.

[[SOUND EFFECT: YAY!]]
–

JESSICA: So, what did you guys think about Beth’s interview? Blythe, was there anything that surprised you?

BLYTHE: You know, I can’t say there’s anything that really surprised me, but I really appreciate how genuine and down to earth Beth is, just about the whole thing, the whole process. That’s really what I kind of took away from it.

UNCLE TIM: I kind of love the part where she was describing her dance with the hula hoop and everything because I finally got to see that dance this week and she had crazy hair, she had like a leotard that would make Ponor blush. It was incredible. And it was so much fun to listen to the commentators afterwards because they gave all these cheesy names moves, like the “Gaga belt,” and stuff, I dunno. It was interesting to hear her take on it and then see the dance. She didn’t mention the fact that she was going to do, like a handstand pirouette with ice skates on, or a back extension roll with ice skates on and stuff. It was cool to see that dance.

SPANNY: I, like Blythe, I was just caught off guard by how just genuine and how cool she was, of course. What I especially liked, and I think this even made the interview because we got caught off at the very end, but right before everybody’s phone went to crap I asked her, because there are a couple of other British gymnasts that are active in the NCAA, and I asked her if she ever got a chance to watch those videos and she passionately answered us with she follows Danusia, and Marissa, and Wing, and how much fun they seem to be having. I was pleasantly caught off guard by like, the vigor with which she answered, and knew obviously right away quite a bit about the program and the years the gymnasts started to come overseas to start to compete.

JESSICA: That was really cool, and we know those Brit’s just love Florida, too! She’s like, Yes, they went to the Gators and they loved it! I was surprised that she was like, I will never learn a Kovacs, thats crazy and who would ever in their right mind would do that? And I was like seriously? I would be afraid I would land in the bleachers, flinging off the bar doing one of her connections. And then, the thing is to juxtapose that with what she does on that skating show, like she does that crazy move where the guy holds you buy the feet and then flings you around with your head right next to the ice. Like, what? I think a Kovacs would be less scary than that because you’re depending on yourself instead of some random ice skater dude. I mean, I guess she knows him now but, that’s what surprised me.

SPANNY: Well also, the Yurchenko. Like I thought it was interesting she’s like, I can do the full Yurchenko, fine, but the half – that extra half – just terrified me. And that if she had to do it right now, she’d like freak out. Those little quirks are always interesting.

JESSICA: It is really interesting because you never know what’s gonna scare someone, or what will bother them, it’s so personal.

SPANNY: Mmhmm.

JESSICA: She was a total sweetie, I know we say that about everybody, but really she was so cool and we had a great time talking about her – we had a great time. Yes, we are enjoying talking about her, we also had a great time talking to her. Okay and with that, let’s get to, we have not had our NCAA talk for two weeks. So much has happened; we had see through leotards. Spanny, what’s happening.

SPANNY: Well, it’s kind of grouped, I mean, I think this past week was a little more entertaining than the week prior. This was just a weird week, with highs and lows from a lot of teams. First I wanted to address a question from a listener about where to find all of these meets that we watch online, or to find recaps or scores, and I’m going to direct you to Lauren Hopkins from The Couch Gymnast. She—we will put her link on the site—she compiles, she takes a ton of time and she compiles extensive lists, every single week. She includes free meets, the meets you have to pay for, most of the meets have live scoring, live stats, updates for you—yeah, I would just steer you in that direction, Lauren Hopkins from The Couch Gymnast. Also, CollegeGymFans.com is a top source, not just for links but they update their national rankings and scores every Monday, so you could go right now and go, “Who is number five on vault?” And of course, after this last week, they started applying the RQS scores, everything’s all shifted and whacky. But it’s definitely worth a look over, and again, they also post, usually it’s not until the day of the meet, but you can go on the site and they have a list of both men’s and women’s meets. So, most of the sites—it’s different this year. In the past years, you could get a subscription the CS All-Access, and most of the schools participated in this program. And you could pay, whatever it is, seven bucks a month, and you would have access to all these meets, they would be archived, it was wonderful, so I signed up, so excited, this year—but this year it’s different. Not a lot of schools—I mean, there are some schools in it, it’s worth it, I think I paid $14 for two months, it was some sort of deal—it’s worth it because you do get to see some of the other schools, like Minnesota usually has meets up there, Iowa, Michigan. That said, there are a few schools that would ask you to pay for their own viewing, like LSU, Arkansas, Florida the Gators. I say, I subscribe separately to their meets, and I found it to be worth it, only because they archive their meets almost immediately after their finished, so if you’re a working Joe, like myself, who usually has to work Friday nights and you can’t watch the meets live, then it’s definitely worth it. The final source that we have this year, which is new and the jury’s still out, when you really think about it, is the Pac-12 Network. Some of the meets are free, they’re live, you know, the quality is hit or miss but for a free meet, you can’t complain. That being said, a good number of the bigger meets are blacked out because they’re airing them live on the Pac-12 TV channel, which you obviously get if you live on that side of the world, but also randomly in Maine they’ll have it. I know that here in Minnesota, I have no shot in the world of watching it so I get really frustrated. I miss my sweet Danusia routines and I get all pregnancy-ragey. Alright. So that was kind of an extensive recap of where to watch all the meets, and that some of the fun is that you can go to any of the school sites and go, “I want to watch LSU”, and they’ll have the links up there. Alright. Let’s start with the biggest story on, not just this past week, but probably the entire season, is going to be Oklahoma. And everybody knows Oklahoma’s good, but they forget about them because they’re not loaded with elites. They’ve got all these ninja, sniper level 10s, and they’re amazing. So they scored a mind-boggling 198.375. Florida last week—was it last week?—scores a 198.1 and people were like, “Oh, wow, that’s crazy,” but that’s Florida. To over score them by almost three tenths is pretty, pretty sizable. This is on par with a 2004-era UCLA team, legendary Jamie Dantzscher, Tasha Schwikert years, or Georgia in their prime. This is a big deal. Most other schools are really gunning to break 197. So 198, I cannot reiterate how wild that is.

JESSICA: And they looked amazing. Like, I don’t think that was a crazy score. They looked beautiful. They were great.

SPANNY: And they really are the classiest gymnasts, I know that we like to say this about Minnesota and other teams, but they, I mean, their beam rotation is like China-good.

JESSICA: Yes.

SPANNY: It glorious.

JESSICA: Glorious is the only way to put it. I mean, yup.

SPANNY: Their floor seems—I laugh at some of their floor routines. Some of them are cute, but some of them run into the ‘Bama, squat-y, heel-toe…when I make my goofy, my montage choreography videos, I’m all like, what’s Oklahoma doing? Because I know I’m going to find really interesting…

JESSICA: But no-one, I mean, we do have to say that nobody did the knock on the door with their legs closed, knock-knock-knock, and then open their legs this year. And that’s good. This is a big improvement on the years passed.

SPANNY: Yeah. However, they did sport a very interesting leotard. I believe Jess, you coined it the booby-tard.

JESSICA: That’s right.

SPANNY: A lot of mesh. That’s a lot of side-boob. A lot of front boob. I thought, you know, I couldn’t tell without getting a maybe more high-detailed picture, but I thought it was similar to the ones the USA wore for podium training and prelims, but without the see-through-ness, and so these ones were way more garish and frightening. Really pretty girls, and they’re all fit, but I don’t want to see boobs when I watch gymnastics.

JESSICA: Yeah, like it wasn’t, I don’t think it was actually totally see-through, but it looked like it was totally see-through. So I mean, I just couldn’t stop looking at the sides, because I was like, oh my god, they’re going to have a nipple moment. So it was just, it was distracting. It was—and I like the cut of that leo, but not with the flesh-colored mesh. And while we are on the topic, can we please get back to, none of this flesh-colored nonsense. Because no-one’s skin color’s the same, unless you’re from Siberia and then it’s a light-colored blue. But otherwise, there is none of this, and we need to go back to having underwear that match the color of your leotard please. Please. Please people.

SPANNY: Well, Oklahoma also, I’ve seen them do when they do the open back leotards, but instead of mesh it looks like an Ace bandage, that’s the only thing I can think of, it looks like an Ace bandage fabric, and that’s supposed to match every girl. Yeah. Am I still here, my sound just went woo? Hello?

JESSICA: Yeah, you’re still there.

SPANNY: Ok, I thought it just went dead and I was like, am I talking to myself? Anyway, sorry.

JESSICA: The fashion police cracked down on your audio.

SPANNY: You said boob too many times, PG-13. Ok. Now, to contrast Oklahoma’s insane performance, Friday night was such a weird night for elite-level meltdowns. I felt like every highly-touted ex-elite, I mean almost every one in the NCAA, had a very uncharacteristic fall. Every girl that you could count on to be that never ever falls, just had a weird fall. We saw them from Sloan, Hunter, Macko, but we also saw them from the girls who, maybe you weren’t so surprised. Mattie Larson, Christa Tannella on bars, which, I don’t think she’s fallen all year—well, maybe she has, I don’t know, but—as I noticed it, then I kept, I went from meet to meet to meet, and it was like a domino night where it was just, everybody went down. Bizarre commentary of the week, to go back to the Oklahoma broadcast..

JESSICA: [laughs] She was so funny!

SPANNY: Kelly Garrison, and—she’s not Steve’s anymore, is she?

JESSICA: I don’t know, I guess not.

SPANNY: Kelly Garrison. Uh-huh. With John Roethlisberger, who I like, I mean, more or less, as a commentator, I think he brings personality, he knows what he is talking about.

JESSICA: He makes me laugh, and that is important in commentary, I think.

SPANNY: He needed to do a lot of correcting. I think the first thing one of the gymnasts vaulted and took a very sizable slide back—

JESSICA: Huge! Huge! Half a mat!

SPANNY: It wasn’t just like, Oh, it’s a good landing. She was like, “This is what I have been telling them to do! Stick it!” And he’s like, she didn’t stick it. It was just the passion in which she said these things was really—I mean, I have to respect her for being so passionate, but it caught me off guard, if I was zoning out, the way she’d gasped and the general screeching was alarming me if I wasn’t paying direct enough attention. Which I guess, she made me attention. And there was someone else, who was that, somebody on beam she was referring to as a stick figure or learning from stick figures or something?

JESSICA: She was like, I just learned by watching stick figures in a book, and this girl is the stick figure. Which she meant by like, her form was perfect?

SPANNY: I get that? Yeah, I think…really?

TIM: It was Taylor Spears on bars, if I remember correctly.

SPANNY: Just, what a weird thing to say. Like, I get it. I’ve seen those drawings, I guess, but that’s also extremely dated, which, I mean, I existed in a world before YouTube as well, but still. It was just weird, out of touch stuff. But she did seem flattered when John Roethlisberger told a story about how, where did Miss Val come up with the idea, I guess, that all the girls needed to smile? “Oh, she saw it from Kelly Garrison.” And Kelly was all flattered, so. You know. But that said, I do want to give huge props to UCLA for making that meet available. I mean, it was available half an hour, an hour after the meet finished, so that’s always fun. My nifty concept of the week was the ASU co-ed meet. I just think that it’s neat. I mean, we got to see in on the Pac-12 station online. So the Sun Devils men and the women both got to compete in Wells Fargo arena, so they alternated routines which, in theory, I guess I would have been—I don’t know. It would have been difficult for me focus while I was there, but it was interesting to watch. The men’s team has been relegated to men’s status after being cut from the NCAA. They have stayed afloat for years and years and years thanks to Scott Barclay. They don’t get to compete often in arenas, so it’s really cool for them to be able to compete in Wells Fargo Arena alongside the women. There’s a good turnout, as well. This—I remember from when I was at ASU—the little club girls love their male gymnasts. They show up at these meets and they scream, and they scream, and they run and they scream, and so it was just cute. I think they had a billion girl scouts there and they were all screaming for their male gymnasts, and it’s just another way to get people interested in other facets of the sport, but they desperately, the commentary was hurting, we needed a dose of Uncle Tim STAT, but..

UNCLE TIM: That’s why I’m here.

[LAUGHS]

SPANNY: Other than that, it was good. It was a neat idea and it’s a good way to get men’s gymnastics out there.

JESSICA: I have to mention, before we finish up NCAA, Utah had a 10 at their meet against Stanford, and it was Lia Del Priore, and her routine was beautiful, absolutely beautiful, on floor, she got a 10. But I have to mention, this is like a thing with Utah and I don’t know what the deal is, but basically they had this theme of having football routines, or people doing, not football routines, but people doing routines to football music, like one gymnast had the NFL theme music as her music, and then she promptly started her routine and tore her ACL right away or her Achilles, but this gymnast, her routine was beautiful, she got a 10, she did it to the theme music from Rudy, so hello, that’s awesome. But did you notice that she did the Tebow during that routine?

SPANNY: No.

JESSICA: Yeah. On floor, she does the Tebow with the hand near the face and the praying?

SPANNY: Yeah.

JESSICA: I was like, Rudy and the Tebow? Ooh, shocking. But the routine was absolutely beautiful. Beautiful.

SPANNY: Seems ironic that the year anybody uses the theme from Rudy, just because that’s all that I see on floor now that Uncle Tim has pointed out Dougie’s on floor, and that’s all I see now. Dougie’s.

JESSICA: It’s Rudy music doing the Dougie.

SPANNY: Yes, every routine, every pass. Everything.
–

[LISTENER FEEDBACK]

JESSICA: Ok, Listener Feedback. We haven’t done Listener Feedback in a couple weeks, but we have a little contest. Do we have any winners from our virginity contest?

UNCLE TIM: I don’t know if we have any winners, but we have participants.

[LAUGHS]

JESSICA: You can’t win that contest? You can’t win at losing your virginity? Ok. So. Who has the best photos? Spanny, I’ll let you take it from here.

SPANNY: Alright. Our participants this week is Aurora Nola, and “I brought four gym meet virgins to our intersquad, but forgot to take a picture. So sad, #gymnerdfail.” Just send us a picture later. Next time. Chris Jordan, @mynot86, this must have been a conversation that I am not aware of, “No beer but I did take both of their gym virginities. Quote they said the most: ‘that hurts my shoulders.’” Word. Let’s see, this is from NPE at Georgia Tech, “I also really wanted to say thank you for all they really hard work that you do for adult gymnastics and gymnastics podcast. I started gymnastics when I was freshman in college and now have been doing gymnastics for a few years. It’s good to know that there are people working to make sure that adults know that they can start doing gymnastics do. Plus the podcast is great and has helped me find some new gymnastics blogs.” Jess, that’s all you, because…

JESSICA: That made me so happy! It incorporated everything! The podcast, adult gymnastics, and you guys! Thank you NPE in Georgia.

SPANNY: It’s just like that. Yes. And this is a correction from Christian from the comment on our website. “Deng Linlin didn’t miss out on the All Around by the two-per-country rule, she came in sixth in the final,” which I do remember, “just behind Sandra Izbasa and before Huang Qiushuang. As a huge Deng Linlin fan, I store these fact. Yao Jinnan missed out after poor scores on everything except bars,” which is absolutely correct. “For the record, the only athletes to miss out on finals due to the two-per-country rule were Jordyn Wieber, Anastasia Grishina, Jennifer Pinches and Yao Jinnan.” Which, yeah, we appreciate corrections. So this is a feature that I impulsively decided that we are going to do only because Blythe’s tweets just started cracking me up so much. So I’m going to combine two weeks. Our first, not annual, weekly Tweet of the Week winner is Briley Casanova, who is a Michigan gymnast who used to compete at WOGA. “Got myself a date tonight. His name is Jim Nastics <3”. That’s my humor. Like…that’s all me right there. We are nerds of the same soul, Briley Casanova and myself. Ok. Our second Tweet of the past Week goes to Talia Chiarelli of the Canadian National Team, who also works out of Brestyan’s. Her tweet is, “I look like a deformed rotisserie chicken when I’m stretching.”

BLYTHE: Whoa.

SPANNY: Her humor is…what?

BLYTHE: It’s true! You think about it for a second and, yeah! Yeah! Gymnasts stretching do look like deformed rotisserie chickens. Like in middle splits, you know?

JESSICA: Yes, that’s the truth in middle splits.

BLYTHE: Yeah!

SPANNY: Well, we are all going to think of that every time we see a gymnast stretching. If you choose to follow any gymnast on Twitter, Talia’s one of my favorites. She’s just got a very dry sense of humor, she’s super relatable. She is @taliachi. So she’s definitely worth following. She cracks me up all the time. But. Those will be our first two Tweet of the Weeks, and we’ll keep note of anything hilarious and standout, like the deformed rotisserie chicken.

JESSICA: So one thing that I want to add is, we’ve had a lot of foreign gymnasts on and foreign broadcasters on, Jenni Pinches and Kyle Shewfelt, and I want to mention that there is a way for you to watch these broadcasts, even if you’re in the US. And I am just providing information because I believe in intellectual freedom and I am a proponent of such. I am not proposing copyright violations. I am not proposing that you do anything illegal. I am just giving you information and what you do with it is your own. So there is something called a VPN, which is a Virtual Private Network, and you can use these to watch broadcasts from other countries. So, perhaps it’s not provided in your country, and you’ve asked many times and offered to pay but it is still not provided and you really want to hear Mitch Fenner and his commentary on the Olympics, or you really want to watch the Canadian broadcast so you can hear Kyle Shewfelt. So there’s a, it’s not software, it’s like an app, it’s called Tunnelbear. This is a VPN, it is super easy to use, and you can download it on your browser, so that’s like your Chrome or Firefox or Explorer or whatever you use, or you can download the app and put it on your phone, and nothing will happen, you just turn it on and when it is activated it allows you to access broadcasts, say the BBC, in another country. So, if you wanted to watch something, you could use something like Tunnelbear. But just remember, you turn it on and off as you want to use it, and it allows you access. So there’s that little piece of information for you, in case you want to use something like that, and I’ll put a link up for you guys to check out.
–
[SOUND BYTE]

[[ADVERTISEMENT]]

ALLISON TAYLOR: This episode is brought to you by Elite Sportz Band. EliteSportzBand.com: We’ve got your back.

JESSICA: Visit EliteSportzBand.com, that’s sports with a z, and save $5 on your next purchase with the code: Gymcast.
–

JESSICA: That’s going to do it for us this week. Thanks everybody for listening. We hope that you enjoyed the show. And remember that you can support the show by checking out TumblTrak’s 25th Anniversary stuff on YouTube, there are many tributes to them. You can rate us on iTunes or write a review about the show. You can always download the Stitcher app and listen to us from there. You can use the shop on our website. And we love, love, love your feedback, so please send us at GymCastic@gmail.com, or you can leave a message by calling 415-800-3191, or you can leave us a message on Skype, our username is GymCastic Podcast. And until next week, I am Jessica O’Beirne from Masters-Gymnastics.com. And we have just updated our class map to include Australia, Singapore, and Spain.

BLYTHE: I’m Blythe from the Gymnastics Examiner, and I’ll be at the American Cup this week covering podium training and competition, as well as the Nastia Liukin cup, so swing by the Gymnastics Examiner, we’ll be doing some Quick Hits and just some general knowledge gathering and interviews, so we’d love it if you stop by.

SPANNY: I’m Spanny Tampson from Spanny’s Big Fake Smile. Last week we did a recap of what I thought was an anti-drug PSA, but it turns out it was an episode of a show from the 70s called Quincy Medical Examiner, about the dangers of dosing on drugs and then competing in gymnastics. Shut up.

UNCLE TIM: And I’m Uncle Tim from Uncle Tim Talks Men’s Gym, and on Thursday of this week I will be putting up an American Cup Drinking Game so that you can play it while you watch NBC’s coverage of the meet.

JESSICA: Thanks you guys, we’ll see you next week.

[[OUTRO MUSIC – Age Ain’t Nothing But A Number - Aaliyah]]

Episode 21 Transcript
JESSICA: Before we start this week’s show, I just want to let you guys know that this show is rated PG-13. So our show’s always rated PG-13, I just haven’t taken full advantage of that yet. So just like movies like The Avengers, Harry Potter, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, and, of course, The Hunger Games, that means that occasionally you’ll hear a naughty word on the show. It also means that we will occasionally lift the veil, proverbial veil on gymnastics and show that gymnasts are just like any other jocks. And they’re also just like us because they talk like us. I think gymnastics sometimes suffers because it has this teeny-bopper goody two-shoes image and I think it’s really healthy for us to let people come on the show and be themselves. I wish I’d had a role model like Kyle when I was a kid. And I also feel like if you know one naughty word on this podcast, or three or four, is the worst thing that kids come across on the internet, as Dvora once said on the show, then thank God, because there are way worse things than a bad word on this show. This show’s a great influence I think. In the end I have to make a judgment call about when it feels right, and in this case, you know, I talked to Kyle about this after the show. And I was like podcasts are intimate, they’re not the same experience when you get when you’re watching a TV show or something. And because of this, because we’re not on live TV, because we’re not on a stage, we’re not in front of an audience, you know our guests can really be themselves and you get to experience them in a way that you normally wouldn’t. And so you know that means that we let them be themselves and use the language they want to use and talk the way they would with their friends. And with that, let’s begin. Hope you like it.
–

KYLE: It’s the Olympics, you work your butt off for your entire life to be there, and you should be able to go make friends with whoever you want to make friends with and just have fun. You get this all-access pass to do whatever you want. And you will not get in trouble. You can get [laughs] you can be as bad as you want, and someone will drive you back to the Olympic Village.

[[INTRO MUSIC]]

JESSICA: This week on the show, floor Olympic Champion Kyle Shewfelt, one of the most artistic gymnasts of all time, he our own Uncle Tim talk about the Winter Cup, and we talk about MyKayla Skinner’s crazy skills.

JESSICA: This is episode 21 for February 20th, 2013. I’m Jessica

BLYTHE: I’m Blythe

UNCLE TIM: I’m Uncle Tim

KYLE: And I’m 2004 Olympic Gold medalist and triathlete wannabe Kyle Shewfelt.

JESSICA: [laughs] Welcome to the show Kyle we’re so excited to have you here with us today. And I want to remind our listeners that this is the best and only gymnastics podcast on earth, starting with the top news stories from around the world. Blythe, what do you have for us?

BLYTHE: So the major news for me this week is Mykayla Skinner at the Fiesta Bowl in Arizona. She unveiled a double twisting double layout in her floor routine. She’s the first woman we can remember who had actually done this in competition. Really one of the first one’s to actually do it in training as well. Can you guys think of anybody else who’s done that? Even in the training gym.

JESSICA: I feel like Maloney was working on this but never competed it.

BLYTHE: Yeah that’s possible. I mean she was one of the first to do a full twisting double layout. Not the first, but it was pretty intense when she was doing that in you know 99, 2000. But this is just, it’s off the chain. It looks like… and she does it so easily as well. And she’s also got a couple of very hot vaults. She’s doing an Amanar, or as they would say in men’s gymnastics, a Shewfelt? Is that right Kyle?

KYLE: [laughs] That’s true, yeah

BLYTHE: And she’s also got a Cheng. And she is the first woman to do the Cheng in competition since Cheng Fei and 2008 Olympic Champion Hong Un Jong of North Korea. And they did it in 2008. Nobody did it last quad.

JESSICA: And Vanessa Zamarripa did it at Nationals.

BLYTHE: Ooh that’s right

JESSICA: Yes

BLYTHE: For whatever reason I always forget that she did that at the 2010 Nationals, and it was absolutely fabulous as well. But a lot of people are kind of projecting McKayla Skinner as 2013 World Vault Champion if she’s selected for the team. And four of them will go to the World Championships this year, and she looks like a shoo-in really for a vault/floor specialist if she can maintain these amazing skills that she’s got.

JESSICA: I totally… I, she’s amazing. I want to take nothing away from her and I’m so excited to see super badass tumbling going on, but I have to say her Cheng is… it basically goes straight forward. It has absolutely no lift. It’s really odd that she can even do it with absolutely on amplitude, but it’s still exciting to see. But, just saying, it doesn’t compare to the original.

KYLE: Can I jump in? Sorry, I watched her vault, McKayla’s Cheng, and to me it really, like if you watch it super close, it’s almost like a double twisting yurchenko. It doesn’t have the clear definition to me on a half turn, a block off, a push, a flip, and then a front with a one and a half twist. The twist on the horse it, you’ve got to watch it really really close. It’s borderline to me.

JESSICA: Yeah, I totally agree

BLYTHE: It does look like kind of basically a round-off double twist. And it’s still a very impressive vault that she can do that. And I was almost thinking that she could even add an extra half twist and it would be like round-off, half on, front double full. But I think Kyle’s absolutely right, she doesn’t quite have the definition of the half twist and then a block and then a front one and a half. But…

KYLE: One thing’s for sure, she’s a powerhouse.

JESSICA: Ok so, super exciting news coming out of Germany today. That is our beloved Oksana Chusovitina has declared that she has applied to the FIG to compete for her home country of Uzbekistan, and that she is going to compete for Uzbekistan, maintain her German citizenship, and try to go to the Rio Olympics, which is so awesome oh my God. I’m so excited about this I can’t contain myself. Like if she can do it, why not. And can you imagine being from… imagine if you’re American, and you have never ever competed for the US in your whole life. And you have this incredible legacy. You’re one of the oldest gymnasts and one of the best in the world. And you’ve never won a medal for your country. I have no doubt she’ll make it, are you kidding me? Like especially because she’s thinking she might not make the German team now, but she’ll be the Uzbekistani team. So this is very exciting, I’m so stoked about that.

BLYTHE: Yeah. And it would be great for Uzbek gymnastics as well. You know at the Olympics, their one athlete who qualified, Luiza Galiulina, she was sort of stripped of her Olympic credentials. She didn’t get to compete because she tested positive for a banned substance just before the Olympics began, and that was it for her. And they’ve also got Daria Elizarova, a former Russian competitor and the 2006 Junior all-around champion at the European Championships. And with Chusovitina, and if Galiulina [inaudible] suspension and comes back, they have three fairly strong gymnasts and they could be a formidable team at the World Championships maybe.

UNCLE TIM: She hasn’t won a medal for Uzbekistan? She was competing for Uzbekistan at the 93 World Championships when she won a bronze on vault, and she was also competing for Uzbekistan at the 94 Asian Games where she also won two bronze. So…

JESSICA: Oh that’s right, in between her Soviet and…

UNCLE TIM: Yeah

JESSICA: Yeah. Thank you for that clarification.

UNCLE TIM: Gymnastike’s web series at Cincinnati Gymnastics is back, so everyone needs to check out episode four and meet Mary Lee Tracy’s father. He’s a very interesting man. At one point Mary Lee asks him who his favorite gymnast on beam was, and he responds, “Amanda Borden, because she used to fall off the beam a lot.”

JESSICA: [laughs]

UNCLE TIM: So [laughs] yes he’s a pleasure to listen to.

JESSICA: I love that show, I’m so glad it’s back. So in other news, USA Gymnastics has just launched a “We Care” initiative, which is to better educate parents about the important role they play in preventing child sexual abuse. So it looks like now after the Olympics are done, they’re starting to roll out the initiatives and really invest the money that they’ve made back into the program, which is exactly what we want to see from a nonprofit that runs our gymnastics in this country. I’m really happy to see that. And we’ve spoken about Safe4Athletes on this show before, also started by former gymnasts and swimmers who were abused by their coaches. And it’s great to see that USA Gymnastics is partnering with other organizations and really making sure there are standards in place to prevent this and a system of letting people know how to report crimes like this when it happens. And Kyle, I wondered if, does Canadian gymnastics have this?

KYLE: Yeah actually in Canada there’s a program called Respect in Sport. And it’s a requirement. A lot of sports are now signing up. Gymnastics Canada has been one of the forerunners. They really jumped on board. And it was started by Sheldon Kennedy, an athlete who was a hockey player who was abused by Graham James. And Theoren Fleury was also abused by the same man. So Sheldon started it, and it’s huge. And every coach has to go through the Respect in Sport program. And they’re starting to implement it so that every parent has to as well. And it makes a huge difference. Just that awareness piece, right?

JESSICA: So Uncle Tim was at the Winter Cup last week. And we have been waiting and waiting to hear everything about it.

UNCLE TIM: So the Winter Cup was obviously last weekend, and Jake Dalton came in first, and Adrien de los Angeles came in second, and Danell Leyva came in third. And we added a few national team members. The list is on our website. I’m not going to go over that. But I want to talk about some of the routines. Let’s start with high bar. There’s an interesting routine. The University of Illinois boys just did not want to fall off the high bar, so there were some interesting releases. We’re going to start with Jordan Valdez. I sent you guys the video earlier. He did a stretch tkachev and then caught it. And his hand slipped off and he did a one-armed giant. And then he did a stretch tkachev with a half twist and caught it, and his arm slipped off and did this kind of crunchy little giant going around. So Kyle, my question for you is what was going through your head during that routine, and what would you have said if you were commentating on the Canadian television for everyone?

KYLE: Well when I watched him compete, I could totally tell that fighter’s attitude that he has. You can really see that in an athlete, whether they fight to stay on or whether they crumble. And we have seen some athletes who fall and cry and crumble [laughs] obviously. And Jordan, you could tell right at the beginning of the routine there was no way he was coming off that bar. And I personally love to see that. If I was a commentator saying that, I would definitely letting the Canadian public know it was a good thing he jumped off when he did though, because [laughs] it was getting a little bit… it was like a roller coaster ride. The next one could’ve been a big slip on the dismount and you never want to see that. Always good to jump off, recollect your thoughts, get back up, and finish the last half of your routine.

UNCLE TIM: You get deductions for these form breaks and stuff, so at what point is the right time to actually jump off the bar because you’re just accruing so many deductions?

KYLE: Well I think your mind starts to go so fast, right? That at the point you can’t think ahead. And you just can’t safely complete the routine. So I think for him after that first skill, you could already see his mind was going and that’s why perhaps there was that mistake on the second release skill. But you’re always told to fight till the end. But I think every athlete, especially gymnasts, they have such a great mind and body connection that they understand [laughs] this is going to equal death if I don’t jump off right now

UNCLE TIM: [laughs]

KYLE: And so I think he definitely made the right choice. But maybe one day if he was in training and there was a pit and stuff he probably would’ve tried to go through the rest of the routine. But in competition with the hard mats and stuff, you don’t want to get hurt.

UNCLE TIM: I concur. Does anybody else have thoughts on that?

JESSICA: Well, my only thing is like, I feel like [laughs] Winter Cup always has some crazy thing like this happen. Maybe I don’t watch men’s gymnastics enough. But I feel like Winter Cup always has these nuts routines where you feel like there’s eminent death and then someone makes it and then… I don’t know, from you guys, Kyle, are lots of men’s gymnastics meets like this? Or is Winter Cup that first meet of the season so you see more of this?

KYLE: It’s usually that first meet of the season. The athletes, especially after the Olympic Games, there’s some new faces, they feel like they have some things to prove, and they’re trying to do the big new skills they learned over the summer and have implemented into their routine. So this is their chance to try that new stuff. And sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn’t. But the thing about February, actually the thing about the year after the Olympics is that you really don’t need to be that great. It’s kind of just a testing ground. If you’re thinking… I think in Olympic cycles. I don’t know about you guys. But I always think who’s going to be great in four years. And I think for Jordan he has awesome swing, a really great body line, and I think that because this happened, he’s going to be able to go back into the gym and rework and gain more confidence on those skills. But man, Winter Cup is a little bit crazy, always.

UNCLE TIM: I agree. I think one year, Jonathan Horton just bashed his face against the bar, too, on a release move I think. I can’t remember what year it was, so. Definitely some interesting things. And speaking of people who almost bashed their face against the bar, Paul Ruggeri, he unveiled his kolman on high bar. I think that was his first time competing it. But he also did something interesting, a skill that you don’t really see nowadays that often. He did German giants, and I thought that was just really cool. Kyle, what did you think as you watched that routine?

KYLE: Well, as I was watching the video, it kind of looked to me like the German giants were him just trying to improvise [laughs]. Which is an interesting improvisation. I wouldn’t want to put myself in that body position to improvise. But you could tell at the beginning he was really gaming for that first release skill. That’s where most of the focus and the energy was right from the top. And then the brain starts to get tired throughout the rest of the routine, and the endurance just isn’t there. And at this point in the year it shouldn’t be. But yeah I felt like him jumping into German giants was… it didn’t look super planned to me, to be honest.

UNCLE TIM: Yeah I thought that too. I thought the composition of the routine was a little strange. I don’t know what the right way to work in the German giants is, but yeah it seemed like it was just kind of an add-on that he needs to find a better way to get into the skill. And maybe it’s just modern day gymnastics too. You don’t really see too many people do that skill, and so it’s also a strange transition no matter what you’re doing. Because it’s usually giant, giant, some kind of pirouette skill, some kind of release, more giants. I don’t know.

KYLE: And you know, the crazy thing about high bar especially right now and this new Code of Points, is the routines are so bloody long that by the end, I mean your brain is super wiped. It’s like being a bobsled driver, you know. You’re going so fast around all those turns, your mind is just burnt right out by the end. And your body too, right. You need huge endurance both mentally and physically. I think high bar is one of the events where it’s the hardest to do the long routine because by the end your hands… they don’t want to come up. They don’t want to hold on anymore.

UNCLE TIM: Yeah, yeah I can imagine. I never competed at that level but I’ll take your word for it. But there is one gymnast who’s a junior, Bobby Baker, who you know at the end of his rings routine still managed to throw a triple back, which is an F dismount on rings. Incredible. And also he did a full twisting double front on floor, which was pretty awesome. He didn’t land it well either day. He did it very well in warm-ups but in competition he had some troubles. But the full twisting double front in the United States is rated at an E right now. Do you think that that’s too low, or do you think that’s about right for the skill?

KYLE: Well I think that how many people in the world are doing it, none. So I think E is definitely too low for that skill. It’s so intricate to be able to fit that in. Obviously it’s very difficult to perform, he didn’t land it either day. But it’s one of those buzz things right? I even saw on Facebook after Winter Cup there was a lot of people posing the video of him doing it. From around the world, like “wow look what this little kid from America did.” And I think that’s a great move for Bobby. I think you want the world to start talking about the skills you’re doing. So great risk, I think, for him. And it seems like there’s a lot of buzz around it.

UNCLE TIM: Ok. And did you get to see his triple back off rings?

KYLE: I did, yeah, he made it look way too easy.

[LAUGHTER]

KYLE: A triple back off rings at the end of a routine is ultra difficult. To even just have the right amount of grip left to pull, because you really have to pull those rings and throw them out to the side. But one thing I did notice about this young athlete is that he has great air awareness, great airsense. In his floor routine he does tons of double flips and always lands. He’s like a cat.

UNCLE TIM: Yeah, he’s very impressive. I can’t wait to see what happens with him in the future. You know it’s also interesting though because he’s, I believe, either 16 or 17. And if he were a female gymnast we would be saying, “Aw, but he should’ve landed that!” And you know because he’s a male gymnast we kind of make concessions and say oh you know, he’s still young, he has time to land that full twisting double front. Do you find that you’re a little bit easier on the younger guys than the female gymnasts?

KYLE: Oh totally, yeah. I think it’s a natural thing for us because perfection is demanded a little bit later in a male gymnast’s career. And I think a lot of us understand and appreciate that when you’re 16, 17, 18, that’s sort of the years when you’re trying to build confidence in competition. You’re trying to reach that mastery level. So you’ve got to throw some skills that maybe aren’t quite ready. Obviously not dangerous skills, like good thing he wasn’t doing double twisting double front because that could be a little bit freaky.

UNCLE TIM: [laughs]

KYLE: But yeah you’ve got to be in competition. And I’m sure he lands it in training all the time. But sometimes in competition, you’ve got to learn how to complete a skill. So for the women, they’re winning Olympic Games at 16, 17, 18, right? Unless you’re Chusovitina.

UNCLE TIM: [laughs]

KYLE: [laughs] And you’re like 400, but

UNCLE TIM: [laughs]

KYLE: But for the guys, yeah. You need to start doing the skills younger and hey, it’s a big thing, you’ve got to fail before you can succeed. You have to learn how to fall before you can learn how to land. So the first thing you learn in gymnastics: how to fall safely. Because you do it a lot.

UNCLE TIM: That’s, yeah, very true. And since we have a floor expert on our show today, I also want to talk a little bit about floor. But first, I also sent you a video of Stacey Ervin and his insanely high tamayo. It’s just crazy how much height he gets. What were your thoughts as you were watching his routine?

KYLE: Well to be honest I didn’t watch it, I’m just pulling it up right now here on YouTube.

[LAUGHTER]

UNCLE TIM: Take a little pause

KYLE: Yeah sorry guys, it’s actually not loading on mine. So can you just describe it to me? It’s super high?

UNCLE TIM: Yeah, super high. Let me think. Jess, you were a huge fan of his tamayo, can you describe it?

JESSICA: Oh my God, oh my God! Basically it is a legit tamayo, first of all. No fakey fake like Jake Dalton. Don’t even get me started on Jake Dalton and his fake tamayo. If they are giving him credit as a tamayo, I will riot. Let me just tell you. That’s the kind of thing I would like to be able to throw a yellow flag at the judges. It makes me so angry! Because that skill is so awesome.

KYLE: Why does it make you so angry?

JESSICA: Because if you’re not doing it right and you’re still getting credit, it’s not fair to the people who are really doing it well, because it’s so hard.

KYLE: So Jake’s doing a double layout with a half turn in the middle and then a front layout, right?

JESSICA: Yeah. He does a… yeah. He doesn’t twist at all, and I did watch it like 100 times and paused it at each, you know [laughs] so I could tell. He does not actually do a front layout until the second flip. I mean, not even close. Right, yeah. So I love Charlie so much that I just feel like it’s not fair to him and the legacy of his skill [laughs] that they do this. But Stacey Ervin’s tamayo is… it’s so legit, he’s completely rotated before he starts the first flip, and it’s so high that it actually looks like he’s going to over rotate it. I mean it’s just beautiful. Is that not normal? Do you not get angry when [laughs] people get credit for skills they shouldn’t?

KYLE: Yes, for sure. And I also did the tamayo. I, yeah. I mean to take off and do a half turn and do a double front in a layout is much different than setting from your takeoff in the layout position. Mine went to two broken legs [laughs] because you kind of lose your awareness in the air so I give huge credit to anybody that does it right and can land it right.

UNCLE TIM: Speaking about floor in general, one trend that I noticed during the Winter Cup was that it was basically a bunch of tumbling lines, then the guys would do a press to a wide armed handstand, and then tumble some more. And you, Kyle, were obviously somebody who included things like full twisting back handspring to prone position. Also a full twisting jump to prone also. Those are considered the non acrobatic elements of floor and we really don’t get to see those too much. What can we change to encourage gymnasts to do that?

KYLE: Well it is so disappointing that this is the direction that gymnastics is heading in. It’s becoming more of an extreme sport than an artistic sport. And I know that you guys fell in love with the sport of gymnastics because it was artistry combined with athleticism. I loved watching the Russians, or the former Soviets, step to the corner with style. Or even the Chinese, Li Ning back in the day. They looked… there was a grace and an aesthetic to their routine that really made it look like it was art meeting sport. And that’s super lost. Now it’s just brute strength, how many passes can you jam in to a minute in 10 seconds. So with that being said, I have a solution. I really do. And I brought it up to the FIG. They haven’t taken steps forward on it, but I think they need to start limiting the amount of tumbling passes. They need to say maximum five passes. And then they need to increase the time limit. Put another 10 seconds on the routine. But say, you have a minute and 20 seconds, and max five passes. They can do that. There’s limitation that they’re already putting on with the Code of Points. So why not just limit the number of tumbling passes? And that allow the gymnast extra time to breathe and take that extra 10 seconds to do something nice. I know for myself, being a gymnast from Canada – and you guys are lucky, you’re from the states where it’s a very prominent country on the international gymnastics scene. But in Canada, we’re really not. We have to be innovative, we have to be different. You think of someone like Yvonne Tousek. Everyone fell in love with her because she was so different. Or in my situation, I got noticed because of the small things I did. That jump full turn to prone. At my very first World Cup competition in Germany, I was 17 years old. And I thought I needed a big double layout dismount. And I did it, and guess what they wrote about? They wrote about my jump full turn to prone. Because that’s something different that people notice. So I think we really need to figure out a way to encourage that again. That’s the roots of gymnastics, and I think moving forward, that’s something that needs to come back.

UNCLE TIM: Ok. And would they still count 10 skills? In terms of the difficulty score?

KYLE: Well I mean, that’s just a whole can of worms that we’re going to open right now. I say counting 10 skills sure, why not? That totally works. But it’s the… it’s just the emphasis right now on the skills. Maybe they should count seven skills and then you should have to count three non acrobatic skills. Perhaps that could be a solution. But I don’t know if the FIG is moving in that direction. I don’t think their sights are set on that. But I don’t know. I think that’s why a lot of people fell in love with gymnastics, it’s because of the artistry and athleticism meeting.
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[[INTERVIEW SEGMENT]]

UNCLE TIM: We are so proud to have TumblTrak sponsor our interview with Kyle Shewfelt. If you’re looking for ways to build your preschool program, I think personally that TumblTrak is the perfect way to do it. So when I go home to Wisconsin, I love visiting what I call my “gymnastics nieces.” I take them to my old gym and we set up a little obstacle course with pretty much all TumblTrak equipment. So first we climb up what they call the mini mountain. Then we practice swinging in a straddle on the junior kip bar. Afterward we do some tuck jumps on the mini trak. And at the very end of the circuit we sprint down the TumblTrak like a cheetah and do a forward roll onto a big pit. And then we do it again, and we do it again, and we do it again and again and again. And the little girls love it, and their mom loves it too because the little ones are ready for a nap afterward. So check out tumbltrak.com to read more about their equipment. That’s t-u-m-b-l-t-r-a-k .com.

BLYTHE: What we’re going to do is we’re going to talk about your career. And Kyle, I know that you’ve been quizzed on your career quite a lot. And so just before we begin I wanted to ask, what the craziest thing a reporter’s ever asked you?

KYLE: Oh the craziest thing a reporter has ever asked me? I haven’t been asked too many crazy things to be honest. Most of it has been revolved around the sport and my passion for it and my goals and all that stuff. The most offensive thing that has ever happened [laughs was after the 2008 Olympics, and this is something that really opened my eyes to the power of media. I’m in it now. I get it. Someone said that my 2008 Olympics was a failure. You didn’t win. You failed. And it was like really? I failed? I think we all have a different definition of success. I guess in the media, failure is when you don’t win gold. It really brought to life to me that there is possibility for success even when you don’t get a medal. It’s about being at your best, knowing that you did everything you could to be the best that you could be. When that reporter said that, you failed, my heart broke for a second, and then I was like no I didn’t! So to me, that was always a very monumental moment for me in my career.

BLYTHE: Wow! I am so so sorry! Do you think they were just trying to get a rise out of you? Get an original quote?

KYLE: Oh yeah! Probably! And they like that headline “Shewfelt failed in comeback.” But it’s not just me. I see it all the time, in every sport where an athlete perhaps has a great performance and doesn’t get the result and we call it a failure.

BLYTHE: Well ok. Let’s actually go back to the beginning. Your father was a hockey player correct? And so you have this athletic heritage and I was wondering what brought you to gymnastics. Could you just tell us that story?

KYLE: Yes. I don’t actually remember picking gymnastics. I remember gymnastics picking me. I was a little boy and my dad was a hockey player and both my brothers and I, we played hockey. And I liked it. I was pretty good. But I didn’t love it, you know? In the morning, Saturday morning for practice, my dad would have to like drag me out of the house to go to hockey. It was painful for him. I did swimming. I did soccer. I did t-ball. I did all these other sports, but none of them, I didn’t feel passion. And I was cartwheeling around the house and I was flipping on my parents’ bed and I was doing handstands against the wall. I always say my mom put me in gym because I was going to break her furniture or break my neck. She needed a safe place for me to be. But it was, Blythe, that instant that I walked into a gym, like a light shone down and I found a place where I belonged. And I loved it so much I couldn’t stop thinking about it. I wanted to go everyday.

BLYTHE: And eventually you got to do that! You told me before about meeting Kelly Manjack, your coach for the 2004 Olympics, and quite a bit before that. Could you just tell our listeners that story as well because I just love the way that you phrase it. When did we talk about it, a year ago or so.

KYLE: Yeah I did a couple of sessions of rec gymnastics, which I think is huge. I love recreational gymnastics. But I had a little more talent than your normal kid. So my coach at the time called Kelly, the men’s head coach at the Alberta Gymnastics Club. He called Kelly over and said hey you need to meet this kid. So Kelly comes over and is like hey my name is Kelly. What can you do? I ran all the way across the floor, diagonally, and in the last two feet, I did roundoff back handspring. He was like whoa where did you learn to do that? I was like in my backyard! He said oh my goodness. Holy smokes! Can you do the splits? I jumped down into a split. Hmmm interesting. He took me up to a bar and said how many chin ups can you do? I did like eight chin up. He pulled me off the bar and said where’s your mother? And we walked out of the gym and he met my mom and from that point on I was in the pre competitive program. Kelly and I worked together from the time I was six until I was 22 at the Olympics in 2004. At first he had 99% control over my training plan and what I was to do and learning and as we grew as coach and athlete, we shifted where I took 99% of the ownership and he was there for the 1%. He’s my best friend. You don’t spend 30 hours a week in the gym for 16 years of your life without knowing someone inside and out.

BLYTHE: And can you explain to us a little bit about the way levels work in Canada? Because I think it’s a little bit different than they do in the United States, becoming an elite gymnast and moving up through the ranks.

KYLE: Well I think any kid that has potential could be an Olympian and find their own path to the top. In Canada, it’s changed even since I was a young boy. There was a category called cadet. We were little cadets. Well there was sparks, cadets, argo, tyro, novice, junior, senior. So when I was growing up, as a tyro, you could go to national championships and as argo, you could go to the western Canadian championships. It’s kind of like regionals and states. I started off in those low level programs and started to win. I scored a perfect ten actually! That just popped into my mind. I was a little argo, one of my floor routines, big dive roll, perfect ten. The only one I ever got. When I was argo, I went and won the Western Canadian Championships in my category. I went to the Canadian Championships as a tyro when I was 13. I did that for three years. Then I was supposed to become a novice but I decided that I wanted to just completely skip it because I had compulsories and I didn’t really want to do them. I wanted to test my mettle on the real events. I was very loose on pommel horse and p bars and super self admitted to that. Those are not my strengths. I maintained them. I couldn’t do the compulsory routines well enough to be able to do well. Kelly and I always had this philosophy that we should achieve success in the goal. We should never set a goal so high that you’re going to go and completely fail. We wanted to go and we wanted to achieve great results and performances at Canadian Championships. That was always our big goal. I skipped novice completely, went junior, did junior for one year and then I jumped into senior and I was at the Olympics in 2000. It was a pretty fast progression.

BLYTHE: In 2000, you were still very much the new kid on the scene internationally. When I think about your three Olympics, there’s certain things that come to mind. At the 2000 Olympics, you’re the new kid. At the 2004 Olympics, you’re the superstar, the floor gold medalist. In the 2008 Olympic Games, it’s kind of like the comeback and the great moment that you had just being able to perform and being there. So can you talk a little bit about those three Olympic experiences and how they were different and just sort of how you felt to go through all that?

KYLE: Yeah it’s funny Blythe that you name them those things because those resonate with me and that’s what I call them. Although I call the first Olympics, my experience Olympics instead of the new kid. I was 18 years old. I thought I knew everything about the world of gymnastics. I really didn’t. When I was standing there in the corner ready to compete at the Olympic Games, I remember looking around and seeing all them. And I had done the training before podium training but this is when it really clicked in my mind, holy crap. I’m at the Olympics! It’s in the mats. It’s on all the side boards. That’s when I realized, this is bigger than anything you’ve ever done before. No matter how much you pretend it’s another meet, it’s bigger than anything you’ve ever done. That kind of clicked in my mind before I went to compete and I couldn’t feel my legs. I saluted the judge and I started my routine and I had so much energy. When you perform at the Olympics as an athlete, time kind of slows down. I like to say it’s like a car accident where things are really slow motion or so they feel. But on the outside, they’re actually moving really fast. So I watch that routine back in 2000, I’m like holy....I was on supersonic speed. But inside, it felt like I was going so slow. At the end of the day, I went out of bounds on my first pass. I did whip, 1 ½, front full to front 1 ½ and did a rebound into prone and like my toe went out of bounds. And I didn’t even know that it did. I went through the rest of my routine really cleanly and I had added a double twisting double back as my dismount because I felt like I had to up the ante for the Olympics and my score came up and I noticed I had that small deduction for 1/10 for going out of bound. And I just remember going what did I get that deduction for? And they went back to the video review, we put in a protest, and yep, my toe went out. So what I really learned from those Games is the experience. It was at the Olympics, 1/10 of a point dropped me from 4th to 12th and I was 12th on floor and 25th on vault. I debuted the Shewfelt there and it was a huge success. Also a bit of a disappointment because I was done after the very first day. But then I was basically hammered for the rest of the Olympics and I had so much fun and I met people from around the world and I partied and I got a tattoo and I had the Olympic experience. I saw tons of events and that was awesome. But Igor Vihrovs won those Olympics on floor and he was a friend of mine and I’d beaten him before so I really felt like in 2004 it was going to be my time, that there was potential. You know when someone you’ve beaten before wins, all of a sudden you get a new sense of belief. Fast track to 2004, I was a machine. I was so prepared, so ready. I had set myself up so well over course of the past few years. My success at the Commonwealth Games, World Championships, World Cups, winning multiple medals. I was so confident, so ready. I had a small ankle injury actually before those 2004 Games. It was like the universe giving me a small distraction so that I wasn’t so focused on the winning part. I was focused on the preparing and the performance. 2004 was literally a dream. I think back to that often in my life now that I’m removed from sports. I have never felt so prepared and so ready for something, physically, mentally, spiritually, emotionally. I was so connected to that best version of myself at those Games and that’s the thing that I hope for every athlete to experience once. Literally, I had a zone performance on floor at those Games. I was not thinking. It was just happening and I was watching it happening. How I stuck my first pass? I don’t know. [laughs] I just stopped thinking about it. It happened. The rest of the routine was exactly the way I had practiced it over and over and over. And I knew that I had to stick my dismount. I remember being a little kid. And I know that you guys all did this when you were kids in the gym pretending you’re at the Olympics. You’re like, ok I gotta stick this one. I’m at the Olympics! Have you guys done that?

JESSICA: I still do that at gymnastics practice.

KYLE: Ok! So I did that a lot. I do that too. Literally I was at the Olympics and I had to stick my dismount because if I would have hopped, I would have been fifth. I believe in total commitment. I believe that if you are fully, deeply committed to something, it can happen. It does happen. And for me, on that dismount. two flips and two twists, literally like a bus could have come and hit me and I would have been stronger than the bus. The bus would have bounced off of me. There is so much energy inside of me fighting for that landing. It was like a version of me, I don’t even know how the hell I access it. Just the warrior inside of me was there and the urgency of the moment. I ended up sticking that dismount and not a better feeling for an athlete than knowing you did your best routine in the moment that it mattered the most. It didn’t matter at that point whether or not I had won. I didn’t give a shit. Awesome! I did the best routine at the Olympics. And then my name came up on the scoreboard and I was first and I had to sit and wait and at the end of the day, I ended up winning. That was literally like a dream. A dream come true. I had dreamt of that. I dreamed that dream for 16 years of my life. Since I was 9 years old, I laid in bed every night and imagined what that would feel like, so to be there in that actual moment, it was pretty surreal. It didn’t feel real until the next day. It was pretty crazy. But I feel like I’m going on for a long time. I’m reliving it. I hope you guys are immersed in the moment with me.

BLYTHE: I have a question. Because actually I’m watching the video. I was very inspired by some of the things that you were talking about. And this was just a sport. You stepped into the corner of your floor routine. You said something to yourself. You muttered like one word. What was that?

KYLE: In the lead up to those Games, in the preparation, it was super intense. I was starting to feel the stress and the pressure so I came up with a key word for myself, a key phrase that was going to ground me and fill me into my performance. I used it for three months before in training. It was make it happen. I was physically prepared. I was mentally prepared. I was emotionally and spiritually ready for that moment and all I had to do was just make it happen. And by saying that, it put me in a place of trusting, trusting in my preparation, trusting in my readiness and trusting in my being able to do it in that moment and not talk myself out of it. Because we all have a demon right that lives inside of us and we have a good wolf and a bad wolf, a good voice and a bad voice, an angel and a devil and in a moment of high stress and high pressure, the devil can be so loud. It just can eat you away. It’s what happens to a lot of athletes. They talk themselves out of success. But for me, make it happen, that was the thing that grounded me and put me forward through that routine.

BLYTHE: Just talking yourself into success you said.

KYLE: Absolutely. Settling into it. Being open to it. Trying not to talk myself out of it.

BLYTHE: We want to go back to 2008 for second. But first, and we ask every Olympian that we have on the show this question. You kind of alluded to it before. We hear that there are awesome parties in the Olympic Village during and maybe after the Games are over. Confirm or deny. True or false?

KYLE: Um true! Hello! It depends if you’re open to the party and allowed to go to the parties. Let’s just say that. Because there are a few teams in this world, not naming any names, that aren’t allowed to go out. I think that’s so unfortunate. It’s the Olympics! You work your butt off for your entire life to be there and you should be able to go and make friends with everyone and just have fun. It’s an all access pass to do whatever you want and you will not get in trouble. You can be as bad as you want and someone will drive you back to the Olympic Village. You’re not going to get in trouble. I’ve always made it a mandate in my life to become friends with as many people as I possibly can. I want to die with like a billion friends. I don’t want any enemies. I always walked into the gym and was friends with my competitors. There was something that like Marian Dragulescu and I were like enemies. No man! He was one of my good friends. I respect him so much. He was such a great athlete and was an awesome party animal. There’s a time for focus and there’s a time for fun. And I knew when to do both. And yeah the parties at the Olympics, they’re kind of off the hook. Let’s say, 5 am you get home, minimum.

BLYTHE: Ok!

KYLE: Yeah.

BLYTHE: And what goes on at the parties?

KYLE: Oh my God I can’t tell you that. There’s a code. You don’t know unless you’re at the party. No I’m joking. Just a lot of fun. A lot of sweet dance moves, lots of shots, lots of people celebrating this moment. And I think that’s why the Olympics are so beautiful because everybody there, regardless of sport, regardless of background, regardless of religious history, everyone there has dreamt the same dream. And everyone worked their tail off for that one moment, for that one time frame. And so when you’re done, the stress release is huge and everyone’s celebrating life and celebrating human potential, celebrating performance and celebrating friendship and celebrating sport. I can only tell you that is what happens.

BLYTHE: It’s really too bad for people whose events begin on day 10 or day 11

KYLE Oh yeah!

BLYTHE: Because they don’t get a taste of that.

KYLE: It was funny. In 2004, my teammate Alexander Jeltkov, he was my roommate for four years. We just got along so well. It was a really high performance team that we had at that time. We knew each other well. We knew each other’s routines and like what annoyed the other person and what not to do. But Sasha was done after the first day and I still had to compete so he decided he was going to stay out all night and party and he’d come home in the morning, and I’d get up and go to training and he’d sleep all day. So it was like a trade off. That’s how teammates work.

BLYTHE: Turning back to competition for a little bit, could you clarify how gymnastics programs, particularly men’s programs are funded in Canada? I know that you saw pressure after your Olympic win. Tell me what it was like being at the 2006 Worlds and being like ok I have to get a medal so our program can get funding so we can continue on. And like that. Is that the reality?

KYLE: Yeah it is. It’s the reality that success equals money. Medals equal money for the program. I tried as an athlete to ignore that and focus on the things I could control because you can drive yourself totally crazy keeping up with all the external pressures that are on you. You’re right. In 2006, I was very aware of what it meant for me to be at that Worlds to win another medal and what it meant for the program. Because 2004 was a huge success. Our team did well at the Olympics. We didn’t win a medal but we did win a medal in our funding to move forward. Yeah I was pretty aware. And it kind of messed with my mind a little bit.

BLYTHE: Was it a lot of pressure?

KYLE: You know, I think as an athlete when you’re standing there ready to compete, you should be thinking about how ready you feel. How prepared you feel. And not be afraid of what would happen if you don’t get the result. And unfortunately at those Worlds, we had great success as as team and did get an individual medal, but it didn’t feel the same as it did in 2004. 2004, like I told you, I was so open to the possibility of greatness and in 2006, I was afraid of what would happen if I didn’t get the results. I look back on that and I’m happy it happened because it’s helped me move forward in my life and to be more of the person that I want to be. I didn’t like that feeling. I highly advise any athlete who focuses on results to reevaluate and refocus more on the performance.

BLYTHE: It’s really hard to block out isn’t it? How did you adapt after 2004 to being the guy who is the Olympic Champion, to the guy who is the best right now and all of a sudden have all these people, I don’t know if I want to say under you but like all these people who want to knock you off that hot spot and have to deal with that as a competitor?

KYLE: Yeah it is hard. It’s always harder being at the top than getting to the top. It’s harder being chased. Sometimes I like to equate it to you’re running up a set of stairs and there’s all these people running and they’re trying to grab your ankles and pull you down and that’s scary. But I think the way that I was best able to deal with it was that I was the best version of myself as an athlete was when I focused on creating like magic, when I wasn’t thinking oh I’m going to do this because I’m going to get this result. It was I want to do this routine because it’s going to look this way or it’s going to feel this way. And I think after 2004, it did take me some time to re adjust and realign with that performance value but I always felt it a huge honor and a huge privilege to be able to be on a pedestal, to be able to be a role model because I thought that was the best way for me to set a great example and to hold myself accountable to……being a champion was when I knew there was a younger generation watching me in the gym, how I behaved, how I acted, the integrity that I had, the character that I had every day. And in a way I kind of…..I always try to turn things that could be possibly negative into something positive. That’s just something I’ve always done.

BLYTHE: Why did you decide to continue after 2004, and was there a burnout following that Olympics?

