Let's Give 'Em Something to Write About

If you're like me and think that buying both of your city's most widely-circulated newspapers this morning is a good idea because surely the 100 Days Until Beijing supplements will have gymnastics articles in them... save your money and your time.

I bought both The Age and the Herald Sun today. Both had 100 Days features. The Sun's 8-page liftout is basically all about swimming and also features some yob's "100 reasons why the Olympics are great" list which, although it gives two very short mentions to gymnastics, is really just an unsubtle mix of racism, ageism and self-congratulatory ignorance. Their little column of "our medal hopes" has a picture of Dasha doing her side aerial on beam so it's not that flattering. The Age has bugger-all.

Alex Croak, for some reason, was chosen to stand in a warehouse looking crestfallen at boxes of muesli and health bars to illustrate the Chinese officials' ban on countries bringing their own products in. I know this because it was in the MX (Melbourne train network) newspaper yesterday and I looked just as perplexed about the whole thing as she did.

I hope our girls get some great results in Beijing so we fans can all say, "Well we've been telling you ALL ALONG to pay attention to them but no, you had to go and make out like the team only consisted of Grant Hackett, Jana Rawlinson and Lleyton Hewitt. Don't come crawling to us now."

Let's all be grateful for the press in WA. Dasha has written about her torch-bearing experiences and thoughts on the torch's significance here. She is also, surprisingly enough, one of the international athletes profiled at NBC's Olympic website. I like that they remark the ways in which she "sets herself apart from her peers", and this bit made me laugh:

Until 2002, gymnastics for Joura was "just an everyday thing, like vacuuming" but now she truly enjoys herself.

I discovered that Lauren is also there but whether or not my computer's playing up or something I don't know, as no text comes up in her bio...

A Gymnastics LOLcano

Because clearly, the only way to get uni work done is to get distracted and not do it.

Not much news on the Aussie front today so in the meantime, please enjoy my attempts at LOLgymnasts.

We Can Be Heroes

Some gold nuggets of gym news today.

1. Support your national gymnastics movement and the admirable young people therein by buying shiny things to show how much you love them ('cause they just might not get it from Nationals attendance levels). Better yet, go so far as to invent some fake national holidays just to treat yourself to an item with an elite's happy face on it.

Happy Take Your Canvas Bags to the Supermarket Day.

Here, have a card.

...It's Ashleigh Brennan. And look, when you you open it up, it plays the Cold Case theme!

FYI the Gymnastics Heroes page is actually yet-to-be-launched, so keep your eyes peeled and your wallet unclasped. I think the height chart will be a bit of a hard sell with regards to a sport like ours, but you never know. Short people deserve some attention at Christmas time too.

2. Thanks to a new photo posted by Gymnastics Australia, I realise that Miss Joura is the embodiment of the phrase, 'give peace a chance'. What a fitting statement for the torch relay itself...

Flash back to 2007...

3. G-Radio is coming back! The audio web-cast of Nationals proved to be a success last year (where can I get my poster with Liz C's face on it, huh!?) so they're doing it all again but this time WITH VIDEO! WAG finals, MAG finals and the National Apparatus Challenge will all be streamed with commentary. I would have loved to listen to commentary last year but I'm pretty sure you can't take a laptop into the venue. Thankfully they're doing the fans a bit of a service and posting the broadcast after the event, which you can access from an archive provided you subscribed first. When you're not waiting for My Heroes to get its act together, watch for news on the GA site and find out how you can get some perspective on the event from someone other than...well, me.

100 Days - Countdown to Beijing

Enh. It's a bit hard to 'have a go' at writing a thesis abstract for your supervisor when you haven't even done any data collection yet.

*sigh*


Anyway. 100 days until Beijing... I think. It's possibly 99 (I lost count!) but either way the newspapers are getting into the swing of things, featuring profiles on handfuls of exciting Olympic hopefuls but, sadly, no gymnasts. There might be something on the television news, who knows. Russo got a look-in when it was 100 days until the Melbourne Commonwealth Games...

On a happier note: GGMB folk are wonderfully resourceful. Looky looky!

Eyes open, smiling, torch aloft, what a great shot. It's just a shame my re-sizing techniques do it no justice *shakes fist at Blogger*

And in news to hand from secret snoopitty-snoops Schludern and Ozzie, Dasha got right back into practise at the AIS gym after the relay:

Dasha stayed in Canberra for a few days after the torch relay to have her routines verified at the AIS, and scored by an official judge. She competed the double layout in her floor routine, and is also back to the Baitova after watering down to a FTY earlier in the year.

