Easter Bunny, Easter Bilby, Easter... Beaver!?

Olivia Vivian talks about celebrating Easter Oregon-style in this latest blog entry.

Er... by "donna", I believe she means "doona". Damn typos!

Next week I will learn what it's like to go to a college gymnastics National Championships. I've already been exposed to new gymnastics experiences here at OSU and I hear this will be by far the best.

Happy Easter!

Mitchell Missing from Maribor

Looks like Lauren Mitchell won't be making the journey to Slovenia for the Maribor World Cup/Salamunov Memorial which takes place later in the coming week.

She does not appear listed in IG's latest article about the competition, nor does she appear on the definitive competitor list at the event's website.

One commenter has told us that she and Dasha were back in Canberra recently, performing routines for coaches doing a course. So we can presume she'll just be staying at home, perhaps making sure she's truly competition ready, if we are indeed going to see a new-look beam routine from her this season.

Intrigue and suspense ensue...

Hoppy Easter

I hope you all enjoy a nice long weekend with your friends and/or families.

Have a relaxing, safe and happy Easter - or, for any atheists/agnostics out there (come on now, the Blog welcomes all), a joyous Improbable Resurrection Festival - with the ones you love... or at least grudgingly tolerate.

O hai. Dun worry, is ok. Is chawklit meddle.

No News Is... Not Good.

*Twiddling thumbs*

Well this is eleven kinds of fun. No news, no goss, no discussion, no nuthin'.


Nobody even had comments on the new national tracksuits?


...seriously???

No Nerves for Nationals

Now bound for the National Collegiate Championships, Olivia Vivian and her fellow OSU freshman discussed their expectations for the regional championships, which qualified them for the Nationals, here.

“In between our byes [at the Pac-10 Championships] we’d go inside our locker room, we’d dance around, we’d play games. It was so much fun. The environment was so amazing and then when we got out there, we got out there to do our jobs. We didn’t care what had happened before, we just attacked every apparatus as a fresh start kind of thing.”

You can see Olivia's bars routine from the regional championships, including an unfortunate fall but a fantastic stuck dismount, here. She is the lead-off bars performer. It's nice to see that the coach is allowed to approach the gymnast after they fall and give them a quick pep-talk there and then instead of the girl just having a sorrowful walk back to the chalk bucket...

Go the O

Congratulations to Olivia Vivian and her Oregon State team-mates who are through to the National NCAA Gymnastics Championships after a good showing at the regional championship! What a coup for them, and a great recovery after Livvy apparently suffered a fall on bars. You can read a pre-meet article about the Beavers' bars lineup (which of course includes Olivia) here.

Thanks everyone for your feedback on yesterday's post. Keep it coming. I hope that a more public notice of the submissions helps the cause. I didn't realise the situation was so dire with some of my favourite members of the squad.


Late news... GA has revealed there is to be a new uniform for the 2009-2012 Olympic cycle (apparently the green-and-gold is for Levels?), provided by Adidas. Somebody got their stimulus package, methinks.

You can also read about our gymnastics representatives at today's Run for the Kids here.

Show Me the Money

Not too long ago I found a submission by GA to the Independent Sport Panel outlining issues facing the the Australian gymnastics program (notably funding and publicity) and potential solutions. Little did I know that submissions by actual members of our squad (primarily our Olympic representatives from Waverley), and their parents, had also been forwarded to the panel before and after Beijing.

Thanks to Nade for the heads-up on these.

They make for insightful, but also rather sad, reading. For a long time we've wanted to hear the opinions of the gymnasts and gym parents themselves, but to finally get them is like asking someone how their day was, then sitting down, taking their hand and saying, "No, REALLY how was your day?" and getting the woeful response.

The primary issues at stake are those of funding, and Waverley's limited use of VWHPC facilities, as well as the fact that the girls didn't have their personal coach on the floor with them in Beijing.

Read Georgia's take here.

Australia's media coverage of international gymnastics has been appalling... In the US, college gymnastics fills stadiums and provides universities with the revenue to offer full scholarships to many athletes. I have been offered two positions already with US colleges, providing me with 4 years tuition, accommodation and living allowance. This kind of revenue could not be achieved without media support. Australia could really benefit if some effort was directed towards media coverage.

Read Mama and Papa Shona's take here.

Our girls train 32 plus hours a week and also attend school. They have no time to earn money in a part time job. This severely restricts their lifestyle; particularly when they reach 18 (and older) when they need money for living expenses - running a car etc. This lack of financial support is a major factor contributing to the excessively high drop out rate at this point. It seems a waste that all of the valuable years of training are not continued.

Read Mama and Papa Emma's take here.

Funding needs to be directed into helping and supporting the gymnast, coaches and clubs that are achieving results, not as it currently does, where the funding is used primarily to run the state institutes based gymnastics, paying for rent, coaching, equipment and administration.

Good on you, gym families. Fight the good fight. It's high time we heard from you as well as the staff and fans connected to training centres.

Give It Up For Marvellous Mia

Lacking some interesting TV now that the well-scripted, dramatic paragons of Yasmin's Getting Married and Are You Smarter than a Fifth-Grader are no longer with us?

Fear not.

I'm a little late to advertise it, but I've cracked onto a great show on Foxtel that has been earning good reviews here and overseas.

In Treatment is an American drama series starring Gabriel Byrne and Melissa George (to name a few), with Byrne as Paul, a psychiatrist addressing a series of weekly patients. One such patient is Sophie, a gymnast with Olympic aspirations played by engaging young Aussie actress Mia Wasikowska. Her story begins with a suspicious injury sustained as the road to the Olympics appears closer and closer. Sophie is serious, self-loathing, cynical, smart and sincerely watchable. 18-year-old Mia fills the character with electricity and emotion, a girl who tries to find out what makes Paul tick while trying to avoid the questions that would reveal the same of her.



In real life, Wasikowska devoted much of her teen years to an athletic passion, just like an elite gymnast - in her native Canberra, she was undertaking daily training to be a professional ballet dancer before pursuing acting on a whim. It's fair to say she can relate to her character.

It really is a fantastic show with fascinating portrayals. Check it out on Showcase if you're with Foxtel/Austar or hang out for the season 1 DVD.