KYLE: Well I decided to continue for a few reasons. I felt, number one, that I still had some gymnastics left in me. My body was feeling good. I missed it a lot. I decided I was going to take three months off just to go and do what an Olympic champion does, meet people, speak, go and do a lot of events. I just took a break and I really started to miss gymnastics. And I felt I had some sort of sense of obligation to my federation and to my country because I had achieved success and I wanted to help continue that. And I really wanted to be a leader. I wanted to be a leader of the next generation. I saw Adam Wong, Nathan Gafuik and Brandon O’Neill coming up. Dave Kikuchi and Grant Golding and Ken Ikeda, all of them were coming up and doing so well and so committed and I wanted to be apart of that. I had achieved success individually and that was amazing and it was with the huge support of my team and I don’t think people really recognize that I was great because I had a great team behind me. But I wanted to help that team elevate to that result that I knew that we could achieve. I knew we could be one of the top six teams in the world. I knew we could win the Commonwealth Games. I knew that I was going to play an important role in that. That’s one of the reasons. And of course there’s also the hmmmm this is something that I can do and I can actually make a bit of money doing it. My parents liked that. [laughs]

BLYTHE: I’m sure after so many years of paying for gymnastics, I’m sure they very much appreciated that. And then we come to 2007 and you’re in Stuttgart and it’s podium training and it’s in the training gym and we all know what happened with the injury. Take us through that day maybe without too many gory details or the gory details.

KYLE: Oh you’re getting the gory!

BLYTHE: Oh bring on the gory! How did it feel? [laughs]

KYLE: Well, you know, heading into those Worlds in 2007 I was so prepared. I can’t tell ya. I was better than I was in 2004. My routines in all of our training camps and mock competitions, it was easy. That’s when you know you’re ready as a gymnast, is when the most difficult routine becomes easy. You know, you’re not struggling for breath at the end, it’s just like, oh yeah, double double at the end. No problem. Let me walk into this. I felt like I was floating. We were there in Stuttgart and the first two days of training was awesome. Like, your first day always sucks, it just happens and you accept that, because jet lag is weird. But the next day I went through and we had half routines, that was what we had to do, our training… I’m losing the word right now…it was our program. That’s what it was, our training program. So I did my half routines and didn’t miss my def on high bar, and is a sign to me that I’m ready is when it’s just easy. But then on the third day we had morning training, and we had our choice of whether or not we wanted to do one routine in the afternoon or morning, but we had to do one routine on each event and we would be competing. So, I was like a super go-getter, I was like, “I’m doing it. I’m getting all my routines done this morning so that this afternoon I can, like, chill.” So, I started on floor and we were the first ones in the gym, Team Canada, and I warmed up and I went through my routine, and instead of doing an arabian double front layout, I did an arabian double front pike in the routine, and then I was going to train the arabian double front layout after just to see. So, I went through the routine, and I remember there was people sitting all around the floor. Like, all my friends from around the world and people were like clapping at the end of my routine because I was in great shape, and that felt awesome. So I said to Eduard, “Eduard, I think I’m gonna do-” and this is Eduard Yarov who was our National Coach, said, “Eduard, I’m gonna do one arabian double front layout just to get a feeling. I’m gonna put in the mats, do you want to watch it?” and he’s like, “Okay, yep. No problem.” So I put in the mat and I was standing in the corner, and I felt great energy. I felt alive, I felt power in my legs. I took off and I just kind of missed the take off a bit and I really stretched my body and I had a millisecond of misjudgment where I thought I was actually higher than I was, and I opened up my body a little bit more to come in for a landing, and I thought it was going to be like a rockstar landing. But actually, my heels went in and my body arched, and my head went back, and then my head flipped forward and smashed into my chin and my legs hyperextended, and I heard them snap. It was like, “Crrrrunccchhh!” and I heard everybody around the floor go, [[MAKES GROSSED OUT NOISE]], and that’s not a sound you want to hear [laughs] when you’re an athlete. So I laid back and your instant reaction when you hyperextend is to bring your knees up into your chest, so I brought my knees up into my chest and, you’re editing this so you can bleep it out, but I was like, “F***. F***. Oh, f**** this hurts!”, right? And all of a sudden people start coming over and Eduard comes over and looks at me and he’s like, “Are you okay?” And I’m like, “Yeah, yeah. I’ll be okay. I just need a minute. I just need a minute.” And our physio comes over, and then and then our massage therapist comes over and then all of a sudden there’s like ten people around me, and I’m like laying there and my world starts to spin. I kept thinking, oh my God, I’m letting my team down. What are they going to do? What if I can’t compete? Okay I’m going to be able to compete. This just hurts right now, I just need ten minutes. I went through the entire spectrum from gymnastics being over to no I’m only going to be out one day. I’m gonna ice and I’m gonna be okay. Then I got carried off the floor and instantly the doctors from the german delegation were there, and they put, like, a scope and looked in my knees and they said, “Okay, it doesn’t look like there’s any ligament damage”, so I actually walked out of the gym that day, believe it or not, on crutches. I was like “Ow, ow” and my face making a lot of funny looks. They drove me to the hospital, and I laid in the MRI machine, and that’s when my legs were starting to get stiff. I was like, “This is not good.” And then I saw the doctors talking and then they wheeled in a wheelchair. They wouldn’t let me put weight on my legs, and they told me I’d broken both of my legs and I was going to need to have surgery and I would definitely not be competing at those Worlds. So, that’s a big moment of truth, as an athlete, to be in the best shape of your life and then in a millisecond have it all taken away.

BLYTHE: I can’t believe they let you walk out of the gym on crutches!

KYLE: Well, there was no damage on the little machine that they did, the ultrasound machine, they couldn’t see any. And like, you want to be tough, right? You’re at the World Championships, your team’s there, you want to be like, “Yeah, I can walk this off’, but my legs were so weak at that point, literally they started to atrophy instantly, they went into protection mode and they were hot. My legs were so hot. I remember- not like my legs were “super hot”, but like they were on fire from the inside out. [laughs]

BLYTHE: The other thing I can’t believe is that you’re lying there on the mat and you’re like, “It’s okay, I’m okay. I just need a minute.” And the pain didn’t get to you right away.

KYLE: Well, I mean it was there but I was in denial, right? I think most gymnasts are tough. Gymnasts are the toughest athletes. The injuries that they get and work through is incredible, and you always try to find a way to push yourself through that pain, but in some instances, you just can’t.

BLYTHE: Growing up, did you have an injury before this one, that had hampered you? Anything at all?

KYLE: Yeah, for sure. I always injured myself doing stupid things. LIke stepping off a mat I broke my foot, once on pommel horse I was doing a flair travel and I put my hand down the wrong way and busted my wrist, broken my fingers… like, male gymnasts have every single finger broken basically, just from pommel horse and p-bars and high bar. Of course, there were always little detractors, little detours. But never an injury that took me completely out of it for a few months.

BLYTHE: Yeah. And, what was the rehabilitation process like? Both physically and mentally because, obviously when you are a year out from the Olympic Games, and at that point it was less than a year out from the Olympic Games, you have to think, Oh my gosh, I’ve built myself up to this point preparing for this moment, not this moment the World Championships although I’m sure focused on that at that point as well, but this Olympic moment, and oh my gosh this could all go away. How did you sort of come to terms with that, and how did you overcome that? Take us through the process and everything.

KYLE: Well, I elected to stay in Germany for 10 days after my injury because I wanted to be there for my team, I wanted to support them, I wanted to be there in the most positive capacity that I could to help them qualify a team to the Olympics, because without my routines and my scores they were on the cusp, and they ended up pulling it out and they came 11th. That was a huge relief. I flew back to Canada, sitting on an airplane with your legs straight out from Germany to Canada is not super fun. [[LAUGHS]] But good thing I was a gymnast because I could walk around on my hands pretty well, lift myself into the seats and stuff. I did a lot of L-sits; I had super strong abs. When I got home, I had my own home at this point but I couldn’t move into it because I had a lot of stairs, so I had to go back to my parents place, so I was in my old bedroom, which is kind of weird. I had great support from the Canadian Sports Center in Calgary, they had arranged for me to see the surgeon the day I got home, and then the next day I was in the surgery at 8 A.M., and he put a metal plate with screws in my left knee, and then in my right knee I had a couple screws, and he had to repair the bone chip and the ligament in the left knee. And, so I think i was in denial to be honest. I thought it would be a six week recovery. I was like, “Yeah I broke my legs but they’re gonna be fine”, but when he went in and he saw the real damage, it was a lot worse. And they prepared me for it, but I woke up in the hospital with these two gaint braces on my legs and at that point it really clicked in my mind. Like, okay, is this really something I want to do? And what really resonated with me, and it was the thing that drove me through the whole process, was I want to be there for my team, I want to compete in a third Olympic Games. That was always something I wanted as a kid, I wanted to do three Olympics. And lastly, I was like, how can I inspire people through this? It wasn’t about me as much as it was about that next generation of gymnasts. How can I show them something that might inspire them through my performance, through my fight back? And, I don’t know, that to me is a really great way of approaching anything, is to think of what you can do to inspire those around you, and that was a real big driving force for me. On those days that I didn’t want to go to the gym, I was like no, I have to. I have to be accountable here to all the people who are helping me in this journey. I was in a wheelchair for a couple months. I could slowly get out of it and start putting what they call ‘featherweight’ on your feet, so I could kind of slide around with a walker and two giant braces. Yeah, it’s pretty humbling when you can’t do anything for yourself, when you can’t bathe yourself, when you can’t make a meal, when you can’t do anything. You need help with everything because you cant move your legs, yeah that really helped me appreciate, as an athlete, everything gymnasts can do. So, yeah my legs became very skinny, really atrophied. I had, what looked like two giant lumps of muscle hanging off my calves and [laughs] slowly my upper body started to shrink. Then I got the braces off, and that was a monumental day because all of a sudden I could start going back into the gym and trying to do stuff. And I couldn’t do anything. I could barely even step up onto a- I couldn’t jump of an eight inch mat, or even a two inch mat because the pain inside of my knees was just too intesnse. It was baby steps, like anything, right? It was fueling that dream. Everyday I was imagining myself competing at the 2008 Olympics, standing on the floor, how that would feel. And that’s what really got me through. It was a huge growth process for me as a person. More as a person than as an athlete, I feel I grew. And I grew to learn that each day we have a choice, we have the opportunity to chooce whether we feel defeated or whether we are going to chasing a victory. Everyday I tried to groom myself to chase that victory, and try to get one ounce of potential out of myself. Just to move forward a little bit, and to celebrate the heck out of that victory. I mean, yeah, it’s fun to talk abou this and to relive it because I can kind of feel the pain back in my knees again! [[LAUGHS]]

BLYTHE: How do your knees feel today? When you have an injury like that, I’m sure they’re never quite the same. And when you were doing gymnastics, even when you got back into full shape going into the 2008 Olympic cycle, what did it feel like to do a double double onto your pair of tibias?

KYLE: Well, I had had a few cortisone injections, so that helped. I had a lot of pain actually in the hamstrings, that’s where it hurt the most. Imagine that? How you break your legs and you get pain in your hamstrings. But that’s because where the plate was in my left leg- where the plate and the screws were- it was actually pushing on the attachment of my hamstring, so I couldn’t lift my heel to my butt because the pain was so great in my hamstrings, like the nerves inside. So I just learned to compensate and deal with it. I just focused on getting strong. I went through a great strength trainer named Mack Reed, here in Calgary, and my physiotherapist who’s in the city, and Ed Louis was my massage and they became my team. The gym stuff started to slowly come back. I remember the first day I could do a cartwheel I was like, “Yeah, buddy! I did a cartwheel today!” And it was just being really safe, and really listening to my body, and being really aware. But today, I run now a lot, which is something I never imagined I would do. In gymnastics I ran 25 meters full speed towards a stationary object and I flipped over it [laughs] and I ran my first marathon last year. So, my knees are good. At the end of that marathon they sure hurt, let me tell you, but I think everybody’s knees hurt.

BLYTHE: Did you have any desire to continue after 2008?

KYLE: Um, yeah. It’s fun to be truthful, isn’t it? In 2008 after…

BLYTHE: [laughs]

KYLE: Well, as an athlete sometimes you’re a little guarded of your emotions and where your head is at because there’s so many things around that you’ve got to be a little bit protective. Yeah, right after the 2008 Olympics, after I was done there, the next day we took the day off, then I went to training the next day because Nathan and Adam were both in All Around Finals and I wanted to support them. And my body was so sore, oh my god. My wrists hurt, and my legs hurt, and my back and everything hurt! I started to train and I was like what the hell am I doing? So, it’s amazing how powerful a goal can be, you know, that focal point. I had a resonating purpose and a reason for eleven months, from that day I broke my legs to the day I competed at the 2008 Olympics, something that burt so, so warmly inside of me. That fire was huge. And then literally in an instant it was done, it was like, so hard to get it back. So, that was the last day that I really went into the gym and I tried to train. I would go and play a few times here and there, but I was really struggling with what I wanted. Did I want to set new goals? None of them felt right. I didn’t really want to go to the World Cups. I felt like 2008 was the ending I wanted it to be. I competed, I did the hardest floor routine of my life, I felt a huge sense of success and accomplishment and I felt like that was a really great note to end it on. So, yeah it took me about nine months after 2008 to come to the conclusion that it was time. My girlfriend Kristen and I went to Thailand for a month and I did a lot of journaling, and a lot of writing while I was there, and a lot of listening to my intuition and I knew it was time. It was time to move on. I think sometimes as an athlete, you don’t want to go because you’re afraid to, but I have a philosophy in my life that I don’t want to hold on to things because I’m afraid to let go, I want to let go and start the next chapter. So, I did and it’s been great.

BLYTHE: And I understand that that next chapter has involved commentating, among a lot of other things. Is it true that you did some commentating in 2007 as well, at the World Championships?

KYLE: Um, not in 2007. In 2008 at the Olympics I did. So, literally the day after I was done competing, I took the day off and did all of my interviews, as you do, and I met with the president of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation at the time and he called me into his office and said, “Hey, do you want to join our broadcast?” And I was like, “I’d love to! That’d be awesome!” And he was like, “Okay, you start tomorrow!” [laughs] I’m like, “What?” and he said, “Yeah, for the Men’s Final” and I was like, “Okay!” So, that’s when I started my commentating career. And I didn’t know what the hell I was doing for the first five minutes of it, but I think I settled in.

BLYTHE: Was it scary? Did you do anything to prepare yourself?

KYLE: Well, I knew all of the athletes really well. I had been doing a lot of spying and researching in the lead up to the Olympics to see what people were up to. So, yeah I knew what I was talking about for sure. But I was nervous! To think there’s all these people listening to you at home and you’re the ‘expert’. So, that was a little freaky. Sometimes it’s easier to be out there performing it and doing it, than it is to be behind the camera talking about it.

BLYTHE: You’ve gotten such great feedback from gymnastics fans on the way that you do your commentary, is it something that you want to keep doing throughout the next few years, several years maybe?

KYLE: Absolutely! And that makes me smile that you say I’m getting good feedback. I really try not to pay attention to the feedback, because this year at the Olympics with CTV, on Twitter I read something that someone said about me and I was like “Oh my god! They think I’m this or that” and I was like s***, I’m not gonna do that anymore! That’s just bad. You never want to listen to what people are saying about you, it’s easy to hide behind Twitter, right? So yay, thank you everyone. I love commentating. It is like, so fun, I love preparing for it and sometimes I laugh at myself, the stuff that comes out of my mouth. But I want to share my passion, and my excitement, and my joy, and my love for the sport of gymnastics with as many people as possible. And I want to educate as many people as possible. I want to do it for the next, bajillion Olympics. I want to do it until I’m 80. I want to be the eighty year old doing gymnastics commentary. It’s really, really fun for me.

BLYTHE: What is your ritual when you are preparing to do commentary? How do you stay up to date on all the news and all the meets?

KYLE: Well, I have to thank you guys, because you really keep me informed. I read all the blogs, all the fun blogs, all the serious blogs, Gymnastics Examiner plays a really big role in my research.

BLYTHE: Oh, stop!

KYLE: No, it’s true! It’s really true, and I think that we all have to stick together. We’re a community and we have to help each other and share our knowledge. I think that’s when we can really share the great gymnastics stories. But of course, I’ve got to scale it back sometimes. I can’t bring in all the dirt, right? I’ve got to be professional, I’ve got to keep a professional line. But, the way my ritual worked before this Olympics was each day I would spend maybe two hours doing gymnastics research, watching online videos pretending- you know I would video tape myself commentating. If I would hear a word that I loved I would write it down, and create this spreadsheet- not a spreadsheet, just words that would help give me some great flavor to my commentary. I watched a lot of old videos, I wanted to bring back some of the vintage stuff. I think Bart Conner is one of the best commentators, so I listened to him a lot. Elfi Schlegel helped me, she’s a really good friend. Lori Strong has done a fabulous job. So, I watched people that I admired, and same thing I did in gymnastics, I tried to implement some of the things that I really loved into my own commentary. On the days of the meets, I don’t know if you saw at the Olympics, but I can’t sit when I commentate, I have to stand. And I actually don’t wear shoes, I have to have at least my socked feet, if not my bare feet, because I need to feel the floor. I get those freaky singers who have to take their shoes off now. I have to feel the floor, and I feel grounded and it connects my body to my mind. Then I can actually like… I’m doing the skills with people, when I’m doing an iron cross I’m like, “[[GRUNTS]] feeling muscles that are pushing down and that strain that you feel. So, I get super into it. I sweat a lot, and then at the end I’m like, “Whew!” I have to put my feet up because I’m so tired.

BLYTHE: I wanted to go back and ask you a little bit about Kelly Manjak, you’re coach from age 6 through the 2004 Olympics. It seems like you guys always got along so well and had a special relationship, and when you did the movie White Palms your character used the name Kyle Manjak, which was a very fitting tribute. Tell us about him and what makes him special as a coach, and your relationship with him as an athlete and now as a friend.

KYLE: Well, Blythe, it’s funny that you bring up White Palms because that was Miklos, Zoltan Miklos his name is [inaudible], he was my assistant coach with Kelly. We met him in ’96 at my very first international invitational meet, and he came and coached with us, and his brother was a movie director. Long story short, this was a [inaudible] movie project and being involved was a great honor for me because, I mean, the movie did well in Hungary. But my name was supposed to be something completely different, but [Miklos] kept calling me Kyle in the filming. So, we would film at night from 12 A.M. to 8 A.M. because that was the only time we could get the gym with nobody around. I was doing full-ins at four in the morning and defs at like, yeah it was crazy. But anyway [Miklos] kept calling me Kyle, and I was like okay my name’s not going to be Kyle Shewfelt in the movie because this is not real, and he was like, “Kyle Manjak!” and I was like, “Yeah, man. Let’s do it.” So, Kelly Manjak is someone that was born to be a gymnastics coach, he has so much passion for the sport. But more than that, Kelly is the type of person who wants to create a great person, rather than a great athlete. He could give two s**** about producing a great athlete. He wants to have people of integrity, of character. He wants independent athletes, he wants people that follow through on their commitments, he wants people who come to the gym prepared and ready to work hard and to push themselves to reach their potential, and he inspired that in me. We just always, we were really kinetically connected. He knew what I needed, and I knew what he needed. He was the calm in the storm, and I’m a total perfectionist and can be a bit of a … I’m not a hothead at all, but in those moments of stress and pressure I can get a little freaked out, and Kelly would just bring the calm. He’d say things to me that just kept me so settled and grounded. I remember in 2004 he wrote me a letter, that’s what Kelly and I did for communication, instead of having a meeting we would write each other. And he wrote me a letter and he gave me an envelope when we got on the plane to head to Spain for our training camp, and the letter just said, ‘Kyle, you’ve worked so hard and you are so prepared. Let’s make this the best month of our lives. Let’s enjoy every moment, whether it’s the good stuff, the bad stuff, lets be in it, lets live it”, and he just reminded me of how prepared I was. Stepping up to the floor in 2004 at those Olympics, Kelly and I walked up, and he always walked right beside me with his hand on my shoulder, like, that’s what he did when I was 6 years old when he walked me out to my mother, and that’s what he did. It was like, kind of putting a little bit of pressure on my shoulder, just making sure I was grounded, you know? He looked at me and he was like, “Kyle, you know, no matter what happens today I want you to know I’m so proud of you. You’ve worked so hard, I love you.” Can you imagine? I get tears in my eyes when I tell the story because Kelly was my second father, we spent so much time in the gym together. I helped him grow as a coach and he helped me grow as an athlete and as a person. I can’t tell you enough good things about the man. Gymnastically, he’s a genius. He can spot any skill, he can teach any kid any skill. But more than that, he’s nice and he cares about them as people.

BLYTHE: Can you talk a little bit about the Canadian men’s program as it is? Obviously not qualifying for 2012 as a team was a huge disappointment, and now you’re kind of faced with a sort of rebuilding process as we move into this next quad. Where’s the team at right now, what are the hopes for the future and how are you guys going to get there?

KYLE: Well, missing out on 2012 as a team was a huge devastation for a lot of the team members. Nathan got to go to the games and he had that untimely injury before, he injured his thumb, and tried to get back into great shape. And I mean he did a pretty good job of getting back from his injury. But the word rebuild is where the Canadian program is right now on the men’s side, and I think for the women’s side, too. Gymnastics is a funny sport, you don’t have much longevity and there’s always a turn over. I know Tony Smith is now the new men’s national coach program director and he’s got some really good plans of looking at the younger athletes and sending them around the world, and getting them experience. He understand the importance of the experience. I think the goal is definitely to qualify a full team to the 2016. This year right now there is a lot of young talent that’s coming up, and it’s identifying that talent and investing in them, that’s the best way to sum it up.

UNCLE TIM: Alright, so earlier you were talking about how your knees are surviving marathons and everything, I’m just curious, how’s the rest of your body feeling? Your back, neck, wrists, etc.?

KYLE: Everythings feeling good. I’m a pretty dedicated yoga practitioner, so I learned to listen to my body. I still do a headstand or a handstand and a backflip almost every single day. But, gymnastics provides you with a wonderful foundation for life, you know? It’s a fundamental sport, I have amazing physical literacy. For a couple years after a few things hurt, but now my body feels 100%.

UNCLE TIM: Wow that’s, that’s terrific. I just imagine after doing rollout skills and everything for so many years, I mean, my body, my neck, and everything would hurt, but that’s awesome that you’re doing so well.

KYLE: Yeah. I never bailed on a rollout. I never landed on my head. I never saw the stars or the birdies flying around my head.

[LAUGHS]

UNCLE TIM: No cartoon moments for you?

KYLE: No.

UNCLE TIM: So how do you feel about rollout skills?

KYLE: I think…you know, I was never a fan of them, but I had to learn how to do them, because it was a requirement. It was the way that you could earn points. I think they can be beautiful if they’re done perfectly. I think if a gymnast is fully aware of where they are and they take the time to kick out and make it like a dive…I hated the ones that were clunkers, where they came around and back smashes, their ass smashes on the floor. I love it when a gymnast can take something and make it look so refined and so perfect and so on purpose—that’s when I think rollouts are ok. But when the guys are hacking them and nearly concussing themselves, I don’t like it.

UNCLE TIM: I think we can all agree with that.

KYLE: Yeah.

TIM: So, on a lighter note, one thing that we love to talk about on this show is fashion and one that thing that has always kind of stood out to me was the fact that you wore an eyebrow piercing while you competed. And I’m curious, did you get any flack for that at all? Or compliments?

KYLE: Both. Yeah. In 2000, I got my eyebrow pierced, for my 18th birthday. Why we do these things, sometimes, I don’t know. I’m 30 now, I don’t have my eyebrow piercing, I haven’t had it in many years. But yeah, for me that was part of being an individual. It was—literally, I didn’t notice it. But they made me take it out in the 2000 Olympics, so I was newly pierce but I had to take it out. But in 2004, I didn’t even know I had it, to be honest. It just became a part of me and my face. But I saw a funny video once on YouTube, somebody sent me a link, the British guy, the commentator—“It’s a stud, is it?” Something like that. It made me laugh.

UNCLE TIM: [LAUGHS] Gotcha. And I’m sure he was talking about your eyebrow piercing and not your sexual prowess.

KYLE: Yeah, no, it was totally, “That’s a stud. Look at the stud.” No, it was about the eyebrow piercing.

UNCLE TIM: Did you ever worry about hitting it against the high bar, metal against metal? Or was that never a concern?

KYLE: You know, it’s funny that you bring that up, because once I did catch it and the bottom pulled up a bit, and that hurt. A lot. So yeah, I was a little worried about it. But the one I had at the Olympics in 2004 was as small as possible eyebrow stud that you could have. So.

UNCLE TIM: Ok. And so, on the topic of fashion, some gymnasts have suggested that the spandex look hurts men’s gymnastics. What do you think?

KYLE: Well, it’s traditional, but the sport is moving into an era of being a little less than traditional. So, hey. I think that if that if the International Gymnastics Federation is looking for television ratings, and looking to make the sport a little more popular, then dudes with shorts and no shirts? I think we’re going to have a really big audience. Something to think about. But traditionally, guys—I never wore a shirt unless it was in competition, I didn’t train in a shirt. I didn’t train in spandex. I trained in shorts and no shirt. It’s more comfortable for a lot of the athletes, you get a lot more movement, and you don’t have something going up your butt. So, it’s, yeah. Perhaps that’s a move in a different direction that could get bigger TV viewership and ratings. And it would probably make the athletes a lot happier.

UNCLE TIM: Yeah, very much, yeah. Wearing that.

KYLE: And it would probably make you happier too, right?

UNCLE TIM: Yes, as a gay man, I would love it so.

KYLE: Yeah. All over that. Yeah.

[LAUGHS]

UNCLE TIM: I fully support that motion. Anyway. On a different note, something that you’re very involved in is the Right to Play. Can you tell us about that, a little bit about that?

KYLE: Yes, I can. So, Right to Play is an amazing organization. It’s an international humanitarian organization that provides spots to play in some of the most disadvantaged places in the world. And we’re talking like Liberia and—I went to Liberia, which was torn by war for decades, and where there’s child soldier and where drugs and killing people is like a way of life. So what Right to Play does is, we bring in programs to these disadvantaged parts of the world, and we start to break the cycle, and we start to teach the kids about leadership, about respect, about teamwork, about fair play. Those are just a few of the things we teach about through the games, and all the games we play—and it’s not just like we’re putting soccer balls there to have games of soccer. The games are, they’re more than that. They’re learning games. So there’s always, it’s called RCA at the end, Reflect, Connect, and Apply. So, we teach games about sexual health, we teach games about disease prevention, we teach games about malaria prevention, we teach games about what to do if somebody comes up to you and wants you to be a child soldier, how you can deal with that sort of situation. So, it’s hugely powerful, and it’s makes so much of a difference, and it’s changing so many lives in a positive way. And you know, it costs fifty bucks, fifty dollars, per year, for each child. That’s pennies. I mean, fifty bucks can really, it changes lives, and with my gymnastics center that I have here in Calgary, we give a portion of our proceeds to Right to Play, because we want to make an impact off the gymnastics floor. We understand, we’re here, we’re local, but we’re pretty privileged in Canada and USA. There are parts of the world where they don’t have the opportunity to play because there’s no safe place to play and there’s landmines and there’s people who would shoot these children if they were out there playing, so it’s providing a safe place to be a kid. Yeah.

UNCLE TIM: Wow. Sounds like a great opportunity. What has been the most poignant moment for you during this experience?

KYLE: The most poignant moment was seeing—when I was in Liberia I want to an area called West Point. And it is the ghetto of Liberia. It’s people living in shacks, shantytowns. The entire place is covered in garbage. There’s people selling drugs everywhere you turn. And where the Right to Play programs were happening, it was a safe place, and the kids were just—there was so much joy, singing, dancing, laughter. The kids could let their guard down in that space, and to me, that was just—that was really magical, to see that, amongst everything that was going on in the external, that internal place of Right to Play gave kids hope that the future could be a little bit brighter.

UNCLE TIM: Wow. Ok. I mean, I don’t even know what to say with that. It sounds like such a powerful moment, and incredible experience, so I’m glad that there are people doing this and we’ll definitely put a link to the website on our webpage. Earlier, when Blythe was talking to you about your coach, she mentioned the film White Palms, and it’s, you know, kind of a dark film from the perspective of a child who has an abusive coach and whose parents use him as basically a trophy child. Many gymnasts of note might shy away from participating in that sort of darker film. Was that ever a concern of yours?

KYLE: No, it’s wasn’t. It’s not a Hollywood film, it’s a foreign film, it’s a film that delves into a bit deeper of issues, such as child abuse and trophy children, but I think there’s some great resonating messages in it that really stuck out to me. For me, it was, like I said earlier, an honor to be involved because Tony, he was integral in my growth as an athlete, he really, really helped me, and Kelly, to get to that next level. So it was a privilege to just be involved in. And I didn’t know the whole script until I saw that movie at the Verona Film Festival. I only knew my part.

UNCLE TIM: Ok. And do you think that this issue is something prevalent in gymnastics, or do you think that this was trying to get at larger societal issues?

KYLE: Well, I think it was based on Tony’s experience growing up as a gymnast in a communist regime in Hungary, and he told me lots of stories about what it was like and the abuse. And that was just the norm, that was the way things were. If they were bad, they would have to tuck up in a ball and then their coach put a milk crate over on top of them, and they would sit on it for the whole class, and the kids would be crouched up in a little ball. So that’s kind of—it was more his experiences as a young child growing up, and I’ve been to so many gyms across the world and I’ve seen so many programs and I think that the way gymnastics has moved forward—it’s a very positive sport, for the most part. Of course, there’s some things that happen, but there’s some things that happen in every sport, but gymnastics really, ultimately, it’s very positive. Especially at that grassroots level for kids, that fundamental fitness and fun.

UNCLE TIM: Yeah. Like, when you were talking about your recreational program earlier, so, yeah. And while we’re kind of on these darker topics, we know that you’ve appeared in an anti-bullying campaign in Canada. Can you tell us what prompted that, for you to participate in that campaign?

KYLE: Yeah. Well, I really believe in being part of something that makes an impact and makes a difference, and I think that as an Olympian, or as an Olympic champion, you do have a bit of a platform, and I think it’s important to raise awareness to things that are really happening. As a young boy growing up in Canada, doing gymnastics, I got called a lot of names, for sure. F**, homo, wimp, girl, gay, whatever. And, I…it never really deeply affected me, because I knew that gymnastics was what I loved, and I knew that I was a stronger athlete than everybody that was calling me those names, and I knew that I could challenge anybody to a chin up contest or a pushup contest, and I could whoop their ass. But it’s true, and I get the question a lot from parents with young boys growing up, how do you deal with the bullying? And for me, it was always saying to those other boys that would call me those names, I’d be like, “You know what, you don’t know me, and that’s fine that you want to call me that, but get to know me before you do. And I’d love for you to come to the gymnastics gym and try it out. Like, let’s see how strong you are.” [LAUGHS] Right? And some of them would actually take me up, for sure, there were hockey guys that came into the gym and they would get a new appreciation. But it is that external, right? You see the guys in that tight little uniform, and I get it. Those shorts are tight, man. I totally get it. But, at the end of the day, I feel strongly that we need to be empowering the people around us, we don’t need to be calling them names and trying to bring them down. I think we should allow people to love what they love, love who they love, and I think that people should be able to be that best version of themselves, and we should always try to elevate the people around us. So, I feel really strongly about anti-bullying, and that’s why I did the little picture with the girl, her name’s White Cedar—well, that’s her photographer name—and I think it’s a really powerful campaign, and that’s why a lot of people have stood up, and we have all experienced it. And I don’t think it’s right. I don’t think we should ever have to question who we are or if what we are doing is worthy because of what other people are telling us.

UNCLE TIM: That’s a very good message, and I’m just curious, do you think that helping fight homophobia in general will end up helping little boys feel more comfortable doing gymnastics?

KYLE: Oh, sure. But like, ok. I get it. A lot of people think that I’m gay. And I’m not. And I have a lot of friends who are gay. But I happen to be attracted to women and I have a girlfriend who I just love and adore. But I don’t think that it should even be an issue in sports. I think your sexuality plays zero role in how awesome you can be on rings, high bar, pommel horse, vault, you know. It doesn’t matter. And it’s just, it’s really sad that our world likes to place value on sexuality and defining who we are. I think at the end of the day, we are all people, and no matter who we love, we all have the potential to do something great, and we should never, ever make some feel like they can’t because of who they are and anything, right?

UNCLE TIM: Yeah, yeah. I think we’re all just sitting here smiling as we’re listening to you say that, and thank you for sharing that with us.

KYLE: Yeah. Absolutely, absolutely. And hey man, I grew up, I went to a sports school, and I know what hockey dudes do, ok? I’ve been in a changing room with a bunch of hockey guys. I’ve seen it. I know what happens. Gymnastics? We don’t do that.

[LAUGHS]

UNCLE TIM: Well, we’re kind of laughing on a very light note, you’ve kind of become a household name in Canada after becoming not only the first gymnast to win a medal in an Olympics, but being an Olympic champion. So tell us, how famous are you in Canada? Are you like the Nadia of Canada? I mean, tell us a little bit about that.

KYLE: Oh my god, ok. Well, the funny this is that in my life I’ve made a huge commitment to humility. So I don’t really like to talk about celebrity and fame, it’s not important at all. Let’s just say that right after I won the Olympics, it was pretty heightened. I would be in a grocery store or whatever and people would, I like to call it rock-egnize me. Because everyone was like, “You got rock-egnized!” I was like, that’s awesome. I love it. But now, I’m an ambassador in my community. I don’t want to be known for my accomplishment, I want to be known for the impact I make in my community, whether it’s through Right to Play, through Kids Sports for Special Olympics, through my projects in the art community here in Calgary, or through the sport community. So, I’ve made a lot of friends, and I get a lot of people who recognize me because of that—“Hey, are you that gymnast guy?” I’m like, yeah, that’s me. But I always try to be humble, and I think that’s really important, because what I accomplished was just an accomplishment. We all have great accomplishments, right? We all have something we work hard towards, and many of us get to achieve great things in our life. I’m not doing Jockey underwear commercials like Nadia did, but I have a relative—yeah. I don’t know. I have a little bit of fame, I guess you could say, but I try to use it for good things.

UNCLE TIM: So you mentioned the art community. I am just curious, what you have been doing in the art community?

KYLE: Well, as an athlete I always really valued the artistic side of sports, and I loved it when people have the courage to be vulnerable, and have the courage to train their entire life for one minute and thirty seconds, like a gymnast does, or an artist who spends years and years and years, or an author who spends so many years struggling to get their book done. I love that process of struggle. I think that’s where character comes from, I really support that. I want to support anyone who has the guts to lay it all on the line and be creative and put themselves out there and be vulnerable. So, with that being said there, Calgary is a growing city, and there’s a great art community here, and I’ve become a little bit aligned with it, and we actually just did a great project, it’s actually in progress, Andy Warhol’s paintings, the athlete series, here in Calgary, and it’s a really great series and I played a role in getting ten Canadian athletes to lend their name and their hand and their image for ten Calgary artists to paint. And so, that’s going to be showcased in Calgary in June, and that’s going to be really awesome. I love it when two worlds that are so different can come together and collide and make something just a beautiful explosion of awesome.

UNCLE TIM: I hear that you’re working on two, a couple books right now, so I’m sure you can relate to that process. What are your books about?

KYLE: Oh my god. It is like a war, writing these. Yeah. It’s kind of, I’m stuck, right now, on them. My first book that I want to put out is my gymnastics story. I’ve got a lot of words, but none of them have been put together, if that makes any sense. I’ve written, the book’s written, but it’s just a matter of getting it put together in the right format. And then the other one is—I get new book ideas every day. I actually have notes that I put in the shower, they’re called AquaNotes, and they’re a waterproof paper with a waterproof pencil, and I fill them with book ideas. I really want to write a book about presence and potential, the balance between being here and reaching your goals, you know? Because I think that’s really important, to enjoy the process and to be immersed in it, but also how do you get there? And I really enjoy that. I get to look at life through the most optimistic lenses possible, and I try to be as positive as possible, and I don’t know if there is a place for a book around that, but I’ve sort of been throwing some ideas around about how we can move some things in our lives with just a little more optimism.

UNCLE TIM: Cool. I should definitely read your book as I can definitely be succumb to pessimism in my life, or harsh realism, so I’ll check out those books when they’re finished. And while we are talking about your projects, can you tell us a little bit about the Kyle Shewfelt Gymnastics Festival? What inspired it? And what’s it all about?

KYLE: Yeah. So the Kyle Shewfelt Gymnastics Festival in a nutshell, is Canada’s, it’s our most innovative and most entertaining gymnastics event. I think it’s become the premiere event in Canada. We have a lot of athletes come and compete, and they have a lot of fun, and that’s where it came from. When I was finished with the sport as a competitor, I wanted to give back as much as I could, as an ambassador, and the University of Calgary Gymnastics Club and I came up with the idea to do this meet, and we try to make it different. We have massage therapy students come for our judges, we have DJs come and play during the meet, and the sound is just super awesome and loud, tons of bass, and we do a big group cheer and we have awesome sponsors to give us prizes to throw into the audience. We just try to inject some energy and life into a gymnastics meet, because we’ve all been to a boring gymnastics meet where it’s just moms and grandmas sitting there, and we’re just trying to make it bigger than anything that we’ve seen and more fun. So we have costumes for our finals, and we used to have celebrity judges, this year, moving forward, we’re not going to have a celebrity judge portion, we’re going to do a little bit more gymnastics than that part, but yeah. It’s fun, it’s innovative. I love it. It’s a great weekend. It’s a lot of work, it’s a lot of work, but we have a big team that dedicates a lot of time and a lot of energy, but man, it’s a really fun weekend.

UNCLE TIM: Ok. And so, what’s your favorite part of the meet?

KYLE: My favorite part of the meet, I think…geez. It’s all, I like it all. My favorite part is the march in because I made a mandate for myself at the beginning that I wanted to have myself have an interaction with every kid and with every parent that I possibly could, and so as the kids do their march in I give them a high five, and then we kind of have a dance party on the floor, and that’s always—dance parties make life better. Let’s just face it. If you’re having a bad day, throw on some tunes, grab your dog, and dance in your living room. It makes life better.

UNCLE TIM: Do you think that there are elements of your meet that could be used to help promote gymnastics in an international scale? Are there are things that the FIG should do in the future?

KYLE: Well, that’s a pretty open-ended question.

UNCLE TIM: Yeah.

KYLE: I don’t think my meet has a place for the FIG. Our focus is on the grassroots movement of gymnastics. We do have a team competition. We’ve had China and Australia and the USA in the past, this year we’re having Canada vs. USA for the men. But more than that, there’s almost a thousand young participants that come, and for them, maybe one or two of that thousand are going to have a chance to make an Olympic team, so I want to give them a memory, a memory that sends them out, and I want to give their parents an event where they can say, that was the most fun an event we ever went to, and that music was awesome, and my kid had a great time, they had their best performance, and the awards were awesome, and they got free grips from Grips Etc., and they got this awesome gym suit, and I just want it to be a great experience. So I think the FIG—one thing, while doing my research for the Olympics, and even now, the rules have changed, and it is so difficult to understand, even as someone who loved the sport and did it, and I think that we’re just alienating the general public. I think we need to make it more accessible and we need to make it more understandable, and that could be the best move. So yeah. That’s was a long answer to that.

UNCLE TIM: Yeah, ok. Yeah, when we have Tim Daggett on our show, a couple months ago now, he wanted to go back to the 10. He thought that was the easiest way. Do you think that there’s, do you think that we should go back to the 10?

KYLE: Well, I just think that’s not going to happen. I loved the 10 system, but I think there were a lot of flaws in it. But what I really believe could be a great way to go forward, is to make the difficulty more understandable. All these connections, and you have to hit handstand here, and this and that, you just alienate the general public, and without the 10, people just don’t get it. Even me, sitting here, knowing the sport, can’t think of what a good score is. Like, I knew it’s around a 16. And before the Olympics, I thought I knew it inside and out, but now I’m a bit removed from it, so a little lost. I think it would be great to have the difficulty score, and then five execution scores, all out of 10, and then show them, and show the high and the low being dropped, so that people get it and then add together those three scores out of a ten, and people can understand where that execution is. Judges have a hard job, don’t they?

UNCLE TIM: Yeah.

KYLE: I mean, the human eye and the human mind, I don’t think it’s capable of calculating all of the things they’re supposedly able to calculate in a split second. I’m sorry. It just doesn’t happen. We need slow-mo.

UNCLE TIM: Yeah. I was doing quick hits for the Winter Cup for the first time, and it was just so difficult to just sit there and try to name all the skills for people, and then, on top of that, also talk about the execution and what was going wrong, so yeah, I can’t imagine the judges, what they’re going through. One of my final questions for you is, you seem like a very positive person, and last week we had Jennifer Pinches, the now-retired British gymnast, on the show with us, and she shared her mantra with us, which is “Don’t Forget To Be Awesome”. And I’m curious if you have kind of a mantra you use on a daily basis?

KYLE: I don’t. I don’t have a mantra that I use on a daily basis. I just—there’s two things I always think about on a daily basis, because they always pop into my mind. And the first one is potential. I always think about, am I meeting my potential? Am I holding myself accountable to it? It’s really important for me at the end of the day to be able to have cheerleaders in my mind rather than rugrats. I want to make each day count. And the secondly, I think I really try to focus on how I can be an impact in someone else’s life. Make someone else’s day a little bit better, whether it’s at the grocery store, whether it’s at the gym, wherever it is. Just like engaging someone, talking to them, listening to them, and just trying to give them as much positive energy as possible, and I find that that really comes back in tenfold, so.

UNCLE TIM: Ok. And can you tell our listeners where they can find you? Your blog, your Twitter, etc.

KYLE: Oh my gosh. I’m the worst blogger. You guys are so good and I’m so bad. I find that life gets so busy, and to take thirty minutes to sit down and write about it is like—I don’t know how your guys do it. But my blog—if you just search me on Google you can find everything—but my website’s at KyleShewfelt.com, and my blog is at KyleShewfelt.blogspot.ca, and yeah.

TIM: I think that’s all we have for you today. And thank you so much for taking two hours of your life and sharing so much with us. We really appreciate it.

KYLE: Well, I have to thank you guys too, for being such great promoters of the sport, for being such passionate advocates for gymnastics. I think in today’s day and age, social media that you are putting out is just first class, you guys are on the cutting edge, and please know that gymnastics fans thank you as well. Thank you so much.

JESSICA: Thank you! Thank you so much.

[SOUNDBYTE]
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[[ADVERTISEMENT]]
ALLISON TAYLOR: This episode is brought to you by Elite Sportz Band. EliteSportzBand.com: We’ve got your back.

JESSICA: Visit EliteSportzBand.com, that’s sports with a z, and save $5 on your next purchase with the code: Gymcast.
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JESSICA: That’s going to do it for us this week. We want to thank Kyle Shewfelt for spending so much time talking with us, and just his general gymnastics Buddhism. His being a little Gym Buddha. His true gymnastics spirit. That’s one of the things about this show that is kind of a second goal of the show, is just to bring happiness and joy and goodness to the world, and he embodied that, so we really want to thank him for that. We want to remind you that this is the last week for the Gym Nerd Challenge of the month: take someone’s gymnastics meet virginity. Take them to their very, very first gymnastics meet, and send us a picture to put up on the website. And remember that you can support the show by checking out TumblTrak’s really cool new 25th anniversary videos on YouTube. It’s really, really awesome. And also by supporting EliteSportzBand. You can rate us or write a review on iTunes, and you can always download the Stitcher app and listen to us from there. One of the things I like about the Stitcher app is that it doesn’t take us space on your phone, so you don’t have to download the whole episode to listen, you can just go to the Stitcher app to listen from anywhere. I love apps, I have way too many on my phone, so I love the Stitcher app because it saves space because I don’t have to take up the storage space with all the podcasts I listen too. Remember you can contact us at GymCastic@gmail.com, or leave a message by calling 415-800-3191, or call us on Skype, our username is GymCastic Podcast and ask us any question. And we’re all over Twitter, so find us on Twitter, it’s just Gymcastic on Twitter. And until next week, I am Jessica O’Beirne from Masters-Gymnastics.com.

BLYTHE: Blythe Lawrence from the Gymnastics Examiner

UNCLE TIM: I’m Uncle Tim from Uncle Tim Talks Men’s Gym.

[[OUTRO MUSIC – Blame Canada from South Park]]

Episode 20 Transcript
JENNI: Although when I was little, my coach told me to wee on my hands.

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[[INTRO MUSIC]]

JESSICA: Today on the show, 2012 British Olympian Jenni Pinches, Valentine’s Day GymNerd stories, and a lesson in constant vigilance.

JESSICA: This is episode 20 for February 13th, 2013. I’m Jessica.

BLYTHE: I’m Blythe.

SPANNY: I’m Spanny Tampson.

JESSICA: And this is the preeminent and only gymnastics podcast in the galaxy. Starting with the top news stories from around the gymternet—Blythe, what’s new this week?

BLYTHE: So, let’s start with our neighbors to the north. Elite Canada is going on right now and it took place last night, the all-around competition for women and men. And the women’s competition was won by 2012 Olympian Ellie Black, who is one of the most dynamic and original gymnasts we have seen in a long time. She’s got terrific tumbling skills on floor, and she made vault finals at the Olympic games, and she has really kind of come on as one of the top Canadians, really. And she took her first major all-around title, I would say, with this meet, and in second place was an exciting young junior, Maegan Chant, who is coached by Romanian Cristina Bontas, who was one of the great tumblers of the early 90s. And Megan resembles Cristina quite a lot, actually, on floor, where she is an excellent tumbler herself, and on vault where she does a Tsuk double full, so she will be—she’s a new senior this year, she should be very exciting to watch. In third place, we had Casey Carvalho, who is either a new senior this year or a new senior last year, I can’t quite remember. Casey also a very athletic gymnast, terrific tumbling, very good skills on every event. And so the young Canadian team, we’ve been very impressed with the juniors and they’re now starting to become seniors, and it is very exciting. On the men’s side, you had Anderson Loran winning the all-around title, second was Ken Ikeda, and a new junior who was a junior last year who’s made his transition into the senior ranks, named Zachary Clay. And the Canadian men, of course, they had a huge disappointment at the London test event, they did not qualify a team to the 2012 Olympic games, and they only had one athlete, Nathan Gafuik, who managed to compete there. So they’re kind of in a rebuilding process right now. In the US, Winter Cup is going on, and that all-around competition will be settled tonight. On day one, Adrian de los Angeles from the University of Michigan, he was the all-around leader, a bit of a surprise, over Danell Leyva and Jake Dalton, the Olympians. And, you know, nobody was perfect. This was not a meet, you know, where everything is going to be absolutely pristine, but Adrian had a terrific competition for the most part, and Leyva and Dalton, they had some problems in places. But again, we are eight months out from the world championships, and so that’s when these guys are going to want to be at their absolute prime, and you just kind of need to show your skills and start to make an impression, and for de los Angeles, he is absolutely doing that. What have you been watching and thinking this week so far?

JESSICA: Well, I’m really excited that Uncle Tim is at the Winter Cup and doing quick hits from there, so if anybody wants to check those out, they can follow on our website. He interviewed a couple people and wrote some stories, so it’s exciting to have him there, and we’ll have him on the show again next week to talk about that experience and what he saw. And it’s interesting to see what’s happening. Let’s see, Komova did an interview with International Gymnast, saying that she is ready to come back to training after a little break. She went home. It sounds like she tweaked her back, and so it was just a little break that sounds kind of preventative. Just like you were saying, it’s eight months out from the championships, why push yourself right now? Take a break, let your back rest, and then come back. So that’s good to know, that it’s nothing real serious. In the semi-serious injury news, the Dominican Republic’s Yamilet Pena broke her ankle landing in a hole in a mat during training this week, and she’s training, it sounds like, she is training with her cast off, or her walking boot, she’s still training, but you know, a lot of us were not surprised to hear she suffered an injury. We’re glad to hear that it was not an upper-body injury because her vault is sometimes a little bit scary to watch, that she’s the one who does the double front and famously pretty much lands on her back or her butt every single time, but in prelims, sometime, she almost makes it to her feet enough that maybe just her leotard touched the matt in the giant squat she does, so, it’s like, I know, I just feel so torn with her, because I’m super excited for someone to try to do the Produnova vault, but on the other hand, she doesn’t even do it close to the way Produnova did it, and that double front is really dangerous, and I feel like, if you can’t do it safely, you should really be strongly discouraged from doing it. But it is sad that it sounds like it was an equipment issue that caused her injury, and you know, bad training conditions, so that’s sad.

BLYTHE: Yeah. It’s a shame. And she said in the article as well, that she wants to be ready for the French International, which is taking place in the middle of March, and hopefully she gets there, but when you are doing that vault, you just have to really hope that, especially if your training time has been limited, if conditions have not been optimal, that you don’t do anything a little bit rash, and I feel like throwing a handspring double front if your body is not a 100% ready to do it, or if your training time has been minimized for some reason, is probably not the best thing to do. But that being said, you know, she also has a couple other vaults up her sleeve that she could do and make an event final at a World Cup competition, and so it will be interesting to see what we will see next month from her.

JESSICA: Yeah. I mean, that’s the thing about that vault. You can’t, there’s some things that are so dangerous that you can’t bail out of them. If you’re doing a Yurchenko double back, or a double front, you can’t bail out. It’s not like if you’re going to do a full in and you can stop yourself after the full, or you’re doing a triple twist and you can just do a half, we’ve seen—that kind of stuff you can bail out of. But this, there’s no—it’s not a forgiving vault. You’re either a 100% committed or you’re not, so.

BLYTHE: Yeah.

JESSICA: So that’s that.

BLYTHE: And you have to go all-out every single time you do it, or you risk a very serious injury, and something more serious than breaking an ankle.

JESSICA: Exactly. In other medical-related news, USA Gymnastics announced that they formed a medical task force to review the organizations practices, procedures, and protocols regarding athlete care, and it’s interesting to note that this medical task force includes recently retired elite and, eight time World/Olympic medalist?

BLYTHE: Ten time?

JESSICA: Ten times?

BLYTHE: She has won so many medals that we just can’t keep track of them.

JESSICA: Is it 10 or is it 11, do we count the one in Tokyo? I can’t remember. So, Alicia Sacramone is on the task force, as well as Larry Nassar, the long-long-long time USA Gymnastics doctor and athletic trainer. So that’s good to see. You know, one wonders if the task force is created just to re-invest the money that has been gained in the Olympic year into the organization and the athletes, or if perhaps it’s something that was called for after the tour and all of the injuries that happened on the tour. So that’s kind of what I thought, but I’m really glad to see this, and I’m glad to see that they’re including an athlete, and Larry Nassar, because he knows what’s up. In Spain, some sad, or disturbing, news, I should say. Jesus Carballo, the women’s national team coach, has been suspended for, quote, “bad treatment” allegations from a gymnast who trained under him in the 80s, and it’s interesting to see that he is barred from entering the National Training facility. So, they have a training facility in Spain where the gymnasts actually live and train, and so it sounds like—I mean, we don’t know any of the details, but I guess we’re glad to see that Spain is taking this seriously, and hopefully it will be a fair investigation on all sides. Last night, I was enjoying the post from Jordyn and McKayla, who looked like they were on the set of Jared Leto’s new music video, so I just love that they are getting so many opportunities, it is so fun to see that sort of stuff, and it reminded me of when, was it in the 90s? Mid-90s? Dominique Dawes was in a Missy Elliot video, and she does this beam routine on some scaffolding on the side of a building—I mean, it’s not real, she’s superimposed on it, but it’s like totally random, but it’s awesome, because it is Dominique Dawes and Missy Elliot, so you have to love it. I’ll try and find that video and put it up, so that you guys can check it out. In the awesome news department, there is a new story about a couple who built a gymnastics facility in their barn on their property for their high school gymnastics team, I guess they never had a team before and they talked about starting a gymnastics team at this high school, and this couple was like, “Yeah, we want to support them, I think we can built it on our property.” So they’re farmers, and they had the land, so they built this gymnastics facility, and of course, this is my dream. I want to have a gymnastics barn. I was to own a house, first, and then I want to own a gymnastics barn. I just think that’s the coolest thing ever, and I would spend all of my time in it, of course. But I just love that story, and it makes me happy that people had the means and also the willingness to support gymnastics like that, it’s really cool. Let me see. The other thing that is making me happy right now, of course, is the overlap between gymnastics and wrestling seasons, so if you guys get a chance, you have to check out a Beauty and the Beast meet, as they are sometimes known. Tons of schools do this, so if you are in central Michigan, Missouri, Iowa, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Kent State, Wisconsin, West Virginia—all of those schools have Beauty and the Beast meets. Pretty much, if there is a men’s wrestling team and a women’s gymnastics team, they do this, and it’s so hilarious, first of all, to see wrestling and gymnastics next to each other. The pictures you get, you’ll see somebody striking this funny little pose, and right next to them, two guys are trying to kill each other. It’s just, I love it. It’s just hilarious, and it’s weird, and it’s super entertaining. And so, that is what I recommend for the GymNerd Challenge, if you go to one of those Beauty and the Beast meets, take someone who has never been to a gymnastics meet and take them to a Beauty and the Beast meet, that’ll be something that they’ll never forget. So, alright. And with that, I think that takes care of the news for the week, and now we’re going to bring your our interview with Jenni Pinches.
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[[INTERVIEW]]

BLYTHE: 2012 British Olympic Jenni Pinches announced her retirement from gymnastics following the London games, but that doesn’t mean she slowed down at all. To kick off her post-gymnastics life, Jenni took a trip to Ecuador, where she did volunteer work, and she’s currently completing her A-levels. She’s also looking forward to pursuing other interests while staying very involved in gymnastics. Jenni, thank you so much for taking the time and joining us today. [[SOUND BYTE]] Alright Jess, are we ready to go?

JESSICA: Ready to go!

JENNI: My dad has a rock band that just finished practicing beneath my bedroom, which is where I am right now, so if there’s any random bits of drums or guitar or whatever, that’s probably just them just messing round, so…yeah, sorry about that.

JESSICA: [LAUGHS] That’s awesome.

JENNI: I didn’t know they had a band practice today, so yeah.

BLYTHE: Your dad has a rock band?

JENNI: Well, yeah. They just, they don’t write their own songs, but they tour the pubs around our area and stuff and get paid, and so…

BLYTHE: How cool.

JENNI: Yeah, pretty cool. My dad does the drums and the guitar, he’s really good at it. And then my uncle sings, and then some other friends of their friends are in it.

BLYTHE: Nice.

JENNI: Yeah.

BLYTHE: Well actually, so Jenni, are you musical as well?

JENNI: Well, I was musical. I mean, I played the piano and the flute and the violin and the recorder and the drums, but obviously I was gymnastics training, so that kind of took over, and now I can semi-play the piano, and I’m generally musical, but I’m not very good at anything specific. [LAUGHS]

BLYTHE: Wow. Impressive. Well really, our first question to you was being that, it’s almost six months since the games now, and you’ve announced your official retirement, which we were quite sad about. What can we find you doing these days? What’s going on in your life?

JENNI: Yeah, well, after the Olympic games, I went to Ecuador for two months, and volunteered in projects around South America teaching English in the schools, which is really useful to them in developing their communities, and just generally helping out those who couldn’t help themselves, teaching them skills and giving them things that they asked for, like children’s playgrounds. Oh, and we rescued some endangered species and stuff on the coast. It was really cool, and we got to travel as well. And we went with my cousin and his group.

BLYTHE: Wow.

JENNI: And so, that was amazing, and it was good, but I did it just after the Olympics because a lot of people just did the Olympics and then came down and had nothing and kind of missed the Olympics loads, and kind of, I don’t know, post-Olympic depression, is that an official thing? Because I was doing that, it took my mind off it, and now I’m back at school and doing my A-levels that I didn’t have time to complete, and that’s about it. Visiting schools and gym camps and stuff, inspiring the next generation, hopefully.

BLYTHE: Excellent. Has the transition sort of out of gymnastics and that full-time training schedule been hard for you? Do you miss the spot?

JENNI: Yeah, I miss the sport so much. I didn’t think I would as much I do, but I guess doing it for twelve years of your eighteen year life makes a big difference, and I don’t know, every day now I’m on Twitter just looking at gymnastics news and writing my blog about gymnastics and reading about gymnastics, and I’ve become a bigger fan than I was when I was actually doing gymnastics, I think.

BLYTHE: Ok. What are some of the things that you have discovered thanks to the internet? Or the gymternet, as some people call it.

JENNI: What, recently?

BLYTHE: Mmhmm.

JENNI: Um, well, it’s sort of the start of the new gymnastics, kind of term, year now, at that moment, so I’ve more been looking at how all the other countries are doing, because I know quite a lot about how the British gymnastics is doing, anyway, so I’ve been keeping up with my friends that I’ve already made in the team. So the gymternet is really useful in finding out what’s going on in the rest of the world. People retiring or carrying on, or new gymnasts who are in this new senior year now, who have moved up. Stuff like that.

BLYTHE: I see. And, who do you admire in the sport? Like, gymnasts you either look up to as a kid, internationally, or now? Especially now. Do you have any predictions for things we’re going to see at the World Championships this year, or the European Championships? Anybody who’s really impress you?

JENNI: Well, as for new juniors, I know that Great Britain has so many up-and-coming talents, so [LAUGHS] probably good that I’m not competing against them now. But the rest of the world, I’ve always looked up to Russian gymnastics, because I just think they’re so artistic and beautiful, and it is artistic gymnastics, so…and I was never, I don’t know, as strong in that area of my gymnastics, I think. So I’ve always looked up to gymnasts like Aliya Mustafina and Komova, and even Danusia Francis, the ones who really show the artistry in their routines. And then, up-and-coming, hmm. Well, there’s—the name’s gone out of my head—Elizabeth Price?

BLYTHE: Oh, yes.

JENNI: Who was at the last, the World Cups at the end of the year? I’m looking forward to see what she will do now this year, following that, kind of springing out after the Olympics for the USA and doing that, so yeah. But just in general, I’m excited to see what happens at the Europeans and in the Worlds and I’m trying to convince my Dad to take us on a family holiday in the locations of these competitions so I can kind of sneak in and use that to get in, because obviously now, I’m not going to be taken like I was before, because I’m not in the team.

BLYTHE: [LAUGHS] Understandable. And so, British gymnastics, both over on the men’s and the women’s side, over the last, really four to six years, has become so strong, and it looks like it’s going to be very exciting because that’s going to carry over to the next quad, and what is it that has made the program, in your opinion, so strong over the last four to six years? And now we’ve got the Welsh gymnasts coming up, they’ve got an incredibly strong group as well, and just—what changed? You know, you were in the system at the time, and did you see anything that, you know, kind of clicked into place?

