Gymnastics News #21 - Tumbling on to Tokyo

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VIETgrlTerifa said:
I mean men and women skaters train together and it seems fine, right? I'd be more fearful of doctors and coaches myself. Plus it's a training camp, so I'm sure it'll be highly regimented as it was during Marta's day.
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True, and the female gymnasts tend to be younger and less physically mature than the men. I would hate to see a scandal where we can't send a women's team to Worlds because all of them got pregnant at training camp.
 
VIETgrlTerifa said:
I mean I seriously doubt that would happen.
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I hope that will never happen. It would bring even more scandal to USA Gymnastics. We have enough issues with Steve Penny and all the people and events that occurred under his watch. It's also amazing to go through the banned members list. Some of these people are decorated coaches and gymnasts.
 
tylersf said:
That might be a smart move. There are so many weddings in June anyway. I think a September/October wedding is much nicer, and maybe calmer.
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It's just odd that they already set the date but then changed it a few months beforehand. Many wedding vendors make you pay in advance, so it must be expensive for them to change it although money probably isn't an issue for them.
 
Gazpacho said:
It's just odd that they already set the date but then changed it a few months beforehand. Many wedding vendors make you pay in advance, so it must be expensive for them to change it although money probably isn't an issue for them.
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I thought it was just me thinking that. But they are doing it all backwards...meaning that I would never buy a house with a man I wasn't married to. Live together if you must (although I don't think I would ever do that again, either). But something here isn't quite right.
 
FiveRinger said:
I thought it was just me thinking that. But they are doing it all backwards...meaning that I would never buy a house with a man I wasn't married to. Live together if you must (although I don't think I would ever do that again, either). But something here isn't quite right.
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Maybe the house is in her name only? I don't know what he does or his family background, but I imagine she's much richer, and I think it was a rather expensive house that I wouldn't expect someone of his age to afford half of.
 
Gazpacho said:
It's just odd that they already set the date but then changed it a few months beforehand. Many wedding vendors make you pay in advance, so it must be expensive for them to change it although money probably isn't an issue for them.
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I think if you have issues, better to work on them before marriage. However the last couple I knew who postponed and then married-got divorced.

But still, its a mark of maturity IMO to postpone but work on your issues than get married because you paid the venders etc.
 
Given that we have had a few discussions about Vanessa Atler her recently, I figured there would be more than one person here would be interested in the GymCastic interview with her that came out today:
https://gymcastic.com/254-vanessa-atler/

Long interview, but very interesting and answers a lot of questions, in particular why she left the Rybackis without talking to them, the whole story behind the possibility of Bela coaching her, etc. Once again, it just reminds me what a sad story the whole thing was and how she was just a kid and the adults around her were (a) not looking out for her best interests and (b) not paying attention to the signals she was giving off and what she was too afraid to say. It's something that any parent or a coach of an elite athlete should listen to in order to understand what not to do and what should/could have been done differently.
 
I always respect Atler for engaging with people on social media who were vehemently doubting those who claimed to have been sexually assaulted during their gymnastics career, specifically by Nassar who acted like there's no way the women could be telling the truth, and expressing her support for the the women.
 
VIETgrlTerifa said:
I always respect Atler for engaging with people on social media who were vehemently doubting those who claimed to have been sexually assaulted during their gymnastics career, specifically by Nassar who acted like there's no way the women could be telling the truth, and expressing her support for the the women.
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I agree and I also liked how she addressed the Nassar allegations in the GymCastic interview - she talked about how yes, he had always been pleasant to her and hadn't sexually assaulted her, but that didn't mean that the other women were lying and again expressed her support for them.

It was interesting that in a weird way, Nassar is responsible for this interview with her...he had been on GymCastic years ago and made a very thinly veiled reference to Atler where he discussed a letter that "a gymnast" had written that resulted in him being banned from the Ranch for a while in 99-00 and the details he gave made it clear that he was referring to Atler without saying her name. The story Nassar told was that "a gymnast" wanted Bela to coach her and when it didn't end up happening, she got upset wrote this letter to USAG claiming that she had been lied to by Larry who told her that Bela had been abusive or something along that lines. And supposedly Nassar wasn't allowed at camp for a period after that. She must have just recently heard that interview and wanted to come on the show and be interviewed herself to clear up the fact that while someone around her may have written that letter (she suspects her mom or her agent), she herself never did.

