GYMN-L Digest - 6 Mar 1995 to 7 Mar 1995 - Special issue

There are 16 messages totalling 1037 lines in this issue.

Topics in this special issue:

1. Tarasevich
2. American Cup - Men's Finals
3. American Cup, women's press conference
4. your mail
5. American Cup stuff (2)
6. American Cup - Men's Press Conference
7. NCAA Men's Rankings
8. moving to USA!!!
9. misc ramblings...
10. Korbut
11. Congrats to Unv. Alabama
12. scAM Cup
13. '95 French Nationals
14. AC thoughts
15. Temple v. PSU v. Syracuse

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Date: Tue, 7 Mar 1995 01:04:42 -0500
From: ***@MAGNUS.ACS.OHIO-STATE.EDU
Subject: Tarasevich

Brian mentioned that Svetlana did not throw her double-front off beam. I
have two guesses as to why. During training, I NEVER saw her hit it. She looked
so frustrated and sad; I felt really bad for her. During one training session I
watched as she tried it about 10 times in a row and fell every time. Then her
coach along and started yelling at her (she looked utterly expressionless). He
sat down to watch, and she still kept missing it. So it could be that she
decided beforehand not to try it in the competition. When we (NBC research)
interviewed her, she seemed a bit frustrated and said "nothing is working right
for me here." Could be she was affected by jet-lag. That's what Irina Bulakhova
attributed her poor performance to, and Sharipov added that it's very hard to
travel such a long way just to be here for a week. He said that once they've
adjusted to the time change, it's time to go back to Ukraine. But back to
Tarasevich, the other reason I'm thinking she might not thrown the double front
is, why bother after 2 falls? She obviously knew she'd been missing it in
could land. I felt bad for them because I, too would have liked to hav seen
them in finals, but both of them had a very rough time hitting things at every
practice. I was happy for Irina that she and Rustam finished 2nd in Mixed Pairs
(and would have finished first if she hadn't fallen from bars). Hopefully
Svetlana will have a better time at US-Belarus-China. :)

Beth

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Date: Mon, 6 Mar 1995 23:05:45 -0700
From: ***@RMII.COM
Subject: American Cup - Men's Finals

1995 McDonald's American Cup
Seattle Center Arena, Seattle, WA
March 4, 1995 - Finals

Men's competition

Well, many people said the women's meet was overscored, but let me
tell you, the men's judging was just as inflated. Many gifts were
given, but when it comes down to it, if everyone is getting gifts (and
everyone was), and the gymnasts were still ranked correctly (which
they were, for the most part), the scoring complaint begins to get
old. On to the gymnastics... but first my standard disclaimer that I
cannot make notes on men's gymnastics as easily as women's, so bear
with me if my report is somewhat limited. (IF a certain couple of
Gymn judges I met recently might sit down with me at a meet sometime
and explain the routines -- ahem -- then perhaps I'll improve in my
men's reporting skills. grin)

1. John Roethlisberger

John had a really good competition, and won the competition hands
down. He easily completes a double double mount on floor. His
pommels were clean. On rings, he threw another double double
(dismount). For vault, he threw a clean Kasamatsu (according to the
announcer -- I still can't distinguish a Kas vs a Tsuk) in the layout
position. It was hard to judge height from my position, but I thought
it was pretty. Parallel bars again went well for John, including two
Stutz's (I think they were Stutz's) to one bar, and an Arabian double
back dismount. Well, I'm not sure it should be called an Arabian
double back, but it was initiated from a front giant and consisted of
an immediate 1/2 twist into a double back dismount.

His high bar, as George has pointed out, was real eye-catching, and
included that release sequence that is a bit uncertain -- I still
think it was a 1-arm Jaeger (even watched the tape of his routine from
Worlds to double check, and Mayland and I both agree it's a Jaeger).
At any rate, his routine was very different from everyone else's, if
perhaps a bit easier too -- his dismount is a 1.5 twisting double
front over the high bar which looks spectacular, but given the fact
that he can complete a double double on floor, I would hazard to guess
that this dismount is a piece of cake for him. His score (9.737) was
too high, but like Kristy, it was his last event and he'd already won,
so perhaps the judges just gave it to him. The next highest high bar
score was 9.525 (Bill Roth - also too high).

Chalk up another win for Johnny R.

2. Dmitri Vasilenko

Vasilenko had a strong set of routines, with the best tumbling on
floor. He mounted with a double layout; had a middle pass of front
layout, front layout, front full layout (bent legs); and dismounted
with a full-in. He caught my eye on pommel horse by mounting directly
into flairs, but then fell off mid-routine to score a 9.075. Rings
saw him get back on track with two consecutive front giants to
inverted crosses, a nice piked Yamawaki (double front), and a piked
full-in dismount. Vasilenko continued to improve with the hardest
vault of the competition -- a double front, which he landed! He
landed in a low squat with his butt pretty close to the ground, but
nevertheless, it was cool. Pbars was his best score (9.675) but did
not leave me with much of an impression. I must be missing the
subtleties. His high bar had a neat combo of a Xiao Ruzhi release
(hecht-front) into an Endo swinging back and up over the bar -- except
that he lost some of the swing and had to muscle his way on the
upswing.

