Pretty.

It's nearly time!

(In other ace CommGames news, Liz Chetkovich and Gary Wilkinson have been confirmed as Foxtel's gym commentators!)

(And in other OTHER awesome news, the October issue of International Gymnast features a profile on MLC's Amelia McGrath!)

(OH MY GOOD GOODNESS THE AMAZINGNESS CONTINUES! Here's a camp report from Peggy...)

After two weeks at camp and a World Championships Trial, we just had our second verification on Wednesday and the girls are really looking like a well prepared team. The stability of their programs is getting better day by day. Some of the highlights of the verification & trials are:

• Lauren Mitchell’s double twisting Yurchenko gets an incredible amount of air time and distance, I hope the International judges will reward her for that. She is scoring 14.80 for it. Lauren scored a 117.41 over the two-day World’s trial last week in the All Around and achieved the automatic selection score of 116.00.

• Emily Little’s STUCK double twisting Yurchenko. Emily is getting a great block off the table and has a very clean & tight twist; she scored a 15.20 for it. Emily achieved the automatic selection score on vault with a 5.8 D-score and a 14.80 or above final score. Emily’s bars are really cleaning up, she is capable of scoring between 13.60-13.90 now, if she sticks her double layout dismount, she could crack the 14+ barrier.

• Larrissa Miller’s bars have been the most stable program of all. She must have seen the light after Nationals, because she is all business here at camp. Fit and spitting out complete bar routines time after time. Larrissa has won bars at the last two verification and both day of trials, all with scores between 15.0-15.30. Larrissa also achieved the automatic selection score of a 15.20 on an apparatus. Larrissa will most likely make the floor line up as well, she presented a beautiful floor routine at the trials, opening with a front whip + 2/1 twist front layout, she can score 14+ with that routine.

• Ashleigh Brennan has been very stable at camp and her landings on floor are very clean. Stacey Umeh has been working on the performance aspect of her dance and I can’t wait to put it up on the podium. Ashleigh’s beam dismount, double pike, is very high, when she sticks it; she has no deductions as her posture is up and high as well. Ashleigh is getting her groove back on bars too, she will contend for a spot in the line up as well with her double layout dismount. Ashleigh’s vault has been extremely stable, with her two stuck landings on both days of the trial, 13.75.

• Georgia Bonora has been the stuck landings queen of the camp; she has really come in good shape. Even though she is only performing a Yurchenko Layout 1/1, it is big and she can stick it, maybe can break 14+. Georgia’s beam routines are very stable and she looks ready to go, with a 6.2 D-Score and she scored 15+ on both days of the trial. Georgia’s bar training has been very good, the best shape I have seen her in the last five years. Shoa Yi Jiang has been up at camp the entire time helping us to stabilize the BEAM TEAM, as this is the apparatus we start on in Delhi.

• Georgia Wheeler has the biggest Tkatchev of almost any women I have seen, I love watching her train bars. She swings bars like men’s high bar. Her program is stable and I can’t wait to start adding some massive skills to her bars when she returns from Worlds. Her FF-FF-Double Pike dismount from beam is becoming more and more stable with less and less deductions on her posture on landing.

• Emma Dennis is getting fitter by the day. Her stability has also improved over this last week as well. Emma is a good athlete and has a good sense of humour, she keeps us all laughing. Emma’s vault is now starting to get up off the table like it was in 2008, she is getting some serious air time now. Stacey has been working with Emma many sessions to decrease the execution deductions on all of her transitions of floor and beam.

• Georgia Simpson is one of the most elegant gymnasts around. Her uneven bar work is “Korkina-like”. Her lines on bars and her flexibility on beam and floor are beautiful. Her 5.7 D-score on beam with a FF-FF-Double Tuck dismount is competitive with anyone on the team now. She just added a Toe on Handstand 1/1 + Tkatchev to take her D-score on bars to the mid-5s. She will be a surprise package to many, but I knew when she had potential when she was the Stage 4 National Champion back in 2006.

Last night the CWG Team opened up all of their gear, it was like Christmas. We also debuted the new leotards, they are really beautiful, you will see them at the CWG. The girls are so excited to put them on and perform.

We have a big training session tonight, light Friday morning and then another full verification on Friday night. Saturday we will get some more full routines in and the a light physical conditioning session in on Sunday morning, before we board a bus that will take us to Sydney airport to catch our flight to Delhi. We are all looking forward to the adventure.

More later.

Peggy Liddick

YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY
YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY
YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY

Delhi 2010: Pre-Event Media Nuggets

Halloooooo from sunshiney Sydney!

Just a couple of pieces of pre-Commonwealths media to sate your appetites.

