GymCastic: The Gymnastics Podcast

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364: 80s Fight! (Commissioned) May 22, 2019

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The greatest rivalries of the 1980s! This week, we have a commissioned episode from Club Gym Nerd member Kimo, who asked for an episode all about the 1980s rivalries between the Romanians and the Soviets, both team and individually. We are oh so happy to oblige!

Setting the scene

A history of Soviet dominance
Romania's 1976 emergence
The 1977 Europeans Romanian WALKOUT!
The first great Romanian/Soviet rivalry—Nadia vs. Nellie and how it may or may not have influenced the future of gymnastics
Romania wins in 1979, the "Nadia Infected Wrist" worlds
- The true story of Nadia's fake injury and government control

The Rivalry

The 1980 Olympics of crazy judging
- Nadia vs. Davydova and the case of the 30-minute delay
- Nadia vs. Nellie and the case of the "computer malfunction"
- Mukhina's paralysis and the race for innovative difficulty
1981 Worlds
- The silliest scores of 1981 (oh, it's 9.800 for this)
- The case of the Szabo/Agache impersonation of 1981
- Romania ends up 4th. That's right 4th.
1983 Worlds
- Innovation from an all-star Soviet team—YURCHENKO vaults, the SHISHOVA
- Just fangirling about Mostepanova for a while
- More fun with bonkers scoring
1984 boycott gives us an opportunity to talk about China
1985 Worlds
- Soviet Union casually adds Omelianchik and Shushunova to its already stellar 1983 team
- The Soviets were so deep that Shushunova placed FIFTH on her own team in qualification
- The evolution of Romanian floor to be less "chicken dance" and whether it contributed to what happened next
1987 and THE TIDE TURNS
- Silivas wins the European AA title in Moscow, and the Soviets (gasp) fall
- Romania gets its first world team title in 8 years
- How the addition of Aurelia Dobre changed the game for Romania
- Pro-Soviet bias in skill naming
- Dobre vs. Shushunova vs. Silivas vs. Baitova vs. Omelianchik. This was no two-way rivalry
- The 1988 Olympics and how timing is everything

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363: Five Is the New Four ...Is the New Five May 14, 2019

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ALL GYMTERNET NEWS, ALL THE TIME

Dumpster fire news
- It has been yet another terrible month for USAG (a theme???)
- The Li Li Today interview disaster
- The further mess of the botched hiring of Edward Nyman
  - Whose side are we on here? And is it no one's? (It's no one's)
  - A deep dive into the unprofessional incompetence of everyone ever
- Seriously Terin? The Terin Humphrey Facebook nonsense.
- The disastrous, unacceptable debacle that was Mary Lou's latest TV appearance
NCAA Coaching Musical Chairs (41:20)
- Jordyn Wieber is the new head coach at Arkansas
  - What do we think of this move? Is 23 too young to be a head coach? And most importantly, should Chris Brooks be her assistant?
- Chris Waller has been named head coach at UCLA
  - What does a successful Chris Waller tenure look like? We discuss both results and bras. Guess who brought up which topic.
- More from the NCAA coaching carousel, including all the changes at Utah
Olympic and World Championship news (55:30)
- Olympic teams are returning to FIVE (count 'em five) members in 2024. We have extensive thoughts and further proposals, some of them radical
- World championships will cap the number of competitors and introduce a qualification process starting in 2022.
- There are really strict leotard rules for team and individual competitors in 2020 for some reason.
- DRAH-MAAAAAA in the awarding of 2023 worlds. It involves taking people to court over a lack of numerical specificity in deadlines. Spencer is in heaven.
- Important robot judging news.
PLUS
- At the Heart of Gold is now available on HBO. Jessica tells us about the premiere, and we discuss overall thoughts and play "what we've learned since."
- Olympic. Channel. Svetlana. Khorkina. Documentary.
- New recruiting rules in NCAA (finally!)
- Diego Hypolito comes out
- Jordan Schwikert, Alyssa Baumann, and Tasha Schwikert have testified in TX about a MeToo bill
- Simone does her second SI Swimsuit Shoot, and Jessica explains to Spencer why it actually matters