3. Rustam Sharipov

Sharipov was the only other gymnast to throw a double layout on floor,
although his legs were bent. He ended his floor with a double twist
punch front. He 1/2 in 1/2 out dismount on rings was nice, but his
inverts were too high. Pbars represented his best event, with a nice
Diamidov on the ends of the bars, a double front, two piked front
tosses (not consecutive), and a piked double back with a small hop
(9.712). High bar was a disappointment because although he caught his
Gaylord, he had to muscle himself back up, and he did only one
Tkatchev (I hope that most of you can remember his sequence of
Tkatchevs in the past when each one was almost higher than the last.)

4. Valeri Belenki

Belenki (again wearing crushed velvet -- what's up with that?) lost
the competition on pbars, scoring only an 8.85. He had a nice pair of
Diamidovs, but then lost his wheels on a Healy, Healy, double front
sequence. The second Healy got him off center, which resulted in him
being so off center that he couldn't catch the bars on his way down --
I've never seen anyone fall through like that. Belenki also botched
his handstand dismount on pommel horse (legs apart and totally bent),
which was a very deflating end to an otherwise great routine. Rings
was beautiful with a low invert, two Malteses, and a 1/2 in 1/2 out
layout dismount -STUCK.

5. Zoltan Supola

We mentioned how Dolgopolova competed two identical passes ending with
front fulls. Supola has her beat however, competing two pairs of
identical passes. He began with a double twist, punch front. His
second pass was a front handspring, front full. His third pass was
the same as his second, and his fourth pass was the same as his first!
Supi hit a great triple back dismount off of rings, and also
dismounted high bar with a triple.

6. Bill Roth

Bill, Bill, Bill. He wasn't even supposed to compete in this meet,
replaced Scott Keswick to pull in a set of good routines for third
place in prelims, and then choked on pbars in finals to fall to 6th.
He looked looser than usual, form-wise, but was his usual explosive
self on the floor, pretending to box with the cameraman and so forth.
Floor was fine for Roth, who mounted with a layout Thomas, and pommels
went all right, too. His weakest event is rings, where he missed
strength moves and picked up a lot of swing. On parallels, he missed
a back toss to one bar, and though he tried to cover by turn- ing to
one bar and then pirrouetting back in, it just wasn't there and he
fell through the bars. On high bar, his best event, he missed his
stoop through after his Gaylord II and fell against the bar. He
covered this slip well -- but I was surprised that the judges still
gave him a 9.525.

7. Hikaru Tanaka

Tanaka started off on the wrong foot by sitting on the pommel horse.
Floor immediately also went awry when he stepped out of bounds on the
first pass. He did, however, hit a nice rings routine with a double
layout dismount. He nearly ran over the camera man on his vault,
taking huge steps to the left. He still managed to score a 9.075 on
the vault however, which was a bit of a surprise. Pbars was his best,
with two secure double backs between the bars, and high bar also went
well with an immediate release (layout Voronin) and a full-twisting
double layout dismount.

8. Alexander Shostak

Shostak had a disappointing meet, falling off of pommel horse and
almost-missing skills on other events. For example, his invert on
rings was too high, was low on his Healy-double front- straddle cut on
pbars, stumbled on floor, and so forth. His best scores were on pbars
(9.45 -- must've been high in difficulty) and rings (9.375), and he
was actually one of the four gymnasts to have all 9.0+ scores (just
barely though, with a 9.0 and two 9.025's).

That's it for my notes on men's,

Yours in gymnastics, Rachele

[side note -- just spoke with Fred Turoff, Bill Roth's coach, who
tells me that Roethlisberger's release is a 1-arm straddled Jaegar
from an elgrip.]

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Date: Mon, 6 Mar 1995 23:07:57 -0700
From: ***@RMII.COM
Subject: American Cup, women's press conference

1995 McDonald's American Cup
Seattle Center Arena, Seattle, WA
March 4, 1995 - Finals

Women's Press Conference

Attendance: Kristy Powell, Tom and Lori Forster, Amanda Borden, Mary
Lee Tracy, Ana Maria Bican (her interpreter didn't show up so we were
not able to ask her any questions)

(Most questions asked by the general media.)

Q: (to Kristy) Can you comment on your routines tonight?

A: I was pleased with all of them. I was very happy with beam. I've
been trying to hit beam and make it the best routine, make it more
like floor -- and I think I did a better job of that, but I have a lot
of work to do still.

Q: question about her Rulfova, asking if her hand slapped the beam or
what it was to cause such a loud noise...

A: (Kristy laughs) Well, my hand hits the beam but there was also a
microphone underneath. So... yeah, we were trying to figure that out
too, and I think that's it. I know, it sounded loud.

Q: Can you describe that move?

A: You stand on the beam, and you do a backflip with a full twist in
the laid out position and then you (hesitates) straddle the beam
(Kristy and her coaches laugh).

Q: How are you supposed to land?

A: You're supposed to pretty much get your hands on first, and then
roll down. It doesn't hurt that much, because you have a lot of
adrenalin.

Q: Do you always get that kind of reaction from the crowd on that
particular move?