JENNI: I don’t know that we, being on the inside, had that perspective that we were improving as much as we were, because we always just considered ourselves to do the best we could do, and we succeeded, and we were happy with that, but we didn’t really take that and step back, being involved in that all the time, and see how far we’ve come in recent years. But I guess just, more focused coaching, dedicated coaching, and Beth Tweddle and Louis Smith leading the way with their Olympic medals, and Max Whitlock now as well. I don’t know, I guess we’re just gradually progressing there from that, and maybe learning from the gymnasts that we’ve now had be successful.

BLYTHE: We ask all the Olympians who’ve just retired this, and I’m sure you’ve gotten it before, but is there no chance that you’ll come back to the sport? Especially when you have the example of Beth Tweddle and Imogen Cairns and these people in their twenties who’ve had great success, and now Lisa Mason, apparently…

JENNI: Yeah.

BLYTHE: At the age of, what, thirty, thirty one, going to try and make a comeback. So, do you think that there’s maybe something still left in you, that maybe after a rest you might start it up again?

JENNI: I think I’ll always be involved in the sport, but I don’t think I’ll go back to competing. Sorry if that disappoints you. But I always wanted to just make it to that London Olympic games, and now that I’ve done that, I’ve achieved my goal, and I don’t think there’s any shame in retiring after that. I mean, you never know, years from now, do something amazing, and just decide to jump back into it, but at this moment I can’t see myself going back and actually training for competitions in the gym again, although I will definitely stay involved with the sport and be supporting all of the gymnasts who are still there for Great Britain.

BLYTHE: Absolutely. Do you ever think you’d want to be a coach?

JENNI: I don’t know. Like, I’m not that good at coaching, like independently instructing other gymnasts what to do, I don’t know. Maybe I’m just more good at telling myself how to do it over telling people how to do it, and they’re different skills, being able to perform the skills and then teach other people how to do them, but you never know. I don’t know what the future holds for me long-term at the moment, so you’ll just have to watch this space.

BLYTHE: [LAUGHS] Ok. And tell us a little bit about—we have some questions about the Olympics and, you know, the whole British team, you guys all became really famous during the games. Did you have people come up to you on the street or in the supermarket and telling you, “Wow, you’re Jenni Pinches!”

JENNI: When I went on holiday after the Olympics, to Tenerife, I was spotted there twice, actually, but I guess that was after the buzz of the games and since then I’ve not been spotted loads, other than when I’ve been to particular places like gyms or schools, when it’s still great to see that everyone’s still inspired from the Olympics and still buzzing and still motivated to keep on going. It’s almost like I’m living two separate, kind of, lives at the moment, because when I’m in those environments where people know who I am, I feel like a massive celebrity, and everyone is looking up to me and hanging on every word I say and all this support and they want my autograph, and then I go home and I’m just me, just doing whatever I want with my dad’s rock band playing downstairs in the garage, and I’m just Jenni. But yes, I have been spotted a few times, but I just think of myself as Jenni rather than Jennifer Pinches, Olympic Gymnast.

BLYTHE: So, tell us about some of the perks of being an Olympian. What kinds of swag do you get? Do you get exclusive opportunities to go places with the team and hobnob people?

JENNI: [LAUGHS]

BLYTHE: I know that you got to hang a bit with the Duchess of Cambridge, for example, during the Olympics.

JENNI: Yeah.

BLYTHE: What was that all like?

JENNI: Ok. I was really lucky to meet Kate Middleton, the Duchess of Cambridge, at Team GB House, which was the area where we had to meet our friends and family. I just, I sort of ran into her and I had a picture with her and William on one of the days. This was before she came and watched the pommel final with us in the seats, and we were all watching Louis and Max in the pommel final. And I also met her a second time, so the third time, when we were watching the pommel final, that was the third time we met her, so she actually said hi to me. So I was less star-struck by that point. But it was really cool to just be able to meet, you know, royalty like that, and she just talked to me as on the same level as her, like just a normal human being. She was lovely. And then, we got to loads of other exclusive stuff. We got to go to an exclusive Jessie J. VIP concert, and then we got to meet loads of other cool people, like Ronnie Wood from the Rolling Stones, and my floor music from the Olympics was from the Rolling Stones, so that was especially cool for me.

BLYTHE: Oh yeah.

JENNI: And now, I can’t name drop now. Well, I met the Prime Minister, but that’s not so exciting.

[LAUGHS]

JENNI: David Cameron. Oh, you put me on the spot. I met some comedians. I met Mr. Bean, Rowan Atkinson. I met Miranda Hart. I met loads—all the sporting stars, all the Great Britain sporting stars, and other ones. Usain Bolt, Yohan Blake, et cetera, which was really cool, and I’m so glad that my camera was working at that point because it now isn’t. But yeah. I think the best thing, more than meeting all of these people and parties and going to exclusive concerts, is literally just the recognition that you get from the public, the crowd support, and everybody says it but it’s true. The crowd support when we walked out, it being in London, with all those cheers and the hundreds of messages on Twitter and on the gymternet and on Facebook, and just the recognition for all the hard work we’ve done to get there, and then be in the Olympics and achieve that from everybody else is the best part of it.

BLYTHE: Did the pressure get to you at all? Do you feel like having it in your home country and everyone’s looking at you and the Great Britain gymnastics team being the best that they’ve been literally in their entire history? What was it like to deal with that? I’m sure it’s a question you get all the time but still.

JENNI: No yeah that is the other side of it. Obviously you want to do well in your own country and people not to be disappointed by you. But I think most of the pressure came from myself, not from other people. The fact that we’d been training so much for those few minutes of competition. And it definitely did get to me. I fell off beam on the most basic skill. I’m kind of not the strongest on beam but somehow being British champion 2012. The pressure gets to me most on beam in competition. I fell on a simple move in the team final. But then it depends which way you look at it. After I’d fallen off, I put less pressure on myself because I thought I’d already fallen. I just wanted to go out and show that I can do something well. I’ve been training for a purpose. Then following that, I got personal best scores on the floor and the vault in the team final. So I was really pleased with how I could turn it around.

BLYTHE: I remember watching you actually at the European Championships a month and a half or so before the Games and then at the British Championships, you unveiled this double twisting Yurchenko vault and that was amazing. You were just very very sharp. How did you manage to peak yourself just at that right moment when the selection committee was looking and really making that choice for the Olympic team?

JENNI: Yeah well it was the British Championships, the final Olympic trials that it all came down to for me with pulling out my double twisting Yurchenko and the routines that I needed to show because earlier on in the year, I’d had a couple of injuries. I’d had a lot of problems and soreness in my ribs and my back. I’d hurt my ankle. I had bad feet. I had a long list of annoying injuries that were holding me back from training the way I wanted to in the lead up to the Olympics. And the first two trials and the European Championships, I wasn’t pleased with at all. I was thinking to myself that I wasn’t going to get on the Olympic team. I’ve just got to prove for my own self worth that I can do some routines that I can be proud of whether I get on the team or not at the British Championships. Because it was my last chance to show that I could do all these skills. I’d been working the vault for a while. I’d been doing it in the training gym but it’s a different matter when you’re competing it especially at an Olympic Trial when you know it’s so important. So I just went for it and it worked out for the best at those British Championships.

BLYTHE: Actually I wanted to return to the Olympics for a second because we’ve heard that there are amazing parties in the Olympic Village and we wanted to ask you: True or False.

JENNI: In the Olympic Village or just in general after the Olympics?

BLYTHE: Ooh. Well really either. I was thinking in the Olympic Village because there was an article put out by ESPN just before the Games in which they said that in Beijing and Athens that in Day 10 and Day 11 especially as people start getting done with their events it gets a little bit crazier. But what was your experience?

JENNI: I didn’t notice an overwhelming sense of people going crazy. I think when people were done with their events they were relaxing more so than those that were still competing. I didn’t see any evidence of people going mad and wild after the Olympics. It’s been suggested or perhaps over exaggerated by a lot of the press. But after the Closing Ceremony, we all went down to the outside eating place. I don’t remember what it was called, the street zone or something. Loads of the British athletes gathered there and with the other athletes too and we just hung out and chatted. There was wine and things. It wasn’t like crazy but we did have a really good time. And afterwards we went out clubbing in London because we could and we were invited to clubs. There were paparazzi and things. It was a lot of fun but it wasn’t extreme. It was really awesome but I don’t know. It wasn’t people going mad and doing inappropriate things.

BLYTHE: Can you tell us a little bit about your teammates? They’ve all obviously done a lot of press interviews but we always ask who’s the rowdy one? Who’s the quiet one? Who hates getting up early in the morning? That kind of thing. Can you tell us some of those facts?

JENNI: Ok I’m the one who’s late and hates getting up in the morning and people say I’m away with the fairies which is nice of them. Hannah is very organized, mature, knows what she wants, works hard and is just really lovely. With the Olympic team, Beth, she’s obviously a little bit older than the rest of us, so looks after us a little bit more, has been there done that a thousand times and is one who everyone looks up to. Imogen is insane. She is a party animal and knows how to have fun and is hilarious. Rebecca Tunney is just so sweet and lovely and so dedicated to her gymnastics and quiet and would never say a mean word about anyone. That’s all the Olympic team isn’t it? Who else do you want to know about?

BLYTHE: How about the alternates?

JENNI: Let’s see Niamh is, she likes to party but she’s not crazy. She’s sensitive and caring and kind and she’s one of the people I got along best with I think. Danusia is loads of fun. She’s more similar to Imogen I’d say, not in a bad way. She’s very confident and outgoing. I think you can tell all of these things by the way they perform and the way they are in interviews. Becky Downie is really funky, likes fashion, shopping. She’s really cool to hang out with. You get an idea, she likes designing leotards, being involved with and supporting the little gymnasts. Probably gets into the technical bits of everything. Beth is the most knowledgeable about gymnastics in general so it’s a good job that she’s on question of sport and not us because she literally knows the history of gymnastics, I think naturally because she loves the sport so much, whereas I just forget everything, all the facts and things. As much as I love the sport, I’m so bad at remembering people’s names and what scores they’ve gotten and stuff. She remembers my routines better than I do. Is that everybody? Ruby Harrold! Really intelligent in school as is Charlotte Lindsley. There’s too many people and it’s too difficult to describe them in a short sentence because their characters are just so interesting. You have to get to know them properly.

BLYTHE: What about the boys? Can you tell us about the boys?

JENNI: Ooh the boys, ok! Well we don’t see the boys too much because the boys’ sport is technically different from ours and we’re not always at the same comps as them but over the years we have gotten to know them really well. Louis Smith is extremely confident and outgoing at times and loves to be different and sings in the gym and wears wacky clothes. And then at other times is very quiet and reserved and focused on his performance. I guess that accounts for his success in the media and Strictly and everything, with him winning Strictly Come Dancing and then his focus and concentration at the Olympics as well. Well ,the other boys, they’re just….the whole group of us just has a strong family bond as a team. You don’t usually describe or examine their personality. You just kind of accept them and get on with them as they are. In general, all of them are so lovely. I couldn’t say a bad word about any of them. I think gymnasts in general, maybe it goes with the sport, are brave and crazy, extreme, fun, nice, and just lovely people to be with and I’m glad that I’ve met each and every one of them. And it’s not a cliche and it sounds so typical to say in an interview. “Oh they’re all lovely people.” But it’s genuinely true. I can’t get that across to you well enough.

BLYTHE: I wanted to ask you also about Ecuador. That is such an unusual thing to do and especially sort of after the transition from being an Olympic gymnast. What was your impetus to do this?

JENNI: Well I’ve always really wanted to help other people, a vast portion of myself. I’ve always counted my blessings of being in this country and being able to go traveling around the world with British Gymnastics. I know that a lot of people can’t even afford to or have the ability to have enough food and water or even electricity in their homes and daily lives. I’ve always wanted to reach out to other people less fortunate than myself. Maybe that’s part of my being a Christian as well. It was really interesting and kind of brung me back down to earth. To go from being in the middle of the world and the Olympic Games to the middle of nowhere in the middle of the Amazon rainforest helping people who’ve got nothing. It was really nice to be able to do that and satisfying, fulfilling to know that I’ve done something that benefited other people, not just kind of thought only about myself and what the Olympics has brought me. That transition was good.

BLYTHE: It’s very healthy. One of the criticisms that is sometimes aimed at gymnasts is that they have no life outside of the gym. That doesn’t seem to be the case with you at all and that you’re doing a lot of things outside the gym. Really, good for you. About these other sort of outside activities, was it hard to coordinate the other things that you were doing with gymnastics? Do you ever feel like you sacrificed some experiences?

JENNI: Um do you mean kind of like my social life or school life?

BLYTHE: Yeah.

JENNI: Well yeah but that’s part of being a gymnast or any sport really. If you want to get to the Olympic Games, you have to dedicate your life to it and you have to sacrifice those things if you want to achieve your goals. And that’s what I did. But obviously now, I’m kind of catching up on the other part of it, the other side of my social life and catching up with my education and things I want to do that I couldn’t have done before.

BLYTHE: So last night I watched the A Different Life documentary

JENNI: Really last night?

BLYTHE: Yeah really. It’s the inspiration for this interview. May I say you were absolutely cute. How old were you when this was done?

JENNI: I was 11 then. No media training. Just genuine. Didn’t want to be famous. Thought that would be annoying. Just wanted to be in the Olympic Games. It is adorable though. When I watch it back, I think is that me?! Really what happened? That’s what my uncle says to me.

BLYTHE: And because of that, we really kind of feel like we’ve watched you grow up in the sport because we can look back at that little girl training and see the things you do now and go wow it all came true for you! That’s just really lovely!

JENNI: I’ve had the ideal kind of gym career because I’ve been successful since I was like nine years old and haven’t really gone out the squad and not had any experiences of not being there. I’ve been able to, well other people have been able to see me sort of take that journey through the national squad, British Gymnastics, from a youngster to a senior and achieve my dreams of being in the Olympics. It’s been great for me, absolutely ideal!

BLYTHE: At what point did it really become evident to you that you could make the Olympic team? Because obviously when you shot the Different Life documentary, it’s really hard to say at that age where the sport is going to take you. Regardless of if you’re talented, you could be injured. All sorts of things could happen really. But when did you kind of hone in on the Olympic Games and say this seems like a reasonable goal and I’m going to go for that.

JENNI: I don’t really think I was that reasonable when I was 11. I just always thought I was going to the Olympic Games. That’s something I’m gonna do. And my mom always told me to believe in myself and if that’s what I wanted to do, then go for it. My family was behind me. So I always had my mind set on that. I never thought here’s a point where I may be able to. I always thought I was going to make it and I did make it. Woo! There’s no point, apart from when you get to the Olympic Trials and then you think oh no what if I don’t make it. That’s just scary. Try not to think about that. If you set your mind on your goals, then you should just try and follow through with them.

BLYTHE: And now one thing I didn’t know, that you wrote to Jessica I think is that you started gymnastics because of Teletubbies?!

JENNI: True. Yeah true.

BLYTHE: Tell us about that!

JENNI: Ok so when I was 6ish, we moved house and I’d been doing ballet but I was scared of my ballet teacher because she had broken her hand and had this big bandage on it and used to hold our hands to kind of help us and I was terrified of her and saw on the Teletubbies on TV, which I’d been watching, a little clip of gymnasts swinging on a bar and into the pit. I thought that looks like fun. So when my mom said to me, you know come on we’re going to start ballet in this new place that we moved to in the outskirts of Bristol, I wasn’t really too keen. And I said can I do gymnastics instead? And my mom was fine with that. It used up more of my excess energy that I needed to use up according to her and so she took me along to the local gymnastics club and luckily enough, the head of that gymnastics club was Liz Kincaid, coach of Imogen Cairns and Ruby Harrold and other gymnasts and I was spotted and just moved on up from there.

BLYTHE: So basically you were kind of distressed about the injuries one could get in ballet, so you went to gymnastics.

JENNI: Oh no it wasn’t that I was scared of injuring myself, it was just that I was scared of the teacher.

BLYTHE: [LAUGHS] Oh I see!

JENNI: I was just like let’s forget about that and do gymnastics because that looks like fun from what I saw on the tv on the Teletubbies. It was the Teletubbies fault.

BLYTHE: Alright so I’m going to turn it over to Jessica actually. She’s just got a few more questions. Those are more of the fun style questions I think. She’s got a lot of cool stuff. Thank you very much for taking the time to speak with me and Jessica, go ahead!

JESSICA: So we get only the NBC American feed of the Olympics so we don’t see everything that goes on on your side and so when I was doing the research for the interview today, I saw all these stories about nerdfighter and gang signs. What is the deal? What is the show? Tell us what happened.

JENNI: Ok right. Nerdfighters are people who are fans of the author John Green and musician Hank Green who are people I found via the internet with this community who calls themselves the nerdfighters. And because I absolutely love both of these people, They do awesome things on YouTube and on their websites and John Green has just done a book tour for his book The Fault in Our Stars which is brilliant and you should all read it and I did the sign which the communities made up, at the Olympic Games on TV. I mean I didn’t know they were going to show it on TV but the sign that I did, which looks like a gang sign, kind of like a cross between Klingon hands and the X Factor sign or American Idol or whatever you have, I don’t know. I did it on TV to the cameras and it was shown live to the world and all of the whole community on the internet went crazy. It was really awesome. A million people sent me messages saying you know I didn’t know you were a nerdfighter too. And since then, I’ve been able to meet John and Hank Green which was really cool and do loads of awesome stuff and yeah.

JESSICA: That’s so cool! So what are the values of the nerdfighters? I assume that it doesn’t mean that you go out and find nerds and have fist fights with them. I assume that it’s you are a nerd and you fight for the good in the world. What are the values?

JENNI: Exactly. Exactly. It’s more like the Freedom Fighters Were for freedom rather than against freedom. It’s about being part of a community, being yourself, and not being afraid to be yourself and go for what your goals are and your unique qualities and celebrating that. And generally just doing things that are awesome. That key kind of phrase, slogan is Don’t Forget to Be Awesome. That’s what the sign meant that I did to the cameras. It meant don’t forget to be awesome or DFTBA. And yeah that’s what nerdfighters are. They’re just happy, enthusiastic people who want to do cool stuff.

JESSICA: I love it! I’m totally going to have to check this out! We’ll put a link up to the show. Speaking of nerd stuff, I’m totally obsessed Lilleshall and I imagine it’s like the Hogwarts of gymnastics. So can you tell us about it and what it’s like and where it is and what the atmosphere is and everything.

JENNI: Well you imagine correctly because it’s a huge stately home with enormous beautiful gardens and practically a forest, a dark graveyard, a pond and all these elaborate buildings and archways and somewhere in there there’s a gymnastics hall where we train and afterwards we go into the food hall and we go back to our rooms which have now been refurbished. It’s a nice place to be. A lot of people get married there and we see brides walking out in wedding dresses and we’re there in our smelly track suits and our trainers on, a little bit out of place. It’s definitely an amazing place to have a national gymnastics center.

JESSICA: Is it just gymnastics there or are there other sports too?

JENNI: Yeah actually they do rehabilitation of footballers and hockey and other stuff too but I don’t know because we mostly don’t see them.

JESSICA: Cool. Can you tell us a little bit about your relationship with Amanda Reddin? She seems to just have great respect and relationships with her athletes. We understand that she has a new role with the British team now and can you tell us a little bit about that?

JENNI: Well she obviously knows what she’s doing. She’s now had me and Hannah and Beth all her gymnasts and we got to the 2012 Olympics and we’ve always respected her for her abilities. We weren’t surprised when she came the technical director for British Gymnastics because she’s just so kind of perfect for that role. Yeah she had to be strict and she had to push us for our own good to motivate us to do the best we could in our gymnastics. Now that I’m kind of not her gymnast, we text, we chat to each other on the phone and send friendly messages. It’s really nice to have that relationship with my coach and still have that relationship after I’ve finished the sport.

JESSICA: So is there anything about the current rules in gymnastics that you would like to see changed? Or things that you love?

JENNI: I know what you’d like me to say. You’d like me to say that I want the two gymnasts per country rule changing. Because I was the third gymnast in the rankings for Great Britain and should’ve been in the All Around final in the Olympics but wasn’t. But we all knew that rule before the Olympics so I don’t think we can really complain about that. And that’s just part of getting all the countries to take part and giving them the opportunities I guess. I’m not going to make any big protest about rules of gymnastics. I’m not going to start a riot or anything. I’m just going to enjoy beautiful artistic gymnastics when I see it and if rules get in the way, I can’t do anything about it. I mean we all know the rules before we start competitions.

JESSICA: Anything about, rather than the standings kind of stuff, is there anything about the actual code, like what you’d like to see encouraged or discouraged….

JENNI: I think the new code encourages more artistry. And I would’ve said that had it not already been encouraged because that is the bit that I love about gymnastics, when you see skills done so fluently and beautifully like that. That is what makes gymnastics amazing to watch because skills are so difficult and you have to have so much power and strength to make it look easy and interesting and almost poetic with your body. That’s what I’d like to see more of in the sport. I think the new code encourages that anyway.

JESSICA: You competed in the World Cup in Qatar and I think for a lot of women it’s really fascinating to see how the Middle East is opening up and that was one of the first FIG events in Qatar. I think women only got the right to vote in the early 2000s. So I’m always fascinated to see if the women who competed there, what their experience was like, just how the competition was, all that kind of stuff, just being in that country. Can you tell us a little bit about that?

JENNI: Yeah that’s interesting that you mention that. What I remember of that competition is just that we had a really funny time. I have loads of hilarious memories of just hanging out in the hotel with the team and that everyone was telling us to be careful and there were rules that were going to get us kicked out and it wasn’t like that at all. Everyone was lovely and fine and normal and we just had a really good competition. It wasn’t any different to any other competition really. Other than we got to go to really cool museums.

JESSICA: So we have a little segment on the show which we started with Andreea Raducan last week because she blew our minds blowing one long standing gymnastics myth so I’m going to ask you this one. So for this episode of Gymnastics Myth Busters, I have heard that the British team, after big competitions, they’re sent to kind of like a spa and you do pilates and get massages and have treatments so your body sort of recovers for like a week after a competition. Is this true or is it a gymnastics myth?

JENNI: It is true! It’s amazing! After the World Championships and the after the Euros and stuff like that, if we have a long build up to a competition, to then let our bodies recover for a week, we’ve gotten to go to Cancun in Mexico as a relaxation trip which was amazing and yeah we got to go to a spa one time and all week we had facials, massages, and went in the jacuzzi and worked out in the gym a little bit as well. But we did fun stuff. We did mountain biking. We did Zumba. We did just really cool stuff which helped us bond even more as if we hadn’t bonded enough as a team and have fun and relax at the same time without the continuous insane pounding that you get in the gym.

JESSICA: That is so cool! I love that!

JENNI: Yeah it is so cool! It’s one of the really cool things about being on the British gymnastics team at that level.

**PART 3

JESSICA: So one other really cool thing that I know about only because of the picture of Danusia in an elevator holding Komova in her arms

JENNI: Uh huh! [LAUGHS]

JESSICA: [LAUGHS] Is that a British team… do you guys do like scavenger hunts or something? Some kind of games so you don’t get bored in the hotels? What is this? Have you always done it? Is it new? Tell us all about this.

JENNI: [LAUGHS] We just like to keep ourselves entertained in between competitions so we’re not just thinking about the routines all the time and getting stressed out. So yeah one of the things that we did do was yeah, go on a scavenger hunt. And we had a list of things we had to take pictures of in the hotel. So we had like, we had to take a picture of things on the nose board, things in signs around the hotel. And then also like cool things, like pick up a Russian gymnast and take a picture. And take a picture of a tattoo. And take a picture of an official with a hat on. So we got Addy wearing funny hat and loads of things like that. So yeah that was a really cool thing that we did recently. But we don’t always do scavenger hunts, we just do crazy stuff because British gymnasts are just crazy like that [LAUGHS]

JESSICA: So is it like the coaches that came up with this to keep you guys occupied? Or is it something that you as a team came up with?

JENNI: Well sometimes we just do funny stuff. I don’t know one time we made like a mini film in between the competitions. But that one was actually thought up by Liz Kincaide, Imogen Cairns and Ruby Harold’s coach. And she made the list and she judged it. And we lost. Danusia and Hannah won [LAUGHS]

JESSICA: If you’re holding Komova, I mean that is like one of the funniest things I have ever seen.

JENNI: [LAUGHS]

JESSICA: Which Russian did you pick up? Or was it like pick up a Russian or just find a Russian?

JENNI: Yeah it was really fun because obviously we can’t speak Russian and I don’t know how much English they can speak but it really wasn’t a lot. So we’re kind of gesturing like, “is it ok if we pick you up?” and they’re just looking at us like, “what are you doing? Like, what?”

JESSICA: [LAUGHS]

JENNI: I can’t remember, it wasn’t one of the most famous Russian gymnasts that I picked up. It was one of the new juniors, and I don’t know who it was. Sorry. But I do have a picture of it.

[LAUGHS]

JESSICA: I totally have to see that picture. You’re going to have to send it, just put it up somewhere so we can see this.

JENNI: Ok!

JESSICA: Have you ever won anything else outside of a gymnastics competition?

JENNI: Oh, one time I entered a Blue Theater acting competition and nearly got a part in Dr. Who.

JESSICA: That’s awesome

JENNI: So, yeah. [LAUGHS]

JESSICA: Is acting one of your goals in the future?

JENNI: I really enjoy acting. I don’t know if I consider myself an actress. But if anything… I saw McKayla Maroney did some stuff on… like acting stuff on TV. And that would be awesome if I could do acting stuff because I just really enjoy it. So yeah maybe. But I don’t know who would want me to act in their program or whatever. [LAUGHS]. I mean I like doing stuff with the media though because I did that stuff with BBC after the Olympics. The previews with Olga Korbut and Matt Baker before the finals. Did you see that?

JESSICA: YEah, and I totally have to ask like what was working with Olga Korbut like? Like she seems like she has a very big personality.

JENNI: Yeah, yeah. She has like strong views about gymnasts and gymnastics. And she’s very interesting character. And she was saying like if she got into a leotard now that she’d be able to go and beat the others in the Olympics. And I was like, “wow, ok, go on then,” kind of thing [LAUGHS] She was really funny and nice though. It was really cool to meet her as well because obviously she’s like a gymnastics legend.

JESSICA: Totally. So I have to ask, we’ve been debating and learning about things that different countries use, so I have to ask you what is your best cure for rips? Or rip cure advice.

JENNI: Mhmm. I think it works differently for everyone. So Beth Tweddle uses pseudogram. And just always uses pseudogram all the time, even under her wrist bands while she’s training in her hand guards. I use journaline. I guess it just depends on what works best for you, but yeah pretty much just cream. Although when I was little, my coach told me to wee on my hands to make them stronger, to make them harder. I didn’t continue doing that, just so you know. Yeah. [LAUGHS]

JESSICA: [LAUGHS] That is fascinating. I’ve actually heard this just lately and I was like, “no, come on, no one ever said this.” But apparently, ok I’m glad…

JENNI: Yeah. I don’t know if it worked or not though because I didn’t want to continue. I pretended that I did it for a while

JESSICA: [laughs]

JENNI: And then I was just like nah

[LAUGHTER]

JESSICA: What is your best tip for fighting the dreaded wedgie. Or do you call it a wedgie there? Like when your leotard goes up your butt.

JENNI: Yeah, yeah. Ok so in competition we’re supposed to just leave it alone, which is hilarious. When Charlotte Lindsey was at the Commonwealth Games, the last Commonwealth Games, she got the biggest wedgie in the whole wide world on the TV. But fighting… well we use leotard glue. We stick our leotards down. But you hope that your leotard fits so it doesn’t happen. But if it does happen you’re supposed to ignore it, which sucks.

JESSICA: Yeah I think we need to come up with something like, because I feel… do you guys use the same thing, it’s like the spray glue that you spray on your butt and then stick your leotard to it?

JENNI: Yeah, yeah it’s that. And you have to find a nice corner where no one’s like staring at you with a camera to do it. If your leotard’s unsticking in the middle of a competition, you don’t exactly want loads of people to be looking at you while you just lift your leotard up and stick it down. So you have to find a nice little wall, and it’s not very convenient. But yea, it’s part of gymnastics I guess. Gymnast problems [LAUGHS]

JESSICA: And what is the weirdest thing you have ever eaten?

JENNI: Oh, ok. I ate kangaroo when I went to [inaudible] in Australia. I’ve eaten guinea pig. As much as I love them as pets, they’re really tasty. When I went to South America, we cooked it on a stick over a fire. They’re definitely weird enough to be answers.

JESSICA: Totally [LAUGHS]

JENNI: I haven’t been to France and eaten snails, though my brother’s done that.

JESSICA: And how was kangaroo?

JENNI: I can’t really remember. It couldn’t’ have been that amazing of a flavor. It probably just tasted like chicken. I just remember that I had some. Yeah [LAUGHS]

JESSICA: Well that is all we have for you. Thank you so much for doing this interview. This has been really great, and

BLYTHE: You have been fabulous

JESSICA: Yes. Loved it. Loved it loved it.

JENNI: Ok, well you’re welcome. Thanks! Thanks for having me on. Thanks for being so cool.
–

JESSICA: That was so awesome.

BLYTHE: Wasn’t she sweet!

JESSICA: She is the sweetest.

BLYTHE: That was, that was great. What did she say? Don’t forget to be awesome? DFTBA? DFTBA! [LAUGHS]

JESSICA: [LAUGHS] Yes! I love that! That needs to be like our new sign off. We all need to throw up the nerdfighter symbol for like… put a picture up somewhere. I totally love it. What a great personality too!

BLYTHE: What a great personality.

JESSICA: I so hope she gets into acting or announcing or something like that. Like she just totally… her energy comes across. She’s so genuine, and fun, and what a great personality.

BLYTHE: Yeah she would be a lovely commenter. Commentator. She and Mitch Fenner together. Oh my goodness.

JESSICA: My dream team would be her, Kyle Shewfelt, and Mitch Fenner.

BLYTHE: Her, Kyle Shewfelt, and Mitch Fenner. That would be, that would be quite incredible.

JESSICA: Oh my God. That would make like… I could listen to them even without watching the gymnastics.

BLYTHE: The BBC would explode.

JESSICA: [laughs] and a Dr. Who competition, that’s like super nerd right there. I love that she’s into all that stuff. You know you think about gymnasts not having a lot of activities outside of gymnastics, but she seems to have a very rich life.

BLYTHE: Yes, yes, absolutely

JESSICA: And it’s true that they get to go to the spa, they get a little recovery vacation.

BLYTHE: Yeah, Lilleshall sounds like the Karolyi Ranch of Great Britain. Yes.

JESSICA: But it sounds like it’s super… it’s like he Karolyi Ranch except Europea… European… Europ… [LAUGHS]

BLYTHE: Europeanized?

JESSICA: [LAUGHS] Europeanized! Yes. Like it’s like a grand house and it’s all nice. People get married there. Can you imagine getting married at the Karolyi Ra… actually I can see people getting married at the Karolyi Ranch honestly. Oh, there’s going to start doing that now.

BLYTHE: Oh, I think Mary Lou Retton did get married at the Karolyi Ranch.

JESSICA: Oh, there you go!

BLYTHE: Yeah!

JESSICA: Like with the camels walking around in the background.

BLYTHE: With the camels in the background

JESSICA: 1000 degrees outside

BLYTHE: You see camels photobombing

[LAUGHS]

JESSICA: No but seriously I love that the team, that the British team sends the gymnasts to a recovery spa vacation after the meets. That’s so European first of all. But it’s also like, it’s so great the people have a chance to bond as a team and actually heal their bodies and have fun together. And it’s kind of like a treat. I remember in Tokyo some of the gymnasts went to, there’s like a Disney… it’s like a Sea World but it’s Disneyland like outside of Tokyo. And some of the British gymnasts went there afterward. And I wonder if that was part of their, you know like spa recovery thing.

BLYTHE: Oh that’s cool. Yeah at the World Championships they don’t, at the least Americans, they don’t do anything really. They go from the hotel to the gym to the hotel to the gym. And you talk to them after podium training or after prelims and they say, you know, “We went to the Nike store once.” Like, and that’s what they’ve done. But after the competition they usually do some things as well.

JESSICA: Yeah. I just love the idea of recovering, because you’ve got to be so exhausted. You know and if you get home after not being home, because they’re usually gone for like a month by the time they get home. All you friends want to see you and all that stuff. So it’s nice to just have that time to, you know, recover your body and sleep. That’s the first thing I think of.

BLYTHE: Most jobs should have recovery trips, don’t you think?

JESSICA: Oh yes! They really really should [LAUGHS]

BLYTHE: She talked about the two per country rule in the All Around. And maybe us being Americans and being a bit American centric, we think, we’re horrified for Jordyn Wieber. But it was you know, like that in other countries as well. You know Jenni said, “Hey I should’ve been there.” I would need to look up her qualifying score but probably if you took the top 25, she was probably in it. And so she didn’t get to compete. And yeah, you know, trying to think… who was the Russian’s… well, Grishina didn’t get to compete. You know and then China, Deng Linlin perhaps didn’t get to compete.

JESSICA: Love her.

BLYTHE: But yeah, anyway. But yeah I mean it was other countries as well. But I really liked her response, she was like, well we knew going in that two could advance and those were the rules and them’s the breaks, so what can you do.

JESSICA: Yes, her response was.. I think of her response compared to Jordyn Wieber’s coach, Mr. Geddert. [laughs]

BLYTHE: Well yeah, Jordyn was expected…

JESSICA: I mean I know it was totally, yeah

BLYTHE: The expectations were a bit different

JESSICA: They were totally different. Like she was the defending world champion. But yeah, I liked that she was just like yeah, that’s how the rules are. You know which I kind of wonder if there was more to her response. But yeah.

BLYTHE: Yeah I don’t know. For the Americans it was just, it was just devastating. And Geddert’s response was honest.

JESSICA: That was the thing…

BLYTHE: He didn’t explode in anger, he was just like, this is not fair. She is one of the best in the world, she could content for an Olympic medal, and she should be able to. But, yeah.

JESSICA: Yeah that is the thing. That’s one of the things that I kind of love about Geddert, is that he’s one of the only elite coaches that really lets us know what’s on his mind and what’s going on and what he’s thinking, which is totally rare.

BLYTHE: He’s always saying, “I’m going to get in trouble for saying this, but…”

JESSICA: [LAUGHS]

BLYTHE: And then he says something very truthful.

JESSICA: Yep.
–

JESSICA: Spanny is here with her weekly NCAA updates. So, what’s been happening this week?

SPANNY: Well this week… was a supr… not a surprise. I feel like the overall theme of the week was “massive overscores” from about every single team. But instead of focusing on that right away, I want to point out there were a few awesome highlights from different teams that weren’t part of the “home cooking” theme. The first one, I want to give Spanny Tampson’s big gold medal for throwback awesomeness to Dallas Smith from Sacramento State on beam. It’s the first time that I ever watched Sacramento. It’s one of those B Teams that I haven’t had a… not a B Team, but haven’t had a chance to really sit down and watch. And so when they were at UCLA and, was it during that first rotation where we did get to see a couple routines? Oh you were there so you didn’t get to see the broadcast. It was really bizarre.

JESSICA: Was it weird, because they started it like the Utah meet. Like they tried to do that new…

SPANNY: Yeah

JESSICA: …format where they go one at a time. And it took a really long time. And then all the sudden everyone was going at once and we were like wait what happened?

SPANNY: Well there was a general internet rage because they just started showing half routines from different schools, but no UCLA routines, which, arguably, I mean that’s why people were watching. You know, a lot of people.

JESSICA: Yep.

SPANNY: But that said, because of this, we got to see these other people and I’m happy about it. So Dallas Smith, she does a front handspring sort of/walkover sort of Jordyn Wieber territory but does not matter to me right now. She does the front handspring to the Portocarrero, which if you recall from 1993 94ish is the kind of like front flip to a seated position. We called them suicides in my day.

JESSICA: Yes exactly. So you land sort of like with one leg bent, your tushy on the beam, and one leg straight out but without smashing your heel on the beam.

SPANNY: Right. And if done poorly it looks like a big butt smash and it’s… yeah. She did it, it was lovely though. So the connection from the front handspring to the Portocarrero. And then she follows it by the Garrison, which is, not the mount obviously, but a one handed sideways walkover thingy. Kind of like, you start like a valdez but you swing over to the side. Just two massive throwback skills in a row. And then also just the interesting connection. It wasn’t your normal front aerial back handspring back handspring back layout.

JESSICA: And then she did a side… I feel like she did two… oh, is she the one that had a forward shoulder roll in straddle, and then she also did a sideways straddle roll? Was that her? or was that a different one? I feel like it was her, but I might be imagining this.

SPANNY: No it might have been a different one, but that whole team was really like…

JESSICA: Mhmm

SPANNY: The entire team was like a pretty beam team in terms of composition. Again the link I found for the team wasn’t from this past meet but it was from a few weeks ago. But it’s really worth it just to go through the entire rotation and just watch their anchor, I think it’s Kalliah McCartney, she did a neat… it was a well-connected front aerial front aerial back handspring. Which is impressive on it’s own. And then when you put that in with all the other former elites who are barely managing their front aerial pause pause pause back handspring passes. Just so impressive that these girls, you know, are doing these really creative and well done routines. So yeah definitely a team worth checking out. And that’s the fun part about these quad meets especially if we are lucky enough to see some of the other teams, is that you do get to see these routines that aren’t featured but then you’re like oh these are actually really awesome. They have awesome choreography or different skills that you don’t see every single week. The other surprise, we’ll call it the “pleasant surprise choreography of the week,” was Kaitlynn Urano of Iowa State. She had a really impressive floor, like low to the floor choreography. So I said she’s taking a page out of Miss Val’s book of awesome floor work. To, it was this nice upbeat moroccan music. Where I feel like in NCAA you’re forced to listen to either a lot of top 40 club hits, Michael Jackson, or really boring jazz band stuff. And this was upbeat, it was still instrumental, it was something I hadn’t heard done often, and it was really nice choreography too. It was very well performed. The leotard wasn’t… I was not appreciative of the leotard. But the routine in itself…

JESSICA: It wasn’t horrible, the leotard.

SPANNY: I mean I know I must say this about a lot of leotards, but it really did remind me of this like 80s jazzercise Barbie I had

JESSICA: [LAUGHS]

SPANNY: With this one-shouldered leotard thing that was impossible to get on her. And I was like oh, that’s what they’re wearing. It was a weird… and it might be because I saw this video today and it was just, with all this attention that wrestling has gotten today and thus synchronized swimming, I thought this was like a synchronized swimming/rhythmic gymnastics

JESSICA: Oh I could totally see that in synchronized swimming. I will give you that. But I was also like damn, homegirl is wearing a white leotard and she’s rocking it, so good for her in the middle of winter in Iowa.

SPANNY: [LAUGHS] Exactly, right? It’s not something you see often in the midwest. Let’s stay positive sort of. I’m going to call this the “suck it haters” routine of the week. Lloimincia Hall’s 10 on floor.

JESSICA: Woot woot!

SPANNY: We’ve all seen it coming. It’s arguable I suppose that she has performed this routine better this season. That said, unless you’re being super super picky, I can see how it got a 10. Given some of the other 10s we’ve seen this season on other events from different schools, this was, you know, we saw this coming. Yeah and to the people who were complaining, like…. I’m not calling out a certain group of people, but I am. If you’re an Alabama fan and you’re calling out her choreography, sit down. Because…

[LAUGHTER]

SPANNY: I understand you know different…. you know, whatever floats your boat. But you can’t deduct for not liking her choreography, or it’s not gymnastic enough, or I don’t know what people complain about for that. I loved it. It was good to see her hit it.

JESSICA: And wasn’t it Alabama last year? What was the team that had the girl that did… she does the 1 1/2 and it was really high but she totally had piked hips and bent knees and got a 10. Was that Alabama? Totally blanking on her name. Oh my God.

SPANNY: It could’ve been. I feel like a lot of the 10s… most, how many have there been? Four 10s this season maybe? And none of them have impressed me. None of them have been like “oh that’s obviously a 10.” Ok Macko on bars, it was very well performed. I just think like, she doesn’t have a same bar release skill so I wasn’t super impressed. Zam, her vault, I just feel like it’s been better. Torrie Wilson, I thought her vault… it was like you know, maybe just because when you see that it’s a 10 you instantly look for all the mistakes just to prove it wrong. And yeah. And then I feel like then again, this was the theme of this past week is massive overscores. Now it was hard to pick one… I didn’t pick just one single one because again I felt like there were a lot of people complaining about a lot of different scores this week. I’m just going to clump all of UCLA into one. And while…

JESSICA: Yeah

SPANNY: …they’re my favorite they had to be the most outrageous.

JESSICA: Yeah especially the beam rotation. All of us were sitting there like uhhh. Even the UCLA girls, you could see them like, they kind of looked at each other and they were like oook.

SPANNY: Right? And it’s hard to see… again because we do see week after week after week we see Vanessa Zamarripa, she does deserve these huge 9.95 scores and nobody can debate it. And so when she has a routine that is kind of off, you notice it. But she still scores the same. And you’re like, that’s weird. So I think her All Around score kind of was telling of the scoring. She got a 39.625 for… what was not her best meet of the season by a long shot. But yeah she definitely was not the only culprit. Not she, the judges. Was not the only culprit. There were a few from Florida. I want to say Dickerson’s vault raised a few eyebrows. And then you have the whole Kentucky/Georgia meet which was backwards because I actually felt Georgia might have been a little underscored. And I’ll never say that again. But yeah Kentucky got these huge scores on vault and bars that I didn’t feel that their performance was on par with, let alone above I suppose Georgia’s. So the fact that they ended up tying was just a bizarre.

JESSICA: That is so weird, also, because that like never happens. And while we’re at it, it was Diandra Milliner who did the 1.5, stuck it, but had the piked hips and clearly bent legs and still got the 10. So, that’s all I have to say about that to the haters. Oh yeah, and I also wanted to say, just to go back for a minute, I would like to say Lloimincia Hall – floor National Champion this year. I’m saying it right now. Savona will be in the floor finals and Lloimincia Hall will win.

SPANNY: That would be so ultimately satisfying.

JESSICA: Yes!

SPANNY: Especially after last year where I felt that, especially the floor final, was so disappointing.

JESSICA: Pfft. Last year was horrible. Horrible, horrible. And we’re not saying anything about the gymnasts – this has nothing to do with the gymnasts. Everyone did a great job, it has nothing to do with the teams, it has to do with the freaking judging. Atrocious. So last year was infamously the year when Kat Ding won despite clearly not being the one who should have won.

SPANNY: And then that’s it. That’s the end of the season and that’s what you leave off, that’s the taste that’s left in your mouth until the next year and that’s why I would love to have such a high, upbeat, powerful performance take it all. One thing that worries me thought just about the qualification process is, you know Mincie could score high every single meet of the year but it doesn’t seem to matter until… Well that’s the name of the game, it’s also why I love it. Let’s end on a hilarious note. I don’t like glorifying – well you may not believe it – but I don’t like glorifying falls, especially the ones that look like they hurt or might have injured a person. This fortunately is not one of those and it was hilarious. My hilarious fall of the week is Kytra Hunter on beam because she fell on a backwards roll. [LAUGHS] You could just tell she was slowly did it, her foot instead of going down the other side of the beam, hit the end of the beam, and so she just kind of in slow motion toppled off the side. The best part is her face.

JESSICA: Her face is so good!

SPANNY: She is so pissed.

JESSICA: It’s awesome! [LAUGHS] She looks disgusted with herself. We can all relate to that like, “Seriously? I just fell on that? Seriously?”

SPANNY: And she gets back up and it’s when shes actually back on the beam you can see her shaking her head. She’s like, “That did not just happen…” But then she goes and she’s like I’m done with the routine, and she nails – she sticks cold – her double back. So I’m like that’s just how she is. You know that she was pissed and nailed the crap out of the rest of the routine. But the fall really was… I don’t want to say a highlight.

JESSICA: It was like a blooper.

SPANNY: Yeah.

JESSICA: A live real of bloopers. That is going to be legendary. That is going to be at the banquet. That’s going to be in the banquet video.

SPANNY: And I hope that Florida does so well and she can laugh about it later in the year. What did they score, a 198.1 with two falls from Kytra? That is incredible. And I don’t think Florida’s in my group of massive over scores. I just think they’re Florida and that’s what they do they score really high in February. But you had some from North Carolina, right?

JESSICA: Yeah, so I have to say I’m kind of falling in love with North Carolina. Amy Smith is there this year who was at Missouri, and if you remember she was there when they did that awesome thing where they did their posters where they got painted like tigers! I remember I never noticed Missouri until she was there and I was like, “I really like their choreography. They’re really good on beam.” And then, I don’t know why she’s not there anymore but I think she made a huge difference. Now that she’s gone, Missouri’s not doing so great. Then again they don’t have their two super standouts that they had.

SPANNY: Right.

JESSICA: Yeah they don’t have their two standout gymnasts Adrienne and Sarah Sh- I was going to call her Sarah of the Shire, Sarah Shire, yeah they don’t have those two gymnasts but still. So anyway, Amy Smith is now at the University of North Carolina and I have just been – I watched like a whole beam rotation and I was like, “Oh my God, everyone’s working on their toes, they have really cool choreography, everything’s very finished. It’s just very good looking.” And working on their toes, no one freaking works on their toes anymore. Everybody’s all flat footed all the time. That should be a deduction, it’s so easy to work beam like that. And, also, Lena Degteva, who we did an interview with, has designed their leos this year. So I put a comparison picture up for you guys on the site of North Carolina’s leo and Yelena Mukhina wearing the same design. So it’s like a re-envisioned old Soviet leotard that they were wearing. It’s so cool, like I was just like, [GASP] “Someone who totally gets what we want to see! An homage in a leotard!” This is, uh, so I’m really liking them. They’re kind of like, I described them as if Minnesota and UCLA had a baby who turned out to be a little artist, it would be North Carolina.

SPANNY: How much fun!

JESSICA: So, I kind of like them. It’s nice to have another team that’s like Minnesota, too.

SPANNY: Yes.

JESSICA: Oh! The other thing that’s happening, if you like to vacation and you’re looking for a way to support NCAA Gymnastics, Berkeley is having – well they call themselves California which I refuse to say because that’s ridiculous – UC Berkeley are having this fundraiser where you buy raffle tickets for a cruise. It’s not that expensive and it’s a great deal, it’s like a Mediterranean cruise, 7 days. You have until sometime in April, but I was like, “Damn. I should really do that.” Because I would love to support any NCAA Gymnastics team, and I would especially love to win a Mediterranean cruise. So I put up a link for that on the site, so check that out.

SPANNY: And it’s so great to see this coming from Cal, too. Like after their struggles, and here they’re raising money, doing so well this season. That’s like a team you can get behind, you know?

JESSICA: Let’s talk – before we get into our listener feedback for the week – you know, it’s going to be Valentine’s Day tomorrow, so this is officially your Valentine’s Day show. So let’s talk about our Valentine’s Day gymnastics experiences. Spanny, ever made out in a gym?

SPANNY: Well, and by admitting this I’m not condoning this behavior, I will officially say not at the gym, because we had mostly girls at the gym and that’s not my flavor. But I did have a trampoline at my house, and I think that was a source of curiosity I guess…

JESSICA: Ha! Curiosity!

SPANNY: It’s one of those things that, I mean I was a kid, it wasn’t anything… But you’d think like, “Oh, it’s too bouncy!” Kissing kids with braces you end up with messed up lips, it’s whatever. I don’t recommend it, but…

JESSICA: [LAUGHS] Oh my God that’s the best gymnastics make out story ever. The dangers of making out on a trampoline – no braces!

SPANNY: Yeah, I had like a rec. trampoline, or the ones we have at home. I mean even the idea of laying – well, I’m not even going into that I was thinking about those trampoline beds.

JESSICA: Way more dangerous! Thank God it was only a recreational backyard trampoline! [LAUGHS] Well, I have made out at a gymnastics gym before, it was very fun. After a little adult class, and a little flirting, and yeah. Good times. Lights were all off, it was nice, it was romantic. It was snowing outside, It was very nice. But more importantly my favorite flirting Valentine’s related story is that I did have one boyfriend who I was flirting with constantly, we had a class together. Not stop flirting, flirting, nothing was happening, I was like, “Seriously dude, what is the hold up?” So it was the day of finals, and we made some ridiculous bet to get each other to commit to going out with the other one without actually asking each other on a date because we were ridiculous. So I don’t remember what the bet was or whatever, but basically there we are having a handstand contest in front of the room before our final, with all our classmates standing around watching and cheering us on. And I was like, “Of course I’m going to win, please, give me break, this poor guy has no chance,” but he thought he was athletic or whatever and he was but of course I totally dominated and the rest is history. So speaking of admirers, we did get a little bit of gym-nerd Valentine’s Day feedback on Twitter, what do you have?

SPANNY: I have a Tweet from @AlyssaNambiar, she takes it in a slightly different direction, “I’m madly in love with Afanasyeva’s choreography, my school gym’s program (go Bruins), Izbasa’s floor music. Do those count?” To which I say yes they absolutely count. I think that’s neat. I was in love with, I mean first of all Afanasyeva’s routine, that’s discussed how that’s like the best routine of the quad…

JESSICA: Yes!

SPANNY: I absolutely believe you can be in love with a routine or skills.

JESSICA: Mhmm. We support this.

SPANNY: Yeah, we do.

JESSICA: So what else is happening with listener feedback?

SPANNY: Let’s see. Pammy Anne, oh this is kind of a continuation of last week from our gym-nerd challenge to bring a friend to their first gymnastics meet. So we spoke about Pammy Anne last week going to the Kentucky meet against LSU. She wrote, “Heard my gym virginity shout out, here’s an update: my friends came back and were bummed no one [was] like Mincie at UGA” which I think is absolutely applicable. Can you imagine you think that’s the standard, or you think that’s the norm? Like, wow this really engaging routine, and then you go see… It’s like no one can live up to that.

JESSICA: No.

SPANNY: It’s such a high bar to set!

JESSICA: Yeah. That’s like a once in many years kind of floor routine. The last person I feel like that was like her was Oregon State, had a baby, and then competed the next year? I’m forgetting her name too, I can remember no one’s name!

SPANNY: Pregnancy brain.

JESSICA: No that’s you! Not me! It’s rubbing off on me!

SPANNY: But it’s true, that you see these super… there’s a difference between these routines that are absolutely performed, to the point where you forget that it’s choreography, that these are practiced steps. You see that and then you see you’re very typical ‘I’m doing this to this beat of music. Now I’m doing this’ It must be, I would think it would be a shock to see Mincie in one meet, like “Yeah, that’s what it’s all about!” to any other routine, not just Georgia. Georgia does have Noel Couch, who regardless what you think about her performance, you have to admit it’s a performance, and it’s different.

JESSICA: Right, yep.

SPANNY: So they got to see both. I thought this was hilarious. So we had our men’s Winter Cup and our very own Uncle Tim did quick hits, which were amazing and hilarious. He described from warm ups, Adrian Evans doing a high bar warm up and I will let you read it, but he did release and a thigh slap, a release, catch, thigh slap. It was hilarious, but someone had shown that quick hit to Adrian Evans who Tweeted, “Haha, is that real?” As if people wouldn’t actually write about his warm up.

JESSICA: [LAUGHS]

SPANNY: Of course Uncle Tim would, he’s Uncle Tim! And his friend [inaudible] says, “Yeah GymCastic was posting highlights from each rotation, your warm up was the only warm up to get described!” I think that’s special!

JESSICA: That totally is, I love that! I love that a lot of the gymnasts actually retweeted his quick hits and his comments about them. That’s really high praise. I think he did a great job because he mixed in his kind of humor, but he still kept it professional. But he added that special sprinkle on top of what the hardcore fans want, like a crazy warm up. We like seeing someone who does something crazy. Do you know how freakin’ scary it would be to do your giant, hop, let go, touch your thighs, and then come back down? I realize this isn’t unprecedented or anything like that but still, we like to see that stuff and talk about it.

SPANNY: Yeah.

JESSICA: He did a great job. And all the quick hits are up on the site so you guys can check it out, and he’ll be back next week to talk all about Winter Cup and all the stuff he saw.

SPANNY: And that’s why I fell in love with his site in the first place is that he presents men’s gymnastics, especially if it’s someone like myself where I can enjoy it, I don’t understand a lot of it, he presents it in a way that is entertaining, it’s informative and I want to know more. I’m actually learning when he blogs about his tutorials, or even his quick hits. I probably haven’t been paying a lot of attention to mens quick hits before, and when I read his I was like, “Oh this is interesting, I can understand what’s going on.” Yeah he uses the skill name but he also describes them in a way that would be understandable by a four year fan or an uneducated women’s gymnastics fan like myself.

JESSICA: Yep, totally. I agree wholeheartedly with the whole thing. He brings the entertainment and the education. He should just teach men’s gymnastics class. Men’s appreciation, like art appreciation, men’s gymnastics appreciation. Well I feel like that’s what his website is but with humor added too. Yep we love him, basically. [LAUGHS] That’s what we’re saying.

SPANNY: And even before the show, I’m biased now because I know him, it’s just, it was love.

JESSICA: Yes. Ok wait I have the name that I forgot before from OSU. The person I think that is like Lloimincia Hall, who you only see once in a generation – alright not a generation, but like once every ten years – is Tasha Smith, who was at OSU at Oregon and she had baby and then came back for her last year. She had that routine where she would pretend to like call somebody on the phone and then take the call and hand the phone to her teammates and then tumble. She would like pull this imaginary cord and all of her teammates would pretend like they were doing a tug-of-war with her. She’s, I feel like performance-wise, totally different than Lloimincia Hall, but her performance and the engagement and the commitment is on par with Lloimincia Hall. So that’s Tasha Smith, there you go.

SPANNY: It kind of reminds me, again it might be arguable about the actual quality of it, but Abby Stack from Georgia.

JESSICA: Yeah.

SPANNY: That routine, granted I featured it heavily in the weird choreography montage, that said the fact that she pulled off pretending to drive in her routine, and I want to say she pretends to die at the end or something?

JESSICA: And then pretending to do the slow motion run.

SPANNY: Yes!

JESSICA: Commitment, performance.

SPANNY: Yes! Almost a performance of art, it is different, it’s engaging, it’s memorable that’s for sure. There’s something to say whether you loved it or hate it! It’s a routine you remember.

JESSICA: Word. Okay cool. Two other things that I have really quickly are that I had my rant about all these pink fight cancer meets, and so I just wanted to give a shout out to all the meets who are really doing something, and who are either proactively educating their fans about self exams and prevention, or who are actually using their event to raise money to put towards the fund. Our unofficial fact checker Dannell on Twitter pointed out to me on Alabama, and I think Alabama actually started this because they had an ex-gymnast who was diagnosed with breast cancer, they actually have a fund, and a golf tournament, and they work with Toyota locally, so they really are putting money towards research to end this terrible disease. And because we also want to do something to educate our listeners, and because we care so deeply about breasts, we’ve added something special for you on the website. Not only is it an educational self exam video that we hope you will enjoy very much, and there’s an app that you can download. I had to put two videos up because one wasn’t enough because they are very, very enjoyable. So be sure to check those out, and then be sure to follow the instructions, don’t just enjoy the video and sit there. No, no, no. You have to do what they do in the video, and give yourself that self exam because prevention is key.
–

JESSICA: Lastly, so today is Tuesday, the show will be released on Wednesday, and today the IOC came out with the news that they have voted to drop wrestling from the gymnastics, from gymnastics? I just said drop wrestling from gymnastics.

SPANNY: [LAUGHS] I knew where you were going.

JESSICA: [LAUGHS] Right? See I’m connecting the dots ahead of myself. So the IOC voted to take wrestling out of the Olympics in 2020, that means the last time wrestling will be in the Olympics is 2016 in Rio. So you can see where I’m going with this already. Do not ever take your sports position in the Olympics or it’s popularity ever, ever, ever for granted. Wrestling, like gymnastics, is one of the original sports, the ancient sports that were in the Olympics, not just from the modern restarting of the Olympics in the 20′s but the ancient sport. So if they’re getting rid of wrestling now, what does this mean for men’s gymnastics? Men’s gymnastics isn’t bringing in the money and the sponsors and selling out the way women’s gymnastics is. Don’t ever take our sport and where it is for granted. Use everything you can to promote the sport and try to keep it as popular as you can make it, because money should not come into play – and this whole thing makes me so mad I could talk about this forever, but I won’t – I mean why does pentathlon and their pentathlon? Oh that’s right, because there’s so many people who run around with rifles on the back of their luxury steeds that they have to have shipped in months ahead of time to acclimate that are only purebreds and that’s why there are so many mongolian tribes who win the Olympics for pentathlon. Totally pissing me off. I’m sure money doesn’t have anything to do with it anyway. So what I have to say is in the worlds of Mad Eye Moody, constant vigilance.

SPANNY: Mhmm.

JESSICA: Do not take anything for granted. Be a guardian of our sport, in whatever that means to you, be a guardian of the sport. And be an ambassador of our sport.

SPANNY: I think too, and I myself am so guilty of this all the time, is that its so easy to focus on the negatives of the sport, all we do is complain, all we do is trash Bruno Grandi, and all we do is talk about everything negative. The IOC is listening, with wrestling they see the federation, they see how corrupt things are. I’m not saying it’s the fans that create this corruption or create this illusion that this corruption is there, it’s not. Everything thats happening with wrestling right now, like you say it could be gymnastics in eight years, in twenty years, however many years. I think we need to remember that this is a sport we all love, that’s why we’re either writing about it, listening to our podcast, watching it, performing it, studying it. That we need to be advocates for the sport, and actually be like, “Oh, this is worth watching and being a fan of, and pouring our money into, or maintaining a spot in the Olympics that’s going to go to golf or some other…”

JESSICA: Richie Rich sport.

SPANNY: Yeah, that doesn’t care about, like the Olympics is not their pinnacle.

JESSICA: Mhmm. I totally agree. Very well put.

SPANNY: Thank you.
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ALLISON TAYLOR: This episode is brought to you by Elite Sportz Band. EliteSportzBand.com: We’ve got your back.