Chinese Nationals!!! (1:36:32)
- Tingting is the national AA champion and UB champion—and is also brilliantly Netherlands-ing the crap out of floor
- The craziness of event finals, where Fan Yilin missed on bars, everybody fell on beam, and Zhang Jin had the most sad-larious floor leap miss-save in history.
- SHANG CHUNSONG won the floor title, but the true winner was her shirt
- World tumbling champion Jia Fangfang has made huge strides on floor
- We have three new perfect junior obsessions: Ou Yushan, Luo Rui, and Guan Chenchen, who is a silly little goose who is dancing constantly
- Plus, the most perfect PBars routine ever.

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362: Morgan Hurd and Heath Thorpe Interview May 08, 2019

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MORGAN AND HEATH!

This week, Jessica and Spencer chat with gymnastics royalty—2017 world all-around champion Morgan Hurd and 2018 Australian national floor champion and worlds squad member Heath Thorpe—about being the undisputed monarchs of the gymternet and much more, including

How they became friends and whether they're accepting applications for new members
Behind the scenes stories from 2018 worlds
Which apparatuses are the stupidest and least stupidedest
Forcing Morgan to try to come up with the names of MAG skills
Heath's gymnastics idols, and his decision to be out publicly on the internet
Embarrassing fan tales about the time Morgan met Aliya Mustafina
The story behind Morgan's new floor routine, and if there are any other secret upgrades she can reveal to us
The deal with Morgan's crazy elbow and her most recent surgery
The Morgiboo Book Club – what are we reading this month?
Favorite movie genres, escape rooms, how 3 out of 4 of us don't care about Game of Thrones, and all kinds of nonsense

What's next? You can catch Heath competing at the Australian National Championships, May 24-26 in Melbourne!

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2019 NCAA Nationals Apr 24, 2019

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NCAA Championships!

Live show – Thank you to everyone who came. It was AHMAZING! We recap our favorite moments.
Oklahoma won the thing with a dominant performance
- Jessica takes you through all the FEELINGS moments from the press conference—with the trainer, and the team, and the crying, and YOU GUYS and BRENNNNAAAA
- Maggie Nichols wins AA for 2nd year in a row. How it happened, plus thoughts on that floor routine composition
LSU performed excellently to finish 2nd. Which is good.
- That tweet. Oh, we have thoughts.
- Sarah Finnegan won the AAI Award because correct
An off day for UCLA put the Bruins in 3rd
- Thoughts on Marz Frazier's absence from the floor lineup
- How will a new coach balance maintaining UCLA's identity with his/her own personal style and approach?
Denver's 4th place is the team's best-ever result. By a LOT.
- Coach Linas has taken the bars coaching showmanship up yet another notch
Discussion of how much we missed 6-team sessions with byes. It's zero.
Semifinal thoughts
- Hello Oregon State!
- Beam caught up to Georgia, plus Suzanne rumors and important white fanny pack updates
- Michigan was one of the 4 best teams on the semifinal day
- Megan Marsden has announced her retirement
- UCLA's semifinal leotard. It was...
Individual champions – Guess how we feel about ties! Spencer tries to force Jessica to break the ties, and she won't do it
Dude Nationals — STANFORD WHAT??????
Our best Texas stories

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360: European Championships and NCAAs Preview Apr 16, 2019

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EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS (1:54)

Gymnastics journalist and (now) broadcaster extraordinaire Blythe Lawrence joins us to talk all about the European Championship!