A: I think so, but I don't really hear the crowd that much when I'm
focusing.

Q: Is that a scary thing to practice? I mean, you must miss it a few
times (everyone laughs) before you actually hit it...

A: Yeah, sometimes it is. If I'm crooked, it kinda like sends a shock
to my outer leg and it hurts, but...

Lori: We practice it with a pad all the time...

Kristy: Yeah, we put a pad over the beam.

Q: (mumbled question, same topic)

A: It just sounded like I just slapped the beam, but I guess it was a
little louder than I thought. I didn't hear a thing. (Her coaches
laugh.)

Q: You came into this meet as the alternate. From the time you were
going to compete until now, did you have a strategy?

A: Well, I tried to come into this meet not being nervous at all, and
with a lot of confidence knowing that I can hit all my routines. And
I think I did a pretty good job of that. I think it's kinda neat
because Mary Lou was also the alternate to the American Cup and she
won that and went on to win the Olympics.

Q: Was there any performance today that you were nervous about?

A: Umm, I kinda got a sick feeling before bars (everyone laughs), but
other than that, nope!

Q: Amanda, you did a good job today, what are your feelings like?

A: Well, I didn't have the best meet I've ever had. I was a little
disappointed with the way my routines turned out, but I didn't have a
horrible meet. It's great to be able to go out and hit four events
but also still feel like I have a lot of room to improve. So I just
wasn't on the way I wanted to be today, but hopefully for Pan American
Games, I'll pull it all together.

Q: Does it help to know that the two events, vault and bars, that
aren't known as your best events, those were your good events today?

A: Yesterday, I had beam and floor, they were my better events, and
then today, vault and bars were strong but I had room to improve on
all of them, and so hopefully I can do that.

Q: Kristy and Amanda, the Atlanta is only 16 months away, what kind of
team do you think the American women's team will have, after this
weekend?

Kristy: I think we're going to be the strongest team the US has ever
had, and I hope that (pause) we can put it all together and hit.

Amanda: I feel the same. I think we have a lot of, like Kristy, we
have a lot of new gymnasts coming up so, I think for '96 we'll have a
really strong team.

Q: Tom and Lori, do you feel that Kristy's victory is going to be
sending a message to some of the established gymnasts in the US?

Tom: You know, I, our attitude coming in was really that we had two
good competitors, Doni Thompson and Kristy Powell. We knew it was
just an honor to be invited, because you don't qualify to this meet,
you have to be invited. So people have to think that you're contenders
to begin with to be here. We really kinda felt that our attitude
coming in was we had nothing to lose, we're the new kids on the block,
we really pretty much felt that Shannon and Amanda would be leading
the way, and our job is to hit all of our events, and be in a support
role in case one of them messed up so that the American Cup could stay
in America. And it turned out that's what happened, and we're just
really glad that it gets to stay here.

[end]

Rachele

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Date: Mon, 6 Mar 1995 22:16:00 PST
From: ***@POWERGRID.ELECTRICITI.COM
Subject: Re: your mail

>>Someone named Rulfova (CZE, I'm pretty sure) was the first to do it, but
>Shushunova (URS) popularized it
>
>Jana Rulfova (CZE)
>
>Mara

I'll belabor this one:

Rulfova did the skill along about '81 (Worlds, probably), but we saw a
Soviet do it in '79 on the TV coverage of the Spartakiad/pre-Olympics. Her
name was Valeria Schidunova (Zhidunova?) and she wore glasses on beam. (For
a move like that, I think I'd rather stay blind.)

The Korbut, obviously, was done by Olga, and it's more than just a
flip-flop swing-down: Hers was HUGE. And over a wood beam, too.

The Chen (Chen Cuiting/CHN, '86 and '90 Asian Games champ) came along in
'89. And again, few match the original - maybe Lisenko.

See ya,
Nancy

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Date: Mon, 6 Mar 1995 22:16:00 PST
From: ***@POWERGRID.ELECTRICITI.COM
Subject: American Cup stuff

Hi,

Just got back from a verrry cold Seattle (unusual for there) and read 100+
posts.

Comments I can't resist:

Women's coulda gone either way. Kristy had a gift or two, but not a big
joke like in the past. I'm sorry, patriots, but Kristie Phillips over Olga
Strazheva, a gymnast of an entirely different class in every way (and Brian
Ginsberg over Vladimir Gogoladze the same year, '87), sums up this meet for
me. Last year Dominique Dawes had no competition, to be sure. But Betty
Okino in '91 ... over anybody in a leotard? Oh-kay.

When we asked Rustam Sharipov (UKR) and his coach about John
Roethlisberger, they said nice things, but when we told them his high bar
score, they just laughed. Rustam was also pleased to hear I had named my
new cat after him. (Both have amazing upper bodies and goofy runs.)

The personable Bican was asked after Mixed Pairs if she thought she should
have won Saturday, she just grinned, then said she hadn't seen all of
Kristy's routines.

By the way, it's Aerials teammate Theresa Kullikowski who does the Jaeger-half.

I was happy for Kristy, having her first really good meet in a long while.
Add a little maturity (and better form on her beam tumbling) and you've got
a class gymnast. And her twists (V and UB) were ultra-cool.

