GYMN-L Digest - 21 Oct 1995

There are 8 messages totalling 401 lines in this issue.

Topics of the day:

1. Selection for Olympic Team
2. PRESS RELEASE: 1995 SUBWAY WORLD GYMNASTICS CHALLENGE
3. DELEGATIONS: 1995 Subway World Gymnastics Challenge
4. CBC Coverage of Worlds (2)
5. Zmeskal at nationals?
6. A Chinese Gymnast
7. MEDIA (UK) & Romanians

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Date: Sat, 21 Oct 1995 19:06:08 -0400
From: ***@Q.CONTINUUM.NET
Subject: Selection for Olympic Team

Anyone know what will constitute the selection process for the US women's
Olympic team? Is there any regret from TPTB over what they did to Kim Kelly
in 1992 or is the same type of process being contemplated for 1996?
With so many slots destined to go to repeat Olympians (Miller, Strug, Dawes,
possibly Zmeskal) and a seemingly sure bet that Moceanu's spot is
"reserved," that leaves many talented gymnasts to compete for just a few
openings. I wonder how the USGF will ensure that the above named people
will win their spots and not lose to lesser known gymnasts if there are
injuries - I definitely see another fiasco looming.
I gotta think the men's way is better....they don't allow petitioning onto
the team, right? Selection is very straight forward.

Just a note about the Worlds - I thought the coverage was hands down better
than NBC. They showed lots of routines and the chatter about the gymnasts'
personal lives was kept to a minimum while the routines were going on. Ah,
I wish ABC were covering the Olympics! My only complaint was the camera
angle for the floor and beam - I would have liked to see a side view, not
head-on view of the tumbling sequences on both these events.

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Date: Sat, 21 Oct 1995 18:59:49 -0400
From: ***@CAPITALNET.COM
Subject: PRESS RELEASE: 1995 SUBWAY WORLD GYMNASTICS CHALLENGE

[My edits are in square brackets. -- Grace]

SUBWAY WORLD GYMNASTICS CHALLENGE
HAMILTON '95

September 13, 1995

The road to Atlanta is paved with superstars as Canada takes on the
world's best at the Subway World Gymnastics Challenge

Toronto -- With the World Championships and the Atlanta Olympics looming
in the near future, Canada's top-ranked gymnast are testing their talents
by competing against the world's best at the Subway World Gymnastics Challenge
presented by Alberto VO5 on November 12 at Hamilton's Copps Coliseum.

Featuring world-class gymnasts from such top-ranked countries including the
United
States, China and Russia, the event will be a major international showcase
featuring
four Canadians competing for all-around honors and cash prizes in the field of
gymnastics.

Sponsored by Subway franchisees of Canada and organized by the Canadian and
Ontario Gymnastics Federations, the event boasts a select 20 competitor
field which is one of
the strongest ever assembled outside of an official World Championship.

"The Subway franchisees of Canada are honoured to be the sponsors of the 1995
Subway World Gymnastics Challenge and we are thrilled to welcome the
high-calibre of gymnasts to this exciting event," says Terry Hughes,
International Representative of
Subway's Chainwide Advertising Board. "Our support of this event is a
natural extension of our belief in a healthy lifestyle and our community
involvement. Since
coming to Canada in 1986, Subway franchisees have been actively involved in
their
respective communities, support amateur athletes in a wide range of sporting
activities. We wish all the athletes every success in the upcoming Challenge."

Canada will be represented by Alan Nolet, [1994 Commonwealth Games Gold
Medalist]
and 2nd place finish all-around 1994 Soapberry Shop World Gymnastics Challenge,
and Kris Burley, 1995 Canadian Men's National Champion. On the women's side,
scheduled to compete will be Canada's reigning National Co-Champion All Around
and Canadian Champion on beam and floor, Jennifer Exaltacion and Theresa Wolf,
member of the 1995 Pan American Games Women's Team.

Among the invited athletes from the other participating countries will be
China's
[Huang Huadong] and [Li Dashuang], members of the 1994 World Champion Team which
finished first ahead of Russia at the November 1994 games. Russia's newest
phenomenons - [Evgeni Podgorni] and Alexei Bondarenko -- second place
finishers at
the 1994 Dortmund World Championships, will also be competing. Also, scheduled
to appear is [Liu Xuan] and [Ji Liya] -- China's tenacious young women
whose team
placed 4th at the 1994 World Team Championships in Dortmund.

Female gymnasts will compete on four apparatus -- beam, floor, uneven bars, and
vault, while the men's side vie for top scores on six apparatus -- rings,
pommel horse,
vault, floor, high bar and parallel bars. Prizes will be awarded for
overall highest
scores as well as best scores on individual apparatus.

The 1995 Subway World Gymnastics Challenge presented by Alberto VO5 will be
captured on CBC in a two-hour special that will be aired on Saturday December 2
from 3:00pm to 5:00pm [EDT].

