JESSICA: The floor music winners, and what you thought about Worlds. Plus the latest nudes! [LAUGHS] News! Not nudes! News!
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JESSICA: This is episode 126 for November 5, 2014. I’m Jessica from Master-Gymnastics.com. I’m here with Uncle Tim, from Uncle Tim Talks Men’s Gym and Scott Bregman, patron saint of the gymternet from USA Gymnastics. And this the best gymnastics podcast ever, bringing you all the news from around the gymternet. And let’s start by talking to Scott all about, fresh from Nanning, now he’s going to be at the–I think you’re going to be–at the Tumbling–it’s T&T Worlds. Tumbling and Trampoline Worlds? Is that what it stands for?
SCOTT: Yeah, trampoline and tumbling is the correct order, I guess, but.
JESSICA: Now, it is in Florida, is that right?
SCOTT: Daytona Beach, Florida at the Ocean Center.
JESSICA: Oh my God. It’s basically like British people’s, European people’s, favorite state in the entire United States. When does it start, how can people watch, and will Charlotte Drury be winning everything?
SCOTT: So, competition starts on Friday morning, 9 am Eastern Time, and then runs basically all day long on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. And all the coverage will be available for US viewers at TTWorlds.com.
JESSICA: Excellent. And will this be–so, US viewers. It’s basically licensed only for the US, but then, I will just let people know later how they can watch outside of the US. But you can’t endorse because you only own the license for the US. Is that correct?
SCOTT: Correct.
JESSICA: Okay. So, T&TWorlds.com. And is…
SCOTT: Worlds.
JESSICA: TTWorlds.
SCOTT: There’s no ampersand or and.
JESSICA: Oh, very good clarification, okay. And anybody that you think we should watch especially? I’ve already mentioned Charlotte, because I think she’s going to bring home a medal. Anyone else that you’re…?
SCOTT: Yeah. I mean, from team USA Charlotte is obviously our lead female trampolinist and has a shot of probably making the finals. I think that would be a huge accomplish for her and trampoline in the US. And then Logan Dooley, you know, he made the final last year. Unfortunately, Steven Gluckstein had an injury a couple weeks ago, and so he’s not able to compete. But Kristle Lowell is the reigning world champion in double mini, and Alex Renkert got a silver medal last year at double mini, so he’ll probably be, you know, a factor as well.
JESSICA: Excellent. I’m very excited about this. I just, I love watching it. Especially tumbling, which I feel like people barely know even exists as a sport, and it’s so freaking cool. It’s insane. People are like, whip back, whip back, double double laid out, whip back, whip back, triple back. It’s insane. And I’m sure that’s not even, like, the hardest thing people are doing. So, since you just got back from Nanning, you have to tell us some things about being in China. And first of all, are you the Nanning Bee on Twitter?
SCOTT: I’m not the Nanning Bee. I wanted to actually register that Twitter handle, and before I could do it, it had already been set up.
JESSICA: [LAUGHS] Too slow! Okay, so Nanning, this championships looked like it was a freaking World/Olympic/Commonwealth Games/World Cup soccer event. I mean, just the athlete dining room looked like it was set up for a banquet for a queen. This looked just looked outrageously over the top, glamorous. So what was the most, the craziest thing you saw while you were there, besides the one lane of traffic reserved in the entire city just for traffic for the World Championships? Official traffic.
SCOTT: Yeah, I, yeah, it was, everything was Olympic caliber, certainly. You know, just from even when I landed at the airport there was a sign that said “USA” and there was one volunteer who met me, and he walked me ten feet to the baggage claim and I went to reach for my bag, and you know, “No, no, no!” And he took the bag from me. And then, it was just kind of funny sequence, because he walked me about 20 more feet to another volunteer and handed the USA sign off.
JESSICA: Mmhmm.
SCOTT: And this new volunteer walked me about 50 feet to a check-in desk. And then from there I was walked by a different volunteer to a car. Brand new car, had the logo, you know, on the side of the side car. It was brand new, and there was still plastic on the sunroof. And you know, all this kind of thing. So then I got into the car with a new volunteer who was driving and a, like an additional chaperone. So it was just like, it was incredible. Being all the volunteers, and everyone was super friendly and super helpful, and yeah, like you said, there was a lane of traffic that was, you had to be an official vehicle. Which was something that they do at the Olympics. It was, it was incredible. They had just this beautiful main press center in addition to the media grandstands inside of the venue and a venue press center. They were actually using CCTV, the Chinese television network, is going to do televisions for the Olympic Games. So they were using this event as a test for that coverage.
JESSICA: Ooh.
SCOTT: In Rio. And they had, I think, something like 46 cameras on the floor. And…
JESSICA: Oh good!
SCOTT: …typically at the World Championships–typically at the Worlds, someone was telling me, that they only have one TV truck. They’re capturing just the joint signal. But they had seven trucks there. So they were able to record the signal that everyone was seeing, that was going out, that was aggregated across the six or the four apparatus. But in addition, they were able to record every single routine that was done throughout the whole championships. So it was, the whole thing was incredible.
JESSICA: And, now, let’s talk about the less glamorous side. Were all the toilets at the venue the squat toilets? The ones where it looks like a shower, but there’s no showerhead and there’s like, a little place to put your feet, and there’s a hole behind that?
SCOTT: You know, they weren’t all squats. They were–the majority of them were, you know, in the men’s room they still have the urinal and everything, which, you know, normal, but in the bathrooms nearest to the media section they had western toilets. But they were, you now, if there were eight stalls they’d have two that had a western toilet. And I thought that that, I just assumed, that that was how all the bathrooms were until one day walking in on the concourse just kind of looking at stuff, and I ran into the bathroom and I just noticed that in that particular bathroom, which wasn’t near the media section, all eight toilets were squat toilets. And they were–
JESSICA: And did they–
SCOTT: They weren’t exclusively squat toilets, but they were a rare commodity, let’s say.
JESSICA: [LAUGHS] And did they have doors on the stalls? Or were they just–were there even stalls? Or was it all just open?
SCOTT: No, there were stalls, there were definitely stalls.
JESSICA: With doors?
SCOTT: Yep.
JESSICA: Oh good, that’s great. Very good. I always think that boys’ toilets never have stalls. In my high school, they didn’t have stalls in any of the boys’ toilets. I mean, not that I spent a lot of time in the boys’ bathroom, but I just happen to know.
SCOTT: Yeah, we were–the whole thing was, and don’t I want to, maybe this is me being an ugly American–but everything was a lot more western than I expected, you know what I mean? The food at the hotel was very good, we were in walking distance of a McDonalds and Starbucks and a sushi place and a pizza place, and there was a mall that had stores like H&M and Gap and then high end, like Coach and all that kind of stuff. So it was actually overall a lot more western than I was kind of expecting going in.
JESSICA: All the pictures totally reminded me of Singapore. That’s what I thought it looked. Singapore, not China. But it was that side, sort of southern, but it was–it just looked amazing. And so, speaking of how western it was, was it still, is it a super cosmopolitan city? Or were the locals totally obsessed with your exoticism as a foreigner and a white guy?
SCOTT: We were definitely an attraction. We went with–John Cheng’s our official photographer, and he grew up in Taiwan. So he speaks Mandarin and is obviously Asian, so he was helping us navigate a little bit. And we went to, one day, to the People’s Park. And within about 30 seconds we had a woman come up to us and was very eager to practice her English with us and asked us were we were from. Everyone was–they were fascinated with us, but they were also very friendly, you never felt unsafe or anything. We had lots of people want photos of us because I didn’t think they had ever seen a white person before. It was probably pretty rare, but it was funny. One day the local organizing committee, they scheduled tourism for anyone with the credentials, so we went to one of the museums and there was a photographer. And so he was definitely focusing on those of us of European descent, and then I ended up on the front page of Nanning Daily, with some judges from, I think Belgium actually. And I was a little bit nervous about what it said, but it just said that people, people who were in town for the World Championships were taking in culture, or something like that. But it was kind of funny just to–they were definitely focused more on us, and then to see my picture on the front page of the Nanning Daily was kind of hilarious. [JESSICA LAUGHS]
JESSICA: I love their features on the men of Nanning. That was my favorite thing that newspaper did. So it’s too bad you didn’t end up in that section too, because it would have been fabulous. I know that you are not in charge of this, but you know how I like to tell you all of my opinions even though maybe you have no control over it, because I decide you are in charge of everything at USA gymnastics. So–and the FIG. So, I would like to know what we have to do to get Yesenia Ferrera and Manrique from Cuba invited to the World Cup this year.
SCOTT: The World Cup? That’s not…
JESSICA: Oh, the American Cup. The American Cup, the American Cup.
SCOTT: To the American Cup. That’s, you know, that’s closer to my jurisdiction, but as you said not really my jurisdiction. I think it would have to be–they didn’t send a team to World Championships, I am–is that correct?
JESSICA: No, but because it’s not their fault. So we should invite them, because it’s our American Cup and because we know that they can’t afford it, but we’re really close. Like Texas and Cuba, whats it, like a two hour plane ride? They should, we should make a special dispensation for them, because they can’t afford to go, or whatever. And so, it’s like a special reaching of the hand in international sports friendship.
SCOTT: That’s, you know, I think, in theory that sounds lovely.
JESSICA: Doesn’t it! Okay, well I’ll just let Steve Penny know. And the FIG. And we’ll see how that goes.
SCOTT: Great. [JESSICA LAUGHS]. Keep me posted. [LAUGHTER]
JESSICA: Yeah. All right, well, are you going to Florida?
SCOTT: Yeah, I leave on Wednesday.
JESSICA: Okay, awesome. Are you going to get a fantastic tan? Or do you still have your post-Nanning vacation tan?
SCOTT: I have a little bit of my Hawaii tan at the moment. But I mean, I’m there for the World Age Group competition as well. I’m there for 12 days.
JESSICA: Okay.
SCOTT: So hopefully I’ll get some sun.
JESSICA: Yes.
SCOTT: Then I’m going to Boston.
JESSICA: [GASPS] And who will you be visiting there?
SCOTT: Who knows? Maybe there’s some famous gymnast who lives there.
JESSICA: [GASPS AND CLAPS] Very excited! Well, thank you for bringing us all the incredible, incredible coverage, and the podium training, and all the amazing coverage of prelims that we never get to see, and just thank you, thank you, thank you for all of that. And I can’t wait to watch T&T Worlds.
SCOTT: Yeah, should be a good meet.
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JESSICA: Poor Scott, I think he’s still a little jet lagged from China. To find out how you can watch TTWorlds.com to watch Tumbling and Trampoline World Championships from anywhere in the world, we have a list of vpns on the site. So go to gymcastic.com and you can find that list there.
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JESSICA: Let’s talk about the Swiss Cup. Blythe, our fabulous Blythe, did an incredible play-by-play. You can read all the details on her website at the Gymnastics Examiner. A couple things about the Swiss Cup. It’s that annual mixed-pairs competition, and we love it for its atmosphere, and it brings the 1980s, American Anthem-style dramatic blue spotlight on each event, which you never see anywhere else. And also the winner gets $30,000 in prize money, so its a great meet for gymnastics. So Iordache competed, Mai Murakami, Hambuchen, Seitz, Kenzo, Ferrari, Daniele Hypolito, Oleg competed. And of course, this right after Worlds, so people aren’t doing their most, most, most difficult stuff, but they were still doing–especially on bars, I though these were legit routines. Nikita Ignative…Nikita and Daria Spiridonova won. Blythe reports that one of the scary falls was Giulia Steingruber, who took a really weird fall on vault, where she rolled her ankle as she was vaulting. So as she jumped on the springboard her ankle rolled. And she just flew over the table, landed on her butt. It’s really scary. Like, ugh. That’s–and I feel like that’s one of those things where you know you’re just super, super, super tired. And that’s one of the scary things about doing one of these meets. And who knows, maybe she rolled it–I’m completely wrong, and she rolled it right before the meet and then went to vault anyway. It’s all total speculation. But I’m glad that she seems to be okay. For all the Kenzo haters who say that all he can do is twist, guess what skill he did at this meet? He did a triple double. That’s right. And he did p-bars. Uh. What’s up. I love that Kenzo’s at this meet, and I love that he did a triple double. That just proves–how much more badass is he now that he’s done that, Uncle Tim?
UNCLE TIM: I mean, we’ve seen the training videos of him doing the skill, but I kind of think it kind of puts everyone to, it quiets everyone, because he has competed it in a major international competition. And so he can say, “Suck it!” Granted his–[LAUGHTER]–I don’t know how you say that in Japanese, but I’m sure some listener out there can tell us. But it did drop his difficulty score a little bit. He only performed a 7.3 and at Worlds he performed a 7.4. But, you know, it’s still impressive that he can do a triple double so easily, and I’m secretly hoping that Simone Biles throws a triple double.
JESSICA: Yeeees!
UNCLE TIM: Next year. Secretly hoping.
JESSICA: How awesome is it that he’s Kenzo, so a triple double lowers his start value?
UNCLE TIM: [LAUGHS] I know.
JESSICA: That’s just like, that’s [inaudible] Kenzo. So what happened at the Mexican Open? One of our favorite, favorite meets of the year for so many reasons!
UNCLE TIM: [LAUGHS] All right, so first of all, it’s not the Mexican Open. The Mexican Open will be happening at the beginning of December, the Mexican Open is actually a competition. This is just the gala, where people prance around and do whatever. And it included Lilia Podkopayeva…
JESSICA: Ah!
UNCLE TIM: She, she did her 1996 floor routine, I don’t know why, I always call it her bibbity-boppity-boo routine [JESSICA LAUGHS] because it just kind of reminds me of the fairies from Cinderella, with their magic wands kind of flying around. I don’t know. Anyways. So she did that routine. Obviously she didn’t do the Podkopayeva on floor. But some simple tumbling. It’s always great to see one of your childhood idols get out there and do something. It was like Nadia during the Tumble finale.
JESSICA: Yes!
UNCLE TIM: She could have just gotten out there and tripped, and I would have clapped and loved it. So, yeah.
JESSICA: Pod’s basic were still beautiful, though. So beautiful.
UNCLE TIM: She still has gorgeous toe point, too. Which is pretty amazing. And then also there was Roxana Popa of Spain. And she had quite the leotard on. Jess, could you describe it for us?
JESSICA: It was sort of like half–I actually really like it, I just didn’t like all the execution of it. I just like that something made her stand out. I think anything that makes people talk about her more is great, because I think she is so incredible, and she’s really coming up, and I feel like–I’m not saying there’s any, she doesn’t get respect because of the country that she’s from, but I feel like Romania should be recruiting her, and she should be competing with them. She’s amazing and they totally need her. But anyway. But back to the leotard. She–it’s like a half, with a thing… [LAUGHS] Like a, it’s like an off-the-shoulder, but it’s not off the shoulder. Like a criss-crossy thing in the front. I don’t have any words for this. I watch Project Runway like every season, and I still don’t know how to describe this at all. But I like part of it, but all together it didn’t quite work. But I like that she was wearing something that was going to make people talk about her, because I think that helps her case. What did you think?
UNCLE TIM: It almost looked like a bra in the front, a little bit. It made me a little uncomfortable. But I was more focused on the gymnastics and the fact that this is a gala, you’re not supposed to do hard gymnastics, you’re supposed to just kind of wave your arms and stuff, and I don’t know. I picture galas kind of like old school homecoming parades, where the homecoming king and queen are sitting the back of convertible just waving to their subjects. [JESSICA LAUGHS] So the fact that she did a double layout and two whips through to a double tuck won me over.
JESSICA: Mmhmm.
UNCLE TIM: The other big person, big name there, was Viktoria Komova. She did a lot of kind of almost like ballet barre stuff at the beginning of her beam routine, and then she got up there, did an arial front walkover, did some stuff. It wasn’t like, “Oh my God, she’s going to win Worlds next year!” kind of stuff. But it’s great to see her get up there and do something, just because we haven’t seen too much of her lately due to injuries, ect.
JESSICA: What did you think of her leotard?
UNCLE TIM: I’m trying to remember her leotard.
JESSICA: It’s the hot pink dominetrix one with the ‘X’ in the back. The black–
UNCLE TIM: Well, clearly you remember it better than I do. [JESSICA LAUGHS] So do describe!
JESSICA: It was like, hot pink on the bottom, and then on the top it was like this black, thick black straps that kind of criss-crossed in the back. And it was awesome, I really liked it. If you’re going to do hot pink, than you might as well add a little dominetrix too. Like, Nastia would have approved. I think it worked.
UNCLE TIM: It’s all coming back now, yes. [JESSICA LAUGHS]
JESSICA: It was a little too bedazzled in the front, you know how I feel about that. But the back was [CLICKS TONGUE] I loved it.
UNCLE TIM: See, whenever you say dominetrix, I just think black leather. And that leotard was not black leather. But there was a lot of mesh in that leotard. That–
JESSICA: Yeah. That was like, I was like, “What is stuff that looks like black leather but is not black leather that they make leotards out of is called?” That–someone needs to tell us what that is. Because that’s what the back looks like. It almost looks like it’s wet, but it’s not.
UNCLE TIM: I don’t know. I’m not gay enough. Just kidding! [JESSICA LAUGHS] It, yeah. And with Roxana leotard is a lot of mesh too. It was a little trend. A lot of, you know, body going on the Mexican Open.
JESSICA: [INAUDIBLE]
UNCLE TIM: Speaking of which, Yesenia Ferrera of Cuba was there. And she was wearing this kind of like–I don’t know how to describe it. Silver outfit. It reminded me of like, a 1960s sexy Martian kind of outfit. [JESSICA LAUGHS] Like you would see on TV. Do you know what I’m talk about?
JESSICA: Yes! That’s why I–
UNCLE TIM: A space kind of thing?
JESSICA: I totally thought of the Silver Surfer. [UNCLE TIM LAUGHS] That’s what it looked like to me. With a skirt, though.
UNCLE TIM: Yeah. So it had a little skirt. But what I liked about her routine is that she got that it was a gala. She wasn’t just doing her floor routine out there. So she opened up–I don’t remember, it was with Latin dance, I can’t remember which step she was doing at that particular moment. But no, it was good to see her throwing some flair in, like play to her crowd, knowing that the crowd is going to go crazy if you do a little Latin dance out there. And I mean, she opened with a double layout too. It was awesome to see both difficulty and, you know, someone going out there and having fun. What did you think, Jess?
JESSICA: Oh my God! You know how I love her. And I’m like, if you’re going to wear a skirt, then you better work the skirt. This is how I feel about it. And she had like, it had, it had I don’t know, like slices in it so that it would move independently, the pieces. That’s what it looked like. And so she totally did. Like, her dance moves worked the skirt. The skirt moved like it should, and she even had a full samba part in it. And you know, she can dance. Like, I love to watch her dance. Honestly, I feel like this girl, ah! She could be our Olympic champion. That is how I feel about her. I really–like, when I watch her I see the great champions. With her form and her power, the combination, she just has it all. She has it–she has everything. If some, if–Cuba, just find a way to get her Worlds and Olympics, because she needs to go. She needs to. Oh, they’re not even going to be able to go to the Olympics now because they didn’t–no, they’ll need a–because they didn’t compete at Worlds–but she’s going to have to get a wild card spot. But then she’ll have never competed anywhere, so ugh! Ugh! Anyway, this is how I feel. When I see her fabulousness, and how she can work a skirt [UNCLE TIM LAUGHS] attached to a leotard, all I can think is, “How are we going to get her to the Olympics?” So, [DEEP BREATH]. She won’t…
UNCLE TIM: It was pretty impressive. She really doesn’t run too hard into her double layout. The tumbling pass starts kind of before the beginning of the floor. So yeah, she’s really impressive. And I mean, you’ve talked on this show about how the Cubans just empirically can dance better than the rest of the world as an entire race.
JESSICA: I did not say it that way! [UNCLE TIM LAUGHS] I did not say, “Just because Cubans are racially Cuban, then they can.” Because everyone knows Cuba is completely racially mixed, that there is no one kind of Cuban. There’s totally white, there’s totally African Cuba, afro-Cuban, there’s everything in between. Everyone knows that. Red headed Cubans. They’re super diverse, just like the United States. I said that it’s part of the culture not to dance like an idiot in front of little kids. You dance a normal person who knows how to dance.
UNCLE TIM: [LAUGHS] I grew up in Wisconsin where people polkaed the heck out of–
JESSICA: There you go!
UNCLE TIM: –everything, so I don’t know. I think you just have a little thing for Cuban salsa.
JESSICA: Well, they did invent salsa, so, it’s, you know.
UNCLE TIM: That’s debatable.
JESSICA: It’s not! It’s not debatable.
UNCLE TIM: Yes it is.
JESSICA: Okay, anyway.
UNCLE TIM: Nobody knows where salsa came from–
JESSICA: Except it came from Cuba.
UNCLE TIM: –just FYI. [LAUGHS] That’s one theory. Anyway. So, speaking of hot Cubans dancing, [JESSICA LAUGHS] could you tell everybody what Manrique did, and–
JESSICA: Oh my God!
UNCLE TIM: –Danell Leyva did.
JESSICA: Oh my God. Okay, Danell Leyva needs to take a little page of the book of Manrique, who definitely represented [ph] COOBA! That’s how you have to say it. It’s not “Cuba,” it’s “COOBA!” And he was like, you know, bringing the [inaudible] a little bit into his floor routine. Like, he did a little, like bend the knees, like, hip circle, walk around in a circle while he’s rotating his hips. Uh. It was good. And, every time he took a step on his tumbling, which was fantastic, like his tumbling, you’ve seen his tumbling. It’s ridiculous. He didn’t water down very much, either. I mean, he didn’t do the rollout crazy skills, but he did his arabian. Every time he would take a step forward, he would just go back into that hip rotation, going around in a circle, looking up at the crowd. He did a lot of the classic motion to the audience to cheer for you for you move. He maybe overused that a little bit. But I think that’s the theme of this competition. I think they actually make you at the gala learn that before you go on to the floor, because everyone did it. But let me tell, he was fantastic. Fantastic. And Danell, it was funny. At the end of his routine, he jumped off the bar and did a little hip thrust, but he almost did it like a, like a making fun of himself, making fun of the–like, he didn’t commit to the grind. To the hip grind. [LAUGHTER] It was more like a tongue-in-cheek hip grind.
UNCLE TIM: It’s true. But Manrique also, if I recall correctly, had Rigitone going on in the background–
JESSICA: Mmhmm.
UNCLE TIM: –which lends itself much better the hip thrusting.
JESSICA: It does indeed. It’s true.
