These are some of my favorite things from 2012. I got into tumblr and used a lot of links from there so make sure to check them out. Also, please don't copy any images and claim them as your own. These images are not my own and the source is posted beneath them. The artists worked very hard so I tried to link to my tumblr or the original poster so you can easily reblog or cite properly. Enjoy!
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1. We can start things off with our all-around champion. One of my favorite quotes of the year is from Gabrielle Douglas and is about the crowd gasping on her uneven bar releases.
"I try to make it so high to impress you guys," she said with a giggle.
"I hear people (gasp) and I'm like, 'Calm down, I'm going to catch the
bar.'"
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2. Favorite Floor Choreography: The handstand choreography of Anastasia Grishina's routine. Gif here.
3. Favorite Stag Leaps: Favorites goes to Aliya Mustafina for Arabian to stag and Simone Biles for double layout to stag. Biles' makes my jaw drop every time!
4. Gymnast I Fell in Love with in 2012:
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Kyla Ross - I love that Kyla is one of the athletes that you know is capable of sticking her dismount. I love how long her lines are - she has the prettiest bail to handstand on uneven bars and I normally don't enjoy watching that skill. I also love that she connects a lovely switch ring to back tuck on balance beam. Hopefully, she can make the 2013 World team and stay around until Rio.
At Olympic Trials she was the only athlete of the Fierce 5 not to cry but at the Olympics, she was the first one to cry. She even runs to tell Aly after BB to which Aly replies that her goal is to make Kyla cry and Aly laughs when she sees Kyla cry after FX. Other funnies: Kyla cracking up on the podium in Jesolo, and McKayla, Kyla, and Jordyn reacting to something.
Montage Monday: Year in Review Continued
* = tweeted by gymnast
** = a favorite video of mine
@ indicates twitter name
Videos That Took The Gymternet by Storm**
1. HuangQiushuangFan / "Mean Girls" : Gymnastics
Funniest Montage
The first link will take you to their youtube channel so go subscribe :) The last one is a "highly recommended" either a favorite of mine, the video editor's favorite, or the first video I watched. If a video is embedded, the last link is the link to that video. Some users also have vimeo accounts for videos that were blocked on youtube and the "@" indicates a twitter account. I apologize to any accounts I failed to link to this time around. I'll do this again in 6 months for any links I might have missed and will do more awards.Numbers aren't a ranking, it was just to help organize the categories.
* = tweeted by gymnast
** = a favorite video of mine
The Ones Who Got Me Obsessed With Montages
1. AshleyAkaFlipper2 / AshleyAkaFlipper / vimeo / @Ashley_Flipper
Fierce Five Imagine the Fire** gets Montage of the Year Award - I fell in love with this video because of the way Ashley created such build up to McKayla's vault. There's a real sense of suspense in this video analyzing USA v. Russia in Team Finals even though we know what's going to happen. Along with that vault, I also really liked the way she compared the balance beam routines. Routines were similar enough that the comparison was possible - front tuck to front tuck, side aerial to side aerial. Loved it.
Fierce Five Imagine the Fire from AshleyakaFlipper on Vimeo.
2. iLitter / vimeo / @CSaccullo / Viktoria Komova, Aliya Mustafina - Рядом с тобой / BY YOUR SIDE**
Chris gets the Pushing the Envelope Award not just for this video but his videos for the past year and a half. I feel like he really pushes himself as an artist to try something new - like bobbleheads or overlaying the beam on the Brooklyn Bridge. He also pushes me as a viewer to appreciate things that are different, to look beyond the black and white or sepia tone. This video is a perfect example of that.Chris also has an amazing eye for things - I had no clue Aliya and Vika were holding hands before they got on the podium (and he made a picture of Peng Peng Lee as Captain Canada and eventually made a shield for her that she used recently at UCLA!). I loved the Dragon Ball Z effect and my favorite has to be the Viktoria sheep jump orb at 1:05. Great work.
The College Gym season is starting next week! I'm participating in the College Fantasy Gymnastics (Big 12) and decided that we can learn about college gymnastics together. I chose a few of my athletes from schools that I didn't know much about. Unfortunately, it is too late to enter the game but hopefully this helps you learn about college gymnastics.
| Emily Vidmar |
Brigham Young |
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| Megan Whitney |
Washington |
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| Katy Nogaki |
UC Davis |
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| Nichole Fulton |
Northern Illinois |
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| Katy Dodds |
Maryland |
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| Caryn Kadous |
Auburn |
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| Stephanie McGregor |
Oregon State |
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| Anna Willette |
Eastern Michigan |
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| Brooke Evans |
Ball State |
Brigham Young University
Mascot: Cougars
Head Coach: Brad Cattermole, Asst: Dawn Cattermole and Shauna Mertz
Conference: Independent/Salt Lake City Regional
Athletes to Watch: In 2012, Cougars were just shy of making NCAA Regionals as they had a regional qualifying score (RQS) of 194.685 to place 37th when 36 teams qualify. Raquel Willman was selected to compete at regionals along with 2-then seniors. Her favorite event is bars where she boasts a career high 9.875. Look for the return of Megan Bain (VT, BB, FX) and Haylee Rollins who were sidelined due to Achilles and foot injuries, respectively. Watch Raquel Willman compete in the all around (9:33 VT, 29:40 UB, 44:20 BB, 1:22:28 - opens with whip 1/2, punch 1 1/2) here or below. Fun fact: They call her Raq pronounced as Rock.
My Athlete: Emily Vidmar is a freshman is the daughter of 1984 Olympic Champion Peter Vidmar. She last trained at Wildfire Gymnastics - home of Alyssa Pritchett of UCLA and Allyse Inshino of Stanford. Her best event is bars.
Washington
Mascot: Huskies
Head Coach: Joanne Moore, Asst: David McCleary, Elise Ray (Ray does choerography for beam and floor and helps with recruiting)
Conference: Pac-12
My Athlete: Megan Whitney, a senior, transferred to University of Washington (#udub) after competing at Utah her freshman year. She appears to be great on vault and beam but Coach Moore says that Whitney has come a long way on bars after recovering from and injury and may be one of the best for the Huskies this year.
UC Davis
Mascot: Aggies
Head Coach: John Lavallee, Asst: Tamara Ross
Conference: Mountain Pacific
Athletes to Watch: The Aggies had a very young team last year so they are returning with an experienced team - they only lost 1 person in their bars lineup. Their goal this season is to make it to NCAA Regionals as a team. Katie Yamamura (AA, senior), Tiana Montell (AA, sophomore), and Anna Shumaker (vault, junior) have all qualified to regionals as individuals.
My Athlete: Katy Nogaki also trained at Wildfire Gymnastics. She seems to be a great all-arounder but I'm not sure where she falls with this team. Video of her sticking a Yurchenko Full can be found here, 2nd bar routine at 30 seconds here. Katy is a freshman at UC Davis.
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McKayla recently tweeted this video. The "Shaytards" are a family that does daily youtube videos and they have 2 girls that are gymnasts at AOGC and performed at their winter showcase. McKayla Maroney was there and had the chance to say thank you to Artur and Galina. "I can't say thank you enough. They've meant the world to me. And I can't wait to get back here and train again because this is my home... I hope I made you guys proud." The showcase starts at 2:47 and it's amusing to watch. They follow their little girls that are in the recreational class and Level 3. It's crazy to think this was how the Fierce Five started or we could be looking at the future Olympic All-Around Champion! McKayla starts speaking at 5:44.
