Credit: Grace Chiu/GraceClick.ca
Talia Chiarelli is a Canadian gymnast who recently signed her letter of intent to the University of Michigan. In 2011, her first year as a senior gymnast, Talia earned the bronze medal on the floor exercise at the Canadian Championships. She was named as an alternate to the 2011 World Championship team but represented Canada at both the 2011 Pan American Games and the 2012 London Test Event. As 2012 continued, Talia Chiarelli was named as one of twelve gymnasts from which the final Olympic team would be chosen but withdrew abruptly due to a back injury. Talia is now back in the gym and getting ready to compete as a Wolverine next year.
Tell us a little bit about yourself.
I grew up in Ottawa, Canada, and trained at Nepean Corona School of Gymnastics until I was 11. I moved to Brestyan’s in August of 2006 when we moved to Massachusetts. When I competed with Bluewater my coaches were Dave and Liz Brubaker. I don’t really train at Bluewater, but I compete with them as my Canadian club.
How did you make the decision to start competing for Canada?
I never really thought about it, but Mihai was kind of friends with Dave Brubaker and I think they talked about the idea. At first I tried it out to see how it was, and I ended up really enjoying it and realized I could get serious about it.
You were named as an alternate to the 2011 Worlds Team. What was the year like leading up to that moment and what was it like being in Japan with the team?
2011 was such a fun year. I went to Canadian Nationals for the first time in May, and then after that I was assigned to go to the Japan Cup in Tokyo with a couple other girls. That was my first assignment and my first time traveling overseas, so it was a blast. Being in Japan the second time was a little different and a little bit of a roller coaster, but it was a great experience and I got so much closer with all the girls. We were together for less than a month, but I felt like I know all the girls for my whole life.
Watch Talia's FX from the 2011 Japan Cup here or below:
I split these by year and will go in reverse chronological order.
2013 American Cup
Chris Saccullo/@CSaccullo made this montage of Victoria Moors after the American Cup. It's a great montage for all of it's effects and highlighting Tori's gymnastics (aka stuck double double) but it's also hilarious since there are clips of Boston Moors, Tori's beloved cat, throughout the video.
Victoria Moors - Captivate
Credit: elitegymnast
Sisters Becky and Ellie Downie
The English Championships were this weekend as was the first few days of the Russian Championships set to finish on March 7th.
English Championships
Hannah Whelan won the all around competition and finished 1st on beam. We finally see the return of 2008 Olympian Becky Downie who was dealing with illness and injury throughout the last quad that took her out of the running for 2012. She looked fabulous on uneven bars winning that event with a 14.3.
Ruby Harrold was also seen with some great combination on bars - a toe-on Shaposh to Bhardwaj and a toe-on Shaposh 1/2 to a stoop shoot through to low bar. Not sure I named that correctly so you can check it out here. She finished in 4th after a fall on that event. English Championships saw the return of 2000 GB Olympian Lisa Mason. She won vault with a half twisting Yurchenko and a stuck front handspring on - front pike off. Watch here.
Credit: USA Gymnastics
This was an exciting weekend for gymnastics! The Nastia Liukin Cup, American Cup, Russian Championships and English Championships were all this weekend along with some great NCAA matchups. Here are a few videos and links to channels that you should definitely check out!
Nastia Liukin Cup
The Nastia Liukin Cup went fairly well this year. Sydney Johnson-Scharpf was heralded as the next big thing in elite gymnastics. Sydney is a 12 year old Level 10 gymnast at her mother's gym, 1988 US Olympian Brandy Johnson. I like to consider her the floor exercise love child of Mattie Larson and Sabrina Vega - excellent tumbling and leaps but also great at performing during every moment of her routine. Watch her FX that qualified her to the Nastia Liukin Cup here.
From the senior gymnasts, we saw lots of great gymnastics that we'll get to see in NCAA next year. Alex McMurtry took 1st in the all-around and earned the highest scores on VT, BB, and FX. She'll be headed to Florida next year. Second place finisher, Aja Sims wll be headed to Alabama and Samantha Partyka, who finished in 3rd, will head to Utah. Surprise of the meet for me was Kari Lee who was in the lead for sometime but then fell to 4th place when she finished on uneven bars, the event with the tightest scoring. She'll be headed to Arizona. Check out more of the future NCAA gymnasts here. Watch Alex's FX here or below:
Blythe of Gym Examiner asks Gabby at a press conference following the AA final if she looked up at the scoreboard. We typically hear athletes say how they don't look at the score but Gabby was candid in her response. Chow is beside her so you get to hear his reaction as well.
link
source: glamaphonic