UNCLE TIM: And I don’t think Manrique was performing in front of his father either. [LAUGHTER] Which you might, might subtract from the pelvic thrusting and the Rigitone dancing. I don’t know. I wouldn’t really be too eager [JESSICA LAUGHS] to thrust my hips in front of my father. Just saying. So, speaking of other things that you loved, Jess, I hear that there’s a new back spinner in the world.
JESSICA: [GASPS] Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God! This girl–Alexandra Mihai, from Romania. This video came out from Romania Junior Nationals. Ah! She doesn’t just do a back spin. First of all, her routine is just delicious, the whole thing. She has like a 1940s wartime, maybe it’s the ’30s, ’40s wartime big band kind of music for her floor routine. She dances the hell out it. It’s just so perfect, her choreography. And she does a two and half back spin. A two and a half. Super badass. And I love the way she comes out of it! Like, she does it with one leg straight, one leg bent. Which is the traditional beautiful way to do it, as done by Li Li on beam in the ’80s, China, look it up, it’s fantastic. She does it with one leg straight, one leg bent, like a wolf position. And then, instead of just stopping out of it, she just does her legs like she is riding a bike, but in the air. It’s so pretty! I just love how she transitions out of the back spin! Oh my God, I love her! Did you love this routine?
UNCLE TIM: I did. And I think it kind of points to a new trend in women’s floor. Which is just kind of the high energy, high octane floor routine. So you think of Simone Biles, which is high energy, you think of Larissa Iordache’s floor routine, which is also high energy. And this one, I think, kind of falls in that line. And I think that that’s kind of what the code right now is asking for. Which is, you know, kind of not having kind of, I don’t know, slow, languid floor music.
JESSICA: Mm.
UNCLE TIM: So, yeah.
JESSICA: And did you enjoy the video of Simone trying to do the back spin? She said like, trying to do Fragapane’s move?
UNCLE TIM: [LAUGHTER] Yes. She–I feel like she didn’t really try too hard. Like, she fell on her butt, and that’s about as far as she got. But yeah, it was still pretty awesome.
JESSICA: [LAUGHS] She cracks me up. So I just wanted to give a shout out to all the adults who competed in the British veterans championships at Lilleshall. Which I think it’s so cool that that’s where they host, they hold the meet. It has, it’s cool. This meet has a pro, intermediate, and novice levels. And within that they have the age groups. It’s over 18, 30, 40, 50 and then over 60-year-old age groups. They have all the events, but then they also include tumbling, trampoline, and acro. Which is so cool, because I just feel like there’s so many people who just don’t think that they can still do like a full floor routine, but you can totally do tumbling, or you can do sports acro with a partner. I just love that they have this meet. And I just think of all the things that I would do if I were competing in this meet, and it’s my goal, someday, to compete in this. I hope they allow guests. United States guests, [LAUGHTER] just because I want to compete. So if you’re competing in the Veteran’s Champion–the British Veteran’s Championships, at Lilleshall, what selfie would you take while you were there?
UNCLE TIM: Umm, trying to think what it looks like. It looks like kind of a neo-Gothic place, right?
JESSICA: Yeah.
UNCLE TIM: Spires, and kind of more the, the pointed edges. I’d probably want to find a way to climb up to the top and hang from one of the spires and take a selfie. [JESSICA LAUGHS]
JESSICA: You wouldn’t want to find Louis Smith’s old room and take a selfie in there, recreate one of his poses? [UNCLE TIM LAUGHS] Is that just me?
UNCLE TIM: That’s probably just you. You probably want to find Louis Smith AND take to him to the room. [JESSICA LAUGHS]
JESSICA: I don’t know what you’re talking about. [LAUGHTER] If you guys love this show, help us pay our bills, use our Amazon link to shop for anything, review us on iTunes or Stitcher. You guys! Oh my God! We did not make our goal of a hundred, getting a hundred reviews on iTunes by November, but we got to 87. So we got, what, over, is that 20? Almost 30 reviews this month? I think that’s huge. Gigantic. Massive. It’s incredible. And we’re so close to one hundred. We’re only 13 away. So, that’s just–you guys are the best. Thank you, thank you, thank you, for all your reviews. Oh my God. They make me smile and laugh every time I read them. And you guys are just the best, and thank you so much for getting us so close to one hundred. I’m sure we’ll get that by next month, no problem. Because you are guys are just–you guys rallied! Did it for us! Okay, the other way you can support the show and help us pay our bills is by donating. Donate directly, or just one time, or you can donate monthly. As little or as much as you want. Some people have just donated five dollars every month. Some people have donated–one person donated one hundred dollars. One time. Which is fantastic! Just think about how much you think the show it worth to you. And how much each episode is worth to you. And just donate that much. We would love it!
Gymternet news. Let’s discuss the happenings since World Championships. Nile Wilson did have surgery on his wrist and forearm/elbowish kind of thing. He has this robotic cast kind of thing on that looks very interesting, I’ve never seen anything quite like that. I might–because it looks like it’s a cast and an ACL brace for your elbow put together? I’ve never seen the combo. So if you doubted him, shame on you. That’s all we have to say about that. Sam Oldham has put out a video of his recovery. Remember that he hurt his ankle really badly at the Commonwealth Games. And he’s doing lots of gymnastics already, it’s really exciting to see him back. I have a little bit of Tumble news for you guys. Thanks to Palsar in the last episode of International Gymnast Magazine. So, some facts. The Brits took–these are from his editorial notes in IG. The Brits took nearly two years to develop their concept for the show. The gymnasts on the show are almost exclusively sports acrobats, which you will know if you listen to our–me and Emma, and our Tumble Recap episodes–they’re very entertaining, I highly recommend them. And then he says, “I spoke at length to the head choreographer, the brilliant Karen Bruce, who said after interviewing lots of artistic gymnasts she realized they did not have the musicality to make the show work, and thats why they ended up with all these sports acrobats.” And I have to say that the sports acrobats were incredible, incredible performers. He said that the demand for tickets–more than a million requests for 400,800 seats. “To the ratings, higher than the first season of Strictly Come Dancing. I think that Tumble has a great change to fly.” And there’s also been a bunch of different countries, who have already bought the show for their country. So that’s basically how these work. It’s, lots of these shows start in Britain and then they get bought out. Just like Dancing with the Stars started there first. So, and Survivor started there first, a bunch of other things. So it’s really exciting, and I hope this show comes to the US, and I can’t wait to watch the next season, because I totally loved it.
Okay, other news. The Ariana Berlin movie, Full Out, has wrapped. And Ariana Berlin, if you guys remember, she went to–she was a promising junior elite, the day before her elite testing she was in a really, really, really bad car accident, and had a, as in a coma for little while, had a rod put in her leg, was told she should never do gymnastics again, or couldn’t do it, you know how doctors tell people that. Then she went on to become an international dancer. And then got, walked on to the UCLA team and then became one of their top performers on the team. So her movie’s called Full Out, and they just wrapped shooting. Jordyn Wieber is going to be in it. Sam Peszek, Victoria Moors is in it, and Alicia Sacramone. So, I’m super excited about Full Out, and we’ll have details for you about that movie as it progresses.
UNCLE TIM: Side note.
JESSICA: Yes.
UNCLE TIM: So, was Victoria Moors in the movie, or was she just there because they were filming at her gym?
JESSICA: I think she’s in it, because I saw them filming her tumbling.
UNCLE TIM: Oh, okay.
JESSICA: Yeah, and she’s all decked out in her outfit. There’s–if you guys want to check it out there’s a Full Out Instagram and a Full Out movie Facebook page, and there’s tons of videos from the set. So, you can see. There’s videos of Alicia there. There’s videos–you can see what the leotards they’re wearing and stuff, scrunchies in their hair just like, “Oh God!” But yeah, it’s all up on there. And I think Moors–what was she doing? She did like a two and half or a triple full on floor. They showed her doing? Who else is in it? Aisha Gerber’s in it I think too. So yeah. And it wasn’t filmed at her gym, I think it was in–it was at Oak, Oakville I want to say?
UNCLE TIM: Oh, okay.
JESSICA: Or maybe they just–because I feel like her gym is completely red, and this gym wasn’t, but I’m like, “Oh, maybe they changed it to look so the set would look different. But I’m pretty sure it was at Oakville, something. Okay, so. You guys know that Grandi will not be running for FIG president again. He’s announced that he’s not running in 2016. He’s done. Huge news. That means that anyone on the current executive committee could run. So, some of the people that you guys might know on the executive committee right now are Steve Butcher, from the US; Peter Vidmar, is on the–the executive committee. Slava Corn, she’s the vice president, and Nelli Kim, of course, she’s the technical committee president, like Steve Butcher is for the men. So Uncle Tim, this is my question for you. Since you and Spanny can’t run together, because you’re not on the executive committee yet, [LAUGHTER] do you think there will be a lot of opposition from the gymnastics community if Peter Vidmar decides to run because of his active work on the campaign to take away the right to marry from Californians.
UNCLE TIM: So, to clarify, you mean the right to, for gay and lesbian people to marry in California, correct?
JESSICA: To take away the right for them to marry, yes.
UNCLE TIM: Yes. So I think that there will be, definitely, if he were to win, there would be feed–negative feedback, at least, to say the least, from a lot of American gymnastics fans and probably other countries as well. But, I mean, what I know best is America. But, I do think that, you know, that stance could potentially work in his favor with other countries. In the past we’ve discussed where we send gymnasts to World Cup, where it’s illegal to be a gay or les–a gay man or lesbian woman. And it could actually end up working in his favor with certain countries and in their voting.
JESSICA: Hm. Yeah. I, I think there’ll be huge, huge opposition if he runs. And I just think that we’re so much farther along the process than we were when he was elected–or yeah, elected to be the chief de mission for the Olympics. And there was an outcry. And now we’re just farther down that path. And I also think because the IOC has made, has mandated–is it…it’s like section six, section eight, the IOC code, like they’ve–now, basically the Olympics have to be a country that supports gay and lesbian rights. And so I think that they’ll–I don’t know that you can elect someone who’s actively participated in taking away rights from people. So we’ll have to see.
In awesome news, Simone Biles was on her UCLA visit with, oh my God, who else was there? Kyla Ross, Kocian, Baumann?, Macy Toronto–and you know how I love her, love her from Texas Dreams–and, oh my God, I don’t know who else I’m forgetting who else was there. But it’s exciting. Of course, we all know Kocian’s already committed. And Simone is, but who knows who else is going to commit who’s on that trip. But it’s exciting. So Simone posted a video of herself coaching Dom Palange on beam. He’s one of the assistant coaches, and he’s doing his flip flop layout series on beam, and she’s coaching him, it’s totally adorable.
Little Enus, do you remember adorable little Enus of Italy?
UNCLE TIM: Yes, because she has quite the name.
JESSICA: [LAUGHS] And quite the floor routine! She is back on beam again, I’m so excited, I love her! [SQUEALS] Oh my God! Supposedly, she’s supposed to be back for the Grand Pee–Prix. And if this [LAUGHS] if this doesn’t happen, I will be so sad. I will cry for days. Nadia posted some pictures of herself and Katie Holmes of–what’s Katie Holmes famous for nowadays, besides marrying that nutty guy?
UNCLE TIM: [LAUGHS] By “that nutty guy” you mean Tom Cruise?
JESSICA: Tom Cruise, yes.
UNCLE TIM: I’m trying to remember. She’s most famous for Dawson’s Creek.
JESSICA: Yes. Which so long ago now though. But she’s in so many movies.
UNCLE TIM: I don’t–all I can really think about is Dawson’s Creek, Batman Begins…
JESSICA: Oh.
UNCLE TIM: Oh, maybe she was in How I Met Your Mother a bunch? I think?
JESSICA: Was she?
UNCLE TIM: As a guest star, I think she was in How I Met Your Mother a whole bunch.
JESSICA: That could be. Well, anyhoo. She’s a big star and stuff. So, her and Nadia were just kicking it in the gym, doing adult gymnastics together. Nadia was spotting her on a pull over on bars, they were doing handstands together, because you know cute! You know. I just love that Katie Holmes does adult gymnastics. I think that’s fabulous! In “nobody saw this coming” news, Belu and Bitang are back reinstated as the Romanian national team coaches. And rumor says that Catalina Ponor and Sandra Izbasa are coming out of retirement. Do you think that’s true? The retirement?
UNCLE TIM: I don’t that they were too happy with the results after this past Worlds, so I guess I’m not really surprised. I think that, you know, there are certain people in the Romanian gymnastics federation who would beg and plead and give their kidneys so that, so that they could have a good performance at 2016 Olympics, and if that means Catalina and Sandra have to come out of retirement, so be it.
JESSICA: If anybody could get them back in the gym, I mean, their coaches coming back I think could do it, you know? So, hm. So, Khorkina gave an interview after Worlds, and she was pissed. She says, “I am ashamed–” and this was again a translation that is not a perfect translation, so forgive us, Khorkina, if this is not your exact words, and please let us know, anyone who is a native speaker who can tell us if there are any errors here that we’ll gladly correct them. So she gave this interview with the Russian press, and she says, “I was ashamed of the national team in Beijing.” And then I’ve just pulled a couple of quotes that I really liked from this and I thought were interesting. “After my coach passed away, I thought a lot about how lucky I was that fate connected me with him, because I refused the gym, not only because of my height, but for many other criteria. I was also considered a no.” And then–and this is why she says she’ll take any kid in at her gym, because she remembers. So she has a gym in her hometown, and she remembers what happened to her, and she wasn’t wanted by anyone but then ended up turning into gold medals for her. I just love that she has that attitude, it doesn’t matter. And then she says, “Injuries happened back then, it’s just–” she’s talking about the current team, talking about injuries. She says, “Injuries happened back then,” in her competitive days, “It’s just that talking about them was never acceptable, and we never used them as an excuse for a lack of results. This is a private matter between a coach, doctor, and athlete. And certainly not the business of the public.” So, everyone with their selfies of surgery, mm, she does not care for that. Then she says, “I can say that since then,” since her time working with Alexandrov, “Alexandrov has really softened. In general, work abroad can greatly change people in this respect. He won’t swat a child nor say that she or he is fat and should lose weight.” Uncle Tim, what did you think of that quote?
UNCLE TIM: [LAUGHS] Well, um. I don’t know. I guess I was more distracted by the fact that she was like, “I got injured, and I just ripped off the cast and went out there and competed, no matter what the doctors were going to tell me!” So I think she, yeah. That was probably for me the biggest standout. Whereas, like, eh, you guys just don’t have the heart to be Russian gymnasts.
JESSICA: Mmhmm.
UNCLE TIM: What did you make of the Alexandrov quote?
JESSICA: I thought that was really interesting, because I think it’s very true that there are a lot of coaches who come from a former Soviet or former or current communist system where it’s that kind of thing. Not just in coaching, but that kind of thing as a parent is fine. You know, like here you can’t even spank a kid anymore. Not that I’m like–oh my God, I’m going to get so much hate mail. Not that I’m for spanking, not that I’m totally against spanking, I feel like there’s some kids that that’s the only thing that–I’m not even going to. No. I’m not for or against this in any way. I’m not making any statement about that. I’m just saying in general, the tide has turned against any kind of corporal punishment in the United States. Whereas in other countries it’s really hard for immigrants to get used to that being so incredibly different here. And that any kind of a negativity, shaming, hitting, any of that kind of stuff, is just, we don’t do that here. It’s just totally not okay. So I, I appreciated the way she linked coaching abroad to that kind of, I would say, growth as a coach, but clearly she doesn’t see it that way.
UNCLE TIM: [LAUGHS] Yeah, I just think that she doesn’t think that the Russian team is as hard core as they used to be. And thus they aren’t winning as much.
JESSICA: Yeah, exactly. Oh, I did love that she talked about how, it’s obvious that when they’re doing their routine they’re having a hard time, and she’s like, “That’s how you know they don’t–they lack stamina.” And know what I also, I always say there is no excuse for poor conditioning. Ever, ever, ever. And so I like that we agree about that same thing. And then she gives a little bit of detail about the kind of stuff that they had to do when she was training. She talks about how their conditioning was. And they had to do back-to-back routines. Which, you know, is not unfamiliar to us in the United States. And she was like, “You know, you had to do two routines in a row. And you know, you had to water down your routine.” But she’s like, “Of course, you had to double somersaults in your tumbling runs. [LAUGHTER] She’s like, “It’s not like you just got to run back and forth. You still had to do double backs or double fronts.” And then she says that if they missed a skill on beam, they were panic-stricken, because that meant they had to do seven more routines. And then, this really stood out to me too. She said, the interviewer asked, “Do you think that public tears are a manifestation of internal weakness?” And she’s like, I don’t rule that out, I think it comes from insecurity. You–you’re flawed somewhere, so you have weakness.” And then she talks about how she only cried in her, and you know we talked about this, “You can only see my tears through the chalk.” She–the title of her, of her memoir in my imagination. She says she only cried in her hotel room to herself. Or maybe in the locker room. Never in public, she didnt she want anyone to see her cry. And she cried all night long, so loud that Alexandrov could hear her in the next room. And that, that’s how she kept her toughness, is not to let anyone see that side of her at all. What do you think of that comment? Public tears–or question–“Are public tears a manifestation of internal weakness?” Is that just very Russian? Or is that true, if you can’t keep your tears back than you’re a weak little gymnast.
UNCLE TIM: I don’t that it makes you a weak little gymnast. I just think that it comes from perspective and what your perspective on life is. If you believe that everyone should be stoic, then yes, it’s seen as weakness. Other people, however, believe that emotions are okay. [LAUGHS] So it just kind of depends. And that’s why, you know, one thing I do think is really nice about gymnasts going into NCAA is the fact that you do have a lot of different coaching styles and a lot of different options. When you are growing up as a kid, you kind of end up going to the gym that’s in your geographical region, and you don’t really have much choice. But when it comes to going to college, you probably have a little more choice, and can find a coaching situation that’s right for you and not necessarily like, “You must be stoic!” or maybe you want a coach who is like, “You must be stoic!” and you have a coach right now who’s like, “Blah, blah, blah, crying!” [JESSICA LAUGHS] I don’t know.
JESSICA: You know me, I’m all for get your emotions out. I’m just like, cry yourself, just do it, get it all out, it’s fine, don’t worry about it. There’s nothing about getting your emotions out that I think conveys weakness. And I think it makes you even stronger if you can get that out, because I think that eventually your feelings are going to burst, and so at some point it’s going to make you weaker and less able to perform if you don’t get them out. So, you know, if you’re like her and you can hold it in and then cry all night, I think that’s great too. However you have to get your feelings out, just get the feelings all out. In other news…
UNCLE TIM: To go back…
JESSICA: Yeah–go ahead.
UNCLE TIM: To go back to one point with the twin floor routines, I think that if you are a newcomer to the gymternet, there is one video on YouTube that you have to see, which is of–
JESSICA: Yes!
UNCLE TIM: Dina Kochetkova doing four double layouts in her floor routine in like 1992 when she was 15 during training at Round Lake. And so I think, yeah, everyone needs to see that video if they haven’t already.
JESSICA: Yes. Thank you for finding that! That is a good point. Okay, Jordyn Wieber wants to be on Dancing with the Stars. Oh! Tandoori Chicken, the fantastic international playboy chicken photographer who goes to everything gave our Gymcastic grips to Huang Huidan and Bai Yawen. [SQUEALS] Oh my God! And apparently Shang Chunsong made a joke in the elevator to Peng Peng Lee at Pacific Rim Championships. Pacific–one of those meets. About how, look at that chicken, he has grips and we don’t, because you know how the Chinese don’t use grips. Ha! That’s funny.
UNCLE TIM: [LAUGHS] I think that you’re, I think she gave the grips to Yao.
JESSICA: Was it Yao? Oh, you’re right! Oh my God, it was Yao. [GASPS] That was a terrible Freudian slip of my part! Because Huang Huidan is my favorite! [LAUGHTER] That’s terrible!
UNCLE TIM: And then Yao won, yeah.
JESSICA: I did mean Yao, she did give them to Yao, I’m so glad Yao has them, this makes me so happy. I just like squealed for like an hour after I saw the picture of Yao and Bai Yawen with the Gymcastic grips. [SQUEALS] Okay. Moving on. Aly Raisman and Gabby were at camp together in October, very exciting that they’re coming out. Russian sports news is reporting that Komova will be at a world cup this year, so that’s exciting. Donnell Whittenburg competed in the Bundesliga. This is kind of like professional league, lots of the foreign gymnasts compete in it for certain teams. It’s a great way to make a living as a gymnast, I would love to see Olivia Vivian and Lisa Mason competing in this, and some of the US gymnasts who are, the NCAA gymnasts who are, are, can still compete at that level. That would be awesome. Uncle Tim, what would you like to talk about? What do you need to get off your chest that’s been in the news?
UNCLE TIM: So there have been several articles written about artistry, and if you followed my blog for a little while, I’ve written a lot about the code of points and the evolution of artistry over time. And so one article was written by Susan Swarbrick in the Herald, coming out of the UK, and basically she argues that this World Championship’s made her sad because it lacked the artistry that we have seen in the past, like we used to have. And I feel like this is a common problem with gymnastics fans in general at this point in time. Partly because nostalgia is so prominent in our culture. But if you’ve ever taken debate class, you know that you can’t build an argument on tradition. It’s just a huge logical fallacy. So you can’t say, “The best way to do this is this way because we’ve always done it this way.” How do you know that it really is the best way to do things? Or why do you know that all floor routines should look like 1970s floor routines, because they used to look that way? And you know, there’s this strange correlation that reminds we like this 1970s floor routine, which means we also should like the 1970s code of points, because this routine was conducted under that code of points. And I think there’s a funny thing about nostalgia. Because, one, I mean, obviously with nostalgia you have an idea, a way of idealizing the past, and you just kind of forget all the bad routines, and you just remember all the good ones, the ones that you really liked. But also, there’s a problem because it doesn’t allow you to recognize that time changes, and that artistic movements change over time. And it would be stupid to think that Jan Joplin’s 1971, I want to say, Me and Bobby McGee should sound like Taylor Swift’s Shake It Off or vice versa. Taylor Swift’s Shake It Off should sound like Me and Bobby McGee. Because in the ’70s was different from music today, and why should we think that gymnastics in the ’70s or ’80s should be the same as gymnastics today. I don’t know. It just seems weird and very ahistorical. We just believe that gymnastics should be this thing that is not subject time changing? Like, it needs to be this ahistorical thing? Which brings me to my next point of contention, which is with Elizabeth Booth of Rewriting Gymnastics. She wrote another post about artistry, and in it, it’s not necessarily her main point, but she compares Elena Produnova to Simone Biles. She says that they have similar body types, and yet, and they had similar styles of gymnastics because Elena was powerful and Simone’s powerful, but Elena Produnova had better artistry, and part of that is because of code of points which rewarded artistry at that time. This is a terrible argument because the code of points in effect at the 2000 Olympics is largely the basis for the code of points that we have today. The 1997 code, which was in effect during the 2000 Olympics, was when the FIG really started to play with the idea of splitting between difficulty and execution and really dividing those two. And to boot the artistry rules in 2000 were actually pretty similar to those today. For instance, they had a deduction for when music and movement were not in harmony, which is similar to today’s code. They had a deduction for lack of variation in rhythm and tempo, which is similar to some of the tempo deductions that we have. Or they had concentration pause as well, which is kind of the reason that we have the stork rule, that we call it. And just, I don’t know, I feel like right now the gymnastics community needs to get over itself and stop comparing everything about today to things in the past. And I–part of my thinks that the only way that we’re ever going to get over this comparison to the past is to bring people in from outside the gymnastics community.