Ticket Information:
Tickets go on sale September 13 and are available at Copps Coliseum Box Office
or through Ticketmaster (416) 870-8000 (Toronto) or (905) 645-5000 (Hamilton).
[(613) 755-1111 (Ottawa)]

Ticket prices are as follows: $25, $20, $15, $10 [Canadian dollars]
(Groups of 20 or more are eligible for a 10% discount)

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Date: Sat, 21 Oct 1995 19:00:48 -0400
From: ***@CAPITALNET.COM
Subject: DELEGATIONS: 1995 Subway World Gymnastics Challenge

1995 SUBWAY WORLD GYMNASTICS CHALLENGE
Copps Coliseum, Hamilton, Ontario
November 12, 1995

Delegations as of October 19, 1995

MEN WOMEN
Russia Alexei Bondarenko Oxana Fabrichnova
Evgeni Podgorni Elena Grosheva
Coach: Valeri Alfosov Leonid Arkaev
Judge: Vladimir Somsikov Lubov Andrianova

China Huang Huadong Liu Xuan
Li Dashuang Ji Liya
Coach: Pan Chenfei Guo Xinmin
Zhou Qiurui
Judge: Feng Daijun Zhou Xiaolin

USA 2 gymnasts TBD 2 gymnasts TBD
1 coach 1 coach
1 judge 1 judge

Romania Mirela Tugurlan
Alexandra Marinescu
Coach: Stefan Gal
Judge: Eliza Stoica

Germany Oliver Walther
Peter Nikilerow
Coach: Uwe Ronneburg
Judge: Dr. Joerg Fetzer

Canada Kris Burley Jennifer Exaltacion
Alan Nolet Theresa Wolf
Jason Hardabura Marleen Lavoie
Travis Romagnoli Yvonne Tousek
Coach: Yegor Kolesnikov Leonid Grakovsky
Dave Arnold Debbie Vidmar
Lorne Bobkin Alex Bard
Svetlana Degteva
Valerie Oudin
Elvira Saadi
Judge: Hardy Fink Lise Simard (HJ)
Danny Gaudet Kathy Stoesz
Bill Hubbard Fay Weiler
Andre Vallerand Judy Henderson

[By the looks of this list, with eight judges altogether, there will be
two men's and two women's events competing simultaneously.]

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Date: Sat, 21 Oct 1995 16:29:18 -0800
From: ***@UVAIX.UVIC.CA
Subject: CBC Coverage of Worlds

Dear Fellow Gymners:
Hi guys! I just watched the Canadian coverage of the Worlds and I
must say the I was impressed. Kudos to Scott Russell and Carol Orchard
(anybody know whether or not she is still coaching at Sport Seneca?) for
exellent non-biased coverage. They only had an hour and a half in order to
squeeze in the Mens and Womens Team and AA. This is probably the only TV
staton that gives equal coverage of men and women. Tomorrow morning they
are going to be showing the Men's and Woman's EF and if anybody wants the
full routines of all the medalists then I will do my best to post it here.
Us Northeners are really lucky to get gymnastics from two perspertives.
They showed a few of the Canadian routines and by the looks of it we did
pretty well. I recognized all of the Canadian gymnasts because i saw them
when i went to see the Nationals in Vancouver this year. I'm glad that
they showed Stephani Cappuchitti's bar routine which was highlighted with a
sky high LAYOUT JAEGER!! She had beautiful form on this event. Fellow
B.C. boy Richard Ikeda was spectacular on Opt. PH and comp. high bar, but I
bet he really struggled on rings and floor. Allen Nolet from the looks of
things did not have his best meet here which is a shame, because when he is
on top of his game his up there with the best of them especially on floor
and high bar. Neither Alex Bard (Women's coach) or the men's coach (Sorry,
I forgot his name!:) were pleased with their teams performances, but I
think that Svetlana Degteva (Lena Degteva's mom and coach) said it best
when she said that the scores were low because the judges were very
unfamiliar with the Canadian team as a whole. Since the Canadians don't
get invited to a whole lot of international meets, the judges don't really
know what to expect from them at, say a World champs. They didn't come
away with any medals or an Olypic Berth, but they do get to send 3 men and
women to Atlanta next year. So who knows? Maybe Sydney will be different.
As an aside they did do a quickie profile on Bogie and during the profile
CBC said that her presence in Sabae was a real inspiration to the entire
Belarussian team. Yeah, fat chance! By the way I think her surgically
altered top teeth make her look like a gunie pig (sorry, I had to say
that!). Well that's all for now! So who says that Gymn Forum focuses only
on US Gymnasts? Not I says I:)

PAUL
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Date: Sat, 21 Oct 1995 19:33:52 -0400
From: ***@CAPITALNET.COM
Subject: CBC Coverage of Worlds

Hi All!

I just finished watching Air Canada's presentation of the Sabae World
Championships on CBC (the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation). In an
hour-and-a-half, they showed the team competitions and the all-around
competitions. The commentators were Carol Orchard and Scott Russell,
and they were extremely positive.

A few key notes:

- There were no height and weight stats.