JESSICA: Visit EliteSportzBand.com, that’s sports with a z, and save $5 on your next purchase with the code: Gymcast
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JESSICA: Next week, we have something extremely exciting happening, 2004 Olympic Gold Medalist Kyle Shewfelt from Canada will be with us. He will be guest hosting and we will be doing an interview with him. Uncle Tim will be back to report on the boys from the Winter Cup, well not the boys but you know, from the meet. We’re also going to talk about Elite Canada, that meet just happened this weekend, or as I like to call it the ‘NCAA Fantasy Draft’ meet. Tell us who you would like to draft from that meet, I have many names in mind. We’re do excited to have Kyle on the show, and if you guys don’t know he’s a commentator for Canadian TV, so he’s the commentator for the Olympics and he is awesome. So can’t wait to have him on the show, he’s a great guy, has a couple of books out, too, which everyone should check out. So remember out gym-nerd challenge of the month, take someones gymnastics meet virginity. Take your friend to their first gymnastics meet, it could be anything, a little kids meet, an NCAA meet, whatever. We featured pictures on the website of other people who sent their meet pictures in, so send us some of yours. Remember that you can support the show by shopping on Amazon through our website, or checking out the Powell’s Bookstore shop on the website, you can rate us on iTunes. You know what would be awesome? If you guys would rate us on iTunes, and make it a Valentine. A Valentine to GymCastic. That would be a great Valentine’s gift for us.

SPANNY: Yes, a free Valentine.

JESSICA: A free Valentine’s gift. No getting ripped off by the restaurant, or a $20 box of choclate that ends up being nasty and really you’re just paying for the heart shaped box. Free. I love this idea. We would love that, a Valentine’s review on iTunes. You can also download the Stitcher app and check that out, you can contact us at GymCastic@gmail.com. We love hearing your feedback and getting ideas from you, positive or negative we read everything and it’s important for us to hear what you want us to talk about. You can also leave us a message by calling 415-800-3191 or calling us on Skype, our username is GymnasticsPodcast. Just leave your name, try to keep it under 60 seconds, and tell us where you’re calling from. For Masters-Gymnastics.com, I’m Jessica O’Beirne.

SPANNY: Spanny Tampson from Spanny’s Big Fake Smile.

[[OUTRO MUSIC -"Nine Years Later" by Born Against ]]

Episode 19 Transcript
ANDREEA: Actually it was not my job to know what I have to take for my headache.
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[[“Express Yourself” Intro Music]]

JESSICA: This week, we talk to ex-Olympic champion from Sydney 2000 Andreea Raducan about her new book, and what we’re thankful for in NCAA gymnastics.

JESSICA: This is episode 19 for February 6, 2013. I’m Jessica.

SPANNY: I’m Spanny Tampson

UNCLE TIM: I’m Uncle Tim

JESSICA: And this is the best and only gymnastics podcast in the universe. And we are going to do something different today, we’re going to go right into our interview with Andreea Raducan, and we’ll do NCAA review after that. Here it comes.
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[[INTERVIEW SEGMENT]]

JESSICA: So before we start the interview, let’s go back in time for a minute to the 2000 Olympics. So Khorkina had won the 95 and 97 World Championships in the all around. She’d been European champion leading up to the Games. Everybody thought this was her Games. The meet starts, the all around final starts, Khorkina is leading, she had won prelims. She goes to vault, the vault is set at the wrong height, no one realizes it, she falls, dreams dashed, it’s over. Everyone thought she was a sure winner. She’s out now. She goes to bars, she’s clearly totally distraught, falls on bars again, her best event. And then Raducan went on to vault with the vault at the wrong height and did fine. Fast forward, the Australian gymnast told everybody, “Hey the vault’s at the wrong height, let’s fix it.” It’s fixed. Everyone is allowed to vault again if they had already vaulted. But of course the damage was already done. Khorkina had already gone on to bars and competed on bars and had fallen. They didn’t change the rules to say, “Hey if you’ve already started on another event and done badly because your dreams and hopes were dashed by the vault being at the wrong height, then you can do the second event over again too.” They just let people repeat the vault. So that started the whole sham that was the 2000 Olympics in Sydney. So that is the history behind this. Raducan of course went on to win. She qualified for an event final. And then we find out that the doctor had given her medication the night before the all around finals, and it had ephedrine in it, or pseudoephedrine. And that is a banned substance. And so her medal was taken away from her. And so Simona Amanar then became the Olympic champion. So that is the background upon which this interview takes place. And that’s the background that Andreea Raducan wrote her book about, which is out now. And you can buy it in English finally. The other thing I want to mention is that it’s not often that we get to hear from one of our foreign Olympic champions in English. So even though this is not her native language, English, but she does a really good job. And for anybody that speaks another language, you guys will identify with this. That, you know, sometimes it’s hard, when you first start speaking another language, you need a little bit of time to warm up and start getting into the fluency of the language. So the beginning of the interview is a little bit rough. And then she warms up, and she warms up to us, and she gets more comfortable speaking English, and it gets better and better as it goes on. And with that, I’ll let Uncle Tim take it from here. I hope you guys enjoy it as much as we did.

UNCLE TIM: 2000 Olympic all around team and gold medalist Andreea Raducan is one of the most recognized and loved figures in the gymnastics lexicon. After heartbreak in Sydney when she was stripped of her Olympic all around gold medal in one of the most controversial competitions ever, Andreea continued training and had success at the 2001 World Championships. Today she enjoys the fame of an Olympic champion and works as a sports journalist. Her book, The Other Side of the Medal, is available now, and she’ll tell us how we can get it. Andreea, it’s a pleasure to have you on the show. So one question that we always ask our guests is, is there a question you wish someone would ask you? And, is there one for you?

ANDREEA: Oh, I don’t think there is a question that I didn’t answer. Many questions about when I was a little girl and got to do gymnastics, and today when I speak about my life after my career or about my projects. So it’s hard to say. [laughs]

UNCLE TIM: Ok, so let’s back to when you were a little girl. Can you tell us how you started gymnastics? Were you selected? Or did you choose to start doing gymnastics? Could you tell us a little bit about that?

ANDREEA: Oh actually, my dad was a sports fan. And he brought me to the gym. He played soccer during his childhood, and he loved sports. In fact, I was the most [inaudible] child in the building when I grew up. So my parents one day, they said, “Ok, it’s time to do something.” And they chose my way of life, and I started to do gymnastics when I was four years old.

UNCLE TIM: And where did you start doing gymnastics?

ANDREEA: Oh in my hometown, Barlad. It’s a small town in [the] southeast part of Romania.

UNCLE TIM: Ok, and how did you end up going to Deva?

ANDREEA: Oh, later when I was almost 14 years old, yeah they selected me and I talked with my parents. They told me about the training camps. So I would go to stay without them. So it was pretty difficult at the beginning, but I love very much gymnastics. And I say, “Ok, this is my way, so I have to go. And I want to go.”

UNCLE TIM: Ok. And while you were growing up in Romania, which gymnast did you idolize?

ANDREEA: In that time, we don’t have access to the many information about our gymnasts like how [it is] today. But everybody heard about Nadia Comaneci. And my father used to read me from a book about Nadia. So I can say that she was my role model. Then I love Daniela Silivas, Lavinia Milosovici. We have a lot of famous gymnasts in Romania.

UNCLE TIM: Ok. And while you were training at Deva, you mentioned that it was pretty difficult. Could you describe a typical day at your gym?

ANDREEA: It was… it’s pretty difficult to understand from somebody with a normal life maybe. We wake up at 7:00 every day, have breakfast, then go to school. And there was an agreement between the gymnastics federation – the Romanian Gymnastics Federation – and the school. And we were part of a special class, following a special schedule. You know, only a few classes every day, between 7 hours of training. And we enjoyed that it was scheduled [inaudible]. The school classes were from 8am to 2pm. But for the rest of the time we were taught only the most important things in life. Everybody was taught that sports was our priority, and not just in sport. High performance means a very strict program, the same program week after week, year after year. The first training session began at 10am, and ending at 1:30pm. Between, we had lunch, and then there was time to rest a little bit before training again. That lasts from 5pm until 8:30pm. After that we had dinner, we had therapy, then we had to do our homework, and the next day [was] the same program. It was not so easy, but it was a different life. Not easy, but very special and very interesting.

UNCLE TIM: Ok. And just to clarify, could you talk a little bit more about what you said when you were talking about “we were taught that sports were the most important thing in life?” What did you mean by that?

ANDREEA: You know, when I started gymnastics at the age of 4, I had no idea how important sports was. I was prepared by my father who knew just what he wanted for his child. And sports became a way of life for me. Now I realize that it fit me so well that whatever else I will do, I would have liked to do, would have probably been in vain. I don’t know exactly. Isn’t easy to say what I can be today without sports. It was the most important thing in my life until, I don’t know, 20 years old.

UNCLE TIM: Ok. I see what you mean. And could you tell us a little bit about the training schedule at Deva. Did you spend a lot of time doing dance? Did you spend a lot of time doing strength exercises? Could you tell us a little bit about that?

ANDREEA: Yeah you know, we have choreography in the morning. Conditioning in the afternoon. Events in the morning and in the afternoon. It was the same schedule every single day. I don’t know exactly how to explain, because we start with bars in the morning. Actually choreography then beam, floor, vault. And then in the afternoon we have the same program.

UNCLE TIM: Ok. And as you were going about these events, what were your coaches like? Obviously in America the one we know the most is Octavian Bellu. What was he like?

ANDREEA: Oh yeah. In my gymnastics career, I had two sets of wonderful parents. My birth parents, whom I spent my early years with, and my coaches. Mariana Bitang, with whom I spent 360 days a year. So at the beginning I knew the coaches from TV and from competition, but I had an extraordinary relationship with them. And today as well. They say [inaudible] for each of us. I think these two coaches are the perfect example of that. Their communication was amazing in everything they did. Whether they were in the gym for training or during a competition, they were true professionals dedicated to their work. They tried to pass these qualities onto us. And I think they knew that they were born for that, for these things. So if I could be born again [laughs], choose to be a gymnast, and have Mrs. Mariana and Mr. Bellu as my coaches, they provided light to all my paths and made me one of the best gymnasts in the world.

UNCLE TIM: Aww. Well it sounds like they were very important influences in your life, so that’s great.

ANDREEA: For sure. For sure.

UNCLE TIM: At this point I’m going to pass you over to Blythe, who’s going to talk a little bit more about the 2000 Olympics with you.

BLYTHE: Thank you Uncle Tim. Andreea, what I would like to ask you is, when you think about the Olympics when you were a young girl, when did it feel that it was possible for you to go to the Olympics? When did you start beginning to have the dream that you could one day go to the Olympics?

ANDREEA: Oh, when I started to do gymnastics, I didn’t know many things about the Olympic Games. I was just a girl 4 years old who just liked to play. Then after that, everything goes out. This was very difficult, very different. Because we start[ed] to train very serious with our coaches. They tried to [tell] us that if we wanted to do [the] performance, we had to be in the gym every single day. And it’s hard to understand this way, if you like it. And actually I think it’s better to think and to have the things step by step and nothing more.

BLYTHE: And the Olympics was the final step for you in this journey in gymnastics?

ANDREEA: No actually it was the most important competition, the Olympic Games. But the last important one was the Worlds in 2001. In Ghent, after the Olympic Games. But indeed, the most important competition I think for every athlete is the Olympic Games of course.

BLYTHE: Did your coaches talk about the Olympics when you were preparing in the gym?

ANDREEA: Yes, of course. We talk[ed] about that. And I knew ahead of time that I had to be confident. I had no doubt that I was very well trained. I never said, you know, before the competition, “If I do better than the Russian I will be a champion.” I only knew that if I did my job well, I could be a champion. And I tried to do my best all the time. They taught me that. And they tried to explain [to] us which things are important to become a champion. To be the best.

BLYTHE: I see. One thing that was always impressive about your performances is that you always seemed like a fearless competitor. And we were wondering if there were any skills that were scary or difficult for you to learn, and if there were any skills that scared you when you competed them?

ANDREEA: Actually not really. As I [said] before, I just know to focus and to be confident. I always was very very well trained, so… I have to say that I don’t like the bars. I never liked the bars. But you know for all around final, you want to do bars too. But it’s not a big problem with that, because, as I [said], I love gymnastics and I love the competition all the time. It was the most important moment for us. You know, we go to the training every day. Every day. And when the competition starts you have to be in a good mood and to try to do your best.

BLYTHE: Yes. And at the Sydney Olympic Games, one thing that people remember – of course there are several things that people remember about gymnastics at those Games – but what people do remember most is that the height of the vaulting horse for the vault was set too low for about half of the competition. And you went on vault during that part of the competition when it was set too low. But you did two very good vaults. It did not seem to affect you very much. And you were able to take very good landings. And did you notice, at the time, that the vaulting horse seemed a little bit lower?

ANDREEA: Oh yeah. I was one of the gymnasts who jumped lower than the requirement of the horse. And yeah [laughs], it was pretty weird to see that could happen at the most important competitions, the Olympic Games. And I can remember my coach set the springboard for me exactly the way I like it. But [I] still had the feeling that I punched the horse from too high, position that I wasn’t hitting it normally. And I saw the girls repeating and failing, and it was really odd. In this condition, I was able to perform my jumps really well. But it was really strange. We tried to understand what happened because, you know, gymnast after gymnast [went] down. And we were very well trained and we [went] to the Olympic Games. Too many mistakes, something was wrong there [laughs].

BLYTHE: In retrospect, do you think that the meet officials handled the situation with the vault well? Do you think that there was anything that might have been done to improve the situation?

ANDREEA: Oh, after the competition [had] ended, all the gymnasts from those two fields who jumped lower were allowed to perform the vault again. But you know, this was [inaudible]. Mentally they were affected by the failed landings from earlier. It’s hard to say that they could do something for their mistake.

BLYTHE: Yes, of course. At what point during this competition did you realize that you could win? That you could be number one?

ANDREEA: Oh [laughs] before [I started] my exercise on the floor, it was my last event in the competition. The all around final. And Mr. Bellu told me to be focused and what I had to do was perform without any mistakes. And I smiled and started. But I did not imagine my whole exercise. I think everybody knew from the monitors that I could be the new Olympic champion if I did not fail. I had no idea about all, but Mr. Bellu was moving around the floor while I performed line after line. And I did a good exercise. And when I finished my routine, the audience was on fire, you know? And I knew it’s good, it’s something good. I did a good exercise, and yeah, it was a sign of my victory. I knew that I would be on the podium, so I was overwhelmed.

BLYTHE: It was a wonderful performance, and a wonderful performance for Simona and Maria as well. Did the three of you ever think that it was possible that you could be 1,2,3 like that on the podium at the Olympic Games?

ANDREEA: Oh no [laughs] I don’t think so. I think it was the most important, beautiful moment for Romanian gymnastics history I guess. So, we were so happy and we couldn’t believe that we did such an important performance. But, yeah it was something very very very special for us and for our coaches. To have three girls and all of them to be on [the] podium I think is impressive, really impressive.

BLYTHE: Very impressive, especially after winning the Team title as well. So you got to stand up there twice. What did Nadia say to you after the competition? Because you were the first since Nadia to become the Olympic All-Around Champion, and it was a very special moment. Did you get to talk to her after that?

ANDREEA: Oh yes, she was with us all the time and she supported me and she supported my teammates. You know, she was my role model so when she was beside me I was really happy and I just [said] “thank you so much Nadia, we appreciate that you are here with us.” It was such a nice moment for me and [the] delegation, and our team.

BLYTHE: Yes, it was a wonderful moment. But before the competition, and this would become important later, you didn’t feel very good and so the doctor gave you some medicine?

ANDREEA: Yes, I [told] my doctor, that you know I have a headache, “I’m not feeling very well” I said. He gave me a pill, but it was really strange because I didn’t understand anything. I just talked to my doctor, [told] him about my problem and I go to the Hall for the competition, I got ready and that’s all.

BLYTHE: Absolutely. As an athlete, that’s just your job. Were you taught about banned drugs, or told to read the labels of any medication you took, anything like that?

ANDREEA: We were a team and actually it was not my job to know what I have to take for my headache. I was a gymnast and I had to do what I knew best to do, and I guess I did that. Anyway I didn’t want to appear as a [cheater] but I had to declare that I didn’t understand how I got into this, because I haven’t done anything but my job as a gymnast. It was really strange and it’s pretty difficult to remember today those moments. After I finished the All-Around final, we got down from the podium, we were so happy after one of the best performances in the history [of Romanian gymnastics], and then I was asked to take a drug test. I stayed with the team doctor, he mentioned all the pills I had taken [inaudible] one time for inflammation, and one other thing for my headache. It started the nightmare for me. Actually you have to read the book, and you will understand everything about what I was thinking and feeling at that moment.

BLYTHE: Yes. I look forward very much to reading the book, but when did you find out that you had tested positive for the banned substance?

ANDREEA: Actually right before the vault final. Before the beam and floor-sorry. Yes, we finished the All-Around final after one day, we had the vault final, so I got another medal, the silver on the vault. Then we prepared for beam and floor. A member of our team came to Mr. Bellu and told him that we have a problem. “Oh my God, what kind of problem?” “I don’t know because Andreea Raducan [doesn't] have to go to the gym because she [tested] positive.” “What?!” Everybody was shocked and just had many questions because we didn’t understand. “I don’t know, maybe I [ate] something, [drank] something, I don’t know.” It was awful. Then my teammates were going to the gym and I stayed in the Olympic Village waiting for the answer, I don’t know exactly. I was just shocked and tried to calm down and to [inaudible]. Yeah, it was pretty difficult.

BLYTHE: Yes, and did the team doctor say anything after the test came back positive?

ANDREEA: No, there was nothing left to say. After I’ve been heard by many commissions and in the end he has been banned from two different countries Olympic teams. And, yeah, he admitted he’s guilty and now it’s not very nice, but you know.

BLYTHE: It sounds like it was horrible, Andreea. And our hearts go out to you and you have so many fans around the world who felt, oh my goodness it was just such an injustice and I remember watching it and just thinking how horrible because it was such a beautiful performance and you absolutely deserved the gold medal. We have heard some rumors afterwards in the US. Is it true that Simona Amanar gave you her gold medal?

ANDREEA: Oh, no! [LAUGHS] No, no. The medal [belongs] to her. She says that she [doesn't] want this medal, that it belongs to me. But she has to accept no matter, however, for Romania. We are just fine. We don’t have a problem. We are not at a supermarket, “you can keep it then give me the medal…”, no. No, no, no. We are just fine and it’s not even a problem with that. So she has the gold medal.

BLYTHE: And after the Olympic Games, was it hard to keep training? After this nightmare had happened to you, did you think about just retiring and saying, “I’m done.”

ANDREEA: Oh it was pretty hard because most of my teammates started quitting gymnastics, and I tried to think about what I had to do to set my plans for the Worlds in Ghent, Belgium. Maybe everybody thought I was not prepared or I’m afraid for another big competition after Sydney. I was just fine. In Belgium I met again the same opponents that I did in Sydney. It was important that I did. That gave me the opportunity to show the whole world again what I’m capable [of doing]. For me it was the best competition with three gold medals and two bronze. I was just very, very overwhelmed with my younger teammates and with my coaches, with everybody, gymnasts from other countries. Everybody support[ed] me and sent me messages. It was just wonderful, wonderful.

BLYTHE: That’s lovely. And then after that World Championships in Ghent, can you tell us what happened then and what led to you retiring definitively from gymnastics, and then making that decision?

ANDREEA: Actually that was in December 2002, I just decided to say stop and to look for what I had to do in the future. There were some problems, it was difficult because everybody seemed to think better to become a coach when you finish your career. And I said okay I want to, it’s probably easier way for many gymnasts or athletes, but I said I want to do something else, something different. I’m very happy because I’m being part of the sport family. Now I’m working with the Romanian Olympic Foundation, and I’m working as a sports journalist, I really love it. Never say never, maybe one day I’ll be a coach, but not today, and maybe not next year. And it’s not very easy, but now it’s fine and I’m doing what I like to do and I think that’s the most important thing.

BLYTHE: Most people think that you should have the gold medal back that you won in the All-Around competition. We heard that there are some things that would have to happen in order for that decision to be reversed and for you to be reinstated as the rightful gold medalist in the 2000 Olympic Games in the All-Around competition, can you tell us about that process and what would need to be done for that to happen and if you plan to continue to try to make that happen?

ANDREEA: Maybe if one day I [thought] it was the right moment to do something for that, for sure I’ll do that. But for the moment I’m just fine and trying to do what I have to do. And I’m just very happy because when I launched the book in [the] Romanian language a lot of people from other countries asked me to translate the book in English because they wanted to read about my story and find out everything. These are the things that really, really touched me and impressed me. I’m very happy that they [haven't] forgotten me. I don’t know maybe one day I’ll think it’s the right moment to ask somebody about my medal from the Olympics in 2000, yeah I’ll do that. For now, it’s okay.

BLYTHE: If you decided to do that you would have the support of the whole world in gymnastics, I think. They would be behind you for that.

ANDREEA: They are beside me and I really appreciate that.

BLYTHE: Yeah. And now we have just a few more questions for you, but we realize that you only said half an hour please and now we have already had 35 minutes. Would it be possible to ask you just a few more questions, or do you have to go?

ANDREEA: It’s okay, it’s okay. It’s just fine. I hope you are understanding because my English is pretty poor. I don’t know if you can do something but I will try to do my best.

BLYTHE: Ahh, your English is wonderful!

ANDREEA: Come on, I know it’s not. [LAUGHS] I know it’s not.

BLYTHE: Ahh, no I completely disagree! English is not an easy language to learn. How did you learn English, by the way?

ANDREEA: In the gym hall at the competition, a little bit in the school when I was younger, but we had a lot of problems with the grammar. We spoke in the gyms but nobody told me, “You have to speak better” or “This is not the correct…”, and yeah. With my friends I can speak in English, but it’s not a good one for interviews. It’s pretty difficult because, you know, they need to understand and to hear exactly what you have to [say] and when you don’t speak [English very well], it’s a problem. So we can do this part in Romanian if you want. I’m just joking.

BLYTHE: [LAUGHS] I think you would find my Romanian is appalling.

ANDREEA: Oh, come on!

BLYTHE: Maybe another day. [LAUGHS]

ANDREEA: Why not?!

BLYTHE: Why not! Sure! [LAUGHS]

ANDREEA: I can teach you a few words. So no problem!

BLYTHE: I know how to say thank you. I learned how to say thank you.

ANDREEA: Multumesc.

BLYTHE: Multumesc.

ANDREEA: Perfect. Good!

BLYTHE: That’s all. And so sometimes when we interview gymnasts they say to us that it is hard for them after they stop doing gymnastics to adjust to life after that because the routine is so different, the things you do every day are very different. We were wondering if that was true for you, too?

ANDREEA: Not really. Everything was so different when I quit my career and I had to think about what I had to do now. Gee, I stopped my career, not gymnastics anymore but what [do] I have to do? And I don’t want to be a coach, but what can I do to be, not at the same level of a gymnast, but to do something that I like to do, and to do in a good way. I start[ed] to finish my school, and I went with Romanian Television to the Olympics in 2004 in Athens, and I was there as the reporter and commentator for Romanian Television and I said okay, that sounds cool maybe I can be a journalist and I started to study a little bit. I have a masters degree in Journalism, it was different, but I like it very much. I told you, you can never say never. Maybe someday I’ll be a coach, but for now I like very much what I’m doing at the Romanian Olympic Foundation to promote sports and to support ex athletes, with [their] kind of problems. My work as a sports journalist, it’s just fine, I love it. I don’t know, maybe after one year or two years I’ll do something different. But for the moment I’m very [happy] with that.

UNCLE TIM: Alright, so you mentioned you’re working as a sport journalist and something in the United States that we’ve heard about Romanian gymnasts is that after they retire from the sport that the Romanian government gives them an apartment and a pension, so kind of a salary to keep them going. Is that true?

ANDREEA: Actually, only the Olympic Champions have a pension, not an apartment actually. They get some money and gifts for the athletes, we had no apartments after the Olympic Games. But yes they [inaudible] to support the Olympians and of course I had too, after I had my medal from the Olympic Games and from World Championships, but no to the apartment for the athletes.

UNCLE TIM: Okay, and to conclude I have a few questions about Romanian gymnastics today. So I’m curious what are your thoughts about the current state of gymnastics in Romania as we’re looking ahead to 2016. Does it look like Romania will be very strong over the next four years, or is there some worries? What are your thoughts?

ANDREEA: Of course as a Romanian gymnast, ex or former gymnast, I want for my team [is] the best. I hope they have a strong team for the next four years and also for Rio. Yeah it’s not very easy because sometimes we change the generation, and maybe the coaches, and a lot of things, so it’s hard to say but our federation, the Romanian Gymnastics Federation is trying to find a good way for our athletes, girls and boys. I’m sure that we’ll have a good team in the future as well.

UNCLE TIM: Okay, and what do you think about some of the retirements that have been happening lately? I believe that Haidu, is that how you pronounce her name, retired recently?

ANDREEA: Yeah, Raluca Haidu and Diana Chelaru, they have some problems, medical problems I guess. But it’s their choice, you have to do gymnastics [only] if you want to do [it], if you’re thinking “enough” and “you can’t do it anymore” it’s better to say “Stop” and “Okay, thank you” and it’s very important to stop when you think that you have to do that.

UNCLE TIM: Ok. And earlier in the interview you mentioned that you did not like uneven bars at all and something that we’re very interested in is the fact that Romanian gymnasts are going to start using grips on bars. And do you think that will help them with their performances on the apparatus?

ANDREEA: Oh we had grips until today. Depends exactly. It’s really expensive maybe for each club in Romania being able to buy these grips. But I know they use them today. Depends maybe from gymnast to gymnast. I tried to work with grips but I never [could] do that. So, you know, our best events are beam and floor, but its ok to vault and it’ll be ok I’m sure on bars.

UNCLE TIM: Yes and we’ve always admired the Romanians on beam and floor and vault so we look forward to 2016 to see what’s in store for us in the future. And we know that you will be traveling around the US. Where can your fans find your schedule and book signing events?

ANDREEA: We have launched the book in Las Vegas at the Lady Luck Gymnastics Tournament and then we’ll go to Arizona State, and that’s all for the moment. Then we’ll go to New York but just for holiday. Maybe one day we will be back in the USA to promote the book, to talk with the little girls, little gymnasts, and the coaches. Just for the moment we have California, San Francisco, and Arizona.

UNCLE TIM: Our final question is where can listeners buy the book? Can we buy it online or do we actually have to go to the book event?

ANDREEA: Of course the book event, but you can order on my website. It’s www.andreearaducan.ro. I have the Facebook page facebook.com/andreearaducanofficial. They can find my information over there. I think in a few days you maybe can find the book on Amazon as well.

UNCLE TIM: Great! All right, well that’s it for us. And thank you so much for coming on our show and for speaking with us. We loved having you.

ANDREEA: Thank you so much for your support. Maybe one day we can meet. I really appreciate everything. Thank you so much.

BLYTHE: Thank you, Andreea. Multumesc!

[[INTERVIEW CONCLUDES]]
–

BLYTHE: What a warm, wonderful, open personality…

JESSICA: Yes!

BLYTHE: …she has after all that has happened to her. Oh my gosh.

JESSICA: Exactly! I just felt really… I felt for her so much more through this. I really started to get teary when she was talking about her coaches which I didn’t expect at all. And then when she was talking about the whole process when they told her she had tested positive, it was much more emotional for me than I thought. And I think it is exactly what you’re saying Blythe. She’s just a total sweetie!

BLYTHE: Yeah. Yeah it takes something to take an experience like that and be able to move on and actually be able to keep a positive outlook on everything. Don’t you think?

UNCLE TIM: Yeah I totally agree. And she basically said, “Yeah for now it’s ok. Maybe someday if the time is right, I will pursue my gold medal, getting back my gold medal. But for now, it’s ok.” I think if I were in that situation, I would totally be a bitter, bitter person with a lot of baggage and going through therapy. It would be a disaster. But, I was just impressed.

BLYTHE: I like how when we asked if Simona Amanar gave her her gold medal she laughed and she was like “No! Of course not!”

JESSICA: She was like “It’s not like a grocery store.” I was cracking up! That is one of the oldest, most long standing urban gymnastics myths of all time. We’re going to have to come up with a new name for that. They’re gym myths or something. Instead of urban myths. They’re pit myths. I was totally like oh that’s what everyone thinks happened! We’re all wrong!

BLYTHE: I remember reading that like somebody crafted her a gold medal and gave it to her. But of course, it’s not quite the same thing.

JESSICA: It’s interesting too the whole pension and apartment thing. I bet that’s like two different countries. It’s Russia where you get an apartment. It’s China where you get a pension, everything gets mixed into one. But she said it’s only for Olympic medalists. So basically, she’s not on the pension plan.

BLYTHE: She would be.

JESSICA: Oh, for Worlds.

BLYTHE: The whole team was Olympic champions. So she’d be a gold medalist in that regard.

JESSICA: Oh that’s true because that was before. It was just all around and event finals.

BLYTHE: Right. They didn’t strip her of the team gold medal. I remember watching the floor final in Sydney. She…oh what did she do? She stepped out of bounds or something like that. Whatever it was, it cost her a medal. Maybe even she fell. And now, having talked to her, I want to go back and watch that performance and think about my God what must’ve been going through your head. You know somebody has come and told you, “Andreea has tested positive and nobody knows what’s going on,” and what that would mean. And then you have to go out and do your whole floor routine again.

JESSICA: And speaking of her floor routine, I was totally surprised when she was talking about how she knew that Bellu was running around the floor while she was doing her floor routine. That’s like very… just that she was that aware of what was happening around her while she was doing that incredible performance. You hear some talk about when they perform and they blank out about everything around them and some people take it all in. And she seems like one that really took it all in.

BLYTHE: Yeah and she just seemed very calm about the situation. She was like, “Yes I knew if I finished I would be on the podium. I’d done my job and it was great.” Just a very healthy approach to it. Never did she say, “This was everything in my life. It was this or just horror.” She did her job and she was very well prepared and it was a great moment. Yeah! How nice!

JESSICA: I really liked that you asked about the vault situation. Because it was an interesting answer that she gave. It was kind of like my coach knew something was wrong. I could tell something was wrong. I thought I was hitting the board in the wrong place. And you could see that. Because you’re never going to think that the vault is too low.

BLYTHE: Yeah she said she felt like she was coming onto the horse very high. Didn’t she?

JESSICA: Mhmm.

BLYTHE: And she would

JESSICA: Right.

BLYTHE: …if the horse is 2-3 inches lower or it was. Yeah she would have more preflight than she thought and would probably be like huh. That’s a bit odd. I haven’t changed anything but I feel like I’m a bit high on the horse. I think the answer to the question that you posed, Jess, was that basically she was short. You know?

JESSICA: Mhmm

BLYTHE: And probably when you are that size, you can just sort of flip yourself over and get around. Whereas someone like Khorkina, you know,

JESSICA: No chance.

BLYTHE: …that would have made a huge difference. Yeah no way.

UNCLE TIM: Yeah and she was only doing a half twist with her

JESSICA: Right.

UNCLE TIM: …post flight so that makes

BLYTHE: Totally

UNCLE TIM: …it a little different.

JESSICA: What did you guys think about when she was talking about the doctor? Ooh.

BLYTHE: I thought that was a very honest answer. There was nothing to say. What did he say to you? Well at that point, what can you say?

UNCLE TIM: Well it was, yeah she was just very honest. I thought it was also interesting that she said reading the labels wasn’t my job. My job was to just go out and be a gymnast.

JESSICA: Yeah.

UNCLE TIM: And, you know, that was somebody else’s fault. And so, it was interesting. I guess when you’re a gymnast you don’t think, “Oh I need to read the label on everything.” You think, “Yeah my trainer is going to make sure that he or she doesn’t give me anything that is going to affect my performance or is on the banned substance list.”

JESSICA: Yeah I mean, the thing that she said when she was like yeah he admitted it. That was very telling I thought that she phrased it that way. Not that she has a bazillion words in her huge English lexicon to pick from but it was that he admitted what he did. It was his fault. I mean, that was his job. I mean I know in some ways we are taught so much that it’s the American athletes like, you have to know what’s going in your body. You have to be responsible for that. But you also, at some point, have to trust the people around you. And you would never think that your trainer would do that to you.

UNCLE TIM: I was just gonna say something else that I thought was interesting is that you know growing up, you kind of associate the Russian training story with the Romanian training story with the Chinese training story and they all just become one giant mess. They all were plucked out of a playground when they were four years old and they were all unhappy and living in terrible conditions. But it sounds like her story was very different. Her dad was somebody who put her into gymnastics and for the most part, she seemed happy. And unlike Lena’s experience at Round Lake, it sounds like she actually had a decent education as well.

JESSICA: I like how she talked about even though Amanar didn’t just give her the medal, that they’re all cool. This doesn’t have anything to do with them as people and it doesn’t affect their relationship. This is something that happened in a situation. There’s no Mean Girls stuff going on. And that seems very mature and also something you’d expect from women who’ve grown up together and respect each other.

BLYTHE: Yeah, absolutely.

JESSICA: One thing I want to mention is a lot of people bring up who should have rightful ownership of that gold medal. It should have really been Khorkina because Khorkina was the one that was really screwed over. How does Raducan not talk about Khorkina? How does she not feel compassion for her and this and that? We didn’t ask Raducan about Khorkina in this interview because Raducan and Khorkina have nothing to do with each other. Raducan’s job was not to look around the arena and see how other people were doing and take care of them. She was there to compete. She did her job. She did her thing. It was not up to her to affect the outcome of other people’s performances or to make sure the IOC was doing their freaking job. That’s always kind of bothered me. I just had to get that off my chest. Yes, we totally agree and we understand what happened at Sydney was a travesty and the fact that Khorkina had to do bars before she was allowed to do her vault over is one of the saddest and biggest injustices ever in gymnastics. And we all know that she probably would have won had the vault thing not happened to her, but that has nothing to do with Raducan. She did her gymnastics and that’s what we asked her about. Ok.

BLYTHE: And just in addition to that, the point I wanted to make is Khorkina did bars before she even knew that there was a problem with the vault and that she might be able to vault again. And so I’ve just always kind of thought if she had been able to look around the arena and see officials standing by the vault and it might have come to her. “Oh my God, the table is too low! Oh my God, I might be able to go again!” That might have affected her mindset as she went up to the bars. But she didn’t have that. She didn’t know when she went up to do bars. She thought you know, I fell, I’m done. It was my fault. This is it. Does that make sense?

JESSICA: Exactly. That’s the whole thing.

BLYTHE: Yeah.
–

(MUSIC PLAYS)

JESSICA: Spanny and Uncle Tim, what has been happening in NCAA this past week or the past two weeks?

SPANNY: Well going back to last weekend, the end of January, we had a couple of upsets in NCAA. I’m going to start with the University of Minnesota upsetting Michigan which I feel like has been a long time coming. There are a lot of people who are kind of not secret fans of Minnesota, but it’s one of those teams that not everybody hears about. Everybody knows that they are good and we enjoy watching them. After this meet, they were ranked in the top 10 for the first time since 2002. Now this past week, they’ve fallen a few spots. But they are still in the top 15 and that is incredible. Especially for the Big 10. They’re starting to live up to what everybody kind of knew, to the potential they’ve always had. For all those people who whine, “Oh I miss artistry. I miss the perfect 10 and blah blah blah.” I don’t see how you can complain about NCAA, but the University of Minnesota is such a prime example of pretty gymnastics. Toes, and knees, and different choreography. It’s amazing.

JESSICA: Couldn’t agree more.

TIM: Yeah I was going to add that their full twisting Yurchenkos are very pretty. I could watch an entire rotation of Minnesota full twisting Yurchenkos.

JESSICA: They’re absolutely beautiful. I love that team. I agree wholeheartedly with everything you just said Spanny.

SPANNY: Yeah and I think it’s so satisfying for people to see them doing well. They’re finally upping their difficulty and they’re starting to get the scores that I feel like people always wanted them to get.

JESSICA: I heard that Minnesota is one of those teams that they don’t actually recruit the top gymnasts. They’ve always recruited gymnasts they think they can develop into top gymnasts. And I don’t know, they work on their fundamentals and they develop them from the ground up. And I think that’s why they’ve kind of always been on the cusp but not broken into the top. So maybe they’re changing their strategy or, I don’t know. But I kind of wish we had more of the top gymnasts go there and consider that because they’re so beautiful. It’s just a whole different kind of gymnastics.

SPANNY: It’s refreshing. I thought it was largely satisfying. Maybe I’m just saying that because it’s home team whatever. But seeing them beat Michigan, I found that personally satisfying. Not that I don’t like Michigan. I’m happy that any team from the Big 10 is representing as well as they are. I just felt that they seemed a little big for their britches in the first few weeks. Only because it’s been a couple of weeks and yes you are scoring very well, but it’s pretty ambitious to assume that’s going to last you without fail all the way through the Super Six. So to be upset? Yeah it was at home and to be upset by the University of Minnesota. It was entertaining. By all accounts, it was a really exciting meet to be at. That’s why I love NCAA is that these things happen. Another more recent meet upset is this past week, Georgia upsets Alabama. Again, mixed feelings. As much as I want to rag on Georgia for everything, this was a really good meet for them. I mean, arguably their best meet since 2009. They hit. The scoring wasn’t atrocious. And the energy levels were incredible. I can see a glimpse of what people saw in them prior to 2009, 2010 we’ll say. Noel Couch is back. She’s one of those people, she’ll never be my favorite. But I can’t root against her because she just tries so hard.

JESSICA: Girl’s got tenacity. You’ve got to love that about her.

SPANNY: And she hasn’t competed since what April of last year and she’s just in incredible shape. Did a really weird routine to Star Wars and they kept commenting about people dancing with light sabres in the audience. But, I’m sure that was fun. Alabama though, I don’t think they showed up. They seemed like they were competing under the influence of anxiety medication. They seemed really depressed. It was just a really shaky meet. But then they scored their highest score of the season. I don’t understand. It just wasn’t a good matchup. I’m not rooting hard for either team but I don’t think that this meet is indicative of what will happen further down in the season.

JESSICA: Just one thing I wanted to say about Georgia. I’m really excited for… I just love Danna, the new coach. I just think she’s great. I’m super excited to see them evolve as a new sort of entity. It’ll be exciting to see. So I’m glad to see that they’re doing well.

SPANNY: I don’t know. I stare especially at what she’s done with like… I look at someone like Christa Tanella. And I have to think witchcraft. Because I have no…

[LAUGHTER]

SPANNY: She was a really good elite and this is the first time I’ve ever seen her, not just live up to her potential collegiately, but to exceed it. The fact that she’s ranked anything on floor just boggles my mind. She’s really good and Danna must have done something right with her this season. In the very upsetting news, Corrie Lothrop tore her achilles, as they all seem to do. I guess she’s gonna….no she can’t redshirt. She’s too far along in the year. But I think it’s a junior year curse. Because if you look at the number of former elites who go and bust their leg their junior year, it’s terrifying. You have Zamarripa, Sam Peszek, Corrie Lothrop, Courtney Kupets, all of them their junior year. So I want to call Kytra Hunter and warn her for next year.

JESSICA: That’s weird because I hadn’t really thought about that before but you’re totally right. And the thing that’s kind of freaking me out, like there’s been a lot of talk about why so many achilles injuries happen, especially on the men’s side. There’s been a couple of studies and people have talked about doing new floors and stuff like that. I think the bigger thing than the injury itself – like the injury sucks – but the bigger thing is we’re really lucky that no one and broken their neck

SPANNY: Yeah.

JESSICA: …on the takeoff for these. There are some really… like when Lichelle Wong did it last year, she almost landed on her head out of her double back. Yeah it’s really scary. I think that’s the scarier thing than the actual injury. I just think the more bouncy the floor is in a way, the more flection you get on the takeoff. I don’t know. I hope someone comes up with a solution.

SPANNY: Yeah, whenever everybody says, “Oh it like I bottomed out on the floor, I bottomed the floor out”—that terrifies me. Just cause I…you can kind of imagine what that is like, but to be just propelling through the air uncontrollably with your foot dangling, knowing you’re not going to land whatever it is that you just took off on, that’s terrifying to me. Happy things for the week. Ivana Hong nearly wins the all-around against UCLA. Had she been up against any other team, I believe that she would have won all-around with flying colors, but she was up against Zamarripa, who scored a ten. But for Ivana Hong to compete all-around and to do so well and to look so happy, it warmed the cockles of my heart. She just seems happy, and she’s such a rock for that team. That entire meet was fun to watch, and to see her, and then Danusia Francis, even though it was exhibition, compete on floor, I was like, oh, my pretties are all competing in the same place, and it made me happy.

JESSICA: Yeah. We were at the meet, and Ivana Hong just looked happy, she looked great, her floor routine didn’t make me angry because it was actually her doing her great thing with her own music, and it was beautiful, the choreography fit her as a gymnast and her personality. And the coolest thing that she did was—and I don’t know why no-one else did this, I don’t know if it was kids that she coached who were in the audience, or it was just her thing, but I think everyone should start doing this: after every routine, she would run over to one area and high five all the kids in the front row, after she dismounted. Oh, it was the cutest thing ever! I think all gymnasts should start doing this. I loved it, and the kids went nuts, it was so cute, and it was like she was an NFL player. I loved it. I was like good for you. And everyone loved it, it was great.

SPANNY: I can see that being the benefit of competing in the really small… gym, I guess, I don’t know if it’s an arena. But you can have that kind of personal interaction.

JESSICA: Yeah, no, that gym is like a large barn. Like, seriously, they need to get a bigger arena. It’s out of control. It’s super hot, it’s stuffed and packed in there, when you try to leave, they had Raducan signing autographs and the Stanford Team lined up to sign autographs in the exit, right next to the exit, so basically you couldn’t get out because everyone was standing in line and the people thought that you were trying to cut them in line, and we were trying to get out. You know, that program has really grown very nicely, and it really has outgrown the space, and it’s a nightmare to go there, so I hope they get a bigger arena.

UNCLE TIM: Yeah. I mean the thing is, though, they don’t end up filling Maples Pavilion when they do have their meets there, and so it’s one of those things, like, do you want the gym to be packed, or do you want it to look like nobody’s there? And so, I mean, it’s kind of a question. And the UCLA meet is probably the biggest meet of the year. I mean, a lot of UCLA fans do show up, so it’s, I’m sure, a tough decision for them.

SPANNY: I’m just jealous you got to go to the meet. I kept trying to look for you, but I didn’t… because the broadcast, first of all, that’s my other very pleasing comment is the fact that we got to see this live broadcast at all. I know a lot of people were ranting that it wasn’t high quality, and that the commentary, he was talking too much, or knew too much, which I didn’t know we could possibly complain about that, but I guess we did. I was just really appreciative that we got to see anything at all. I know, I think it was supposed to be aired on the Pac-12 channel, and then they canceled it, so then media people at Stanford jumped in. I thought it was incredible and I will take that broadcast with even the non stop yapping, at least it was very accurate yapping, over internet quick hits, any day. Any other thoughts about being there?

UNCLE TIM: Well, Jess I know, took very careful notes, we’ll say.

JESSICA: I just, well, I mean…there’s a lot of things that are frustrating about the meet, because they didn’t show the scores, so we didn’t know—I mean, you could see individual scores, but they didn’t show the team scores, which is something I’ve always complained about. And a lot of teams are actually doing this, like oh, gymnastics fans would like to know where the teams stand. We don’t want to have to take notes as we go. So, I mean, you know, instead of having the display that had Stanford vs. UCLA in the middle of the barn—I’m going to call it a barn, I know, I’m going to call it a barn instead of a pavilion—they had that up the whole time. Like, seriously? You don’t have somebody who could program, like, oh, here are the standings after the first rotation, here are the standings after the second rotation. I was like, seriously? I brought my friends, and the whole time they were just like, so what’s the score? Who’s winning? And I was like, eh. It’s so annoying, and this is why people get frustrated with gymnastics, you know? And the other thing was that, it’s just—I really like Stanford as a team. They have so much potential. They have Ivana Hong, they have Sam Shapiro, they have Cassie Rice’s daughter whose last name is Rice, of course, and I can’t remember her first name, but she’s Cassie Rice’s daughter…

UNCLE TIM: Taylor.

JESSICA: Taylor, who is Tasha Schwikert’s coach in Vegas, and she is a badass little gymnast, I really enjoyed watching her, and she had some missteps, but she’s going to be a player. She’s good. And the thing about them is, they’re just always so close but they just, I don’t know, don’t have it, mentally. I watched their beam rotation and I was like, seriously? They could have had four routines that were legitimately a 10. They were that perfect, and then they totally messed it up. They would take like five steps on their dismount, or they would do their dismount and they would have the biggest helicopter bent legs ever, and it just—they’re so close, and I don’t know what needs to change at Stanford, but…I don’t know, it kind of makes me wish that gymnastics coaching positions were more competitive in a way, because I kind of wish people felt more pressure to deliver. I mean, I don’t know if that’s really the healthiest thing, I mean, but it kind of seems like, if you can’t progress after so many years, then maybe you need to change. And maybe it’s an assistant coach thing, or whatever, but…I don’t know, I found myself wishing for that, you know. Some kind of change, because I really enjoy watching them and I think they’re great. And we were actually at the very end so we could see right down the beam, and it was very revealing from that angle to see, especially Vaculik, I was like, damn, how does that girl stay on the beam? She, her hips are never square and she does some kind of magic on beam, and I was like, well, this explains why she is so inconsistent on it all the time. So, anyway. I had a good time, there were just a lot of things that made me wish for little, little changes here and there.

UNCLE TIM: And I have to point out, while you are ripping on Stanford, you also have to be fair to UCLA, that there were some very crooked back-handspring step out layout step outs, that magically turned into dismount that I was gasping during. I cannot think of the girl’s name…

JESSICA: Kaelie Baer! Kaelie Baer!

UNCLE TIM: Yes.

JESSICA: Every time Kaelie Baer does a dismount, I think I’m going to die. You are absolutely, absolutely right, and, yeah. Totally. I have no idea how she stays on the beam, and last year she almost landed on her head like ten times, and I would prefer she did something different, but yeah.

UNCLE TIM: So. Yeah.

SPANNY: It’s funny you mention the scoring, because everyone at home—obviously, there wasn’t the normal live scoring page, it was like an old Excel file that, I could probably check it now, it’s probably still not updated, but it had Zam’s score as an all-arounder at 79 points for most of the meet, yeah. So the fact that they didn’t have some sort of scoring available in the barn does not surprise me. And you’d think Stanford…they might have a surplus of technologically-abled people, but you would be wrong. We gave you a challenge, what was it, a week, two weeks ago, to take somebody’s NCAA virginity, and people did, and we’re very proud of you. So, a few people let us know. Ryan from Lexington, Kentucky brought two friends that he goes to adults gym with, and he brought his friends to their very first NCAA meet in Kentucky. I guess they were caught a little bit off guard after, being accustomed to elite dismounts, seeing the full twisting gainer dismounts, which were a bit of a shock, which they are, I mean, gainers off the ends still give me heart attacks. But, they didn’t just go to one meet, they were to another meet, they went to the LSU meet and cheered so loudly for Lloimincia Hall, even though they were in red, and all the people in blue stared at them like they were nuts. They still really enjoyed it. And then they went back to their gym for adult gym and tried to work on the things that they had seen, until their coaches told them no.

JESSICA: [LAUGHS]

SPANNY: But, as Ryan says, full price tickets are just five dollars. There’s no reason not to go. Plus, it’s the SEC, so great teams visit. And I say, word. It’s a very good reason to go.

JESSICA: We also had a listener write in about Kentucky, and she really wanted us to watch Kentucky, and check them out, and so I did watch the Kentucky meet, and I have to say, yeah. They’re looking pretty good. Like, they’re not like my favourite team in the whole world, but yeah. They’re definitely looking good. Especially Alexis Gross, I want to mention, she does a double front half dismount on bars, and that is freaking glorious. I love seeing stuff like that. So, yeah. Not bad.

SPANNY: Yeah. We’ve got, let’s see, Pammy Anne, from Twitter, took three first timers, another—maybe they all were friends—to LSU-University of Kentucky meet, maybe we’re talking about the same people. They loved it, and wanted to ask Lloimincia to go out dancing after. Yes. I don’t know how old she is, but to get her drunk…

UNCLE TIM: [LAUGHS]

SPANNY: It would be so much fun. But if you aren’t of age, I take it back. And Elizabeth Grimley on Twitter, took Amanda Maisie. First official gymnastics meet. Needed three more sets of eyes, lots of action. West Virginia University, doing great. And so, I know Elizabeth, she does a lot of the, she’s really involved with Georgia, so it’s really nice to see people who get accustomed to going to meets and think it’s an everyday activity to bring their friends, and now more people get to go.

JESSICA: We love that you guys answered our Gym Nerd challenge, and deflowered so many new gymnastics fans this week. So we’re very proud of you, so keep it up! And remember to tweet us pictures, and we’ll put them up on the site. Like, all stand there with the gym in the background and that would be awesome, we’d love that.

SPANNY: Even if it’s not a new meet. I remember my first, not my first time, but the first time, let’s say, I brought my ex-boyfriend Jeff [LAUGHS]. So, this I brought my, this is my ex-boyfriend from LA, and I brought him to, Utah came to UCLA meet, and you know who I’m talking about. Utah, little one…

JESSICA: Oh, Kristina Baskett?

SPANNY: Yeah, thank you. He fell in love with her, and probably would have left me for her, but I was ok with it. But he thought it was really exciting. You know, he didn’t know what was going on, but he thought they were cute little girls bouncing around, and I think we all understand.

JESSICA: I mean, Kristina Baskett is one of the most gorgeous, beautiful human beings ever to walk the earth, so—which is why she’s in, like, every commercial and sports thing now. So, we all understand. Everyone has a girl crush on her, too, so it’s ok.

SPANNY: Yeah. It would be cool if people, if they have stories about their first meet, maybe it was five years ago, or when they brought their mother to a meet, or…

JESSICA: Yeah, I took my friend who was my roommate in college, and wrestled on the same team as my husband, and he has daughters now, who love doing gymnastics, they’re just starting to do gymnastics class, and it’s always interesting to hear his commentary. I took him to his first meet ever last year, but he has the same comments but stronger this year, and he’s like, “I kind of love watching this,” and he’s, on the other hand, he’s like, “I have daughters, and watching this as a father with daughters, I don’t want them to do gymnastics.” He’s like, “Why do they have to lay on their back and arch themselves up?” He’s like, “I just feel like that’s not—I don’t want my kids doing that.” One of the little girls did a totally adorable little exhibition before the meet started—so cute, it was one of my favorite things about the meet—but they also did a little thing where they laid on the ground and they straddle, and he was like, “I don’t want my daughters to do that.” And so it was an interesting perspective, sitting next to a straight man with daughters, talking about his experience at the meet. So, yeah. Share those with us. We’d love to hear them. Oh yeah. Let’s do the men.

UNCLE TIM: Alright. So, on the men’s side, right now Penn State is still ranked number one. Michigan is in the number two slot. Oklahoma’s third, and Stanford is fourth. So pretty much, kind of the same. Not much has really changed. But this last week, I talked about death, and this week, the theme is thank you. So, completely opposite end of the spectrum. And the first thank you goes out to University of Nebraska. A few weeks ago I was partaking in the gay institution called Sunday Brunch With Bottomless Mimosas, and afterwards I decided to head home for some, let’s say siesta time, but I never made it to my bedroom because I got distracted because Nebraska had a live feed of the meet against the University of Illinois at Chicago, and usually men’s meets aren’t broadcast live over the internet, so thank you, the Huskers, for doing that. And I especially enjoyed some of the unfortunate names of the Nebraska gymnasts. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, just go look at their roster, cause they have some special last names.

JESSICA: [LAUGHS]

UNCLE TIM: My next thank you goes to Andrew Avelino of Army Gymnastics, and I think I speak for Jess and Spanny when I say that we’re very thankful for our military service to this country, no? But I have to confess that I don’t pay too much attention to the Army’s gymnastics program because they tend to be kind of on the bottom of the NCAA every year. However, the Army’s promo video caught my attention this year, and in it they feature a gymnast named Andrew Avelino. He had to have his leg amputated after a trampoline accident, but he’s back in the gym working out with a prosthetic leg, which I just am so impressed with. I can’t even find the words to describe how remarkable and inspiring that is. And so my new motto is, if Andrew Avelino can do it, then I can do it. So. And my final thank you goes to Anton Gryshayev of Iowa. His rings routine was pretty, pretty good at the Metroplex Challenge. Minus the dismount, I was pretty impressed. He has a really, really gorgeous iron cross. And while I’m on the topic of Iowa, on the team of Iowa, I guess I should also send out a thank you to JD Reive, who is a newcomer to Iowa, but he’s doing pretty amazing things with the team. So I’m excited to see if Iowa can kind of rise in the ranks over the next couple of years. So those are my thank yous for the week.

JESSICA: Yay! Ok. Did it really sound like I was ripping on Stanford? I didn’t mean to rip on Stanford. I like Stanford. I just don’t like the meet setup.

UNCLE TIM: No, yeah. It was just like a lot of negative things, it wasn’t a big deal.

JESSICA: Yeah, it’s like I…

UNCLE TIM: I was just, oh, if you’re going to call out the girls from Stanford for going crooked, you have to talk about Kaelie Baer, because that is one freaking crooked back handspring, step out, layout, step out.

JESSICA: It was terrifying, yes. And of course, there’s Mattie and her, you never know how that the gainer-pike-tuck-wolf jump sort-of position is going to go. But I was glad to see that Mattie actually looked happy, but yeah. It’s one of those things where you see a team with so much potential, and you want them to live up to it, you know? And it’s like, yeah.

SPANNY: We’ll you right. There seems to be a lack of urgency, like you said. Not just with—well obviously with the team, but when you compete, again, not to quote Mary Lee Tracy, but with, do you really want to be good just for you? That was good for me. I feel like Stanford, hey, that was good for Stanford. Like, no. You should just be good.

JESSICA: Yes. I was totally—like, that’s a really good point, because I was talking to a friend about this after the meet, and I was like, you know, I don’t like, I don’t feel like it’s a—this is going to sound weird—I don’t know how to put this, quite—but, in terms of how the meet is conducted, I don’t feel like it’s a really Bay Area value to put on a big show and put a lot of emphasis on how things look and kind of the presentation of the meet in general, and I don’t know if that’s fair to say, but I just think that, it’s one of those things we have to do, no matter what our personal or geographic values are. If you want the sport to continue, you have to make, put on a great event. Like, it’s one of those things we just have to do, so. Yeah. But I agree with you about the urgency thing.

–
[LISTENER FEEDBACK]

JESSICA: Ok, we have a little bit of reader feedback—listeners, listeners feedback this week. Spanny, what do you have?

SPANNY: Well, from noted Canadian photographer of the Tandoori Chicken fame, Grace Chu, @GraceClick on Twitter, writes: “Skied at few k thru Gatineau Park with a free pass from the library & @Gymcastic in my ear #CleanAirOverdose”.

JESSICA: Is that the best, most Canadian tweet ever! It’s just so, it’s like—skiing while listening to the podcast? Oh, that totally made my whole week!

SPANNY: And few k, is that like…

JESSICA: Kilometers?

SPANNY: I was like, what’s this? I’m an American. [LAUGHS] Canada’s not that far, I should know. Yeah, that is lovely, largely Canadian, and yay for Canadian listeners.

JESSICA: It’s very sweet.

SPANNY: Yeah, definitely. I enjoy her pictures. With the chicken.

JESSICA: Chicken’s awesome, you guys should totally follow Tandoori Chicken on Facebook and Twitter, too, because that’s her chicken that she has, brings with her to all the meets and has the gymnasts pose with the chicken, which is hilarious and awesome.

–
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ALLISON TAYLOR: This episode is brought to you by Elite Sportz Band. EliteSportzBand.com. We’ve got your back.

JESSICA: Visit EliteSportzBand.com, that’s sports with a ‘z’, and save $5 on your next purchase with the code: gymcast.
–

JESSICA: Alright, that’s going to do it for this week, thank you so much for listening. I wanted to remind you, we have something really special coming up this weekend. So, this weekend our very own Uncle Tim will be at the Winter Cup, which is kind of like the preview and start to the year for men’s gymnastics, and he is going to be doing quick hits from the meet. We’re so excited about this. Can’t wait. So, if you want to check out his quick hits, he’ll be doing them on the GymCastic website, and he will tweet about it so you know when it’s starting, so look for that this week, and you can go follow him for quick hits, and then he’ll have a report for us the following week. Remember to keep up the Gym Nerd Challenge of the month, to keep deflowering this coming week, and tell us about it, and take pictures, and take someone to a gymnastics meet for the first time. It doesn’t have to be NCAA, could be anything. And tell us about the experience, how was it? What did they think? And remember that you can support the show by shopping on Amazon or Powell’s Bookstore, tell you friends to rate us on iTunes, tell your friends to listen to us. Post, like, “Hey, I love this show”, on Facebook to all your gymnastics friends. And remember to listen to us on the Stitcher app. I find myself, I listen to the Stitcher app almost exclusively. Like, I totally stopped using my iTunes app, because I love it and I can put all my things—it’s just easier to use, I really like it. So. And we love your feedback, you guys, we read every single email, we read every single tweet, and all of your posts on Facebook, so you can contact us at GymCastic@gmail.com. You can leave us a message by calling 415-800-3191. You can leave a question on GymLine. Just leave your name, your city, and try to keep it under 60 seconds. And remember, if you have Skype, you can call that way. Our username is GymCastic Podcast. And until next week, I am Jessica O’Beirne from Masters-Gymnastics.com.

SPANNY: I’m Spanny Tampson from Spanny’s Big Fake Smile.

UNCLE TIM: And I’m Uncle Tim from Uncle Tim Talk’s Mens Gym.

JESSICA: See you guys next week!

[[OUTRO MUSIC – “Like a Virgin”]]

Episode 18 Transcript
BRIDGET SLOAN: I really want to know what the 2000 team was thinking when they were over there, but obviously time will tell no matter what. If our medal was to turn into gold, great. If it’s not, we still have a silver medal.
–

[[INTRO MUSIC]]

JESSICA: This week, 2009 World All-Around Champion Bridget Sloan. We review Gymnastike’s brand new series about MLT’s gym, Beyond the Routine. And we talk about our favorites and the worst from NCAA Gymnastics.
–

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ALLISON TAYLOR: Hey gymnasts, Elite Sportz Band is a cutting edge compression back warmer that can protect your most valued asset: your back. I’m Allison Taylor on behalf of Elite Sports Band. Visit elitesportzband.com. We’ve got your back.
–

JESSICA: This is episode 18 for January 30th 2013. I’m Jessica.

BLYTHE: I’m Blythe.

SPANNY: I’m Spanny Tampson.

UNCLE TIM: I’m Uncle Tim.

JESSICA: And this is the best and only gymnastics podcast in the whole entire world. Starting with the best and top news stories from around the world. Blythe, what’s happening?