Bican, like Rachele said, was pretty typically Romanian, except for not
throwing the cheap vault (sad to see Bican's double outscored by a
Hristakieva in Mixed Pairs, though Canqueteau has a fine one). Her tumbling
was awesome, dance and expression - well, Romanian. As in not really there.

Powell's choreography wasn't exactly goosebump time, but she was present
and accounted for.

Of course we were watching all those '80 videos of people like
Shaposhnikova (her beam compulsory should be in the Smithsonian) and
Mukhina. '95 just don't compare.

Tom Forster impresses me in general, but one bit stands out: After the
press conference Saturday, Glenn Sundby and I passed him in the hall. He
recognized Glenn, stopped to shake his hand and said, "It is an honor to
meet you, Mr. Sundby," and obviously meant it. (Glenn usually has to go
overseas for that kind of respect.)

How can Nyeste remind one of Onodi? She can move! And she has amplitude on
bars. At Mixed Pairs, she caught her original release debuted at Worlds,
which I assume will bear her name: She goes for a straddled flyway, then
does a half turn to catch. Way cool. Okay, so her leaps weren't great, but
remember we're comparing her with Onodi.

Incidentally, Nyeste, a well-proportioned 5-2 or better, did all this
without benefit of grips. (If we bought her a pair, would she use the low
bar?)

Look for sequences in the May IG, presuming airport security didn't
misplace my film the way they did my keys ...

I also "did" Dolgopolova's fab Def (like Pae Gil Su of North Korea, she
catches without a form break, I'm pretty sure) and Doni's hop 1-1/2
(impossible at Classic due to poor light).

One last bars note: Mina Kim's double layout made Podkopayeva (see 10/93
IG) look arched. Her body was straight as a ruler and head totally neutral.
Awesome. (Nope, only saw that one across the gym, sorry.) She also had a
nice save of an "oak tree" on beam (you know, the cheesy flip-flop quarter
turn thingie). She does the skill to dead handstand, then pikes through to
v-sit to layback, but she was leaning back a bit and nearly fell, hanging
vertically next to the beam. (Very impressive from the end-of-the-beam
view.) Through sheer determination, she pulled herself back up to her butt
and went on with the set with no further wobbles. The judges were suitably
kind, and NBC loves her. No doubt it'll make air.

Later,
Nancy

P.S. Our calendars in IG always go from the latest USAG calendar, at press
time. (There's the rub.) USAG seems a little confused about the two
internationals as far as who goes where... (George is pulling for BLR/CHN
to be in San Jose, right?) So which one is it this week?

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Date: Mon, 6 Mar 1995 23:12:18 -0700
From: ***@RMII.COM
Subject: American Cup - Men's Press Conference

1995 McDonald's American Cup
Seattle Center Arena, Seattle, WA
March 4, 1995 - Finals

Men's Press Conference

Attendance: John Roethlisberger, Bill Roth, Dmitri Vasilenko, Rustam
Sharipov, Fred Roethlisberger

Q: (to John) You pretty much breezed through the competition. Did you
have a game plan going in?

A: Yeah. My game plan is to hit. And you know, I was hoping for some
success, that I'd be first, but I didn't know for sure. That's my
game plan from here on out, it's been my game plan for a long time. I
can guarantee you I wouldn't have been up there if I didn't hit, so
you gotta start with yourself, and get your sets as good as you can.
You can't really worry about what the rest of the guys do.

Q: In terms of today's victory, how does it compare to other
victories, what does it mean?

A: At this moment it feels like it's the greatest thing ever, you
know, but you look back and in a lot of ways it is. American Cup is
pretty prestigious, and it means a lot to me in that respect, but
winning Nationals is a pretty big deal for me and I hope that down the
road I have some other accomplishments that'll eclipse this one. But
right now it feels pretty special.

Q: I'd like to ask Rustam and Dmitri about their performances
today...?

Translator for Dmitri: It was easier today than yesterday. He said he
felt it took a few days to get used to things. The first day he felt
out of it, today he had had time to adjust and he felt much calmer,
more relaxed.

Translator for Rustam: He doesn't like his work today, he did not
enjoy it. He played with some new elements and he didn't make it. He
doesn't feel so good about today. When he make horse, (vault,
pommel?), he feels like he is real tired. Today morning when he come
here, he just wanted to sleep.

Translator for Dmitri: Different time. It's morning, it's night.
When we come to gym, we go to sleep.

Translator for Rustam: He says he wants to sleep ALL the time. [Bill
Roth laughs.]

Q: (to John) What kind of team do you think the US is going to have in
1996?

A: I think it's going to be a good team. I think we have a lot of
guys that have been around since '92 and there's no substitute for
experience. We've got a lot of experience and we have a really solid
team. I'm real excited; I think in a lot of ways we compare to the
team in '84, where a lot of guys carried over from the '80 Olympics.
I think we're going to have a great team, a really good shot at a
medal, and I'm looking forward to that and hope I can contribute and
be a part of that experience.

