ziert alert!
Reflecting on 2011
2011 WAS AN AMAZING year for gymnas- tics in many ways. It began with the sense that both the women and men had young all-around stars who could quite possibly dominate our sport for a long time. Aliya Mustafina and Kohei Uchimura were beautiful to watch and showed
huge difficulty with ease and elegance.
Hence, many thought there was now a
chance of regaining the artistry that everyone seemed to long for, even with this
ridiculous Code of Points, and that the
most artistic would also win! Plus, both
gymnasts restored new hope for the resurgence of two of the greatest teams of all
time.
Then came the European championships in Berlin, where Mustafina tore
her ACL on her first event of the all-around finals while performing a slightly
under-twisted Amanar. What a blow to the
Russian program and art of gymnastics.
Nevertheless, Uchimura managed to
avoid injury to totally overpower and out-execute all of his competitors by winning
his third consecutive world all-around title
by 3.101, the widest margin in history. In
this quadrennium, his record is silver in
the Beijing Olympics (with two falls on
horse) and then three world golds. That’s
not only incredible, it’s historic! It has
become quite apparent that no one can
beat him except himself. I can’t imagine
anyone other than Uchimura to symbolize
the model for gymnastics.
The world championships in Tokyo
produced some interesting scenarios for
London this summer. Jordyn Wieber,
Viktoria Komova and Yao Jinnan
competed in their first worlds and made
their cases as strong contenders for the
all-around gold this summer.
Wieber impressed most all of us with
her calmness and confidence which
showed in how steadily she performed
throughout the championships. She didn’t
miss a single routine. Komova moves like
a ballerina and yet is very powerful, so she
can do the big skills. Maybe trying too
hard for perfection, she often makes
unnecessary errors. Nevertheless, with
only 60% of her difficulty she would have
won in Tokyo with just a little more killer
instinct. Yao was the surprise for me. She
took the bonze with a fall on beam. I love
her gymnastics; it’s precise and beautiful.
Much like Komova, she seems to perform
her skills with such perfect technique that
small errors seemed to get larger deduc-
tions than they should.
Serving Gymnastics Since 1956 P.O. Box 721020, Norman, OK 73070 Tel: (405) 447-9988 Fax: (405) 447-5810 Printed in USA IG Online: www.intlgymnast.com Letters to the Editor: ig@intlgymnast.com
PUBLISHER
Paul Ziert
ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER
Bart Conner
PUBLISHER EMERITUS
Glenn M. Sundby
EDI TOR /AR T DIREC TOR
Dwight Normile
CONTRIBUTING EDITOR
Nadia Comaneci
WRITERS
John Crumlish, Amanda Turner, Christian Ivanov
PHOTOGRAPHERS
CONTRIBUTORS
Anneleen Kaptein-Dekker, Amy Van Deusen
The world championships
in Tokyo produced some
interesting scenarios for
London this summer.
WEBSITE
John Crumlish, Amanda Turner
FINANCIAL SERVICES
Benjamin Fox
The team competition also is evolving.
For the women, the main three—U.S.,
Russia and China—all look to be in the
mix for medals, with Romania trying very
hard to be competitive as well. This should
be a very interesting final. Will Marta
Karolyi again give up too much in the D-scores, as she did in Beijing, and then
hope the more powerful teams make mistakes? Or has she learned her lesson and
will push for more difficulty but taper back
on repetitions to avoid injuries? We know
the Russians and Chinese will not hold
back in difficulty!
And last but hardly least, I hope you will
enjoy our small tribute to Nadia, who
turned 50 in November. No one has done
more to keep our sport in the spotlight
globally. That historic moment when she
attained perfection with that magic number 10 will forever define her and our
sport, no matter what the Code of Points
is.
Happy New Year!!!
CUSTOMER SERVICE
Lynn Landis, Allison Keiffer
CIRCULATION MANAGER
Judy Baker
subscriptions@intlgymnast.com
ADVERTISING INFORMATION
Tel: (405) 447-9988 Fax: (405) 447-5810
GYM-MART
Send prepaid to: International GYMNAST
P.O. Box 721020, Norman, OK 73070
International GYMNAST (ISSN 0891-6616) magazine is published monthly except bi-monthly January/February and
July/August ( 10 issues/year) by Paul Ziert & Associates,
Inc., 3214 Bart Conner Dr., P.O. Box 721020, Norman, Oklahoma 73070. Periodicals Postage paid at Norman, Oklahoma, and additional mailing offices. Subscription rate
$30.00 USA per year, $5.00 single copy (Okla. res. add sales
tax); Canada: $38.00 plus 7% GST. All other foreign:
$38.00/surface mail; $50.00/express delivery. Correspondence concerning subscriptions, advertising, editorial,
address changes and adjustments should be mailed to:
International GYMNAST magazine, P. O. Box 721020, Norman, Oklahoma 73070. All rights reserved. All contents of
this issue of International GYMNAST magazine are copyrighted 2012 by Paul Ziert & Associates, Inc. Reproduction
without permission is strictly prohibited.
POSTMASTER: Send address changes to International
GYMNAST, P. O. Box 721020, Norman, Oklahoma 73070.
Publications mail agreement no. 41608042. Return undeliverable Canadian addresses to: PO Box 875, Stn A, Windsor
ON N9A 6P2.
Contributions: International GYMNAST magazine welcomes
story, art and photo contributions. All submissions should
be directed to the Editor. All photos and manuscripts submitted become the property of International GYMNAST
magazine, unless return request and sufficient postage are
included. The editors of International GYMNAST magazine
assume no responsibility for unsolicited contributions.