BLYTHE: Alright, the big thing on the American team is changes to the American Cup line up. Elizabeth Price is out, she has strained her hip. Larissa Iordache is out from Romania, we’re not sure what she has, but the Romanian Fed has said that they’re not coming. We do have new people to announce, Victoria Moors from Canada who competed in Madison Square Garden at the American Cup last year, she’ll be returning. Koko Tsurumi from Japan…

JESSICA: Ah! I love her! Oh my God I’m so excited! [LAUGHS]

BLYTHE: It’s exciting! I cannot remember if there has been a Japanese female at the American Cup the past couple of years, and I don’t really think so. So that’ll be nice, and Koko’s a very strong gymnast and when she hits she has a good chance, I would say, of being on the podium. But she is kind of a hit or miss gymnast so you never quite know. On the men’s side, Hiroki Ishikawa has been added to the lineup. The other two women they’re going to announce a little bit later. They are going to have a training camp to determine the other American in February, and there’s one spot still open, and that’s kind of a wild card.

JESSICA: Interesting. Who do you guys think will get it? Priessman?

SPANNY: I think it will be… yeah. I actually can’t fathom anybody else. Which I don’t want to say is disappointing, but I just feel like we’ve seen her compete a lot and I’d like to see someone new.

JESSICA: Unless there’s going to be a crazy, like is there a junior who they’ll put in now even though they’re not eligible? Because they’re allowed to do that right? Is there anybody like Simone Biles who could…

BLYTHE: The thing about putting in juniors is that this years it’s an FIG World Cup event. You never know what might happen, but I think they really can’t put in juniors where in 2010 they had Jordyn Wieber, and 2009 as well, it was not a World Cup event. I think I have that right. But you never know.

JESSICA: I think that sounds right. What about this Japanese guy, Uncle Tim? Do we know him? Should I know his name?

UNCLE TIM: Which Japanese guy? Sorry.

JESSICA: Hiroshi

[LAUGHS]

JESSICA: Hiroshi

UNCLE TIM: Blythe, help me out here.

JESSICA: Is he the guy that does the double front half? Or the crazy dismount off P-Bars?

BLYTHE: Hiroki Ishikawa. I’ve never heard of him, and last year the Japanese sent somebody who again we’ve never heard of, just one of their National Team members to the American Cup. And last year he didn’t do very well. He finished eighth and it was just kind of clear we wouldn’t be seeing him again on an International stage. But this guy, who knows?

JESSICA: A new and exciting face, yay! Oh Hiroki not Hiroshi, sorry about that. What’s happening- there’s something going on with Russia right? Theres injury rumors?

BLYTHE: The injury rumors: one Russian news site has reported that Viktoria Komova has a back injury, might miss the Russian Championships, might miss the European Championships which of course are going to be held in Moscow. I guess you never know, but you kind of have to feel for Komova, she’s always injured at the wrong time. So if she kind of continues on into this next quadrennium, which is her third year as a Senior already, we’ll see. Komova there’s a lot of talk about her being injured and there always has been in the last couple of years, but at the same time she has shown up at International competitions and has been more or less ready to go. For now, she’s probably grown a bit as well, so it’s hard to say.

JESSICA: Maybe she won’t have the puppy feet anymore. Aww I was so sad when Nastia grew out of her puppy feet. I always wondered if that made it harder to do beam.

UNCLE TIM: What are puppy feet?

JESSICA: You know like when kids have feet…

SPANNY: [LAUGHS] Yes.

EVERYONE: [LAUGHS]

JESSICA: [LAUGHS] Okay, you know when kids have feet that, especially like little girls where you can tell they’re going to be tall, that their feet are too big for their bodies. So they’ll look totally proportional but then they look like they have maybe a men’s size eight foot, even though they’re like seven. So Nastia totally had puppy feet for a long time, now she’s all proportionate but, you know puppies they flop all around with their feet. Her feet were perfect, I’m not saying anything like that, but you know. The not being proportioned, yes. Does Catherine Lyons have puppy feet, too? A little bit? Mmhmm. Oh my God I love her!

BLYTHE: She has a gorgeous beam routine, but yeah I was looking at her feet and you can tell she’s going to be tall.

JESSICA: Yeah, totally. Everyone should read Blythe’s article on the Gymnastics Examiner. She wrote a really good article putting in perspective the role of the Australian Olympic Festival and how it’s really been a jumping off point for gymnasts who become major players for those countries. It’s a really interesting article, I learned a lot by reading it. I never payed attention to that meet until I read that article and I was like, “Oh!” Yeah and I watched Catherine Lyons and I was like, “Oh my God, I am totally in love with this gymnast she’s so beautiful!” So you totally gotta watch her, like Spanny said last week. So what’s going on with, Spanny, we have some interesting tour news.

SPANNY: Well, much to our discontent, the Teen Choice Live Tour has been cancelled. I’d be lying if I said I knew what that was, other than I knew that it was Jordyn Wieber, Aly Raisman, and Gabby Douglas and then the promo that showed cheerleaders, I think there was some sort of weird kiddy band? I also heard that they’re performing in high school auditoriums.

JESSICA: What?!

SPANNY: So it’s a real shock that this did not pan out. Yeah everything about it is just mind boggling, the idea of a second tour, everybody was just kind of “eh” about it, now the reaction from everyone is like, “Hooray! Back to training!” I’m not so quick to assume that. If these girls wanted to train they would be training. I don’t think they have any obligations to us as their fans to get back to training right away, especially when gymnasts like Aly grew up around Alicia where they proved that the year after the Olympics is not a number one priority. So I would not hold it against any of the girls for not immediately racing back to the gym, despite the cancellation of this really, super interesting tour that I’m so sad we’re all missing. So sad.

JESSICA: [LAUGHS] Uncle Tim, there is an interesting story out of U Dub, for everybody that’s University of Washington in Seattle, would you tell us about that?

UNCLE TIM: Yeah, so there is a gymnast whose name is Kylie Sharp and she has autoimmune hepatitis, and basically that is when your body attacks your own liver. You can keep it somewhat under wraps with Prednisone, but it’s led to different problems with her liver, she has cirrhosis according to the article. But we were just impressed that even though she has this liver problem, she’s still competing. It’s an inspirational story, it’s a long article but it’s worth the read.

JESSICA: Yeah, I’ll put a link on the site. I read that and I was like, “Wow!” On one hand that’s totally incredible that they’re letting her compete because it seems like it would be a serious liability issue, but then again, I mean it’s her liver. If she doesn’t get a new one, she’s going to die anyway so why not let her do gymnastics? I mean that’s kind of harsh but totally true. So I’m kind of impressed with U Dub for letting her compete and letting her go for it.

SPANNY: I’m impressed with her ability, if you’ve ever taken Prednisone it’s not a fun drug and it makes you feel like crap, so to be able to train and compete while taking that is mind boggling to me.

JESSICA: Yeah that girls gotta be super ass tough. And also Prednisone can cause a lot of other problems, so hats off to you, and we will be paying close attention to you because everything you do is remarkable in itself. And we know that it’s true, unlike some football players who clearly have a gay boyfriend who they’re trying to pass off as a fake girl who died of a disease. So I’m not saying the Mormons and the Catholics are in cahoots with that one, but anyway. Oh! This story you guys, I mean I know that some people love the sparkles, and the face tattoos, and the ribbons, and all of that stuff. But I mean this has to be the funniest/saddest thing I have ever read in my life. In the Democrat Herald in Oregon this was reported, I’m reading this straight from the newspaper, this is from Blalock from OSU: Blalock fell during warm ups on the balance beam at Utah on Saturday night. She missed the landing with her foot and bounced face first off the beam, a decorative rhinestone by her eye added to the damage as it scraped along her cheekbone. There you have it people, the danger of face rhinestones. We’ve said this before, we don’t care for these. And I mean what if this had gone right into her eye? I’m just saying, this is very serious that sparkles cause injuries! [LAUGHS]

BLYTHE: You could poke your eye out!

JESSICA: Exactly. It totally sucks but can you imagine having to describe- like already that’s a gnarly way to fall on beam, and if you go to class on Monday you have to explain why you have a giant scrape on top of the bruise on your face, “uh that’s a sparkle injury.”
__

JESSICA: So Spanny, let’s discuss. There has been a fantastic new series on Gymnastike, which I am totally a fan of, I love Gymnastike. I love what they’re doing, they’re bringing us way more gymnastics than we’ve ever been able to see before. They’re monetizing in a different way, which some people are really upset with, or some people are okay with but they don’t like the price point, but they have this TV series. Spanny and Uncle Tim in their satirist ways are going to bring us a review.

SPANNY: Let me start off by saying that I was one of the top critics of the fact that they want to charge $20 a month, and I still am, however having seen this series I’m like, “It’s worth some money, maybe not that much”, it’s hilarious. It’s unintentional hilarity, comedy gold and I now can’t wait for Mondays to watch the next episode. It wouldn’t have worked with any other, I know Uncle Tim had mentioned he’d love to see a series from Brestyans, and maybe it would be hilarious, nothing will ever top this special time we have with Mary Lee Tracy.

UNCLE TIM: Let me clarify, I’d like to Brestyans because I want to see a bar rotation. [LAUGHS]

JESSICA: [LAUGHS]

SPANNY: I want more with the Mihai and the vacuuming, and him talking while he vacuums. Okay we’re digressing, but the first episode- and again there’s no time spent on credits, opening themes, we don’t need any of that. Bam, we are addressed immediately by Mary Lee Tracy who is introducing us to her dogs, and I do believe, we’ll have to pay attention in the second episode, because I do believe her dogs share a direct correlation to her gymnasts. It’s very clear one is favored, special Sophie Lee Tracy gets all the special attention, and is carted around everywhere, and gets all the special treats. And then there’s big, old Phoebe Lee Tracy who is immediately passed off on being old and too big to spend the day with. She is left alone all day. We won’t hear from her again.

JESSICA: [LAUGHS]

SPANNY: Sophie Lee Tracy, however, really has a co-starring role in this series. I widely believe, Mary Lee Tracy she obviously, in order to attain some of the success that she’s had, has to pay attention to the details, and I don’t see her leaving things on her counters overnight. So one wonders why there’s so many bottles of wine, no less than four at the time of shooting at eight o’clock in the morning. Who knows, maybe she just hasn’t purchased a wine rack yet… Back to Sophie Lee Tracy. She matches Mary Lee at all times, we get a nice rundown of all the outfits that she has and she can’t leave the house until she’s dressed. As we all know Mary Lee often times wears track suits, not unlike Sue Sylvester, so on this day Sophie Lee Tracy also wears a tracksuit. I thought the most interesting part of this episode to be the terror that I felt when Mary Lee drives. She spends, I’m not exaggerating, close to two entire minutes staring and trying to mess with her iPhone to find a “faith song” as she calls it, because she cannot handle the day with her emotional teenage kids without listening to her faith song first. And she has her iPhone to her face for almost two minutes. I don’t know how the interviewer, and I think Annes in the back, I don’t know how they weren’t like, I would be like, “Stop the car.” I’m so weird about texting and driving, maybe because I’m old now. Sophie Lee is on her lap, one. And the dog looks as terrified as I felt.

UNCLE TIM: [LAUGHS]

SPANNY: And then, she’s like absentmindedly answering questions she doesn’t care about, she says she ‘absolutely hates injures’. I don’t buy it. I don’t think she does. But she’s just really hell bent on finding this song, which she never does, she ends with, “DANG IT” and then we’re finally at the gym. I have to believe there’s a reason that Gymnastike and whoever edited this piece kept in the entirety of this driving episode, because that’s not normal behavior. Once we’re at the gym, and now we’re halfway through the episode, we focus on conditioning. It’s Monday morning and Mary Lee is very focused on what- she mentions the emotional state as well as the physical state of her girls and we’ll venture more into that in the second episode, the mental toughness of her gymnasts. Which is, I don’t know what to say about that. It’s interesting in seeing her interactions with the girls while they condition, she has a lot of talk about how she wants to promote positive reactions. She says she wants to focus on the good things, so she just won’t say anything to the girls who are half-assing it or who are slacking off, and she’ll really just compliment the girls who are going all out. She says that but does the complete opposite. The Junior girls look absolutely horrified and scared to death every time she walks by and it’s unmistakable. There were two girls in particular, one was called Pixie but the other one had blonde hair, really good toe point, that just either could not handle being criticized by Mary Lee or were constantly ridden by her. We’re also introduced to Courtney McCool and her role, we all knew she’d gone up there but no one really knew why. She calls herself Mary Lee’s assistant, she works with the Juniors but rotates with the Seniors, working on knees, toes, in her words, elegance, form, technique, and then “bar dance” and I looked and I was like well maybe it could be the ballet barre, I don’t know because I don’t think they have those there. The end of the episode is essentially girls crying. The second episode which I know Uncle Tim got to further enjoy.

UNCLE TIM: I did. Before I start with it I have to say we, the gymternet, need to band together and buy Mary Lee new mats because half her mats are saggy in the center and the others have rips and tears that are repaired with something that looks like electrical tape, basically. I don’t know how we’re going to raise money, a phone-a-thon, do like a Louis Smith calendar, something I don’t know. We need to raise money so she gets new mats because it looks like she hasn’t purchased any since Amanda Borden was in the gym in the mid 90s.

SPANNY: I’ve heard that her equipment is not so much, and then when I saw the dog chilling in the middle of the floor while the girls are running I was like, “The dogs allowed on the stuff, it’s not that high quality stuff”

UNCLE TIM: [LAUGHS] Yeah, and so in my episode there isn’t really much of a plot I would say, I think there are two different plots going on. The first is kind of who’s allowed to cry and who’s not allowed to cry in the gym. Certain gymnastics are allowed and other’s are not. [LAUGHS] The other one is my favorite, the clock isn’t working in the gym and the clock is very important because thats how the girls know how much time to condition, how long they have to go to the bathroom [LAUGHS]

JESSICA: [LAUGHS]

UNCLE TIM: and so Jul, Julie is her real name, Mary Lee’s sister is supposed to fix the clock and the episode ends with a complete cliffhanger because we don’t know if the clocks going to be fixed or not and it’s like, “Whoa, mind blown! That’s the best plot ever!!!!” So that was probably my favorite thing. So in all seriousness, I live for CGA because I live for the little girls doing straddle jumps with ankle weights on the Tumbl Trak behind Mary Lee, I live for those things. And I live for those keywords that Mary Lee yells across the gym as she holds her iPhone in front videotaping everything. Like, what did she yell, “Use your mind!” Stuff like that.

SPANNY: And very, as my Minnesotan will, “Use your miiiiiiiiind!” Like she’s just…[LAUGHS]

UNCLE TIM: Yelling across the gym at her sister, “Do you need a spot?”, while she’s standing on this chair grabbing the clock off the wall, kind of teetering there. I love her sarcasm. There was this one part that we kind of have to mention that was rather disappointing, I would say. So we find out why Amelia Hundley is called Meals. It is because in Amelia’s own words, “I used to eat a lot”. I think it’s somewhat disappointing that her nickname in the gym is related to the amount of food she used to eat. It takes be back to high school when my classmates would call a girl Chewbacca because she had a hairy mustache on her face and I don’t know, it seemed very mean girl-y and it’s also kind of troublesome given that there have been eating disorders and stuff in gymnastics, so I have to mention that. With that said, I love this web series and I guess I wanted to put this out there, my birthday is in March and I would really love a pair of ankle weights.

JESSICA: [LAUGHS]

SPANNY: It’s a really special series and I hope everyone gets to watch it at some point. I did do a recap of the first episode, I’m hoping to do the second episode so we’ll post a link to my awesome website. And you can at least see some pictures, I mean I really had to choose between twenty different pictures of her driving with her phone in front of her face, but lots of great pictures of Sophie Lee.

JESSICA: You guys definitely have to check out Spanny’s recap because I laughed out loud during the dog putting her matching outfit on with sparkles during the episode, and then I laughed even harder during the whole recap on Spanny’s site. All kidding aside, it’s really funny but it’s also freaking great. This is the kind of thing we’ve been waiting for as a gymnastics community forever, a gymnastics documentary thats a weekly or a monthly or whatever and it’s really for gymnastics fans, so you get to see all the behind the scenes everything. Okay so I have to say I totally love this because it’s not like the CNN documentary in that, so say there’s something that looks like it could be really bad, like MLT said something and you think that sounds really awful, then they go to the gymnast and they say privately, away from the coach, except for the Meals thing, they said how did you interpret that situation, what’s going on for you right now. Then you get to hear in the gymnasts words what they think is happening. If we could have gone over to the gymnasts at Parkettes after they landed on their head and they could have said in their own words what’s going on, and you could’ve had the gymnast say, “Well, I’m not working hard enough because I haven’t landed on my head twelve times today”, then maybe the series would’ve been a little different. Anyways, I just, I really like that you’re getting both sides and that they have the comedy part and they also have interviews from both sides of what’s going on. Totally recommend it, if you guys don’t want to pay for a whole year you can try the free trial for seven days or you can try a three month- it’s like $12 a month and you can cancel after three months, so I’d say give it a try because as a gymnastics fan you should put your money towards, if you can afford it, the kind of thing you want to see more of, put your money where you want to see something continue.
–

[[INTERVIEW SEGMENT]]

BLYTHE: 2008 Olympic team silver medalist and 2009 World all-around champion Bridget Sloan has started a new chapter of her life as a freshman at the University of Florida. Florida is of course one of the teams that’s highly favored to win this year’s NCAA, and today we’ll be talking to Bridget about the 2008 Olympics, the 2012 Olympic process, and the transition from elite gymnastics to college. Bridget, thank you so much for coming on the show. Well first of all, let’s just talk a little bit about the transition to college. Tell us about Florida and what it’s like being with the team there?

BRIDGET: Florida is absolutely amazing. I can’t really picture myself anywhere else. But the transition from elite to college has been a big change. Really there’s nothing… I talk about this all the time with the coaches here, with Rhonda and Rob and Adrian, and it’s like there’s nothing I can take from elite and be like, “Oh we used to do that in elite.” And when I’m here in college and working out, the workouts are just so different. And the mindset is so different. And it’s all about sticking those landings. Which obviously in elite you want to stick your landings, but in college it is just, you know, that’s really everything is sticking those landings and making sure you just put on the best show. I’ve always said that I love competing because it is like putting on a show, and now that I’m in college I get to put on a show almost every weekend. And so far I’ve been absolutely enjoying it. It’s been a whole new experience for me that I’ve been able to learn from. Every single meet I learn something new about myself, about the gym, about my team. You know it’s been a whole learning experience for me that I’ve really enjoyed.

BLYTHE: What kind of things have you learned so far specifically? What did you learn after your first meet after having gone through that process?

BRIDGET: After my first meet I realized that college gymnastics has a lot of excitement. When I was at the… we competed at Ball State, that was our home opener. And I did not compete floor, but I’m pretty sure I was jumping and screaming enough to equal doing a floor routine. I mean it was… the excitement that was going through my body, the adrenaline, was just, it was crazy to think that I wasn’t even competing but I was so excited. I was yelling, I was screaming, I was jumping up and down for my teammates. You know giving high fives. It’s just it’s so different but it was so much fun. And it’s kind of awesome to be a part of such a great team and with great coaches by our sides, not to mention our incredible fans that we get to compete in front of.

BLYTHE: Now have you done floor yet at Florida?

BRIDGET: I have. This past weekend was my very first time and it was, oh, it was so much fun. The floor routine is obviously a little different than what I’m used to. There’s only three passes, which is awesome. But the dance and the choreography, you really have to show it off. So it’s a little different but it’s so much fun. I cannot wait to hopefully do floor the rest of the season. Maybe not every meet, but I definitely want to compete floor as much as possible because it really is… you know we go out there and we want to represent our school in the most positive way. And I definitely think that us competing and showing off our personalities in our floor routines and our beam routines, you know we fly high on bars, we stick our landings, that’s really what it’s all about here at the University of Florida, and it’s awesome to be a part of it.

BLYTHE: Now I don’t think I’ve ever seen an NCAA as stacked with talent and experience – you know, Olympians, World medalists, everything like that – as this team at Florida right now. And I feel like if gymnastics were kind of a betting sport, a lot of people would be putting money on Florida. Do you guys think that you have a shot at the NCAA title this year?

BRIDGET: You know, every year we get a little bit closer and closer. And obviously everybody’s been looking towards us saying, “you know, Florida’s going to be a great contender this year.” Which Rhonda’s already talked to us about. It’s not really about NCAA Championships, but it’s really about the meets we do beforehand. It’s that experience that we get out there in front of the crowd showing off, so that when we get to NCAAs and SECs, those big competitions, you know it’ll be just like we’re back in the gym or at a home meet. And I’ve always told… my theory has always been, every meet that I go and compete at, it’s just another routine. I don’t like to think of it as anything bigger than just another routine. I just need to hit one just like I do in practice. And that’s my mindset. And it’s been… it’s definitely helped being here and telling the girls, “I know I’m a freshman,” but it is nice to have a little bit of experience. And it’s not necessarily that I explain my ways, but it’s nice to kind of give input. We all have little things that we do. And we kind of feed off of each other. And I always let the girls know, “It’s just a normal routine, don’t even think about it, just let your mind take over and your body knows what to do.” And I think that’s what really makes college gymnastics so much fun. And being here at Florida, you know our bodies just know what to do. We just… I always tell myself I’m just going to go into auto pilot. I’ve done these things 100, a couple hundred times by now, and there’s nothing that I can’t do… if I put my mind to it, I know I can do it. And having the faith that my coaches have in me and my teammates have in me, it’s just reassuring and it kind of puts that little “it” factor in us. And we know that we can do it and especially when we have our team behind us.

BLYTHE: When you’re standing by an apparatus like say the balance beam, and you’re waiting to salute and you’re waiting for the judges to get ready, are the nerves really exactly the same as they were at an Olympic Games or a World Championships? Do you ever tell yourself, “Hey, I survived the pressure cooker that was the Olympics, I can do this here now”?

BRIDGET: The pressure is just so different than… you know when you’re on the elite stage, you’re on podium, you can barely see the faces in the crowd because they’re pretty far away. But man at college, they are right there. You turn around and you know exactly who you’re staring at. So before beam, for example, I definitely like to just keep it calm. I know that once I salute it’s focus 100%. But one of our managers, Brittany Arlington, on the last meet, I just kind of had her talk to me. And we were kind of making casual conversation just to keep my mind relaxed but still in the zone. And that’s just me personally. I like to keep it very relaxed before I salute, and once I salute it’s kind of go time. But for me personally when I’m on the beam I love to sing a song. And it just kind of keeps the rhythm going. And I’m going to go back to when I go into auto pilot. I don’t really think about the skills, it’s just kind of a habit. You know you do the dance, you know exactly what’s coming next, and the skills just come naturally when we’ve done the routines so many times. So I just like to kind of go out there and think about hitting my routine the best of my ability. And I know that my body will take over, and my mind, you know, my mind just sings a song but I know my body will take over and it’ll be the best routine I can do.

BLYTHE: I like that very much, you sing a song. Is it a particular song? Or just humming a tune?

BRIDGET: It’s just kind of any upbeat song. I love to keep upbeat songs in the gym. My iPod has been playing recently, and it’s just been really nice to have that, you know I’m going back to upbeat, but for me personally I like to obviously sing because it keeps the rhythm going. It keeps that like “1,2,3 1,2,3” rhythm and for me that’s what I need. When I don’t stop and I kind of keep going it’s like my body doesn’t have time to think of anything so it’s kind of like a revolving door, it just keeps on going. And for me personally that’s been a great success that I’ve had.

BLYTHE: That’s very interesting. Did you do that as an elite as well?

BRIDGET: I did [laughs] it definitely hasn’t just started now. I’ve been doing it for a while and it’s really helped. Just kind of again keep my mind relaxed but at the same time it’s still sharp and it’s still focused. But I’m not thinking ahead of anything, I’m just thinking about that moment right then and there.

BLYTHE: I see. You’ve gone from training by yourself with Marvin Sharp – so kind of one coach one athlete – to training with about 20 women and several coaches. And that’s definitely been a change for you. And how have you adapted to that?

BRIDGET: It’s been a change but it’s been one of the best changes I could have ever asked for. I didn’t know how I was going to react coming into a gym like this, just because I worked out with two other people max and now I’m with a group of 15 girls and three coaches. It’s been, again, very different, but it’s been such a good learning experience. It’s kind of nice to be able to feed off of the other girls. Especially you know with school and homework and going into tutoring sessions you can get a little tired. But when you have that one person who’s tired but you have 14 other people who are energetic and ready to go, you instantly get out of the tired mood and you’re like “oh my gosh let’s go practice, let’s just go do this.” And it’s kind of nice to have that just because when you’re training by yourself and you’re kind of in a little bit of a slump and you’re a little really tired, there’s not really a whole lot of people who can get you out of that mood. But being here and being in such an energetic facility, I think that’s what kind of helps us get through workouts everyday. Because you’re not going to be super excited every day, but having your teammates behind you, it makes it a little bit nicer to be in the gym.

BLYTHE: I see. And when you’re not in the gym and when you’re not in class, where can we find you? What do you do?

BRIDGET: I am more than likely tucked in under my covers about to fall asleep. I love sleeping. It is probably one of my favorite pastime hobbies. But if I’m not sleeping I’m definitely either doing homework or talking to my mom, talking to my parents back home. But obviously the friends that I’ve made here, definitely love hanging out with them. And you can definitely find me hanging out either around campus or at the apartment complex where the rest of the team girls live who do not live on campus. You can really find me anywhere, but if you’re really trying to find me hard, I will be in my bed.

[laughter]

BLYTHE: So tell me abou the college experience in general. What classes are you taking? And has it been what you thought it would be?

BRIDGET: Well coming to school, I had no idea what to expect. I was like an open book, blank pages, didn’t want to write anything down, and I had really no expectations just because I had no idea what the college experience was going to be like for me. But so far I’ve absolutely loved it. The classes I’ve been taking are… they’re not exactly difficult but they are a little tricky here and there so they keep me thinking. And they’re not just kind of those classes that you don’t have to do anything for. Definitely don’t have any of those. But right now I’m in the telecom major and I’m pretty set with that. I was in the marketing department, or I was going to go into sports marketing, but I decided the business school wasn’t really for me. So pretty happy with my decision into the telecom and journalism school, and hopefully I’ll get into that here in the next couple years. Because obviously as a freshman, I can pretty much say I want to be whatever I want. But doesn’t really start until sophomore, junior year that you really take those classes for your major.

BLYTHE: I have to ask, especially with sort of what’s going on with the Fierce Five, after Beijing, did you… were you tempted to become professional, to give up your NCAA eligibility? Like Aly Raisman did, who was going to go to Florida, and now, you know, has since decided to pursue other things.

BRIDGET: Most definitely. I would be lying if I said I wanted to do NCAA my whole life. The temptation is obviously there. And especially from 2009, coming off of a win. You know you win the World Championships, you have all these offers. But nothing I think can compare to the offer of a scholarship and competing four extra years. You know if I would have gone professional and taken money, it obviously would have been great. I would have made the best of it. But I would have been done. I think after trying for two Olympics, I’m a little on the old side already so I definitely would have retired by now. So it’s kind of a blessing in disguise. After I won, I had to kind of take a step back and look at the big picture at what I wanted to be in life. And I knew that gymnastics was obviously a huge part of my life, but I knew it wouldn’t be my entire life. I knew I had to go to school, I needed to get a good job. So there were certain things I needed to do in order to make myself happy in the long run, and coming to school just seemed like the best thing for me.

BLYTHE: I see. And did the cost of college play a role in that decision?

BRIDGET: Um, not really. Just because if I would have gone professional and taken money, I would have gone to an in-state school. And since I didn’t, I knew that wherever I was going to go, I was going to get a good college career, a good gymnastics life, a good education. I knew it would all be in one package.

BLYTHE: Now you are here in Florida, and your family is still in Indianapolis, right?

BRIDGET: Yes.

BLYTHE: Do you miss them? Have you had any homesickness since coming to college?

BRIDGET: Um, I think the longest period of homesickness was for about two hours.

BLYTHE: [laughs]

BRIDGET: I go through these weird brief periods where I’m like oh man, I really miss my dogs, I really miss my brother, I really miss my parents or my sister. But two hours is about as long as it lasts, and then I realize what a great life I have here. And it’s like, what am I thinking? I have sunshine every day. I don’t have to scrape my car in the morning to get the ice off the windshield. You know there’s all these little things here in Florida that just make me so excited that I do not miss being in Indiana if I was in Indiana. I remember waking up early in the morning and having to go to practice and having my dad start my car 20 minutes early just to get the frost off the car. I don’t have to deal with that here at Florida and it kind of makes me realize how happy I am here.

BLYTHE: [laughs]. I wanted to go back and talk about the Beijing Olympics a little bit. And I realize that’s kind of a little bit ago now. Tell me about the city of Beijing when you guys got there. I understand the athletes were given pollution maps and things like that? And did you share any of those fears about pollution? There was actually a study that came out a couple days ago in which it measured the air levels in Beijing. And they were very alarming, even for… we knew it was bad, but it was even worse than everybody had expected.

BRIDGET: You know honestly when we were there and we obviously were told, you know, the pollution might be something to think about, we really didn’t think about it at all. I mean we rarely spent a whole lot of time outside simply because we’re gymnasts, we spend our time in the gym. I mean I’m pretty sure I’ve spent more time in a gym than I’ve spent outside. And it’s kind of crazy to think like that. But as gymnasts we’re kind of programed. We go to the gym, we work out, we do our skills, we come back. And that’s what we did when we were in Beijing. We didn’t really.. I know I didn’t personally think about the air at all just because there were so many other things going on that I think I was almost too young to realize what was going on around me. And I guess when I was there it was just kind of I’m here, I’m at the Olympic Games, I’m about to compete for my country, I’m going to do the best that I can possibly do, and nothing is going to really stop me or stop my team. So the air pollution wasn’t really a huge concern. I know my parents thought about it just because they were more the tourists when they were there. Obviously they went to all of our competitions, but they got to do a lot more touristy things I guess I could say. So I think they would be more likely to talk about it just because I haven’t been paying attention to what’s been going on around the world today and – this is going to sound bad – but I wasn’t paying a whole lot of attention to the pollution when I was there. I know for the sports that performed outside it was definitely a concern, but for the sports that were inside all the time it wasn’t really a huge concern. Just because personally, I didn’t notice it. But I was also very oblivious to things, so.

BLYTHE: Well, you had other things to think about.

BRIDGET: Yes. [laughs]

BLYTHE: It’s very understandable. And since that Olympic Games there was this reversal with the 2000 Olympic team being awarded the bronze medal 10 years after their Olympics. And it brought up all of these things about speculation that maybe some of the Chinese gymnasts were too young in Beijing. And they looked very young of course. And I have to ask, do you think someday your silver medal might turn into a gold one? As things sort of come out and the years roll past.

BRIDGET: Uhh…. It definitely could. I kind of want to know what the 2000 team was thinking when they were over there. But obviously time will tell no matter what. If our medal was to turn into gold, great. If it’s not, we still have a silver medal. We still have an Olympic medal which is an incredible achievement and an incredible accomplishment. Either way, I’m very happy with the outcome from the 2008 Olympics, but obviously if our silver was to be turned into gold it would definitely be a great day.

BLYTHE: And this is going to be the hardest question of the interview, I think. But I was watching some video and I was watching the 2009 American Cup in preparation for this interview. And at the American Cup, Marta Karolyi is seen on NBC telling you, “Now that you’ve lost some weight, you don’t do so bad.” It seems like it’s kind of a taboo subject to talk to gymnasts about their weight, after some of the bad things that happened in the 80s and 90s. And I just wanted to ask you about that, was that the first time she talked to you about your weight?

BRIDGET: Actually, yes. But personally you know talking about weight, it’s a whole personal level. There are some coaches I know that are on their gymnasts and their athletes about their weight all the time. Me personally, Marvin and I had a great relationship. And my parents raised me very well and I lived a very healthy life. When I think about food and stuff it was always very healthy food. So I honestly never had to think about my weight. But obviously after the 2008 Olympics I did take some time off and I kind of grew up and turned into a mat… well, I like to think of myself as a mature female athlete. But you know, that’s arguable. But being an athlete there obviously are times when you have to look at yourself and say, “how can I better myself?” And it really depends on your mindset and what you want to do. And for me, losing a little bit of weight definitely helped me. But I was definitely not out of control. I didn’t do anything crazy or make any drastic changes in my life. It was just more so to better myself and make myself the best athlete I could be. And in 2009 that was a great year for me, so I was just trying to make myself the best that I could possibly be.

BLYTHE: 2009 was a fantastic year. I was just watching your performances at the World Championships, at the US Championships, you were just on fire. And then, going into the 2009 Worlds, and it felt like it was you and Rebecca Bross, and one of the two of you would take the title, and it wound up being you, but it was a fantastic performance for the US team and after that, how did you—you had really been to the pinnacle, you had been on the Olympic team and now you’d had this wonderful individual success. Did you take some time off to breathe, after that, or did you enjoy what the past two years had brought you?

BRIDGET: I did. You know, after every big competition, luckily with the elite, we only had a few competitions a year, and our big competitions, our major competitions, were almost always in the October, September-October time. Championships were always in August, but Worlds was always normally October, so we were able to—at least, I was always able to a little bit of time off, maybe a month or two absolute tops, and that was not necessarily taking time off from gymnastics, but taking time off from doing routines. I think the max time I ever took off from not going into the gym was three weeks, and it was really hard because I got super bored. But taking some time off and getting to do appearances, it was a lot of fun, and it kind of made me appreciate just how great of a corporation I was with. You know, USA Gymnastics is an absolute great organization, and they have done so much for each and every athlete who is a part of the USAG, and being able to do, you know, a few fun things—I know I got to go to New York and do some interviews, and, you know, being able to take a step back and just realize how awesome your life is, is kind of something I was able to do after 2009. And obviously I went right back into the gym a few weeks later, but it was kind of nice to just spend time with my family and be a kid. Normally gymnasts accomplish really great things at a young age, so they kind of have to take a step back and realize, you’re only 16 years old or 17 years old, and in my case I was 17 years old when I won in 2009, and it was just kind of like, wow. At age 17, I just won a World Championships. At age 16, I went to the Olympics. Like, it was just absolutely incredible to me to accomplish such great things at such a young age, and it was nice, after each major competition, to just kind of take a step back and realize and appreciate what I was able to accomplish.

BLYTHE: Absolutely. And then after that, 2010, 2011, some injuries, and some setbacks because of injury. How did you deal with that? Because I don’t remember, in your elite career, up to that point, you really having to deal with any injury.

BRIDGET: Right. I was very, very lucky. My coach, Marvin, and—I cannot thank St. Vincent’s Sports Performance Center enough for keeping me together. Darrell Barnes is who I saw almost every day, he’s basically like a father to me. And 2010, I did have an injury. 2011, I also had another injury, so it was something that I wasn’t used to, but at the same time it was something that was going to happen, you know. Gymnastics is a sport where injuries do happen. You have little things here and there. But I guess I was just very lucky to have gone almost 17 years without having any major injuries, except—I know I had a surgery in 2008, in March of 2008 I had my knee worked on, but that was actually my biggest injury until that, until then. So I was just very lucky to have such a healthy body, and I can thank my parents for keeping me together mentally. I can thank Darrell Barnes for keeping me together physically. I can thank Marvin for everything. He really helped me. He helped me shape who I am today. I definitely would not be where I am today without his help. I would not have accomplished everything without his help, so he is definitely a major impact in my life along with my parents, my family and my friends back home who were able to keep me sane and a teenager, so that when I went to the gym I was a gymnast, and it was kind of nice to have that. And the injuries, obviously, they do happen, but it’s the mindset where you’re able to work forward and keep a positive attitude. With every injury I had, there were always those little moments where I was like, “Man, is this when I’m supposed to just cut the cord and call it quits?” And then it would be like, somebody would smack on the head and go, “Wake up. You’re not done.” And it was nice to have people like Darrell Barnes, like my parents, like Marvin, who were able to keep my spirits high, because obviously, when you’re in a sling after I had my shoulder surgery—I had never been in a sling in my life, and when I was in a sling for two months, it was like, “Excuse me? What?” And it was kind of eye-opening to me to think that I wasn’t able to use my arm, but I was still able to exercise and still able to do things, and that was kind of what made me realize I still wanted to keep going and there was nothing that was going to stop me.

BLYTHE: It seems like, in the last couple of years, you’ve pulled out some incredible performances after not having too much time to train because of injuries, and I’m talking about, you know, Pan Ams, when you did that thing to your toe and kind of split it open, or even the 2010 Worlds, and yet when the lights came down and the judges saluted you, you would go out and you would put on this performance that just really kind of made people’s jaws drop, because you looked like, you know, it was just like, oh, yeah, there’s no problem here.

BRIDGET: That is—I can honestly answer that because I had the mindset that, it didn’t matter how many routines I did beforehand, I knew in my mind that I could do it, and Marvin prepared me the proper way that I was feeling as good as I could that day, and I had done as many routines as I could to preform that day, and I’m—you know, I’m a competitor. When I get out onto the floor and am in front of a crowd, I know that it is my time to do my routine. I’m going to hit this routine, because I know I can. And I’m going to hit this routine, because my team depends on me. And having a team depend on you really kind of changes the game from, I’m not just doing this for myself but I’m doing this for my team. And obviously nobody ever wants to let down their team or let themselves down, let a coach down, so having that mindset of, “I’m going to do this because my team depends on me, because my coach depends on me, and because I want to do it for myself.” You know, when you’re out there in front of a crowd, you really just have to kind of grit your teeth and say, “No matter what is hurting me right now, it’s not going to get in the way of this routine.” So that’s kind of what I did after 2009, after I won in 2009 and then I started having these injuries, it kind of made me realize that if I really wanted to do this, if I really wanted to keep competing, I could if I thought positive and made sure that Marvin and I communicated. Communication was definitely key in my training, and being able to talk to him and make sure that if I was a little sore that day, maybe I’d drop the number down to instead of six, maybe I’d do four really good ones, instead of six really good ones. And it was kind of that communication that would helped me get to where I was supposed to be, and peak at that right time.

BLYTHE: I see. And how do you feel now, after three weeks of college meets? How is your body holding up? It’s a little different from having to prepare for World Championships, where it’s that one ten-day stretch.

BRIDGET: Right. It’s definitely been an adjustment, but I’m slowly figuring out that you need a little bit of recovery time after each meet, but it’s been a good change, and I’ve been able to kind of take each meet, relax a little bit after each meet, and then kind of get back into my routine. I was doing really good, you know, first semester, I figured out my training schedule, my school schedule, and I got into a routine. Well, now that we’re competing, I kind of have to change my routine, my daily routine and my weekend routine, but I’m still able to keep going and keep moving forward because, you know, competing three weekends in a row is like, wow. I don’t even remember the last time I competed three weekends in a row. But I’m slowly figuring out that, you know, when it comes Saturday, and we just had a home meet Saturday, I’m going to relax, I’m going to do homework, I’m going to just kind of chill, maybe talk to my parents and tell them how I’m doing, and then come back, on Sunday we have practice and it’s kind of like I’m recharged. And it definitely been a change, but it’s been a really good change, and I’m slowly figuring it out.

BLYTHE: Ok. And one thing that Florida, we kind of noticed over the last few years, is they come out very strong at the beginning of the season, and you guys almost always look like the team to beat at the NCAAs, and sometimes, because of injuries or what have you, it seems to drop off a little bit midseason and come back a little stronger towards the end of the season, for SECs, for NCAAs. And I’m just wondering how you guys are planning to peak yourselves, so that you peak right at the right time, around the NCAA Championships.

BRIDGET: You know, right now, we’re really just training like we would for any other meet. I know Rhonda, Rob, and Adrian talk constantly about the planning and it’s more of a trust in the coaches, you have to put into, in order to have a good season, and I know Florida might have, you know, we come so close sometimes, but at the same time, it’s having the trust in your coaches and realizing that they know what they’re talking about, they’re going to put the best people in at that right time, and again, as a freshman, I’m definitely putting my full trust in the coaches and in my team and we’ll just kind of see how the year goes, right now we’re definitely doing great, we’ve had a few mistakes here and there, but I think personally that it is great to get those out in the beginning so that by the time SECs and NCAAs come around, we’ll be, you know. We’ll be almost perfect. We’ll be ready. Our mind will be ready, we’ll be physically ready, our coaches have, you know, they do a great job with us every day, and they understand that school comes first, but at the same time, when we’re in the gym, we are gymnasts. When we walk out of the gym, we’re back to being students. So its definitely been an awesome, awesome season so far, and I think it’ll be a really great year for us.

BLYTHE: Ok. And, you know, a few weeks ago we interviewed Valorie Kondos-Field at UCLA, and she told us that several of her gymnasts are thinking about staying and competing through the 2016 Olympics, and we ask just about every elite that we have on the show, are you really done? Are you really done? Is there no chance you might come back?

BRIDGET: I’m pretty sure that my elite career is over, but you never know. I mean, I could come back and be 24 years old and just feel great and call up Marvin and be like, “Hey, you want to try again?” But [LAUGHS] I don’t know about that. We’ll kind of take it day by day and see how I feel, but coming to college I knew that I didn’t want to do elite and college, so as of right now, I’ve kind of closed the book on elite and I’m pretty much sticking with college, but again, you never know what’s going to happen, and I could come back, and you might see me again.

BLYTHE: Elite and college would be very, very difficult.

BRIDGET: Yes.

BLYTHE: Going just back to the 2012 Olympics process, did you have any regrets? I know it didn’t end so well for you at Trials.

BRIDGET: I do not. You know, I took a year off of school knowing that there’s always the possibility that something’s going to happen. Gymnastics is one of those sports. We…it’s almost like you take a risk every day. And when I was at Trials, and after I hurt my elbow and realized that I was done-done, at least for a good period of time, it was hard to digest at first, and then I realized, I have nothing that I would change. The memories that I have and the medals that I’ve earned and the experience I’ve had, that I’ve gotten to let my parents in on, and my family…it’s overwhelming to think about, but at the same time, it’s such a joy. You know, 2012 might not have been the absolute best year for me, but in the end I was able to end my elite career knowing that I would have the next four years be, you know, the best time of my life. People always say college will be the best four years of your life, and so far, I agree with them 100%. College has been amazing, and the team that I’m on, it’s just…it’s an incredibly group of girls, an incredibly staff, everybody that comes into the gym, we all know that they’re rooting for the Gators and it’s just awesome to be a part of such a legacy and a dynasty like that.

BLYTHE: Why did you decide on Florida, by the way? I’m sure you could have gone anywhere.

BRIDGET: There was just something about the campus here. Maybe it was the sunshine, and maybe it was the palm trees, maybe it was the great coaching staff or the team, but there was just a lot here at Florida that just I absolutely loved. And, you know, taking my visits, I went to the University of Georgia and the University of Utah, and I could honestly see myself at all three schools, but when I came on to the campus here at the University of Florida, there was just something about it that made me said, I can definitely see myself here. And it was one of those moments where I just walked on and said, I feel like I’m meant to be here. And when I walked on to the campus at UGA and at Utah, I loved it, there was nothing bad I could say about both, either schools, but when I walked on here at UF, it was like I was supposed to be here. There was something, even though orange might not be my most favorite color, there was something here that just said, you should definitely make your way here. The dorms are calling you. So, making my decision to come to here has been one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.

BLYTHE: Awesome. And just, I have two last questions. They are actually from our Twitter fans, we say, “We’re interviewing Bridget Sloan, what do you want to ask her?” And the first question is, somebody said, “who is your best friend on the National Team?”

BRIDGET: Well, I have a lot of friends, I’m a very friendly person, so my best friends on the National Team would definitely be Alicia Sacramone for sure, the bond I have been able to create with her, you know, I’ve been able to talk to here, even in Florida. Samantha Peszek has also been a really close friend of mine and a teammate that I have kept in contact with, but really everyone on the National Team is still an impact on my life. They did something where it was like, we are going to be friends for the rest of our lives. But I guess my two best friends that were on the National Team were Samantha Peszek and Alicia Sacramone.

BLYTHE: Cool. And second question, how did you decide to keep certain of your elite skills, and do you play around with any fun skills in the gym?

BRIDGET: Keeping my elite skills was just always something that I wanted to do. When I came to college, talking about my routines with the coaches, with Rhonda, with Rob, with Adrian, it was kind of like, we could put all of my skills on a piece of paper, put them in a hat, and draw. And there were just certain skills that I absolutely love doing, and it was fun to play around with my routines and what I was going to do, and luckily I have enough skills that I could kind of change my routines here and there and put different skills in, switch them in and out, and that’s just kind of something that I love doing, and I’ve always been someone who likes to switch their routines around here and there, and coming to college I didn’t want to change that, so when I got here, I was able to sit down and kind of pick apart my routines and pick out the skills that I loved the most, and kind of make the best college routine possible.

BLYTHE: Cool. Oh, and I’m seeing a third Twitter question here. What is something you are excited to do in college that you could never do as an elite, gymnastics-related or not?

BRIDGET: Going to the football games, or really any athletic event here at college, has been so exciting. It’s been so different for me to be part of a college and have that college experience and go to the football games and go to the basketball games, and I’ll be sure to make an appearance and go to a baseball game, go to a lacrosse game, go to a—I’ve been to a swim meet already, but I’ll go to another one, and I definitely think the sporting events here, they’re so much fun, and I want to be a part of it.

BLYTHE: Nice. Well Bridget, thank you so much for taking the time to speak with us today. Is there anything else you would like to add?

BRIDGET: Just, Go Gators!
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SPANNY: We have experienced a fun week here in the NCAA this week. I’m just going to pick a couple of things to focus on assuming we have either all had a chance to watch the meets or read about scores.You don’t need the rundown from me. I’m going to start with the Quote of the Week. This is from the Florida meet. “Is that something you see often in collegiate gymnastics?” What are they talking about? Could it be a full in, double layout? It’s the perfect ten. Macko’s perfect ten. We never ever ever ever see 10s in NCAA gymnastics, now do we? Yeah the announcers tried to make it seem like that was the first time in history ever. Oddball Leotard of the Week goes to Nebraska. If you remember the Kristen Maloney all around in 2000, it was half that kind of tinfoil, half a kind of shiny deep red, a black stripe in the middle and then a swimsuit open back. It was just bizarre. Unexpected Choreography of the Week. I’m so used to just bashing on everybody’s routines that it was a very pleasant surprise: Kaylyn Millick from West Virginia. It was a clean and crisp and innovative routine. You kind of zone out while you’re watching some of these b-teams and she just showed up and I actually really loved her routine. Best Beam Music.

TIM: I have a question about that though. Did she also do the shotgun? Did she have the shotgun sound in her routine?

[inaudible]

SPANNY: ….wildly inappropriate for being from West Virginia. You know the LSU Tiger girls will have the tiger roar or whatever

JESSICA: Isn’t West Virginia the school where the guy went in and shot everybody? Or was that Virginia Tech? That was West Virginia right?

TIM: Virginia Tech.

JESSICA: Virginia Tech. Ok same state. Different school.

SPANNY: Regardless, I just don’t think that’s necessary. Especially when it’s really pretty balletic music. It’s like ok I’m in position but when my music starts it’s “ba-boom.” Now we’re off and running. There was a discussion on Twitter about why it was what it was.

JESSICA: Does it have something to do with their mascot? Are they like the hunters or something?

SPANNY: I don’t remember. Best Beam Music. As we know, most home teams, the gymnasts will pick out a routine, or music for their beam routine. Georgia Dabritz uses John Mayer’s “Why Georgia”. I thought that was cheeky. Unless she falls in the routine. And then it becomes awkward. Leadoff of the Week goes to Lindsey Cheek from Georgia. Just solid on all routines. To be able to lead off Georgia seems like a daunting task. Speaking of Georgia, the team also gets my overscore of the week. I’ll always be eternally complaining about their scores but this one really was bad. Tanella on floor. First of all, I’m so impressed at the shape she’s in and the energy level she’s had this season. It’s like watching an entirely different gymnast. That said, she did a Barani to stag jump and she all but landed out of bounds. You could see from halfway through the tumbling pass that this wasn’t going to pan out for her. You know, it was a step out of bounds and it was obviously off center and there were other deductions. She still got a 9.9! And no out of bounds deduction! Kevin Copp, the announcer, didn’t say anything about it because there was no flag. Apparently it would have been a 10.0 routine had she not wildly landed out of bounds. And miraculously, Georgia got the exact number to reach the 197 they were determined to get.

JESSICA: And I just want to say about this, some people think that when we talk about this stuff that we’re like blaming the gymnasts. I was talking to somebody and I was like why would you ever think that? The gymnast just does their routine. They have nothing to do with it. It was kind of pissing me off. Like, I don’t usually let this kind of stuff piss me off. The gymnast is not who we’re talking about. It’s the judges and for whatever reason the floor person is supposed to put the flag up didn’t put it up. That’s who we’re talking about. This has nothing to do with Tanella. So that’s it. I just want to [makes noise].

SPANNY: In very few situations, do I actually have a personal thing against a gymnast or anything they do. It’s subjective. It’s everything around them. So please don’t take it personally. And Jess, I believe you also have a couple of things.

JESSICA: So I was watching Kytra Hunter’s 9.9 beam routine, and her routine is just amazing. She would have had a 10 if she had not shuffled her dismount and I also love that leo. I love the leo that looks like they’re wearing a second skin. It’s black and had little purple sparkles on the arm and neck, and I totally love it!

SPANNY: Sorry was that from last night?

JESSICA: Yeah.

SPANNY: I didn’t think it was very pink but I appreciate the simplicity.

JESSICA: Exactly. I can’t stand the whole pink thing. It makes me actually angry because I feel like it’s a giant waste of money. If you’re trying to fight cancer, then how about you donate the money you spent on those ugly leotards to research or to handing out fliers to show people how to do a self-breast exam. It makes me so freaking angry. Just wear one piece of pink. You don’t have to turn the whole place pink. It pisses me off. Anyway, I could go on and on about that. No, I will go on and on about this. I just want to say that this is like the Lance Armstrong rubber bands. It started off that if you bought those, the money actually went towards cancer research which is fantastic. That’s like the only good thing about him. But now we have this whole thing where people buy and wear your pink t shirt and wear this and wear that and none of the money goes towards fighting cancer. It totally defeats the whole purpose and it pisses me off. Anywho, I’m fired up this morning. This is one thing. I was watching the Alabama Georgia meet and the Dads lead the YMCA before the last rotation which is cute. But I always wondered. I just think it’s weird that gymnastics always has so much involvement from the parents. I think it’s really weird because these are adults. They’re not children. I’m always wondering whose parents can live in the same city where you go to college or can afford to fly in to every single home meet. I just feel like it leaves people out and I was wondering what about the people from another country. It always kind of bothers me that they do that kind of stuff. Maybe that’s just me. Am I the only one to ever think that?

SPANNY: No I always wonder. And with Florida, they have the creepy heads that they put on the stick and they make dance around. They’re gigantic so whoever is sitting behind Macko’s mom who has got a huge cut out of her daughter’s head, now two daughters heads, is SOL because they’re stuck behind the big dancing head of one of the competing gymnasts that they came to try and watch. That always seemed bizarre and a little over the top to me. That said, it’s a parent’s pride.

JESSICA: Yeah I mean I love the idea of Dads leading everyone in the YMCA. It’s just the idea of them having to be Dads and actually getting there. That part. From the LSU Alabama meet, Sarah DeMeo, I’m just in love with her. She is just gorgeous. Her gymnastics is gorgeous. And she is just looking amazing. On bars, she’s doing a layout full out stuck it. Double pike dismount off beam. Double pike!!! Hello! It’s been like ‘97 since we’ve seen that kind of stuff in NCAA in gymnastics. I feel like NCAA has gone watered down in the last two years. And people are finally starting to do three series and four series on beam again. But let me just tell you, giving DeMeo techno floor music is criminal. It is criminal. I am issuing a gymnastics citation to Alabama. Officially, I would make a gymnastics citizen arrest if I could. It’s disgusting. It’s an atrocity. It’s a crime against humanity. I did really appreciate the girl from Alabama who had a hickey on her neck and did a bar routine with a hickey. I swear they got a close up of that on purpose. And she definitely tried to cover it up with some make up. We’ve all been there. I felt for her. It was funny and she had a great attitude about it. She was like yes I know my hickey’s on tv. I’m gonna rock this bar routine right now and you can all suck it. So that was fantastic. Jessica Savona from Canada is killing it, killing it! She looks amazing. Seriously, I swear to God, it looks like her gymnastics is in fast forward when she tumbles. She is doing the Yetsova on bars, Barani backwards to the low bar. It’s so freaking cool. Did someone from Oregon do that before? It’s rare to see that in NCAA. She’s also doing a 2.5 into a double back on floor as her first pass. She’s doing a full in and a double pike in that routine. It might a 1.5 to a double back in that first pass but it’s freaking awesome. I’m putting it out there right now that she’s going to be in floor finals in April.

TIM: So we haven’t talked about men’s NCAA gymnastics very much. If you haven’t been watching, which you can’t really watch because there are no live streams, but to get you up to date. Penn State has been posting some of the biggest scores every week but Stanford, Oklahoma, and Michigan are coming on strong as well. So it’ll be interesting at the end of the year and as of today, Sam Mikulak has not competed as of yet which could also garner a few extra tenths for Michigan here and there. To talk about a couple of the men’s NCAA routines, I have a theme which is Death. Just because if you’ve ever watched NCAA men’s gymnastics, there are sometimes some scary moments. But sometimes, there are good ones too. And the first one I’m calling “Le Petit Moi” and this goes to Ellis Mannon of the University of Minnesota. And on high bar, he does a very different dismount. If you watched the Olympics, you saw a lot of double twisting double layouts. But he does a double tuck forward so front double tuck with 1.5 twists which is super interesting. Question for you guys. What do you think that dismount is worth?

JESSICA: It’s gotta be like an F.

SPANNY: It’s probably not anything. It’s probably like a D. And it’s woefully undervalued.

TIM: Yes, it’s a D. Then my near death goes to Adrian Evans on rings. He was competing and he was going for his dismount and his hand slipped off the ring and he actually was able to do a double back out of it even though his hand slipped off the ring. And he did a double back. And the coach in me just came out when I saw that happening. I was like MOTHER TRUCKER. I like ran and put my arms out like I could save him through the computer screen. It was actually kind of entertaining. And my final one is called death wish. And it goes to Landon Funicello of William and Mary. Let me set this up for you. The Gymnastike clip tells you what the vault is going to be. It’s going to be a Tsuk full tuck. And you see, before Landon ever gets to the vault, you see the coach crouching down on the mat and in my head I’m thinking oh no this can’t be good. The coach is there for the gymnast’s safety. In my head, Chopin’s funeral march is going through my head. [hums Funeral March] Then he does a Tsuk double back and thankfully lands on his feet, his chest really low and everything. Then his teammates are being all bros and cheering and yelling. I feel like they’re cheering about the fact that he actually landed on his feet rather than that he did a really good vault. It’s a sad day when you’re cheering for somebody who landed on his feet. I feel like he probably needs a couple more numbers in the gym so that vault becomes a little more consistent. So those are my three routines that I’d like to highlight this week.

JESSICA: We will for sure put these up because every single one of these I watch and every one I either gasp out loud or clutch my heart while I was watching these. Then I made my husband watch. They’re excellent picks. Alright Spanny. What’s happening with listener feedback?

SPANNY: We got great feedback on our prevention of rips discussion from last week. A couple of people wrote us to say that they’re secret to rip prevention and treatment is Preparation H, the butt cream. Which I guess makes sense if it brings down inflammation, I don’t know. Allison Taylor wrote us and used the hashtag #buttcreampower. And then it was backed up by several different people who tweeted us and were like guess what I use? Butt cream. Interesting. So if you’re having a problem with rips, buy some Preparation H.

JESSICA: We also had somebody on the website put a link to an ancient Chinese remedy which is you take an egg and you pull the membrane and you use that as a replacement for the skin. So you put it on top of the rip. That’s actually genius. That’s what it is. That’s probably the closest to real skin. Very interesting. I never thought about that.
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ALLISON TAYLOR: This episode is brought to you by Elite Sportz Band. elitesportzband.com. We’ve got your back.
–

JESSICA: Visit elitesportzband.com, that’s sportz with a z and save $5 on your next purchase using the code Gymcast. That’s it for us this week. I want to mention one thing. I listen to this show called Girl on Guy which is Aisha Tyler who does a show called The Talk. But in real life she’s like a super nerdy, punk rock, video playing awesome, like I just love her. She’s a comedian. She does a think called the apologia at the end of every episode. And sometimes there’s something that bothers me that I keep going over in my head and I want to mention something about it before the next episode because I wonder if other people are thinking the same thing that I’m thinking. So I’m going to do one of those this week and that is that last week we talked about Bekah’s gym blog, vlog that she’s doing and I’m really enjoying. She’s doing a really great job and she’s putting clips in there of the videos. You have to do that. That’s the whole point. And I was thinking about IG’s video log that they’re doing but they don’t have any video clips. And are people going to think I’m totally hating on them? But the thing about IG (Inside Gymnastics) is that they have money and they would get in big copyright trouble if they did the same thing that somebody like Bekah, who I’m assuming doesn’t have a ton of money to go after, if they were to take all the clips. I mean they would have to a) pay for all the clips to put them up there which maybe they don’t have in their budget to do and Bekah doesn’t. It’s one of those things that unless it’s put out there for free on YouTube by the school, it’s a copyright issue. So I just want Evan to know that I really enjoyed your second episode and you’re super cute and please tweet more pictures of you with your shirt off. Because we all enjoyed those very much. Did you see his Halloween costume? He’s totally still rocking a six pack. Oh yeah you should totally check it out. Anywho, that’s my apologia for the week. We have a Gym Nerd Challenge of the Month. We’re trying to come up with gym fan challenges. Gym Nerd Challenge of the Month is to take someone’s gymnastics meet virginity. That’s right. We want you to take a friend to a gymnastics meet who has never been before and then send us a pic. This is my friend and I’m trying to make them into a fan. And here we are at this gymnastics meet. Take them to an NCAA meet. Take them to a level 7 meet. Take them to a level 10 meet. That’s our challenge for you. We’re trying to grow the sport and get more fans. Remember you can always find us on Twitter or Facebook and you can always email us at gymcastic@gmail.com. You can leave us a message on Gym Line. You can ask us anything on Gymline. It’s 415-800-3191. Or you can find us on Skype and call us that way. It’s GymCastic Podcast is the name. You can support the show by checking out our shop online where you can shop through Powell’s bookstore for regular gymnastics books or through Amazon. And we love iTunes reviews. Thank you to everyone who’s done that. It really helps us out. So for GymCastic, I’m Jessica O’Beirne from masters-gymnastics.com.