WOMEN
- MELANIE DE JESUS DOS SANTOS - she is the official queen of Europe, and the happiest person about it is Coline Devillard in the stands
- Alice Kinsella's rollercoaster meet, where no British women fell on beam
- Maria Paseka's Cheng. We have a necessary emergency therapy session about it.
- The rise of the new Italian seniors, Ukraine, and Belarus (!)
- Just talking about Eythora for a long time because WE NEED TO
MEN
- Russian dominance and Nagornyy's dethroning of Dalaloyan
- Dalaloyan almost fell on a man wipe in the FX final. You know, the important stuff
- MARIOS succeeds with execution
- Breaking down the insanity of that vault final, moment by moment
- Updates on the Dom Cunningham injury and Oleg's current status
The REAL stories of Euros (47:14)
- Luba got the scoop behind Nekrasova's unitard from Baku
- Spencer starts an entire sub-podcast about Nicola Bartolini's tattoos, and it's going to be long.
- The usher kids and the couches and the hand holding—a deep dive
- Lankin's Wakanda Forever
- Pauline Schäfer's double turn save
- What do we do about Alice D'Amato's bars walking?
- We tackle the issue of Luigi the Monkey, the bananas, and Melanie

NCAA NATIONALS PREVIEW (1:11:34)

Remember: GYMCASTIC FLIPPING FOUR AFTER PARTY LIVE SHOW PRESENTED BY TUMBL TRAK, Saturday April 20th, 8:00 CT - everything you need to know, including what types of "cowboy dancing" Spencer will not be doing
We announce the winners of the ticket giveaway
Semifinal preview - Assessing every team's chances to advance from the semifinal of death and the semifinal of life
Team final preview - Jessica makes the argument for Oklahoma; Spencer makes the argument for UCLA
Individuals preview - Who might actually win the titles, who has already won the titles in Jessica's heart, and who should bring a bonkers upgrade just cuz
(1:40:31) USAG Nationals - Lindenwood wins the team title, and there was a feelings thing that happened with UIC
NAIGC Nationals is "like I opened a secret door into an underground group of people who get the purpose of gymnastics."

GYMTERNET NEWS (1:14:06)

L10 proposal to get more event qualifiers to nationals
Mark Cook is retiring
When the phone sex operator is the hero of the story
Lou Anna Simon can't recall
Reminder: The deadline to Take Legal Action in USA Gymnastics Sexual Assault Cases is April 29, 2019

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359: Sudden Death Regionals, Morgiboo Magic Apr 09, 2019

Show notes

LIVE SHOW TICKETS ON SALE NOW!

Remember: Tickets to our live show from NCAA nationals—the Flipping Four After Party presented by Tumbl Trak —are on sale now, and there are only 15 left! Get 'em while they exist.

TICKET GIVEAWAY: Plus, we're giving away 2 pairs of tickets!

How to enter: Finish this sentence on Twitter or Instagram: "If I were in charge of the college code I would...." including #JudgeMeChellsie #GymCasticLive and tagging @precisionchoreo. Deadline: Sunday, April 14th at midnight (PST).

Grand Prize: At the live show, the two ticket winners (or their selected representatives) will do a Memmel impression-off to win the grand prize—a My Gym Judge session with Chellsie Memmel. Compliments of Precision Choreography.

Attendees: Make sure to go straight to the event after the Flipping Four to put your name in for the amazing giveaways.

NCAA REGIONALS (9:20)