Q: mumbled question about him being the team leader

A: Sometimes I like to be that leader, but if you watch how I compete,
a lot of times I get really wrapped up in what I'm doing, and I think
for that reason I not that kind of charismatic leader. Like Bill here
could be that, Bill is very energetic, outspoken and stuff. I think
as far as being a leader, I lead by example. In practice, in
competition. I consider myself a very hard worker, and even in that
respect, I think I'm a leader.

Q: At the end of the competition, at the end of your routine, you
pumped your fist. [These questions, I swear... -RH]. Is that what
you ordinarily do, was that out of the ordinary...

A: (John smiles) Well, throughout the competition, I try to keep my
cool. You know, after each event, I try to keep a level head, get
ready for the next apparatus... (he smiles) I was REALLY nervous
before high bar. I knew it was the last event and that's just what I
felt. I was just like, "yes!", you know, I was really nervous and I
was really excited, so I just had to let off a little steam.

Q: John, on parallel bars, the door kind of opened for you on that
particular event....

A: I didn't really know that at the time, but yeah, I guess it did.
Last year at the American Cup, I pretty much choked, major, on
parallel bars. And that cost me the competition. Needless to say,
that was running through my head again. It was the same rotation too,
I went first on vault last year and I went first on vault this year.
So I had a *long* wait before parallel bars, and I'm going "uh-oh,
here we go again, you know this is the same situation as last year,
I'm right in there, got this long wait on parallel bars, got to keep
my head on and get ready," and I was just really thankful that it
worked out. Both on parallel bars and high bar, I was just... re Q:
You listen to music on your Walkman?

A: Yes.

Q: What is it?

A: It's kind of a mix. The tape that I listened to today was actually
a tape that I made at a '89 training camp along with the guys we were
staying with in this little apartment. I just kind of kept it with
me.

Q: Is it rock?

A: It's *everything*. Rock, and rap, and everything. All kinds of
stuff. If you want a copy, you know [everyone laughs] just ask...

Q: Bill, can you talk about your performance, how you feel...?

A: I was actually very pleased, I'm probably the happiest one here
besides John. I came out here a week and a half ago, and I wasn't
supposed to compete. And at pretty much the last minute, they put me
in it. Making it to finals, I was happy so, pretty much whatever
happened today was pretty much icing on the cake. So, I was very
pleased with what I did today. I had a little problem on pbars, but
I'm not going to complain. To go from not competing to competing in
finals, I'm pretty happy.

Q: Coming back from vault, you said something like "I NEED the
kahoonis!" [Bill laughs] What does that mean?

A: [John laughs at Bill as he tries to answer] I should be sticking
more landings, I mean, I'm giving tenths away here and there, and I
just-- like on vault, for example. My feet were on the ground. I
wasn't moving, but I took a step. And I just need to, when I land,
have confidence in my landing. On high bar, I shoulda stuck that.
And I shoulda stuck floor. I stuck pommels though! [John laughs at
Bill.] That's what it breaks down to, I mean, I think I was just, as
I landed, I didn't wanna -- I felt a little bit off, so I didn't wanna
fall, so I took that step. But, deep down I know I didn't have to.

Q: Did you feel any pressure knowing you were leading after two
events?

A: No. After two events, rings -- I knew I was going to drop after
that. No, really, I was just very happy to be competing. Right now,
I don't even know if my parents know, well, they hopefully know now,
but before, they didn't know that I even competed, in prelims. So,
the last they heard, I wasn't going to compete. So it's probably going
to be a shock to them. So I was real happy to get to finals. I think
it shows that with men's gymnastics, they can pull someboday who's not
supposed to be in the competition, put them in a meet, and they can
compete with anybody else.

Q: Fred (Roethlisberger), why don't you give us your impressions of
John's performance?

A: Well, I just, he never ceases to amaze me when so much pressure is
on, I've seen him do it so many times. He's like a steel trap, the
way he competes, and he's teaching me. He's been the steadiest of the
US gymnasts over the last 4, 5 years, and he continues to show
leadership in hitting routines and just being as solid as a rock. I
was real impressed with him today again. As far as him being prepared
to compete, and competing like that, and again, this is to John's
credit, but he amazes me in the gym, because there's not one day out
of a week, a month, a year, that he doesn't make use out of every
minute of every workout. He never says "well, I'll do this tomorrow."
He never skips anything. He never takes a practice turn in the gym
without making it meaningful, every single time. And I don't know how
he can keep that much focus and that much intensity every practice the
entire year. But when it comes to a meet, it shows. That's the way
he practices.

Q: Does that come from your father?

A: (everyone laughs) No, actually, [John laughs.] we don't get along.
No, actually, it's in my family; my sister is my idol. If anybody
knows anything about my sister, it's that she is hard-core. She works
SO hard, she really does, and you know my dad, it's the same
thing. When he was young, he used to tell me how he used to be pretty
lousy on pommel horse. and -- sorry Dad (everyone laughs)-- and he
would just go and during practice, you know, five, six, eight sets
every day. He'd just go, and do them. It'd be him and the pommel
horse, you know, and that's what I've learned from my dad, and my
sister, and my dad's dad was the same way. And I've been brought up
that there's no substitute for hard work. Emotion and excitement,
that type of stuff is great, but that type of stuff will get you
through maybe one practice, and the next day, but when it comes right
down to it, you're going to be tired half the time you go into
practice and you just gotta work, and grind, and it ain't glamorous,
and a lot of times it isn't fun, but you've got a job to do, and so
quit whining and do it. You've gotta work your butt off.

