BREAKING NEWS
Superstar newbie Georgia Simpson will compete at the 2012 American Cup!
The lineup has been announced by USA Gymnastics. It will be held at Madison Square Garden on March 3rd.
In other happy news, our national women's coach Peggy Liddick will tomorrow officially become an Australian citizen. She appeared on Adam Spencer's breakfast radio show in Sydney earlier this morning to talk about it. Happy Australia Day, boss!
That's a crazy big endorsement for her to be put in a televised category A AA world cup at Madison Square Garden. I hope that she busts out some of her upgrades because the standard of the field here is very high. A layout at the end of a tumbling pass and a layout yurchenko is probably not going to cut it. Still, I'm glad to see Peggy has so much belief in her. She deserves some opportunities.
ReplyDeleteVery happy about this. I hope it means she is a serious Olympic contender and being given the international opportunities she needs to "catch up". Go Georgia!
ReplyDeleteDoesn't the fact that Peggy is becoming an Aussie mean that she has long term plans to stay. I can't imagine the US allowing her to be their coach if she is an Aussie.
ReplyDeleteI think it might put an end to the rumors she is leaving.
Any news coming out from camp?
ReplyDeleteI just saw this on TCG! Can't wait to see her full routines!
ReplyDeleteThe US allows dual nationality so Peggy will be both US & Aus. It's great she has taken this step. Congratulations to her!
ReplyDeleteCongratulations to both Georgia and Peggy!
ReplyDeleteHas anyone seen an online clip of the Peggy interview?
"Doesn't the fact that Peggy is becoming an Aussie mean that she has long term plans to stay. I can't imagine the US allowing her to be their coach if she is an Aussie.
ReplyDeleteI think it might put an end to the rumors she is leaving."
This is exactly what I thought when I heard about this! It is a good way of letting everyone know she intends to stay. And why wouldn't they want her to stay? She's been able to produce results the way no one else has managed to do for Australia before.
Well done to Georgia Simpson on her Scam invite. What a big deal! I am so happy for her! If this doesn't mean she is in with a chance at being a favourite of Peggy's to get an Olympic team berth then I don't know what is!
I just don't get where GSim will fit in with the team...the only possie I can really see her taking is if she beats out Larrissa for the UB specialist spot.
ReplyDeleteHow is it exactly that a gymnast gets selected for Am cup?
ReplyDeleteThe organisers give out spots right? Did Peggy select GS for the spot or was it the Am cup organisers?
Either way, go Georgia!!
To anon 12.37. Who would you have sent instead of GS?
ReplyDeleteLauren
ReplyDeleteUnless she is still slightly injured
Or MAM
Scam cup is a category A competition which means you have to be a top 8 AA in FIG rankings and then if those people decline the invite it goes to positions 9-12 so Georgia would have taken Laurens place, don't know why they didn't send Emily though? you have to compete on all 4 apparatus.
ReplyDeleteAfter gymnasts ranked 9-12 is, according to Alar at GGMB, "remaining places to be filled by the countries in order of Tokyo Team Final results, any gymnast, no more than 2 per country." So Australia still had a spot after Lauren declined, and they could pick any gymnast, I guess they decided to rest Em.
ReplyDeleteI heard Peggy on the radio with Adam. She said she has no plans to go anywhere. Whether that meant Australia in general, or her coaching position, I am not sure.
ReplyDeleteParticularly when Lauren won her world championship, she said she was singing the Australian national anthem with everyone else, and felt very Australian. Now that the US allows dual citizenship she said she felt it was the right time to also become an Australian citizen.
Good luck to her. :-)
Peggy was on ABC this morning, they showed the citizenship awards live from Canberra. It was great because they also showed some of the gymnast. They also interviewed her quickly.
ReplyDeleteAlso this article, says that the entire gymnastics team went with her to the ceremony:
ReplyDeletehttp://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-national/gillard-welcomes-new-citizens-20120126-1qizb.html
:)
As I understand it Peggy originally moved to Australia to be closer to her partner/husband(?) whom she met at the Brisbane world championships back in 1994. She took on the head coach position after moving to Australia so it seems like she was intending to settle down here.
ReplyDeleteThe rumours of her leaving were based on speculation on who was replacing Martha Karolyi and many famous coaches were being mentioned e.g. Valeri Liukin, Kim Zmeskal, Kelly Hill etc.
Citizenship won't be an issue as many American coaches are Russian, Chinese or Romanian and probably maintain a dual citizenship.
I can't see Peggy being a dual citizen being a problem however I don't know if there would be many Russian, Chinese coaches with dual citizen as I think those countries may not allow dual citizenship.
ReplyDeleteWasn't Peggy initially planning to teach biology at Melbourne University, but was head-hunted by Australian Gymnastics?
ReplyDeleteVideo of Peggy's ceremony!
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0ni_EHRG1g&feature=g-all-u&context=G21854e2FAAAAAAAAGAA
:)
Did anyone see pac rim trails?
ReplyDeletegreat photos on GA website of girls with Geoffery Rush and Julia Gillard on Australia day
ReplyDeleteRe Pac rim trials - I heard Em Little placed first
ReplyDeleteHow many girls did the trial ?
ReplyDeleteHow many seniors not only did the trial but did AA. ?What other comps are coming up for the girls over the next few months? Very exciting time for them all! How did Zoe, MAM and GRB go ? Would love to see them in a team together.
ReplyDeleteWill the results to Pac Rim trial be made public? If Emily apparently came 1st, what happened to Lauren?
ReplyDeleteZoe didn't trial. Neither did mam I don't think.
ReplyDeleteSo if Zoe and MAM did not trial , does this mean they are still injured? Is PAC Rim AA or can gymnast be selected to do 1 or 2 events only . If a gymnast doesn't do the trial can they still be selected?
ReplyDeleteAs I understand, the format is 6 in a team, 3 Snr and 3Jnr. 5 compete, 4 scores count.
ReplyDeleteI think it would be fair to say if a girl cannot show a routine at the moment then they would not be ready for PACRIM in 6 weeks.
ReplyDeleteI would then assume the team would be selected from the trail and maybe verifications done throughout the camp.
Aussies have also registered both a senior and junior team for Gymnix - maybe Pacrim team will go to that meet too...
ReplyDeleteYes I think that is what usually happens - girls who go to PacRim also go to gymnix - isn't that was Tain and Britt did in 2008?
ReplyDelete