It all went to plan...until it didn't
Oregon State
- A forensic investigation, with historical reference points, of the Florida beam disaster and elimination
- Artistic gymnastics alert: Denver coach Linas Gaveika's bars performance
- Oregon State's magical beam levitation, and How To Give Birth Under a Double Layout: The Regional
LSU
- Brace yourself: MyKayla Skinner fell on bars, ending a streak of 161 consecutive hit routines
- Auburn's amazing semifinal performance, the injury to Sam Cerio, and the delicate politics of covering gruesome injuries—plus a shoutout to Ella Douglas, who had to go on floor right after that
- Lexy Ramler and Ivy Lu. Done.
Michigan
- From the lack of television coverage, to this regional being behind a paywall, to the unreliable and nonexistent live scores, we have a serious access problem for regionals that needs to be fixed
- Alabama is eliminated. This will be the first national championship without Alabama since 1982, the first year women existed
- Kyla Ross got three more 10s, meanwhile Taylor Houchin got zero 10s, and we have a problem with that
- Penn State got two individuals qualifiers to nationals and we're taking all the credit. Sorry, gymnasts
Georgia
- Spencer calls for a judging intervention after this preposterous regional
- Oklahoma recorded the highest road score in NCAA history, and Cal and Kentucky both set program records while being eliminated
- Shoutout to Alma Kuc, Emi Watterson, and Cal's best bars rotation ever en route to the strongest performance to be eliminated from any regional final
- Marissa Oakley's 10 was a thing of beauty and a joy forever, and Rachael Lukacs BROUGHT IT
- Um. So. We need to talk about some leotards
Gymnasts are ninjas — regionals edition
- Erin Castle (Iowa) - Vault
- Hannah Cohen (George Washington) - Bars
What we still need to work on with this new regionals format, including meet timing and schedule, team distribution, and those stupid team prisons—now even stupider than ever!

TOKYO WORLD CUP (1:29:10)

Morgan Hurd won the AA title by less than a tenth over Ellie Black, proving she is a sorceress on vault and beam, while also debuting her new floor routine. We interpret.
Ellie Black and Asuka Teramoto were on fire, though Teramoto's true meet highlight had nothing to do with gymnastics
Sam "Consistency" Mikulak hit an entire meet, including HB, to take the all-around title
Plus, Giarnni Regini-Moran beat Kenzo on floor, why we're excited to be concerned for Kenzo's safety, and while we're definitely not excited to be concerned for Bart's safety

GYMTERNET NEWS (1:40:00)

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358: Regionals Preview, Shire Brown, Olivera, Ruddock Apr 03, 2019

Show notes

LIVE SHOW TICKETS ON SALE NOW!

Remember: Tickets to our live show from NCAA nationals—the Flipping Four After Party presented by Tumbl Trak —are on sale. In addition to gifts for every attendee, t-shirts (while supplies last), and door prizes from our store, you can win a My Gym Judge session with Chellsie Memmel. Compliments of Precision Choreography. Get 'em while they're hot.

Regionals Preview (3:30)

NCAA Regional Championships begin this Thursday with the new play-in meets and end on Saturday, when the 8 teams advancing to nationals will be decided. Spencer gives the rundown of what to expect—while trying to fit in as many SYTYCD, Madonna, and Laura Linney references as possible. You know, gymnastics content. Schedule here.

Interviews Galore!

Sarah (of the Shire) Brown (8:12) In her second season as head coach at Penn State, Sarah Brown joins us to talk about her time at GAGE, what it's really like there, and what happens if you're not turned out in the airport. Plus, the changes she tried to institute at Penn State after taking over at a program in turmoil, how transferring during her own college career informs her perspective on the athlete experience now, when we're going to see a four-element beam series in the Penn State lineup (spoiler: it's never), and whether Jessica is still allowed to call her Sarah of the Shire. Lieve Olivera (49:31) Lieve Olivera was a Brevet judge from 1985 to 1996. She judged at world championships and world cups, has owned her own gym, was the media liaison at the 2000 Olympics, and has authored articles and given presentations on controversies in judging. So we obviously need to talk a lot about college gymnastics—the differences between college and international, how judges go about trying to reconcile their deductions with the need to rank routines, how best to improve college gymnastics judging, and the deductions she would have for an example routine. PLUS, behind the scenes stories about what happened in 2000 after the vault debacle and after Raducan was stripped of her medal. Nick Ruddock (1:19:36) Nick was a national coach for British Gymnastics who worked with everyone fro Ellie Downie to Amy Tinkler. He is now a consultant who has worked with 18 federations around the world, including Japan and the Netherlands (drink!). He emphasizes an athlete centered approach for longevity and high performance. Each year he shares his knowledge via GymCon which you've heard Jessica talk about one million times. Jessica asked him all of her burning technical, cultural and code questions.