- They showed Canadian team performances (nobody qualified for AA).
Men: So Canadian judge Hardy Fink composedthe men's P-bars compulsory, eh?
Alan Nolet and coach Dave Arnold, Kris Burley were interviewed.
How about them black pants and shorts the men wore in optionals? They
looked likesuperheroes. Women: They showed compulsories. They started on
beam in both compulsories and optionals, unfortunately. They showed
Stephanie Cappuccitti's Layout Jaeger. Svetlana Degteva (Lena's mom and
coach), Marilou Cousineau (en francais), and coach Alex Bard were
interviewed.

- There were good 'tweener pieces "Chalk Talk" (about pommel horse and
vaulting), "Divas" (about Svetlana Boguinskaya and Nadia Comaneci), and
"Japanese
Artistry" (cultural stuff -- lacquer craft).

- They showed Boguinskaya's floor routine and a great interview. Her English
is so ... um ... er ... American.

- They recognized Shannon Miller's performance as "gutsy" and
"commendable". They didn't show her bar routine.

- Coaches Steve Nunno and Octavian Belu were interviewed on team competition.

- They interviewed Vitaly Scherbo after his all-around. He was his usual
candid self, clearly disappointed with the judging.

Event finals are on CBC TOMORROW , Sunday October 22,from 1:30pm to 4:00pm
Eastern Time. I've got three VCRs...

Regards,

Grace

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Date: Sat, 21 Oct 1995 20:28:00 -0400
From: ***@CAPITALNET.COM
Subject: Re: Zmeskal at nationals?

Deb wrote:
>I read in a recent digest that Kim Zmeskal was invited to participte at
>National Championships. I think it is fantastic that she is finally making her
>come bck, but is that really fair to other girls who will lose a chance to
>compete?

Oooh... this is sounding like figure skating's re-instatement controversy(ies).
IMHO, I don't think Kim should bump off somebody else's chances to compete at
Nationals. Whether she makes the team is all up to her and the judges...
(and USAG ... and coaches ... and the 7-6-5 thing ... and ... ;^)

It's much more sour in figure skating -- teams are much smaller. For
example, there is only one Canadian woman that goes to the next World
Figure Skating Championships. :^(

Nevertheless, I wish "Kimbo" all the best in her comeback.

Regards,

Grace
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Date: Sat, 21 Oct 1995 20:28:03 -0400
From: ***@CAPITALNET.COM
Subject: A Chinese Gymnast

Jennifer's post on the Chinese inspired me to share this poignant story,
though I cannot comment on alleged abusive coaching practices.

One day this past summer, an expatriate Chinese woman came to our gym to
ask for help. Apparently her daughter is a rising junior star in China.
The child has solid gold medals, worth thou$ands apparently. She is so
promising that this woman cannot get her out of China now. It's like the
child has become property of the state, just another proletariat worker
bee. The mother was contemplating the possibility that her daughter could
come to Canada and train at our gym and continue to represent China. She
even promoted that the child would live with our coach.

This notion, I speculate, comes from the fact that skater Chen Lu spends
much of her training time in Los Angeles. And this has contributed to her
world title. The only difference is that Chen is benefiting from a broader
base of coaching in LA that cannot be found at home in China. Now, what do
WE have to offer to a Chinese gymnast? We being the 15th-ranked team, eh?
Toller Cranston's choreography, perhaps? ;^)

Now, this mother and daughter will be separated a hemisphere away, for this
most special time in the child's life. And to think I used to dream about
doing gymnastics in China.

Dismayed,

Grace

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Date: Sat, 21 Oct 1995 21:19:52 -0400
From: ***@AOL.COM
Subject: Re: MEDIA (UK) & Romanians

>I had some hesitation about posting this because it's long and likely
to be of limited interest to non-UK subscribers . . . so I hope the stateside
majority will bear with me this once.

I'd like to make a comment here. Just because the majority of Gymn
subscribers are from the US does *NOT* mean that the views, information,
interests, etc. are any less important than those of US subscribers. Please
continue to post!!!

------
Regarding the Romanians:

>I'm not sure where Bican and Ghimpu train, but their absence in Sabae makes
me wonder if they're from Bucharest.

Actually, they're both from Deva.

>The future of Romanian gymnastics is in Bucharest.
'More than half the team [for Atlanta '96] is going to be from Bucharest,'
says
Comaneci. Which means Eliza Stoica will most likely replace Octavian Belu as
national coach."

It was said in Sabae that Octavian Belu will be Olympic Coach for 1996, but
who knows after that?

>Alexandra Marinescu is one of the rising stars from Bucharest, and IMO, she
was "penalized" in Sabae by Belu for being from the "wrong" club. She had to
perform early on every event, which really hurt her chances to make
AA and EF.

I must agree here. Both Marinescu and Claudia Presecan (the only two on the
Sabae team from Triumf Bucharest) were put up too early in comparison to
their teammates on most events.
Marinescu should have been in the AA instead of Amanar.

>I'd be interested in seeing a breakdown of the Romanian team members by
club, if anyone can provide this

Cetate Deva -- Milosovici, Gogean, Amanar, Cacovean, Hategan (who only
competed optional bars)

Triumf Bucharest -- Presacan, Marinescu

Mara

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End of GYMN-L Digest - 21 Oct 1995
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