[end]

Rachele

------------------------------

Date: Mon, 6 Mar 1995 23:46:20 -0700
From: ***@RMII.COM
Subject: American Cup stuff

| By the way, it's Aerials teammate Theresa Kullikowski who does the
Jaeger-half.

Dohh! (I did get it right in my Classic notes, do I get points for
that?) While we're at it, the second time I described Nyeste's stand
on low bar, I said the previous release was a Gienger, when it was a
Jaeger, as I originally stated.

| Tom Forster impresses me in general, but one bit stands out: After the

What strikes me is that he is the first recent male coach that I am
aware of that doesn't project a disciplinarian-ish (that's a nice way
of putting it) image. He seems to be "just a nice guy", which is an
unusual image for a male coach in women's gymnastics, at the very top
level.

| which I assume will bear her name: She goes for a straddled flyway, then
| does a half turn to catch. Way cool. Okay, so her leaps weren't great, but

At what point is the half turn? I'm imagining some sort of helicopter
type move at the moment which seems more or less impossible. ;)

Rachele

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 7 Mar 1995 00:36:51 -0700
From: ***@RMII.COM
Subject: NCAA Men's Rankings

Since the season has finished two months, I thought that Gymn at large
might be interested in how the teams and individuals are doing. Below
are the top 20 of each. Tomorrow night I will post on the women.

If you're new to Gymn -- every week I send out the most current
ranking (Monday-men and Tuesday - women) -- the top 20 all around
(both team and ind.) and also the top 20 on each event. If you want
to be on my distribution list, just send me a short note saying which
rankings you are intersted in receiving.


NATIONAL Ranking - All Around - By NCAA Average

1 Blaine Wilson 58.3167 Ohio State E
2 Grace 57.9667 Nebraska, U. of W
3 DARREN ELG 57.9333 Brigham Young W
4 Brian Yee 57.7333 Minnesota, U.of E
5 Puljic, Blaz 57.6000 New Mexico,U.of W
6 TONY PANSY 57.3333 Penn State E
7 Danny Akerman 57.2500 Temple Univ. E
8 MARSHALL STEVE 57.2000 Army E
9 Jay Thornton 56.9250 Iowa, U. of E
10 PORAT, OFRI 56.8333 Syracuse, U. of E
11 Kieffer 56.8167 Nebraska, U. of W
12 Dave Frank 56.5167 Temple Univ. E
13 Evangelist, Sha 56.4917 New Mexico,U.of W
14 JOSH STEIN 56.4667 Stanford Univ. W
15 Goncalo Macedo 56.3167 Illinois, U. of E
16 ROY MALKA 56.0000 Penn State E
17 Christie 55.9333 Nebraska, U. of W
18 Rodney Gendron 55.9167 Ohio State E
-- Gary Thagard 55.9167 New Mexico,U.of W
20 Brian Franson 55.8000 W. Michigan E

NATIONAL Ranking - TEAM TOTALS - By NCAA Average

1 Nebraska, U. of 228.6167 W
2 Penn State 228.5500 E
3 Iowa, U. of 228.5083 E
4 New Mexico,U.of 228.0333 W
5 Ohio State 227.8667 E
6 Temple Univ. 227.5333 E
7 Minnesota, U.of 226.6583 E
8 Berkeley, UC 226.6333 W
9 Stanford Univ. 225.3167 W
10 Illinois, U. of 225.3000 E
11 Michigan, U. of 224.6750 E
12 Syracuse, U. of 224.5667 E
13 Brigham Young 224.4500 W
14 Mass., U. of 223.2417 E
15 Illinois-Chic. 223.1833 E
16 Oklahoma, U. of 222.4000 W
17 Army 222.1000 E
18 Navy 220.8833 E
19 W. Michigan 220.5833 E
20 Air Force Acad. 219.5000 W

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 7 Mar 1995 13:59:14 +0100
From: ***@LTHMALMO.MALMO.LTH.SE
Subject: moving to USA!!!

HI everybody

I have been a member of the Gymn for about 2 weeks now , and I already
love to read every mail I'm getting .

I'm 20 year old and I'm living in Sweden . If you have read my
intro.-letter you know that I love gymnasitics . A big dream I have
is to move to USA and study and train on a University .
If anyone have any contacs at any University please , please write
to me !!!!!
If anyone have information about what I shall do , please , please
write to me!!!!

In Sweden I'm studing Mecanical engineering .
I score between 48 and 51. (I'm a member of the Swedish national team)


Write to me as soon as possible !!

Henrik

------------------------------

Date: Mon, 6 Mar 1995 10:49:56 -0500
From: ***@PERFIT.ZKO.DEC.COM
Subject: misc ramblings...