JESSICA: Mmhmm.
UNCLE TIM: If we’re going to start really valuing artistry and judging artistry, I think that we need to bring people who recognized as artists in their own disciplines into gymnastics and judge it. Not have–I think part of the problem right now is the fact that artistry falls under the purview of execution, and so there’s this conflation of artistry and execution automatically. Because you have the same judges judging artistry and execution. So I think if we’re going to do artistic gymnastics we need to have a separate panel, and I think it needs to, for at least the beginning, it needs to be a panel that’s not so entrenched in gymnastics history and can really judge artistry from a different perspective.
JESSICA: Yes, I totally agree! And when you were talking about this, all I could think is this is a whole field of study. Dance. And art. This has a rich history. It’s not like we have to like, bring this in from scratch. And in addition to that, there is this, there is this idea that you have to have been a gymnast to be any good at judging this, or being a part of that. And I think that’s so totally and completely wrong. Just think about all the people on the executive committee for gymnastics, and they’re all great gymnasts. But that does not qualify you to be an administrator. Administrators should do administration, not ex-gymnasts. You should have a qualification beyond your sports to do these sorts of jobs. And I understand it’s easier to go from being an elite to judging it, because you already had to know this stuff doing it. But it’s also very different, and I just, I think that bringing people in from the outside who have studied this is really what we need to do. Just like they brought in Cirque du Soleil experts to talk about artistry to the judges, and I think we need more of that kind of thing. Because it’s not like we have to invent this. It’s already been done, it exists in other places, and we just need to adapt what’s already out there. So, amen, Uncle Tim. Thank you for that sermon.
UNCLE TIM: [LAUGHS] It was little long, but whatever. So what’s going on in skills, Jessica?
JESSICA: Let’s see. So Simone has let us see of what she’s working on. None of ten skills that I gave her to do yet though, what is up with that? I gave her a list, you guys can go to my Twitter, it’s OtotheBeirne on Twitter, and I sent her and Amy a whole list of all the skills that I would love, like, my fantasy skills for her. [LAUGHS] Which are my, like, two are my fantasy skills for any woman to do, because no one’s ever done them. Like that…
UNCLE TIM: Air flares.
JESSICA: Yeah, like air flares, which I think would be super easy for her. She could have them named after her, and I think they would be, like, an F if she did them. And if any woman did them, I think they’d be an F. They’re just so hard, and I think she could totally do them. And also that thing that Kenzo does where you do, you go up like in side flip laid out totally straddled, and then you do a full twist out if it and you land sideways. Kenzo does it at the end of his routine. There’s a name for it.
UNCLE TIM: [LAUGHING] Full twisting side somi.
JESSICA: [LAUGHS] Yeah, that! Laid out. Anyhoo, no woman’s ever done that too, and it’s so cool looking. You just go up really high, it looks like you’re floating in the air. If she did that simple skill, people would lose their freaking minds. It would just be awesome. So anyway. But in the meantime, so she’s not working on my skill list, [LAUGHS] which obviously I expect her to drop everything to fulfill my which list, but since she’s not on Instagram she put out of video of a van Leeuwan that she’s doing, which looks absolutely perfect on bars. And then double layout full out, which looks also absolutely perfect and like she could do it at any time and add maybe two more twists to that. Don’t you think she could add two more twists to that?
UNCLE TIM: Probably. She can do anything.
JESSICA: Pretty much. Nabieva is working on a huge round off layout full on low beam. It was so high, I was like, “Okay. Yes. That skill is going to be really easy for you.” Skinner is working on a Li Xiao Peng. Can you describe that vault for people who don’t remember this glorious vault?
UNCLE TIM: It is similar to the Cheng, but instead of doing a round off yurchenko half on, one and a half off, you do round off yurchenko half on, two and half off.
JESSICA: It actually looks really clean. In this video.
UNCLE TIM: Yes.
JESSICA: I was–yeah. It looked really good. Ragan–what is Ragan’s last name? Smith?
UNCLE TIM: [SIMULTANEOUSLY] Smith. Yes.
JESSICA: Yeah, aka Fivel. She is at Texas Dreams with the fantastic Kim Zmeskal, and she is doing a piked full on beam, which looks so easy for her. It’s like she could eat an ice cream cone and do it at the same time. And the most gorgeous Patterson. It’s so, it’s Patterson-esque. It’s absolutely fabulous. It’s Kennedy Baker Patterson worthy. Her knees are together, her toes are pointed, she is above her own little miniscule height of whatever, she’s probably four feet tall. Higher than that, at that height of her flip. It’s so beautiful. And she’s also been named to the national team, so congratulations to you, little Fivel.
Let’s move on to mail call. We have wanted to dedicate the majority of this episode to all of your voice mails and letters and e-mails and comments. So let’s start with a little pronunciation guide.
VOICEMAIL: I’m Amanda. I was just listening to the team qualifications podcast, I’m a little behind, and wanted to help with the pronunciation for Yang Hak Seon’s name. There was a little uncertainty. I’ve been living–I’m not a native speaker, but I’ve been living in Korea and yeah, the “a” in his name is closer to the “ah” as in “father.” So not Yayng Hack Son [ph], but Yahng Hahk Seon [ph]. Thanks!
[THE MORE YOU KNOW SOUND EFFECT]
JESSICA: The next voice mail is from Faith, who wanted to talk about Kelly Sim.
VOICEMAIL: Hey, I’m Faith. I’m from Washington DC so I am calling to talk about the qualifications for Worlds. I would have missed this, because I haven’t seen it cut out anywhere, but I watched the full team GB and Romania qualifying. And so I believe it’s Kelly Sim. It starts about 2:55, I will also e-mail the video. But in her bar routine she’s doing her church, and she catches her calves on the bar, but manages to hold on to the bar and stay on. And like, obviously I know there’s still deductions, but I was just so impressed with that, and for me that was one of the best moments of this past Worlds. Just seeing someone fight like that. Love this show! Bye!
JESSICA: Uncle Tim, that was her favorite save of the meet. What’s your favorite save?
UNCLE TIM: Huh. That’s hard to say. Why don’t you go first while I think about it?
JESSICA: Okay, mine’s totally Manrique doing his shushanova on, in the floor finals and going so incredibly high that it looked like he was going to fly sideways out of the floor and waving his arms like a bird, and then landing back down.
UNCLE TIM: What meet was that? Because Manrique was not at Worlds.
JESSICA: Oh wait, not Manrique! The Spanish guy! Man–not Manrique. Man…
UNCLE TIM: Oh, umm…
JESSICA: Man-something.
UNCLE TIM: It’s a strange first name, it’s like Ryderley. Um, yeah. I know who you’re talking about.
JESSICA: Man–yes. Oh my God. I’ll remember his name later. Not Manrique. But yes. The Spanish guy. Okay, you tell me yours, and I’ll look up his name. [LAUGHTER]
UNCLE TIM: I would have to say that mine would go to–I’m trying to think, I feel like there were so many saves on beam. I’m trying to remember. I mean, I think you have to give on the best saves to Aliya Mustafina. I mean, it wasn’t necessarily a save, but the fact that she still won a beam medal without doing an acrobatic series, and managed to stay on the beam the entire time even though the routine did not go as she expected, I still consider that a save. Like–
JESSICA: It was.
UNCLE TIM: It’s pretty impressive.
JESSICA: It’s Zapata. From Spain.
UNCLE TIM: Yes. Yes.
JESSICA: Why did I confuse him? Oh my God, that was so terrible. I’m going to get so much hate mail for that. That’s what I meant though, I meant Zapato. Anyhoo. So, I asked, when we talked last time, who else winked like Simone during their elite floor routines. I was like, “[EXCITED TONE] Who else? Tell me! Does anyone else do that?” And of course Emma came back and said, “Daria Joura. Hello, Dasha from Australia.” She, her whole–remember, she would salute, throw her head back for like ten seconds, then prance onto the floor, gaze into the eyes of the judges, and then she would give one wink, and then her music would start. Do you…
UNCLE TIM: I do not remember that. But [JESSICA LAUGHS] I will take your word for it.
JESSICA: Okay. Well, she did it. So, Tanner on Twitter asks, “Do you think Mustafina will reach, or has reached, the Khorkina legend status?” Hmm.
UNCLE TIM: I would say that maybe in terms of success she will, but in terms of–I feel like Khorkina legend status also has a certain personality tied to it, and I don’t know that Aliya will ever be as outspoken as Khorkina has been.
JESSICA: I think that Khorkina is legendary not just because of her gymnastics, the medals that she won, but because she is such an unlikely champion. One, because of her height, and two, she broke all the stereotypes, yet she’s the best. I mean, besides the one who won like six Olympics and was pregnant for one of them, like six months pregnant, and she gave–she wanted to give the awards to that swimmer, because he broke her record. It was like in the ’50s. [UNCLE TIM LAUGHS]
UNCLE TIM: I think you’re combining a bunch of people, maybe. [LAUGHTER]
JESSICA: Okay. Maybe I am.
UNCLE TIM: No, I know who you’re talking about. I will assume you meant…
JESSICA: Larisa Latynina?
UNCLE TIM: Yeah.
JESSICA: Yeah. But I still consider Khorkina the greatest because she did modern gymnastics. But I think–so, the one thing, she’s an outlier because of her height, and also because she revolutionized bars. I mean, she did bars–I just, I think her gymnastics was just so incredibly innovative. And she, her routines, what she was doing back then, is what every routine is now. She was a total trendsetter. And on bars, she just–she was amazing. I think Mustafina is incredible, and she’ll be a great, great gymnast, but there’s people who win the crowd and people who win the medals. And then there’s people who are completely just stars. Whether you love them or hate them. And that is Khorkina. Mustafina is definitely a star, but Khorkina is like a shining bright magnificent, polarizing, universe unto herself.
UNCLE TIM: Polarizing. Yes.
JESSICA: Polarizing for sure.
UNCLE TIM: I think that’s interesting right now, is, I feel like Simone Biles has become a lightning rod of contempt for modern gymnastics. I don’t think she’s really the cause of any of it, but I think that a lot of people are using her gymnastics to blame the code for different things. And I think it’s a good sign when people are very divided about you, at least nowadays. I think it bodes well for your future as a legend status. And I think Mustafina has a little bit of that. I think that it was more divisive in the 2010-2011 era then it is now. But I do think that she will definitely go down in the history books, no question.
JESSICA: Lets get into our voice mails. Our first one is for, from, Flip It and Stick It. I–this is great letter, we got great letters from you guys. We can’t read the whole, all of them, the full length because they’re too long, but we totally appreciate them, we did read all of them, but for the, for the sake of on air time, I’m going to cut it a little short. Here it goes:
“Gymcastic,
You need to look at the Wilson/Whitlock situation differently”–this is referring to Max Whitlock not having his best performance in prelims at worlds, and so Nile Wilson gave up his spot, even though he qualified under the two-per-country rule. “You are obsessed with this concept of what is fair. Life isn’t fair. Fair doesn’t matter. Do what is wise and honorable. And that is what Nile did. No one was shocked by the decision to have Max compete in the all-around instead of Nile. It made sense, the British were, are sensible people. During qualification Nile had the meet of his life. He did a superb and fantastic job. He was in the zone and did the best he could have done. But Nile at his absolute best was only two tenths better than Max at his worst.” Point taken. “Max didn’t have a great, and even on a bad day for Max, he had still qualified for all event finals.” Let me say that again. “Max scored in top 24 during qualifications and scored high enough to qualify for all event finals. It is within a country’s right to compete any two individuals who qualify within the top 24. It usually makes sense to compete the top two qualifiers to obtain your best results, but in this case it was not. A seasoned gymnast knows not to pull it all out during qualifications.” So, he goes on to talk about how Nile, he had an amazing completion, he was super happy with his result, and what his perspective was for competing, and then about how the other element of analysis he says, “Most gymnasts hold a great sense of patriotism. For many their goal is to represent the nation. Go back to October 8th, when the final all around decision was announced. Great Britain just missed out on a team medal at Worlds and didn’t leave itself many more genuine opportunities to medal at Worlds. Great Britain was facing a real possibility they could go home empty handed. I’m sure Nile knew that Max was the country’s best chance for an all-around medal.” Goes on–“I think Eddie Van Hoof, the coach, knew this. Heck, all of the gymnasts knew this. Which is why no one surprised by the decision!” Except for you, Gymcastic! I just added that part, he didn’t say that. And then he talked about how the US could have ended up in the same position, and then he concludes by saying, [LAUGHS] this is awesome–“Like Marilyn Monroe, Princess Diana, and other celebrities who will always remain beautiful in our minds because we never got to see them get old, fat, and ugly, Nile will always be able to treasure a perfect memory of a beautiful result at Worlds. 13th all around, 4th on high bar, and silver for country as a result of his selfless decision. Not to mention the value of keeping yourself in the good graces of British Gymnastics decision makers. Check the execution scores. The Gymcastic Awesome Award goes to Nile. Take this kid to Vegas, he knows when to stop and when to come home a winner.
From,
Flip It and Stick It”
Uncle Tim, what are your thoughts?
UNCLE TIM: So, I think that he, the writer does make some very valid points. And what I really like about this letter the fact that he or she, does not, Flip It, does not split it into two binaries. I think that a lot of people have split this argument into, it was either all Nile’s decision or it was all British Gymnastics’ decision, and what I was trying to unsuccessfully say during the show in my sleep deprivation is the fact that, when your decisions are really just your own decisions. There are usually external factors in, playing a part in the decisions you make. Yes, you might be the person who does make the decision, but I do like that little parenthetical situation, “Not to mention the value of keeping yourself in the good graces of British gymnastics decision makers.” Which does not–which does acknowledge the role that British Gymnastics does play in your fate, either present or future. And I think that the writer did do a good job of kind of pointing out both sides, and not just saying it was one or the other.
JESSICA: I think that one of the things–I think that this was such a well written letter, and I appreciate it so much. And for all the analysis and for all the points that he or she makes. And also just bringing up the patriotism part, which I never take into, I just, it just doesn’t occur to me. I’m always like, “How are there, this meet’s sold out, people are going nuts!” And people are like, “It’s patriotism.” I’m like, “Oh. Hm. I never thought of that.” It’s, I think one of the things that always comes to the fan’s mind–we represent how the fans see the sport. We are always worried, we always want to protect the gymnasts. We want to protect the gymnasts, the individual. And we’re not always thinking about the team, or the, the, what, the importance of bringing a medal home, for keeping your country’s gymnastics program afloat or the political consequences. And we’re also thinking, I think we’re also bringing the emotional trash of the years past when the gymnasts didn’t get to make their own decisions. And so I, I appreciate your point of view. And I think that, I think that we did a good job of giving all the angles, I think I talked about the importance of bringing a medal home and talked about some of the different angles, but your letter definitely does it. So thank you so, so much for writing in. Thank you very, very, very much. And for supporting the show, we really appreciate it. What do we have next?
UNCLE TIM: So, Chris writes, “I don’t know if I missed it or not, but I’m hoping that you guys are talking, going to talk about the UCL–UCLA fundraiser for their podiums. I love the blog Uncle Tim did about it.” And I’ll just kind of end the letter there. He goes on to slurp, slurp us a little bit [JESSICA LAUGHS], tells us how much he loves us and how he made a donation to support us–
JESSICA: Because he’s awesome!
UNCLE TIM: –and we love that. So, yes. So to go to briefly give listeners background, UCLA is doing a fundraiser so that they can–or they were doing a fundraiser, I guess it’s over now. But they were trying to raise 150K in 30 days so they could put all their gymnastics equipment on podium for aesthetics, safety, and I don’t remember the third reason that they were trying to do it. Or that’s what somebody told me on Twitter. And, you know, their video was not–so they put out this video, and it was a YouTube video–and they were talking about how if they put everything on podium then they’ll be able to bring home another national championship. And they need put their tramps on podium, which was like, “Really?” They don’t compete tramp on podium at Nationals. Like, to win an NCAA Championship you don’t compete tramp ever. I do not follow your thesis. And Miss Val went on to talk about how the podiums were going to bring in more international fans, and I was like, “Really? That’s the case? Then men’s gymnastics, NCAA men’s gymnastics, there should be a podium in every gym, because that will solve so many problems. Because this is clearly the most logical video I’ve ever seen.” And, I don’t know. And they also claim that this is going to be a gym like no other, but if you know your NCAA gymnastics history, you know Nebraska has been training on podium for the past four years, I believe in 2010, they renovated their gym and put everything on podium. So it’s really not this, “Ooh, new, hip, exciting” thing. And, you know, it’s been done before. University of Nebraska, as far as I know, didn’t run a massive crowd sourcing, I don’t know, crowd sourcing fundraiser out there on the internet. I don’t know. I just, when things are not very logical it leaves me very skeptical about what your intentions are, and the video was anything but logical.
JESSICA: And I think, obviously I–here’s what I think. This video was definitely not made for gymnastics fans or made by anyone who knew about gymnastics. Whoever produced the video didn’t know gymnastics or they would never leave something in there about leaving the trampoline on podium, because that’s ridiculous. So I think it was probably someone–
UNCLE TIM: But!
JESSICA: Go ahead.
UNCLE TIM: Where, at what? Uh–[INAUDIBLE, SPEAKING SIMULTANEOUSLY WITH JESSICA]
JESSICA: Right, someone should have reviewed this!
UNCLE TIM: Not okay, how could you think it was okay?
JESSICA: Yes, exactly!
UNCLE TIM: It was…
JESSICA: I totally agree. I–where are all the coaches reviewing this and saying, “No. We have to take this, this, and this out because that makes no sense.” I totally agree. And it’s really weird, too, because I’m like, “Why would Christ let himself be in this video where he stumbles on his words in the first segment?” Which makes me think they didn’t see it before it went out. Because it didn’t make sense and it wasn’t well produced, I think. Which is not, that’s not what we expect of them. So I was really surprised when I saw it, and I think that they–and also, I think their communications part, department if they had been able to look at it would have changed things as well. I just don’t think that for whatever reason the normal steps were, were followed. Because that’s just not, that clearly wasn’t a finished–no one had reviewed it, that’s obvious. Because it didn’t make sense. So I totally agree with you there. Now, being, of course, I love my team. So I’m just going to play devil’s advocate, aka just me being my normal self, and just say that some of things that you put in your blog were on the–Some of the questions that you put in there like, “What happens if the money is not raised?” all that kind of stuff. They were in the back up for the site, which wasn’t like Kickstarter, it was UCLA’s own kind of Kickstarter, which, I don’t know, that didn’t really make sense to me. Apparently they have their own Kickstarter system that’s not a Kickstarter, and they explained what happens to the money if they didnt raise it and that kind of stuff on there. And then…
UNCLE TIM: I believe that was added after.
JESSICA: Oh, it might have been. I–it wasn’t in the video, it’s was on–there was a link on the website.
UNCLE TIM: Yeah, yeah. The bottom.
JESSICA: The bottom part.
UNCLE TIM: The bottom. Yeah, I read that.
JESSICA: Oh yeah, you could totally–oh yeah. Okay. And then I also think that the part about foreign fans wasn’t communicated well, because I think that if it had been reviewed and properly edited by someone who really knew gymnastics, some–you know, Miss Val was actually saying, “If you live abroad and you’re a fan, and you can’t come to the meets, and you can’t buy a ticket to help us, this is a way you can donate and support the team. This is a way you can use your money to directly support the team, since you can’t be here to cheer us on at our meets.” That’s how I understood it. And I would have had her have a complete sentence in there, that made sense, if I had been editing that video. And, you know, but the other thing is like, I am giving the benefit of the doubt. I don’t know if–I mean, I don’t have, I don’t have a lot of reason to doubt their intentions, because I haven’t seen ill intentions from them before. But I just think–I don’t know, it was really weird that that video came out like that, because it just–it didn’t do them any favors. That’s what I will say. I don’t think so. But they raised their money, so.
UNCLE TIM: There was–so I do have to give them credit for one thing. Because after Miss Val was talking about their international fans, and after seeing how poorly the video was edited in general, I did think they were going to cut to Danusia Francis, because as you know, someone with a British accent who is not white, and to their credit, they did not do that, where they stereotypically point out–
JESSICA: Mm
UNCLE TIM: –the minority person with the British accent. They did use Jenny Pinches with the British accent right after talking about the international fans. But at least they didn’t do the kind of token minority thing. So that did make me happy.
JESSICA: I’m glad. So, let’s see. Where are we next? Rachel wrote in:
“Hi.” Oh, this is very interesting, okay. “There was a strong response from the gymternet when Marisa King tweeted,” you know Marisa King as a British Olympian who is national champion on the Florida NCAA team. And she was most recently working for Gymnastike, and now she is going to be in some, one of the search shows. So, “There was a strong response from the gymternet when Marisa King tweeted, “Gosh, I just want to give these Chinese girls a cheeseburger” during Worlds. And you guys addressed this on the show. I agree that it is distasteful comment about their body types and thought you guys handled the topic with grace. Thus, I was hoping that perhaps you could touch on the subject of North Korean gymnasts. Personally, I’m thrilled about Hong Un Jong and that she won a vault title. As an American, I would have loved to see our dear Simone, ect. ect. But we can’t even imagine how difficult Hong Un Jong’s–her…” Sorry. “…Hong Un Jong’s vaults are incredible, improved form over last year.” But she was like, then she says, “I looked to Twitter as many of us on the gymternet do to express excitement, and I was rather disgusted seeing multiple comments saying there would be extra rations for them and their family, and most offensive, they will get to eat tonight. I do understand that life in North Korea is unfathomably difficult, and most of us cannot even imagine what it is like to live there–side note, if you haven’t seen the Frontline documentary on North Korea, it’s a must see. In it they talk about how starvation is a real problem there. So I understand that to access proper nutrition and food is really a challenge for them, but we couldn’t–couldn’t we as a gymternet, as the gymternet, have said something like, “Oh, this is great for her, and the gymnasts–gymnastics program in North Korea”? Or, “I hope that they get more funding for better equipment now, after training at a higher level,” or, “This is going to make an amazing difference in her and her family’s life. Hurray for Hong Un Jong.” Why do people feel the people feel the need to say such rude, derogatory things as, “They get to eat tonight” or “Their family will get extra rations.” Perhaps Im overreacting, I just thought it was really disrespectful.”
