GymCastic: The Gymnastics Podcast

Latest Episodes:

439: The Curious Case of the Extra Urine Sep 15, 2020

Show notes

WATCH HERE

Club Gym Nerd members can watch the podcast being recorded (pre-edits with all the flubs and hiccups) and see video of the routines we discuss.

HEADLINES

Jessica talks about the Alyssa Beckerman episode
Gymnast Alliance: Ellie Downie's weight-shaming complaint was "not upheld" and multiple gymnasts disclose issues at Cincinnati under MLT. Kensley has some thoughts on MLT's Bible defense.
Gymnastics is Coming Back! Spencer previews what we're excited for at the upcoming Japanese Championships, Chinese Championships, and Szombathely World Cup. Meanwhile, Anastasia Motak's beam from Ukrainian Nationals is the new president.
Spencer watched the Andreea Raducan documentary Golden Girl and is bursting to tell you everything about it
The latest on men's NCAA gym and its slow march toward death:
- The Long Brewing Crisis in High Education. Higher education as hedge fund luxury brands
- Cutting sports to steal endowments: The myth of football-funded athletics

GYMTERNET NEWS

The weekly "Chellsie Memmel is our only hope" update
Thoughts on USAG's tentative women's calendar for 2021
Maggie Haney is...still working with gymnasts?
Jordyn Wieber won't attend the USAG Hall of Fame induction
And a new gymnastics docuseries is coming!

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258: The Fluff Cast (Commissioned) Sep 09, 2020

Show notes

This week, it's the commissioned episode you've all been waiting for...the FLUFFCAST! We jump into all the most insane, hilarious, horrifying, sexist, perfect, amazing, diva-tastic, butterfly-gazing, Romanian candle-holding fluff pieces in the history of gymnastics broadcasts. Thank you so much to Fluff Feels for commissioning the episode we were born to do, and thank you to everyone who sent in suggestions! Jessica and Spencer dissect:

2000 Olympic All-Around fluff
- NBC's Living-Parents Championship, starring Russian daddy issues and soldiers kidnapping Zamo.
- Prod's shaved eyebrow
  - Prod's convertible flexing fluff, the only verifiably true fluff ever
- The legendary Romanian candle cups
- Elise Ray and the butterfly
- NBC's weird obsession with 1950s-style nuclear families
2000 Atler v. Dantzscher v. Beth Rybacki's tears
- How much resentment and blame? ALL OF IT!
- What's the deal with that wild west picture? And that helicopter-parent one?
1996 Kerri Strug lives in everyone's shadow fluff
- Is this the most sexist fluff of all time?
- Jessica's expletive parade
- Invention of the Bechdel Test for gymnastics fluff pieces
"A diva is magical"
- That time Khorkina was perfect in every way
- Was saying, "I want to win as much as I want to mother my own child" really such a big deal?
1994 Romanian terrifying fluff of horrors
- The twist ending and the LITERAL DEAD BODY
- Trouble with keeping communist narratives straight
- NBC's fascination with Romanian people's eyes
1995 Moceanu fluff
- A creepy pedophile wonderland of a fluff piece
- Why is Bela so bad at boats?
- That insane 1997 "I Will Remember You" fluff
- Moceanu standing in a forest in a leo clawing that tree in 2000
1992 Bogi and her coach fluff
- How respectfully and maturely do we think NBC handled the issue of suicide?
- Bogi has no time for family or your sexist coach narratives
Kim Kelly gets bumped
- Blurry smoke-filled rooms! Shadiness!
- "Who'd they drop?" "You, Kim."
Mohini delivers pizzas (1) (2)
- Why let fact get in the way of narrative?
- Important question: what are raffle bars?
The most upsetting and bizarre fluff you will ever see
- A lesson on which issues should never be addressed in fluff pieces
Elvire Teza 1998
- More fun with racist Chinese music!
- Why we want to move to France and live with the French team

SUPPORT THE SHOW

Join Club Gym Nerd here with brand new membership tiers, commission your own episode, or commission your own segment.
Buy some of our awesome merchandise here.

CONTEST

WHAT: #BeerWithBetty: The Greatest Scavenger Hunt in the Galaxy!

PRIZE: The winner will share a beer (or root beer if you are under 21) with the great Betty Okino, Olympic and World medalist, creator of the triple turn on beam, and a member of the Precision Choreography team.