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357: It's the Freakin' Lighting! Mar 27, 2019

Show notes

LIVE SHOW TICKETS ON SALE NOW!

Remember: Tickets to our live show from NCAA nationals—the Flipping Four After Party presented by Tumbl Trak —are on sale. Get 'em while they're hot. Want a hint about our secret special guest? Go to the 41:36 minutes.

MEET NEWS

Birmingham World Cup (2:11)
- Why did everyone fall on everything? Try the crazy spotlight lighting! Measure your lumens, yo!
- Aliya is the champion and is going to Euros now—called it!
- Riley McCusker is the women's team answer to Sam Mikulak
- ...and the FIG still can't tell any of the Chinese gymnasts apart. Great.
Superstars (or Stuperstars) of Gymnastics (14:54)
- Jessica loved it and Spencer was like [sigh]—obviously
- We discuss Danusia's new vault family, Simone stealing the show with the best line of the night, Ellie Black going ALL IN on this craziness, Casimir Schmidt's pink broccoli boxers, how Laurent was one of the celebrity judges, Jessica's feelings moments, and more
NCAA Conference championships (43:24)
- LSU beats Florida in an intense SEC Championship that came down to floor
- Denver almost beat Oklahoma at Big 12s, you guys
- The three-way AA tie in the Big Ten made Jessica's dreams come true, though the camera work...didn't
- UCLA won Pac-12s as both UCLA and Utah broke 198. We discuss the 10s and the "coincidental" change in Ohashi's floor music
  - Plus, is the one-routine-at-a-time, 2.5 hour format of Pac-12s working?
Regionals! (1:11:44)
- George Washington and Lindenwood claim the last two spots on a dramatic final day. We discuss the heartbreaking finish for UIC and the beautiful Cinderella story of Lindenwood gymnastics
- The regionals draw—what are the juiciest matchups to watch, and how did the committee screw up the team distribution? Oh, in several ways!
Doha Apparatus World Cup (1:25:00)
- The day the Australia broke
- High bar is fulfilling all our hopes and dreams for this qualification method
- NINA!
- Jade Carey, Maria Paseka's best-ever Amanar, and the race for the Perfect 90

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356: Vallapalooza Mar 20, 2019

Show notes

LIVE SHOW TICKETS ON SALE NOW!

Remember: Tickets to our live show from NCAA nationals—the Flipping Four After Party presented by Tumbl Trak —are on sale. Get 'em while they're hot.

ATHLETE ASSISTANCE FUND

(2:30) The Athlete Assistance Fund has partnered with the New York Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Children to provide child sexual assault prevention training to national gymnastics programs. We discuss what the Athlete Assistance Fund is and what this partnership is going to do. We will continue to support Saving Our Survivors Fund via our store.

COLLEGE NEWS

(10:03) The Miss Val farewell meet was as extra as you knew it would be
- The Valorie Kondos Field Floor was unveiled. We have some other ideas for coach-naming tributes
- Jessica tells us about what we didn't see on TV, and it involves flash mobs and ice sculptures and math problems
- We've been given a challenge to talk about college meets without discussing the judging. Jessica accepts the challenge. Spencer passes.
- Why that ridiculous roller coaster of a meet was the perfect tribute to Miss Val
- Madison. Ward. Sessions.
- But that broadcast, you guys...
- Kyla got a Perfect Fall 9.500 from one judge. Has anyone ever scored a Perfect Fall before? Should it be possible?
Other college developments including Cal's program-record score of 197.575 and Bridgeport upping the game for next season in terms of celebrations
(49:53) We announce the Pac-12 Championship ticket winners.
(50:15) Regionals Watch: Who's in, who's out, and who desperately needs a score at conference championships this weekend