Oh, and then she thanks us and says she’s listened since the beginning. Yay! Squeals! And–“Squeals” is like our slurp surf, I think that’s our squeals. We both listen to this show where there’s the slurping is what people do. Meaning, uh, Uncle Tim, that’s where that comes from, in case you thought that was just a random slurp surf that he said on there. And anyway. Thank you, thank you, thank you so much for writing in. And this a great point. I think–so this is interesting, because when people talk about, “You’ll get extra rations,” and “Maybe they’ll be allowed to eat tonight” I see that as standing up for the gymnast against the government that is taking away their freedoms and literally their food. That is how I see it. Like, in my world, cutting… What’s the one I want to, how to, what is it? Cutting humor, talking about the real issues that are wrong their but making it into humor, is a way of saying, “Screw this country for treating this amazing person, who is so incredibly talented, like crap.” That’s how I read those comments. And I think that the people who said that stuff are educated enough to know. They’re making those comments because they know how terrible it is in North Korea. And so that’s how I read those comments. But I understand how you could see them as really rude, because I’m sure that, you know, if the North Korean gymnasts–you know, I felt a little bad actually after, when we talked about our world champions.
UNCLE TIM: Ri? Ri?
JESSICA: Yes. Ri Se-gwang. Thank you. When we talked about how he is, like we kind of laughed about his injury and him having to be carried off, like a little teddy bear and stuff like that. Like, I was like, “I hope that nobody thinks that we don’t realize how gnarly this is, and maybe he doesn’t have a choice. He had to vault. Like, if he could walk, he had to vault.” There wasn’t–you know, we kind of made light of it, and, and talked about how cute it was when he was carried off but, I–saying those things does not take away from the knowledge of how horrible his life must be, and how gnarly life for everyone in North Korea is. So, anyway. But I appreciate your thoughts, and that’s just my take on it. I see, I see that kind of humor as a jab at the Korean government and–the government. [SARCASTIC LAUGH] The one person ruling everyone, torturing everyone, as opposed to not supporting gymnasts. I see it as supportive. Uncle Tim?
UNCLE TIM: I can see both sides. I think that there, you know, the sarcasm was kind of biting humor, and some people’s–some people have different senses of humor, right? And so I can see where you’re coming from and where those people might have been coming from, and I could see how somebody could want a more positive spin on things. And I think that it’s good that we have so many voices out there. And everyone can kind of choose their own path and figure out who they want to follow? So. Shall we move on to the next letter?
JESSICA: I’m ready.
UNCLE TIM: Okay. So we got a letter from Katie. And it’s kind of long, so I’ll have to cut it. One of her big concerns was Mykayla Skinner. She was secreting hoping that Mykayla Skinner was going to bust out a, quote, “sneak attack amanar” at the last second [JESSICA LAUGHS] during event finals. So, she–
JESSICA: Sneak attack is the best thing ever! I’m going to call everything sneak attack from now. That is [LAUGHS] I just love that. She’s going to, like, sneak on when no one’s looking and bust it out, like, “Ha!” [UNCLE TIM LAUGHS] It’s so Stick It.
UNCLE TIM: It is like Claudia Fragapane sneak attack shushanova on her first tumbling pass [JESSICA LAUGHS] during finals.
JESSICA: Sneak attack, but even she didn’t know it was coming!
UNCLE TIM: [LAUGHS] Exactly. So, she is kind of wondering why she isn’t competing the amanar when she is obviously capable of it. And I don’t if I’ve read anywhere, any interviews about why she isn’t doing the amanar, but I’m guessing it was due to consistency. I just don’t think that her amanar was technically as strong as maybe someone like Simone’s, and therefore Marta didn’t let her. That’s just my assumption. Do you have any ideas, Jess?
JESSICA: I just thought it wasn’t because it wasn’t super consistent. I thought that I had read that it wasn’t worth it. Because if you can be in the top three without it, then it’s not worth risking it. That’s–I feel like I remember that being said, although I might be adding my own logic.
UNCLE TIM: [LAUGHS] Yeah. I–so–
JESSICA: As I tend to do.
UNCLE TIM: So we don’t really have an answer as to exactly why, but I think that she was able to, part of it is due to deductions and risk, and I think her double twisting yurchenko was clean enough. Kind of why Kyla Ross hasn’t done an amanar since Olympic Trials. At least, we haven’t seen one. You know? Her double twisting yurchenko is good enough to get her by. Then another portion of her letter–“Speaking of 2012 Olympians attempting to come back for Rio, I feel awful for thinking so. But I think that Kyla’s the only one with a shot to really make it. I have to think that continuing to compete and train all this time says a lot to Marta. We all know Gabby put herself in a really precarious situation with all her gym moving, coach disowning. Maroney has all but been replaced in function by Biles unless she comes out next season with some serious moves. Same for Aly, in case of Skinner. Jordyn’s probably not even going to try, rightfully dealing with all the PTSD, Post Olympic Trauma Stress Disorder. The US talent is too out of control for multiple Olympic repeats. So, Jess, what do you think? Looking ahead in two years for the 2012 team.
JESSICA: [DRAWS BREATH] Man, I think the 2012 team is going to be Bailie Key, little Fivel, and, and Biles and [SIGHS] Nia Dennis. [LAUGHTER] And I don’t know–and some bar worker. I don’t know. Well, some great beam worker, like Baumann. Or–oh no, she’s not old enough. No, she is old enough. Norah, Norah Flatley. I don’t know. I just, I think–[SIGHS] Kyla. The thing is, it does not matter. Kyla could be the seven-time world champion in a row, and Marta still wouldn’t take her if she wasn’t ready right then for the Worlds. Like, it just doesn’t–there is no loyalty in Marta’s system. It doesn’t matter. I think that’s been proven over and over that there’s no loyalty. And I think that when you look at the history of who’s been chosen, that’s, that’s true. And I don’t mean that in a necessarily a bad way, because I feel like the gymnastics system in the US is so deep that you can afford not to be loyal to the groundbreakers, to the former champions. Because you could, there’s always somebody else fresher, ready to go. Who can achieve the same thing. So it’s, I just–I just think that we don’t know at all right now. I think it’s going to be half juniors that aren’t competing right now in the senior meets, as we have seen that over and over. And I think there’s a chance at one, one veteran making it. I think Simone can keep competing and winning until she’s 40 years old. And I’m not even kidding. I mean literally 40 years old. [UNCLE TIM LAUGHS] Because she’s just the greatest talent I think I’ve ever seen in gymnastics. She’s incredible. So yeah. No loyalty, juniors, Simone forever.
UNCLE TIM: [LAUGHS] That sounds like, like a great yearbook phrase. [JESSICA LAUGHS] “Simone forever!” Simone Biles, you need to sign all your high school yearbooks “Simone Forever.”
JESSICA: I’ll buy that t-shirt.
UNCLE TIM: [LAUGHS] I–you know, I think, I hate to say it, but I think Jordyn’s kind of ruled out. She is very wishy-washy in all of her interviews, and if you’re really going to make a comeback, you can’t be wishy-washy at this point in time. I would say Aly–I mean, I haven’t really seen too many videos yet. I haven’t seen anything to really say one way or the other. Maroney, we’ll see. It’s going to be a health issue for her, how much she can train. If she can stay health. Gabby–she’s kind of a wildcard. We haven’t–we’ve seen a couple videos, we haven’t seen a whole lot. Shes definitely looking on track when she was at Chows, and now she’s elsewhere. I did see some photos from the, from camp on USA Gym Facebook page, I believe it was, and it was interesting to look at the lineup, all the gymnasts lined up. I saw Gabby, and then in the background there was Chow. And I was like, “Ooh, that’s got to be a little awkward.”
JESSICA: Mmhmm.
UNCLE TIM: But, no. I wouldn’t totally count out Gabby Douglas yet. Just because I haven’t seen enough videos or anything to really know. I think she might have a chance, I think she definitely has been blessed with genes that are good for gymnastics, and we’ll see if she still has the fire in her and whether she can, she has started comeback soon enough. I mean, she didn’t really quit per se, but whether she has really, really dedicated herself to training for the Olympics is a different question.
JESSICA: The next letter comes from Mrs.–“Ms. R.” Ooh, Uncle Time gets called out in this one. But I will reserve my, I just, I have many thoughts on this e-mail, so we’ll–let’s get started. Okay.
“Dear Gymcastic crew/Uncle Tim,
I have noticed a couple of times through the World Championships that Uncle Tim commented and tweeted about Craig Heap having trouble with the names of gymnastics skills. Craig wasn’t really having nearly the difficulty you may think. They just call some skills by different names in England. England is a country that uses different words for many things. The trunk of a car is a boot, and–” blah, blah, blah, it goes over lots of stuff. “This can be a problem in the gym when you have a bunch of seven year olds–” Oh yeah, kids, telling them take off their pants and they think you mean take off their underwear. Which, I enjoyed that story very much. Okay. “So it should come as no surprise that the British also have different names for things in the gymnastics world, just like the States, some people call the name of the skill a free hip circle or clear hip circle. Or you can also see it happen with stockli or backmore [ph].” Hmm, don’t know what those are. “Same skill, called different things in England. The strap bar is often called a shiny bar, or–on which you wear gloves and loops. The value of a vault is referred to as a tariff. And–” I think that’s really weird. Because a tariff is a tax. Why would you call that–right? [UNCLE TIM LAUGHS] That’s so English, to be taxing everything.
UNCLE TIM: Yeah.
JESSICA: I think that’s very odd. But anyhoo. I gathered that from watching the coverage. “And I find it quite curious that we call, that we call an under somi a peach. By the way, in the code of points, it is simply a referred to as a basket. So Uncle Tim, so fond of giving quizzes, I have a little quiz for him. So do you speak English?” That’s really–oh. That’s very offensive to me. I would just like to say. Very offensive. That’s like saying, going to, Spanish people going to Mexico and being like, “Ugh, they don’t speak Spanish.” But anyhoo, I get your little joke there, it’s adorable. So do you want to take the quiz first, or do you want to rebut the letter first?
UNCLE TIM: So, I would say one thing that just is not acceptable is the fact that he called a bhavsar a tippelt on a regular. Those are two different skills. I just want to say that. Now I’m ready for your quiz.
JESSICA: Okay, yeah. I would just thought that in general it was a very specific skills that we were talking about, not just the difference of what skills are called in different countries. So if you have more examples, specific ones, that would be very helpful, we could learn something. But I think it was basically one skill that was called the wrong thing over and over. But I still enjoy watching Craig on Tumble very very much. Okay. The quiz. Here we go. “The following are all common men’s gymnastics skills and body shapes.” Okay. “What is an upstart?”
UNCLE TIM: I believe that’s a kip. Not sure.
JESSICA: What’s a top turn?
UNCLE TIM: That one I don’t know.
JESSICA: I’m going to guess it’s a pirouette.
UNCLE TIM: I think it’s, yeah, a pirouette. It’s, that’s my guess as well, but I’m not sure.
JESSICA: A box split.
UNCLE TIM: I think that is your side splits.
JESSICA: Hm. A dish? [LAUGHS]
UNCLE TIM: I think they use that to call hollow body shape, is what I think.
JESSICA: Yeah, that’s what I think of when I hear that. “Sheer.”
UNCLE TIM: This one I’m not exactly sure. It’s some pommel horse skill, I’m sure. It’s maybe some scissors, instead of–or, yeah, either scissors–it would have to be some kind of scissors or like, what we might call a pendulum swing. I’m not sure which one it is.
JESSICA: This just reminds me of–all I can think of is pommel horse and trying not to get your pants stuck on your hands. [LAUGHTER] “A half lever.”
UNCLE TIM: I would say, I think that is just an l-sit.
JESSICA: Oh, I was thinking it would be a planche. K, “Circle up.”
UNCLE TIM: I don’t know what that one is. Do you have any ideas?
JESSICA: I want to say, is a kip on p-bars, or a sole circle maybe. I don’t know. “Trolley swing.”
UNCLE TIM: I think that’s–I mean, from what I can ascertain, it would probably be like, a basic tap swing. You’re just trolleying along, [LAUGHTER] not really doing anything? That’s my guess. [JESSICA LAUGHS] What would you say?
JESSICA: I don’t know, I’m just trying to think. Like, you carry–trolleys carry many passengers, and they’re on tracks, so [LAUGHS] maybe it’s when you wear your socks and do bars? [LAUGHTER] Okay, “Japana” is the next one.
UNCLE TIM: I actually, I’m almost 100% certain it’s what we call a pancake in the United States. So you’re in your middle splits, and you’re lying with your stomach down to the ground.
JESSICA: “Front planche.”
UNCLE TIM: Uh–I don’t know that theres any difference. There probably is some difference, but for me a front planche is a planche, but I don’t know that one. Do you have any ideas?
JESSICA: No. All I can think of is a regular old front planche. Leaning forward, as opposed to arched. “Geigner roll.”
UNCLE TIM: That one I don’t know.
JESSICA: Geinger roll makes me think of a Gaylord I, or–yeah, a Gaylord. Okay, “Squat.”
UNCLE TIM: [LAUGHS] I don’t know. It just sounds like a tuck to me.
JESSICA: A squat is for sure a place where homeless gymnasts live [UNCLE TIM LAUGHS] and can take over and live in permanently because of squatter laws. Which are ancient and very strong in the British Isles. “Check extra.” [LAUGTER]
UNCLE TIM: Sounds like a TV show to me [JESSICA LAUGHS] Right? I mean, yeah, we shouldn’t laugh at gymnastics skills in other languages, but to me it just sounds like a TV show and–or like, I don’t know, some kind of Czech soccer league. I don’t know. I don’t know what it is.
JESSICA: All I can think of, and I know this is terrible, because not all former Soviet countries are the same, but all I can think of is that movie white–Chalky Hands? Is it White Chalk? You know the one, where it’s the guy who grew up in Hungary, not the Czech Republic, but Hungary, and it tells the story of him coming to Canada and coaching, and it flashed back to what it was like for him. And when they got in trouble in the gym, the coach would put them in that, cage and sit on it.
UNCLE TIM: With Kyle Shewfelt?
JESSICA: Yes, that movie.
UNCLE TIM: White Palms. White Palms.
JESSICA: [LAUGHS] White Palms. That’s the first thing I thought of. Like, oh, it’s a tiny, fishnet cage that coaches stick their gymnasts in so that they can barely fit and then they it on them for the entire practice. [LAUGHTER] I love this letter, because I think it’s really fun. I mean, I love the quiz. I love learning about these different skills. And please send us the answers, so we can know what these actually are! This is really interesting to learn. So thank you for your support and always writing in, Ms. R, because we’ve gotten many letters from you.
UNCLE TIM: All right. Our last letter is from Katrina, and she says,
“Seriously, Jess, your assumptions about a) the people that watch, the people who watch Dancing with the Stars, and then b) the celebs who do that show really are turning me off. First off, Dancing with the Stars actually targets 18-35 year olds, and that’s what their largest demographic is in terms of viewership ratings. Secondly, go watch this weeks performance, specifically Val and Janel. Yes, there are definitely people, celebs, who can’t dance worth a bean, but 90% of celebs who do the show work their ass off. Put in eight hours a day to learn. Learning dance, and specifically ballroom, ain’t easy. So could you tone down your assumptions and rhetoric claiming they can’t dance?
-One annoyed listener.”
JESSICA: Okay. So. First of all, I–the way that it annoys you, Katrina, to watch Tumble because they can’t do great gymnastics, it annoys me to watch dancing on Dancing with the Stars, because I feel like they can’t dance. Yes, I realize they achieve a greater level of proficiency than do the celebrities on Tumble with their gymnastics. I concede to that. However, I can’t stand watching dancing that isn’t perfect. It makes my skin crawl. And I know that they’re great. I mean, there are some people that are amazing, and some performances that are fantastic, and I’m totally loving watching the guy who used to be on The Fresh Prince of Bel Aire. Like, he’s cracking me up. But I just–it’s just my personal view. I’m not saying that they don’t achieve a level of proficiency. But I just, for me, I just don’t like it. It’s just not for me. It’s not as good–and I don’t like ballroom. You know how I don’t like ballroom. And I know ballroom’s hard. I’m not saying ballroom’s not hard, it’s just not for me. That’s why I don’t really care for that. But I–and I do appreciate, she also sent in data when I asked for it. I was like, “Okay, back up your claims.” So the data she sent in. In the first season, she is totally correct. It was the highest s–highest rated broadcast program among all adults 18 and over, in the very first season. I said that it was a show targeted at people in the 50s and 60s. And then she also sent data that shows it is now rated, it’s skewed towards that. So in the 2013 season, this is from, oh, I can’t remember where this quote is from, “ABC’s elder-skewed competition series, Dancing with the Scars–Stars” [LAUGHS] Scars. “Is the only other broadcast series to break the diamond jubilee mark, 22.1 years old. Although the network’s Monday night procedural, Castle…” blah blah blah, Castle has like 59 year olds. And I just, so like, I think it might have been skewed younger, or they might have been targeting that audience, but then it has gained this great audience of this older demographic. And just in general, you know, I–I find that the people who like that show tend to be the older crowd. And I see that the data backs that up. I, I think that Dancing with the Stars is great, and a lot of people like it. And I’m for anything where celebrities actually have to do something, not just lie on their stomach and get f-ed to be famous. Kardashian, I’m looking at you. So I–it’s fine, it’s a great show. It’s just not for me, is what I’m saying. And a gymnastics show with adults doing gymnastics is for me, because that is my greatest joy in the entire world. So. That’s all I’m saying. Thank you very much writing in, and I loved that you, that you sent in the data as well, because it’s very interesting. And interesting to compare the points to the ratings for Tumble as well. Okay.
Award winners! We had our fantastic song contest, we wanted to hear what songs had never been used in a floor routine that you knew of before you sent them in, and now we have our winners, who are going to win either a t-shirt from P&G Championships; chalk actually, possibly touched by a gymnast at P&G Championships; a towel; or a water bottle. All official USA Gymnastics, P&G Championships products. And I even have a bonus that I’m going to send in there. So, I have a little something lying around that Im going to add. So, Uncle Tim, would you please–do you know how many total entries we got?
UNCLE TIM: I don’t know, a lot.
JESSICA: It was over 100, right?
UNCLE TIM: It was lot. [LAUGHS]
JESSICA: It was a ton. A ton! You guys are freaking awesome, this playlist is going to be gigantor. And some of the songs, oh my God. I am in love with some of these songs already. Like, I’m going to have–it’s a good thing we’re going to have Spotify or Pandora, because I, if I bought all these songs, I would be out of money for the rest of the year. Because I love them that much. [UNCLE TIM LAUGHS] Okay, who won? Tell us!
UNCLE TIM: So we chose these winners at random, and first winner is Olivia Searle. Our second winner is Maria Layton. Our third winner is Danica Taylor. And our fourth winner is Kaya–Kalley Skitch. Write to us at gymcastic@gmail.com and tell us, give us your ranking order of prizes that you’d like to win, and we will give you guys your prizes in the order that you write to us. So it will be on a first-come first-serve basis.
JESSICA: And when will this playlist be available? [LAUGHS] The playlist. We only had over a hundred entries. [UNCLE TIM LAUGHS] Some people sent in 20 songs, so.
UNCLE TIM: It may take us a little while to compile all these entries. But hopefully it will be up for your listening pleasure during your Thanksgiving vacation. If you are an international listener, our American Thanksgiving is November 27th this year.
JESSICA: And we’re going to try to find a place where you can listen to it outside of the US too. So maybe Spotify, because that’s, I think, worldwide. And somebody mentioned 8-Track I think. But we’ll, we’ll, we have you guys in mind. Our non-US listeners. We love you too, so we will find a way. And also I have to give a shout-out to Catherine, the joy spreader on Twitter. Who–[LAUGHS] Her entry was, she had a paragraph about why the music would be perfect for a floor routine. Gifs for every single song. It was hilarious. So special shout out to you, because that was freaking fantastic.
If you love the show, please send us your feedback, like we got tonight. We love reading your letters. We read everything, even if we haven’t gotten back to you yet. We do read absolutely everything. Your tweets, your messages on Facebook, your comments on the website. We didn’t have a chance to get to all the comments on the website, but we will do that in the very near future. And you can leave a comment on the website, you can call us at 415-800-3191, or you can call us on Skype for free from anywhere and leave a voice mail as long as you want. You can go on and on. Try to keep it under, like, 3 minutes. But you know, you don’t have to–just leave your name, what city you’re calling from, or country, and call us at GymcasticPodcast, because we love hearing from you guys. This weekend, don’t forget to watch T&T, the Tumbling and Trampoline World Championships. It’s ttworlds.com. Was that right? Ttworlds.com? It will be on USA GyJESSICA: The floor music winners, and what you thought about Worlds. Plus the latest nudes! [LAUGHS] News! Not nudes! News!
[EXPRESS YOURSELF INTRO MUSIC]
JESSICA: This is episode 126 for November 5, 2014. I’m Jessica from Master-Gymnastics.com. I’m here with Uncle Tim, from Uncle Tim Talks Men’s Gym and Scott Bregman, patron saint of the gymternet from USA Gymnastics. And this the best gymnastics podcast ever, bringing you all the news from around the gymternet. And let’s start by talking to Scott all about, fresh from Nanning, now he’s going to be at the–I think you’re going to be–at the Tumbling–it’s T&T Worlds. Tumbling and Trampoline Worlds? Is that what it stands for?
SCOTT: Yeah, trampoline and tumbling is the correct order, I guess, but.
JESSICA: Now, it is in Florida, is that right?
SCOTT: Daytona Beach, Florida at the Ocean Center.
JESSICA: Oh my God. It’s basically like British people’s, European people’s, favorite state in the entire United States. When does it start, how can people watch, and will Charlotte Drury be winning everything?
SCOTT: So, competition starts on Friday morning, 9 am Eastern Time, and then runs basically all day long on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. And all the coverage will be available for US viewers at TTWorlds.com.
JESSICA: Excellent. And will this be–so, US viewers. It’s basically licensed only for the US, but then, I will just let people know later how they can watch outside of the US. But you can’t endorse because you only own the license for the US. Is that correct?
SCOTT: Correct.