BLYTHE: I’m Blythe from the Gymnastics Examiner

SPANNY: Spanny Tampson from Spanny’s Big Fake Smile

TIM: And Uncle Tim from Uncle Tim Talks Men’s Gym

JESSICA: See ya next week!

[[EXIT MUSIC: “That’s Not My Name” by the Ting Tings]]

Episode 17 Transcript
LENA: Everybody had a little serving of caviar there. I mean you could eat it or not eat it, but the fact is, it was there.
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[[INTRO MUSIC]]

JESSICA: This week, an interview with Lena Degteva about growing up in the Soviet system in the 80s, our NCAA picks of the week, and cures for rips.

ALLISON TAYLOR: Hey gymnasts, Elite Sportz Band is a cutting edge compression back warmer that can protect your most valued asset: your back. I’m Allison Taylor on behalf of Elite Sports Band. Visit elitesportzband.com. We’ve got your back.
–

JESSICA: This is episode 17 for January 23rd. I am Jessica O’Beirne.

SPANNY: I’m Spanny Tampson

UNCLE TIM: I’m Uncle Tim

JESSICA: And this is the best and only gymnastics talk show in the world, starting with the top news stories from around the world. The first news comes out of Australia. They’re hosting the Olympic Youth Festival. Australia, Great Britain, and China and New Zealand competed. Australia got to have two teams, one from the west and one from the east. And it sounds like it was a fun competition. It was good to see kind of the up and comers. But basically there was no Komova, so, meh. That was my feeling from reading about it. And I don’t know, you watched one of the routines, Spanny, what did you think?

SPANNY: Yeah, Catherine Lyons on beam. She’s a gorgeous gymnast. The skills are kind of eh, she loses some form on split leaps. But she does an incredible front scale, kind of like Mattie does on beam, she does the front scale directly into she holds her foot up into that full turn. The kind of foot up by her head. Just really gorgeous presentation. It’s gorgeous, but then she went into a moment where she did a butt shelf and wrist flicks at the same time, and I had a rage stroke. But it’s a beautiful routine. If you know, younger innovative gymnasts. See different stuff. So it’s worth it to take a peek at.

JESSICA: Cool. The Couch Gymnast has full coverage and a break down, so you can check it out on their site. Uncle Tim, what do you have?

UNCLE TIM: Well this past week, Catalina Ponor – a video of her doing a double layout dismount off of beam emerged. And it looked pretty good until I watched it frame by frame and it looked like it would have been a giant face plant. But still it’s good to see that somebody’s trying to push the envelope. And I think Spanny has some more commentary on it.

SPANNY: Yes. So there’s been rumor for years that Armine from GAGE has she’s had a claim that she did the double layout off beam, or at least trained it.

JESSICA: And we should say she’s doing… Ponor is doing this into the pit. Just so, yeah.

SPANNY: Yeah, mats on it. Was it mats?

JESSICA: I think so.

SPANNY: So discussion on the Russian… there’s a Russian gymnastics message board. Someone there, I don’t have a name, but claims to have trained at Round Lake at the same time. Not unlike our interviewee this week. I believe the quote was the position, it would have been like a ring leap, or like a sheep jump position. It was a sheep jump position going backward. That was her “layout.” And that it was no way credible. It was never completed. It was never done onto surface. So this, if Ponor were to do this, it would legitimately be the first one done. So I don’t know if that dispels rumors about “oh double layout off beam in the 80s,” but it was quoted as being a sheep jump double back.

JESSICA: Ooh, when we have Armine on the show, we’re totally going to ask her about that. We will have to… seriously. And it should be noted that we don’t know when this video is from. So it could be 10 years old, it could be from last week. Like it doesn’t have, you know, we don’t know when she was doing it. But it’s really cool to see because really people have been talking about this for years and debating if it’s possible. And it looks like it is possible. From this video it looks like it is possible. You’d have to be about four feet tall, but yes, it does look possible. Except I do have to make this point. Because I was talking to a gymnast about this earlier this week, and she brought up something really interesting which actually makes a case for older gymnasts doing this skill. And that is, if you have your weight in your hips, it’s harder to flip a double layout. But if you have your weight in your chest, so if you have boobs, it’s easier to do it. And yeah, I had never really thought about it that way before, but it really actually makes sense. So yeah it kind of does. So it makes the case for an older, taller gymnast being able to do this like Ponor. So just throwing it out there. The physics of boobs for gymnastics.

SPANNY: And I think everyone’s kind of craving new skills. Real quick too, McKayla Skinner with her double twisting double layout on floor onto the hard surface. People are like “oh form, ugh.” It’s just kind of cool to see it being done. Regardless of whether or not it’s every competition ready, you know, we complain about having so many “oh another full in double back” or something that we’ve been seeing for 20 years, it’s really cool to just see the new skills in real life.

JESSICA: Another thing that’s in the news that I found newsworthy was that Beth Tweddle, you know she’s in that skating show, there’s a story about her and wedgies. Of course it was a from a very serious news source. High profile. Almost like the New York Times in the UK kind of magazine [laughs]. And they interviewed her about wedgies. And she was like well I asked about my costume and I was worried about this because she’s like wedgies are the worst and you’re not allowed to pick them and all this stuff. And so she said that in ice skating, you always wear tights right? So she’s talking about why you don’t get wedgies in ice skating. So she says you wear tights under your leotard and you have these tiny hooks on them to keep the costume on. It’s very clever. And I was like this is genius! Like why can’t you invent something like this. Oh, because you can’t wear tights, and you can’t you know. And I was also like well you’re not supposed to land on your butt in ice skating, but like you know you can slide and roll and stuff like that on your butt in gymnastics. Especially on beam. So you wouldn’t want to like cut yourself with these tiny hooks. And like, do they only go on the hip? Are they on the crotch too? That could be very dangerous in gymnastics. But it seems like something other than butt glue could be invented because obviously butt glue does not always work. Speaking of butts, the other thing she says which I like in that interview is she said, “I know it sounds strange, but I really like my bum. It’s small and a nice shape, and it’s a product of 20 years of gymnastics. So I’m proud of it.” And I was like good for you! Yes! One other piece of news in the master’s gymnastics adult gymnastics realm is that Burlington BGs in Ontario, Canada, is once again hosting their fabulous World Masters Gymnastics Championship. And it’s going to be on Saturday, March 9th in Burlington, Ontario. I will put the information up. But this meet looks super fun. And my favorite thing about this meet – they have the rules up, they have all the info on there so you can find that. But my favorite thing about this week is that their motto is “why quit when you can become a master?” And this is my favorite thing about masters competition is that you get to be called a master just because you’re old [laughs]. It’s the best thing ever. So yeah I’ll put the info up and it looks like it’s a fun meet. That place always has a great sense of humor and everything. So with that, let’s find out what’s happening in NCAA with Spanny.

SPANNY: NCAA. Last week was a fun one. UCLA got one of their super outrageous home scores, which people of course were calling “shenanigans.” But as we’ll come to see, other teams are catching up with gigantic scores right away. Florida had kind of a stunning loss to LSU. But we know all that. So we’re going to go over a couple of quick details. Routines and memorable snippets of the week. I’m going to start with “Birds Nest of the Week.” Jessie Jordan, LSU. Like, I saw her hair and it was legit sectors of hair. There was the braids sector and there was the rat tail sector and there was the curls sector. But it wasn’t organized sections. It was, I’ve never seen anything like it. And you know I pay a lot of attention to hair. I… it must have taken her all day. And then she competed on it. It was incredible. And it didn’t go anywhere. I don’t think it had anywhere to go. But, incredible hair. I don’t know whether I’m horrified or really happy. I don’t know, it’s weird. “Ambien of the Week” goes to Michigan’s floor rotation. Pretty much the entire rotation. I’m sorry Michigan. They’re really good routines, they’re just nothing memorable and I dozed off immediately. Then again I’m pregnant, so I always fall asleep.

[LAUGHTER]

SPANNY: “Why Are You Crying” of the week: Florida. They just looked completely defeated before they even started. I mean their very first bar routine, it looked like everyone had a puppy, and the puppies all died at once. An honorable mention to Lloimincia Hall. Although I did read afterwards that her grandfather did pass away and so she had a very legit reason for crying after every event.

JESSICA: Awww

SPANNY: I know. “Quote of the Week” was again from one of the Michigan announcers: “You’d think that tumbling on the beam is just like tumbling on the floor.” Really? Does anybody think that? Oh, this is not… I’m going to call it the “Tease of the Week.” I have another word in mind. CBS All Access and PAC 12 TV. I bought all these different services this month because I really wanted to watch the meets. And as soon as I did, I got scheduled every Friday night for like the next year. So I’m like that’s ok, I’ll be able to watch. I wasn’t able to watch anything. Only thanks to a couple of random streams that people have posted.

JESSICA: So you can’t watch the replay? You can only watch it live even if you pay for it?

SPANNY: It’s impossible. I was able to watch… again obviously Michigan. I was able to watch LSU and Florida. I’ve been slowly coming upon them. I only saw just today I was watching the UCLA Utah meet only because Abomb over at GGMB posted his home video of it. So thank you Abomb for that because I feel silly trying to report on NCAA without having watched the routines. So I’m going to see if CBS, maybe they’re just really slow about uploading.

JESSICA: Unacceptable.

SPANNY: We’ll talk about that next week. “Half Ass Leotard of the Week.” And I’m stealing that term from Uncle Tim and his NCAA bingo because it’s perfect.

JESSICA: Everyone needs to go look at his NCAA bingo on his site. It’s freaking hilarious. It’s Uncle Tim at his absolute best. Oh my gosh I love it.

SPANNY: Yeah, “Half Ass Leotard of the Week” again goes to team Michigan. It’s not because they’re one of the few teams I was able to watch this week. But that’s really, everybody… they’re in good shape, that whole team, but everybody’s bums were like… it was Romania bad.

JESSICA: [gasp]

SPANNY: It was just a bad cut. And then they… other teams had, it’s just you can wear a lower cut, and it’s not unflattering. I just don’t want to see your butt all the time. And finally, “Nice Try Choreography of the Week.” When I was finally able to watch Utah and UCLA, Nansy Damianova from Utah. Ah. Just I mean obviously that whole team gets a lot of attention for their lack of… their floor routines, great tumbling, not so much choreography. So it’s Holle Vise’s old tango music which I love. And I’m like oh tango, you know this is great. So she tried doing that little – I don’t know what they’re called in actual dance, but those little knee kicks – but she looked like she was so doped up that she was just barely moving through them. The whole team, and just on floor, just needs like eight shots of adrenaline. And I think if they really committed to… the choreography is what you make it, you know. But maybe it’s because they’re saving up all that energy for their billion E passes which is great. But I either snooze or laugh uncontrollably during their choreography.

JESSICA: Yeah. Utah just looks kind of bummed out this year. I don’t know what’s up with them. Like I don’t know, they have two good competitors and everyone else just looks like eh. They’re just not into it or something.

SPANNY: Yeah I was really shocked. I mean obviously I think everybody was shocked by their bar rotation. Not just the falls but… again maybe it was that, seeing it from the audience perspective again, because of Abomb’s home video, I could see from across the gym that you can see flexed feet and legs apart. And it didn’t look polished at all. And that’s not… I don’t think that’s something you can really criticize Utah for normally. It’s that usually whether or not they’re boring as sin.

JESSICA: Right. Exactly. Yeah their thing is that they can be totally boring but they’ll be undeductable. You know, that’s always been their go-to. You can always depend on them.

SPANNY: Bekah from… what’s her website’s name? Oh crap, sorry Bekah.

UNCLE TIM: Get a Grip Gym Blog

SPANNY: Yes, thank you. Get a Grip Gym Blog. She started her own NCAA vlog this week. And it’s pretty good.

JESSICA: Yeah.

SPANNY: She’s got a lot of insightful information. It’s just she points out specific routines and her thoughts on them. She used a term for a blanket of teams. But she was like, “they were very midwestern.” And she’s from the midwest, I’m clearly very midwestern, and I wasn’t offended by it. It’s so true. That there are a few teams that are very vanilla. They’re very… midwestern. And it’s palatable, but in the midwest, people think ketchup is spicy.

[LAUGHTER]

SPANNY: And Utah, they seem like they think ketchup is spicy. I don’t know if that makes sense to anybody else. But like it’s all very neat and put together, but it’s just nothing exciting.

JESSICA: Yeah. Speaking of her video blog, I was really impressed with it. Not only impressed because sometimes she can be a little bit harsh on her blog, but I really liked like just her attitude, the way she talked about things. And she put links to the routines. So while she’s talking about it, you can see what she’s talking about. And if you’re doing a video blog, it has to have the visuals. You know it can’t just be you’re looking at you the whole time. So I was really impressed to that. I really liked it. So we’ll put a link to that. And then Uncle Tim, there’s kind of been some like… blah-ery, I’m going to call it blah-ery, in NCAA. Let’s discuss.

UNCLE TIM: So yeah. Last week you guys chatted with Sam. And you talked about some of the more superficial things- the hair, the leotards and stuff. And so I guess what are some of your pet peeves when it comes to the actual gymnastics and dance and the skills? Because I have a bunch when it comes to NCAA gymnastics, but I want to hear your thoughts first.

JESSICA: I’ll start with, I guess on vault I’m sick of seeing yurchenko fulls. I just, I’m sick of it, I’m sick of it, I’m sick of it. You know and this is something that has to be addressed in the rules. Because when you have a team that every single person is doing the exact same vault, you know we’re going to have Super Six and everyone’s doing the same vault, like that’s something that has to be addressed in the rules. And I’m also sick of there being no variety in dismounts on beam, which is another thing that has to be addressed in the rules. I mean if it’s not, it needs to be a harsher deduction. If everyone is doing a layout full, or a “run to the end of the beam, throw yourself sideways, and then do a gainer pike that you can’t stick,” that has to be something that is not up to value. Like on bars it’s not up to the difficulty level. So it should be like a point off of something. Because you could do something more creative that’s harder. You know, I just, ugh.

SPANNY: With the gainer off… to be fair I’ve never done a gainer off the end of the beam, or the side, or anywhere. But the gainer, I can’t think of a more unsightly-er, or just unsavory dismount than a gainer pike off of beam. And again the irony is that some of our best beam workers in the country, who are so lauded for the interior of their beam work, and then they dump off the end of the beam in a pike. And then I’m just like was it a mistake? Was it, I don’t know. Also on beam, I feel this is new this year or if it’s even a thing, but the front aerial to back handspring. And that’s it. That’s the end of the pass. And again I feel so unsatisfied where I’m like wait, what else, there’s more? And nope, that’s your connection. Good luck to you. I say those are my beefs right now.

UNCLE TIM: Gotcha. Well I have a bunch, and some of them emerged in bingo. But definitely the straddle gienger is one.

[LAUGHTER]

UNCLE TIM: Where they do a gienger and then [whoosh] their legs just come apart and it’s you know a straddle gienger. And a thing I observed when I was watching Nebraska was that they do bails. But they don’t do bail to handstand, a lot of them, they just do the shoot over. Which is… I mean it’s a skill. But I think that when you’re going against teams that are doing bail to handstand, it makes your bar routines less difficult. I mean they’re all starting out of 10s, but in order to get to the next level, I think you have to do the bail to handstand. That’s just my opinion though.

JESSICA: Yeah and if you’re doing that, if you’re doing the straddle back-y version of that, not to handstand, of the bail, you need to do something crazy ass hard into it. Like if you’re doing a full twisting gienger and then you do that, then I’m like go on, like that’s great. But if you’re doing just a tkachev into that, oh hell no.

SPANNY: It reminds me, remember Kerri Strug was known – and since then I’ve called them the “dumpy bail” where they just I think, whoever it was, Bart Conner, said she dumped herself over the bar. But it seems like whole teams do it. Again, Nebraska and Ball State. And it becomes progressive where I feel like because they don’t go to handstand, their faces get progressively closer to the bar. And without fail, somebody on that team smacks their face on the bar. Every week. It’s inevitable.

UNCLE TIM: Also the blind full to the double tuck. You know it’s ok if there’s one routine that does it. But I did notice that in Oklahoma’s bar rotation they had two back to back, which just is kind of, I think, I big no no in NCAA routines. So, do you guys agree?

JESSICA: Yeah and you’re a unit. And you are a team. You’re not competing as an individual in NCAA. So the coaches as much as they can should be constructing everyone’s routines to be seen as a unit and not as one individual. Because if you have to put up three people or two people back to back doing the same thing, it just makes you look terrible. It makes you look like you have no depth. And not to mention I’m just sick of the full to the double back. Make it a double pike at least, make like something, throw a little half turn at the end, like anything. That makes you stand out so much because basically it’s almost like compulsories now. On vault it’s compulsories. Everyone’s doing the freaking same vault. So, yeah.

UNCLE TIM: And I think we could say the same about the Rudi or the back one and a half on floor as well. Everyone’s doing it. Some are doing two in the routine. And it’s just like really? I have to watch another Rudi in the same routine? I mean it’s acceptable, you can do it, they’re not getting deductions for it. But I’d like a little more variety there. And the last thing that I noticed last night when I was watching Bridget Sloan’s routine unfortunately is a long sequence of floor choreography, we’ll call it. Where you stay on the floor and you dance and you spin on your butt. And she did like criss cross her legs a bunch. I think you can get away… I mean most people will go down and do a couple things. But when you spend a long time down on the floor and then get up and not hit your next pass, it makes you look like you are not in shape for your routine. And I hate to say it, but that’s kind of probably what the judges are thinking too. So that’s just something to watch for.

SPANNY: I think another athlete who does that is Shayla Worley. And I feel like I can’t criticize because her dance is gorgeous. Like she does… about the same. Where I’m like the better the dance is, the worse the final tumbling pass is going to be. And again last night it was true to form.

UNCLE TIM: For our listeners who didn’t get to see the meet, she did a… her routine was going well, and then she went for her last pass and did a front layout into a botched front tuck basically. She landed on her feet, but it just was not supposed to be done that way.
–

JESSICA: Now we’re going to bring you our interview with Lena Degteva. We’re going to step back in time now, to an era which every gymnastics fan longs for. Lena Degteva trained with the likes of Chusovitina and Olympic champion Tatiana Gutsu at Round Lake in the Soviet gymnastics system in the mid-80s. She was born in 1976 in Lviv, Ukraine. She was a Soviet junior national champion in 1989. She was a two-time National Champion and two-time World Championships competitor for Canada, and went on to be a two-time NCAA champion in the US. I hope you enjoy the interview as much as we did.

[INTERVIEW]

JESSICA: Thank you so much for coming on the show. We’re super excited to talk to you, and as you know, Round Lake—legendary, Ukraine—legendary, and we all admire the program so much, the whole Soviet program. So we’re super excited to talk to you.

LENA: Well, I’m very excited to be here. Thank you so much for having me.

JESSICA: Thanks. Ok. So. The first thing we always ask anyone that’s on the show is, if there’s anything that you have always wanted to talk about, or something that you’ve always wanted someone to ask you, that they never have. Is there anything like that?

LENA: That’s interesting. You know, I’ve never really given that a thought, but, let’s see. Well, I think that most people—and they’re right in thinking so—they feel that the athletes that came out of the Soviet Union gymnastics program, you know, they aren’t very happy people. So I suppose I’ve always wanted somebody to ask me, was I happy growing up?

JESSICA: Ok, were you happy growing up?

LENA: Well, I think there’s probably two parts to that answer, yes and no. You know, there were a lot of times where it was very difficult, and life felt like you were an adult trapped in a child’s body. [LAUGHS] But there were also a lot of really, really fun moments and good moments, and yes. You know, at the end of the day, I was a gymnast because I liked doing the sport, and I enjoyed it, and there was a huge element of fun in that for me.

JESSICA: Ok. I’m glad you brought that up because that is really, that is a stereotype and that people think about, so I’m glad you brought that up. Is there anything else?

LENA: No, I would say…I would think that most things that people think of, when they think of Soviet Union and that whole era of dynasty gymnastics, where we won every meet and every major competition, I think, for the most part, you know, things are true, what they think. So, if there are any questions you have for me, I could definitely answer them and clarify.

JESSICA: Ok. Well, let’s start from the very beginning. So, tell us about where you were born, in Ukraine and that era, and kind of, you know, what it was like there, when you were born.

LENA: Ok. So, I was born into a family of gymnastics coaches, both my mom and my dad were. They were gymnasts themselves, but they both ended up just being very passionate about coaching the sport and so, when they met and got married, they were both coaches. And my sister and I were born into a family where really we didn’t have much of a choice, you know, in becoming gymnasts ourselves. So, the city where I was born in us called Lviv (leh-VEEV), that’s the pronunciation if you want to say it in Ukrainian, and it’s a very small town. A lot of people think it looks like Paris, which is lovely, but yes. It’s a very small town, and yeah. So kind of, our destiny was decided, really, by the fact that we were born into parents that were coaches.

JESSICA: And so, did you not have that moment where we hear about in China and Romania, where you get—someone comes to your school and they ask you to do cartwheels outside, and then they say, “You’re selected to for our country!” Did that happen to you, or now?

LENA: Well, it’s interesting you ask me that, because I’ve certainly seen it happen, because my mom, you know, was part of that process. They would go to schools. They would check to see if there are any talented kids, and they would give them a test, and if you were talented enough, they would then approach the parents and, you know, talk to them about it. But because I was fortunate enough to have my parents be coaches, I didn’t have to go through that process. And the reason why I said fortunate is because I don’t know if I would have been selected to be one of those talented kids. My mom and I talk about it all the time, and I didn’t display those qualities that they looked for, when they would choose the kids that should have been gymnasts. So, I snuck in there. [LAUGHS] Snuck in there because I had an advantage.

JESSICA: Interesting. Tell us how the—I just want to go back to the, kind of Ukraine and the era. Some people think that, in a way, in the Soviet system, if you were at a certain point, you had everything you needed. And other people think about it in terms of, people had nothing that they wanted and were starving and it was really hard. What was your family situation before you went to the National Training Center?

LENA: Well, when I was growing up in the 80s, everybody in comparison to the lifestyle that people lead in this country, in the US, were considered to be poor. But, we were all poor together, so there wasn’t necessarily your neighbor who had all this stuff, and you were looking at them and comparing yourself to them and thinking, “Oh, I don’t have anything.” Nobody had anything. Everybody kind of lead a difficult lifestyle. So, gymnastics, as other sports in the country, was really a way to get out of the poverty, or it was one of the ways you could get out of the poverty. If you were an excellent athlete, and you got to a National Team level, and you began to represent the country, and travel, and, especially, win medals internationally, that’s when you could stand to really make some money and open up doors for yourself, so that you could live a better life. So, I think that was one of the huge driving factors for a lot of even parents, who would be willing to put their child into a program, even if it meant they might not see them, even if it meant they would have to go far away and train somewhere else.

JESSICA: Ok. And was there, in addition to changing your lifestyle, and for this, being one of the only vessels for upward mobility in society, was there a sense of national pride? Was that important, of was that something out of the propaganda machine, or was it more, what could you do for your family and yourself?

LENA: You know, it’s the same as the chicken or the egg question. I don’t know that you are born with that patriotism innately, or, like you said, you were brainwashed. I mean, during the time when I was growing up, we were in Cold War, and there was a lot of talk about the USA is not good, they’re the devil, and now that I’ve immigrated and I live here, I’ve learned that the same kind of propaganda was fed to the kids that were growing up at the same time here. USSR is not good, they’re the devil. So I think that, you know, a lot of national pride came from this idea of we’re the good guys, and somebody else is trying to destroy us. So I don’t know, it’s very difficult to know if I felt national pride for the right reasons. But I certainly felt it. Yeah.

JESSICA: Ok. I wonder, just coming from Ukraine and the old Soviet system, I wonder if this was a hindrance or a benefit in some ways. You know, we’ve heard that things about, like in Canada, there’s an underlying political pressure that there has to be someone from every different province, and since the Soviet Union made up of all these different countries, not provinces, was it a benefit? Was it a hindrance? Was that even an issue you were aware of at the time?

LENA: I don’t believe that was an issue at all. I believe at the end of the day, the politics consisted more of who is the most talented, versus—or, I shouldn’t even say that. It was more about, who is most likely to win a medal. It didn’t matter that in, let’s say Olympic trials, you made a mistake that would have technically taken you out of the team, because if the national team coach believed that you had the potential to win an Olympic medal at these games, you were going to be on the team no matter what. And, you know, some of the kids who really deserved to be on that team may not be on the team. So that’s really the extent of politics. It wasn’t so much about geography and what republic you were coming from.

JESSICA: Ok. So how did you start training? Did you start training at home, and then eventually you were selected to go to Round Lake? Or actually, let’s forget Round Lake for now. Just, tell us about how you first started, and where you first started training, with who and what the system is like? Did you have a class system like we did back in the 80s, like claims 1 through 3 and then elite, or a level system—how did that work?

LENA: There really wasn’t much of a class or level system up until you became, I would say, maybe a novice level, where you could actually compete. Prior to that, you would just be—you know, the way it happened for me was, A., I was coming into the gym since birth because that was a place where I could have somebody care for me other than my grandparents. There was no such thing as nannies or daycare for kids that are too young to be in daycare. So, I was in the gym since I was able to crawl, basically. So, and I remember that I was in a group of kids, first coached by my aunt, actually, and it wasn’t doing much, just doing things, basic things here and there, and then after that, I began training with my dad and my mom. They just started coaching me. So, if there was any level systems, it was probably more like a novice, junior, and then senior category, as opposed to one through ten, and then elite, like they do here in the United States.

JESSICA: Ok. And tell us, I remember there was a quote, and I think it was Vitaly Scherbo who said this, but I could be wrong, so. One of the great champion men said that basically, he was picked for gymnastics, it was super boring for two years, and he was just like, eh, so lame, for two years, and it was totally boring, and that we did nothing for two years, and then after two years, we could do everything. So—and basically, what he was saying was that basically they conditioned, they got strong, they learned their body shapes, and then after those two years, everything was easy and they got to actually do gymnastics because they had established that base level. Was that how training was for you when you started seriously, or was it totally different?

LENA: No, if I have to decipher what he means by what he said, yes. Russian school of gymnastics is very technical, so the one thing that they instill in you from the beginning is all the basic skills that you will need to be a good gymnast, and I think that’s what he meant by saying, I was bored for two years. Yes. You spend a lot of time working on handstands and basic skills that will give you the base to be perfect in everything else that you’ll ever do. So, saying that he was bored with that, I think that comes from a very talented individual who probably could do a lot more a lot faster. So I think that was probably what he means by, I was bored. But for somebody like me, you know, gymnastics wasn’t necessarily easy. I found it very difficult. Took me many, many years to get to a level where I could actually call myself decent. I probably needed all the boring things I could get, and which, I don’t recall being bored, that’s for sure. But you understand what it means.

JESSICA: Yes, and now I think for sure that I was right it was Scherbo, because that is exactly as you described it—like, somebody who is super talented, and was bored with those things, totally sounds like him.

LENA: Yeah.

JESSICA: Yup. So tell us about the dance training that you had from the beginning. Like, was it—did you actually go into a dance studio, and it was ballet, pure ballet, or was it something that was just integrated into every event? How did it work?

LENA: Ballet was treated like a rotation, just like any other event would be. It was just an addition to all the four events we already trained on. We had quite an extensive training. We would do the barre for about half an hour, and then we would take it on the floor and we would do a traditional dance on the floor where we learned all the basic steps of all the basic dances, and then, of course, we would practice different types of jumps and leaps and things like that. But it was very serious. I mean, it was one of those things where it was a necessity, and nobody looked at ballet and dance as, “Oh, it’s just ballet and dance.” It was just as important as anything else, and we continued doing that when I got to Round Lake. If anything, it was more strict there, and there was more attention devoted to that rotation than I remember training in my own gym. And we had a coach, specifically just for that. We had a ballet coach, and she would get through all the kids in the gym in their separate classes, that’s what we would do, all day.

JESSICA: Wow. And so, did you guys do any other kind of dance, or was it all strictly ballet?

LENA: It was all—well, it was strictly ballet, but when we would take our class to the floor, the floor portion, we would, they would teach us how to waltz. They would teach us how to do other kind of dances. The basic steps of those dances.

JESSICA: Wow.

LENA: And I think that’s what, in the end, gives us such great coordination and such good movements, when you see Russian gymnasts, even today, there’s a huge difference between them and other countries.

JESSICA: That is really interesting, because I didn’t understand—at first I was like, all the different steps, like, that’s so fascinating and that explains so much.

LENA: Yeah, yeah, yeah. We knew how to do all of the basic dances.

JESSICA: So, was there any—when you were training as a kid, was there any pressure, or even at Round Lake, was there any pressure from the coaches to make training fun or interesting to you, or was it an honor, kind of, to be there, and you just wanted to be there? Because here I feel that coaches are so—they feel like, they have to bring the money in, and they have to keep their gymnasts in addition. It’s a business. And also, you know, Valeri Liukin has said that he didn’t have a lot of elites that made it in the beginning because he broke them all, and then it seems like he found a way to stop breaking their spirit and make it a little fun for them in addition to making them great gymnasts. So how was that part?

LENA: Well, the biggest fundamental difference between the two programs—and again, I don’t think it’s true today, but when I was growing up the 80s, the sport was funded entirely by the government, and you did feel privileged to be a part of it, because you were selected. And it’s not like here, you can just make monthly payments, and no matter what, they have to work with you because you’re a paying customer. It’s a business. It’s not a business when you talk about the 80s and USSR. Yes, you felt like Cinderella on some level, that you were selected and you were special and you were obviously more talented than other people, and that’s why you were being paid attention to and this is why you were there, this is why you trained at Round Lake. So, I don’t think that there was necessarily a focus on having fun. It was a more of a focus on, you must be the best you can be, because people put faith in you and a lot is riding on your shoulders.

JESSICA: Ok. So, tell us about when you first went to Round Lake. How did it work, that you were invited there, and did you live there or did you go there for training camp? Or how did that happen?

LENA: Well, to begin with, I ended up at Round Lake as a very small child, for the first time. Had nothing to do with National Team just yet. My mom was already coaching kids who were already part of the National Team, and they were being invited to go to Round Lake, and because my mom would go to these training camps for really long periods of time, it was really tough on me and my sister to have her be away. So what she would do is she would alternate, and every other trip, she would bring either me or my sister with her, and so we were just small kids. We were already gymnasts, but we were there. You know, we couldn’t train with the team, we would practice in between, but we were there to just sort of observe everything and see everything happening. You know, I was a small kid watching Svetlana Boginskaya train. It was kind of exciting, you know, to see the kids who were winning medals at World Championships and Olympic games, and you were just sitting there, watching them.

JESSICA: I would have died. Boginskaya…ahh.

LENA: So that’s how I ended up at Round Lake for the first time, and many other times. It wasn’t until I was about twelve years old, when I was officially invited as myself, as an athlete. It had nothing to do with my mom. [LAUGHS] So, your question was, did you live there? Yes. It basically, it’s a little village outside of Moscow, I don’t remember how far outside of Moscow, but it was kind secluded in the middle of nowhere. There was a lake, that’s the name. And there was a long trail that would lead you away from the lake, into this kind of village, I would say. We had dormitories. We had a cafeteria. And we had our training facility there. I don’t remember if other sports were there with us, to be honest with you. There may have been other sports. There may have been different training facilities for different sports as well.

JESSICA: And what was it like at the time? Was it super well-staffed and brand new and top-of-the-line everything, or what were those conditions like?

LENA: It’s hard for me to remember the details in terms of the conditions. I just know that it was very convenient and very well structured for us. Everything was right there next to each other, you could just walk from one place to another. We had a very strict schedule. We had—I do recall that they took care of us very well in terms of our diets. You know, we would get caviar twice a day. The table was set for however many people, and you know, you would show up at the cafeteria and would sit down, and everybody, they would have a little serving of caviar there. I mean, you could eat it or not eat it, but the fact is, it was there, because they felt like that was a very nutritious delicacy that we all needed to have. So…yeah, it was pretty convenient. I mean, we had a sauna, and a pool where we could sort of relax whenever we could. So, it was pretty well set up, I think.

JESSICA: So you’re mentioning the food, and that reminds me of—I have a friend from Cuba who won a World medal, and when he came here he told me that the way that it was set up in that Communist country was that the more medals you won, the better food and conditions in general for living you got. So there was an area for people that hadn’t won medals, there was an area, then, for if you’d won one medal, and then there was an area with the best food and the best everything and people ate separately if they won an Olympic medal. Was there any kind of division like that?

LENA: No, no, no. Wow, talk about discrimination there. No. Everybody sat in the same area, received the same food. I don’t recall anything like that happening.

JESSICA: And so when you first went there, did you have to, I don’t know if you remember this. It’s been so long. Did you have to be just invited? Did they go, “She’s good. We should invite her.” Or was it something official? Like you had to win X competition to be invited to live there?

LENA: Because the National Team consists of quite a few girls, obviously not everybody could win a competition. Only one person wins. So I think that it was just about seeing skill level and the potential and perhaps maybe if you were top 10 in the country, something like that. Maybe top 15, you would get invited, for sure.

JESSICA: What was it like when you first went there as an official, invited gymnast rather than as your mom’s daughter? Did you feel like super excited and nervous? Were you like oh I’ve been there a million times. It’s no big deal. Was it welcoming? Was it cut throat when you got there? What was that atmosphere like there for you?

LENA: I was very used to being there already by then. So I don’t know that it felt like novelty or any additional excitement. I think my parents were probably more so excited about the whole situation because they watched me go from somebody who wasn’t necessarily very promising to getting to a level where I all of a sudden had a future. And that was something easy for them to see but as a child, you don’t know that you’re not necessarily the strongest, the fastest kid. You just work hard and then you see results and that’s great. And so I think, if anything, they may have felt more excitement for me than I felt for myself.

JESSICA: And was everyone else pretty welcoming? I remember Boginskaya saying that when she was a kid, she was so competitive that she would bite and kick the other girls when the coaches weren’t looking. I wonder if there was any Mean Girls stuff that went on or was everyone cool.

LENA: Well, again, I was just part of the junior team and I don’t know if her experience was the junior team or the senior team that she was talking about.

JESSICA: I think that’s when she was little little she did that but you know.

LENA: I don’t remember any sort of cattiness between the girls. If there was any, maybe it was internalized. But I definitely remember being friends with the kids And I remember having fun. We played with our dolls together. I don’t remember any animosity really.

JESSICA: And so who else was in your training group, what other gymnasts? And who were your coaches?

LENA: You mean other coaches than my parents?

JESSICA: Yeah.

LENA: Well, it’s hard for me to remember a lot of the names. One for sure is Tatiana Gutsu of course. We were the same generation and the time that I spent at Round Lake, all the times I spent at Round Lake, I remember with her. In fact, people thought we looked a lot alike when we were small kids and I have some pictures where you look and it’s hard to distinguish between who is who. So she’s definitely one of the kids I remember a lot.

JESSICA: And so you were coached primarily by your parents but was like Alexandrov there at the time or Rodionenko, Arkaev?

LENA: You know, I’m trying to recall who was the junior national team coach during that time. You might know better than I would. I can’t remember. Of course we had the National Team coach but we also had additional coaches. For example, we had a coach that worked on trampoline with us and he was strictly trampoline. He didn’t coach anything else. We had a coach that would do tumbling with us. Strictly tumbling, nothing else. We had a ballet coach of course. So there were three additional specialty coaches that we worked with on top of having the National Team coach and of course your own coach.

JESSICA: Oh that’s cool! This explains so much. Let me see. So what kind of schooling education did you get while you were training there?

LENA: Ah. Almost nothing.

JESSICA: Wow.

LENA: My mom and I talked about this last night a lot actually. Three times a week, they would drive a group of teachers out to Round Lake. I assume they came from Moscow. And three times a week, at night, after dinner, we would all show up in these classrooms that they had set up for us. But to be honest with you, we didn’t really do anything. I remember being so tired and so exhausted and these teachers being so lenient that they would just sort of sit there and let us do nothing and play around for an hour. We really did not receive much of an education while we were at Round Lake. School was kind of on the back burner, not important. You know, I just think that they felt that gymnastics was going to take you wherever you needed to go and why would you need school?

JESSICA: Wow so you went to Canada, you went there when you were around 12?

LENA: Well, pretty much we spent the last year before we immigrated, that was really the only year I spent going to Round Lake to training camps and not going to school as a normal kid would.

JESSICA: Ok so basically had you stayed there, say that you had never immigrated to Canada and stayed there til you were like 20 or whatever, you basically would’ve stopped going to school effectively in junior high.

LENA: I think so. I think that my education would have kind of been disrupted at that point and probably would have never gotten it back basically.

JESSICA: Wow. Someone brought up, there’s a journalist in Romania that was talking to someone I know and they said that gymnasts were kind of put up on a pedestal at a national stage, but on the other hand, they are kind of seen as lower class because they’re really uneducated peasants who this is their only way out. And they really never receive an education and they don’t really have any other opportunities. And we kind of talked about this in connection with one of the Romanians, one of the World Champions and now she’s a prostitute in Germany. This is how we came to this whole conversation. I wonder if there was any of that, if people viewed the gymnasts that way outside of the gymnastics world in the Soviet Union because of the education situation.

LENA: I think that I was too young to really know what society’s perspective would be on athletes like us. But what I can tell you is that a lot of athletes who were very successful post-sport, they would have a very difficult time in life because they weren’t really prepared for life. Sure you have qualities of good work ethic and other things that gymnastics can bring you but in terms of skills to survive in life or get a regular job, you really didn’t have any. I know that quite a few athletes have become alcoholics and began using drugs and they just didn’t know what their place in life was. You know, if you weren’t going to coach, then you really couldn’t do anything else.

JESSICA: So let’s go to kind of describing what a typical day at Round Lake and what it was like for you.

LENA: Well as I mentioned before, we were on a pretty strict schedule. The junior national team worked out twice a day. The senior girls worked out three times a day. We alternated. We were not in the gym at the same time. The older kids would go in for their first practice at I think around 7 am. It would be quite short or short relatively speaking because they have three of them. They would go from 7-9 and then they would go and have their breakfast and then the junior kids would come in at 9:00 and I think we had about three hours. In the mornings we would do conditioning and there was ballet, trampoline, tumbling, and then beam and bars. Now the entire morning was dedicated to compulsory program. At that time, there was still that universal compulsory program which you competed even at the Olympic Games. So the morning was devoted to that. And at night you would come back and do all the optional things on all four events. In between, we would have meals, physiotherapy if you really needed something, and the one thing I remember is that I would sleep as much as I could. I always wanted to sleep. I was always tired. And at nights, after dinner, three times a week, supposedly we were going to school, but you know, not really.

JESSICA: I remember you told me when I first met you and cornered you in a bar and asked you every question I ever wanted to know about Round Lake, you told me a story about what the conditioning was like. Basically, if you didn’t finish your conditioning, it was like a circuit and you had a certain amount of time to do it and all these different rooms and if you didn’t make it, you had to leave. Can you describe that whole thing?

LENA: Oh yes. It was pretty nerve wracking. Probably the most nerve wracking part of our day, at least for me. You had ten stations in our conditioning circuit. Just to give you sort of an idea, one of the stations was on bars. You had to do kip-cast-free hip ten times in a row. That was just one station. One of the other stations was climb rope twice in a row. No legs. We had 20 minutes to complete all ten rotations. Some of the rotations required the coaches to spot you. You couldn’t do this on your own. So if somebody was already on that station, you wouldn’t just stand there and wait because you had so little time. You’d have to kind of keep running to the next thing and come back whenever that station would free up. Twenty minutes to complete ten stations. They were split into two different rooms because we couldn’t fit everything into one room. We had two gyms. In one gym we had the floor and the ballet and behind the wall, in another section, we had the rest of the events. So yes, if we didn’t complete all ten tasks within 20 minutes, we were told we would be kicked out of the gym. So I don’t know if anybody ever really let that happen because we were too afraid to be kicked out. That was really the consequence we thought of as we did our conditioning circuit.

JESSICA: And one thing I wanted to ask about is you said that you didn’t use grips. I remember nobody used grips back then. And then when you moved to Canada, you started to use grips. And the Romanians just now started to use grips and made this huge change. We’ve speculated that Romanians kind of suck on bars because they have never been able to use grips. Then the Soviets were amazing and they never used grips. People were wondering if that would allow them to train longer now that they’re using grips. Did that totally affect your gymnastics? Did it not affect your gymnastics? Was it something that you think would have changed had you started doing it from the beginning?

LENA: Personally, to this day, I prefer the no grips. The transition was quite difficult for me. You have such a better sense of the bar with just your bare hands. You are able to grip on to the bar a lot better and there’s nothing in the way. Grips have a way of creating more margin for error. Sometimes, if the grip doesn’t fold properly, it shifts, or the loop makes a weird shape, that could be the reason you don’t catch your release move. Or when you do intricate pirouettes on your hands, sometimes you might slip or your hand doesn’t get on properly. None of that really exists when you work without grips. I always preferred no grips. It was just so impossible when we immigrated to be the only kid to go up on bars that are all chalky. That was the one thing, you don’t want a lot of chalk on the bar when you are working without grips. Just the fact that we would have to shave it all off every time we went up and the kids after us would have to put it back on so they wouldn’t slip the grips. It was just a lot. It was just a hassle. So in the end, you kind of had to choose the lesser evil.

JESSICA: It was kind of after this era, but we heard some before and some after stories of abuse and pressure and extreme coaching from the Eastern Bloc. Like Mukhina has famously blamed her coach and said I told him a million times I was going to kill myself in that pass. And he was like no no. People like you don’t break their necks. And later, there have been stories. There was a girl who was hit and punched by her coach during practice in Romania and died later. Did you see any of this? Was that part of your experience at all when you were there?

LENA: Absolutely yes. The program was really based on “win at all costs.” Absolutely. There was harsh treatment. I was very lucky to have had my own parents coach me. There was sort of a level of caring for me because I was also their offspring. They knew where to draw the line and where to push or not to push. Believe me when I say I’m hurting. This doesn’t feel right. My mom was always very level headed about everything. There was certain skills she would never let me do like fish flops on beam. Skills that you end up crotching the beam basically. She always said, “I don’t want my daughter doing that.” I was lucky because I actually had somebody care about me a lot more than I think other people had coming from their coaches. And I don’t think it was across the board necessarily. I think there was some coaches that were very caring and then there were others that wanted to win at all costs. And yes, there was a lot of harsh treatment that I’ve seen personally.

JESSICA: I have a friend who did soccer professionally in the Ukraine. And she said that after practice, basically everybody got a shot, got a little cup of pills to take. She was like, “I’m not taking that. No telling what it is.” There’s stories that were around back in the day. It looks like it’s still going on in some places. Was there anything like that that happened while you were there? Were you given things you didn’t know what it was?

LENA: Personally, no. I’ve never had an incident with pills or any shots. Again, I don’t know if that’s true for everybody. I can’t say that I’ve ever seen anything like that. But I have seen girls go through issues of bulimia and eating disorders. That was definitely happening, especially for those who had a hard time keeping their weight where it needs to be.

JESSICA: And that was another question I had, if there was a lot of pressure to be really thin and if people went to extremes. Like were they encouraged by the coaches or wear rubber suits or use laxatives…

LENA: I don’t know if the coaches specifically would tell them what to do but I know there was a lot of pressure to stay thin. In fact, if you weren’t in a certain kind of shape, that was a reason that they wouldn’t put you on a team. It was a high price to pay if you weren’t going to be in shape from the girls’ perspective. Because if you were at Round Lake, your whole existence revolves around being on a World Championship team or the Olympic team., winning a medal. Why else are you there? So yes, a lot of kids would do things that were unhealthy just so that they could meet that goal weight or look a certain way for sure. Some people were already naturally thin and fit and didn’t really have any issues but there were others that I think struggled.

JESSICA: So this is something everybody always wants to know. What was the social life like there? Going from the harsh side to maybe the fun side. It always seemed to me that the Soviet gymnasts from that era were more well adjusted than the Americans. The Americans seemed to have absolutely no life whereas the Soviets who trained at Round Lake seemed to be very well adjusted. What was social life like? Did they have normal social lives?

LENA: It’s so hard to say what’s normal and not normal. I think the one thing that I can say is that we knew how to have fun even if it wasn’t the same kind of fun. What’s fun is going out to a party in this country and maybe having a couple of drinks and going to a bar. That’s considered fun. Of course, at Round Lake, that’s not something you could do. We sort of created our own fun. Like I mentioned, the younger kids played with dolls a lot. We would all have our dolls as our athletes and we were their coaches and we would make leotards for them and we would create competitions amongst our dolls. That was one of the things that was our pastime. But I also think we had fun making up dances, being in the room laughing and talking about things. I was too young to deal with am I going to the prom? Am I going to say no to this drink? That wasn’t really an option for us. But I think we did have a lot of fun. We created our own. I think that we may have been just a little bit more rebellious than I think the American kids would be on that level. I think at the end of the day, only high spirited kids survived that program. So that high spirit is what I think would give you that rebellious nature. You would just find your own way to have fun. I remember having fun. It wasn’t always bad.

JESSICA: For the older kids, it seemed like they had normal teenage lives. They were people having sex. They had access to birth control. Like drugs, well not drugs. Drinking at least. They seem more worldly I guess I would say.

LENA: They all smoked.

JESSICA: Yes right!

LENA: Yes I think that was the rebellious part that I was talking about. You know you shouldn’t do that as an athlete but it’s like your only escape so you do the things you’re not supposed to do anyway. Again, I was too young to really hang out with the older kids and really know what they were doing but I think that was probably what was happening. It was an escape thing to have a little bit of a normal life here and there.

JESSICA: And speaking of a little bit of a normal life, I just want your opinion if you think this is plausible or not, no facts or anything. But there is a story about Svetlana Khorkina, and I know this is after the era that you were there but still she trained at Round Lake for a while, there’s a story that she went to one of the minor World Cups, like in I don’t know one of the smaller european countries, and the story is that she said, “Okay, I’m going to bed” at eight o’clock and then emerged from her room dressed for the club an hour later and didn’t get back until like 5 A.M. Then the next day was up at eight for the meet and won every event; she took advantage of the one time that she was traveling around. Is that something that you think is crazy or can you see that happening with someone who is like a unicorn, like Khorkina?

LENA: I could totally see that happening for some reason. You know obviously that’s just me speculating, but I don’t know it wouldn’t surprise me if that was really the truth. [LAUGHS]

JESSICA: [LAUGHS] That’s what I thought, too. I was like, “Khorkina? Yeah, I could see that”

LENA: I think that just watching her and kind of her personality and the way you perceive her through interviews, I could totally see that this girl really likes to live on the edge, she thrives on those moments. So I think it’s very much possible that that happened.

JESSICA: I wanted to ask just about- the Soviet Union was a country with so much ethnic diversity and tribal diversity, and it’s just such a huge country. In the U.S. when we see gymnastics, especially in the NCAA, you really see that diversity and in the Soviet system it was very interesting because there was a uniformity but people really pushed the envelope with creativity and artistic expression. Was there a kind of uniformity that was enforced through the ballet but then- I just wonder if anyone tried something really off the wall if someone was like, “No, absolutely you can’t do that”, if there was any political protest through what they did or if there was any sort of expression that was quashed by the system, if that kind of thing ever came up in gymnastics.

LENA: No, I don’t think that there was ever any sort of protests. The reason why I think you look at it as a uniform look is because we all trained in the same place, we all received the same gymnastics education, we were coached by the same specialists, so I think it’s inevitable that we would all come out with a very similar style. Are we talking about dance, or are we talking about gymnastics skills, like has anyone tried something different in terms of dance?

JESSICA: Dance.

LENA: Um, I think there are memorable floor routines here and there if you look through the years. Olga Strazheva…

JESSICA: Yes! Oh my god, that’s one of the podcasts “must sees” of all time.

LENA: When you see her floor routines they’re quite eccentric looking compared to some more classical movements that other kids had. So I think here and there, depending on your athlete, and what they’re capable of, and maybe their personality, and maybe once in a while that came through. Just like Valorie Kondos’ excellent at identifying each girls personality type on the team, she seems to always have this great way of choosing the right music and the right choreography for each athlete on her team. I think once in a while that will come through in the Soviets as well.

JESSICA: You went to fashion school and you are now a stylist, a very successful stylist I might add. Do you think that your Soviet training and your artistic foundation in gymnastics and ballet informed your work as a stylist?

LENA: I think that everything in life is connected and yes, the short answer to that is absolutely yes. I think that I was probably already born with that mind that leaned towards creativity, but I think everything needs to be developed to get to a certain level of success. I do, I think that all and any kind of artistic training that I’ve ever received probably shaped everything that I do today.

JESSICA: Can you give us a quick little Russian lesson? How do we say ‘Shushunova’ correctly?

LENA: ‘Shushu-nova’

JESSICA: ‘Shushu-nova’, Okay.

LENA: Pretty close to how you say it, just a very sort of refined way of pronouncing the letters.

JESSICA: Okay, and ‘Shaposhnikova’, it’s ‘Sha-posh-NI-kova’. Is that right?

LENA: ‘SHA-posh-ni-kova’

JESSICA: Oh, whoops. ‘SHA-posh-ni-kova’

LENA: You know, it’s okay. At least you’re getting the basic pronunciation correct, so don’t be hard on yourself.

JESSICA: Okay, okay. I know that we say ‘stoi’ for sticking, right?

LENA: Yeah.

JESSICA: What do we say if we want to say like, ‘Go! Kick Ass! You can do it!’, like if I want to yell something at a meet? What do I yell?

LENA: Um, you know we don’t really…

JESSICA: …do that?

LENA: …get that elaborate. I think that the one thing that we did yell out at each other was something like, ‘Let’s go, Olga!’ You know something like that. Is that something you would want to learn how to say?

JESSICA: Yes!

LENA: Let’s just go with Olga. You would say, ‘Davai, Olga’

JESSICA: ‘Davai, Olga’

LENA: Yeah, like ‘Let’s go, Olga’

JESSICA: ‘Davai… blah, blah, blah’ Excellent!

LENA: Yeah!

JESSICA: Okay, and if we want to say like, ‘good job’ after they’re done, what would we yell?

LENA: We would say, ‘molodetz’ (molo-DYETS) and thats not really ‘good job’, but it’s just this word that kind of says that you’re like a superstar, you’re like a champ, as opposed to, ‘good job’ That’s what we would say, ‘molodetz’

JESSICA: ‘Molodetz’

LENA: Mmhmm.

JESSICA: Okay. For people that are interested in finding you for choreography, or custom leotards, or to learn more about your styling expertise, where can they find you? Website, Twitter, Facebook, whatever.

LENA: Well my website is not up just yet, I’m still working on my website for the leotards portion. When I do have it up, it will just be degteva.com. So my last name dot com. For choreography it’s really just been word of mouth. Local clubs around here know of me, the coaches know of me, and once you work with somebody one summer they invite you back. I suppose you could just email me at LDegteva@hotmail.com
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JESSICA: I was so happy with that interview and, of course, I just totally love Lena. There was some things that even though I’ve heard the story before, there were things in there that surprised me. What stood out for you? Uncle Tim, what were you surprised to hear about?

UNCLE TIM: First of all, the caviar. I was surprised that they get to eat caviar. When you think of Soviet gymnastics you think they probably get a bunch of slop, and the content of a baby’s diaper probably looks more appealing.

JESSICA: [LAUGHS]

UNCLE TIM: I mean, that’s kind of the image that I had in my mind, and I was surprised that they had caviar. The other thing was their conditioning circuit, you have, what 20 minutes to do ten stations and if you don’t do that you get kicked out. I was thinking about this last night, it’s interesting because I just finished reading Claudia Miller’s book where she talks about how Steve Nunno used to kick gymnasts out of the gym all the time, and I was thinking about this and wondering whether Steve did that to kind of replicate the severe Soviet training, or if he was just a mercurial person. But the mention of the fear of getting kicked out made the connection in my brain with Claudia Miller’s book.

SPANNY: I made the same connection. I thought about when she mentioned the [inaudible], what were they free-hip handstands? Whatever it was, ten in a row and then I thought immediately about Claudia Miller’s book when she mentioned the time that Steve went nuts on Shannon and made her do a million in a row, and then she was so sore she couldn’t do anything the next day…

UNCLE TIM: And I think it was right before a competition, too.

SPANNY: Yeah, I thought that was surprising. I thought that her honest response to the schooling where she was like, ‘School wasn’t important, we were told it didn’t matter. They didn’t think education was going to get you far, gymnastics was going to get you far’ and I think it’s even more surprising that at that time it was probably true? I don’t know, not knowing very much about it. Just her general ease, I guess, where she doesn’t seem to have- she seems to have a very positive outlook on her entire experience, not a lot of bitterness. And again, maybe I’m so molded by NBC’s portrayal of ‘bitter divas’ that she just seems like a well rounded woman who enjoyed her experience and got what she could out of it and was well taken care of. They had the pool to chill at when they had time and their friends, and I’m just like, ‘Oh that sounds like fun!’ Which I’m sure it wasn’t. I was surprised by her positive outlook.

JESSICA: Yeah and the thing that was like so cute to me about it is when she talked about how she had so much fun because there was a bunch of other girls there and they all played gymnastics with their Barbies, which totally reminded me of Spanny, of course! So I was like, ‘That’s exactly what I did!’ Like first I gave my Barbie a mohawk and painted it purple, and then they did gymnastics routines. Yeah, I was like ‘that’s exactly what we did’. And I asked her in the very beginning if there was something she wanted to talk about and she’s like, ‘Yeah, I had a really happy and positive childhood. I realize we didn’t have a lot and whatever but, for me it was really nice’ so it was nice to see a different perspective. Although, and this leads to my next question, do you guys think that her experience would have been as positive had her parents not been there?

SPANNY: I think it could go either way. I think we’ve heard about as many stories where the athlete is negatively affected because their parents are crazy gym parents or if they put more pressure on them. I think it’s great that her parents were normal and she didn’t have to deal with homesickness. I’m not sure if that would have really made it a terrible experience had her parents hadn’t been there, but I’m sure it helped.

UNCLE TIM: I mean it’s a hard hypothetical question to answer because she says in the interview that she would not have been picked to be a gymnast had her parents not been gymnastics coaches. Her life would have been probably completely different and she would have been just a kid who went to school and did something else with her life, and who knows if she would have ended up at UCLA and becoming friends with Jess O’Beirne and life would have been different.

JESSICA: [LAUGHS] The thing that we did talk about, which we could do a whole follow up about the whole experience of when she emigrated to Canada and how shocking that was for her. Not just the gymnastics was different, the food was different- she had never had processed food before. Not any processed food at all, no preservatives, no artificial anything. And bananas, she never had a banana before so she ate so many bananas that it made her sick; she could not eat bananas again for like… Just so many things that were very, very different for her. Anyway, it was a really interesting interview and I’m excited to reach out to some other people who grew up there and had different experiences and compare all their different stories. Because I’m sure who you are and your personality affects your interpretation of what you might have been through as well.

SPANNY: I just think it’s nice to follow up, again the prior week when we did do a lot of focus on ‘ooh, bad coaches, bad gymnastics’ and to follow it up with a positive experience, even in harsh elite climates people can have positive experiences with the sport.
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[[LISTENER FEEDBACK]]

JESSICA: Okay Spanny, what’s going on with listener feedback?

SPANNY: We got some really great positive stories from some listeners who wanted to share their positive stories in the sport, which is nice to hear because so many people take the time to write out- just in life, even in customer service or just the real world- people will take the time to write complaints, not as many people take the time to write about their positive experiences. I’m not going to read the entire comments, we’d rather post them on the site for you to read because I want you to be able to read the entire things, it’s just not worth cutting any out. The first is from Lauren Beal, she’s a, and this is self described, ‘terrible gymnast who was so inspired by her coaches Bob Kohut and Chris Young, who competed in the 2000 Olympic Trials. She went from one gym that said, ‘oh you can just sit out on bars, because you’re never going to be good’ and then went to another gym and immediately started getting those bars skills so that is definitely worth reading, and thank you Lauren for sharing that story because it’s just awesome to hear those things. A similar email is from Katy Lovin Jones- best name ever- and she had a similar experience. She enjoyed gymnastics so much because of her coaches, she had great teammates and great competitive experiences but she said her coaches made her feel accepted, welcomed her, and made a very positive environment for her. And she gives some great examples like bringing popsicles on those hot days. It’s another email that we’d like to post for you to read, and thank you both for sharing those positive things with us because we are here because we love our sport and it can be tiring, or just heavy I guess, to rehear all about the negative things all the time. All you want to do, I do this all the time, is rag on the gymnasts and it’s nice hear positive experiences. Oh and a shout out real quick to LaTonya, I’m not gonna share the email, but I just wanted to say thank you that made everybody’s week, I think. Thank you, LaTonya and keep listening!

JESSICA: LaTonya’s whole comment you can read on our About page and it is like the sweetest thing ever, it totally made me cry. It was like awesome, awesome, awesome. If you like what she has to say comment back to her on our About page, it’s just beautiful. And then I also wanted to read an email that we got…

SPANNY: Oh no, I want to find LaTonya on Twitter, or find a way to contact her. That’s all.

