Gymcastic: The Gymnastics Podcast

Paul Ruggeri finally made the world team and the gymternet rejoiced! © Christy Linder  We covered the finals of the senior women's national gymnastics championship in Episode 161. Today, it's our full recap of the 2015 Men’s and Jr. Women’s P&G Championships. Uncle Tim, Lindsey Green from Bustle, and Jessica chat about: A listener Rage-o-Meter; we had a junior adoption waitlist that wasn't funny to everyone. How to respect short, bad ass gymnasts without infantilizing these amazing athletes. Al Trautwig forgot Nastia's name on NBC but she had the last laugh. The curse of the high bar; was there butter on it, did the curse hit Yin Alvarez in the ankle and cause his cheering injury? We investigate every possiblity! The Laurie Hernandez vs. Jazzy Foberg junior showdown! Finally a championship that was too close to call until the final event! Could Christina Desiderio be the Kyla Ross of the Rio Olympic team? The GymCastic Awards for Artistry and Elegance go to Emily Gaskins, Maile O'Keefe, Trinity Thom

Simone Biles broke two world records and tied Kim Zmeskal's record for three consecutive national titles. © Christy Linder   2015 National Champion, Laurie Hernandez, teammate 2014 National Champion Jazmyn Foberg, Texas Dreams superstar Ragan Smith and new national team member Sydney Johnson-Scharpf joined us for a live video broadcast on Periscope. Periscope only archives broadcasts for 24 hours but our video will be uploaded to YouTube soon. We asked them what they were most proud of this weekend, new skills, nicknames, Sydney's balance beam crash in warm-ups and what their national team theme song should be for 2015. After the kids went out to party, national team coaches Christian Gallardo and Aimee Boorman joined us. Christian coached Nia Dennis at Buckeye Gymnastics and now coaches Shilese Jones and Olympic all-around champion Gabrielle Douglas. Aimee Boorman is the lifelong coach of two time world champion, Simone Biles. We discussed: The Gabby Douglas strategy, is she playing it safe and waiting to

World Champion, Simone Biles breaks the execution score world record at the 2015 P&G Championships in Indianapolis. © Christy Linder   We are in Indianapolis for the 2015 P&G Championships (AKA the US Artistic Gymnastics National Championships). This episode was recorded from a live Periscope broadcast which you can watch below (coming soon). We will be Periscoping again after the women's finals on Saturday night! Download the Periscope app to watch live on Saturday night! On this podcast with special guest, 2012 Junior National Champion, Lexie Priessman,  Lauren Hopkins, Cordelia Price and Dvora Myers we chat about: It was not as bad as the 2011 Splatfest but 2015 splatfest Gabby Douglas looked unshakable until the last event. Marta is not going to be happy. What the results tell us: everyone under the top 5 are very very very closely matched. Brenna Dowell smacked the haters upside the head with her BRILLIANT performance on every apparatus but especially with her 6.7 difficulty bar routine! WE SCR

"Swaggie Maggie" Nichols is about to lay the smack down in Indianapolis at the 2015 P&G Championships. © Christy Linder   This week Evan Heiter and Jessica preview the 2015 P&G Championships, and Spencer from The Balance Beam Situation recaps Gymnastike's "Beyond The Routine" show about Gabby Douglas and Nia Dennis at Buckeye Gymnastics. The Maggie Nichols factor - Don't doubt the power of the swag! How her injury at last year's Pan Am Championships will make her this year's newest World Team member. How to watch Team Sam Peszek and Evan Heiter rock the commentary game with Raj Bhavsar all week long in Indianapolis. Why Norah Flatley will be missing this competition. Which "2000 Babies" (AKA juniors who will be age eligible for the Rio Olympics next year), have the best chance making a case for their spot on the Rio team:  Rachel Baumann, Desiderio, Foberg, Frazier, Gaskins, Laurie “Baby Shakira” Hernandez, Johnson-Scharpf, Paulson, Quinn, Ragan “Feivel” Smith, or Olivia Trautman. We each pick th

Full Out, the movie is based on the life of b-girl Ariana Berlin. Photo courtesy of UCLA. Ariana Berlin is happy, goofy, surprising, unique, beautiful and partially made of steel. She made her mark on college gymnastics by bringing her professional hip hop dance background onto the competition floor. Her floor routines were something totally new and sometimes controversial but always entertaining. But the road to NCAA finals almost went through the grave. "Ari" went from a being a promising level 10 gymnast, about to test for elite, to a girl in a coma, told when she woke up that she would never do gymnastics again. Though a car accident almost killed her and her mother, losing gymnastics was heartbreaking. She found solace in dance with the world famous hip hop troupe Culture Shock. A dance performance in front of UCLA head coach, Valorie Kondos-Field led her back to gymnastics. After years away from the sport, with a rod holding her femur together, Ari walked onto the UCLA gymnastics team, earned a schola