JESSICA: Okay. So, T&TWorlds.com. And is…
SCOTT: Worlds.
JESSICA: TTWorlds.
SCOTT: There’s no ampersand or and.
JESSICA: Oh, very good clarification, okay. And anybody that you think we should watch especially? I’ve already mentioned Charlotte, because I think she’s going to bring home a medal. Anyone else that you’re…?
SCOTT: Yeah. I mean, from team USA Charlotte is obviously our lead female trampolinist and has a shot of probably making the finals. I think that would be a huge accomplish for her and trampoline in the US. And then Logan Dooley, you know, he made the final last year. Unfortunately, Steven Gluckstein had an injury a couple weeks ago, and so he’s not able to compete. But Kristle Lowell is the reigning world champion in double mini, and Alex Renkert got a silver medal last year at double mini, so he’ll probably be, you know, a factor as well.
JESSICA: Excellent. I’m very excited about this. I just, I love watching it. Especially tumbling, which I feel like people barely know even exists as a sport, and it’s so freaking cool. It’s insane. People are like, whip back, whip back, double double laid out, whip back, whip back, triple back. It’s insane. And I’m sure that’s not even, like, the hardest thing people are doing. So, since you just got back from Nanning, you have to tell us some things about being in China. And first of all, are you the Nanning Bee on Twitter?
SCOTT: I’m not the Nanning Bee. I wanted to actually register that Twitter handle, and before I could do it, it had already been set up.
JESSICA: [LAUGHS] Too slow! Okay, so Nanning, this championships looked like it was a freaking World/Olympic/Commonwealth Games/World Cup soccer event. I mean, just the athlete dining room looked like it was set up for a banquet for a queen. This looked just looked outrageously over the top, glamorous. So what was the most, the craziest thing you saw while you were there, besides the one lane of traffic reserved in the entire city just for traffic for the World Championships? Official traffic.
SCOTT: Yeah, I, yeah, it was, everything was Olympic caliber, certainly. You know, just from even when I landed at the airport there was a sign that said “USA” and there was one volunteer who met me, and he walked me ten feet to the baggage claim and I went to reach for my bag, and you know, “No, no, no!” And he took the bag from me. And then, it was just kind of funny sequence, because he walked me about 20 more feet to another volunteer and handed the USA sign off.
JESSICA: Mmhmm.
SCOTT: And this new volunteer walked me about 50 feet to a check-in desk. And then from there I was walked by a different volunteer to a car. Brand new car, had the logo, you know, on the side of the side car. It was brand new, and there was still plastic on the sunroof. And you know, all this kind of thing. So then I got into the car with a new volunteer who was driving and a, like an additional chaperone. So it was just like, it was incredible. Being all the volunteers, and everyone was super friendly and super helpful, and yeah, like you said, there was a lane of traffic that was, you had to be an official vehicle. Which was something that they do at the Olympics. It was, it was incredible. They had just this beautiful main press center in addition to the media grandstands inside of the venue and a venue press center. They were actually using CCTV, the Chinese television network, is going to do televisions for the Olympic Games. So they were using this event as a test for that coverage.
JESSICA: Ooh.
SCOTT: In Rio. And they had, I think, something like 46 cameras on the floor. And…
JESSICA: Oh good!
SCOTT: …typically at the World Championships–typically at the Worlds, someone was telling me, that they only have one TV truck. They’re capturing just the joint signal. But they had seven trucks there. So they were able to record the signal that everyone was seeing, that was going out, that was aggregated across the six or the four apparatus. But in addition, they were able to record every single routine that was done throughout the whole championships. So it was, the whole thing was incredible.
JESSICA: And, now, let’s talk about the less glamorous side. Were all the toilets at the venue the squat toilets? The ones where it looks like a shower, but there’s no showerhead and there’s like, a little place to put your feet, and there’s a hole behind that?
SCOTT: You know, they weren’t all squats. They were–the majority of them were, you know, in the men’s room they still have the urinal and everything, which, you know, normal, but in the bathrooms nearest to the media section they had western toilets. But they were, you now, if there were eight stalls they’d have two that had a western toilet. And I thought that that, I just assumed, that that was how all the bathrooms were until one day walking in on the concourse just kind of looking at stuff, and I ran into the bathroom and I just noticed that in that particular bathroom, which wasn’t near the media section, all eight toilets were squat toilets. And they were–
JESSICA: And did they–
SCOTT: They weren’t exclusively squat toilets, but they were a rare commodity, let’s say.
JESSICA: [LAUGHS] And did they have doors on the stalls? Or were they just–were there even stalls? Or was it all just open?
SCOTT: No, there were stalls, there were definitely stalls.
JESSICA: With doors?
SCOTT: Yep.
JESSICA: Oh good, that’s great. Very good. I always think that boys’ toilets never have stalls. In my high school, they didn’t have stalls in any of the boys’ toilets. I mean, not that I spent a lot of time in the boys’ bathroom, but I just happen to know.
SCOTT: Yeah, we were–the whole thing was, and don’t I want to, maybe this is me being an ugly American–but everything was a lot more western than I expected, you know what I mean? The food at the hotel was very good, we were in walking distance of a McDonalds and Starbucks and a sushi place and a pizza place, and there was a mall that had stores like H&M and Gap and then high end, like Coach and all that kind of stuff. So it was actually overall a lot more western than I was kind of expecting going in.
JESSICA: All the pictures totally reminded me of Singapore. That’s what I thought it looked. Singapore, not China. But it was that side, sort of southern, but it was–it just looked amazing. And so, speaking of how western it was, was it still, is it a super cosmopolitan city? Or were the locals totally obsessed with your exoticism as a foreigner and a white guy?
SCOTT: We were definitely an attraction. We went with–John Cheng’s our official photographer, and he grew up in Taiwan. So he speaks Mandarin and is obviously Asian, so he was helping us navigate a little bit. And we went to, one day, to the People’s Park. And within about 30 seconds we had a woman come up to us and was very eager to practice her English with us and asked us were we were from. Everyone was–they were fascinated with us, but they were also very friendly, you never felt unsafe or anything. We had lots of people want photos of us because I didn’t think they had ever seen a white person before. It was probably pretty rare, but it was funny. One day the local organizing committee, they scheduled tourism for anyone with the credentials, so we went to one of the museums and there was a photographer. And so he was definitely focusing on those of us of European descent, and then I ended up on the front page of Nanning Daily, with some judges from, I think Belgium actually. And I was a little bit nervous about what it said, but it just said that people, people who were in town for the World Championships were taking in culture, or something like that. But it was kind of funny just to–they were definitely focused more on us, and then to see my picture on the front page of the Nanning Daily was kind of hilarious. [JESSICA LAUGHS]
JESSICA: I love their features on the men of Nanning. That was my favorite thing that newspaper did. So it’s too bad you didn’t end up in that section too, because it would have been fabulous. I know that you are not in charge of this, but you know how I like to tell you all of my opinions even though maybe you have no control over it, because I decide you are in charge of everything at USA gymnastics. So–and the FIG. So, I would like to know what we have to do to get Yesenia Ferrera and Manrique from Cuba invited to the World Cup this year.
SCOTT: The World Cup? That’s not…
JESSICA: Oh, the American Cup. The American Cup, the American Cup.
SCOTT: To the American Cup. That’s, you know, that’s closer to my jurisdiction, but as you said not really my jurisdiction. I think it would have to be–they didn’t send a team to World Championships, I am–is that correct?
JESSICA: No, but because it’s not their fault. So we should invite them, because it’s our American Cup and because we know that they can’t afford it, but we’re really close. Like Texas and Cuba, whats it, like a two hour plane ride? They should, we should make a special dispensation for them, because they can’t afford to go, or whatever. And so, it’s like a special reaching of the hand in international sports friendship.
SCOTT: That’s, you know, I think, in theory that sounds lovely.
JESSICA: Doesn’t it! Okay, well I’ll just let Steve Penny know. And the FIG. And we’ll see how that goes.
SCOTT: Great. [JESSICA LAUGHS]. Keep me posted. [LAUGHTER]
JESSICA: Yeah. All right, well, are you going to Florida?
SCOTT: Yeah, I leave on Wednesday.
JESSICA: Okay, awesome. Are you going to get a fantastic tan? Or do you still have your post-Nanning vacation tan?
SCOTT: I have a little bit of my Hawaii tan at the moment. But I mean, I’m there for the World Age Group competition as well. I’m there for 12 days.
JESSICA: Okay.
SCOTT: So hopefully I’ll get some sun.
JESSICA: Yes.
SCOTT: Then I’m going to Boston.
JESSICA: [GASPS] And who will you be visiting there?
SCOTT: Who knows? Maybe there’s some famous gymnast who lives there.
JESSICA: [GASPS AND CLAPS] Very excited! Well, thank you for bringing us all the incredible, incredible coverage, and the podium training, and all the amazing coverage of prelims that we never get to see, and just thank you, thank you, thank you for all of that. And I can’t wait to watch T&T Worlds.
SCOTT: Yeah, should be a good meet.
[CAMERA SHUTTER SOUND EFFECT]
JESSICA: Poor Scott, I think he’s still a little jet lagged from China. To find out how you can watch TTWorlds.com to watch Tumbling and Trampoline World Championships from anywhere in the world, we have a list of vpns on the site. So go to gymcastic.com and you can find that list there.
[CHANGE OF SUBJECT BLIP SOUND EFFECT]
JESSICA: Let’s talk about the Swiss Cup. Blythe, our fabulous Blythe, did an incredible play-by-play. You can read all the details on her website at the Gymnastics Examiner. A couple things about the Swiss Cup. It’s that annual mixed-pairs competition, and we love it for its atmosphere, and it brings the 1980s, American Anthem-style dramatic blue spotlight on each event, which you never see anywhere else. And also the winner gets $30,000 in prize money, so its a great meet for gymnastics. So Iordache competed, Mai Murakami, Hambuchen, Seitz, Kenzo, Ferrari, Daniele Hypolito, Oleg competed. And of course, this right after Worlds, so people aren’t doing their most, most, most difficult stuff, but they were still doing–especially on bars, I though these were legit routines. Nikita Ignative…Nikita and Daria Spiridonova won. Blythe reports that one of the scary falls was Giulia Steingruber, who took a really weird fall on vault, where she rolled her ankle as she was vaulting. So as she jumped on the springboard her ankle rolled. And she just flew over the table, landed on her butt. It’s really scary. Like, ugh. That’s–and I feel like that’s one of those things where you know you’re just super, super, super tired. And that’s one of the scary things about doing one of these meets. And who knows, maybe she rolled it–I’m completely wrong, and she rolled it right before the meet and then went to vault anyway. It’s all total speculation. But I’m glad that she seems to be okay. For all the Kenzo haters who say that all he can do is twist, guess what skill he did at this meet? He did a triple double. That’s right. And he did p-bars. Uh. What’s up. I love that Kenzo’s at this meet, and I love that he did a triple double. That just proves–how much more badass is he now that he’s done that, Uncle Tim?
UNCLE TIM: I mean, we’ve seen the training videos of him doing the skill, but I kind of think it kind of puts everyone to, it quiets everyone, because he has competed it in a major international competition. And so he can say, “Suck it!” Granted his–[LAUGHTER]–I don’t know how you say that in Japanese, but I’m sure some listener out there can tell us. But it did drop his difficulty score a little bit. He only performed a 7.3 and at Worlds he performed a 7.4. But, you know, it’s still impressive that he can do a triple double so easily, and I’m secretly hoping that Simone Biles throws a triple double.
JESSICA: Yeeees!
UNCLE TIM: Next year. Secretly hoping.
JESSICA: How awesome is it that he’s Kenzo, so a triple double lowers his start value?
UNCLE TIM: [LAUGHS] I know.
JESSICA: That’s just like, that’s [inaudible] Kenzo. So what happened at the Mexican Open? One of our favorite, favorite meets of the year for so many reasons!
UNCLE TIM: [LAUGHS] All right, so first of all, it’s not the Mexican Open. The Mexican Open will be happening at the beginning of December, the Mexican Open is actually a competition. This is just the gala, where people prance around and do whatever. And it included Lilia Podkopayeva…
JESSICA: Ah!
UNCLE TIM: She, she did her 1996 floor routine, I don’t know why, I always call it her bibbity-boppity-boo routine [JESSICA LAUGHS] because it just kind of reminds me of the fairies from Cinderella, with their magic wands kind of flying around. I don’t know. Anyways. So she did that routine. Obviously she didn’t do the Podkopayeva on floor. But some simple tumbling. It’s always great to see one of your childhood idols get out there and do something. It was like Nadia during the Tumble finale.
JESSICA: Yes!
UNCLE TIM: She could have just gotten out there and tripped, and I would have clapped and loved it. So, yeah.
JESSICA: Pod’s basic were still beautiful, though. So beautiful.
UNCLE TIM: She still has gorgeous toe point, too. Which is pretty amazing. And then also there was Roxana Popa of Spain. And she had quite the leotard on. Jess, could you describe it for us?
JESSICA: It was sort of like half–I actually really like it, I just didn’t like all the execution of it. I just like that something made her stand out. I think anything that makes people talk about her more is great, because I think she is so incredible, and she’s really coming up, and I feel like–I’m not saying there’s any, she doesn’t get respect because of the country that she’s from, but I feel like Romania should be recruiting her, and she should be competing with them. She’s amazing and they totally need her. But anyway. But back to the leotard. She–it’s like a half, with a thing… [LAUGHS] Like a, it’s like an off-the-shoulder, but it’s not off the shoulder. Like a criss-crossy thing in the front. I don’t have any words for this. I watch Project Runway like every season, and I still don’t know how to describe this at all. But I like part of it, but all together it didn’t quite work. But I like that she was wearing something that was going to make people talk about her, because I think that helps her case. What did you think?
UNCLE TIM: It almost looked like a bra in the front, a little bit. It made me a little uncomfortable. But I was more focused on the gymnastics and the fact that this is a gala, you’re not supposed to do hard gymnastics, you’re supposed to just kind of wave your arms and stuff, and I don’t know. I picture galas kind of like old school homecoming parades, where the homecoming king and queen are sitting the back of convertible just waving to their subjects. [JESSICA LAUGHS] So the fact that she did a double layout and two whips through to a double tuck won me over.
JESSICA: Mmhmm.
UNCLE TIM: The other big person, big name there, was Viktoria Komova. She did a lot of kind of almost like ballet barre stuff at the beginning of her beam routine, and then she got up there, did an arial front walkover, did some stuff. It wasn’t like, “Oh my God, she’s going to win Worlds next year!” kind of stuff. But it’s great to see her get up there and do something, just because we haven’t seen too much of her lately due to injuries, ect.
JESSICA: What did you think of her leotard?
UNCLE TIM: I’m trying to remember her leotard.
JESSICA: It’s the hot pink dominetrix one with the ‘X’ in the back. The black–
UNCLE TIM: Well, clearly you remember it better than I do. [JESSICA LAUGHS] So do describe!
JESSICA: It was like, hot pink on the bottom, and then on the top it was like this black, thick black straps that kind of criss-crossed in the back. And it was awesome, I really liked it. If you’re going to do hot pink, than you might as well add a little dominetrix too. Like, Nastia would have approved. I think it worked.
UNCLE TIM: It’s all coming back now, yes. [JESSICA LAUGHS]
JESSICA: It was a little too bedazzled in the front, you know how I feel about that. But the back was [CLICKS TONGUE] I loved it.
UNCLE TIM: See, whenever you say dominetrix, I just think black leather. And that leotard was not black leather. But there was a lot of mesh in that leotard. That–
JESSICA: Yeah. That was like, I was like, “What is stuff that looks like black leather but is not black leather that they make leotards out of is called?” That–someone needs to tell us what that is. Because that’s what the back looks like. It almost looks like it’s wet, but it’s not.
UNCLE TIM: I don’t know. I’m not gay enough. Just kidding! [JESSICA LAUGHS] It, yeah. And with Roxana leotard is a lot of mesh too. It was a little trend. A lot of, you know, body going on the Mexican Open.
JESSICA: [INAUDIBLE]
UNCLE TIM: Speaking of which, Yesenia Ferrera of Cuba was there. And she was wearing this kind of like–I don’t know how to describe it. Silver outfit. It reminded me of like, a 1960s sexy Martian kind of outfit. [JESSICA LAUGHS] Like you would see on TV. Do you know what I’m talk about?
JESSICA: Yes! That’s why I–
UNCLE TIM: A space kind of thing?
JESSICA: I totally thought of the Silver Surfer. [UNCLE TIM LAUGHS] That’s what it looked like to me. With a skirt, though.
UNCLE TIM: Yeah. So it had a little skirt. But what I liked about her routine is that she got that it was a gala. She wasn’t just doing her floor routine out there. So she opened up–I don’t remember, it was with Latin dance, I can’t remember which step she was doing at that particular moment. But no, it was good to see her throwing some flair in, like play to her crowd, knowing that the crowd is going to go crazy if you do a little Latin dance out there. And I mean, she opened with a double layout too. It was awesome to see both difficulty and, you know, someone going out there and having fun. What did you think, Jess?
JESSICA: Oh my God! You know how I love her. And I’m like, if you’re going to wear a skirt, then you better work the skirt. This is how I feel about it. And she had like, it had, it had I don’t know, like slices in it so that it would move independently, the pieces. That’s what it looked like. And so she totally did. Like, her dance moves worked the skirt. The skirt moved like it should, and she even had a full samba part in it. And you know, she can dance. Like, I love to watch her dance. Honestly, I feel like this girl, ah! She could be our Olympic champion. That is how I feel about her. I really–like, when I watch her I see the great champions. With her form and her power, the combination, she just has it all. She has it–she has everything. If some, if–Cuba, just find a way to get her Worlds and Olympics, because she needs to go. She needs to. Oh, they’re not even going to be able to go to the Olympics now because they didn’t–no, they’ll need a–because they didn’t compete at Worlds–but she’s going to have to get a wild card spot. But then she’ll have never competed anywhere, so ugh! Ugh! Anyway, this is how I feel. When I see her fabulousness, and how she can work a skirt [UNCLE TIM LAUGHS] attached to a leotard, all I can think is, “How are we going to get her to the Olympics?” So, [DEEP BREATH]. She won’t…
UNCLE TIM: It was pretty impressive. She really doesn’t run too hard into her double layout. The tumbling pass starts kind of before the beginning of the floor. So yeah, she’s really impressive. And I mean, you’ve talked on this show about how the Cubans just empirically can dance better than the rest of the world as an entire race.
JESSICA: I did not say it that way! [UNCLE TIM LAUGHS] I did not say, “Just because Cubans are racially Cuban, then they can.” Because everyone knows Cuba is completely racially mixed, that there is no one kind of Cuban. There’s totally white, there’s totally African Cuba, afro-Cuban, there’s everything in between. Everyone knows that. Red headed Cubans. They’re super diverse, just like the United States. I said that it’s part of the culture not to dance like an idiot in front of little kids. You dance a normal person who knows how to dance.
UNCLE TIM: [LAUGHS] I grew up in Wisconsin where people polkaed the heck out of–
JESSICA: There you go!
UNCLE TIM: –everything, so I don’t know. I think you just have a little thing for Cuban salsa.
JESSICA: Well, they did invent salsa, so, it’s, you know.
UNCLE TIM: That’s debatable.
JESSICA: It’s not! It’s not debatable.
UNCLE TIM: Yes it is.
JESSICA: Okay, anyway.
UNCLE TIM: Nobody knows where salsa came from–
JESSICA: Except it came from Cuba.
UNCLE TIM: –just FYI. [LAUGHS] That’s one theory. Anyway. So, speaking of hot Cubans dancing, [JESSICA LAUGHS] could you tell everybody what Manrique did, and–
JESSICA: Oh my God!
UNCLE TIM: –Danell Leyva did.
JESSICA: Oh my God. Okay, Danell Leyva needs to take a little page of the book of Manrique, who definitely represented [ph] COOBA! That’s how you have to say it. It’s not “Cuba,” it’s “COOBA!” And he was like, you know, bringing the [inaudible] a little bit into his floor routine. Like, he did a little, like bend the knees, like, hip circle, walk around in a circle while he’s rotating his hips. Uh. It was good. And, every time he took a step on his tumbling, which was fantastic, like his tumbling, you’ve seen his tumbling. It’s ridiculous. He didn’t water down very much, either. I mean, he didn’t do the rollout crazy skills, but he did his arabian. Every time he would take a step forward, he would just go back into that hip rotation, going around in a circle, looking up at the crowd. He did a lot of the classic motion to the audience to cheer for you for you move. He maybe overused that a little bit. But I think that’s the theme of this competition. I think they actually make you at the gala learn that before you go on to the floor, because everyone did it. But let me tell, he was fantastic. Fantastic. And Danell, it was funny. At the end of his routine, he jumped off the bar and did a little hip thrust, but he almost did it like a, like a making fun of himself, making fun of the–like, he didn’t commit to the grind. To the hip grind. [LAUGHTER] It was more like a tongue-in-cheek hip grind.
UNCLE TIM: It’s true. But Manrique also, if I recall correctly, had Rigitone going on in the background–
JESSICA: Mmhmm.
UNCLE TIM: –which lends itself much better the hip thrusting.
JESSICA: It does indeed. It’s true.
UNCLE TIM: And I don’t think Manrique was performing in front of his father either. [LAUGHTER] Which you might, might subtract from the pelvic thrusting and the Rigitone dancing. I don’t know. I wouldn’t really be too eager [JESSICA LAUGHS] to thrust my hips in front of my father. Just saying. So, speaking of other things that you loved, Jess, I hear that there’s a new back spinner in the world.
JESSICA: [GASPS] Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God! This girl–Alexandra Mihai, from Romania. This video came out from Romania Junior Nationals. Ah! She doesn’t just do a back spin. First of all, her routine is just delicious, the whole thing. She has like a 1940s wartime, maybe it’s the ’30s, ’40s wartime big band kind of music for her floor routine. She dances the hell out it. It’s just so perfect, her choreography. And she does a two and half back spin. A two and a half. Super badass. And I love the way she comes out of it! Like, she does it with one leg straight, one leg bent. Which is the traditional beautiful way to do it, as done by Li Li on beam in the ’80s, China, look it up, it’s fantastic. She does it with one leg straight, one leg bent, like a wolf position. And then, instead of just stopping out of it, she just does her legs like she is riding a bike, but in the air. It’s so pretty! I just love how she transitions out of the back spin! Oh my God, I love her! Did you love this routine?