Woohoo! Great vault, great bars, great floor, I just pray to the high heavens that she can stick her beam because if you couple all that with her experience gained in the Olympic arena already, she'll be on a medal podium, no problems!

Are You Cereal!?

Wow.

I mean...just....wow!

Beijing Olympics Uneven Bars Final: China for the win.

In other news - less than a month 'til Nationals, people. Get adequately prepared to rock.

All a Bit Of an Anticlimax, Innit?

It was a rather uneventful torch relay this morning, for the most part, save for a few arrests at the very start and the idiot who sat in the middle of the road in front of an in-motion torchbearer and a stream of federal police. It's one thing to try and disrupt an event you obejct to, it's another thing to put yourself and another person in harm's way. Oh, and Ian Thorpe lit the cauldron at the end, basking in the flickering flame, only for it it to die out completely a moment later. Show me a better metaphor for his sporting career and I will show you a silenced blogger.

Anyhoo. I missed most of the relay. I saw the opening ceremony and the first few runners, but then I had to go to the orthodontist to get my braces tightened. By the time I got back, most of the leg had been run. Sadly, Sky News kept cutting to its reporters in Commonwealth Park and the Sunrise program re-played their sports reporter's run with the torch 3 times (I am not kidding). So I hope somebody did catch a glimpse of Dasha with the torch in the end. She deserves a bit of mainstream media attention. I'm guessing one of the newspapers tomorrow (most likely The Age) will have photos of all the torchbearers like they did with the Sydney relay.

To anyone wondering, this little fuzzy blogging duck is attending Nationals for the Senior and Junior AA/EF (Friday night), Level 10 AA/EF (Saturday daytime) and the Apparatus Challenge (Sunday). I've got access to a camera, and there will be someone else filming with me but the more the merrier, I say! Come and say hello, I don't bite! If there are about 10 people with video cameras, then just look for the short one fumbling with the equipment and looking like she has no idea what she's doing. And when she laughs, you'll see braces. That'll be me.

ETA: Here she is! Squinty-eyed but proud!

She must have been towards the very end, seeing as she's #74. Somewhere around the #70 mark, all the news stations covering it shifted focus to Commonwealth Park where the relay would end. So by all accounts, Dasha missed a stint on television.

Special thanks to covert-ops agent and media watchdog Nade.

No Torchy Torchy

First: Some gym news.

Emma Dennis, Shona Morgan and Georgia Bonora were profiled in the Oakleigh Monash Leader newspaper.

"Hey guys, I put a new pack of mag in the equipment cupboard...got any purple ribbon I could borrow?"

Dasha's latest PerthNow column is also up, and she gives a shout-out to Chuso.

Secondly, a public service announcement:

The Olympic Flame has touched down in Australia. The Canberra leg of the torch relay proper kicks off tomorrow (Thursday). Western Australia's golden girl and Olympic gymnastics hopeful Dasha Joura will be one of the torch bearers. I wish her a safe and enjoyable jog in the super-trendy baggy white shorts.

To anyone who has an opinion to voice on the Tibet issue, or who opposes the torch relay, and plans to overtly show their intentions as the torch goes by, please do it peacefully. I understand that passive action is in no way equitable to what China may have done to certain people over time, and of course the torch relay is attempting to distract from a lot of flaws, but the Olympic event itself stands for a lot. One of my best friends ran with the Sydney Olympic torch nearly a decade ago and that was an amazing experience for all involved, even us spectating. I would have hated for someone to try and physically wrench the torch off of her.

The torchbearers are not the ones involved in the bigger issues. They're simply there to take part.

If you must protest against what the torch stands for - turn your back. You'll be making a statement and making it peacefully. Nobody deserves to be hurt or frightened. Anger begets violence, if Yoda has taught us anything. Just turn your back as the torch passes, it's the smart and safe thing to do.

Peaceful protesting: Thorpey says it's fully sick.

Olivia, Oregon and the Olympics

Well looky here.

Olivia Vivian's NCAA and Beijing prospects are the current hot news item at IG.
Good for her. I liked this interview because you heard from several people, though I think Peggy is making a rather unsubtle attempt at indirectly communicating to the rest of the squad what she wants in a team member.

Clearly, it's not just enough to do a good routine on bars, you have to prep them too.

Like a teacher who gets too many apples on their desk from eager students, Peggy will no doubt turn up to squad training next month to find all the crashmats set up before dawn and a shiny new pack of mag-chalk (tied with a purple ribbon, how fitting) in the equipment cupboard.