Friday, April 10, 2015

Meet Nastia Liukin


Nastia Liukin was the 2008 Olympic champion in gymnastics. She was born in Russia to Valeri and Anna Liukin, who were both champion gymnasts in their native country. When Nastia was a little over two years old, her parents moved to the United States in order to give her the best opportunity to succeed. Because her parents were always involved in the sport of gymnastics, Nastia spent a lot of her childhood in the gym. As her parents know all too well how hard the sport of gymnastics is, they had no intention of her becoming a gymnast. However, since she spent most of her time at the gym, her parents and coaches noticed her talent and began working with her. By the time she was six years old, she was a competitive gymnast. When she was twelve, she was an Elite gymnast. She continued training for the 2008 Olympics.

While at the Olympics, she helped lead her team to the silver medal, just behind China. Individually, she earned a bronze medal on the floor exercise, a silver medal on balance beam and uneven bars, and was the gold medalist overall. After the Olympics, she began training for London in 2012; however, she was unsuccessful in making the Olympic team. Even though she was unable to compete, she supported her team by attending London as the athlete representative for the Federation of International Gymnastics (FIG). Since her career in gymnastics is over, she currently spends her time following her interests for fashion, acting, education, as well as philanthropy.


Image and information:
http://parksandresorts.wdpromedia.com/media/disneyparks/blog/wp- content/uploads/2011/06/nld093818LARGE.jpg
http://nastialiukin.com/welcome/bio# 

Thursday, April 9, 2015

Men's NCAA Competition



The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a non-profit organization that was founded in 1906. The NCAA is responsible for regulating 23 sports in over 1,200 colleges and universities around the United States. This organization is responsible for setting the rules and requirements when it comes to the sport of gymnastics.

The first two rounds of competition for men began on Thursday, April 9th, and will be held at the Lloyd Noble Center on the University of Oklahoma campus in Norman, Oklahoma. The USA Gymnastics website will have live videos of the entire competition. There will be two sessions for the National Qualifier: one at 2 p.m. and the second at 8 p.m. The colleges and universities that are competing in the 2 p.m. competition are: Stanford, Penn State, Minnesota, California-Berkeley, Air Force, and Nebraska. The second part of the competition begins at 8 p.m. and the colleges and universities that will be competing are: Oklahoma, Michigan, Illinois, Iowa, Ohio State, and Army.

On Friday, April 10th, the Team and All-Around Finals, and Individual Event Prelims will take place at 8 p.m. Lastly, the Individual Event Finals will take place on Saturday at 8 p.m.





Image: https://usagym.org/pages/post.html?PostID=15753&prog=h