JESSICA: LaTonya, send us your email. We want to chat. Okay so, a response from Faith, we got an email, she says, ‘and mostly this is a joking response, but where’s your apology for queer female fans? Granted I don’t think there was anything like ASac’s Body Issue shoot this year, but straight men get and apology and we don’t? Ouch. Anyways, loving the show and can’t wait to hear more as we go through 2013 ’. I am so sorry, when the words came out of my mouth when I said that, ‘until we get a straight guy on the show blah, blah, blah’ and in my head I’m thinking like wait the entire gymnastics media, except NBC, is run by gay guys and I didn’t even give a shout out to our queer female listeners? So, shout out to all of our queer female listeners, we love you, thank you for listening. And if you have recommendations for us totally tell us what you have and let us know, and we love having you as listeners too. Our sincerest apologies, I’m doing a little arm gesture and a bow to you right now. [LAUGHS] Let’s see, another thing I want to mention that I just have to bring up right now is Gymnastics Zone has this whole discussion posted about rips and cures for rips. I would just like to say I wish someone had told me this long, long ago. I did not discover this until I was studying athletic training in college. What you do is, I swear this is the best thing ever, so you have to get your rip when it’s still at the blistery stage or when you can tell it’s just about to come off. You put a little hole in the side, don’t let the skin rip all the way off, keep the skin. You fill the end of a syringe, the body of a syringe not with a needle, there’s no needle involved. You just need something to squeeze it, you could use one of those squeezy things like a turkey baster, too. You take Zinc Oxide, you put Zinc Oxide in the end of the syringe, you then fill your blister hole with the Zinc Oxide until it looks like a giant whitehead zit that’s ready to pop. So it will look like this giant white pus-filled blister but it’s actually Zinc Oxide. It looks disgusting. If your rip has already ripped off, that’s okay but leave the skin at the top, don’t cut the skin off yet. Put the Zinc Oxide all over the rip and then fold the skin back down on top of it, and then there’s Zinc Oxide tape that you can tape that skin down. Spanny looks like she’s going to throw up right now. [LAUGHS] Leave it for as long as you can, I swear it heals your rip, it’s moist so it prevents your rip from cracking when it gets dry. In 48 hours your hand will be as good as new. It’s amazing, amazing amazing. I swear to god, forget teabags, forget the udder rub or whatever they use for cows that they sell to people. Seriously, the Zinc Oxide on your rip totally works, I swear by it. It’s so genius. And then of course the best way to avoid this is to file your callus’ down, which no one ever told me either. Everyone liked to show their callus’ like, ‘My callus is huge look at this thing!’ But then of course if you let your callus’ get huge that’s what happens, eventually it rips off. You have to file down your callus’, I used to do it after gym I would just do a little bit all the time so that wouldn’t happen. So that’s my tip of the day.

UNCLE TIM: What happens if, I was a huge ripper. Like I would rip off the palm of my hand basically once a week. And I would bleed all over the place. I was disgusting. Does this work for people like that?

JESSICA: You know what, I also ripped off the whole palm of my hand once, and after that is when I started having to file down my hand and also had to really take a rest from bars, which was no problem for me because I hated bars. So, that means your whole hand has built up that giant callus, so that’s the thing, you have to file the whole thing. But in terms of healing it? Yes, the Zinc Oxide will work, and the filing. I swear by these things, but you also have to rest, which is another thing. No coach is ever like, ‘oh just take two weeks off of bars’ you know, that never happens. So coaches out there, come on long term, we have to think long term here.

SPANNY: It would probably work in smaller instances, too. The worst ones were the wrist rips from grips, you know? I don’t know if you’d file, it’s not like you have callus’, but still you could take care of those. It’s interesting now, and I see a lot of this on my Facebook page and Twitter, is now that…oh my god what’s it called? The fitness circuit training that everybodys into now?

JESSICA: Crossfit.

SPANNY: Crossfit! Yeah, and the people who post pictures of their rips, because they do all their chin ups and stuff, as if it’s a brand new invention and it’s only them. They’ve never seen it before…

JESSICA: [LAUGHS]

SPANNY: ‘It’s a rip, get over it’ is basically what I comment on everybodys picture. But I bet some of your information will be shared around the fitness community as well, because they are also getting rips.

JESSICA: Yes.

SPANNY: They’re not as good as gymnasts.

JESSICA: [LAUGHS] Of course!
–
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–

JESSICA: Okay everybody that’s going to do it for this week. I want to remind you that every single episode of our show has now been transcribed and is available on our website. I was really excited to read that a couple people listen to the show, then they go back the read the transcripts because they love it so much. One of our listeners from China says that the transcripts are helping her learn English, and especially the jargon of gymnastics. If she doesn’t understand something she reads the transcript and then looks up that word. We want to give a huge shout out to our team of transcribers, you guys are amazing, we love you. And every single episode of the show is up now, and we usually have the episodes transcript up by the following week. Remember that you can support the show by shopping in our Amazon Store or Powell’s Bookstore, or rating us or writing a review on iTunes, and of course you can get us on the Stitcher app which we love, you can contact us at GymCastic@gmail.com, you can call and leave us a message at 415-800-3191, or you can find us on Skype and leave a message that way, our Skype name is GymCastic. That’s going to do it for this week. I’m Jessica O’Beirne from Masters-Gymnastics.com

SPANNY: I’m Spanny Tampson from Spanny’s Big Fake Smile

UNCLE TIM: I’m Uncle Tim from Uncle Tim Talk’s Mens Gym

JESSICA: See you guys next week!

[[OUTRO MUSIC - Back in the U.S.S.R.]]

Episode 16 Transcript

ELIZABETH: Uh let’s see we’ve had times where there would be a camel chasing us.
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[[INTRO MUSIC “Express Yourself”]]

JESSICA: This week, Blythe interviews back-to-back World Cup champion Elizabeth Price. And in a move that may make gym fans nerd all over themselves, Spanny Tampson talks with Olympic and World medalist Samantha Peszek about the opening weekend of NCAA gymnastics.

JESSICA: This is Episode 16 for January 16, 2013. I’m Jessica.

SPANNY: I’m Spanny Tampson

SAMANTHA: And I’m Samantha.

JESSICA: Yes we have special guest Sam Peszek with us today. Special co-host. We’re really excited to have her. And as you know, this is the best and only gymnastics talk show in the world, starting with the top news stories from around the world. So let’s start with the American Cup announcement. So we got the lineup now. So we know that let’s see it’s gonna be Kyla Ross. Ebee is competing. And we have Ferrari from Italy. We have Danell and Dalton from the US. What do you guys think about the lineup? What are your thoughts?

SPANNY: I think it’s interesting that after last year people were like, “Oh Romania’s not going to send anybody because they get screwed every year.” Whatever. And they’re sending the exact same competitor.

JESSICA: Oh yeah. Iordache is coming from Romania.

SAMANTHA: Yeah I think it’s so interesting that you know Kyla’s going again right off the Olympics. I think that’s going to be so exciting. And with Ebee going too. I know she’s doing incredible. I talked to her coaches this summer. Her attitude and everything coming off of last year being an alternate, it’s just going to be a really awesome meet and I cannot wait to watch.

JESSICA: So what is your opinion, Sam on what people think in the gymnastics community? There’s many World Cups and this World Cup is often considered to always favor Americans. Do you think there’s any truth to that?

SAMANTHA: I think that, not that it favors Americans, but I don’t think other countries send their best girls because they have those premonitions. So coming to the States, we have different equipment, the time change is different, the food might be different than what they’re used to. It’s no different than us traveling to a different country. So I think we kind of get the home court advantage just in the fact that it’s in our own country so its our own food, our own hotels. So I think that might be where people say we have a little step up.

JESSICA: It’s interesting that you say premonition. I love that.

SPANNY: Just a guess.

JESSICA: But it’s true! You’re totally right. The time of year….this time of year isn’t when you’re in the best shape. And that’s why I think we don’t always get the super top competitors. Because this is when you’re usually winding down and then start ramping up for the summer. I think that’s always the problem with the American Cup more than that it always favors the Americans. I think it’s really the time of year.

SAMANTHA: Right. And I also think other countries, you know, they aren’t as deep. They don’t have as many great competitors whereas in our country, we just have so many girls itching to compete. And they don’t want to send their top girls to 27 meets throughout the year. When it comes to World Championships, you want to see them in their prime. So I think you’re exactly right. This is like a working time for those crucial girls in other countries.

JESSICA: So Beth Tweddle is now on this show called Dancing on Ice. It’s like Dancing with the Stars or Strictly Come Dancing, the original. That’s for you. One of our listeners always tells us that’s the original. Yes. All shows start in the UK. Thank you for telling us that every time. The original show is from the UK. But she’s on Dancing with Ice. I think she did a really good job for going from gymnastics to ice skating. I looked for the acrobatic element part of it. It was cool. But the judges were really hard on her about her robot kind of gymnastics face. And she’s not known for her dance. She does not have any expression on her face. Did you guys get a chance to watch? Spanny did you see it? What did you think?

SPANNY: It’s hard for me because I grew up watching my best friends figure skate. I’m from Minnesota too. So everybody’s just kind of born knowing how to skate. So I’m instantly judgy of those who can’t. But she did well. . The gymnastics foundation, it helped her form and if not, presentation. She kind of threw out like a scale. I thought that was interesting. The judges were right in that it’s just dull. With someone who’s never skated before, I can’t imagine how much you can actually throw at them in one week and expect it to be interesting but I’m expecting more. We’ll say that.

JESSICA: Sam, did you get a chance to watch?

SAMANTHA: No I haven’t watched it but I talked to Danusia Francis who’s a freshman on our team and she was teammates with Beth Tweddle and she was telling me about it. Just from what she was saying, I’m so impressed that she got on the ice and did a routine and had some skills and stuff like that. Dance aside, just getting on the ice and performing a routine would have to be really challenging, coming from a gymnastics background and not really having that foundation of learning how to skate beautifully on the ice.

JESSICA: And Sam, they’re filming a show right now at UCLA, something that’s kind of a diving reality show. Can you tell us about that?

SAMANTHA: Yeah I think it’s called Stars in Danger.They were actually filming, before the show even started, they were filming kind of fluffs and before the show because all of the celebrities needed a little bit of a diving background. They were on our campus. I think it was J. WOWW, Terrell Owens, and Kyle from Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. You know, it was an entertaining crowd. I know the swimmers and the divers that are always up there got a chance to hang out with them a little bit and talk to them and they said it was awesome. I actually had a chance to see the show and it was a blast to watch. I can’t imagine. I can’t even do the dives that some of them were doing so I was really impressed when I was watching, that’s for sure.

JESSICA: So Sam, if you could do one reality show, which reality show would you choose? Any reality show. It could be Wipeout. It could be Amazing Race. It could be any of the UK original shows like Strictly Come Dancing. What would you do?

SAMANTHA: Well if I could sing, I would do a singing show, obviously. Because I’ve always wanted to be a popstar, obviously. But since I don’t, I would love to do something like Diving with the Stars or Stars in Danger, something where I learn a different sport. I love gymnastics but I just think it would be awesome to try something new. And having so many friends that are so high up in other sports, I just think that would be really fun.

JESSICA: Spanny, did you watch the Danger show?

SPANNY: I did. It cracked me up. It was really cool.I liked it. The first thing I saw was Twitch and I love Twitch from So You Think You Can Dance. I was like yay! And it’s cool. And he’s got sort of an athletic background and it helped him. And I’m impressed. I can dive for fun but I would not have the balls to jump and do the one and a half or anything. And then I saw the one woman who did just a nice little jump. Just straight feet down. And I was in tears. And they were like, “good job. You really overcame your fear.” She just jumped off with her arms over her head. (laughs) I’m still thinking about it. There’s a variety at least in some of the dives. I do give them credit. The fluff pieces were interesting because it was just repeats of everybody splatting the water, face planting the water.

JESSICA: Belly flops over and over.

SPANNY: Pretty much. It was interesting. But I agree with Sam. It was cool to see people try entirely different sports and see which talents kind of helped them elsewhere.
SAMANTHA: Yeah it was definitely interesting to see. You could tell the athletes from the non athletes. The Beverly Housewives focusing on their emotional connection to each other and just going for it and the athletes and the Baywatch crew, they were like in it to win it. You could definitely tell when they stepped up. They had it in their eyes. Some of the other competitors just really wanted to get it over with.

JESSICA: Like the lady that did the straight jump. I hope they have a montage of everyone’s bruises on the next show. A double front is something I’ve always wanted to do but I’m terrified to ever try it in gymnastics even into the pit. And so I always do it and I always land right on my butt when I do a double front from the diving board. And so every summer, I always have a bruise from my low back all the way to my knees and so I’m anticipating a montage just of that next time.

[MUSIC PLAYS]

JESSICA: And now it’s time for our interview of the week. Hope you enjoy it!

BLYTHE: Elizabeth Price, the US national team member, who has had quite a year. During the past 12 months, she’s competed at the Olympic Trials, traveled to the United Kingdom as the replacement athlete for the Olympic Games and absolutely dominated the Stuttgart and Glasgow World Cups where she won the all-around both times. She’s set herself up for an exciting 2013. And just the other day, Ebee was one of two American women, along with Kyla Ross, named to the 2013 American Cup. Ebee, thank you for coming on the show. Big news for you this week. Congratulations! USAG announced the American Cup roster and you’re on it. I know that was a goal for you. I was just wondering when you found out you would be competing there.

ELIZABETH: I found out the day before they announced it. Steve Penny called my gym and told my coaches and my coaches called me.

BLYTHE: That’s pretty awesome! Not every day that Steve Penny calls the gym and says hey you’re going to do this, I suppose.

ELIZABETH: Yeah it’s pretty exciting.

BLYTHE: Now that you’ve been through an Olympic Trials and that whole process, does it make you less nervous about doing an event like the American Cup?

ELIZABETH: It makes me a little less nervous. It’s still a competition. I’m going to be nervous. But the other competitions definitely gave me more confidence going into these big international meets.

BLYTHE: And often, as a gymnast goes through their career, they find that some things get a little bit easier and some things get a little bit harder. And maybe what was hard for you when you were 11 or 12 is not hard for you at 16. And maybe some of the things that were easy at that age get a little bit harder as you get older. And so I was just wondering as you you’ve gotten more mature in gymnastics and become a senior competitor, is there anything that has gotten easier for you and conversely, anything that has gotten harder?

ELIZABETH: Umm let me think. I can’t think of anything that has really gotten harder. I mean, I’ve been working a lot of newer skills and you kind of work away from the older skills that I learned when I was little. But a lot of skills have gotten easier definitely. My vaults have gotten more consistent. Things have gotten more consistent on beam. Basically, everything’s gotten better I think.

BLYTHE: That Amanar of yours is so huge.When did you start working it and when did it really become a consistent vault for you?

ELIZABETH: I started working it a little over a year ago and then I competed it for the first time in Italy last year and I have to say it got pretty consistent over the summer.

BLYTHE: Cool. Are there any skills of yours that scare you to do?

ELIZABETH: Skills that really scare me? I can’t say that skills really scare me. A lot of skills are harder than others. None of them make me terrified or anything.

BLYTHE: Have there ever been any skills that you see someone else do and you look at that and you go, “wow! I don’t think I’d wanna try that!”

ELIZABETH: There’s a lot of skills on beam that I would not really want to do.

BLYTHE: Like what?

ELIZABETH: Let me think. Some people do a lot of connections or…..I’m not really sure. Just beam in general, there’s a lot of things that I would not really want to try.

BLYTHE: Well one thing I was so impressed about your beam routine in both Glasgow and Stuttgart was the level of confidence that you displayed out there. So many people, even those people who do standing fulls, just don’t get out there and rip one off and make it look so easy like that. How did you develop consistency on beam and how do you keep the nerves down when you’re in competition?

ELIZABETH: Well I developed consistency by really training all my skills , repeating them over and over again. And the more I did them, the better they got and got more consistent. When I go out to compete, I just have to try to think that I’m at practice doing my routines just like I normally do and that normally helps calm me down.
BLYTHE: Excellent! And can you tell us about some of the gymnasts that you grew up admiring and who you look up to in the sport now?

ELIZABETH: When I was growing up, my favorite gymnast was Courtney Kupets and at the time, I also looked up to all the girls who went to the Olympics and the World Champions. I thought they were amazing. And now I’ve gotten to meet a lot of them being an elite and everything and now I try to pretend I’m them and little girls can look up to me the same way.

BLYTHE: What was it that you liked about Courtney Kupets?

ELIZABETH: I think I just liked her gymnastics and attitude and she seemed really nice and everything.

BLYTHE: And can you take us through kind of a typical day in the life of Elizabeth Price?

ELIZABETH: Sure let’s see. I wake up at about 7:00 and get ready for gym and eat breakfast. By 7:30, my dad takes me to the gym and he goes to work. And I start practice at 8:30 and we practice til 12:30 and then have an hour break and then we go back to working out until about 4, I would say. And then by then, we start conditioning and stretching and all that. And then I come home. I relax a little bit, get on the computer, read some stuff before getting to my school work. And then I drive my brothers home from school and practice. And we’re doing homework, have dinner, do more homework, and then get ready for bed. I watch TV before I go to bed. And start the whole thing the next day.

BLYTHE: Cool. So do you do any time in regular school at all or do you take correspondence courses? How does that work?

ELIZABETH: I stopped going to school in seventh grade. I’m homeschooled now. I do everything in books with a program here in Pennsylvania.

BLYTHE: I see. I have to ask. Do you ever miss being in a regular classroom?

ELIZABETH: Yeah I do because I loved school. I didn’t really want to leave. But now, I still get to see a lot of my friends. And I go to all of the football games and all of the dances. So I’m not completely out of it.

BLYTHE: I’m glad to hear that. What subjects do you like?

ELIZABETH: My favorite subjects are math and science.

BLYTHE: Nice! And would that maybe grow into some sort of career opportunity once you do go to college? Have you thought about that at all yet?

ELIZABETH: Yeah. Right now I’m really interested in engineering. Both my parents are engineers and I kind of like that too!

BLYTHE: Oh I see. Very interesting! And so when it comes to selecting a school, what are you looking for in the university experience?

ELIZABETH: Well I’m looking for a school that’s both good academically and has good team and the overall atmosphere is friendly and comforting and makes me feel at home.

BLYTHE: Alright. And what are some of the goals that you have outside of gymnastics? I realize that the sport’s got to be all-encompassing for you right now, but I think it’s important to emphasize, you know, to some people who might think that gymnasts just don’t have anything to do outside of the gym, that there are other opportunities and other things that elite gymnasts are into, even if they have to dedicate a lot of time to practice. So, can you tell me a little bit about what you like to do when you’re not at practice?

ELIZABETH: When I’m not at practice, I really like to spend time with my brothers. We get along well now, now that we’re older. [laughs] So I like to hang out with them, go to their sporting events. I like to go to the mall or the movies with my family and my friends, and really hang out. And that’s really what I like to do in my free time.

BLYTHE: How many brothers do you have?

ELIZABETH: I have two younger brothers. They’re 13 and 14, Ethan and Eli.

BLYTHE: I see. And are either of them involved in gymnastics?

ELIZABETH: They did gymnastics when they were younger, but now that they’re older they do football and lacrosse.

BLYTHE: Ah, cool. You’re the one with the gymnastics talent in the family?

ELIZABETH: Yeah.

BLYTHE: So, tell us actually about your early days in gymnastics. How did you come to start practicing the sport?

ELIZABETH: Well, when I was younger, my parents told me that I had a lot of energy, and by the time the day was over and it was time for me to go to bed, I just didn’t want to. I had so much energy, I was tiring them out. So, my Mom was driving past Parkette’s every day, and decided gymnastics would be a good way to tire me out. So they put me in the sport.

BLYTHE: Mmhmm. And do you remember this, having all of that energy and not wanting to go to bed and such?

ELIZABETH: Nope, not at all.

BLYTHE: How old were you, when you first went to Parkette’s?

ELIZABETH: I was three. I was three when I started.

BLYTHE: I see. And was it like an instant thing, right away, love for the sport? And did your coaches immediately recognize that you were talented?

ELIZABETH: Yeah, I had a lot of fun when I was little. I never wanted to leave. And the coaches did realize that I had a lot of potential to be a great gymnast.

BLYTHE: And at what point did somebody sit down with you or your parents and kind of say, you know, you’re really, really good, you could get to a high level. At what age were you when somebody actually started talking about the Olympics and the National Team and stuff like that?

ELIZABETH: Well, when I was nine, the gym—my coaches started putting me with older groups of girls, who were better than me at the time, and they had me train with them instead of the lower lever girls that I was training with. And that got me better. And over time, they would change me completely into the higher groups, and I would start moving faster than some of the other girls.

BLYTHE: I see. And who coaches you now, on which events?

ELIZABETH: On bars, my coaches are John Holman, Joe Stallone, and Donna Strauss—well, she coaches me on everything, really. And on beam, I also have Robin Netwall, she coaches me. On vault, I have Bill Strauss coaching me, and on floor, Robin coaches me, too.

BLYTHE: I see. Ok. And, you know, I heard that Parkette’s elites used to do a lot of work on the trampoline. Is that still true?

ELIZABETH: Yeah, we try to get some tramp done every day. And it really helps with knowing where we are, when we’re twisting and flipping. It helps coach—it helps us learn new skills, too. So we try to do that every day.

BLYTHE: I see. And, could you take us through a typical daily workout at the ranch, when you’re with the National Team in Texas?

ELIZABETH: Ok. We normally start practice—well, we normally get breakfast, I’d say around seven o’clock. And practice starts at eight thirty, and we like to get to the gym early, around eight o’clock-ish. And we have two workouts. Our first workout is to about twelve, twelve thirty-ish. And then we break for a couple of hours, and go back to the gym at four, I think we start the second workout at around four. And we practice again, every event, until seven, and then we have dinner, and after that we all hang out together, maybe do homework, until the next day.

BLYTHE: Sounds like kind of an early morning, actually.

ELIZABETH: Yeah.

BLYTHE: What’s it like, working with Marta Karolyi? How is she like, in the gym?

ELIZABETH: She always watches everyone. She pays attention to not just the girls who are at the top; it’s actually great for the younger girls. And she also, she coaches us, she’s kind of in charge of everything that we do. When we go to maybe present a routine, she really writes down the criteria of what she wants us to see. She sometimes tells us maybe new skills we could be working, and tries to basically help us become better gymnasts, and also work together better as a team.

BLYTHE: I see. Has she suggested any skills for you personally?

ELIZABETH: She hasn’t suggested prepping specific skills, but if I start working a new skill, she’ll let me know that it could be a very good possibility to get into my routines, or if she sees a skill that maybe isn’t for me, she’ll let my coaches know.

BLYTHE: I see. You know, and we’ve heard tales, a little bit, of scary wildlife encounters when you’re at the ranch, and I was just wondering if you had any of those.

ELIZABETH: Um, let’s see. We’ve had times where there would be a camel chasing us, or we’ll go to walk down to the lake and we can’t because there are horses in the way and they won’t move no matter what. But those are some things that have happened to me.

BLYTHE: Ok, no snakes?

ELIZABETH: I haven’t encountered a snake, but my coaches have, and there have been lizards in our room before.

BLYTHE: Oh, lizards. In your room.

ELIZABETH: Yeah.

BLYTHE: Yeah. Well. Better than snakes, I guess.

ELIZABETH: Yes, definitely.

BLYTHE: I spent a week at the Karolyi camp when I was ten, and I was scared witless the entire time that I was going to, you know, open the door and there would be a snake. Yeah. The perils of being on the National Team, I guess, for you guys. So how would you describe the atmosphere there, when you’re at the ranch? Competitive, intense, fun? All the above?

ELIZABETH: I think not very competitive. I mean, we’re all there really just training, like a regular practice at the gym. I’d say that we’re all, when we’re down there we are all like sisters, so it is definitely not competitive. We have a lot of fun together, even though we’re in separate groups a lot. But sometimes it’s a little stressful. We’re working hard every day, it can be really hard. We get sore a lot. But we always have fun afterwards. It’s a lot of fun being down there with all the girls.

BLYTHE: When you’re down there and you have to be sort of on when you’re in the gym, all those hours of the day, when you get back, do you feel like—do you take a day off, or do you unwind a bit in your practice, once you get back home in your gym?

ELIZABETH: Depending on when we come home, we might take the day off. Or if we don’t take the day off, the next day will be a little bit easier. Then we get back into training normally and trying to incorporate everything we did at camp back at home.

BLYTHE: I see. And every National Team member I ask, you know, tell us a little bit about the personalities of the other members of the National Team when they’re not in the gym, because we don’t get…we see you guys in competition and you’re all very stoic and serious, but I would like to know who’s the class clown, who’s the studious one, who’s boy crazy, if you don’t mind?

ELIZABETH: Um, let’s see. I would say that, well, there are a lot of funny girls down there. But I’d say like when they’re together, the funniest girls are Simone, Lexie, and Katelyn Ohashi.

BLYTHE: Ok.

ELIZABETH: They’re like the craziest ones, it’s so fun to be around them.

[LAUGHS]

BLYTHE: And, I don’t know, who is the one who hates getting up early in the morning?

ELIZABETH: I’d say the one who hates getting up in the morning is Kennedy Baker. I mean, she’s hilarious and everything, but she does not like early morning things. Yeah.

BLYTHE: So, what has it been like for you this year? You’ve become something like a media personality, what with the Olympic Trials and everything. How do you feel about the media attention that you’ve gotten? Shy? Pleased? Nice to be recognized?

ELIZABETH: It’s definitely nice to be recognized and doing a bunch of interviews and things. And it’s not too much. I’m not out of the gym all of the time, always on the phone, so I think it’s just perfect for right now.

BLYTHE: Cool. Now, Parkette’s has a long history of producing National Team members, and I was wondering if you had any former elites as mentors?

ELIZABETH: Let’s see. I’ve had a lot of girls who have gone away to college and come back, either they were elites or they know what it’s like going to camp and going to championships all the time. So I talk to them a lot. And…nothing really stands out. I mean, it’s a lot of fun being around all the other girls, and they don’t treat being an elite gymnast like anything totally special. They really enjoy gymnastics, and I try to follow in their footsteps.

BLYTHE: What kinds of goals do you set for yourself in competition? Are you aiming for a score? Are you aiming to hit a skill? And what would be the definition of a successful meet for you?

ELIZABETH: A successful meet for me would be just to go out into the competition and do my best, and hit all my routines, and to try to hit, to do everything just like I do in practice. Because I can’t really control the scores, that all in the judge’s hands, so I just try to do my best.

BLYTHE: I see. Now, is it sometimes difficult when you are travelling internationally to adjust to different mat colors and equipment in other countries? Did you find any of that in Scotland or Germany when you were there for the World Cups?

ELIZABETH: The equipment was definitely different, different brands, you know, make different bars and beams. So I had to adjust to that a little bit. But after I got used to it, it was fine and it was just like being on home equipment.

BLYTHE: I understand from Anna, actually, that in Birmingham when you guys were training, the equipment there was a little bit old and a little bit different from what you were used to. Was that the case for you?

ELIZABETH: Yeah, it was definitely different. It wasn’t exactly like top-notch equipment, so we had to do the best we could with what we had. But we did pretty good after we had a couple days to get used to it.

BLYTHE: What was it like, training in Birmingham, and sort of, you know, being an Olympic replacement athlete and knowing that, at any time, you might get the call? And yet at the same time, there was this team that had been named, and if everything went well for them, you wouldn’t get the call. It’s kind of in limbo. What was that time like for you?

ELIZABETH: It was a little tense, not knowing what would happen. I mean, I kind of wished we could have known the future so we wouldn’t have been so stressed out while we were training. But we were training just like we were competing like we were at the Olympics, like we were already named as one of the five to compete. Practices weren’t easier, for sure, we were doing the exact same thing the Fierce Five were doing when they were in London.

BLYTHE: Yeah. And what was the highlight of the Olympic experience for you? Did you guys get to see anything of London?

ELIZABETH: We got to watch both of the team competitions.

BLYTHE: The men and the women?

ELIZABETH: Just the two women’s competitions.

BLYTHE: What was it like to be sitting in the stands that night and to see the American team take the gold medal, and in such a dominating fashion, too?

ELIZABETH: Yeah, it was a lot of fun, I’d say, to be able to go out and actually see the whole competition. It was so much different being in the stands, and like…it was a whole different experience, not being out there competing. It was like I could feel how the girls felt during every event, and I was able to almost pretend I was down there. But it was cool to see how they completely dominated every event, and how they hit everything, and definitely deserved their win.

BLYTHE: Can you explain a little bit more how you think they felt during the competition as you went through the four events, starting on vault?

ELIZABETH: Well, vault is a very strong event for the US, so I’m sure they weren’t very nervous about that one, and it showed. They did great on vault. And then, as they went through each event, I’m sure they got more confident and more excited to see what would happen at the end of the competition, and by the end I think they knew that they pretty much had it if they just hit the last event, and they did and they did very well.

BLYTHE: Were there any other countries or competitors that stood out to you, as you just looked around the arena?

ELIZABETH: I mean, all the other teams, they had girls who were good at different events, you know, specialists and all that. But I think that our team was the best as far as all around goes, and I think that was a really important factor when it came down to seeing who would win.

BLYTHE: Oh, definitely. And did you find it motivating, to have been in London and have the experience of being there in the arena? Or was it just hard to watch and not be on the floor yourself?

ELIZABETH: Well, I have to say I really actually did enjoy being on the stands, and I was happy for the girls that were down there competing. I mean, I wish I could have been competing with them, but I think they did great and I’m happy that it went the way it did.

BLYTHE: I see. And Ebee, I have just one last question, and I’ve sort of saved this one for the last, and you are under no obligation to answer it, but since Gabby put it out there, about experiencing racism in the gym growing up, is it alright to ask if you’ve ever experienced that either?

ELIZABETH: Yeah, you can, that’s a fine question. I haven’t experienced anything at my gym. I mean, there are a lot of different races of girls at my gym, and no-one that I know of has ever experienced anything bad. Everyone gets along perfectly fine at Parkette’s.

BLYTHE: Absolutely awesome. Ebee, is there anything else you wanted to add? You have been terrific.

ELIZABETH: Thanks, but nope, that’s everything.

BLYTHE: Alright. So are you going to the gym today, or do you have Saturdays off?

ELIZABETH: Saturdays are off.

BLYTHE: Fantastic. Well, again, thank you so much for doing the interview, and we will see you at the American cup.

[TECHNO MUSIC]

JESSICA: The most exciting thing that has happened since we were last on the show last week is that the NCAA season finally began! I’m so excited. Oh, I live for this time of year. So. Spanny has prepared a little recap for us, and of course Sam was at the UCLA meet and doing a little, you were doing some commentary on air, yeah, Sam?

SAMANTHA: Yeah, yeah. It was really exciting. It was a new role, I obviously wish I was competing, but it was really exciting to do that for once.

JESSICA: And how does, how is your Achilles…well, actually, while we have you here, can you tell us about what exactly happened when you were injured, and about what you said after you landed on the mat? Because that was quite a moment.

SAMANTHA: [Giggles] Yes. Well, I was—we were having an intersquad, and I was one of the last girls to go, it was my last floor routine of the day, my last pass of the day, right as I went to punch my double pike, I just felt it. Like, right as I punched, I knew what had happened, and I was flatted. I looked at my Achilles, and there was a definite, you know, it was definitely—it was clear. I tore my Achilles. So a few of the girls on the team have already done it, and I know a few had that fear, and I didn’t want to freak them out because it didn’t hurt at all, it really didn’t. But I just kind of looked up, and I really calmly said, “Don’t freak out, but I just tore my Achilles.” And at first, everyone was like, What? Like, no way. And the trainers came over and were like, ok, try and move your foot, and I was like, I can’t, obviously. And they were like, ok, yeah, you definitely tore your Achilles, and so they just carried me off to the side, and, you know, just to have my team there supporting me, and I know that a bunch of them have already gone through it, it was—knowing that I had them and I had people to follow the recovery after—you know, I knew it was going to be ok. It’s a long road to recovery, but it’s going to be fine.

JESSICA: It is really nice that you have had like teammates who have had this injury and have come back 1000%. Like they’re fine. You would never ever know.

SAMANTHA: Right. Yeah. And they were texting me like when I was home right after surgery, making sure I was ok. You know, Alicia Sacramone reached out to me and was kind of telling me about hers. So the more people that were kind of you know contacting me and letting me know its going to be ok and it’s just a long road. You know it really made me feel at ease. And I’m ok right now. And I’m off crutches so that’s great. And I think I’ve got to get through a few more months, out of this boot, and I think we’re home free.

JESSICA: Awesome, I’m glad to hear that. Alright so, let’s talk about NCAA last week. What were the highlights for you? Spanny, tell us.

SPANNY: Well again reiterating that this was from the previous weekend, this was from January 4 to January 6. Highlights. Let’s start. I just kind of made like a checklist of routines of the week. Things that stood out to me. I would say the surprise of the week, something I wasn’t expecting, was the LSU floor rotation. Just insanity. 49.525 in their very first meet. With a couple of different routines that now, maybe they’ve gone viral. With Lloimincia Hall obviously and Rheagan Courville. And just huge scores. And yes it’s SEC, blah blah blah, but I mean you can watch the routines yourselves. They hold up. And for the first meet, first week, it was incredible.

JESSICA: It’s interesting too that this is the first year that Jay… Jay is the assistant coach there now right? From Georgia. Who was the assistant. So I wonder if this… I mean LSU I feel like has always had good potential but they’ve only had a couple gymnasts. They’ve never had depth. So I wonder if Jay is making a big impact there.

SPANNY: Yeah I mean, there’s got to be some sort of… I don’t know what the term I want to use is. But it’s got to feel good for him to kind of show what he’s capable of

JESSICA: And yeah it’s got to be great redemption after getting fired. Or, you know, well not fired, but you know probably… I take that back. But probably asked to resign. Let’s say it that way.

SPANNY: Yes. Encouraged. Honorable mention again to Rheagan Courville for the all around of a 39.5 in her first meet. I think the high scores are impressive right away but that always worries me. Because where do you go from there. Hard to build. Let’s see what else do I have. Let’s start with routine of the week. I’m just now starting. Bridget Sloan on vault. Very first routine of her collegiate career, 9.925. Thought that was pretty special. I didn’t watch routines from last night yet, so

JESSICA: Sam what did you think? You watched that vault right?

SAMANTHA: Yeah, Bridget?

JESSICA: Yeah.

SAMANTHA: Yeah, it was awesome. I mean what can you expect from an elite gymnast that already had clean form and already is used to sticking her landings. I noticed that before college. We both trained together. Even on floor she kind of had that special talent where she would always kind of you know stick her landings. She didn’t even do the step back to a lunge. So I mean the steps on vault are just a no brainer for her. She had good amplitude, tight form, I think she’s going to be clutch for their team on vault this year.

JESSICA: And she was actually your training partner in between when your coach went back to China and before you came to UCLA, right?

SAMANTHA: Yeah yeah. It was just Bridget and I and Marvin. So it was a lot of fun to be honest. We’re very opposite but we’re perfect training partners. So it was interesting to kind of have our friendship and our dynamic because we’re both so different.

JESSICA: And it’s interesting that watching, you know when I watch elites transition to college, elite is just so freaking insanely hard, that when I see elites transition to college, I’m like, “Oh my gosh, she has really nice form, look how pretty she can do that!” You know and I thought that when I watch Bridget I watched her routines and I was like oh! I mean she was nice and you know she had great form actually for elite and the difficulty she was doing, but now it’s like NCAA just brings it out even more and you can really enjoy her form and extension.

SAMANTHA: Yeah it was definitely emphasized, I think like in all of her routines. And her bar work too since it’s a shorter routine, her bigger skills it’s just like a “wow moment” when you watch it. You know I was able to skype with her when I was home, and she had just gotten back and she loves it. She loves college. And it was before the meet and she was just itching to compete again and so excited to compete with a team. Because I mean I trained with her, but she’s never really trained with a team before. So I think that’s going to be like a really new and exciting experience for her all year.

SPANNY: And you could tell that she just loves it too, and somebody home watching. Like in the background of every other teammate’s routine, she’s the one cheering and screaming. It’s entertaining to watch, but you can just tell she loves it. And, you know, she’ll be captain material soon.

SAMANTHA: Yeah. And her consistency too.

SPANNY: Mhmm. Alright I’m just going to go down my list. These aren’t, some of these aren’t as positive as they are negative, I just don’t have them in an order. Ok, so let’s start. Over-score of the week. And Sam, just don’t listen. Sophina DeJesus on uneven bars. I’m going to quote Uncle Tim. This isn’t even my quote. “WHAT? Legs separation on release, missed handstand, crazy legs on dismount, plus a step. 9.9???” But that said, I mean Sophina had an amazing first routine, or first meet I should say. And then she was, what is she, PAC 12 freshman last week? But that said the score was a little sketchy. Not quite sure where the score came from. Honorable mention to Cat Hires on vault from Georgia. 9.925. And also Pritchett on floor exercise with a 9.9. And I think that’s only because given the other people in that floor rotation, that there wasn’t a way to separate.

JESSICA: So wait those were over-scores as well? Or those were honorable mentions for great routines?

SPANNY: Oh no those were over-scores, I’m sorry.

JESSICA: Over-scores, yes. Ok.

SPANNY: I’m starting from the top of my list. Yeah.

JESSICA: Ok, gotcha

SPANNY: Those will be our over-scores of this past week. Anchor of the week: Vanessa Zamarripa on balance beam. 9.875. After a not-so pretty solid UCLA beam rotation, she of course came in and nailed it, and it was wonderful. And…

JESSICA: That routine I felt like is what we were waiting for for Zam to just be like, “You will obey me! This balance beam is mine! You will not…”

[laughter]

JESSICA: Yeah I just loved it. She was just like so fierce! She was like uh!

SPANNY: I feel like her body must move in a different time and space than anybody elses. Like time just must go slower for her. Because everything she does is just calmer. I feel like I’m watching it in slow motion but in a good way. She’s just the Xanax of gymnastics.

[laughter]

SPANNY: I don’t know what it is. Everything’s calm, it’s chill, everything’s ok, and she hits it. And it’s incredible.

JESSICA: Yeah that beam routine… What did you think when you watched that beam routine Sam?

SAMANTHA: Well I was trying not to freak out because I had the headset on. And my initial instinct is to just like, especially when the girls are on beam I feel like it’s my place more than any of the other events to kind of go up to the girls and talk to them after. And if there was the one fall I would definitely make it a point to go talk to the next girl up. I’m not sure who that was. But you know and sitting in the chair with the headset on I couldn’t do that. I couldn’t cheer like I normally do. I was internally freaking out. But when she went up, I know that she’s really good about not having the other competitors influence her meet. you know whether people fall, whether people make it, it doesn’t really help or hinder routine that’s she’s about to do. So right as she stepped up I could tell in the look in her eyes you know, it’s just her and the beam and she’s going to do what she’s practiced. And she’s definitely ready. I mean this is her fifth year. I don’t want to say she has gymnastics mastered, but her routines right now are pretty easy her for, and you can tell she’s just having fun with you know playing around with her easy gymnastics because it’s so comfortable for her.

SPANNY: Just makes it look like fun. I don’t know, everything is easy. And she’s not going to die doing it.

JESSICA: [laughs]

SPANNY: It’s like a different experience watching her. Lead-off of the week will go to Danusia Francis on beam for UCLA. She, and I put this in quotes, “only a 9.8.” But it’s such a stylish and a solid routine to start the rotation. I’ve been a fan of hers for a while. But again like you said, you never know how the transition from elite to NCAA is going to go. And it was just, she was calm, it’s just a different routine than what you normally see in NCAA. And I enjoyed it, I thought it was incredible. Did she… we’re going to talk about that later, nevermind. Let’s do leotard of the week, and that goes to Florida. The stripe, it was like a solid blue with minimal sparkles, but it had the stripes around the waist. Which I would think would not be flattering on a lot of people but it really was. It reminded me of the early 90s. I feel like I have pictures of Kim Zmeskal wearing a similar leotard.

JESSICA: Yes. That is what it looked like. You know, I did not care for that leotard. I have to say, meh. I’m eh on that.

SPANNY: I also thought that Oklahoma had a classy leotard, we’ll say. It was just their normal colors, but it wasn’t blinding but it was flattering.

JESSICA: Well they’re weren’t any leotards this time that made me want to poke my eyes out with a fork, so that’s good.

[laughter]

SPANNY: No hogs on them

JESSICA: [laughs]

SAMANTHA: Good, I’m so happy.

JESSICA: [laughs] Thanks Sam! Sam has heard many of my comments about leotards, so yeah.

SPANNY: Number one priority. I mean it’s got to be fun. Like oh yeah design a leotard every week of the year. But sometimes I just, you know. And when you have a team full of girls that are different shapes and sizes, what might flatter one girl might not on the other, but everybody’s got to wear the same thing. And yeah. I don’t have to wear them. That’s what’s important. Freshman of the week – and this is courtesy of Lauren Hopkins, she writes for The Couch Gymnast, and when I told her I was putting this together she was like, “You have to put this girl in” because she was just really impressed. Haley Scaman from the University of Oklahoma. 9.85 for an impressive yurchenko 1.5. She got a 9.875 on the uneven bars immediately after a teammate’s fall, and another 9.875 on floor. Which isn’t bad for her very first collegiate performance. Freshman of the week. Now my, we’ll call it the “what the fudge” of the week, and I know I have this name wrong so I’m not even going to say it. Everybody was pretty impressed by the SUU vault rotation.

JESSICA: Yes, I totally liked watching their vaults. Like they were very different, I love seeing something different, I liked watching them. They took their weaknesses and turned them into an advantage on vault, and that also gave us something new and exciting or old school to watch.

SPANNY: I enjoyed some of the other, but the last vault wasn’t a vault.

JESSICA: Ok so what was the last, who, ok what was her name again that did that last vault?

SPANNY: I put it as Rochelle Bernier but in retrospect I think I had it wrong. Because when I rewatched the vault video, there was like a compilation.

JESSICA: Was it McKayla… was this the full on, one and a half off?

SPANNY: It was like a one and a quarter on, yeah

JESSICA: Ok let’s discuss. Sam did you watch this vault?

SAMANTHA: Yes, yes I watched it. And you know I feel like I’ve seen lots of different kinds of vaults. And when she went for that, I’m not going to lie, my first reaction was, “Oh dear God!” I thought she slipped, I had no idea that was coming. I guess I didn’t watch her warm up. I was really terrified. But then after thinking about it, it was really cool. You know we were talking about it when I was commentating, and I don’t know what the vaults were. But they have to give her some credit for doing something unique. However there wasn’t any amplitude at all. But it was really cool to watch. And you know we’re used to watching the same monotonous yurchenko full, it was kind of a breath of fresh air to see some new and exciting things.

SPANNY: I agree. I enjoyed seeing the different vaults, but like you mentioned, the amplitude.
Like I went back and was like, “Did she touch the table?” Because I’m not entirely sure that she did. I went back and like paused at the moment, and there’s like a three finger scrape of the table. And then she just kind of plopped on the other side. I’d love to see that vault but with an actual like… I mean I don’t know how, it’s probably impossible to do on the new table… but, new, it’s ten years. But like a repulsion from the table as a post flight.

SAMANTHA: Right.

SPANNY: And you know a vault needs a middle and end. And that was just a splash of gymnastics. I don’t know, there weren’t pieces.

JESSICA: I think like the thing with that vault is like I’ve seen people attempt that many times, and it never looks good. It always looks like they’re going to tear both their ACLs when they land because they’re always still twisting and going in a direction toward the crowd rather than toward the mat. And it always terrifies me. And that was the first time that I saw that vault and I was like, “Oh my God, she actually landed straight ahead and I wasn’t worried about any of her joints.” Which I consider the best way you can ever ever do that vault. I’ve never seen it done that well, and so i was just like that’s great! I didn’t even notice the repulsion, because basically I feel like it’s impossible to get good repulsion off that vault. So I was really happy with it.

SPANNY: I’d be interested to see it again. If we get another video of it.

JESSICA: She has… I watched this morning, we’ll put it up on the website. There’s a video of her intro video from SSU, and it has some really cool camera work. And you can see it from the top actually, and it looks like it has a little more repulsion than it had at the meet. We’ll put it up.

SPANNY: I guess they had a video, there was a guy who kind of did a mini documentary. I watched it just the other day, that documented like the day of the meat, that had pretty cool shots of all the vaults.

JESSICA: Yeah.

SPANNY: So I think that’s worth taking a peek at. Let’s move on to unfortunate hair of the week.

JESSICA: Sam’s favorite topic, yay!

SAMANTHA: Oh no, I’m usually at the top of this list, huh?

JESSICA: [laughs] Only when your ponytail flops in your eyes! I worry about you.

SPANNY: And I write extensively about hair, and that doesn’t bother me as much. It’s, again I blog about this a bit, but it’s the hair that looks like they spent a really huge amount of time making it look like crap. That’s my number one pet peeve. And luckily I think we’re kind of moving away from that trend of the “I’m trying really hard to not care” trend. But not really just, I don’t know. We’re not going to get into it, because I’ll talk about it for quite some time. That said, I do think that the trend is moving away from just… but now they do the hair bows, what’s with that?

JESSICA: I don’t care for this bow. Like where do you stand on the bows Sam?

SAMANTHA: On the bows, I’m not a fan of the bows. I’m not a big fan of scrunchies though either. I think, but that’s like wearing a scrunchie is not my favorite, but I think a team looks good when they all wear the scrunchie. I think it does look good. Don’t tell Miss Val I said that. But I do, I like the scrunchie when the whole team wears it, but I’m not a big bow fan. Just because you know you can never make the bow look the same with everybody. And you know it can fall out, it can kind of like flop over so you can’t really tell that it’s a bow and it’s just kind of ribbon flailing around. But I know some people wear it for luck and other reasons, so that may be different.

JESSICA: Now, you guys did something really unusual last year, which is you guys all wore flowers in your hair like Peng Peng started doing. I’ve never seen a team besides you guys and Peng Peng do that, and I loved that change actually. And I don’t know if it was because it was different, or it looked really pretty. How did that all come about?

SAMANTHA: To be honest I kind of don’t, oh it was the senior meet, and so they wanted to do something different for the senior meet if I remember correctly. And so the seniors were just going to wear it, and then Miss Val really liked it and she was like, “No, I want everyone to wear it”, so we all put it in our hair for that meet. I think a lot of people liked it. Did we do it again? I’m not sure if we did it again or it was just a few meets. But yeah, I know we did that last year and it was a little bit of a change, and I liked it because it was different definitely. But I’m more of like the clean front part, and I don’t like a lot of stuff that could fall out, I don’t like to think about it. I wasn’t a big fan of wearing it in the competition, but I thought it looked good.

JESSICA: Yeah, I would be paranoid that it was going to fall out during floor and then I wouldn’t know, and then I would run back the other way and land on it and like…

SAMANTHA: Right.

JESSICA: Yeah. What did you think of the flowers, Spanny?

SPANNY: I liked them- again long as they aren’t distracting, I think it’s a nice accessory. I love when Peng Peng does it. I thought it was really cute when Canada, you know they all did their tribute to her this summer. I think there’s classy and subtle ways to do accessories while you’re competing without stamping your face full of tattoos, or whatever the trend is this year. Yeah that said, falling out during a routine terrifies me. Or even your hair coming undone, like there’s a video with Ferrari where her hairs flopping in the air and she just…

JESSICA: Right!

SPANNY: nails it anyway.

JESSICA: Seriously, her entire ponytail came out and she still finished that floor routine, I was like, “Oh my God, she’s amazing. She’s totally amazing”.

SPANNY: If I even have like a piece of my hair, if my bang falls on my face, I like, freak out so.

SAMANTHA: [[laughs]]

JESSICA: I have to say though, even though I always complain about face tattoos and obnoxious hair stuff and everything like that, I do appreciate that we have such different styles because it’s such a big country and we have so many different styles, you really see the diversity of the U.S. when you watch NCAA gymnastics. And I always feel like when other people talk about gymnastics I’m like, “Well our country is totally different no matter where you go. We’re very, very unique.” So I’m kind of proud of that, even though I complain about it. Okay, carry on.

SPANNY: No, that’s so true. When you think about styles of routines, you think about floor routines. Head down South and you’re going to get some Bama stuff, that’s just how it is. But if you go elsewhere, you head out West obviously it’s Miss Val’s influence too, but things just in my opinion, and I think that’s cause I spent a little bit of time on the West Coast, they get a little classier over there. That said, let’s move into gratuitous over use of the robot and twerking of the week, goes to the entire Ball State floor routine rotation. Huh…[[laughs]] I watched those routines and I was like, “Interesting. Really…bizarre”. It was the performance that I have to applaud them on, because they really committed to this stuff.

JESSICA: So, for real, like Sam you watched some of these, so like it’s actually the robot? Like, robot robot?

SAMANTHA: Well, you know when I watched Nicole Allen’s floor routine, first of all her tumbling was huge. She did a double arabian first pass, double back second pass, and both were huge, so I was impressed with that. Overall, I thought her dance was a little stiff, and then after her second pass the music kind of went into cat daddy, and she kind of did the mini cat daddy into the robot. It was an interesting way of choreographing that. I think that if you’re going to go all out and do things like that, it needs to be a little bit more energetic, I don’t even know the word. I thought for the choreography in her floor routine it needed to be a little bit…something was missing. I’m not sure what it was, but something was missing.

SPANNY: Seems like it was the level of commitment, they were laughing with us. They knew what they were doing was kind of silly, but they weren’t entirely committed to it, so they were kind of, like when you’re watching a play and someone is breaking character because they know what they’re saying is really funny, I felt like I was watching them start to laugh with me. I don’t know.

SAMANTHA: Yeah!

SPANNY: It’s interesting that you mentioned their tumbling was incredible! They fell on every bail on their bar routines, every layout on beam, and then they go to floor and they just do these incredible passes! What a weird team, they’re like awesome and intrigue me.

SAMANTHA: Right. I also think, like the illusion of judging, too. For the passes and the hard skills that they did have, if they could just clean up their dance and the performance aspect, it could really just influence their scores so much. And clean up their landings a little bit, they could be contenders and they could really compete with some other high level teams. Because the hard part, the tumbling, they really have that. So if they could figure out a way to change up their choreography, and kind of really sell it, then I think they’d have it made.

SPANNY: I’m gonna keep my eye on them this year. Just like, I don’t know, out of morbid curiosity or I really do think they may be able to do well, but they caught my attention.

SAMANTHA: Yes.

SPANNY: And Jess, I think this is you, but ridiculous quote of the week, “I feel like we are the underdogs for this year” -NCAA All-Around Champion Kytra Hunter

JESSICA: Yeah I didn’t put that one in there [laughs] but that is really funny!

SPANNY: But after last night…I don’t agree with them being underdogs, but they’ve been the number one pick by everybody for the past three or four years and that hasn’t worked out for them, so why will this year be different? I don’t know.

JESSICA: For our listeners, we are recording on Saturday the 12th, and so last night Florida had a poor performance, we’ll call it that. It’s really sad, this is the thing that just kills us with Florida every year, because they’re so close and then they just inevitably don’t pull it together at some point. But then again we’ve seen this with UCLA sometimes, going up and down, and up and down. I watched an interview on Gymnastike with Rhonda Faehn, and she said that they have changed their plan this year. They’re gonna go more the route of not starting off so hardcore in the beginning of the season, and just really building slowly towards the end of the season, rather than them starting off, like go crazy for the beginning. Because, really you can’t do that when you compete this many times in a season.

SPANNY: Yeah. Pacing has always, I think, been a concern in terms of, yeah, how do you hold back a group of that talent, how do you keep the reigns on them? That said, I think they are kind of a wildcard in the sense that they could absolutely live up to every expectation, or they’ll fall short. Just like every other team.

JESSICA: Sam, do you think, they’re at this point where they’ve been the team that people have thought were going to finally be the fifth team to win a National Championship in Division I in NCAA gymnastics, and they’ve been so close. Do you feel like that’s hanging over their head now? That expectation that they haven’t been able to meet, and that might be a hinderance at this point, because it’s such the topic everyone talks about them?

SAMANTHA: You know, I thought that. Talking to a bunch of girls after Nationals last year, just how close that they were to winning and they were all in pretty good spirits and I was kind of confused why, and they said that was the best they’d ever done at Nationals. And I didn’t really realize that in the history of Florida gymnastics, they are at their prime right now, and so if they can just keep getting a little bit better…I definitely don’t think that they’re an underdog. I’m not sure if they self proclaim themselves as underdogs maybe to take some of the pressure off, I’m not sure. I don’t think they’re underdogs at all, you know, given the talent they have on their team, but I do think it’s smart for Rhonda and the other coaches to try and really pace them early on. I noticed the past few years their all arounders typically compete all around the majority of the meets, and you know the line up the past two weekends their normal all arounders have only been doing two or three events, so I think that’s a little bit smarter, to try and kind of use their depth to their advantage and make it to the end of the season where they can all be fresh and ready to go.

JESSICA: I like how Sam’s like, “They were kind of happy after they took second,” because Sam would just want to destroy things and take a like machete to her hotel room if she didn’t win. This is like, seriously Sam…

SAMANTHA: [[laughs]] Yeah, I’m not a good loser, that’s for sure. I never have been. I can be polite, I can this, that, and the other, but there is not one ounce of me is happy when me or UCLA does not win first place.

JESSICA: [[laughs]] Yup. That’s what makes you so good!

SAMANTHA: [[laughs]] Thank you!

JESSICA: Is it time to talk about Lloimincia Hall’s routine or do we have more? Are we ready?

SPANNY: Nope, that’s all.

JESSICA: Let’s discuss! This has been the topic of the gymternet, people are like, “It’s the greatest thing I’ve ever seen!” Other people are like, “Oh my God, are you kidding?” Other people are like, “Okay tumbling, but the rest isn’t performance”. Like okay, it’s totally controversial, I love it! So, what do you guys think?

SAMANTHA: Oh, I’m indifferent. I think she wins the award for the most energetic, the most enthusiastic. Not only can you tell she’s having fun and she kind of pumps herself up when she’s doing it, she feeds off her own energy, her team feeds off her energy, and I think it brings a lot of attention, not only to LSU, but to NCAA gymnastics. And it really brings in a wider range of fans watching, because it’s totally different. It’s not the normal artistic choreography that we’re used to seeing. NCAA, yeah it’s a lot more fun choreography, but she really brings it to a whole other level. And I can appreciate that she’s doing something unique, she’s being talked about, she’s willing to take that risk and kind of go the extra mile. You can tell it makes her happy, so she doesn’t really care what other people think because she enjoys what she’s doing. So, I’m impressed with that.

SPANNY: I loved it. Again, I feel like I have a range of styles of floor that I really enjoy. I love some of the balletic stuff, I love Miss Val’s quirky stuff, but it’s impossible for me to not be absolutely riveted by Lloimincia’s routine. I just love that style, I love the energy, I love the commitment to it. And I feel like in watching some of her routines from last year, and it stays true to the two routines I’ve seen of her’s this year, it isn’t the same performance from week to week, it changes up. And I think that’s a result of being kind of in the moment. You’re doing choreography, but you’re not doing this toe goes here, this finger goes there, she’s actually dancing. She’s moving and it’s very in the moment. I think it’s contagious, I have to like, smile and giggle and love her when I watch this routine. And I can see how that might not be some people’s cup of tea because they want to watch Soviet’s gymnastics, I don’t know. But I love what she puts out there, like I love it. I love it!

JESSICA: [laughs] The thing about this routine that I love, like it’s not the dance, it’s not even the tumbling- the tumbling is ridiculous- but it’s that this is the thing I love about American NCAA gymnastics in a nutshell. Which I feel like it’s just, you don’t see this anywhere else in the world! This is our thing. Like, this is what makes American gymnastics totally unique. You will never see a routine like that anywhere else. It’s totally the performance aspect of it, and in NCAA whether you think it’s artistry, or it’s not artistry, or whatever the argument is, she is engaging. She is looking at the crowd. Even if you think she looks ridiculous, she will draw you in. She is engaging. That’s the thing that is key in NCAA, performance in key in NCAA, it makes such a difference! And it’s genius too, because she’s not going to have the body type that looks great doing the Soviet style ballet. So you play to her strength, you use that as her strength. And you take her performance aspect-and don’t make her hold a scale, make her do the ‘catty daddy’ or whatever the kids do nowadays. [laughs] The ‘catty daddy’… I just thought it was great. It totally made me smile, it made me want to cheer for her, and that’s the kind of thing that NCAA gymnastics is all about. So, I dug it.

SAMANTHA: I think what also is really cool if you watch her routine, and her tumbling is not easy tumbling, it’s super hard tumbling. She goes high and it’s huge, and even right before and right after her tumbling, it’s like a walk in the park for her. She’s totally thinking about her dance…

SPANNY: Mmhmm.

SAMANTHA:…and she’s enjoying the moment, and so it kind of just shows how good of a gymnast that she is, that she doesn’t even need to think about her tumbling so much, because it’s just so easy and casual for her to just you know, “let me just run down here and do the biggest and best double layout that I can do”

SPANNY: Yeah.

JESSICA: That’s a really good point, because you can tell if someone is worried about and scared of their tumbling, or if they’re not in good condition, if they’re not in great shape. And her routine, you are totally at ease, you’re not worried, she’s in the moment, you’re in the moment. And I think that’s a really great point that makes her stand out as well, Sam. That was a great point.

SPANNY: And she has that almost left over energy at the end, too. How everytime after she after every routine she has the energy to jump and throw fists and I’m like, I would be dead. I would actually die on the floor because I’d be so exhausted from not only the tumbling, but the amount of energy she puts into the entire routine. How she has any left over for anything, I don’t know. Any routine that I can watch, especially with floor routines that I can enjoy and I want to watch more than one time, especially of the same performance, I watched her routine from last week- she’s going to think I’m like, creepy- but I watched it like seven or eight times in a row. There was something else to watch every time, and I don’t know, it’s a treat.

[[ON NEXT EPISODE]]

JESSICA: A two time World Championships competitor and NCAA Champion, Ukrainian gymnast Lena Degteva will tell us what it was like to train at Round Lake with greats like Oksana Chusovitina and Olympic Gold Medalist Tatiana Gutsu. I’m really excited to bring her to the show because even though she’s not like a super name brand gymnast who a lot of people might know, this is one of the things I love about podcasts, and this is why I love interview podcasts so much, like our show, is because I get introduced to people that I might not have known about before. And I met Lena a while ago and I basically cornered her in a bar and made her tell me her entire life story, [[laughs]] and we’ve been friends ever since. I was like, “You know, people would love hearing this. This is the kind of things that gymnastics fans like to hear”, so I’m super excited to bring you guys that interview next week. I also want to tell you guys that we have a new way to support the show besides rating us on iTunes and downloading the Stitcher app, you can also buy books from our Amazon bookstore, or now Powell’s Bookstore. Powell’s is a rare book store in Oregon who has stuff like Leonid Arkaev’s book. I didn’t even know he wrote a book, but you can buy it at the Powell’s Bookstore, and there’s some really rare stuff that you can’t find anywhere else. So you can find that through the Bookstore on our shop on the website, and you can also always get in touch with us. We love your feedback, we love hearing from you. You can email us at GymCastic@gmail.com, you can leave us a message on our GymLine at 415-800-3191, leave a question or a comment for us there. So until next week, I’m Jessica O’Beirne from Masters-Gymnastics.com

SPANNY: Spanny Tampson from Spanny’s Big Fake Smile

SAMANTHA: And Samantha Peszek and you can follow me at @SamanthaPeszek on Twitter

JESSICA: Thanks and see you guys next week!

Episode 15 Transcript
JOAN RYAN: Bela Karolyi denied ever talking to me in an article in USA Today, and of course I have everything on tape.