HOW IT WORKS: In August, we will release a list of 10 items on this photo scavenger hunt. Your mission will be to complete each one and post a photo to Twitter or Instagram tagging @GymCastic and @PrecisionChoreo and using #BeerWithBetty. The winner will be selected at random among everyone who completes all ten items. The hunt will start at 8am on Thursday August 17 and will end at 12pm on Saturday, August 19. The winner will meet with the Betty Okino at 3pm that day! If you enter, be READY FOR BETTY because winner will meet this gymnastics legend at 3pm that day!

PLUS: We will give six additional prizes for Most Outrageous photos! The top three most outrageous photos on Friday will win a personal voice message from one of Precision Choreography's gymnastics stars (people like Chellsie Memmel, Alicia Sacramone, Houry Gerbesian, and Holly Vise)! The top three on Saturday will get a special shout-out on the GymCastic podcast.

BUT WAIT: Before this contest starts, we need your help coming up with the scavenger hunt list! Please tweet us your suggestions using #BeerWithBetty from now until July 31. Something like socks with sandals, overused beam poses, someone over 50 doing the splits. We will give you full credit for any suggestions we use!

RELATED EPISODES

Best of GymCastic: Vanessa Atler Interview Sep 02, 2020

Show notes

Originally aired in June 2017

BEST OF GYMCASTIC

Originally released in June 2017. Vanessa Atler is an American treasure and fans have loved her from the moment they first saw her elegant power. She's a multi-time national champion, multi-World Cup champion, Goodwill Games event champion. She would probably have made the 1996 Olympic team had she been age eligible. She was one of those gymnasts for whom nothing ever worked out the way it should have and fans hearts broke along with her through the 1996-2000 quad. We discuss:

Why she requested the interview with us
Her thoughts on age limits and specialists (13:10)
Elements she worked on but never competed (19:25)
Dealing with emotions and tears of frustration
The Comaneci-Salto & The Rybackis - (22:34)
- Why didn't she just take the Comaneci out of her routine and win all the things?
- Beth and Steve's differing opinions on bars
- What worked and didn't work with the Rybackis
- How being at Charter Oak effected her own coaching
- Did she seek counseling or therapy? (31:01)
Her early online presence… and her mom's (32:50)
- Epic fluff from 1997 on Vanessa's online diary
1999 Goodwill Games and Sang Lan's vault accident (34:43)
Why she left the Rybackis (39:00)
The real story behind the ankle injury (47:57)
Why she did not train with Bela Karolyi (50:47)
The letter Larry Nassar said USAG received about him that caused him to be banned from the Ranch (52:16)
Pre-2000 Olympics, moving to WOGA (1:00:01)
- What did and didn't work for her with Valeri
- How Valeri helped make her more confident on bars
- Weigh-ins (1:04:29)
2000 Olympic Trials
- When an agent gets into the mix: where the "you didn't make the team because you were fat" rumor came from (1:08:35)
- Bela told her he'd put her on the team
Did she try and compete after 2000?
What are her feelings toward gymnastics now?
Being on the realty show "Starting Over"
Outside influences: family members and agents
The decision to turn professional
Fibromyalgia after her motorcycle accident
Dealing with anxiety and food
Talking about her support for the defendants in the Larry Nassar case (1:36:00)
Worlds in China: Nassar asking who wanted a cortisone shot without parental consent and alone in room (1:39:36)
What she overheard during a coaches meeting through the walls of a hotel (1:44:11)
Would she want her son to participate in elite gymnastics?
What she does to keep gymnastics fun for her gymnasts
What are her upcoming plans… is another book in the works?
What are her thoughts on the Nassar situation and USAG today?
- How terrible the food was when she was at the Ranch for national team camp (2:00:11)
- The group message exchange asking for support for Nassar (2:02:04)
- Asking for help for her bulimia and being told to do what it takes (2:03:55)

GUEST LINKS

Witness her amazing beam skills.
Her floor at the height of her awesomeness.
Vanessa Atler blog and diary
Vanessa Atler Children's Book: Let the River Flow

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RELATED EPISODES

438: Agree to Disagree Aug 27, 2020

Show notes

WATCH HERE

Club Gym Nerd members can watch the podcast being recorded (pre-edits with all the flubs and hiccups) and see video of the routines we discuss.

