Archives for August 2016

August 23, 2016 by GymCasticCrew 21 Comments

219: Rio Olympic Event Finals Day 3, Gala, Houry Behind the Scenes Deets!

August 18, 2016 by GymCasticCrew 7 Comments

Greatest Gymnast Ever by Medal Count: Svetlana Khorkina vs. Simone Biles

Article by GymCastic Crew Member Steven Leip.

Svetlana Khorkina and Simone Biles are unquestionably the queens of women’s artistic gymnastics. Although it’s almost impossible to compare their respective gymnastics styles, evaluating their respective dominance could indicate just who is the greatest gymnast of all time. It comes down to which you believe is more valuable: short-term dominance or masterful longevity.

Age before beauty, so let’s start with Svetlana Khorkina. This gymnast’s elegance and grace were unrivaled—at 5’6” she was a giant among her competitors. (Though we know gymnasts don’t have to be as short as the media believes.) Her height allowed her to create long, beautiful lines on every event that theoretically should’ve hindered her from doing the same difficulty as her peers. But Svetlana was an innovator who created eight different skills across all four events. These skills made her routines even more difficult than those of her competition. The chart below lists all of her eponymous skills with values according to the 2013-2016 Code of Points.

Although Simone isn’t ungraceful, her grace is massively overshadowed by her unparalleled power and precision. Her floor routine features three of the most difficult elements in the Code of Points: two H-level skills and a G. Her full-in dismount was a skill Svetlana was never even capable of performing consistently. Simone has completed a double-double in combination off BB and trained a triple-twisting Yurchenko. She could very well be the most powerful athlete in the world across all sports, and she has a tumbling element named after her.

Svetlana competed over a span of 10 years from 1994-2004 at three Olympic Games and eight World Championships. Simone has won almost as many individual medals as Svetlana in less than half the time—only one Olympic Games and three World Championships.

Now, on to the medals—both World and Olympic because Simone has finally competed at an Olympic Games.

To determine who is the best by medal count, we created a point system for each color medal: gold is worth three points, silver two and bronze one. Since all medals are not created equally, AA-medal point values will be doubled, so gold in the AA will be worth six points, silver worth four and bronze worth two. Using this system, Svetlana scores 62 points, beating Simone’s 52.

According to this system taking all individual medals into account, Svetlana Khorkina is the greatest gymnast of all time. However, Simone is only 19 and has the potential to come back for 2020. She would need two AA gold medals in the next quad to top Svetlana’s legacy.

Though Svetlana currently holds the title of greatest ever strictly by the numbers, it’s not all about the numbers and it would be unfair to say Simone is the subordinate gymnast just because she hasn’t had the chance to earn more medals. While Svetlana’s longevity is something to commend, there may never be another gymnast as strong, powerful and precise as Simone Biles. And for that reason, it’s easy to make the argument that she is the greatest gymnast ever.

After looking at the numbers and the gymnasts themselves, who do you think is the best ever?

August 15, 2016 by GymCasticCrew 19 Comments

218: Rio Olympic Event Finals Day 2

LISTEN HERE

IN THE NEWS

On Day Two of the Rio Olympic Event Finals: Beam, Rings and Men’s Vault hosts Spencer, Uncle Tim and Jessica chat about:

We hit ONE MILLION DOWNLOADS YESTERDAY!!! THANK YOU!
Full recap of each event final details, scores, and moments we loved from:
- Balance Beam Final:
  - Sanne Wevers, the 24 year-old DJ Spindarella’d her way the title, Olympic Champion. Smart gymnastics and past teams who stood united against an abusive head coach, created a beautiful system where smart, elegant gymnastics has flourish.
  - Laurie Hernandez had a higher E score with only a little misstep on her dismount but couldn’t match Sanne’s innovation and big Dutch D.
  - Simone Biles now eclipses Shannon Miller’s record with yet another Olympic medal on beam.
  - Grabbing the beam to prevent a fall is a .5 deduction.
  - Catalina Ponor wore the greatest leotard of all time.
  - Yes, you can wear a short sleeved leotard and have teammates as coaches on the floor for finals.
- Men’sVault Final:
  - Was this the ugliest form we’ve ever seen in an Olympic final or just an example of the problems with the vault code?
  - Ri Se Gwan, Denis Abliazin, Kenzo Shirai medaled , we explain the tie breaking procedure for vault.
  - Marian Dragulescu lost the tie breaker but thankfully wasn’t deducted for doing gymnastics, “practicing” on the podium.
  - Igor Radivilov will have the handspring triple front named after him and we now hope that no one ever tries that vault again.
- Rings:
  - Jessica and Spencer basically fell asleep because it’s the most boring even in the history of gymnastics but Uncle Tim does a good job of trying to make us appreciate it.
Our favorite and least favorite not-gymnastics moments:
- Sanne Wever’s D score notebook
- Chris Books screams for Simone and Laurie.
- Everyone needs to calm down about the US women’s team’s non-gymnastics behavior. It’s sexism.
- Why is Steve Penny still at the Olympics, sitting with families and chumming it up with athletes when USA Gymnastics accused of this and senators are asking for answers!

