Steph's Gym Talk

10/31/01

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

I just got back from a very interesting dinner in the commons, complete with fog, cobwebs, screaming, "scary" music, and of course, food. Lol, it was cool though, this being my first year away from home and all; it made me feel at home. I don't know, what am I talking about?

Anyway, guess what I found in the Penn State Paterno Library today? The complete set of International Gymnast/Modern Gymnast magazines from 1966-1976. Isn't that cool? NO, I didn't check them out because I have way too many things to do right now, and I knew if I checked them out, all I would want to do is read them. You see, it's all about self-control. Lol, now if only I could say the same thing about ice cream.

But anyway, I'm doing my next English paper on an excerpt from Little Girls in Pretty Boxes. It's a rhetorical analysis, and I'm going to prove that this book is ineffective because it fails to view things objectively and only concentrates on a VERY small (but unfortunate) part of the sport. Lol, you know I'd manage to get gymnastics and *NSYNC (I wrote my evaluation paper on them) into my English papers somehow. You see, this is what I love about college. Ew, it still doesn't make me want to write papers though. I have two due next week, and this weekend I'm going to Butler to see my old teammates compete, so needless to say, I'm not going to get any work done.

I'm excited though; I miss those meet weekends like nothing else. Don't get me wrong; I love college, and I love Penn State, but nothing will ever compare to the times that I had growing up with gymnastics and traveling on the weekends and having such awesome times with my awesome teammates. I guess that's why they say, enjoy your childhood because once it's over, you can never go back. This weekend should be a blast.

I think I'm going to be competing again after all. Though not under USAG rules and for Nittany Gymnastics, I guess it's better than nothing. Now if I can only get back to where I was five months ago. You know, I envisioned myself coming to Penn State and learning all this awesome new stuff. That may happen, but just getting myself back in top shape is hard enough, especially when I'm only practicing four hours per week (plus fitness classes that I go to and diving and stuff like that). I am learning a giant though!

I know nothing is getting updated until winter break, so bear with me. I'll try to post some interesting stuff here when I get the chance. As for Worlds, I'm avoiding all gymnastics sites because I want to be surprised when I watch them over Thanksgiving break. Why can't they be televised live? Or at least a few days delayed? Ah, what did I expect? I suppose it's better than nothing. I guess I'll have to get some foreign coverage.

Ok, I'm starting to ramble, so I'm going to go. I'll talk to ya later! :)

10/23/01

One more thing to add to the list of awesome things about Penn State: free live gymnastics viewing whenever I feel like it. Well, almost whenever. I've made it a habit to watch the Penn State gym team practice for at least twenty minutes, twice a week. Usually, after I finish a class in the White building (which is where they practice).

I just love it. I can't wait until the meets start next semester! Sometimes I wish I was there gymming too, but I've actually heard some not so great things about the coach. But enough about that, I'm not going to start rumors on my site. At least I get to gym even though it's not for Penn State.

I'm always trying to catch a glimpse of Katie Rowland. She is so awesome. She's usually on bars when I'm watching, but I saw her do beam the other day. She is just levels above the rest of the team. I noticed that she didn't do as many repetitions, but when she went, she was dead on every time. Her front punch mounts are SO high.

World Championships start Oct. 28! Go USA!

10/14/01

Yes, I know that I haven't updated this section of my website in two months. A lot has happened in the world of gymnastics in the past two months that I really want to write about, but there is also a lot going on in my life, which prevents me from working on my site every day or even every week, so please forgive me.

Anyway, guess who's going to the 2003 World Championships? Yes, that's right, I'll be there!!! I reserved 3 tickets on Friday. And now I'm almost officially broke, but it's all good. If you know me, you know me and my ideas and how once I get a plan in my head, there's no stopping me, lol. No, I don't know who I'm going with or even how I'm getting there, but it's two years away. By that time, I'll have saved up enough money to fly to CA and have the most awesome week. And I'm on my own now, so my mom can't tell me I'm not allowed. I haven't actually told her I spent $225 on reservations yet (she doesn't even know anything about this); I'll tell her when it's important, lol. I love being an adult. :) Ah, I'm getting so excited just thinking about it. :)

I have this thing now, like I have to go to at least one big gym event every year. If things go according to plan, I will have attended the biggest event in the country from 2000-2005 ('00 Olympic Trials (Boston, MA), '01 Nationals (Philadelphia, PA), '02 Nationals (Cleveland, OH), '03 Worlds (Anaheim, CA), and '04 Olympic Trials (back to Boston baby!).

As for my site, I have plans to update my meet reviews section as soon as I find the time. Definitely by the end of the year, I will have added full reviews for the U.S. Championships (including a personal review of my day there), Goodwill Games, and the upcoming World Championships. It might take me a while to update sometimes, but when I do, I go all out, so watch out, lol.

I also have plans of adding a section for my thoughts on older stuff. Every time I watch my older tapes, I always have stuff I want to write about but usually don't get around to it.

Goodwill Games: I finally got to watch them over fall break. And let me just say that this TV coverage was AWESOME!!! I mean, they showed EVERYTHING during the live coverage. Even in the AA. TNT, you are awesome; you need to cover gymnastics events more often. Ew, I know that the Worlds coverage isn't going to be half as good.