Here is a Sydney Morning Herald piece on Australia's October double whammy of Commonwealths and Worlds.

Here is a piece featuring Lauren Mitchell's take on the event's security.

Naazmi Johnston gets a mention here.

Have a great rest of the week!

Red Set Go

Videos have emerged of Waverley's own Shona Morgan in pre-season training with the Stanford gymnastics team.

Videos courtesy of Tenaya West and Stanford Women's Gymnastics.

Team fitness training:




Team retreat:




"I'm really excited, I'm making S'mores!"

Fwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaw. Love her. And YES I will henceforth dub her Shona S'more-gan. Ye wanna fight abouddit?

For more detailed information about the retreat's activities, read a teammate's journal entry here.

Speaking of retreats, Mel Jones and Olivia Vivian also recently attended Oregon State's pre-season team retreat (photos courtesy OSU at Facebook).

Rotterdam 2010: Team Australia (WAG)

(Back Row L-R Simpson, Dennis, Bonora, Brennan
Front Row L-R Miller, Little, Mitchell, Simpson)

Congratulations and very best wishes to

Ashleigh Brennan
Georgia Bonora
Emily Little
Larrissa Miller
Lauren Mitchell
Georgia Simpson
Georgia Wheeler

with Emma Dennis as non-travelling reserve.

See more training camp and trial photos here.

While we're on the topic of World Championship teams, very best wishes to Naazmi Johnston, Danielle Prince, Janine Murray, Enid Sung and the NSW group who are over in Moscow for the Rhythmic World Championships.


Understandably these are all exciting developments, but please remember to maintain a respectful manner when discussing the team members and the team's prospects as a whole.

Breaking: Rizzo Reneged

I have heard - just this second - on Sports Tonight that Phil Rizzo is officially out of the Commonwealth Games, his shoulder injury not having recovered in time.

Steve Quartermain then went on to introduce a Sam Offord profile piece. You can see both pieces here.

Door closes, window opens, etc.


Best of luck for a full recovery, Phil.

Edit 9:45pm: Confirmed by the Sydney Morning Herald here.

"I was going through a routine and could feel the pain in the shoulder and I knew basically there and then that my Games were over," he said.

"It had come to the point when I just had to find out one way or the other whether I was right to compete in a major competition like a Commonwealth Games."

NSW gymnast Luke Wiwatowski, 23, is set to replace Rizzo in the five-strong men's team 17 days before the Games commence.

Remembering Sydney 2000

Call me tardy to the party (or even late to the fete), but we were reminded this week that it's been TEN YEARS since the Sydney Olympic Games. They've been in the international news again lately because of certain gymnastics controversies, but in the last few days, various national news outlets have recalled that exciting fortnight in Sydney - notably the night of Cathy Freeman's victory that stopped the nation - that now chalks up a ten year anniversary. Ten years since gymnastics action hit the Sydney Superdome. Forgive my misty-eyed nostalgia if you will...


It's been TEN YEARS since I sat feverishly next to our VCR with a finger hovering over the record button.
TEN YEARS since I begged my parents to let me stay up late and watch The Dream With Roy and HG so I could see their funny commentary again.
TEN YEARS since I cut pictures out of Ten magazine and stuck them on my wall.
TEN YEARS since I scoured every newspaper every day for news and coverage from the Games.
TEN YEARS since I tried to take a tippy-toed look over the Myer cosmetics counter for Poppy King's lipstick she made for the Australian girls.
TEN YEARS since the biggest sports event in the world hit Australia, and Australia said "Well, here's how we do things down our way!"

Ten Years since a packed-out Superdome, since the vault disaster, since I Still Call Australia Home, since the historic floor final, since the gala performances, since battered savs and brown-eyes, since a bouncing novelty won us our first Olympic gymnastics medal.

What was Sydney 2000 for you?

Delhi/Rotterdam 2010: The Countdown Begins

News and views from training camp are coming through from Ashleigh Brennan of the VWHPC. You can read the updates here.

"We are all staying in the same building together, in our own rooms, so we tend to walk as a group to training."

I don't exactly know why, but this made me go, "Awwww. Yay them."

You can see additional photos at GA.

Featured Artists

The Calgary Herald's recent behind-the-scenes look at Cirque du Soleil features Sydney Olympian Lisa Skinner.

"I think I had an opinion of the circus as many other people do," says the 29-year-old with a laugh, relaxing after a training session that found her suspended eight metres above the ground on a spinning metal hoop. "It was animals and carnies and things like that. It was never part of my life plan.

Lauren Mitchell features in this Commonwealth Games preview article, appearing in a nifty pic alongside Emily Little and Janine Murray.

Image courtesy PerthNow.