HEADLINES

Alyssa Beckerman penned a Google Doc about the emotional manipulation, ostracism, pettiness, and mishandling of weight and injury that she experienced at UCLA under Miss Val
- What lessons other coaches can learn about the best ways to help athletes who experienced abusive club careers
- Does this change how we look at Miss Val's positive coaching tour?
- Thoughts on Miss Val's response and whether she should have said anything at all
- Discussed:
  - International Socio-Cultural research group on Women's Artistic Gymnastics (ISCWAG) research and interview
  - Jenny Pinches explanation on August 7, 2020 before Alyssa's letter) of the #AthleteAlliance movement re coaches
  - One Face: Project Gravitas
  - Related articles on Beckerman :
More #GymnastAlliance news
- Cassidy Hyman's statement about elite development coordinator Dan Baker
- Athletes speak out about Amanda Reddin, WAG head coach at British Gymnastics
The NCAA Gym is dying
- Alaska's women's program and Iowa's men's program will be shut down after 2021. We mourn.

MINI COMMISSION

Erin has commissioned us to bring back fluff pieces and reimagine the non-racist, non-condescending, non-awful versions we'd like to see. Obviously, we go right to Elena Produnova, Catalina Ponor's closet, and lesbians

GYMTERNET NEWS

Kensley's article on Female judges in MAG, Suni Lee's COVID scare, an exposé of the Brazilian club Pinheiros, and what we think of the survivors' attorneys asking the court to reject Terin Humphrey's claim

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RELATED EPISODES

437: Lineup Racism Aug 18, 2020

Show notes

WATCH HERE

Club Gym Nerd members can watch the podcast being recorded (pre-edits with all the flubs and hiccups) and see video of the routines we discuss.

HEADLINES

Texas Dreams Fallout
- Statements from more athletes about their Texas Dreams experiences, including Ragan Smith and Macy Toronjo
- Discussion: What responsibility do college coaches have to speak out about abusive coaching in the elite world?
ESPN article on racism in college gymnastics
- The details on Alabama's Title IX investigation, and...Dana what are you doing?
- "Skin-tone" and the NCAA demographics database
D-D Breaux retired
- Her epic legacy at LSU and what's next for the team

MINI-COMMISSION

Last week, Kennedy Baker discussed her experience with racism at Florida and mentioned the much-discussed history of Florida floor lineups. We use that as a lens for this week's mini-commission, in which Sophie asked us to discuss NCAA lineup strategy, what each of our strategies would be if we were making lineups, and whether there's a program that excels at lineup strategy.

GYMTERNET NEWS

Amy Tinkler's former coaches suspended by British Gymnastics, Memmel upgrade news, the Kathie Klages sentencing, USAG's 5-tier system for SafeSport reports, Donnell Whittenburg's piece for Team USA, Nina's new dismount, and more

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436: 2000 Women's Team Final Commissioned Aug 12, 2020

Show notes

WATCH HERE

Club Gym Nerd members can watch the podcast being recorded (pre-edits with all the flubbubbs and hiccups) and see video of the routines we discuss.

TEXAS NIGHTMARES

Before we get to this week's commission, a few...erm...rage thoughts on what we've heard about Texas Dreams this week from Ashton Kim and Kennedy Baker.

2000 TEAM FINAL

This week's episode was commissioned by Club Gym Nerd member Casey because "it's all fun and games until Russia goes to beam." We discuss:

Vault conspiracy theories. Was the vault also set incorrectly in the team final?
Everything on beam is a Shushunova. We fight about it.
The US team getting locked out of the arena and what it symbolizes
Support, refute, or qualify: "Romania wins with boring gymnastics."
The concept of Maria Olaru
Khorkina's vaulting, Leonardo Da Vinci, and pumpernickel
The importance of Liu Xuan and Ling Jie on floor
Russia. Beam. It happened. We need to talk about it
Dong Fangxiao's age and the stripping of China's bronze

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RELATED EPISODES

435: Let's Talk about Terin

430: Athlete A with Jennifer Sey

435: Let's Talk about Terin Aug 05, 2020

Show notes

WATCH HERE

Club Gym Nerd members can watch the podcast being recorded (pre-edits with all the flubs and hiccups) and see video of the routines we discuss.

THIS WEEK

Mark Alesia, formerly of the Indy Star and part of the team that reported the Criminal Ex-Doctor story, joins us to discuss Athlete A and #GymnastAlliance
The Dutch federation has shut down the women's elite program to conduct an investigation into coaching abuse. What does it all mean?
Terin Humphrey is a survivor. We discuss reconciling that with her...other behavior and why her complaints about USAG removing her don't really add up.
What Terin has to say about Steve Penny trying to influence team selection
Chellsie's comeback – it's officially official! We talk about her skills and her interview with the Olympic Channel
Sam Mikulak says he will retire after the Olympics, citing a chronic wrist injury and a desire to preserve his mental health

MINI-COMMISSION

Desirae asked us to come up with a gymnastics coaching qualification system for the US—what courses, information, and classes would we require? We have a lot of suggestions.