The meet itself was very entertaining. It was a very nice way to spend part of my fall break, lol, catching up on gymnastics. I, of course, was disappointed that Kristal couldn't have been there. She's had such bad luck with injuries in the past few years. But I guess it's better now than 2 or 3 years down the road, right? She was actually down at my gym back home during the Goodwill Games, but I didn't get to see her cause of course I'm up here at Penn State.

I love Carly Patterson and Hollie Vise. I'm sure they have very bright futures. There were SO many good gymnasts at this meet; what an awesome competition. Watch for a full review in the coming months.

Well, I better go; it's getting late, and I have to get up in the morning. I'll really try and update more, even if it's just a little at a time. I worked on little things on my site for two hours tonight; I'm proud of myself, lol. That's the most time I've spent on it probably since the summer. Well, bye bye bye for now. :)

8/12/01

Wow, what a weekend. I went from thinking that I was going to see the entire National compeition, to not being able to go at all, to driving down to Philly at 7 A.M. Saturday morning to see the junior women's finals. It was wasn't the weekend that I had been dreaming of, but I guess that's what I get for depending on a previously unreliable source (I will won't bore you with the details). I'll know better next time. Speaking of next time, I was informed that next year's Nationals are being held in Cleveland, Ohio, which is about the same distance from me as Philly is, so you know what I'm thinking... :) I'll be sure to make much more definite plans this time.

But anyway, regardless of everything that happened this weekend, I still had an AWESOME time at the one meet that I did get to see, which was the one I wanted to see the most: the Junior Women's Finals. It was an incredible competition from start to finish, with the standings completely changing every rotation (with the exception of Kristal). There is SO much talent in our current junior field; it even goes beyond the more well-known names. Look for my full personal review on the meet soon.

As for the rest of the competition, I would have loved to have been there (and should have been there), but I had to settle with IG and NBC's coverage. I've always said NBC should have two hours to cover the Nationals because you just can't show anything in one hour. But besides the annoying commentary of Al Trautwig, NBC did the best they could have done in an hour, and THEY EVEN SHOWED THE JUNIORS! I was so excited when I saw they were going to show them. Granted, I was there for the juniors and only saw the seniors on TV, but in my opinion, the junior meet was much more exciting than the senior meet. Tasha really impressed me though; she's such an awesome performer. And I'm really glad that Tabitha made the world team; I've been a fan of hers for a while. Look for my complete review on the 2001 U.S. National Championships very soon.

I hope you all enjoyed the competition (or what little you saw of it on TV). I'm really looking forward to Goodwill Games; Kristal's competing! Live coverage starts on August 29 on TNT; check your local listings.

8/08/01

Well, I finally started an update section for this part of my site. I have to admit I've sort of neglected this half of my site lately, but that doesn't mean I'm not up on what's going on in the gym world. This is my favorite time of the year for gymnastics because it's the time that the U.S. Nationals occur. And guess what? This year I get to see them live! I am so excited; it's going to be Boston all over again. Don't worry; I'll be sure to write a full review on everything. While you're at it, why don't you check out my other personal gym reviews? Most of them are pretty detailed; you'll feel like you were actually there, lol.

I just saw the official roster for the Championships, and I almost know more of the junior names than I do seniors. Most of the big names have either retired or gone to college; this world championships team is going to be VERY interesting. There are going to be a lot of really new faces. I think it's so unfair though that our best gymnasts are being held back because of their age. In my opinion, a lot of our juniors are more talented than our seniors. Kristal Uzelac and Carly Patterson especially should be on that team.

I'm rooting for Mohini Bhardwaj all the way to make the team. I think it's so cool that she's still competing; I really admire all of the "older" gymnasts out there like her and Oksana Chusovitina. You know, a lot of people said the new rules would hurt the older gymnasts, but it seems as if there are a lot more older gymnasts now than in the past. I'm also rooting for Tabitha Yim to make the team; I've always loved her gymnastics. And Rachel Tidd; she really impressed me in Boston even though she was relatively unknown.

Flashback of the day: 1984 Olympic Trials. After watching this tape today, I realized that even if we complain about NBC's coverage of gymnastics, we have much better coverage of big meets than we did years ago. At the '84 trials, they started coverage after the third rotation. Yeah, you heard me right. Then they show us highlights of some of the other routines after we know the team. Where's the excitement in that? Compare that to last year's coverage of the trials and it's not too bad. It was so neat seeing Kathy Johnson and Bart Conner in their days of being a gymnast because I'm more used to seeing them as commentators. When they were being interviewed, they already sounded like commentators. I miss them covering the Worlds every year. They were my favorite broadcasting team. Speaking of Worlds coverage, I wonder what station is covering them this year?

I have so many awesome ideas for my site, but I leave for college in less than two weeks, and I don't how much time I"m going to have once I'm there. But I promise to update when I have the time. For now, I hope everyone enjoys Nationals (even if the TV coverage sucks, which it always does). I'll fill you in on what you missed. :)