DISMOUNT
TRUE ROYALTY
YOU never know who’ll you see at a world championships, but Rotterdam drew the presence of Nastia
Liukin (right)—Queen of the 2008
Beijing Olympics—and members of
the Dutch Royal Family, Prince
Willem-Alexander, Princess Maxima and their two daughters (
partially hidden).
RIGHT: Women’s Technical
Committee President Nellie Kim
(left, inducted in 1999), with
daughter Nellie Movtchan.
BELOW: 1997 inductee Nadia
Comaneciwith FIG President
Bruno Grandi (left, inducted in
2001) and FIG Secretary General
Andre Gueisbuhler
International Gymnastics Hall of Fame
NUMEROUS former inductees and dignitaries attended an Oct. 15 reception at The Hilton Rotterdam, which celebrated the upcoming
15th anniversary of the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame. The
15th induction dinner will be held in Oklahoma City in 2011. The Hall
of Fame currently has 72 individuals representing 20 nations.
One vault is stealing the show
EMEMBER when the double-twisting and full-twisting Yurchenkos were both worth 10.0?
Fans cried foul every time the double wasn’t
rewarded properly, and they were right.
Today, the Amanar ( 21⁄2-twisting Yurchenko)
poses the opposite problem. It’s rated too high
( 6. 5) compared with the double-twisting Yurchenko
( 5. 8). Granted, the extra half twist is difficult, but
does it deserve . 70 extra? No way.
In Rotterdam, all-around winner Aliya Musta-
fina scored 15.666 for her Amanar. On that event
alone she defeated runner-up Jiang Yuyuan by
.833 and bronze medalist Rebecca Bross by
.966, both of whom did Yurchenko-double twists.
The meet was essentially over.
Aliya Mustafina (Russia)
Boris Pilkin
ON Oct. 21, 2010, the day after the Russian women
won their first world team
title, the legendary coach of
three-time world all-around
champion Svetlana Khorkina
died in Belgorod, Russia. He
was 82.
The brilliant Pilkin created
unique routines to suit the
slender Khorkina, who has
several skills named after
her in the Code of Points.
“It’s terrible,” said Khorkina, Olympic champion on
bars in 1996 and 2000. “It’s
an untimely loss of this
decent and good man.”