2015 junior Secret Classic Champion, Laurie "Baby Shakira" Hernandez. Photo © Christy Linder. This week on the podcast, a full recap of the Secret U.S. Classic from glorious Chicago suburbs.  Uncle Tim, Lauren, and Jessica chat about the best upgrades, moments, skills and routines, including: Scoring: don't get too excited, there was a stick bonus in place. Text book bars that made our hearts sing:  Madison Kocian, Brenna Dowell and Laurie "Baby Shakira" Hernandez. Injuries that took some out and others down:  Norah Flatly, Marissa Okaely and Kyla Ross. Which 2000 Babies (also known as juniors who will turn 16 in the Olympic year) will be a major threat for the 2016 Olympic team. Yes, this means we talked all about Ragan "Fievel" Smith. Ashton Locklear and the Mystery of the Zero Scores solved! Bailie Key's premier meet as a senior gymnast! Finally! Brenna Dowell had a rough day with a terrifying beam fall, but we loved her toe-on tkatchev caught in mixed grip to Ezhova! Will this help or hurt her chances

This week Uncle Tim and Jessica discuss the Pan American Games Event Finals with 2004 Olympic floor champion and CBC analyst Kyle Shewfelt! Gym Myth Busters: We found out, straight from the men's FIG Technical Committee President, if Manrique Larduet (CUB) was deducted for excessive celebration after his parallel bars routine in qualifying. We had to know Kyle's opinion: should the men's all-around final have gone to Manrique instead of Sam Mikulak (USA)? Why Canada, Cuba and Flavia Lopez Saraiva (BRA) stole the show in Toronto. The Out of Bounds Championship floor final, a first of it's kind. Kyle and our listeners came up with the solution the Yamilet Peña (DOM) and the Produnova of Death vault situation. Nellie Kim, now hear this! Why Daniele Hypolito (BRA) is a hero and true sportsman (even after being robbed of a bronze in the vault final). Why Rachel Gowey (USA),  Jessica Lopez (VEN) and Amelia Hundley's (USA) floaty bars made us smile. Ellie Black (CAN) told Kyle Shewfelt why she was able to achieve t

Manrique Larduet (CUB) urges the crowd to show their appreciation after his parallel bars routine in prelims of the Pan American Games. © Grace Chiu This week Mary-Anne "Mez Monckton from the Australian national team, Uncle Tim and Jessica chat about: Pan Am Games Team Finals and All-Around Competitions: Do we like Elfi Schlegel better on on ESPN or NBC? We answer the most important question of the meet: Where’s Marta? Cuba, Cuba and more Cuba! Manrique Larduet and Marcia Videaux Jimenez thrilled us. Yamilet Peña (DOM)and the Execution score vaulting problem; should Yamilet Peña have gotten credit for her Produnova/buttahara/chalk skid mark landing? If Manrique was deducted for excessive celebration, was it justified? Was Daniele Hypolito (BRA), aka "Hypolito The Great” and "No Gripz Hypolitz," unfairly deducted for a fall on her beam dismount? Yes, darling of the Games, Flavia Saraiva (BRA)  touched the beam for a 1.0 deduction but Jessica doesn’t care. Winning with a fall: the Sam Mikulak (USA) vs M

Olympic gold medalist, Aly Raisman in the 2015 ESPN magazine's Body issue. Click on the image for her video and interview with ESPN. In the news this week, Uncle Tim and Jessica chat about: Aly Raisman's take on the lack of eating disorders in gymnastics and learning to have muscle pride in ESPN's Body Issue Raducan asked the Olympic Committee to give her gold back, they said no. International Gymnastics Federation President, Bruno Grandi's interview on the 2020 Olympic qualification changes: Grandi says gymnastics has a business problem; but is really just a marketing problem? We agree with Grandi most of the time, but when he leans on nostalgia for evidence, we tear his arguments to shreds! Grandi argues that Romania has been hurt by the lack of elegance in the code. He must mean this 1978 routine from Romanian, Emilia Eberle and her famous for the hump the floor choreography. Menstrual Cups for gymnastics. If you have used them for gymnastics, tell us about your experience. How not to flirt with girl