GYMTERNET NEWS

A story of abuse allegations coming out of New Zealand that we have some questions about
Australia's Human Rights Commission is reviewing Australian gymnastics
Some...unfortunate incidental translation issues from the FIG
The Pac-12 football boys are making Jessica's dreams come true
Plus, spending the day with Aliya

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RELATED EPISODES

434: Svetlana Khorcanceled Jul 29, 2020

Show notes

WATCH HERE

Club Gym Nerd members can watch the podcast being recorded (pre-edits with all the flubs and hiccups) and see video of the routines we discuss.

GYMTERNET NEWS

#GymnastAlliance is growing: We discuss the latest news out of Belgium and the Netherlands
We have some THINGS to say on what we've now learned about Ellis O'Reilly's health
How do we handle abusive coaches who admit their mistakes?
SIGHx100000. Khorkina.
Reflections on the Heavy Medals podcasts and what Geza Pozsar has been saying lately
The Human Rights Watch report on sports in Japan

MINI-COMMISSION

We have been commissioned to add two events to women's gymnastics. Let's go.

PLUS

Wearing tights in gymnastics competition
Riley's new bars dismount
Feedback on majoring in gymnastics, smoking while tumbling, Sarah Jantzi and Rhonda, Spencer needing to figure skate, Jane Allen, and Khorkina things

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RELATED EPISODES

433: Weirdest Gymnastics Exhibitions of the 90s (Commissioned) Jul 22, 2020

Show notes

WATCH HERE

Club Gym Nerd members can watch the podcast being recorded (pre-edits with all the flubbubbs and hiccups) and see video of the routines we discuss.

COMMISSION! No, Spencer didn't self-commission this episode. Instead, an anonymous patron asked us for an episode all about the "professional" "gymnastics" "competitions" to "rock music" that populated the "1990s." And we are more than happy to oblige. We discuss:

Queen Kristie Phillips, the only one who understood. Like when she did a Gianni Versace/Princess Diana tribute beam routine. Or when she did a Vietnam War protest routine. Or when she did a different Vietnam War protest routine. Or that time her genie pants came off during floor.
Being too 90s to function: Dominique Moceanu's Titanic beam routine, and Chris Waller doing the Macarena
Men taking their shirts off. Like all the time. And sometimes Alexei Nemov took his pants off.
The award for most awkward – Shannon Miller's virginity floor routine, Valentin Moguilny's alcoholism floor routine, and Dmitry Bilozerchev's baby rings routine
The MAG Seven: Who cared the least about this nonsense (a tough category!) and a conspiracy theory about Shannon
That time Elena Produnova did an ill-advised floor routine to Who Let the Dogs Out
That time May Lee Tracy had Kim Zmeskal do a beam routine to God Bless America
That time Svetlana Khorkina went to Disney World, and that time Ukrainians did ALL the 1994 shopping

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RELATED EPISODES

432: GymnastAlliance Jul 15, 2020

Show notes

WATCH HERE

Club Gym Nerd members can watch the podcast being recorded (pre-edits with all the flubs and hiccups) and see video of the routines we discuss.

GYMTERNET NEWS

#GymnastAlliance
- British Athletes, like our queen Catherine Lyons and co-queen Lisa Mason, are speaking out about the coaching abuses they've suffered and culture of fear in British gymnastics. We discuss what makes this moment different.
Athlete A Aftermath
- The influence of this documentary and Dave Tilley's must-watch reflection and analysis
- Moving the women's age limit to 18—how do we feel about it now?
- OK. But. We really need to unpack this narrative that Maggie was snubbed for a spot on the 2016 team. Spencer made a spreadsheet. Because of course.
- Feedback on what we make of Geza Pozsar, whether Sarah Jantzi bears the same responsibility as Rhonda Faehn, and how sportsball boyfriends reacted to the documentary
Copenhagen withdraws
- Denmark will not host worlds in 2021. Jessica and Spencer are currently in different stages of grief.
Simone is the first gymnast on the cover of Vogue
- And the twitters are NOT happy with the pictures
More abuse news
- Terry Gray—formerly of Cincinnati, Browns, and SCEGA—has been arrested for 14 counts of "lewdness with a child under 14"
- Thierry Pellerin—Canadian pommel horse specialist—has been arrested for sexual offenses against minors.
Plus
- Gymnastics survives the Stanford sports purge, all our favorite under-the-radar internationals are going to LIU—except international students might not be able to stay in the US (petition), everyone is coming out, and Jessica's mouth goes to sleep while trying to say Ana Padurariu, which is our cue to stop.

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