RELATED LINKS

Full Olympic gymnastics results here
How to watch live on BBC, CBC or NBC (details here)
Height, Ages and Repeat U.S. Olympic Gymnasts
NBC live streaming coverage is for the FANS! So much better than so-called “primetime” evening coverage. Online NBC also has a daily online gymnastics recap show called the Daily Dismount. We are obsessed with how much more enthusiastic, passionate and positive they are than the evening broadcast team. Jim Watson, Courtney Kupets and Jonathan Horton #Jhortney 4eva!

CONTEST: A winner every other podcast in August!

Today’s Winner: Sara Neushwander who writes “Courtney McCool so she can sit on me & my dreams everyday at practice.”

Today’s Winner Can Chose From These Prizes: The Bronze Movie Watch Party Kits (gym bag with goodies and the movie), “The End of the Perfect 10” book or a U.S. Olympic Trials T-shirt.

GRAND PRIZE*: A Bronze Movie gym bag or Hope’s backpack filed with wardrobe (leotards, team warmups and Hope’s high heeled sneakers) along with props used in the film, plus a one-of-a-kind Aliya Mustafina, handmade cross-stitch by Spanny Tampson.
How: If you are a Club Gym Nerd member, tweet, Instagram, voicemail or Tumblr tag us and use the hashtag #BronzeContest to tell us which retired gymnast you would want to coach you, The Bronze style, to Olympic glory and why?
Grand Prize Deadline: August 21st at midnight. *Open to Club Gym Nerd members only

SUPPORT THE SHOW

Join Club Gym Nerd here.
Please take this super short survey. It helps our podcast host find advertisers to fit your every desire.
Buy one of our awesome gym nerdy gifts and goodies here.

RELATED EPISODES

Rio Olympic Games Coverage

MORE WAYS TO LISTEN

August 14, 2016 by GymCasticCrew 5 Comments

217: Rio Olympic Event Finals Day One

LISTEN HERE

IN THE NEWS

On Day One of the Rio Olympic Event Finals: Men’s Floor, Women’s Vault, Pommel Horse, Women’s Uneven Bars, Spencer, Uncle Tim and Jessica chat about:

The origins of “Cheeseburger booty power” – Jiani Wu episode here.
Full recap of each event final details, scores, and moments we loved from:
- Men’s Olympic Floor Final:
  - The EPIC need for a Victorian-level fainting couch for Arthur Nory and Diego Hypolito while they waited for the results on floor.
  - “Norying” – curl up in a ball like an armadillo until you find out if you medaled.
  - Details of Max Whitlocks epic victory over mono and the rest of the floor field.
- Women’s Vault Final:
  - Simone Biles proves she is a mental rock and consistently has the best execution in the world on the hardest vaults in the world.
  - Epic debate over the execution scores of Maria Paseka, Guilia Steingruber and Wang Yan.
- Pommel Horse Final–Battle of the British:
  - Max Whitlock one-ups Louis Smith with his higher D score to Louis’s higher E score.
  - Alex Naddour proves he was the right choice for the team by breaking the 32-year pommel horse medal draught for the US.
- Bars Final–Reining Olympic Champion Aliya vs. WOGA and Vagina to the Line Anarchy Bars:
  - Aliya Mustafina won over Madison Kocan with higher D to Kocan’s higher E score.
  - Sophie Scheder who we touted as the Khorkina of glorious bars, wins a medal for Germany! Beauties all medaled!
  - Jessica Lopez hit every routine in Rio.
Our favorite not-gymnastics moments–hint, Hypolito and Arthur Nory Mariano losing it on the sideline during men’s floor finals.

RELATED LINKS

How NBC could improve its gymnastics broadcasts
Full Olympic gymnastics results here
How to watch live on BBC, CBC or NBC (details here)
Height, Ages and Repeat U.S. Olympic Gymnasts
NBC live streaming coverage is for the FANS! So much better than so-called “primetime” evening coverage. Online NBC also has a daily online gymnastics recap show called the Daily Dismount. We are obsessed with how much more enthusiastic, passionate and positive they are than the evening broadcast team. Jim Watson, Courtney Kupets and Jonathan Horton #Jhortney 4eva!

CONTEST: A winner every other podcast in August!

What: The Bronze Movie Watch Party Kits (gym bag with goodies and the movie), “The End of the Perfect 10” book, a U.S. Olympic Trials T-shirt, or GRAND PRIZE*: A Bronze Movie gym bag filled with real props used in the film and a one-of-a-kind Aliya Mustafina, handmade cross-stitch by Spanny Tampson.

How: Tweet, Instagram, Voicemail or Tumblr tag us and use the hashtag #BronzeContest to tell us which retired gymnast you would want to coach you, The Bronze style, to Olympic glory and why?

Winners Announced: On every other podcast for the entire month of August! Starting with the women’s podium training podcast.

Grand Prize Deadline: August 21st at midnight. *Open to Club Gym Nerd members only