In another twist, while I understand Atler wanting to make it clear that she wasn't actually such a prima donna as Nassar portrayed her as being in his interview, I kind of think whoever actually did write that letter should take credit for it. That person probably saved the girls at camp from a few months of extra abuse from him, sad as it is to say.
 
I bought a $1 pair of headphones and listened to the interview on my phone yesterday while I was working (seriously, it made me hate my job a whole lot less, so I'm probably going to be doing that more often) and was totally impressed with Vanessa and how open she was about everything. She answered a lot of questions that were never answered that the gymnastics community swirled around for years, and debunked some of the rumors as well. It's definitely worth a listen if you were following the sport in the late 90's. I'm glad she's moved on, found some closure, and solved a lot of her problems since then. It sounds like she was definitely not in a good place in ~1999-2000 and it seemed that the adults that she was surrounded by didn't have her best interests to heart.
 
@Erin, thanks for sharing the Atler interview. It was very interesting and rather damning toward USAG. Gymcastic is doing the gym world a real service by collecting the stories of these athletes. And in a figure skating-related segue, I wish anyone who wants USFS to be more like USAG would listen to interviews with athletes such as Atler, Melanie Sinclair, and others who've gone through the camps. Giving absolute power to abusive leaders resulted in medals, but also sexual assault, disordered eating, shaming, etc. The end does not justify the means.
 
I found it pretty eye-opening that she said Liukin weighed her 3 times per day. I hope since she's made that information public that he's not going to be doing that as Team Coordinator.

In fact, with all the shit that's been going down with USAG lately, on top of this interview that aired so much of their dirty laundry, I imagine they're going to have a lot of eyeballs on them to make sure they aren't continuing such practices.
 
I listened to the full interviewed and I was shocked by some of the things that were implied and horrified by some of the things that she said. I think that she would make a wonderful athlete's representative or advocate since she is willing to speak out about the things that she has witnessed. USA Gymnastics needs more people like her!
 
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*** Olympian Simone Biles responds to troll over Instagram post :
http://www.sfgate.com/sports/article/Simone-Biles-vacation-Instagram-troll-response-11276216.php
"Seems like u have partied non stop for a year #trash #unfollow #suckyassrolemodel," the person wrote in the comments section of the photo.
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"Talk to me when you train for 14 years and earn 5 Olympic medals," Biles wrote. "I think kids would say otherwise. My year off is well deserved! Take a couple seats."
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The Canadian team has been named for Worlds (well, the women have been named - four men have been named and the remaining 3 are "under consideration" for the last two spots):
http://gymcan.org/news/details/2017_AG_WChamps_Team-announcement

Black, Olsen, and Onyshko are not really a surprise at all for the women. The last spot was basically down to either Brooklyn Moors (sister of 2012 Olympian Victoria Moors) or Brittany Rogers. Interesting decision to go with Moors, but I can see why they would want to get experience for an up and comer like Moors, who has some awesome skills, like a Podkopayeva on floor and a front handspring to double twisting front dismount on beam. I am sad that Rogers doesn't get to have the chance to compete at a home Worlds, however. All of that said, the press release suggests that the decision isn't 100% final - "we have two very strong alternates that could step in as well depending on how the ongoing verification goes between now and the final camp in Sarnia". But assuming the team stays as named, I'm assuming Black and Onyshko will compete all-around, Olsen will do vault and maybe bars(?), Moors will do beam and floor. Neither Olsen or Moors are that strong on bars, so I'm not sure if it matters which one of them does bars. It's a shame that there can't be 5 people because Rogers would be the perfect complement to that group.

Rogers will at least get to go to Summer Universiade August 19-23, along with Black (and others). I'm hoping Black will have her full difficulty back, as Larissa Iordache is also supposed to be competing all around there so it will be interesting to see the two go head to head.
 
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