[“Express Yourself” intro music plays]

JESSICA: This week we talk to author of Little Girls in Pretty Boxes Joan Ryan. We discuss what this book meant to us then and now. And we reveal the winners of the GymCastic end of the year 2012 awards.
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ALLISON TAYLOR: Hey gymnasts, Elite Sportz Band is cutting edge back compression warmer that can protect your most valued asset: your back. I’m Allison Taylor on behalf of Elite Sportz Band. Visit elitesportzband.com. We’ve got your back.
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JESSICA: This is GymCastic episode 15 for January 9, 2013. I’m Jessica

BLYTHE: I’m Blythe

UNCLE TIM: I’m Uncle Tim

DVORA: I’m Dvora

JESSICA: Welcome to the only gymnastics talk show in the world. Starting with the top news stories on the gymternet. Blythe, what’s new?

BLYTHE: Nothing.

[laughs]

JESSICA: Exactly. There’s no news this week. Alright so the only thing we really have for news this week is basically, I don’t know if you guys remember there was a guy named Ethan Polson who made it his 2012 new years resolution to do a backflip every single day. And there’s a great internet video of him doing a backflip in all different locations. In the snow, in the rain, outside, indoors, it’s just I love this video. It’s just beautiful. And it’s adult gymnastics, hello. So of course it’s extra rad. And then it turns out he actually found out he had cancer last year. And he had to go in and have a lump removed from his hand. And it wasn’t something simple, they actually had to reconstruct his hand afterward. But he did not want to give up his goal of doing a backflip every single day. So we’re going to put a link to this video. It is totally inspiring and even more beautiful than the year before because he did his backflip every single day even though he had cancer. And sounds like he’s doing well right now so want to wish him the best and thank him for this video. So check out that link on the site. Alright now we’re going to bring you our interview with Joan Ryan.
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DVORA: Fantastic. We are really excited to have Joan Ryan, an award winning journalist, who wrote a book in the mid 90s called Little Girls in Pretty Boxes, which focused on the coaching of elite gymnasts and, to a lesser degree, figure skaters, and the abuses and the eating disorders and all that stuff that went into the training of these athletes. The book, for those of you who are not familiar with it, really changed the conversation in the gymnastics community and the community at large about eating disorders and abusive training methods. And we’re really excited to have her on today to discuss what it was like to write that book, the reaction she received, and also think about what the book means now, 20 years later. So we’re just going to start at the beginning. So from what I understand, you were initially assigned to write this series about gymnastics. And that developed into Little Girls in Pretty Boxes. So whose idea was it to write the series about gymnastics to begin with?

JOAN: Well it didn’t start with just gymnastics. My sports editor and I at the San Francisco Examiner at the time were just talking about pre-Olympic stories. This was before the Barcelona Olympics. And we hit upon the idea at looking at sports in which females excel at a very young age as opposed to the male competitors. So we looked not just at gymnastics but figure skating, swimming and diving, and tennis. Because in all of those sports we can see girls be the best in the world, you know the Joe Montanas and Michael Jordans of their sport, before they get their drivers license. Whereas boys in all of their sports, with a few exceptions with diving maybe and every now and then with tennis, are really made to go through puberty. So that was the series of articles.

DVORA: Mhm. And so the two sports you came up with were gymnastics and figure skating? Or was there another one that you were also looking into?

JOAN: In the article or in the book?

DVORA: In the article. Sorry I could not track down the articles from the 90s so I’m not sure what they say.

JOAN: Yeah, no it was tennis, swimming and diving, gymnastics, and figure skating.

DVORA: Mhm. And when you were doing the series, was there an “ah-ha” moment when you were like, “wow this seems abusive and wrong”? Or any one person you spoke with that got you thinking this way? At one point did you think that there was a bigger story to be told and that this could be a book?

JOAN: Well, it actually… doing a book wasn’t my idea. I had never done a book before and it was just beyond me to even imagine doing a book frankly. But there was a young book agent in the Bay area who came to me. She was really impressed by the series of articles. And we just met up for lunch and said, “this really could be a book.” And the truth of the matter is, you know when you’re doing term papers in college and you’ve spent so much time on something and you’re so burnt out you don’t even want to think about it anymore? [laughs]

DVORA: [laughs] yes.

JOAN: That’s how I was after those series of articles. I was like oh gosh, no way. And she just kept taking me out for lunch and said, “why don’t you just write a proposal .” And you know my [inaudible] guilt for her taking me out to lunch I was like ok I’ll do a proposal. And of course I did a really terrible proposal because I don’t know how to do proposals. And she said, “well why don’t you just rewrite this proposal.” And you know we had decided that the course of it was going to be a book that.. you know so much had been written about tennis already, so we really didn’t need to address that. And swimming and diving were so different from gymnastics and figure skating. And then there were many more parallels with gymnastics and figure skating, so we decided that was what made the most sense. ANd it was also frankly two of the most interesting sports and the most popular sports in each of the summer and winter Olympics. So that’s how it ended up, and then she shopped it around and somebody bought it for a very very little bit of money. But I was excited to just have a book contract. And took six months off of the Examiner thinking that well, you know, no story has taken me very long and six months seemed like all the time in the world for a newspaper reporter. And of course I ended up having to take another six months off to do it and then work and wrote for another six months or eight, nine months after that.

DVORA: Mhm. And in this… Books always take longer than you think they’re going to take.

JOAN: Yeah.

DVORA: But at what point during that process did you… because you know the tone of the book is understandably sort of dark. At what point did it really become about the abuse, verbal, the eating disorders, injuries, like what was that moment when you were like, “this is what this story’s about”? Did you speak to anyone? Did you witness something that made you really uncomfortable?

JOAN: Well, it was, you know it was the number of girls that I talked to. When I was doing the articles, you know maybe I- I don’t even remember how many gymnasts I talked to because I was talking to so many different athletes from different sports. But once I honed in on gymnastics and figure skating and really started to do the research on it and hearing one story after another after another after another, and they piled up like that. That it wasn’t an aberration, to see the abuses and to see the common issues that they faced. Eating disorders, the coaches, the parents, the injuries, the need to be absolutely perfect in every part of their lives. And it turned out after a year or more of research that figure skating frankly became secondary in that book. Even though it was the more popular sport, it was on TV all the time year round, all of that, gymnastics was just so compelling and it really surprised me. I mean I didn’t know I was going to find what I did.

DVORA: Mhm. And kind of to talk a little bit about the abuse, there’s a lot of gray area I guess when it comes to coaching and pushing children to excel. And as we’ve seen, different people react to what happens, to the way they’re coached or to the way they’re taught, differently. So one person’s tough love could be another person’s abuse. I just re-read the book and you cite Mary Lou Retton, someone telling her that she’s fat, and it just rolls right off of her. She’s that personality. But someone else hearing it, it spirals her into an eating disorder. So how do you define abuse in gymnastics? What was the working definition as you were going through this process?

JOAN: It was outcome. What was the outcome of it? That you had girls training with broken bones. You had girls being pushed and being called those names who were suffering with eating disorders. And these coaches, as you know, spend so much time with these girls. Day in and day out. They spend more time with them than their parents or their teachers or anyone else. And because eating disorders are – gymnasts and figure skaters – eating disorders affect them disproportionately to the general population. That obviously any coach [inaudible] understands that that’s one of the risks. And to be pushing them you know to be calling them the names that they are, to be using that kind of tactic to a girl – any adolescent girl frankly – but a girl who is in a sport which eating disorders are disproportionately high, is barely unconscionable. There’s a way to encourage, obviously you have to have low weight, you have to be small to be a gymnast, it’s self selection. Just like you have to be tall to be a basketball player. But, there are ways obviously, healthy ways, to be encouraging girls if they want to continue at the highest level to have that kind of discipline and strength in their body in a healthy way. These are the adults. these girls, as mature as they are, as driven as they are, they’re not the adults. The adults are there to not only lead them to reach their dream, which perhaps probably is to go to the Olympics, but also to keep them safe.

DVORA: I mean as a parent working on this story and sitting in these gyms and watching practices, how did it feel to watch some of these girls get berated or train through pain? Because I you’re not technically as journalists you’re not supposed to get emotionally involved in the story, but we kind o fall do. And how did you react emotionally to seeing some of these practices?

JOAN: Well it was mostly doing the interviews. Because what you find as a journalist, because I did start out just talking to the current, you know trying to get girls that were currently competing. And what you find, and I found this in subsequent books and the book that I’m working on right now too, is that they don’t have any perspective. That when you talk to them afterward and you talk to enough of them afterward, they look at their experience and can be honest about it. So when I watched practices, and I’m not there every day for a year I’m just watching them here and there, and they know that I’m there watching, you don’t see a whole lot. As far as the abuses. It was just the exhaustive interview process that pulled those out. And the thing that really surprised me more than anything is how willing so many gymnasts and their parents were willing to talk. I thought it would be much more difficult to find people to really try to get them to share their honest experience with me, and I was most surprised by the parents and how honest they were about themselves and what they did. And they had, most of them, enormous guilt about it.

DVORA: Yeah that was kind of surprising reading the book. Just the parents for the most part do not come off particularly well. And it was really surprising that they were as frank as they were with you. They were very honest. Sometimes I couldn’t tell if they were regretful, but they were very honest to what motivated them as opposed to just saying I’m helping my daughter live her dream. You know it seems like they were at least able to acknowledge their complicity in some of what was going on.

JOAN: Right.

DVORA: Oh so you just answered my next question. Do you keep in contact with anyone that you’ve interviewed for this book, or this is like way into the past?

JOAN: Yeah it’s a long time ago. So no. I did for a while, a few of them. But what’s interesting is that I still get emails, you know people reaching out. Former gymnasts saying that they read the book and that it was their experience. And I was really surprised during this past summer Olympics how much this book was still talked about. And it kind of made me feel good. Because you go into a project and you just don’t know what the impact is going to be because that’s not really what you’re thinking about. You’re just thinking about doing a really really honest thorough in-depth look at an issue. And then the outcome is going to be the outcome. So that part has been the most satisfying actually. And I didn’t set out to do that.

DVORA: Yeah I mean the book, as I said, we all read it years ago. And it stuck with us. And that’s why you know it came to us to ask you to interview you. So the book certainly had an impact and certainly forced a conversation, especially about eating disorders. So some coaches see the problem with eating disorders in gymnastics is overstated. Do you agree or disagree with that?

JOAN: Well I wish I had done a study on it. That would have been great. Because all we have is anecdotal. As journalists we just interview a million people and see what emerges. It would be great if there were a study on it. Some of the studies that I use as you see in the book are on ballet dancers. Because there haven’t been, at least at that time, maybe there have been since which would be really wonderful. You know it’s just so… it’s such an issue that I’m surprised frankly that there hasn’t been a study so we know for sure. You know how widespread is it? And what is the impact of it in short term and the long term? And how can we do better? We have to think that everybody in gymnastics I imagine is on the same page about. How can we do better?

DVORA: Absolutely. But I mean I first think we have to acknowledge that it is a problem. That it’s not just a few isolated incidents. And having a study – and I have to look into whether or not there have, it’s been almost 20 years since the book was released, so I hope that someone thought to study the problem. Having the study gives you more than anecdotal evidence, so people cannot easily disregard, “oh it’s just the people she ends up talking to, it’s not really widespread.”

UNCLE TIM: Right now I’m working on a research project, and I know that there’s a lot of stuff that doesn’t go into the book. And I’m just curious if there are any lost chapters you know something you didn’t end up putting in the book?

JOAN: No [laughs] no there wasn’t.

UNCLE TIM: I’m curious. So in your book your criticism is directed primarily toward male coaches like Bela Karolyi and Steve Nunno. And I’m curious as you were researching your book, did you find any stories about female coaches being abusive?

JOAN: Just what’s in the book, and I’d have to go back and look. But I really wasn’t thinking about male versus female frankly. Bela Karolyi obviously is the most well-known coach, I mean he’s the face of gymnastics. And certainly the stories, you know when you just scratch the surface, the stories just came out in a rigor about him. So that was about it. And then one lead to another to another to another. So as far as the female coaches, the ones that I talked to didn’t seem to have quite the same tactics. But that’s not to say that they’re aren’t them out there.

UNCLE TIM: While we’re on the topic of gender, your book focuses primarily on female gymnastics but you interview former gymnasts like Bart Conner and you mention the 1990 Swedish study of male gymnasts and how degenerated their backs were. I was just curious if you ever looked into the men’s gymnastics climate? And if so, did you notice anything?

JOAN: No, I just looked at female gymnasts. As I said at the beginning of the interview that we were looking at sports that girls could be the best in the world at what they do at a very young age before they go through puberty, and male athletes almost without exception, which includes gymnasts. When you get to be the best in the world and you’re the Olympic champion, the men have gone through puberty. So what we were looking at to answer the question “what toll does it take on a girl’s body, still developing body and still developing psyche, to be training at this incredibly high level where it basically is a full time job in a sport that is perhaps the most demanding in the world. So that’s why I looked at girls and not boys, because it’s a very very different type of pursuit because of their ages. And also the relationship with the coach is different too because you’re a child. As I said before you know when you’re a child and you’re being coached, that coach has a different responsibility than if he or she is coaching adults.

UNCLE TIM: Ok. And do you think that pushing a young girl to excel at an elite level before puberty is in itself abusive? Or is it more the conditions that create the abusive situation?

JOAN: It’s absolutely the condition. There’s nothing wrong with a young girl pursuing excellence and trying to be the best in the world in anything that you can do. Whether it’s piano or dance or whatever. But the tactic and also the complete disregard for the fact that this girl is 13, 14, 15 years old, that makes it ripe for abuse.

UNCLE TIM: And after your book was published Kerri Strug wrote a book called Landing on my Feet: A Diary of Dreams. And she says that a lot of the criticism of elite gymnastics was sexist at the time. And she thought that female gymnasts were no different than high school football players and that the coaches were no different than those in basketball. I’m guessing you encountered this argument as you were writing the book, and how do you respond to that?

JOAN: Well anybody who’s seen high school football or high school basketball and then seen elite gymnastics can’t make that comparison. I mean it’s just on the face of it it’s absolutely ludicrous. What a high school football player does and what a high school basketball player compared to what an elite gymnast does, are you kidding? It’s crazy.

UNCLE TIM: Ok. And now we’re going to pass you over to Blythe for a few more questions.

BLYTHE: Well, Joan, what I was wondering was after the book was published in 1995, what the reaction was both from the public and from the gymnastics community. Did you get thank-you notes, did you get hate mail? What did people say to you?

JOAN: Both, in almost equal measure. Yeah, it was remarkable, frankly. The gymnastics community was completely up in arms, you know I was satan in their midst. Bela Karolyi denied ever talking to me in an article in USA Today, and of course I have every thing on tape. I was thinking why would he say that and then I thought, well perhaps he wasn’t connecting the person who interviewed him with the person who wrote this pretty scathing book. Because when I interviewed Bela Karolyi, as you guys know as journalists, it’s not an attack. When you go out to do any kind of investigative piece it’s about finding the information, and so luckily when I talked to Bela I had already done a year of research and just had chapter and story, after story, after story. So when I did talk to him, and we had about a three hour interview, I just asked him about each one because I wanted to know what his memory was of those situations, and what his memory was of those girls. So we actually had a very pleasant interview of me just getting information from him, so I’m thinking he didn’t connect that person to the person who wrote the book. But what was the most satisfying thing about the book were all the gymnasts who came forward, who showed up at my book readings, who tracked me down at the newspaper, and said, “Thank you for writing my story” and “Nobody’s ever really acknowledged what it was like for so many of us”. Because on Olympic coverage, we basically see the up close and personal, and it’s all the Kerri Strug realizing your dream. What about all those girls who were discarded along the way? You know, their bodies are piled up on the roadside. Nobody tells their story.

BLYTHE: It brings an interesting point up, and this is not just the case in gymnastics, but there seems to be this idea that success in sports has to come with sacrifice. You know, blood, sweat, tears, everything like that. Do you think it’s possible to have a productive healthy experience in elite level gymnastics and still do well and still be in contention for gold medals if your competitor, either nationally or internationally, is going to certain extremes?

JOAN: Well, that’s the big question. We saw that in baseball, could you be the best without taking steroids, could you be the best without cheating in that way? And I think the question is still out there for gymnastics, frankly, and I’m not smart enough to answer it. Can you compete against the Chinese and the Eastern Europeans who are still embracing the abusive, unhealthy tactics for a short term goal, for this little window when that gymnast is of the size and age that she can be the best in the world, right? So as parents, as coaches, really as a nation, we have to decide what sacrifice is worth it. Is it worth a gold medal to have these thousands of girls not make it, and be lesser for it, and risk horrible injury, risk horrible eating disorders in order to win a gold medal? Or in 20 years, have gymnastics develop tactics in order to pull the very best you can out of every gymnast without resorting to pushing them so hard that there are dire consequences. And I don’t know the answer to it.

BLYTHE: I wanted to go back to the Karolyi’s for a second because I’m not sure if you know, if you haven’t really kept up with the sport, but after the 2000 Olympic Games where there was some upheaval amongst the team members towards Bela, and you had team members saying things in press conferences like, “When we fail Bela blames us, and when we succeed he takes all the credit”, and now we have Marta Karolyi as the U.S. National Team Coordinator. She’s embraced a sort of decentralized training system where the national team gymnasts work out with their personal coaches at their home gyms for most of the year, and they come to the Ranch every four to six weeks for verification camps and to kind of be together and have this national team spirit that gets fostered. And Bela is not, as far as most people can tell, really involved these days. Are you surprised that Marta has ascended to this position, and what was your impression of her when you were researching the book?

JOAN: I didn’t really talk to her when I was researching the book, because Bela was the coach there, so I focused on Bela. And as far as the decentralization, I haven’t looked at it so I don’t if that’s better or thats worse. I really don’t know because I haven’t been following it closely, certainly not as a journalist.

BLYTHE: Mmhm. Did you do any research on training techniques in other countries, especially the Eastern Bloc: Russia, Ukraine, China?

JOAN: No. No, I focused just on the United States.

BLYTHE: And do you feel that- it seems like in the 80′s there was a Cold War mentality; the US versus the Soviets. Do you think that the desire in the United States to beat the Soviets, especially in gymnastics which has these very Soviet roots in a lot of ways? Did that contribute to some of these extreme measures being taken that you saw and wrote about?

JOAN: I didn’t really look at it from that angle so much, frankly. I think that in our country we generally feel like we’re going to be the best in the world…[[laughs]]

BLYTHE: [[laughs]]

JOAN: …no matter who’s out there. I wouldn’t be surprised if that was part of it. Certainly Bela being from Romania, Eastern Europe, coming here and introducing and solidifying his training regimen and philosophy here certainly seems like a direct challenge to the Soviets and the other Eastern bloc countries at the time. I can’t say if that was specifically in the national governing body’s mind specifically about gymnastics.

BLYTHE: I see. And for parents who listen to this podcast, what would you say the warning signs are, either for a coach or a parent or gym owner, that things are wrong or could be about to go wrong? And what preventative action can you take?

JOAN: I think as a parent, I think sports are great. I was a sports writer for years, and I have a son, and I think that sports really should be an essential part of any child’s life, frankly. And I think gymnastics is a particularly good sport for young kids to be involved with because you are involving the whole body, and balance, and agility, and it’s fun, and all of those things. When you have a girl who shows incredible promise and has great talent, then the parent needs to look at it and needs to follow her. The parent isn’t leading the way, the child is. How much that child wants to do, how devoted that child wants to be. So as a parent, you’re there to make sure that she’s safe, that she’s healthy, you’re watching practices when you can to see how does the coach treat these girls. You know, look at the other girls from the gym, do they all seem happy, are they getting something out of sports? Because really every parent has to look at sports as a child development tool, not as my kid is going to the Olympics. I mean, you know, six/seven girls go the Olympics every four years in gymnastics. The odds that your daughter is going to the Olympics are almost non-existent. But then why is she in the sport? She’s in the sport because it’s going to make her a better person. And if it’s not making her a better person, if it’s not really feeding into her sense of confidence, her sense of competitiveness, feeling strong, somebody who can speak up for herself, and disciplined, and setting goals, then there’s no point in being in it.

BLYTHE: Understood. Do you believe it’s possible for a coach to change, to really change, if there’s been some questionable practices in the past?

JOAN: Well, I sure hope so. I mean, I hope that there’s chance for all of us to change at any point in our lives. And I think a coach who’s really gifted in coaching and if he’s had some elite gymnasts, certainly more than one or two or three, then he really should be using those gifts in a really positive way. It is hard to imagine that any adult human being who confronted with the outcome of their own actions with a group of athletes, that he really looks at, “Oh my gosh, these girls have eating disorders, XYZ has an eating disorder. XYZ has permanent back issues and competing on a broken wrist, and looks unhappy and is starting to show really unhealthy behaviors”, how that adult person wouldn’t run to the first resource to try to change and say the whole point of this is to produce really terrific, healthy human beings with a very few that are actually going to compete at the very, very highest level. That would be your life’s work, right? Your life’s work is in sports, and it is in youth sports. It happens to be youth elite sports, but still youth sports. So your life’s work, I would think, is to look around and look at all of the girls who are paying for your gym, and that they are better for having spent time with you.

BLYTHE: One thing that I did want to bring up that I didn’t find too much in the book was in recent years some sort of things have come out, that there is a predatory nature in some coaches, even elite coaches, absolutely took advantage of gymnasts sexually. There have been a couple of cases that have been in the press in the past few years and I was just wondering if that was something that the gymnasts that you talked to spoke about.

JOAN: Yeah, some of them did. I mean there’s at least one or two examples in the book. Those are really, really tough. Nothing is in the book that I couldn’t verify, and this sexual predatory behavior was something when girls did bring it up, and there weren’t a million of them, but enough, if I couldn’t verify it with either another gymnast, or with a coach, or parent, or whatever, I didn’t feel comfortable putting it in the book. That’s just not the way I work, but it was extremely disturbing to hear this undercurrent, and get this sense that there was this undercurrent there. And I wish I could’ve done more on that level, really, but I didn’t figure out how.

BLYTHE: I see. I don’t know if we will actually include this in the podcast, but the coach who has really, kind of, been unmasked as having done this is Don Peters of SCATS. And that has been verified now by a couple of his ex pupils and has been banned by USAG and whatnot, and is definitely no longer coaching gymnastics.

JOAN: Yeah I hadn’t heard about him. I talked a lot to Kathy Johnson, obviously, who spent time with him.

BLYTHE: Mmhmm.

JOAN: And his particular name was not one that came up, frankly.

BLYTHE: I see. Was there anything in the book that you wish you had included, or excluded, or done differently? Hindsight being 20/20, of course.

JOAN: Oh boy, you know, not really. One of the things that I’m really proud of as a journalist, that you guys can relate to, is that I wasn’t a gymnast, I wasn’t a figure skater. I was going into this solely as a journalist. I really had to do my homework. I really had to learn a lot about these two subcultures and everything that went into it. And I knew once I had finished the book that there would be a blow back, you know, that there would be a lot of people very upset with it. So I was very careful with it, I knew that if there were any errors in the book, any mistakes, however minor, that they could dismiss the whole book. And I’m most proud of that that didn’t happen. That the reporting stood up.

BLYTHE: Absolutely. A lot of things that we read from, I don’t want to pick on any of the news agencies, but when they cover the Olympics or the American Cup or whatever, they kind of get some of skills wrong. They say, you know, you do a round off double back on the beam, which is not really possible. Did you have a proofreader or a fact checker? Were you showing chapters to anybody and having to say, “If I describe this element wrong can you correct it please?”

JOAN: Oh gosh, yeah. I must have. I had to have because there’s no way, especially those things. I still at the end, with the figure skating I would know the different jumps, I don’t know now but I was watching it I would know the different jumps, about how they entered into it and all that stuff. But I still couldn’t figure out the gymnastics stuff, it all happened so fast. So I must have, and I’m embarrassed to say I don’t remember.

BLYTHE: Do you watch the Olympics today?

JOAN: Can I? Oh yeah, I love it.

BLYTHE: Do you?

JOAN: Yeah, I do. I mean I really look at the gymnasts and they have changed, they are not the same as they looked when I was doing the book. There’s older gymnasts, there’s gymnasts who come back for more than one Olympics, their bodies look stronger. There are going to be exceptions, and I’m just talking about the American team because the Chinese and some of the other teams obviously still look like they’re 12. I think that, and again I don’t know what’s going on behind the scenes, I’m just looking at it as a viewer, but they look better.

BLYTHE: Absolutely. Wow, and we kind of think so, too. So it’s nice to hear that, and it’s nice to hear that even after writing a book like that you can still, hopefully, enjoy the beauty of the sport.

JOAN: Oh yeah! I still think it’s the most amazing, you know, you watch this and you can’t believe that humans can do this. I covered boxing and football, and gymnastics to me is the most demanding sport there is. By far, it’s the most demanding sport there is. In football, and boxing, and basketball, you don’t have to be perfect, right? You can make a mistake, it can be a bad mistake, and then make up for it later. In gymnastics, there’s no going back. So it amazes me that anyone can do it. I really enjoy watching it and I think maybe because there’s 20 years since I did the book, I enjoy it more now and I can watch it just as a viewer. And just be a happier that they look happy, for the most part, with a couple of exceptions every year. Most of them look pretty happy, they seem pretty happy to be on a team, they smile and it doesn’t seem completely forced all the time, I mean sometimes it does, but I just love watching what they can do. It’s really one of the most amazing things you can see.

BLYTHE: Joan, this has been a fabulous interview and we thank you so much for coming and taking the time to speak with us today. One last thing, can you let people know where to find you? Website, Twitter, that kind of thing?

JOAN: Yeah, my website is JoanRyanINK.com
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JESSICA: So, what did you guys think? Like, I was really…I’m really happy with that interview, how that went. I think you guys did an amazing job with that, and I’m just really proud of this crew right now cause you guys did a kickass job, and I was really—it was really interesting that when we asked her if she had left anything out of the book, because there was the mystery missing chapter, she said no, but when we pressed her about the sexual abuse, she said yes, but of course she can’t print that because it’s libel, and Dvora was saying, “You never want to out a victim”, of course, so…it was really interesting that it wasn’t who we thought it was. We thought for sure it would be Don Peters, and it wasn’t.

DVORA: Yeah, I meant that was—it was very interesting, because I’m rereading the book, and I’m reading the stuff about Kathy Johnson and her experience, and Don Peters was a positive figure, you know. Came and encouraged her and believed in her. And it was just, it was interesting to read, again, with the knowledge of what he has done to his gymnasts, and how, you know, and how he was positive for Kathy Johnson, but obviously a negative for a lot of other girls, so…and, clearly, just judging from the accounts, she said no. She had no idea. I don’t think she would have kept him even if she could have outwardly said, you know, “Don Peters abused some of his gymnasts”, if she had known that I don’t think she would have kept his as positively as she did.

JESSICA: Yeah, I mean it’s interesting to think also, I mean, we could speculate on predators, like that someone is not, you know.

DVORA: Yeah.

JESSICA: That you can’t take advantage of someone, so don’t try.

DVORA: She’s older, he’s not into her, in a sick way.

BLYTHE: Well, that is, that is sort of…it was more, she’s older, she’s not as easily taken advantage of. But also, I see what you’re saying.

DVORA: Yeah, yeah.

BLYTHE: His predilections might have been too old to be a victim, let’s put it that way.

JESSICA: Anything else that stood out for you guys?

BLYTHE: I liked how she said that, when the book was published, she thought the whole gambit of reaction, from people saying, “This is wonderful, you’ve given me a voice that I have never had before,” to what I imagine would be some incredibly nasty letters and phone calls.

JESSICA: Yes.

DVORA: Yes. And when she said that Bela just denied even speaking to her, I’m sure she has his recording somewhere. It’s like the stupidest denial to make.

BLYTHE: She said that. She said, “Well, it was all on tape, so…”

DVORA: Yeah, it’s just like the stupidest denials, like anyone…I’ve worked as a journalist, and people have said that, “No, you told me that was off the record,” and I’m like, “Do you want to listen to the recording? Because you can do that. We can sit down and listen to the recording, and the parts that you said stipulate that they were off the record did not make it into the article, and the parts where you did not stipulate are in the article. Like, we can play this.” So, you know, this is the most ridiculous, but then, it’s also interesting that, obviously…I don’t know. I mean, USA Today or other publications let him get away with saying stuff like that? You know, that could be very easily…I wonder like what those articles were like, whether they bothered asking Joan Ryan, “Can you verify?” And I think it speaks to one of the things she pointed out in the book, is just how utterly charming Bela Karolyi is, especially back in those times. And, I mean, that’s a flat-out lie. And he flat-out lied and I’m wondering if they bothered calling him on it.

BLYTHE: I did think it was interesting when we asked about Marta, and she said, I don’t know how to put it, you know, Bela was the light of the gym and everything else was just in shadow. You know, he was the larger than life figure, and she sort of blended into the background, such that a person who is writing a book like this doesn’t even notice, really, her existence. That’s interesting. And that was sort of played out when Marta became National Team Coordinator, that always talked about kind of, The Woman Behind Bela, The Woman in the Shadows. And, yeah.

JESSICA: It was really interesting, because anyone who knows gymnastics and who knows that she is the actual coach, he’s just a motivator. He doesn’t actually coach technique.

BLYTHE: Definitely he’s in the limelight.

JESSICA: Yeah, right. And so, it’s, yeah.

BLYTHE: Definitely motivating girls, giving bear hugs and stuff like that.

JESSICA: Yeah. Right. And, I mean, the other thing that I think is we’ve kind of been, it’s interesting to learn as we talk to more elites, that in general, the feedback we’ve gotten from elites now is that they like Marta and they think she’s pretty fair, and that’s in stark contrast to what we heard about Bela from, you know, the gymnasts in her book, clearly, and also the 2000 Sydney team, which is the team that, you know, after that, he was out. So it’s really interesting, and it makes sense, then, you know, that she focused on him and not on Marta.

DVORA: I was so happy that you brought up the 2000 Sydney team when you were speaking to Joan, Blythe, and that has just encouraged me. I feel like we should get them, I would love to have them on, because they’re really the team that overthrew him, you know.

JESSICA: I’ve always wanted to hear that story and how it went down because, even recently, there was an interview with Larry Nassar, who is the trainer and doctor for the team, who’s been for 25, 30 years, and he said that they always have a special place in their hearts because they changed everything, and I was like, whoa. And I’ve always wanted to have him on the show, because we want to know who really sees what goes on, and who really has, you know, such a hard job, it’s him. And, you know, I’ve met him, and I worked with him when I was in college, and he is just the more amazing person, and so, yeah. That was totally fascinating.

DVORA: Yeah. And again, I’m just so happy that Blythe, that you brought it up, because it occurred to make that they’re the ones who, where other coaches couldn’t stand up to him, the gymnasts stood up to him, and even some of the coaches like Kelli Hill, who seemed to kind of balk. After that, he ceases to be a factor in USA Gymnastics. It’s really, that’s a great story.

BLYTHE: And that 2000 Olympic team are still totally outspoken. At the 2010 US Championships, when they got their bronze medal in a kind of Olympic-style ceremony, in Hartford, they were given about 40 minutes with the media beforehand, and they had maybe 15 journalists in the room, asking them questions. And they let loose. Some of it is on Gymnastike, but not all of it, and they absolutely, as adults who have had a decade to reflect on the experience, you could tell there was a lot of just trauma and hurt and probably some regret around the experience that they had, and there were some who were not afraid to say so. And yes, even in 2000, they never were, but…yeah.

JESSICA: Yeah, I think one of the quotes from that is, is it Jamie Dantzscher? We can take this out if I’m totally wrong with my facts here, but I believe that at that conference Jamie said, “We were treated like crap and I’m so proud of how did and how we handled it”, right? Or, “We were treated terrible”, or, “We weren’t treated well, and we…” She said specifically, we did great despite how we were treated, and that’s what I’m really proud of. Something like that, right?

BLYTHE: Something like that, I don’t remember what the exact quote was, but Jamie certainly was the most outspoken of the group.

DVORA: Yeah, and yeah. I wish….so, not all of it made it onto Gymnastike, but was there anything that stood out in your mind in the 2010 conference since you were there, Blythe, that has not been talked about? Like what they said, anything specific?

BLYTHE: What struck me was how, ten years on, there was still a lot of hurt and what seemed like an open wound. And I’m sure that it’s not like that in their daily lives, but when they were brought before the media and said, you know, it was just so unfair for them. They didn’t get to have the great Olympic experience, in the aftermath. They didn’t get to say that they were Olympic medalists. It was just…and you could tell that that had been so hard for them, and they had sort of gone through, the last people to go through, the old system, shall we say. And to have nothing to show for it….there was hurt, and there was sadness, and I think when they sort of got in front of everybody, it sort of came out. Not necessarily for every member of the team.

JESSICA: What really stood out for you in the book? There’s something, reading it now, for me, reading it when I originally read it, I felt both, what’s the word I’m looking for…I felt validated for my gymnastics experience, which, this might surprise everyone who is listening to this and knows how I love gymnastics, but I hated gymnastics so much when I left that I went outside and smashed every single one of my trophies with a hammer. Yes. I did not have a positive experience at the end of gymnastics, and hated it, hated it, and couldn’t even watch it on TV for years, and then I found a way to be involved in it that was good and healthy for me, and fell in love with it on my own terms, which is, I think, why it’s so frustrating for many of these elites, because they’re in and out—not that I was elite, please—and one of the things that really stood out to me now, you know, the thing that was hard was defending the sport from people who thought this summarized all of gymnastics and stereotyped it all, which is, of course, not true. And she makes that very clear in the book, too. But the thing that really stood out when I reread this book, the line that I loved that I wanted to put on a wall in every gym, is on page 36 of my edition from ’95, she says, “Most gymnasts begin the sport so young—as toddlers—that the plague of injuries seems normal. No-one tells them that their bodies belong to them, and not their coaches or parents.” That is just huge. It is, no-one, you know, there isn’t that moment in gymnastics, I feel like, when you’re a kid where someone says to you, you know what, that it’s your body, it’s your life, and it’s ok for you to say no to these adults. That doesn’t…

UNCLE TIM: And I think that’s something that Jill Hicks was really big on in her interview, and really came through, and it’s interesting to see kind of these parallels between what was written in the book, and some of our interviews like that, so, yeah. And it seems like it still is an issue for people, otherwise Jill wouldn’t have been talking about it when she was on our show.

DVORA: Yeah, that’s…that’s a really beautiful quote. I think what’s—I just, my book arrived late, so as I was rereading it yesterday, so it’s pretty fresh in my memory, I was a little bit overwhelmed by, because it almost like, it turns into like a list of injuries and eating disorders. So I was a little overwhelmed. Back when I read it when it came out, when I was a kid, I reacted like a kid who loved gymnastics, and obviously I was not, I was doing it at a very low level so I was not encountering bad. Like, my coach made me get up on the bar after my palm had ripped. That was the worst thing that ever happened to me, and I never, I didn’t have injuries or anything to speak of. And so, I love the sport, and I don’t like to see bad things written about it. And I kind of reflexively got really defensive, and just thought, that, Oh, she’s a liar. And obviously, then, you grow up. And you read it, and you go off and become a journalist, and realize that she was probably not lying. She was definitely telling the truth. And so re-reading it, it kind of, at times—I love gymnastics, as everyone knows. And I feel uncomfortable when I hear about that type of training that some girls have to go through at a very young age, when they’re still growing. And I understand that that’s a necessity, that they have to develop these strengths and these skills young, and hopefully they are getting positive coaching, but I don’t know if that is the case or not. It annoying, watching gymnastics, and knowing that the process behind it isn’t really, necessarily a positive experience for the girl. Or may not be, depending on who their coach is and what system they compete in. And kind of re-reading it and seeing the list of injuries and, you know, and the eating disorders, kind of reinforce that uncomfortable feeling I get at times, when I’m watching gymnastics. Especially if I look at a girl who looks a little beaten down and looks unhappy, it’s like, am I enjoying the product of a very negative system?

UNCLE TIM: When I read this book, many years ago, I mean, I didn’t have the reaction that some people had. I actually kind of believed what she wrote, and I realized that maybe my experience at a gym was different from other peoples, and I also, you know, had friends who would go to camps and have coaches say, “You know, you should lose five pounds,” that kind of stuff. And so I did realize that there was this side to gymnastics. In terms of men’s gymnastics, I mean, I think that it’s very different. I mean the, it’s not, the pressure’s not to be, you know, thin and as light as possible. I mean, part of it is to be big and strong, or at least have a good strength to weight ratio. And so, I don’t think that, at least in terms of the eating disorders, those things are an issue. But, you know, obviously as we talked about a little bit with Justin, some of the sexual issues can be.

JESSICA: And Blythe, is there anything that stood out to you this time reading it? And as a journalist, I imagine the first time you read this, you weren’t a full time journalist, and now, you know, interviewing someone who is doing the same thing that you’re doing for a living.

BLYTHE: The first time I read this I was, like, twelve, and it was shocking, and provocative, and yet I didn’t have that reaction of, “Oh, I hate this, this can’t be right, this can’t be true.” I believed it. And today, I have no problem believing it. But what also seems fair, that should be said, is like, the stories are the very worst in the sport, and they represent one really extreme end of the spectrum, and I think that for every kid who struggles with anorexia, and for every kid who gets pushed around by their coaches or their parents to this extent, you know, there’s like a thousand kids who have a great experience in gymnastics. And my experience in gymnastics—now, I was not training at a very high level, either—was absolutely fabulous. I never had anything but terrific coaches, and parents who actually didn’t want me to do gymnastics, they thought that I would kill myself, and it didn’t seem like a legitimate argument at the time, but you know, these days, again, more perspective, I guess. But from reading it now, I’m kind of like, wow, this is a really well-written book. Really well-written. And I would recommend it to anybody that has an interest in the sport of gymnastics, with the caveat that this is one extreme. That’s all.

UNCLE TIM: And I liked how in the interview she said she does like the sport of gymnastics. It wasn’t just this terrible, terrible experience. She does think that gymnastics can be a good thing. I thought that was an important thing because I feel like some people thought she was just anti-gymnastics and hated the entire sport.

BLYTHE: You know what I think has improved the sport immensely? Social media. Because before, all that we had to go off of when we thought about the life of an elite gymnast was like an NBC fluff piece in which the words pain and sacrifice were really highlighted. But now, you can follow a gymnast on Twitter and you can see them just kind of being adolescent. You can follow a gymnast on Facebook and you get a deeper sense of their life. It’s not always in the gym being yelled at by a coach and doing push ups. They get to do some real things and cool things and they have family and friends. It just gives you a different perspective. And we didn’t have that in the 90’s especially. Although that being said, it definitely seems like stuff was worse in the 90’s and not just from reading Little Girls in Pretty Boxes. In her 2000 update of the book where she adds a new afterword and talks about Dominique Moceanu and Kerri Strug, she has a great phrase where she says something like “the emaciated, sullen little team that they put out on the floor in ‘92”. And when you look back at that, that is kind of how it seemed. There were no smiles. There was no real joy. You can also make the argument, I suppose that if they had won, there might have been a bit more of that. But it just seems so much harsher then than it does now.

DVORA: Yeah and I don’t even think it’s contingent on whether they win because you see the Russians. They didn’t win this year. They obviously ran the emotional gamut. They were happy in preliminaries, sad after team finals. But they also seem much more expressive than they used to. I don’t think it’s just a matter of winning. Just because in ‘92, they got the bronze. I think that was not a particularly happy group of girls. And they did look incredibly small. Compared to four years later, they were a little older. We had a young team in 2012 and they did not look as small and unhappy. Half of our team was like 16.

BLYTHE: And the statistics when you look back at ‘92, Shannon Miller was 4 feet 7 inches and I think like 75 pounds. And even today, Gabby Douglas is like 4’11, 5’0 and you know 95 pounds. It’s just not the same animal at all.

JESSICA: I like how you brought up the social media aspect too. Not only because it’s like yeah we get to see teenagers being teenagers now, which is great. But you can’t get away with the stuff that was done back then because some parent who’s watching will videotape it and put it on the internet. I just feel like if you can hear what’s going on, unless every single parent there is complicit, which happens, people wouldn’t get away with the stuff they do now. It would be on YouTube in .5 seconds.

DVORA: And the coaches cannot be the mouthpieces for their gymnasts the way they used to be.
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[[LISTENER FEEDBACK]]

JESSICA: Our beloved Spanny is out today. As you know, she is in a lovely Emily Kmetko way and sometimes that gets in the way of podcasting so we wish her the best this week and I’m going to go ahead and give you our results for our GymCastic Champions, the winners of our end of the year awards. I just want to thank you guys, first of all, for all of the amazing feedback. We had so many votes. We’re blown away by all the feedback. You guys are amazing! Actually, we decided we’re going to leave open the listener survey part. So if at any time, you have feedback for us, you can put that form in. I’ll move it over to the About page so you guys can keep giving us feedback. All your feedback is really helpful and we listen to it and as you can tell, you’ll notice some changes on the show this week. So let us know what you think of the changes if you like what we’ve done with the format this time. Alright so, our GymCastic Champions. The winner of the Unexpected Delights category, the GymCastic Champion for 2012 is Aly’s parents while watching her do gymnastics. Congratulations to Aly’s parents. Coming in second place was Samuel L. Jackson tweeting about gymnastics. So I think that that means we should absolutely have him on the show.

UNCLE TIM: We’ll have to bleep him a lot.

DVORA: That’d be awesome! This way Jessica will get to figure out a variety of horn sounds to use. Not just one. There will be a chorus of them.

JESSICA: Exactly! Maybe that would be our explicit episode. We can’t censor Samuel L. Jackson! That would be un-American! Wipeout of the Year, the Gymcastic Champion for 2012 is Daniel Purvis for falling on top of the judge who then grasped his thighs vigorously until he was safely on the ground. He is our winner. Video is up on the site. It’s so funny you guys. He won with 66% of the vote so congratulations Daniel Purvis. In the fashion and presentation category, the Gymcastic 2012 Champion is Gabby Douglas for her post Olympic appearances in fantastic styling. Congratulations Dougie. We’re proud. Spanny is going to be overjoyed by this result. Our runner up was Maroney’s gold shorts in Glamour magazine. So that is pretty awesome. First time that people have really liked a gymnast’s spread in a magazine that wasn’t a guy with his shirt off. In our CILF category, the overwhelming winner, a last minute entry, was Justin Spring with 54% of the vote. Very very impressive. And you know we had, if you look in the comments section of the site, there were many more entries for women in this category. We didn’t have any women. We’re all as Dvora put it in the last episode, we’re all oriented in the same direction towards men on this show. So until we have a straight guy on this show, this is how it’s going to go. We’ll just talk about men. So if you look at the comments section, there are many female coaches nominated and pretty much, they’re all from WOGA again. WOGA, bringing the hotness. Congratulations. For our moments of tears of joy or sorrow, the 2012 Gymcastic Champion is Jordyn finding out she didn’t make the All Around in London. And she got 48% of the votes and the runner up in that category is Aly’s face at the end of her floor routine in Team Finals in London when she realized she clinched it for everybody. I love that those are the back to back winners, runner up and the champion. Because it’s perfect. One was like all of our hearts ached and the other one, all of our hearts were overjoyed and it was just beautiful to see that moment. And that’s what sports is all about, those crazy intense beautiful moments. The best photo spread for 2012, also referred to as the slutty category, nude category. Our winner with 52% of the vote is Epke Zonderland. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. If you googled those pictures or you looked at Gymnastics Coaching, they boldly put the photo right up because they don’t worry about those things in Canada. You can take a look at that picture and see why he won with 52% of the votes. The runner up in that category is Danell Leyva for his ESPN Body Issue. The Worst of 2012, the Champion for the worst of 2012, not surprisingly is tiebreakers with a whopping 61% of the votes. Yeah we’re not pleased about that. The runner up in that category was actually Porgras’ retirement, is the runner up in that category. For our wishlist for 2012, we asked who should come out of retirement and the champion, are you ready for this you guys, is Vanessa Atler. Yes. Vanessa Atler won. Because everyone knows that she is the freaking best thing ever and totally loves her. It’s amazing. She got more votes than Beth Tweddle, which I just love that. Love that. Love that. I think that’s the best thing ever. Someday we will have her on the show and we will reward her a special little something for winning this. So congratulations Vanessa. Truly still beloved by the gymnastics community. For the ESPN Body Issue for next year, we asked who do you want to see. Who would you like to see do this next year? And our champion is, not surprisingly if you listen to everyone on the show except for me, Philipp Boy, won with 55% of the vote. Not a shocker. Apparently he is the hottest man in men’s gymnastics ever. The runner up is Paul Ruggeri. Hmm Paul! What do you think of that? Tweet us and tell us. I think you should get in contact and you and Philipp Boy should do it together. Just a suggestion. I mean if you want to make people happy.

DVORA: The internet would explode if that happened.

JESSICA: Yes! It would explode with joy. Ok that’s too much. Wish list for 2013 for fashion asked what should the changes be in fashion for 2013 and the winner in this category with 67% of the votes, not surprising either is to convert men’s gymnastics uniforms to shorts only. Or as Rick from Gymnastics Coaching said the tighty whitey championships. We weren’t really thinking tighty whities but Under Armour should sponsor men’s gymnastics like they sponsor Georges St. Pierre who has a gymnastics-esque body. So yes, converting uniforms won. I just want to thank everybody so much for your feedback. And some of the feedback from the listener survey I want to share with you right now. We had a lot of fun with this episode. It’s our end of the year episode. We just had a good time. We just said what we thought and let our inner feelings out about how we feel about watching hot men be recorded publicly. And so one of my favorite comments from the feedback section that we got, and there’s no name attached to this, so this is one of the comments we got that I thought was hilarious because some people liked what we said and some people thought we went too far. We had a good time and it was the end of the year. So this is the comment: “You were correct on the last podcast. Straight men were underserved in the survey. That being said, most straight male listeners, self included, typically see female gymnasts as girls, even though they actually may be full grown adult women. It might not be fair, but it is what it is. Though, we don’t really think of female gymnasts they way you think and graphically describe the male gymnasts, no harm, no foul. Keep up the great work.Man you female hosts sound like a bunch of guys in a bar. It’s awesome!” Thank you so much for that. We appreciate that and take that as a fantastic compliment.

DVORA: I’ve never been prouder of anything ever than to be compared to a horny guy.

JESSICA: I’m going to put that on one of our t shirts too. I’m keeping a list of awesome quotes from the show to put them on t shirts. Uncle Tim, do you want to talk about your newest suggestion for GymLine and what else it could be used for besides a fantastic service to answer questions about butt glue?

UNCLE TIM: Sure so the past podcast has sort of been about the darker underside of gymnastics and we recognize that some of these issues still exist in gymnastics today. But at the same time, we fully recognize that gymnastics can be a very very powerful experience and a good tool in your life. And so for the next couple of weeks, we ask that you guys write to us and tell us about how gymnastics has been a good influence in your life. Whether it be from a gymnasts’ perspective, coaches’ perspective, or as a fan. Write us an email. We’ll read some of our favorite ones in a couple of weeks.
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ALLISON TAYLOR: This episode is brought to you by Elite Sportz Band. elitesportzband.com We’ve got your back.
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JESSICA: Visit elitesportzband.com, that’s sportz with a z and save $5 on your next purchase with the code gymcast. That’s going to do it for us this week. Thanks so much for listening. Next week, we’re going to have Elizabeth Price on the show. So send us your questions for Ebee. We’re also going to talk about how the AAU lost their right to represent gymnastics in the Olympics. It’s a history scandal you’re not going to want to miss. We also now have a new way for you to support the show besides rating us on iTunes. We now have an Amazon store, which has our very best gymnastics essentials and recommendations.So if you want to read Little Girls in Pretty Boxes or Dvora Meyers’ memoir Heresy on High Beam, if you want to find out all the books we’ve read and we think you should read including the original gym mom book, Shannon Miller’s mom’s book which is full of very interesting stories and insights, check out the Amazon store. When you shop from there, you can shop regularly and go through Amazon, and a little portion of what you buy will help support the show. Remember you can find any links to what we’re talking about, videos and whatnot will be posted on the site. And you can find us on Twitter, Tumblr now. We’re now on Instagram. We are on Google Plus. And remember you can always send us your feedback, questions for Ebee, you can send them to gymcastic@gmail.com. You can call us on GymLine, ask us your gymnastics questions. Ask a question that you want us to answer on the air. The number is 415-800-3191. You can find us on Skype at Gymcastic Podcast. And that is going to do it for this week. For masters-gymnastics.com, I’m Jessica O’Beirne.

BLYTHE: I’m Blythe Lawrence from The Gymnastics Examiner.

TIM: I’m Uncle Tim from Uncle Tim Talks Men’s Gym

DVORA: And I’m Dvora from Unorthodox Gymnastics

JESSICA: See ya next week!

Episode 14 Transcript
[[INTRO]]

TIM DAGGETT: GymCastic is fantastic.

ANNA LI: GymCastic is fantastic.

LOUIS SMITH: GymCastic is fantastic.

ALLISON TAYLOR: Hey gymnasts! Train smarter with the holiday’s best stocking stuffer, Elite Sportz Band. This new gym bag must-have has the approval of Dr. Larry Nassar and is now being worn by Olympic gymnasts. For bands or holiday bundles, go to elitesportzband.com.
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JESSICA: Welcome to Gymcastic Episode 14. This is our end of the year awards show. We’re super excited to just discuss our favorite things and worst things about the past year today. In this episode, we are also announcing our guests for January and they are crazy! Oh my God! Like literally, we think that the gymternet may actually explode. I mean really. So make sure you stick around for the end of the show when we announce our guests for January because like it’s unbelievable. Seriously! Eeek! So excited! Ok. Additionally, you’ll be hearing clips from shows like 30 Rock and Girl on Guy that have to do with gymnastics. I hope you like those. I want to remind you guys that you can find everything that we’re talking about, more or less, on the website. And we are also going to have a special survey where you can vote for the winners for this past year and we will discuss. We will argue for our favorites and our worsts and then you can decide who can be the GymCastic champion of whatever. So look for that on the site and I’ll also tweet it and put it on the Facebook page. Remember that you can support the show by telling all of your friends about it. You can rate us on iTunes. You can review us on iTunes. Consider that your end of the year gift to us to review us on iTunes. You can also subscribe to us on Stitcher, which is really cool. You can make your own little radio station. I really like Stitcher. I’m using it more and more. And of course, by supporting our sponsors. So let’s go ahead and get right into the show. First though, let me introduce you to everyone we have because I just started talking and completely forgot about everyone. So….(laughs) that’s how today’s been going. Starting with me just turning my alarm off this morning like I didn’t have to get up. So I am of course, Jessica O’Beirne from masters-gymnastics.com and I’m here with…

BLYTHE: Blythe Lawrence from The Gymnastics Examiner

SPANNY: Spanny Tampson from Spanny’s Big Fake Smile

TIM: Uncle Tim from Uncle Tim Talks Men’s Gym

DVORA: And Dvora from Unorthodox Gymnastics

[[30 ROCK CLIP]]
JACK DONAGHY: Lemon, you’re going to go to Gavin’s and you’re going to work this thing like a Chinese gymnast. Wear something tight, force a smile and lie about your age.

[MUSIC PLAYS]
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JESSICA: Blythe, tell us what has happened in the news since we have been gone.

BLYTHE: Oh man! It’s all about Louis Smith! He has won the British equivalent of Dancing with the Stars. It is called Strictly Come Dancing. And he and his partner, Flavia Cacace, they won and it’s been big in Britain. He took his shirt off. That, I’m sure, is all over the internet. And actually, he like Shawn Johnson, kind of surprising, is really got the moves. Have you guys seen any of the performances that he did?

JESSICA: Mmhm

SPANNY: Mmhm

JESSICA: He’s good. I enjoy watching him very much. And not just for his body. God, so sexist.

BLYTHE: Well, I enjoy watching him for both his body and his dance moves and his gymnastics but anyway that was probably an unsolicited comment.

DVORA: Equal opportunity objectification. You know, we’re not ever going to stop objectifying women so we better start objectifying men much more.

BLYTHE: Yeah Louis’s not afraid to take his shirt off. Not too shy.

SPANNY: Or his pants. I’ve seen some pictures. I’m cool with it.

DVORA: He’s an adult.

JESSICA: There’s nothing wrong with him taking his pants off. I’ll agree with that.

UNCLE TIM: Moving on…..

BLYTHE: Moving on. On a more serious note, the Winter Cup roster was released by USA Gymnastics this week. It features four the five Olympians and I want to say, all three of the alternates. It looks like Chris Brooks is going to hang around, Steven Legendre already said that he’s planning to go another four years and Jonathan Horton, Jake Dalton, Sam Mikulak and Danell Leyva, they are all in for another four years. Chris Brooks also Steven Legendre will be there. The only one who’s not who was part of the Olympic picture would be John Orozco but of course he has torn his ACL so he’s probably looking at a year minimum for coming back. He’s young and strong and really no need to rush it. We’re not in a Mustafina situation here. He’s got a lot of time and so we probably won’t see him for a while. The Romanian picture has cleared up a little bit. But honestly, I can never quite tell what’s going on in Romania. Like one day I’ll read an article that says Catalina Ponor and Sandra Izbasa are done. They’re not training anymore. No more competition for them. And then the next day I’ll read an article where they say oh yeah maybe we’ll come back. We want to do gymnastics as long as possible. So the whole picture is clear as mud. But Gym Power, the Dutch gymnastics website, which is absolutely excellent, (use Google translate) but they also do some quick hits and things in English, they interviewed them at the Gala and Sandra Izbasa says I might keep going. I’ll make a decision in January. And Catalina Ponor says no I am really done. And then kind of in the next sentence she says but you know I may come back for 2016. So we don’t really know.

JESSICA: Actually speaking of Ponor, I watched her balance beam routine from the Gala and I really liked it. First of all, she’s wearing a onesie gymnastics one piece leotard that goes all the way down to her ankles, like long sleeved. And it actually looks very nice. Like, it’s elegant. It looks good. And I liked her routine. She used the floor. She did moves underneath the beam. She did moves over the beam, one side to the other, Everything you would want someone to do in a Gala without it looking totally ridiculous and cheesy and they’re just like oh I’m going to jump off now because I’m tired. I really liked it. I would like to see more routines modeled after what she did. It was original. And she did real skills too. She did flip flop flip flop layout, a three quarter twisting back handspring to handstand which we don’t see much of anymore so I really liked it. One other thing I want to mention is that The Chalk Bucket has a new app out. I don’t know if you guys are familiar with Chalk Bucket. It’s a forum. It’s a website. The cool thing about this, it’s like a very well organized message board. It’s very tame. It’s very PG. It’s well maintained. They have good moderators on there. So it’s safe for everybody. There’s a really great adult gymnastics board there. So I always like it if you do gymnastics to find other people to talk about it who also do adult gymnastics, you know gymnastics as adults, to get tips from. They have a new app so if you have an Android phone, you can check it out. So I’m excited about that because I’m going to get an Android phone soon and I’m totally going to check it out. We’ll put a link up on the site for that. The other thing I want to mention is…I knew it! The Olympic report finally came out about the tickets and we all know….if any of you are out there and tried to get a freaking ticket to anything in gymnastics, you will know like I did. I saved for four years, planned to go the Olympics, planned to get tickets, and I got big fat zero tickets to gymnastics even though I applied way ahead of time. You had to apply. There’s a whole process. I did it every single time. I did it ahead of time. And I didn’t get one single ticket to gymnastics. So, the reason for that…I knew they gave tons of tickets to the sponsors, which is understandable. But finally, under pressure from the Olympic organizing committee in London, the report on who tickets actually went to came out. So I will read you a couple of things. We will put links up to the actual report and then to the Telegraph story on the site. So just an example, a quote from the story, “Tom Daley’s winning bronze in the men’s 10 m platform diving was witnessed by a crowd in the Aquatic Center of which only 52% were from the public.” In that event, half the tickets went to the sponsors. In another case, there were 76% for triathlon, 76% of the final tickets for the triathlon went to the sponsors. 76%! You wonder why there were empty seats in the freaking stadium in gymnastics? Yeah. This is why! It’s disgusting. Like, I understand that you have to give tickets to the sponsors. They pay a lot. This is why you give tickets to the sponsors, but this is absolutely a disgrace. 76% and 50% going to the sponsors, it is an outrage. I have no idea what to do about it. But it’s an outrage, people.

DVORA: Also really. We all knew that the Olympics are entirely corporatized and not at all an amateur event and not at all a populist event as they are supposed to be, but this just really drives that point home.

JESSICA: Yeah it absolutely does. And the fact that the athletes are not allowed to wear their own personal sponsors who supported them and have gotten them to this point, to wear their sponsorship logos during the Olympics, when the Olympics is selling the athletes in this way, it’s just disgusting. The whole thing, it’s very sad. It’s too bad that it’s gotten this corporate, to this point. I’m glad that the athletes are starting to unionize and fight for their rights to make a living off of what they’re doing since all the sponsors are profiting from their athletics. The other thing that came out a week ago was the Google release of their Zeitgeist report. It revealed that McKayla Maroney was the fourth most Googled athlete in 2012 behind Jeremy Lin, Michael Phelps, and Payton Manning. So that is a great great thing for gymnastics. It just shows that even if you win a gold medal, if you make a funny face and a meme gets made out of you, you’ll be more popular than anybody else. It’s pretty awesome. I’m pretty stoked about that. I don’t know if we’ve ever had a gymnast, maybe if Google had existed back in the time when Mary Lou was around, but that’s pretty cool.
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[[30 ROCK CLIP]]

HAZEL WASSERNAME: Or since I’m here to help, maybe I could fill the time. I still know my rhythmic gymnastics routine. I was good. Until I hit puberty and the coaches said I got too pregnant.

LIZ LEMON: Are you kidding? I’m not going to put you on the show.
–

JESSICA: Here comes the segment on our 2012 awards and wish list. So the first thing we’re going to start with: best fashion and/or presentation because just in general their presence. Do you notice them? Is there something about them? The je ne sais quoi performance. I put in hair: Danusia Francis for her F-U hair at the London Test Event. And I especially put this in here because of the notorious MTV Italy show where, you know there’s the reality show that follows the Italian gymnastics team and they famously completely laugh their asses off about her hair because they’re rude and have no class. No, really you guys. It was an embarrassing moment for those kids. And I’m not just saying that because I totally love Danusia Francis. Ok, yes I do. I might be a little bit biased. But anyway, I just love her hair. She’s just like yeah this is my hair. I’m goi