UNCLE TIM: I did. And I think it kind of points to a new trend in women’s floor. Which is just kind of the high energy, high octane floor routine. So you think of Simone Biles, which is high energy, you think of Larissa Iordache’s floor routine, which is also high energy. And this one, I think, kind of falls in that line. And I think that that’s kind of what the code right now is asking for. Which is, you know, kind of not having kind of, I don’t know, slow, languid floor music.
JESSICA: Mm.
UNCLE TIM: So, yeah.
JESSICA: And did you enjoy the video of Simone trying to do the back spin? She said like, trying to do Fragapane’s move?
UNCLE TIM: [LAUGHTER] Yes. She–I feel like she didn’t really try too hard. Like, she fell on her butt, and that’s about as far as she got. But yeah, it was still pretty awesome.
JESSICA: [LAUGHS] She cracks me up. So I just wanted to give a shout out to all the adults who competed in the British veterans championships at Lilleshall. Which I think it’s so cool that that’s where they host, they hold the meet. It has, it’s cool. This meet has a pro, intermediate, and novice levels. And within that they have the age groups. It’s over 18, 30, 40, 50 and then over 60-year-old age groups. They have all the events, but then they also include tumbling, trampoline, and acro. Which is so cool, because I just feel like there’s so many people who just don’t think that they can still do like a full floor routine, but you can totally do tumbling, or you can do sports acro with a partner. I just love that they have this meet. And I just think of all the things that I would do if I were competing in this meet, and it’s my goal, someday, to compete in this. I hope they allow guests. United States guests, [LAUGHTER] just because I want to compete. So if you’re competing in the Veteran’s Champion–the British Veteran’s Championships, at Lilleshall, what selfie would you take while you were there?
UNCLE TIM: Umm, trying to think what it looks like. It looks like kind of a neo-Gothic place, right?
JESSICA: Yeah.
UNCLE TIM: Spires, and kind of more the, the pointed edges. I’d probably want to find a way to climb up to the top and hang from one of the spires and take a selfie. [JESSICA LAUGHS]
JESSICA: You wouldn’t want to find Louis Smith’s old room and take a selfie in there, recreate one of his poses? [UNCLE TIM LAUGHS] Is that just me?
UNCLE TIM: That’s probably just you. You probably want to find Louis Smith AND take to him to the room. [JESSICA LAUGHS]
JESSICA: I don’t know what you’re talking about. [LAUGHTER] If you guys love this show, help us pay our bills, use our Amazon link to shop for anything, review us on iTunes or Stitcher. You guys! Oh my God! We did not make our goal of a hundred, getting a hundred reviews on iTunes by November, but we got to 87. So we got, what, over, is that 20? Almost 30 reviews this month? I think that’s huge. Gigantic. Massive. It’s incredible. And we’re so close to one hundred. We’re only 13 away. So, that’s just–you guys are the best. Thank you, thank you, thank you, for all your reviews. Oh my God. They make me smile and laugh every time I read them. And you guys are just the best, and thank you so much for getting us so close to one hundred. I’m sure we’ll get that by next month, no problem. Because you are guys are just–you guys rallied! Did it for us! Okay, the other way you can support the show and help us pay our bills is by donating. Donate directly, or just one time, or you can donate monthly. As little or as much as you want. Some people have just donated five dollars every month. Some people have donated–one person donated one hundred dollars. One time. Which is fantastic! Just think about how much you think the show it worth to you. And how much each episode is worth to you. And just donate that much. We would love it!
Gymternet news. Let’s discuss the happenings since World Championships. Nile Wilson did have surgery on his wrist and forearm/elbowish kind of thing. He has this robotic cast kind of thing on that looks very interesting, I’ve never seen anything quite like that. I might–because it looks like it’s a cast and an ACL brace for your elbow put together? I’ve never seen the combo. So if you doubted him, shame on you. That’s all we have to say about that. Sam Oldham has put out a video of his recovery. Remember that he hurt his ankle really badly at the Commonwealth Games. And he’s doing lots of gymnastics already, it’s really exciting to see him back. I have a little bit of Tumble news for you guys. Thanks to Palsar in the last episode of International Gymnast Magazine. So, some facts. The Brits took–these are from his editorial notes in IG. The Brits took nearly two years to develop their concept for the show. The gymnasts on the show are almost exclusively sports acrobats, which you will know if you listen to our–me and Emma, and our Tumble Recap episodes–they’re very entertaining, I highly recommend them. And then he says, “I spoke at length to the head choreographer, the brilliant Karen Bruce, who said after interviewing lots of artistic gymnasts she realized they did not have the musicality to make the show work, and thats why they ended up with all these sports acrobats.” And I have to say that the sports acrobats were incredible, incredible performers. He said that the demand for tickets–more than a million requests for 400,800 seats. “To the ratings, higher than the first season of Strictly Come Dancing. I think that Tumble has a great change to fly.” And there’s also been a bunch of different countries, who have already bought the show for their country. So that’s basically how these work. It’s, lots of these shows start in Britain and then they get bought out. Just like Dancing with the Stars started there first. So, and Survivor started there first, a bunch of other things. So it’s really exciting, and I hope this show comes to the US, and I can’t wait to watch the next season, because I totally loved it.
Okay, other news. The Ariana Berlin movie, Full Out, has wrapped. And Ariana Berlin, if you guys remember, she went to–she was a promising junior elite, the day before her elite testing she was in a really, really, really bad car accident, and had a, as in a coma for little while, had a rod put in her leg, was told she should never do gymnastics again, or couldn’t do it, you know how doctors tell people that. Then she went on to become an international dancer. And then got, walked on to the UCLA team and then became one of their top performers on the team. So her movie’s called Full Out, and they just wrapped shooting. Jordyn Wieber is going to be in it. Sam Peszek, Victoria Moors is in it, and Alicia Sacramone. So, I’m super excited about Full Out, and we’ll have details for you about that movie as it progresses.
UNCLE TIM: Side note.
JESSICA: Yes.
UNCLE TIM: So, was Victoria Moors in the movie, or was she just there because they were filming at her gym?
JESSICA: I think she’s in it, because I saw them filming her tumbling.
UNCLE TIM: Oh, okay.
JESSICA: Yeah, and she’s all decked out in her outfit. There’s–if you guys want to check it out there’s a Full Out Instagram and a Full Out movie Facebook page, and there’s tons of videos from the set. So, you can see. There’s videos of Alicia there. There’s videos–you can see what the leotards they’re wearing and stuff, scrunchies in their hair just like, “Oh God!” But yeah, it’s all up on there. And I think Moors–what was she doing? She did like a two and half or a triple full on floor. They showed her doing? Who else is in it? Aisha Gerber’s in it I think too. So yeah. And it wasn’t filmed at her gym, I think it was in–it was at Oak, Oakville I want to say?
UNCLE TIM: Oh, okay.
JESSICA: Or maybe they just–because I feel like her gym is completely red, and this gym wasn’t, but I’m like, “Oh, maybe they changed it to look so the set would look different. But I’m pretty sure it was at Oakville, something. Okay, so. You guys know that Grandi will not be running for FIG president again. He’s announced that he’s not running in 2016. He’s done. Huge news. That means that anyone on the current executive committee could run. So, some of the people that you guys might know on the executive committee right now are Steve Butcher, from the US; Peter Vidmar, is on the–the executive committee. Slava Corn, she’s the vice president, and Nelli Kim, of course, she’s the technical committee president, like Steve Butcher is for the men. So Uncle Tim, this is my question for you. Since you and Spanny can’t run together, because you’re not on the executive committee yet, [LAUGHTER] do you think there will be a lot of opposition from the gymnastics community if Peter Vidmar decides to run because of his active work on the campaign to take away the right to marry from Californians.
UNCLE TIM: So, to clarify, you mean the right to, for gay and lesbian people to marry in California, correct?
JESSICA: To take away the right for them to marry, yes.
UNCLE TIM: Yes. So I think that there will be, definitely, if he were to win, there would be feed–negative feedback, at least, to say the least, from a lot of American gymnastics fans and probably other countries as well. But, I mean, what I know best is America. But, I do think that, you know, that stance could potentially work in his favor with other countries. In the past we’ve discussed where we send gymnasts to World Cup, where it’s illegal to be a gay or les–a gay man or lesbian woman. And it could actually end up working in his favor with certain countries and in their voting.
JESSICA: Hm. Yeah. I, I think there’ll be huge, huge opposition if he runs. And I just think that we’re so much farther along the process than we were when he was elected–or yeah, elected to be the chief de mission for the Olympics. And there was an outcry. And now we’re just farther down that path. And I also think because the IOC has made, has mandated–is it…it’s like section six, section eight, the IOC code, like they’ve–now, basically the Olympics have to be a country that supports gay and lesbian rights. And so I think that they’ll–I don’t know that you can elect someone who’s actively participated in taking away rights from people. So we’ll have to see.
In awesome news, Simone Biles was on her UCLA visit with, oh my God, who else was there? Kyla Ross, Kocian, Baumann?, Macy Toronto–and you know how I love her, love her from Texas Dreams–and, oh my God, I don’t know who else I’m forgetting who else was there. But it’s exciting. Of course, we all know Kocian’s already committed. And Simone is, but who knows who else is going to commit who’s on that trip. But it’s exciting. So Simone posted a video of herself coaching Dom Palange on beam. He’s one of the assistant coaches, and he’s doing his flip flop layout series on beam, and she’s coaching him, it’s totally adorable.
Little Enus, do you remember adorable little Enus of Italy?
UNCLE TIM: Yes, because she has quite the name.
JESSICA: [LAUGHS] And quite the floor routine! She is back on beam again, I’m so excited, I love her! [SQUEALS] Oh my God! Supposedly, she’s supposed to be back for the Grand Pee–Prix. And if this [LAUGHS] if this doesn’t happen, I will be so sad. I will cry for days. Nadia posted some pictures of herself and Katie Holmes of–what’s Katie Holmes famous for nowadays, besides marrying that nutty guy?
UNCLE TIM: [LAUGHS] By “that nutty guy” you mean Tom Cruise?
JESSICA: Tom Cruise, yes.
UNCLE TIM: I’m trying to remember. She’s most famous for Dawson’s Creek.
JESSICA: Yes. Which so long ago now though. But she’s in so many movies.
UNCLE TIM: I don’t–all I can really think about is Dawson’s Creek, Batman Begins…
JESSICA: Oh.
UNCLE TIM: Oh, maybe she was in How I Met Your Mother a bunch? I think?
JESSICA: Was she?
UNCLE TIM: As a guest star, I think she was in How I Met Your Mother a whole bunch.
JESSICA: That could be. Well, anyhoo. She’s a big star and stuff. So, her and Nadia were just kicking it in the gym, doing adult gymnastics together. Nadia was spotting her on a pull over on bars, they were doing handstands together, because you know cute! You know. I just love that Katie Holmes does adult gymnastics. I think that’s fabulous! In “nobody saw this coming” news, Belu and Bitang are back reinstated as the Romanian national team coaches. And rumor says that Catalina Ponor and Sandra Izbasa are coming out of retirement. Do you think that’s true? The retirement?
UNCLE TIM: I don’t that they were too happy with the results after this past Worlds, so I guess I’m not really surprised. I think that, you know, there are certain people in the Romanian gymnastics federation who would beg and plead and give their kidneys so that, so that they could have a good performance at 2016 Olympics, and if that means Catalina and Sandra have to come out of retirement, so be it.
JESSICA: If anybody could get them back in the gym, I mean, their coaches coming back I think could do it, you know? So, hm. So, Khorkina gave an interview after Worlds, and she was pissed. She says, “I am ashamed–” and this was again a translation that is not a perfect translation, so forgive us, Khorkina, if this is not your exact words, and please let us know, anyone who is a native speaker who can tell us if there are any errors here that we’ll gladly correct them. So she gave this interview with the Russian press, and she says, “I was ashamed of the national team in Beijing.” And then I’ve just pulled a couple of quotes that I really liked from this and I thought were interesting. “After my coach passed away, I thought a lot about how lucky I was that fate connected me with him, because I refused the gym, not only because of my height, but for many other criteria. I was also considered a no.” And then–and this is why she says she’ll take any kid in at her gym, because she remembers. So she has a gym in her hometown, and she remembers what happened to her, and she wasn’t wanted by anyone but then ended up turning into gold medals for her. I just love that she has that attitude, it doesn’t matter. And then she says, “Injuries happened back then, it’s just–” she’s talking about the current team, talking about injuries. She says, “Injuries happened back then,” in her competitive days, “It’s just that talking about them was never acceptable, and we never used them as an excuse for a lack of results. This is a private matter between a coach, doctor, and athlete. And certainly not the business of the public.” So, everyone with their selfies of surgery, mm, she does not care for that. Then she says, “I can say that since then,” since her time working with Alexandrov, “Alexandrov has really softened. In general, work abroad can greatly change people in this respect. He won’t swat a child nor say that she or he is fat and should lose weight.” Uncle Tim, what did you think of that quote?
UNCLE TIM: [LAUGHS] Well, um. I don’t know. I guess I was more distracted by the fact that she was like, “I got injured, and I just ripped off the cast and went out there and competed, no matter what the doctors were going to tell me!” So I think she, yeah. That was probably for me the biggest standout. Whereas, like, eh, you guys just don’t have the heart to be Russian gymnasts.
JESSICA: Mmhmm.
UNCLE TIM: What did you make of the Alexandrov quote?
JESSICA: I thought that was really interesting, because I think it’s very true that there are a lot of coaches who come from a former Soviet or former or current communist system where it’s that kind of thing. Not just in coaching, but that kind of thing as a parent is fine. You know, like here you can’t even spank a kid anymore. Not that I’m like–oh my God, I’m going to get so much hate mail. Not that I’m for spanking, not that I’m totally against spanking, I feel like there’s some kids that that’s the only thing that–I’m not even going to. No. I’m not for or against this in any way. I’m not making any statement about that. I’m just saying in general, the tide has turned against any kind of corporal punishment in the United States. Whereas in other countries it’s really hard for immigrants to get used to that being so incredibly different here. And that any kind of a negativity, shaming, hitting, any of that kind of stuff, is just, we don’t do that here. It’s just totally not okay. So I, I appreciated the way she linked coaching abroad to that kind of, I would say, growth as a coach, but clearly she doesn’t see it that way.
UNCLE TIM: [LAUGHS] Yeah, I just think that she doesn’t think that the Russian team is as hard core as they used to be. And thus they aren’t winning as much.
JESSICA: Yeah, exactly. Oh, I did love that she talked about how, it’s obvious that when they’re doing their routine they’re having a hard time, and she’s like, “That’s how you know they don’t–they lack stamina.” And know what I also, I always say there is no excuse for poor conditioning. Ever, ever, ever. And so I like that we agree about that same thing. And then she gives a little bit of detail about the kind of stuff that they had to do when she was training. She talks about how their conditioning was. And they had to do back-to-back routines. Which, you know, is not unfamiliar to us in the United States. And she was like, “You know, you had to do two routines in a row. And you know, you had to water down your routine.” But she’s like, “Of course, you had to double somersaults in your tumbling runs. [LAUGHTER] She’s like, “It’s not like you just got to run back and forth. You still had to do double backs or double fronts.” And then she says that if they missed a skill on beam, they were panic-stricken, because that meant they had to do seven more routines. And then, this really stood out to me too. She said, the interviewer asked, “Do you think that public tears are a manifestation of internal weakness?” And she’s like, I don’t rule that out, I think it comes from insecurity. You–you’re flawed somewhere, so you have weakness.” And then she talks about how she only cried in her, and you know we talked about this, “You can only see my tears through the chalk.” She–the title of her, of her memoir in my imagination. She says she only cried in her hotel room to herself. Or maybe in the locker room. Never in public, she didnt she want anyone to see her cry. And she cried all night long, so loud that Alexandrov could hear her in the next room. And that, that’s how she kept her toughness, is not to let anyone see that side of her at all. What do you think of that comment? Public tears–or question–“Are public tears a manifestation of internal weakness?” Is that just very Russian? Or is that true, if you can’t keep your tears back than you’re a weak little gymnast.
UNCLE TIM: I don’t that it makes you a weak little gymnast. I just think that it comes from perspective and what your perspective on life is. If you believe that everyone should be stoic, then yes, it’s seen as weakness. Other people, however, believe that emotions are okay. [LAUGHS] So it just kind of depends. And that’s why, you know, one thing I do think is really nice about gymnasts going into NCAA is the fact that you do have a lot of different coaching styles and a lot of different options. When you are growing up as a kid, you kind of end up going to the gym that’s in your geographical region, and you don’t really have much choice. But when it comes to going to college, you probably have a little more choice, and can find a coaching situation that’s right for you and not necessarily like, “You must be stoic!” or maybe you want a coach who is like, “You must be stoic!” and you have a coach right now who’s like, “Blah, blah, blah, crying!” [JESSICA LAUGHS] I don’t know.
JESSICA: You know me, I’m all for get your emotions out. I’m just like, cry yourself, just do it, get it all out, it’s fine, don’t worry about it. There’s nothing about getting your emotions out that I think conveys weakness. And I think it makes you even stronger if you can get that out, because I think that eventually your feelings are going to burst, and so at some point it’s going to make you weaker and less able to perform if you don’t get them out. So, you know, if you’re like her and you can hold it in and then cry all night, I think that’s great too. However you have to get your feelings out, just get the feelings all out. In other news…
UNCLE TIM: To go back…
JESSICA: Yeah–go ahead.
UNCLE TIM: To go back to one point with the twin floor routines, I think that if you are a newcomer to the gymternet, there is one video on YouTube that you have to see, which is of–
JESSICA: Yes!
UNCLE TIM: Dina Kochetkova doing four double layouts in her floor routine in like 1992 when she was 15 during training at Round Lake. And so I think, yeah, everyone needs to see that video if they haven’t already.
JESSICA: Yes. Thank you for finding that! That is a good point. Okay, Jordyn Wieber wants to be on Dancing with the Stars. Oh! Tandoori Chicken, the fantastic international playboy chicken photographer who goes to everything gave our Gymcastic grips to Huang Huidan and Bai Yawen. [SQUEALS] Oh my God! And apparently Shang Chunsong made a joke in the elevator to Peng Peng Lee at Pacific Rim Championships. Pacific–one of those meets. About how, look at that chicken, he has grips and we don’t, because you know how the Chinese don’t use grips. Ha! That’s funny.
UNCLE TIM: [LAUGHS] I think that you’re, I think she gave the grips to Yao.
JESSICA: Was it Yao? Oh, you’re right! Oh my God, it was Yao. [GASPS] That was a terrible Freudian slip of my part! Because Huang Huidan is my favorite! [LAUGHTER] That’s terrible!
UNCLE TIM: And then Yao won, yeah.
JESSICA: I did mean Yao, she did give them to Yao, I’m so glad Yao has them, this makes me so happy. I just like squealed for like an hour after I saw the picture of Yao and Bai Yawen with the Gymcastic grips. [SQUEALS] Okay. Moving on. Aly Raisman and Gabby were at camp together in October, very exciting that they’re coming out. Russian sports news is reporting that Komova will be at a world cup this year, so that’s exciting. Donnell Whittenburg competed in the Bundesliga. This is kind of like professional league, lots of the foreign gymnasts compete in it for certain teams. It’s a great way to make a living as a gymnast, I would love to see Olivia Vivian and Lisa Mason competing in this, and some of the US gymnasts who are, the NCAA gymnasts who are, are, can still compete at that level. That would be awesome. Uncle Tim, what would you like to talk about? What do you need to get off your chest that’s been in the news?
UNCLE TIM: So there have been several articles written about artistry, and if you followed my blog for a little while, I’ve written a lot about the code of points and the evolution of artistry over time. And so one article was written by Susan Swarbrick in the Herald, coming out of the UK, and basically she argues that this World Championship’s made her sad because it lacked the artistry that we have seen in the past, like we used to have. And I feel like this is a common problem with gymnastics fans in general at this point in time. Partly because nostalgia is so prominent in our culture. But if you’ve ever taken debate class, you know that you can’t build an argument on tradition. It’s just a huge logical fallacy. So you can’t say, “The best way to do this is this way because we’ve always done it this way.” How do you know that it really is the best way to do things? Or why do you know that all floor routines should look like 1970s floor routines, because they used to look that way? And you know, there’s this strange correlation that reminds we like this 1970s floor routine, which means we also should like the 1970s code of points, because this routine was conducted under that code of points. And I think there’s a funny thing about nostalgia. Because, one, I mean, obviously with nostalgia you have an idea, a way of idealizing the past, and you just kind of forget all the bad routines, and you just remember all the good ones, the ones that you really liked. But also, there’s a problem because it doesn’t allow you to recognize that time changes, and that artistic movements change over time. And it would be stupid to think that Jan Joplin’s 1971, I want to say, Me and Bobby McGee should sound like Taylor Swift’s Shake It Off or vice versa. Taylor Swift’s Shake It Off should sound like Me and Bobby McGee. Because in the ’70s was different from music today, and why should we think that gymnastics in the ’70s or ’80s should be the same as gymnastics today. I don’t know. It just seems weird and very ahistorical. We just believe that gymnastics should be this thing that is not subject time changing? Like, it needs to be this ahistorical thing? Which brings me to my next point of contention, which is with Elizabeth Booth of Rewriting Gymnastics. She wrote another post about artistry, and in it, it’s not necessarily her main point, but she compares Elena Produnova to Simone Biles. She says that they have similar body types, and yet, and they had similar styles of gymnastics because Elena was powerful and Simone’s powerful, but Elena Produnova had better artistry, and part of that is because of code of points which rewarded artistry at that time. This is a terrible argument because the code of points in effect at the 2000 Olympics is largely the basis for the code of points that we have today. The 1997 code, which was in effect during the 2000 Olympics, was when the FIG really started to play with the idea of splitting between difficulty and execution and really dividing those two. And to boot the artistry rules in 2000 were actually pretty similar to those today. For instance, they had a deduction for when music and movement were not in harmony, which is similar to today’s code. They had a deduction for lack of variation in rhythm and tempo, which is similar to some of the tempo deductions that we have. Or they had concentration pause as well, which is kind of the reason that we have the stork rule, that we call it. And just, I don’t know, I feel like right now the gymnastics community needs to get over itself and stop comparing everything about today to things in the past. And I–part of my thinks that the only way that we’re ever going to get over this comparison to the past is to bring people in from outside the gymnastics community.
JESSICA: Mmhmm.
UNCLE TIM: If we’re going to start really valuing artistry and judging artistry, I think that we need to bring people who recognized as artists in their own disciplines into gymnastics and judge it. Not have–I think part of the problem right now is the fact that artistry falls under the purview of execution, and so there’s this conflation of artistry and execution automatically. Because you have the same judges judging artistry and execution. So I think if we’re going to do artistic gymnastics we need to have a separate panel, and I think it needs to, for at least the beginning, it needs to be a panel that’s not so entrenched in gymnastics history and can really judge artistry from a different perspective.