Seda Tutkhalyan (RUS), Giulia Steingruber (SUI), Lisa Top (NED) on the vault podium at the inaugural European Games in Baku. Mary-Anne "Mez" Monckton, Emma and Jessica chat about: The unusual format of 3 up 2 count over two days for team, and men and women on the floor at once. One per country rule for finals - spoiler alert, we hated it! The level of difficulty might have been lower than usual (12.8 for bronze on bars) but the performances were gorgeous! We choose our favorite routines and skills The return of Komova! Rejoice! Showdown of the Olegs, plus the big payout for medals given to Oleg Stepko by Azerbeijan. He made bank! The Russian Dream Team: Seda, Aliya and Komova Giulia Steingruber, is she the new Sacramone of vault and floor? Concussions in context: Brinn Bevin high bar fall and why concussions are always serious. Fabian Hambüchen's dinasour roars and new floor skill. Miguel Rayderley Zapata from Spain won floor just like Jessica told you guys he would! If you don't love him,  you are not pay

  In June, 2013 the Belarusian Swan graced us with her presence. Svetlana Boginskaya (Boguinskaia) is a 14-time Olympic and World medalist and is as elegant as she is fierce. This is a woman who is not afraid to speak her mind! Bogi gives us the scoop on: Alexander Alexandrov and why he left Russia, what happened at Round Lake when the USSR collapsed, the real story behind her snub of Kim Zmeskal at the 1991 World Championships, the politics behind Natalia Kalinina being left off of the Barcelona Olympic team, what makes her gymnastics camp different, why she thinks she isn’t artistic, dating as a teen gymnast in Moscow, her Bolshoi choreography, her favorite routines, coaching Oksana Chusovitina in 2013, and why raising kids is harder than doing a sixth Olympics or trying to understand Bela Karolyi's english.  Follow her on Instagram under the username "Svetlanaboguinskaia", check out the schedule for her camp here or email her for choreography at info@ogccamp.com. If you are ever in the Houston area, make

  This week we talk about our favorite routines from the Swiss Cup and discuss the platforms Grandi, Stoica and Titov ran on in their FIG presidential campaigns.  We talk to Chellsie Memmel who gave us very honest and frank answers about her experience being eliminated from the 2012 Olympic trials process; how Steve Penny suggested her retirement after Classics, being announced as an alternate live on television in 2004, finding love while being an elite athlete, making the team but competing with a severe injury in Beijing and how she made the decision to move on from her longtime coach Jim Chudy at Salto. Louis Smith Calendar Blythe's Notes from the 2012 Swiss Cup Rybacki is the new Kathy Kelly Karolyi confirmed as U.S. National Team Coordinator; Liukin, Rybacki get new job Visa no longer the title sponsor for US Nationals Platforms of the FIG presidents from the fantastic blog / FIG Watchdog,  The All Around  Dvora for Deadspin U.S. Gymnastics Turns Its Back On Chellsie Memmel, Genuine Badass Episode 9

Four Nations Cup all-around champion, Seda Tutkhalyan (RUS)    Jessica, Emma and Bea chat about: The rules for pre-floor routine walk out choreography; our dos and don'ts. Laura Jurica (ROM) has made progress on bars. If there were gymnastics-satyr made of Mustafin's arms and Shawn Johnson's power, it would be little Russian power house, Seda Tutkhalyan. The throwback Pozar-esque folk dance floor from new senior Anastasia Dimitrieva (RUS). The triple full from Zarzu (ROM) that looked as easy as a playground cartwheel. An update on training for comeback masters, Catalina Ponor and Dragulescu. Brazilian babies, Rebeca Andrade and Flavia Saraiva put the world on notice at the Flanders International. Nastia got engaged and announced the founding of The Shine Agency, but questions about what Shine will actually do still remain. Douglas Family Gold will air on Oprah's Oxygen channel later this year, and Emma has many concerns! A listeners discovers that Paul Ruggeri predicted the future of Olympic qualifying on t

Northern Irish stud and a man, literally filled with titanium, Luke Carson.    Northern Ireland's Luke Carson has become a symbol of strength and perseverance around the world. A veteran of six World Championships, he was poised to send Ireland to their second-ever Olympics before an injury forced him to water down his routines. He came back from two potentially career-ending injuries to compete again.  Emma Bailey and Luke discussed: You thought his leg was bad, wait until you hear about his birth defect and the awful procedure he must endure every six months! (See example video on the playlist below to fulfill your creepy curiosity) The status of his injury almost one-year after the Commonwealth Games The problems with metal rods and hot tubs Coaching his pommel horse prodigy, Rhys Mcclenaghan and team at Rathgael Gymnastics Club How he proposed to his girlfriend How social media can fuel healthy competition between gymnasts The both frightening and gratifying truth about funding and sponsor relationships

