Watch the 2011 American Cup (Men’s and Women’s Gymnastics) full event
I know, I have not kept up with this blog at all. There’s a lot of other stuff going on right now.
I totally missed the American Cup live online, but if you have Silverlight, you can still watch it on USA Gymnastics’ website, at least for now. This is the full event, plus some intro fluff and stuff that did not air on NBC. And best of all (at least so far), no ads inserted!
Just found this YouTube channel of Universal Sports’ gymnastics videos–definitely easier than trying to find everything on their own website.
Update on comebacks: Shawn Johnson is back on the National Team but still has yet to appear in competition. Her ACL tear while skiing last year combined with taking a couple of years off of the sport, a growth spurt, and aging have have made for a challenging return to the gymnastics elite. I really can’t wait to see her compete, though. I think she is capable and might even be a better gymnast after some of the experiences she’s had in the last two years. It is also nice to see gymnasts who are a little older and more shapely competing successfully at an elite level. Break down the stereotypes, already.
Alicia Sacramone is also still in the game, so I hope to see her again in competition soon. Nastia Liukin said she was going to start training months ago, and see where it went–no real news from her since then. I would be pretty surprised to see her come back…she doesn’t sound that sure about it and has a lot of other opportunities in commentating, hosting camps, releasing clothing lines, and such, and I think she likes all that stuff. It’s hard to come back after this amount of time off, but I think she could do it (remember her in 2009 at Nationals?)–but only if she was 100% committed to it. Only time will tell.
Paul Hamm finished school and went to Chicago to be a trader (I believe) and decided he just wasn’t ready to be done with gymnastics for the rest of his life. He plans to make a run for the 2010 Olmpic Games. He was supposed to compete in February’s all-men’s Winter Cup (which they don’t televise, for some reason) but suffered a shoulder/chest injury that required surgery, so he is going to have to rehab from that first. I really hope he can come back and stay uninjured so that his journey completes in the best possible way. He’s an amazing athlete with a great attitude and deserves all the accolades and achievements he gets.