JESSICA: Yes, I totally agree! And when you were talking about this, all I could think is this is a whole field of study. Dance. And art. This has a rich history. It’s not like we have to like, bring this in from scratch. And in addition to that, there is this, there is this idea that you have to have been a gymnast to be any good at judging this, or being a part of that. And I think that’s so totally and completely wrong. Just think about all the people on the executive committee for gymnastics, and they’re all great gymnasts. But that does not qualify you to be an administrator. Administrators should do administration, not ex-gymnasts. You should have a qualification beyond your sports to do these sorts of jobs. And I understand it’s easier to go from being an elite to judging it, because you already had to know this stuff doing it. But it’s also very different, and I just, I think that bringing people in from the outside who have studied this is really what we need to do. Just like they brought in Cirque du Soleil experts to talk about artistry to the judges, and I think we need more of that kind of thing. Because it’s not like we have to invent this. It’s already been done, it exists in other places, and we just need to adapt what’s already out there. So, amen, Uncle Tim. Thank you for that sermon.
UNCLE TIM: [LAUGHS] It was little long, but whatever. So what’s going on in skills, Jessica?
JESSICA: Let’s see. So Simone has let us see of what she’s working on. None of ten skills that I gave her to do yet though, what is up with that? I gave her a list, you guys can go to my Twitter, it’s OtotheBeirne on Twitter, and I sent her and Amy a whole list of all the skills that I would love, like, my fantasy skills for her. [LAUGHS] Which are my, like, two are my fantasy skills for any woman to do, because no one’s ever done them. Like that…
UNCLE TIM: Air flares.
JESSICA: Yeah, like air flares, which I think would be super easy for her. She could have them named after her, and I think they would be, like, an F if she did them. And if any woman did them, I think they’d be an F. They’re just so hard, and I think she could totally do them. And also that thing that Kenzo does where you do, you go up like in side flip laid out totally straddled, and then you do a full twist out if it and you land sideways. Kenzo does it at the end of his routine. There’s a name for it.
UNCLE TIM: [LAUGHING] Full twisting side somi.
JESSICA: [LAUGHS] Yeah, that! Laid out. Anyhoo, no woman’s ever done that too, and it’s so cool looking. You just go up really high, it looks like you’re floating in the air. If she did that simple skill, people would lose their freaking minds. It would just be awesome. So anyway. But in the meantime, so she’s not working on my skill list, [LAUGHS] which obviously I expect her to drop everything to fulfill my which list, but since she’s not on Instagram she put out of video of a van Leeuwan that she’s doing, which looks absolutely perfect on bars. And then double layout full out, which looks also absolutely perfect and like she could do it at any time and add maybe two more twists to that. Don’t you think she could add two more twists to that?
UNCLE TIM: Probably. She can do anything.
JESSICA: Pretty much. Nabieva is working on a huge round off layout full on low beam. It was so high, I was like, “Okay. Yes. That skill is going to be really easy for you.” Skinner is working on a Li Xiao Peng. Can you describe that vault for people who don’t remember this glorious vault?
UNCLE TIM: It is similar to the Cheng, but instead of doing a round off yurchenko half on, one and a half off, you do round off yurchenko half on, two and half off.
JESSICA: It actually looks really clean. In this video.
UNCLE TIM: Yes.
JESSICA: I was–yeah. It looked really good. Ragan–what is Ragan’s last name? Smith?
UNCLE TIM: [SIMULTANEOUSLY] Smith. Yes.
JESSICA: Yeah, aka Fivel. She is at Texas Dreams with the fantastic Kim Zmeskal, and she is doing a piked full on beam, which looks so easy for her. It’s like she could eat an ice cream cone and do it at the same time. And the most gorgeous Patterson. It’s so, it’s Patterson-esque. It’s absolutely fabulous. It’s Kennedy Baker Patterson worthy. Her knees are together, her toes are pointed, she is above her own little miniscule height of whatever, she’s probably four feet tall. Higher than that, at that height of her flip. It’s so beautiful. And she’s also been named to the national team, so congratulations to you, little Fivel.
Let’s move on to mail call. We have wanted to dedicate the majority of this episode to all of your voice mails and letters and e-mails and comments. So let’s start with a little pronunciation guide.
VOICEMAIL: I’m Amanda. I was just listening to the team qualifications podcast, I’m a little behind, and wanted to help with the pronunciation for Yang Hak Seon’s name. There was a little uncertainty. I’ve been living–I’m not a native speaker, but I’ve been living in Korea and yeah, the “a” in his name is closer to the “ah” as in “father.” So not Yayng Hack Son [ph], but Yahng Hahk Seon [ph]. Thanks!
[THE MORE YOU KNOW SOUND EFFECT]
JESSICA: The next voice mail is from Faith, who wanted to talk about Kelly Sim.
VOICEMAIL: Hey, I’m Faith. I’m from Washington DC so I am calling to talk about the qualifications for Worlds. I would have missed this, because I haven’t seen it cut out anywhere, but I watched the full team GB and Romania qualifying. And so I believe it’s Kelly Sim. It starts about 2:55, I will also e-mail the video. But in her bar routine she’s doing her church, and she catches her calves on the bar, but manages to hold on to the bar and stay on. And like, obviously I know there’s still deductions, but I was just so impressed with that, and for me that was one of the best moments of this past Worlds. Just seeing someone fight like that. Love this show! Bye!
JESSICA: Uncle Tim, that was her favorite save of the meet. What’s your favorite save?
UNCLE TIM: Huh. That’s hard to say. Why don’t you go first while I think about it?
JESSICA: Okay, mine’s totally Manrique doing his shushanova on, in the floor finals and going so incredibly high that it looked like he was going to fly sideways out of the floor and waving his arms like a bird, and then landing back down.
UNCLE TIM: What meet was that? Because Manrique was not at Worlds.
JESSICA: Oh wait, not Manrique! The Spanish guy! Man–not Manrique. Man…
UNCLE TIM: Oh, umm…
JESSICA: Man-something.
UNCLE TIM: It’s a strange first name, it’s like Ryderley. Um, yeah. I know who you’re talking about.
JESSICA: Man–yes. Oh my God. I’ll remember his name later. Not Manrique. But yes. The Spanish guy. Okay, you tell me yours, and I’ll look up his name. [LAUGHTER]
UNCLE TIM: I would have to say that mine would go to–I’m trying to think, I feel like there were so many saves on beam. I’m trying to remember. I mean, I think you have to give on the best saves to Aliya Mustafina. I mean, it wasn’t necessarily a save, but the fact that she still won a beam medal without doing an acrobatic series, and managed to stay on the beam the entire time even though the routine did not go as she expected, I still consider that a save. Like–
JESSICA: It was.
UNCLE TIM: It’s pretty impressive.
JESSICA: It’s Zapata. From Spain.
UNCLE TIM: Yes. Yes.
JESSICA: Why did I confuse him? Oh my God, that was so terrible. I’m going to get so much hate mail for that. That’s what I meant though, I meant Zapato. Anyhoo. So, I asked, when we talked last time, who else winked like Simone during their elite floor routines. I was like, “[EXCITED TONE] Who else? Tell me! Does anyone else do that?” And of course Emma came back and said, “Daria Joura. Hello, Dasha from Australia.” She, her whole–remember, she would salute, throw her head back for like ten seconds, then prance onto the floor, gaze into the eyes of the judges, and then she would give one wink, and then her music would start. Do you…
UNCLE TIM: I do not remember that. But [JESSICA LAUGHS] I will take your word for it.
JESSICA: Okay. Well, she did it. So, Tanner on Twitter asks, “Do you think Mustafina will reach, or has reached, the Khorkina legend status?” Hmm.
UNCLE TIM: I would say that maybe in terms of success she will, but in terms of–I feel like Khorkina legend status also has a certain personality tied to it, and I don’t know that Aliya will ever be as outspoken as Khorkina has been.
JESSICA: I think that Khorkina is legendary not just because of her gymnastics, the medals that she won, but because she is such an unlikely champion. One, because of her height, and two, she broke all the stereotypes, yet she’s the best. I mean, besides the one who won like six Olympics and was pregnant for one of them, like six months pregnant, and she gave–she wanted to give the awards to that swimmer, because he broke her record. It was like in the ’50s. [UNCLE TIM LAUGHS]
UNCLE TIM: I think you’re combining a bunch of people, maybe. [LAUGHTER]
JESSICA: Okay. Maybe I am.
UNCLE TIM: No, I know who you’re talking about. I will assume you meant…
JESSICA: Larisa Latynina?
UNCLE TIM: Yeah.
JESSICA: Yeah. But I still consider Khorkina the greatest because she did modern gymnastics. But I think–so, the one thing, she’s an outlier because of her height, and also because she revolutionized bars. I mean, she did bars–I just, I think her gymnastics was just so incredibly innovative. And she, her routines, what she was doing back then, is what every routine is now. She was a total trendsetter. And on bars, she just–she was amazing. I think Mustafina is incredible, and she’ll be a great, great gymnast, but there’s people who win the crowd and people who win the medals. And then there’s people who are completely just stars. Whether you love them or hate them. And that is Khorkina. Mustafina is definitely a star, but Khorkina is like a shining bright magnificent, polarizing, universe unto herself.
UNCLE TIM: Polarizing. Yes.
JESSICA: Polarizing for sure.
UNCLE TIM: I think that’s interesting right now, is, I feel like Simone Biles has become a lightning rod of contempt for modern gymnastics. I don’t think she’s really the cause of any of it, but I think that a lot of people are using her gymnastics to blame the code for different things. And I think it’s a good sign when people are very divided about you, at least nowadays. I think it bodes well for your future as a legend status. And I think Mustafina has a little bit of that. I think that it was more divisive in the 2010-2011 era then it is now. But I do think that she will definitely go down in the history books, no question.
JESSICA: Lets get into our voice mails. Our first one is for, from, Flip It and Stick It. I–this is great letter, we got great letters from you guys. We can’t read the whole, all of them, the full length because they’re too long, but we totally appreciate them, we did read all of them, but for the, for the sake of on air time, I’m going to cut it a little short. Here it goes:
“Gymcastic,
You need to look at the Wilson/Whitlock situation differently”–this is referring to Max Whitlock not having his best performance in prelims at worlds, and so Nile Wilson gave up his spot, even though he qualified under the two-per-country rule. “You are obsessed with this concept of what is fair. Life isn’t fair. Fair doesn’t matter. Do what is wise and honorable. And that is what Nile did. No one was shocked by the decision to have Max compete in the all-around instead of Nile. It made sense, the British were, are sensible people. During qualification Nile had the meet of his life. He did a superb and fantastic job. He was in the zone and did the best he could have done. But Nile at his absolute best was only two tenths better than Max at his worst.” Point taken. “Max didn’t have a great, and even on a bad day for Max, he had still qualified for all event finals.” Let me say that again. “Max scored in top 24 during qualifications and scored high enough to qualify for all event finals. It is within a country’s right to compete any two individuals who qualify within the top 24. It usually makes sense to compete the top two qualifiers to obtain your best results, but in this case it was not. A seasoned gymnast knows not to pull it all out during qualifications.” So, he goes on to talk about how Nile, he had an amazing completion, he was super happy with his result, and what his perspective was for competing, and then about how the other element of analysis he says, “Most gymnasts hold a great sense of patriotism. For many their goal is to represent the nation. Go back to October 8th, when the final all around decision was announced. Great Britain just missed out on a team medal at Worlds and didn’t leave itself many more genuine opportunities to medal at Worlds. Great Britain was facing a real possibility they could go home empty handed. I’m sure Nile knew that Max was the country’s best chance for an all-around medal.” Goes on–“I think Eddie Van Hoof, the coach, knew this. Heck, all of the gymnasts knew this. Which is why no one surprised by the decision!” Except for you, Gymcastic! I just added that part, he didn’t say that. And then he talked about how the US could have ended up in the same position, and then he concludes by saying, [LAUGHS] this is awesome–“Like Marilyn Monroe, Princess Diana, and other celebrities who will always remain beautiful in our minds because we never got to see them get old, fat, and ugly, Nile will always be able to treasure a perfect memory of a beautiful result at Worlds. 13th all around, 4th on high bar, and silver for country as a result of his selfless decision. Not to mention the value of keeping yourself in the good graces of British Gymnastics decision makers. Check the execution scores. The Gymcastic Awesome Award goes to Nile. Take this kid to Vegas, he knows when to stop and when to come home a winner.
From,
Flip It and Stick It”
Uncle Tim, what are your thoughts?
UNCLE TIM: So, I think that he, the writer does make some very valid points. And what I really like about this letter the fact that he or she, does not, Flip It, does not split it into two binaries. I think that a lot of people have split this argument into, it was either all Nile’s decision or it was all British Gymnastics’ decision, and what I was trying to unsuccessfully say during the show in my sleep deprivation is the fact that, when your decisions are really just your own decisions. There are usually external factors in, playing a part in the decisions you make. Yes, you might be the person who does make the decision, but I do like that little parenthetical situation, “Not to mention the value of keeping yourself in the good graces of British gymnastics decision makers.” Which does not–which does acknowledge the role that British Gymnastics does play in your fate, either present or future. And I think that the writer did do a good job of kind of pointing out both sides, and not just saying it was one or the other.
JESSICA: I think that one of the things–I think that this was such a well written letter, and I appreciate it so much. And for all the analysis and for all the points that he or she makes. And also just bringing up the patriotism part, which I never take into, I just, it just doesn’t occur to me. I’m always like, “How are there, this meet’s sold out, people are going nuts!” And people are like, “It’s patriotism.” I’m like, “Oh. Hm. I never thought of that.” It’s, I think one of the things that always comes to the fan’s mind–we represent how the fans see the sport. We are always worried, we always want to protect the gymnasts. We want to protect the gymnasts, the individual. And we’re not always thinking about the team, or the, the, what, the importance of bringing a medal home, for keeping your country’s gymnastics program afloat or the political consequences. And we’re also thinking, I think we’re also bringing the emotional trash of the years past when the gymnasts didn’t get to make their own decisions. And so I, I appreciate your point of view. And I think that, I think that we did a good job of giving all the angles, I think I talked about the importance of bringing a medal home and talked about some of the different angles, but your letter definitely does it. So thank you so, so much for writing in. Thank you very, very, very much. And for supporting the show, we really appreciate it. What do we have next?
UNCLE TIM: So, Chris writes, “I don’t know if I missed it or not, but I’m hoping that you guys are talking, going to talk about the UCL–UCLA fundraiser for their podiums. I love the blog Uncle Tim did about it.” And I’ll just kind of end the letter there. He goes on to slurp, slurp us a little bit [JESSICA LAUGHS], tells us how much he loves us and how he made a donation to support us–
JESSICA: Because he’s awesome!
UNCLE TIM: –and we love that. So, yes. So to go to briefly give listeners background, UCLA is doing a fundraiser so that they can–or they were doing a fundraiser, I guess it’s over now. But they were trying to raise 150K in 30 days so they could put all their gymnastics equipment on podium for aesthetics, safety, and I don’t remember the third reason that they were trying to do it. Or that’s what somebody told me on Twitter. And, you know, their video was not–so they put out this video, and it was a YouTube video–and they were talking about how if they put everything on podium then they’ll be able to bring home another national championship. And they need put their tramps on podium, which was like, “Really?” They don’t compete tramp on podium at Nationals. Like, to win an NCAA Championship you don’t compete tramp ever. I do not follow your thesis. And Miss Val went on to talk about how the podiums were going to bring in more international fans, and I was like, “Really? That’s the case? Then men’s gymnastics, NCAA men’s gymnastics, there should be a podium in every gym, because that will solve so many problems. Because this is clearly the most logical video I’ve ever seen.” And, I don’t know. And they also claim that this is going to be a gym like no other, but if you know your NCAA gymnastics history, you know Nebraska has been training on podium for the past four years, I believe in 2010, they renovated their gym and put everything on podium. So it’s really not this, “Ooh, new, hip, exciting” thing. And, you know, it’s been done before. University of Nebraska, as far as I know, didn’t run a massive crowd sourcing, I don’t know, crowd sourcing fundraiser out there on the internet. I don’t know. I just, when things are not very logical it leaves me very skeptical about what your intentions are, and the video was anything but logical.
JESSICA: And I think, obviously I–here’s what I think. This video was definitely not made for gymnastics fans or made by anyone who knew about gymnastics. Whoever produced the video didn’t know gymnastics or they would never leave something in there about leaving the trampoline on podium, because that’s ridiculous. So I think it was probably someone–
UNCLE TIM: But!
JESSICA: Go ahead.
UNCLE TIM: Where, at what? Uh–[INAUDIBLE, SPEAKING SIMULTANEOUSLY WITH JESSICA]
JESSICA: Right, someone should have reviewed this!
UNCLE TIM: Not okay, how could you think it was okay?
JESSICA: Yes, exactly!
UNCLE TIM: It was…
JESSICA: I totally agree. I–where are all the coaches reviewing this and saying, “No. We have to take this, this, and this out because that makes no sense.” I totally agree. And it’s really weird, too, because I’m like, “Why would Christ let himself be in this video where he stumbles on his words in the first segment?” Which makes me think they didn’t see it before it went out. Because it didn’t make sense and it wasn’t well produced, I think. Which is not, that’s not what we expect of them. So I was really surprised when I saw it, and I think that they–and also, I think their communications part, department if they had been able to look at it would have changed things as well. I just don’t think that for whatever reason the normal steps were, were followed. Because that’s just not, that clearly wasn’t a finished–no one had reviewed it, that’s obvious. Because it didn’t make sense. So I totally agree with you there. Now, being, of course, I love my team. So I’m just going to play devil’s advocate, aka just me being my normal self, and just say that some of things that you put in your blog were on the–Some of the questions that you put in there like, “What happens if the money is not raised?” all that kind of stuff. They were in the back up for the site, which wasn’t like Kickstarter, it was UCLA’s own kind of Kickstarter, which, I don’t know, that didn’t really make sense to me. Apparently they have their own Kickstarter system that’s not a Kickstarter, and they explained what happens to the money if they didnt raise it and that kind of stuff on there. And then…
UNCLE TIM: I believe that was added after.
JESSICA: Oh, it might have been. I–it wasn’t in the video, it’s was on–there was a link on the website.
UNCLE TIM: Yeah, yeah. The bottom.
JESSICA: The bottom part.
UNCLE TIM: The bottom. Yeah, I read that.
JESSICA: Oh yeah, you could totally–oh yeah. Okay. And then I also think that the part about foreign fans wasn’t communicated well, because I think that if it had been reviewed and properly edited by someone who really knew gymnastics, some–you know, Miss Val was actually saying, “If you live abroad and you’re a fan, and you can’t come to the meets, and you can’t buy a ticket to help us, this is a way you can donate and support the team. This is a way you can use your money to directly support the team, since you can’t be here to cheer us on at our meets.” That’s how I understood it. And I would have had her have a complete sentence in there, that made sense, if I had been editing that video. And, you know, but the other thing is like, I am giving the benefit of the doubt. I don’t know if–I mean, I don’t have, I don’t have a lot of reason to doubt their intentions, because I haven’t seen ill intentions from them before. But I just think–I don’t know, it was really weird that that video came out like that, because it just–it didn’t do them any favors. That’s what I will say. I don’t think so. But they raised their money, so.
UNCLE TIM: There was–so I do have to give them credit for one thing. Because after Miss Val was talking about their international fans, and after seeing how poorly the video was edited in general, I did think they were going to cut to Danusia Francis, because as you know, someone with a British accent who is not white, and to their credit, they did not do that, where they stereotypically point out–
JESSICA: Mm
UNCLE TIM: –the minority person with the British accent. They did use Jenny Pinches with the British accent right after talking about the international fans. But at least they didn’t do the kind of token minority thing. So that did make me happy.
JESSICA: I’m glad. So, let’s see. Where are we next? Rachel wrote in:
“Hi.” Oh, this is very interesting, okay. “There was a strong response from the gymternet when Marisa King tweeted,” you know Marisa King as a British Olympian who is national champion on the Florida NCAA team. And she was most recently working for Gymnastike, and now she is going to be in some, one of the search shows. So, “There was a strong response from the gymternet when Marisa King tweeted, “Gosh, I just want to give these Chinese girls a cheeseburger” during Worlds. And you guys addressed this on the show. I agree that it is distasteful comment about their body types and thought you guys handled the topic with grace. Thus, I was hoping that perhaps you could touch on the subject of North Korean gymnasts. Personally, I’m thrilled about Hong Un Jong and that she won a vault title. As an American, I would have loved to see our dear Simone, ect. ect. But we can’t even imagine how difficult Hong Un Jong’s–her…” Sorry. “…Hong Un Jong’s vaults are incredible, improved form over last year.” But she was like, then she says, “I looked to Twitter as many of us on the gymternet do to express excitement, and I was rather disgusted seeing multiple comments saying there would be extra rations for them and their family, and most offensive, they will get to eat tonight. I do understand that life in North Korea is unfathomably difficult, and most of us cannot even imagine what it is like to live there–side note, if you haven’t seen the Frontline documentary on North Korea, it’s a must see. In it they talk about how starvation is a real problem there. So I understand that to access proper nutrition and food is really a challenge for them, but we couldn’t–couldn’t we as a gymternet, as the gymternet, have said something like, “Oh, this is great for her, and the gymnasts–gymnastics program in North Korea”? Or, “I hope that they get more funding for better equipment now, after training at a higher level,” or, “This is going to make an amazing difference in her and her family’s life. Hurray for Hong Un Jong.” Why do people feel the people feel the need to say such rude, derogatory things as, “They get to eat tonight” or “Their family will get extra rations.” Perhaps Im overreacting, I just thought it was really disrespectful.”
Oh, and then she thanks us and says she’s listened since the beginning. Yay! Squeals! And–“Squeals” is like our slurp surf, I think that’s our squeals. We both listen to this show where there’s the slurping is what people do. Meaning, uh, Uncle Tim, that’s where that comes from, in case you thought that was just a random slurp surf that he said on there. And anyway. Thank you, thank you, thank you so much for writing in. And this a great point. I think–so this is interesting, because when people talk about, “You’ll get extra rations,” and “Maybe they’ll be allowed to eat tonight” I see that as standing up for the gymnast against the government that is taking away their freedoms and literally their food. That is how I see it. Like, in my world, cutting… What’s the one I want to, how to, what is it? Cutting humor, talking about the real issues that are wrong their but making it into humor, is a way of saying, “Screw this country for treating this amazing person, who is so incredibly talented, like crap.” That’s how I read those comments. And I think that the people who said that stuff are educated enough to know. They’re making those comments because they know how terrible it is in North Korea. And so that’s how I read those comments. But I understand how you could see them as really rude, because I’m sure that, you know, if the North Korean gymnasts–you know, I felt a little bad actually after, when we talked about our world champions.