Went to the New England Championships this weekend at MIT. Overall it was a
good meet with UMass winning with ~225, Springfield with ~205, and I can't
remember the other team scores. I really have been pretty bad about watching
gymnastics lately, either getting out to Amherst to see UMass, or catching it
on TV. Half of the gymnasts discussed on this forum I've never seen on TV.
Anyways, this weekend was no exception. I had to leave the meet on Saturday
after the fourth round or so since we were having friends over for dinner. Get
home to flip on the TV, catch Bill Roth's disaster on p-bars and half of Amanda
Borden's beam set when the company arrives. TV off. Jeez.

At the meet, I did catch some nice sets, like UMass' Kevin Schwartz ring set.
Although it didn't deserve the 9.95 it scored, it was pretty nice. I did catch
a few of MIT's (and gymn's) Chris Ellefson's routines (once I looked in the
program and matched name to face). Good high bar and floor sets!

As I'm watching floor, a number of the guys are finishing with a round off,
whip, layout, and getting scores of 9.4, etc. As I was about to leave, I
stopped by the UMass bench to talk with my old coach Roy Johnson and he tells
me that this combination is a C. So it makes no difference if you dismount with
this or a double tuck. Give me a break!!

I've *never* seen so much front tumbling in my life. I saw routines where
guys didn't even do round offs! Not to mention the gymnast whose floor set
consisted of forward rolls, cartwheels, turns, and a planche. Huh? (I know
I shouldn't say anything bad about this, and the guy was just doing his best,
but it took me by surprise).

One thing that struck me while watching floor was that when someone crashed big
time (which I saw *alot* of), they seemed to crash softly and lightly. No big
thuds and thumps. They'd just get up, adjust their spinal column and continue.
Truly amazing.

Found out I still have a phobia of watching high bar dismounts from anyone who
isn't Olympic caliber.

Judges. What do they do for a *real* job? Obviously you can't make a living
out of judging college men's gymnastics, but what about meets that take place
during the week? Meet official and judge Peter Bacon looks the same as he did
15 years ago (good for him). I also knew two of the other judges, Dale
Johnston with whom I went to UMass, and Rich Ellis who I competed against
in high school and college (he went to Southern Connecticut). Excellent
gymnast.

One other thing. While sitting in the stands, I realized I looked more like the
parents of these kids instead of one of the gymnasts. Pretty sad realization.


Steve

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 7 Mar 1995 09:23:03 -0500
From: ***@MINERVA.CIS.YALE.EDU
Subject: Korbut

> The Korbut, obviously, was done by Olga, and it's more than just a
> flip-flop swing-down: Hers was HUGE. And over a wood beam, too.

A Korbut is definitely more than just a ff swing down -- originally, in the
latest Code, the Korbut was a C and the ff swing down a B, but they
decided to make them both B's. I'd say probably because it would invite
too much hair-splitting and abuse in deciding what (and whose) counts as a B
and what counts as a C.

:)
Adriana

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 7 Mar 1995 15:36:40 EST5EDT
From: ***@MERC.RX.UGA.EDU
Subject: Congrats to Unv. Alabama

Hello!!

My congratulation to the University of Alabama Gymnastics Team
and Amanda for their win over the Univ. of Georgia. I was there and
Alabama was clearly better than Georgia that night. The crow noise
did not bother me as much as some of the scores given to Alabama
gymnasts. Although, let me make clear that there was no way for the
Georgia team to win with the poor performance the Georgia gymnasts
had.

There were over 12,000 fans in Alabama. It was very exciting to
see that size of a crow. Stephanie Woods, beam routines is gorgeous.
She has one of the best routine in college gymnastics today.
Although, as a level 10 judge, I will have to say that she needs to
do a harder dismount if she wants to be NCAA beam champion. A double
full will be ok with me.

Raul
University of Georgia
Go Bulldogs!!!!!
#1 Women Gymnastic Team in the USA

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 7 Mar 1995 15:07:00 PST
From: ***@MVS.OAC.UCLA.EDU
Subject: scAM Cup

In 1987 Kristie Phillips beat Olga Strazheva... who hit

In 1990 Zmeskal beat Kalinina

In 1991 Betty Okino got a 10 on vault, Kim a 10 on floor

Is that enough evidence for the scAM cup? Thats just the womens scores.
The mens are just as bad.


1987 might have been the worst year, scAm cup wise... Olga deserved
to win by about .8

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 7 Mar 1995 23:27:00 UTC
From: ***@GENIE.GEIS.COM
Subject: '95 French Nationals

From the March 6th issue of _l'Equipe_, here are results from the French
Nationals. There is no article accompanying the results, so I can only
guess that Karbanenko is in the process of becoming a French citizen...