What: Do your favorite Shannon Miller pose or choreography. How: Post it on Twitter or Instagram, tag us and use  any of these Steve Nunno quote hashtags: #ItsMillerTime or #InterGalacticChampion or #MillerTimeContest Deadline: Monday, June 1st Winner: Gets a copy of Shannon’s book! Shannon Miller © Dave Black   The FIG announced changes to the qualification rules for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo. Teams can only send four all-arounders, for a three-up three-count finals format. Qualifying teams can still also send two individual event specialists who qualify through several results from World Championships, World Cups and Continental Championships. For example, the US could still send six gymnasts to compete, four for the team medal, plus two event specialists. Uncle Tim, Spencer, and Jessica chat about the new rules and more: New Olympic qualification rules: Our gut feelings about the rule: from horror to elation and mistrust. How will the new rules effect non-dominant teams and individual World medalists

Shannon Miller in 1991 at her first World Championships. Copyright Mike Proebsting.   The GymCastic Book Club had the most gym nerd-tastic celebration of all time this week when Shannon Miller, thé Shannon Miller, joined us to talk about her new memoire, "It's Not About Perfect: Competing for My Country and Fighting for My Life."  She has more combined Olympic and World medals than any American gymnast male or female. She won the World Championship all-around two times in a row. She had multiple eponymous skills in the Code of Points. She was diagnosed with one of the deadliest forms of cancer and it ran away from her like a Level 5 who hears, "It's time for conditioning!"  Her male coach, Steve Nunno, acted like the love child of Bela Karolyi and Donald Trump, yet he complimented her perfectly.  She did two back extension rolls in a row on beam just because the crowd loved it! She did her full difficutly on the post-Olympic tours because she wanted to give the fans what they paid for.  She is so bad ass, th

This interview was released December 5th 2013. US national team member, Maggie Nichols, told USA Gymnastics about being abused by Nassar in June 2015. As of this update in January of 2018, she is the first known person to tell USA Gymnastics.... Then Rachael Denhollander, became the first survivor to go public in the Indy Star with accusations against Nassar in September 2016. It turns out that former doctor, Nassar had been abusing girls and women all the way back to the 1990s. And theses brave women, girls had been telling authorities all along, but they weren't believed. Larry Nassar is now a convicted pedophile and child pornographer who will spend the rest of his life in jail. This episode makes us feel guilty, sick and embarrassed but we will never take it down. Why? Because it may be one of the few interviews of it's kind, one with a serial child molester before he was caught. It shows how easy it is to groom adults, like us and our listeners (look a the comments section), and people in power, people

Taylor Rice (Stanford) makin' it rain during event finals at the 2015 NCAA Championships. Photo by Christy Linder. Who: Shannon freaking Miller will be our May Book Club guest. Deadline: Send in questions by May 6th. How: Order the book here, read it, treasure it forever, then send your questions for Shannon to us at gymcastic@gmail.com or by voicemail at (415) 800-3191/Skype "GymCastic Podcast" Stanford junior, Taylor Rice, joins us to discuss the 2015 NCAA Championships. Taylor is known for having a different hair color at every meet, being more trouble than Tasha Schwikert for her coach/mother Cassie Rice during her youth at GymCasts and having been the first woman in NCAA history to compete a man wipe. We discuss: Where did the inspiration for her back-dat-twerk-tastic floor choreography come from? That's So Raven. How early is too early to commit to a college? What did Stanford do to change their results so drastically from the last few years. Why didn't she ever go the elite route and what she lear

LSU's Rheagan Courville, The Tigress of the Bayou.   Rheagan Courville, The Tigress of the Bayou joins us this week. The former US Classic champion, Patterson beam-dismounter, two-time NCAA vault champion, fashion icon and owner of the highest standing Arabian in the game is here! We discuss: The secret to the height and consistency of her standing Arabian on beam. How University of Georgia emigre, coach Jay Clark, has improve her bars about a billion percent from her elite days. Cardio secrets of the indefatigable LSU floor lineup. How her positive and negative experiences in the sport fuel her gymnastics now. Future plans, skills she's hiding up her sleeve and her love for Louisiana. Fashion: What did Miley Cyrus tell Rheagan about her style and will she be able to up Jay Clark's shoe game? Jessica, Spencer from The Balance Beam Situation, Scott Bregman of USA Gymnastics and Kristen Watkins from College Fantasy Gymnastics chat about: Beyond The Routine: Oklahoma Gymnastics Brenna Dowell: her perspecti