UNCLE TIM: Ri? Ri?
JESSICA: Yes. Ri Se-gwang. Thank you. When we talked about how he is, like we kind of laughed about his injury and him having to be carried off, like a little teddy bear and stuff like that. Like, I was like, “I hope that nobody thinks that we don’t realize how gnarly this is, and maybe he doesn’t have a choice. He had to vault. Like, if he could walk, he had to vault.” There wasn’t–you know, we kind of made light of it, and, and talked about how cute it was when he was carried off but, I–saying those things does not take away from the knowledge of how horrible his life must be, and how gnarly life for everyone in North Korea is. So, anyway. But I appreciate your thoughts, and that’s just my take on it. I see, I see that kind of humor as a jab at the Korean government and–the government. [SARCASTIC LAUGH] The one person ruling everyone, torturing everyone, as opposed to not supporting gymnasts. I see it as supportive. Uncle Tim?
UNCLE TIM: I can see both sides. I think that there, you know, the sarcasm was kind of biting humor, and some people’s–some people have different senses of humor, right? And so I can see where you’re coming from and where those people might have been coming from, and I could see how somebody could want a more positive spin on things. And I think that it’s good that we have so many voices out there. And everyone can kind of choose their own path and figure out who they want to follow? So. Shall we move on to the next letter?
JESSICA: I’m ready.
UNCLE TIM: Okay. So we got a letter from Katie. And it’s kind of long, so I’ll have to cut it. One of her big concerns was Mykayla Skinner. She was secreting hoping that Mykayla Skinner was going to bust out a, quote, “sneak attack amanar” at the last second [JESSICA LAUGHS] during event finals. So, she–
JESSICA: Sneak attack is the best thing ever! I’m going to call everything sneak attack from now. That is [LAUGHS] I just love that. She’s going to, like, sneak on when no one’s looking and bust it out, like, “Ha!” [UNCLE TIM LAUGHS] It’s so Stick It.
UNCLE TIM: It is like Claudia Fragapane sneak attack shushanova on her first tumbling pass [JESSICA LAUGHS] during finals.
JESSICA: Sneak attack, but even she didn’t know it was coming!
UNCLE TIM: [LAUGHS] Exactly. So, she is kind of wondering why she isn’t competing the amanar when she is obviously capable of it. And I don’t if I’ve read anywhere, any interviews about why she isn’t doing the amanar, but I’m guessing it was due to consistency. I just don’t think that her amanar was technically as strong as maybe someone like Simone’s, and therefore Marta didn’t let her. That’s just my assumption. Do you have any ideas, Jess?
JESSICA: I just thought it wasn’t because it wasn’t super consistent. I thought that I had read that it wasn’t worth it. Because if you can be in the top three without it, then it’s not worth risking it. That’s–I feel like I remember that being said, although I might be adding my own logic.
UNCLE TIM: [LAUGHS] Yeah. I–so–
JESSICA: As I tend to do.
UNCLE TIM: So we don’t really have an answer as to exactly why, but I think that she was able to, part of it is due to deductions and risk, and I think her double twisting yurchenko was clean enough. Kind of why Kyla Ross hasn’t done an amanar since Olympic Trials. At least, we haven’t seen one. You know? Her double twisting yurchenko is good enough to get her by. Then another portion of her letter–“Speaking of 2012 Olympians attempting to come back for Rio, I feel awful for thinking so. But I think that Kyla’s the only one with a shot to really make it. I have to think that continuing to compete and train all this time says a lot to Marta. We all know Gabby put herself in a really precarious situation with all her gym moving, coach disowning. Maroney has all but been replaced in function by Biles unless she comes out next season with some serious moves. Same for Aly, in case of Skinner. Jordyn’s probably not even going to try, rightfully dealing with all the PTSD, Post Olympic Trauma Stress Disorder. The US talent is too out of control for multiple Olympic repeats. So, Jess, what do you think? Looking ahead in two years for the 2012 team.
JESSICA: [DRAWS BREATH] Man, I think the 2012 team is going to be Bailie Key, little Fivel, and, and Biles and [SIGHS] Nia Dennis. [LAUGHTER] And I don’t know–and some bar worker. I don’t know. Well, some great beam worker, like Baumann. Or–oh no, she’s not old enough. No, she is old enough. Norah, Norah Flatley. I don’t know. I just, I think–[SIGHS] Kyla. The thing is, it does not matter. Kyla could be the seven-time world champion in a row, and Marta still wouldn’t take her if she wasn’t ready right then for the Worlds. Like, it just doesn’t–there is no loyalty in Marta’s system. It doesn’t matter. I think that’s been proven over and over that there’s no loyalty. And I think that when you look at the history of who’s been chosen, that’s, that’s true. And I don’t mean that in a necessarily a bad way, because I feel like the gymnastics system in the US is so deep that you can afford not to be loyal to the groundbreakers, to the former champions. Because you could, there’s always somebody else fresher, ready to go. Who can achieve the same thing. So it’s, I just–I just think that we don’t know at all right now. I think it’s going to be half juniors that aren’t competing right now in the senior meets, as we have seen that over and over. And I think there’s a chance at one, one veteran making it. I think Simone can keep competing and winning until she’s 40 years old. And I’m not even kidding. I mean literally 40 years old. [UNCLE TIM LAUGHS] Because she’s just the greatest talent I think I’ve ever seen in gymnastics. She’s incredible. So yeah. No loyalty, juniors, Simone forever.
UNCLE TIM: [LAUGHS] That sounds like, like a great yearbook phrase. [JESSICA LAUGHS] “Simone forever!” Simone Biles, you need to sign all your high school yearbooks “Simone Forever.”
JESSICA: I’ll buy that t-shirt.
UNCLE TIM: [LAUGHS] I–you know, I think, I hate to say it, but I think Jordyn’s kind of ruled out. She is very wishy-washy in all of her interviews, and if you’re really going to make a comeback, you can’t be wishy-washy at this point in time. I would say Aly–I mean, I haven’t really seen too many videos yet. I haven’t seen anything to really say one way or the other. Maroney, we’ll see. It’s going to be a health issue for her, how much she can train. If she can stay health. Gabby–she’s kind of a wildcard. We haven’t–we’ve seen a couple videos, we haven’t seen a whole lot. Shes definitely looking on track when she was at Chows, and now she’s elsewhere. I did see some photos from the, from camp on USA Gym Facebook page, I believe it was, and it was interesting to look at the lineup, all the gymnasts lined up. I saw Gabby, and then in the background there was Chow. And I was like, “Ooh, that’s got to be a little awkward.”
JESSICA: Mmhmm.
UNCLE TIM: But, no. I wouldn’t totally count out Gabby Douglas yet. Just because I haven’t seen enough videos or anything to really know. I think she might have a chance, I think she definitely has been blessed with genes that are good for gymnastics, and we’ll see if she still has the fire in her and whether she can, she has started comeback soon enough. I mean, she didn’t really quit per se, but whether she has really, really dedicated herself to training for the Olympics is a different question.
JESSICA: The next letter comes from Mrs.–“Ms. R.” Ooh, Uncle Time gets called out in this one. But I will reserve my, I just, I have many thoughts on this e-mail, so we’ll–let’s get started. Okay.
“Dear Gymcastic crew/Uncle Tim,
I have noticed a couple of times through the World Championships that Uncle Tim commented and tweeted about Craig Heap having trouble with the names of gymnastics skills. Craig wasn’t really having nearly the difficulty you may think. They just call some skills by different names in England. England is a country that uses different words for many things. The trunk of a car is a boot, and–” blah, blah, blah, it goes over lots of stuff. “This can be a problem in the gym when you have a bunch of seven year olds–” Oh yeah, kids, telling them take off their pants and they think you mean take off their underwear. Which, I enjoyed that story very much. Okay. “So it should come as no surprise that the British also have different names for things in the gymnastics world, just like the States, some people call the name of the skill a free hip circle or clear hip circle. Or you can also see it happen with stockli or backmore [ph].” Hmm, don’t know what those are. “Same skill, called different things in England. The strap bar is often called a shiny bar, or–on which you wear gloves and loops. The value of a vault is referred to as a tariff. And–” I think that’s really weird. Because a tariff is a tax. Why would you call that–right? [UNCLE TIM LAUGHS] That’s so English, to be taxing everything.
UNCLE TIM: Yeah.
JESSICA: I think that’s very odd. But anyhoo. I gathered that from watching the coverage. “And I find it quite curious that we call, that we call an under somi a peach. By the way, in the code of points, it is simply a referred to as a basket. So Uncle Tim, so fond of giving quizzes, I have a little quiz for him. So do you speak English?” That’s really–oh. That’s very offensive to me. I would just like to say. Very offensive. That’s like saying, going to, Spanish people going to Mexico and being like, “Ugh, they don’t speak Spanish.” But anyhoo, I get your little joke there, it’s adorable. So do you want to take the quiz first, or do you want to rebut the letter first?
UNCLE TIM: So, I would say one thing that just is not acceptable is the fact that he called a bhavsar a tippelt on a regular. Those are two different skills. I just want to say that. Now I’m ready for your quiz.
JESSICA: Okay, yeah. I would just thought that in general it was a very specific skills that we were talking about, not just the difference of what skills are called in different countries. So if you have more examples, specific ones, that would be very helpful, we could learn something. But I think it was basically one skill that was called the wrong thing over and over. But I still enjoy watching Craig on Tumble very very much. Okay. The quiz. Here we go. “The following are all common men’s gymnastics skills and body shapes.” Okay. “What is an upstart?”
UNCLE TIM: I believe that’s a kip. Not sure.
JESSICA: What’s a top turn?
UNCLE TIM: That one I don’t know.
JESSICA: I’m going to guess it’s a pirouette.
UNCLE TIM: I think it’s, yeah, a pirouette. It’s, that’s my guess as well, but I’m not sure.
JESSICA: A box split.
UNCLE TIM: I think that is your side splits.
JESSICA: Hm. A dish? [LAUGHS]
UNCLE TIM: I think they use that to call hollow body shape, is what I think.
JESSICA: Yeah, that’s what I think of when I hear that. “Sheer.”
UNCLE TIM: This one I’m not exactly sure. It’s some pommel horse skill, I’m sure. It’s maybe some scissors, instead of–or, yeah, either scissors–it would have to be some kind of scissors or like, what we might call a pendulum swing. I’m not sure which one it is.
JESSICA: This just reminds me of–all I can think of is pommel horse and trying not to get your pants stuck on your hands. [LAUGHTER] “A half lever.”
UNCLE TIM: I would say, I think that is just an l-sit.
JESSICA: Oh, I was thinking it would be a planche. K, “Circle up.”
UNCLE TIM: I don’t know what that one is. Do you have any ideas?
JESSICA: I want to say, is a kip on p-bars, or a sole circle maybe. I don’t know. “Trolley swing.”
UNCLE TIM: I think that’s–I mean, from what I can ascertain, it would probably be like, a basic tap swing. You’re just trolleying along, [LAUGHTER] not really doing anything? That’s my guess. [JESSICA LAUGHS] What would you say?
JESSICA: I don’t know, I’m just trying to think. Like, you carry–trolleys carry many passengers, and they’re on tracks, so [LAUGHS] maybe it’s when you wear your socks and do bars? [LAUGHTER] Okay, “Japana” is the next one.
UNCLE TIM: I actually, I’m almost 100% certain it’s what we call a pancake in the United States. So you’re in your middle splits, and you’re lying with your stomach down to the ground.
JESSICA: “Front planche.”
UNCLE TIM: Uh–I don’t know that theres any difference. There probably is some difference, but for me a front planche is a planche, but I don’t know that one. Do you have any ideas?
JESSICA: No. All I can think of is a regular old front planche. Leaning forward, as opposed to arched. “Geigner roll.”
UNCLE TIM: That one I don’t know.
JESSICA: Geinger roll makes me think of a Gaylord I, or–yeah, a Gaylord. Okay, “Squat.”
UNCLE TIM: [LAUGHS] I don’t know. It just sounds like a tuck to me.
JESSICA: A squat is for sure a place where homeless gymnasts live [UNCLE TIM LAUGHS] and can take over and live in permanently because of squatter laws. Which are ancient and very strong in the British Isles. “Check extra.” [LAUGTER]
UNCLE TIM: Sounds like a TV show to me [JESSICA LAUGHS] Right? I mean, yeah, we shouldn’t laugh at gymnastics skills in other languages, but to me it just sounds like a TV show and–or like, I don’t know, some kind of Czech soccer league. I don’t know. I don’t know what it is.
JESSICA: All I can think of, and I know this is terrible, because not all former Soviet countries are the same, but all I can think of is that movie white–Chalky Hands? Is it White Chalk? You know the one, where it’s the guy who grew up in Hungary, not the Czech Republic, but Hungary, and it tells the story of him coming to Canada and coaching, and it flashed back to what it was like for him. And when they got in trouble in the gym, the coach would put them in that, cage and sit on it.
UNCLE TIM: With Kyle Shewfelt?
JESSICA: Yes, that movie.
UNCLE TIM: White Palms. White Palms.
JESSICA: [LAUGHS] White Palms. That’s the first thing I thought of. Like, oh, it’s a tiny, fishnet cage that coaches stick their gymnasts in so that they can barely fit and then they it on them for the entire practice. [LAUGHTER] I love this letter, because I think it’s really fun. I mean, I love the quiz. I love learning about these different skills. And please send us the answers, so we can know what these actually are! This is really interesting to learn. So thank you for your support and always writing in, Ms. R, because we’ve gotten many letters from you.
UNCLE TIM: All right. Our last letter is from Katrina, and she says,
“Seriously, Jess, your assumptions about a) the people that watch, the people who watch Dancing with the Stars, and then b) the celebs who do that show really are turning me off. First off, Dancing with the Stars actually targets 18-35 year olds, and that’s what their largest demographic is in terms of viewership ratings. Secondly, go watch this weeks performance, specifically Val and Janel. Yes, there are definitely people, celebs, who can’t dance worth a bean, but 90% of celebs who do the show work their ass off. Put in eight hours a day to learn. Learning dance, and specifically ballroom, ain’t easy. So could you tone down your assumptions and rhetoric claiming they can’t dance?
-One annoyed listener.”
JESSICA: Okay. So. First of all, I–the way that it annoys you, Katrina, to watch Tumble because they can’t do great gymnastics, it annoys me to watch dancing on Dancing with the Stars, because I feel like they can’t dance. Yes, I realize they achieve a greater level of proficiency than do the celebrities on Tumble with their gymnastics. I concede to that. However, I can’t stand watching dancing that isn’t perfect. It makes my skin crawl. And I know that they’re great. I mean, there are some people that are amazing, and some performances that are fantastic, and I’m totally loving watching the guy who used to be on The Fresh Prince of Bel Aire. Like, he’s cracking me up. But I just–it’s just my personal view. I’m not saying that they don’t achieve a level of proficiency. But I just, for me, I just don’t like it. It’s just not for me. It’s not as good–and I don’t like ballroom. You know how I don’t like ballroom. And I know ballroom’s hard. I’m not saying ballroom’s not hard, it’s just not for me. That’s why I don’t really care for that. But I–and I do appreciate, she also sent in data when I asked for it. I was like, “Okay, back up your claims.” So the data she sent in. In the first season, she is totally correct. It was the highest s–highest rated broadcast program among all adults 18 and over, in the very first season. I said that it was a show targeted at people in the 50s and 60s. And then she also sent data that shows it is now rated, it’s skewed towards that. So in the 2013 season, this is from, oh, I can’t remember where this quote is from, “ABC’s elder-skewed competition series, Dancing with the Scars–Stars” [LAUGHS] Scars. “Is the only other broadcast series to break the diamond jubilee mark, 22.1 years old. Although the network’s Monday night procedural, Castle…” blah blah blah, Castle has like 59 year olds. And I just, so like, I think it might have been skewed younger, or they might have been targeting that audience, but then it has gained this great audience of this older demographic. And just in general, you know, I–I find that the people who like that show tend to be the older crowd. And I see that the data backs that up. I, I think that Dancing with the Stars is great, and a lot of people like it. And I’m for anything where celebrities actually have to do something, not just lie on their stomach and get f-ed to be famous. Kardashian, I’m looking at you. So I–it’s fine, it’s a great show. It’s just not for me, is what I’m saying. And a gymnastics show with adults doing gymnastics is for me, because that is my greatest joy in the entire world. So. That’s all I’m saying. Thank you very much writing in, and I loved that you, that you sent in the data as well, because it’s very interesting. And interesting to compare the points to the ratings for Tumble as well. Okay.
Award winners! We had our fantastic song contest, we wanted to hear what songs had never been used in a floor routine that you knew of before you sent them in, and now we have our winners, who are going to win either a t-shirt from P&G Championships; chalk actually, possibly touched by a gymnast at P&G Championships; a towel; or a water bottle. All official USA Gymnastics, P&G Championships products. And I even have a bonus that I’m going to send in there. So, I have a little something lying around that Im going to add. So, Uncle Tim, would you please–do you know how many total entries we got?
UNCLE TIM: I don’t know, a lot.
JESSICA: It was over 100, right?
UNCLE TIM: It was lot. [LAUGHS]
JESSICA: It was a ton. A ton! You guys are freaking awesome, this playlist is going to be gigantor. And some of the songs, oh my God. I am in love with some of these songs already. Like, I’m going to have–it’s a good thing we’re going to have Spotify or Pandora, because I, if I bought all these songs, I would be out of money for the rest of the year. Because I love them that much. [UNCLE TIM LAUGHS] Okay, who won? Tell us!
UNCLE TIM: So we chose these winners at random, and first winner is Olivia Searle. Our second winner is Maria Layton. Our third winner is Danica Taylor. And our fourth winner is Kaya–Kalley Skitch. Write to us at gymcastic@gmail.com and tell us, give us your ranking order of prizes that you’d like to win, and we will give you guys your prizes in the order that you write to us. So it will be on a first-come first-serve basis.
JESSICA: And when will this playlist be available? [LAUGHS] The playlist. We only had over a hundred entries. [UNCLE TIM LAUGHS] Some people sent in 20 songs, so.
UNCLE TIM: It may take us a little while to compile all these entries. But hopefully it will be up for your listening pleasure during your Thanksgiving vacation. If you are an international listener, our American Thanksgiving is November 27th this year.
JESSICA: And we’re going to try to find a place where you can listen to it outside of the US too. So maybe Spotify, because that’s, I think, worldwide. And somebody mentioned 8-Track I think. But we’ll, we’ll, we have you guys in mind. Our non-US listeners. We love you too, so we will find a way. And also I have to give a shout-out to Catherine, the joy spreader on Twitter. Who–[LAUGHS] Her entry was, she had a paragraph about why the music would be perfect for a floor routine. Gifs for every single song. It was hilarious. So special shout out to you, because that was freaking fantastic.
If you love the show, please send us your feedback, like we got tonight. We love reading your letters. We read everything, even if we haven’t gotten back to you yet. We do read absolutely everything. Your tweets, your messages on Facebook, your comments on the website. We didn’t have a chance to get to all the comments on the website, but we will do that in the very near future. And you can leave a comment on the website, you can call us at 415-800-3191, or you can call us on Skype for free from anywhere and leave a voice mail as long as you want. You can go on and on. Try to keep it under, like, 3 minutes. But you know, you don’t have to–just leave your name, what city you’re calling from, or country, and call us at GymcasticPodcast, because we love hearing from you guys. This weekend, don’t forget to watch T&T, the Tumbling and Trampoline World Championships. It’s ttworlds.com. Was that right? Ttworlds.com? It will be on USA Gymnastics. It will be awesome. Make sure to watch it. Gymcastic is produced and edited by me, Jessica O’Beirne. Our content and social media director is Dr. Uncle Tim, PhD. Audio engineer is Ivan Alexander. And by the way, we are looking for a backup audio engineer. So if anyone out there has the experience doing audio editing, normalizing, eliminating background noise, making things sound fantastic, and wants to work with us every other week and have our undying gratitude, and wants to work with the fantastic Ivan Alexander, who is my personal mentor in sound editing, [LAUGHS] who I love very much, please get in touch with us at gymcastic@gmail.com. And let us know, because we’d love to have some backup for him so he can rest, and then maybe get some sleep. Our theme song is mixed by Chris Seculo as performed by NWH. Transcription services are provided by Katy, Katie, Alex, Amanda, Cecy, Danica, Emma, Jillian, and Kristy. Until next week, I’m Jessica, from Masters-Gymnastics.com.
UNCLE TIM: And I’m Uncle Tim, from Uncle Tim Talks Men’s Gym.
JESSICA: Oh, and I thought of the perfect thing. It’s not Master-Gymnastics for your adult gymnastics needs. Because you decided that sounded too porny. It’s inspiration for your adult gymnastics aspirations.
UNCLE TIM: Ooh.
JESSICA: Uh-huh. I’m good. [UNCLE TIM LAUGHS] Thanks for listening, we’ll see you guys next week!
[ENDING MUSIC]
mnastics. It will be awesome. Make sure to watch it. Gymcastic is produced and edited by me, Jessica O’Beirne. Our content and social media director is Dr. Uncle Tim, PhD. Audio engineer is Ivan Alexander. And by the way, we are looking for a backup audio engineer. So if anyone out there has the experience doing audio editing, normalizing, eliminating background noise, making things sound fantastic, and wants to work with us every other week and have our undying gratitude, and wants to work with the fantastic Ivan Alexander, who is my personal mentor in sound editing, [LAUGHS] who I love very much, please get in touch with us at gymcastic@gmail.com. And let us know, because we’d love to have some backup for him so he can rest, and then maybe get some sleep. Our theme song is mixed by Chris Seculo as performed by NWH. Transcription services are provided by Katy, Katie, Alex, Amanda, Cecy, Danica, Emma, Jillian, and Kristy. Until next week, I’m Jessica, from Masters-Gymnastics.com.
UNCLE TIM: And I’m Uncle Tim, from Uncle Tim Talks Men’s Gym.
JESSICA: Oh, and I thought of the perfect thing. It’s not Master-Gymnastics for your adult gymnastics needs. Because you decided that sounded too porny. It’s inspiration for your adult gymnastics aspirations.
UNCLE TIM: Ooh.
JESSICA: Uh-huh. I’m good. [UNCLE TIM LAUGHS] Thanks for listening, we’ll see you guys next week!
[ENDING MUSIC]