Men's AA:

1. Dmitri Karbanenko (RUS) 110.100
2. Patrice Casimir (Antibes) 108.850
3. Eric Poujade (Orleans) 106.900
4. Sebastien Tayac (Antibes) 106.800
5. Bernard Pellard (Epinay...) 105.400

Women's AA:

1. Laetitia Begue (Monaco) 76.225
2. Elvire Teza (Reunion) 75.613
3. Furnon (Nimes) 74.163
4. Gely (Marseille) 73.313
5. Popa (Nimes) 72.688

Men's EF:

FX: 1. Karbanenko 9.70 2. Aymes 9.50 3. Laurent 9.10
PH: 1. Poujade & Casimir 9.60 3. Tayac 9.10
R: 1. Casimir 9.10 2. Aymes 9.05 3. Tayac 8.70
V: 1. Coponat 9.20 2. Geria 9.075 3. Aymes 9.072
PB: 1. Karbanenko 9.40 2. Casimir 9.40 3. Astashov 9.25
HB: 1. Tayac 9.45 2. Laurent 9.35 3. Bonvallet 9.00

Women's EF:

V: 1. Begue 9.80 2. Teza 9.435 3. Popa 9.25
UB: 1. Begue & Teza 9.75 3. Furnon 9.575
B: 1. Furnon 9.25 2. Begue 8.775 3. Teza 8.70
FX: 1. Teza 9.825 2. Begue 9.80 3. Furnon 9.375

Debbie

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 7 Mar 1995 18:43:35 -18521200
From: ***@MADRAD.RADIOLOGY.WISC.EDU
Subject: AC thoughts

Hello everyone,
Finally made it back to Madison after our
flight was changed four times (due to weather and
equipment failure). (Nancy R., Mark and I thought
Seattle's weather was very nice (warm); we even
went climbing!) I'm sorry I didn't introduce
myself to all the gymners there (I did meet
Michelle though); should've known that we would
all be sitting in the same area (the 1st callers).
For what it's worth, here are my thoughts
on the American Cup:
women's- I liked Shannon Miller's new fx routine,
even if she did have to pull hard to make her last
full in. Eileen Diaz' vault really scared me; she
consistently placed her hands in front of the horse
vault, which gave her no post flight at all. Her
tumbling on beam and fx was also very low, but I was
impressed with her double layout/full out dismount
on bars. Kristy Powell has really improved on her
form, as did Bican. Bican sure has a pretty smile,
and she seems to give those out more freely than the
other Romanian gymnasts. Little Mina Kim reminded
me of Kim Gwang Suk (except she has her front teeth).
Felt Cecile Canquentue was consistently underscored,
felt bad for Boulakhova, Tarasevitch, and Li Jiya
(not their day). Beth, did you notice that Tarasevitch
was crying after practicing her double front fulls on
floor (sore ankles)? It was probably made worse by
all her attempts on a double front dismount off beam.

men's- The one thing that really impressed me about
Roethlisburger was his concentration; unbelievable
concentration and consistent results. I liked his
double double on floor. Felt bad about Belenki's
misfortune on pbars (I missed it), but he was complaining
about his shoulder to his coach prior to his high bar
performance. Shostak too didn't have a good day, but
this guy has potential (nice form). Didn't watch
Vasilenko too much. It was nice to see Bill Roth have
so much fun competing.

Lani.

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 7 Mar 1995 19:38:24 -0500
From: ***@PHARM.MED.UPENN.EDU
Subject: Temple v. PSU v. Syracuse

Temple Univ.
FX PH R V PB HB
Danny Akerman 960 970 960 920 945 965
Dubie Bader 910 975 920 945 970
Christian Collins 940 950 875
Dave Frank 940 935 975 900 965 970
Darin Gerlach 975 925 925
Carl Imhauser 905 940
Jason Krane 895
Jason Rushton 950
Kenny Sykes 965 940 945
Aaron Vexler 945 910 955 910 895 965
3845 3795 3865 3675 3800 3870 22850


Penn State
FX PH R V PB HB
Tom Ellefson 960 890 910 980
Roy Malka 935 940 955 920 900 970
JeanMarc Michel 905 950 920 910 945
Tony Pansy 975 945 965 840 970 965
Lee Ricketts 955 880 910 900 935 965
Dave Riordan 955 940 905 900 965
Brandy Woods 970 865 940
3855 3785 3810 3640 3780 3880 22750


Syracuse Univ.
FX PH R V PB HB
James Bacik 870
Mark Bechtold 905 925
Joe Buscaglia 960 865 945 915 890
Michael Emmons 950 835 925 880
Shane Geraghty 865 930 905 830
Charles Goicoechea 835
Craig Holt 935 970 885 910
Richard Kuenzler 970
Walter Kurfis 835 825
Tom Moss 895 885 855
Ofri Porat 965 920 970 945 815 920
Mark Weber 955 890 950
3830 3625 3815 3675 3690 3490 22125
ALL-AROUND
FX PH R V PB HB TOTAL
Danny Akerman 960 970 960 920 945 965 57.20 1 Temple Univ.
Dave Frank 940 935 975 900 965 970 56.85 2 Temple Univ.
Tony Pansy 975 945 965 840 970 965 56.60 3 Penn State
Roy Malka 935 940 955 920 900 970 56.20 4 Penn State
Aaron Vexler 945 910 955 910 895 965 55.80 5 Temple Univ.
Lee Ricketts 955 880 910 900 935 965 55.45 6 Penn State
Ofri Porat 965 920 970 945 815 920 55.35 7 Syracuse Univ.

This was an excellent meet, and the first time that
Temple has beaten Penn State in a dual meet in 25 years.

Mayland

------------------------------

End of GYMN-L Digest - 6 Mar 1995 to 7 Mar 1995 - Special issue
***************************************************************