In the news, Jessica, Uncle Tim and Elizabeth Grimsely chat about:
- The fashion, safety, random whistling sounds, top 40 music and insane skills from the Trampoline, Double Mini, Rhythmic, Tumbling and Acrobatic Championships
- Can Dana Duckworth fill Sarah Patterson’s heels as she retires after 36 years at the University of Alabama
- Gabby Douglas leaves Chow’s again–where should she go now? Jessica gives us an elaborate plan for Gabby while Uncle Tim speculates about the business end of things.
- Then we answer your questions about men’s age limits–why did Kenzo become a world champ at 17?
- Do pro gymnasts delay official retirement to milk endorsements? Or are they just keeping their options open?
CALLING AWESOME TYPISTS! Our transcription team serves the deaf gymnastics population by transcribing each episode with their passion for typing and gymnastics. If you’d like to join Team GymCastic Transcription and help our deaf audience read each episode faster, email us at gymcastic @ gmail.com to volunteer.
Louis will be our very first GymCastic Book Club guest in August.
What: Read the book and submit questions about it for Louis.
How: Buy the book here, send your questions to us at gymcastic @ gmail.com or leave a voicemail on Skype at username “GymCastic Podcast” or by dialing (415) 800-3191.
When: Submit your questions by the first week in August and we’ll ask Louis when he’s on the show in August.
Elizabeth Grimsley writes about gymnastics over at allflippedout and tweets about it here.
USA Gymnastics full gallery of great photos from USA Championships on Facebook.
- Episode 26.5: Jenny Hansen, Casey Jo Magee and Anna Li with an Announcement!
- Episode 3: Russian Regime Change, Fashion Code and a Chat With Anna Li
- 03: Ranch Classic & Sports Acro World Championships
- 102: Classic Episode with Louis Smith
- Episode 55: Worlds Wrap Up & Ferlito-Gate
- Episode 54: Event Finals Recap from 2013 World Championships
- Episode 53: All Around Finals Recap from Antwerp World Championships
- Episode 52: Triumph & Heartbreak Prelims Recap from Antwerp Worlds
Or watch this week’s YouTube play list here.
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The age rules are an interesting deal. I think the men were given a grace period for their rule change because the age was raised two whole years. Think back to 1997 when the age limit for WAG was raised from 15 to 16, but the women weren’t given a grace period because the difference was only a year. Nevertheless, how crappy was it for female gymnasts born in 1982 back then, eh?
I don’t recall reading an official reason for the raising of the age minimum, but it happened rather quietly. For one thing, raising the minimum to 18 is hardly detrimental to MAG because very few male gymnasts have skills of senior international level that young. Yes, there have been some noteworthy teen stars in MAG, but they are a very small minority. The vast majority of male gymnasts are at their physical peak in their 20s. Meanwhile, I think we know most female gymnasts tend to be in their teens because puberty seems to make or break them.
I know there would be a lot of outrage from the gym community if the age minimum in WAG were raised to 18. Nobody cares as much about MAG, let’s be honest, lol. .
Oh, and thanks for the on-air love! <3
By the way, I’d like to clarify that I don’t agree with the rule change or that MAG and WAG have different age limits.
Well here’s the thing: if the age limit had gone immediately from 16 to 18, then people who were already seniors would have gone back down to being juniors. Kenzo was eligible for the 2012 Olympic Games, and then he wouldn’t have been age-eligible for the 2013 Worlds? That would be silly. I mean, imagine if Kyla was a junior again last year after being a senior at the Olympics?
If the age bump is going to be more than two years, then I would think you would need to gradually change it because it is ridiculous to make seniors go back to being juniors.
I’m unfortunately going to have to correct myself on one thing. Ivanna Antezana and Deanna Parris won the women’s senior synchro title and not Drury/Dunavin! Oops…
In response to your thoughts on DMT this week I can assure you that as someone who transitioned from artistic to T&T it is in fact very terrifying the first few times you do it. The worst is hitting the bunjees and flying forwards off of it. I really liked this episode. Keep it up!
The download option for this episode is not working. 🙁
I love this podcast- keep up the great work!!!!
No clue where the sheep/wolf jump names came from, but my reasoning is similar to Uncle Tim’s. I always equated the wolf jump to be a more “aggressive” position, kind of charging forward and ready to attack; whereas, the sheep jump is open and vulnerable. Maybe that was just my subconscious reasoning of the names, but that’s how I’ve always thought of them.
I think the day these episodes air needs to be changed or split into two episodes a week. Because even though the review of competitions works quite nicely by allowing enough time for everyone to watch it and have intelligent reflection, the news portion of the show suffers considerably because its often outdated. For instance, it would’ve been fun to speculate about where gabby was headed if this was last Friday or Saturday but we all know she’s in NC now training with Avery (paul hamm’s coach AND vault technician so yay for Gabs!!!). Additionally, so much other information has come out pertaining to why she left and Chow getting disciplinary action from USAG for illegal business practices etc., and sometimes I feel that this is why there should be a separate episode just for like breaking news updates or something because in the course of a week a lot of development happens and its more fun to converse while we’re in the mix of things rather than afterwards, ya know? Perhaps it can be out up for vote if anyone agrees?
I think the day these episodes air needs to be changed or split into two episodes a week. Because even though the review of competitions works quite nicely by allowing enough time for everyone to watch it and have intelligent reflection, the news portion of the show suffers considerably because its often outdated. For instance, it would’ve been fun to speculate about where gabby was headed if this was last Friday or Saturday but we all know she’s in NC now training with Avery (paul hamm’s coach AND vault technician so yay for Gabs!!!). Additionally, so much other information has come out pertaining to why she left, and Chow getting disciplinary action from USAG for illegal business practices etc., and sometimes I feel that this is why there should be a separate episode just for like breaking news updates or something because in the course of a week a lot of development happens and its more fun to converse while we’re in the mix of things rather than afterwards, ya know? Perhaps it can be out up for vote if anyone agrees?
It is definitely sexist for men to have to wait until they are 18…why make them wait?!? Chances are very few would make teams anyway.
For women, as mentioned, I don’t think it would solve anything by waiting two more years. I see it causing problems should the age-minimum go to 18…we would be robbing many gymnasts of competing at the Olympics in their prime being the biggest.
Question, do you think comebacks are harder to do in this new scoring system? In the 10.0 system, Dominique Dawes was able to successfully comeback and make an Olympic team because she only needed to get her routines to a 10.0 SV…or near to it. Whether or not a gymnast had a routine that was higher than a 10.0, it was still judged at one.
Now, with the open-ended scoring system, the sky’s the limit.
I think that now it’s much harder for gymnasts to return and get routines with SV’s where they need to be than it was when only out of a 10.
Also, in response to the 2000 Olympic AA, isn’t Daniele Hypolito still competing? I would think as long as she can make the team she’d still be going at it for Rio!
I think it’s called a sheep jump because sheep will hit a similar body position when jumping-http://pixdaus.com/jumping-sheep-sheep/items/view/19563/
Have you ever tried to contact Didi Bulimar to see if you can interview her? She seems like she speaks English pretty well. I love her!!
just an FYI, lyrics are only starting to be allowed in figure skating this season (2014/2015). Otherwise they’ve been outlawed in competition.
Will any of you guys be attending Nationals and will there possibly be a meet-up like for NCAA’s?? I will be attending Day 1 and would love to meet other gym fans!