ELITE NEWS

(55:06) Stuttgart all-around world cup
- Simone wins with "downgrades," Ana Padurariu is a dream, Elisabeth Seitz upgrades back to the DTY for the first time in forever, and Aliya's beam features wobbles on everything except her acro series because of course
Stuttgart team challenge
- Brazil is coming for all your titles, and Andrade scored 56.932 (!) in the all-around
- (1:02:08) Jessica provides a moment-by-moment art-historical interpretation of Eythora's brilliant beam routine
Baku
- Jade Carey unleashes her Cheng upon the world and wins vault in a field that was RIDIC
- Spencer breaks down the qualification rules, including what happens if two people tie for a spot, and what happens if Jade Carey wins more than one event
- Floor competition brought us the BODYSUIT LEO HEARD ROUND THE WORLD
- Controversy on beam: Anastasia Bachynska loses the bronze medal because her coach was on the podium. We have many problems with this.
- Emma Nedov is the real deal, and Jessica and Spencer basically get a divorce while trying to compare Tingting and Li Qi.
- Man-notes about high bar (eeeeee!) and the return of Yang Hakseon.

GYMTERNET NEWS

Gymnastics is for grown-ass women
Nassar Accusers Sue U.S Olympic Committee For Failing To Prevent Sexual Abuse
OU men's gymnastics 111th straight win
Japan submits bid for 2023 Worlds — yea or nay?
The AAI Award Finalists are in — who's winning?
(1:41:09) British Championships update from Katie Steele

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355: Montreal Floor Part 2 Revenge of the Floor Mar 13, 2019

Show notes

LIVE SHOW TICKETS ON SALE NOW!

Remember: Tickets to our live show from NCAA nationals—the Flipping Four After Party presented by Tumbl Trak —go on sale to the general public on Wednesday March 6th. Get 'em while they're hot.

MEET NEWS

(2:30) L'International Gymnix — the Montreal floor strikes AGAIN
- We break it down moment-by-moment, try to get a redo for special Belgians, and discuss Alyona Shchennikova almost tumbling into some dude
- Kara Eaker wins the AA, Shchennikova does the best DTY she has ever done, and what happens when a front tuck on beam is too high to function
- Lilly Lippeatt's WOW floor combo
(19:18) Russian Nationals!
- Luba from Gymnovosti is here to fill us in on all the goodies from last week's Russian Championship of Splats—who won, who fell, who won AND fell
- Who made the European Championships team (for now), and why it wasn't Aliya despite ALIYA
- The returns of Paseka and Eremina, how Daria Belousova made Jessica into a prophet, and the most important news of all—our annual Tatiana Nabieva update
- What happened to Artur Dalaloyan on the men's side, Nikita Nagornyy's near sweep, and that time the Rodionenkos retired Kuksenkov without his permission because of course they did
- All the horrible things Valentina said this time
- (47:18) Liubou Charkashyna, president of the FIG Athletes Commission, said American abuse survivors are in it for the money. Well fab.
  - Meanwhile the FIG suspended a coach for behavior toward an athlete for the first time (we think)
- That time Aliya gently ushered a furry out of the way

(54:59) GYMTERNET NEWS

Rebeca Andrade's bars routine is everything
USAG is now using professional security as chaperones for the women's team
Jessica has homework assignments for our listeners
- The Treatment from Terrible, Thanks for Asking
- Rachel Haines' book Abused: Surviving Sexual Assault and a Toxic Gymnastics Culture
- Leaving Neverland on HBO
The Landis haven't been paid from Doha, GreatCoach.com has a full list of banned coaches, 2 MSU trainers lied to police, and the Michigan AG has taken over the Geddert investigation
The coaching news out of Bowling Green and Central Michigan

(1:21:42) NCAA

- A rankings update (DENVER?!) and the race for the evening sessions at conference championships. Plus, the important ranking echelons in the new postseason format—and who's on the cusp of missing out
- All the scoring records (and there were a lot) broken this weekend
- The senior day 10: Sweet or condescending?
- Nothing is a deduction anymore: The UCLA/Stanford meet

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