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[March 31] Accused
coach released on bond
RINCON - A coach accused of using the Internet to sexually
exploit an 11-year-old girl is free on $10,000 bail, authorities
said Friday. William Allen McCabe, 29, owner of Metro Savannah
Gymnastics and Cheerleading, was released late Thursday after
a Springfield surety company posted the bond, Effingham County
Jail officials said. McCabe was initially held without bond,
but bail was set Thursday with the help of a lawyer, authorities
said. 
[March 31] Liukin
nominated for the World Top 10 Athletes Award
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind..2005 world uneven bars and balance beam
champion Nastia Liukin of Parker, Texas, is one of the nominees
for the World Top 10 Athletes Award, supported by the Chinese
Olympic Committee and the Beijing Organizing Committee of
the Olympic Games for 2008 (BOCOG), authorized by the China
General Administration of Sports and organized by the China
Sports Publications Corp.
The award ceremony is April 9, 2006, at the People’s Great
hall in Beijing, China. Most recently, Liukin won the all-around
title at the 2006 Tyson American Cup. In 2005, she won the
uneven bars and balance beam titles at the World Championships,
were she also claimed silver medals in the all-around and
floor exercise. She is the reigning U.S. all-around, uneven
bars and balance beam champion, which she won at the 2005
Visa Championships. Liukin is coached by her father, Valeri,
at WOGA in Plano, Texas.
The award is celebrating its 20th anniversary and has been
billed as the Sports Oscar of China. The nominees for the
World top 10 Athletes were nominated by a panel of sports
experts and voted on by Chinese people around the world. The
award ceremony/gala will be broadcast live by Chinese national
broadcaster CCTV.
[March 31] Legendary
gymnastics coach Karolyi to make Kaua'i visit
Most if not all of us remember Kerri Strug's courageous performance,
which led to the U.S.'s first-ever women's gymnastics team
Olympic gold medal in 1996. The image of legendary coach Bela
Karolyi holding Strug as she struggled with her injured leg
was implanted in everyone's mind and now you can see, meet,
and greet one of the world's most renowned gymnastics coaches
of all time on Monday, April 3 from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m.
Arguably the most successful coach in the history of U.S.
gymnastics, Karolyi has produced 28 Olympians, nine Olympic
champions, 15 world champions, 12 European medalists, and
six U.S. national champions in 30 years of coaching gymnastics
in both his native Romania and the United States. Among his
most accomplished gymnasts are Nadia Comaneci, Mary Lou Retton,
Julianne McNamara, Phoebe Mills, Brandy Johnson, Kim Zmeskal,
Betty Okino, Strug, and Dominique Moceanu.
The 2006 Pacific Alliance Gymnastics Championships, one of
the sport's premier international events, show-cases the top
male and female gymnasts from the Pacific Rim countries, competing
in artistic and rhythmic gymnastics and, for the first time,
trampoline. This year's Pacific Alliance Championships is
also one of the first international events to use the sport's
new scoring system. Tickets for the event are on sale at ticketmaster.com
or by calling 877-750-4400.
[March 31] Gymnastics
is not just a sport, it is a lifestyle
...Look no further than senior Randi Jo Russell, who has been
involved in gymnastics since the time she was born. The many
years spent in the gym has led her to a full ride scholarship
at the University of Arizona.
[March 31] Documentary
spotlights Korean gymnastics
“A State of Mind,” followed two North Korean school girls
for a period of nine months, providing an inside look to three
generations of North Koreans. The school girls, 13-year-old
Pak Hyon Sun and 11-year-old Kim Song Yun, were gymnasts.
The events shown with these girls lead up to the Mass Games,
a synchronized and choreographed gymnastics event that involves
a cast of thousands of people. It is the celebration and pride
of the formation of the Democratic Republic of Korea. “The
film was a window to North Korea,” said Paul Yi, curator for
the film festival. “It is the first time we see the daily
life for a North Korean family.” The country follows its own
communist ideals and a strict philosophy known as the Juche
Idea, which is the idea of self-reliance. Its beliefs also
surround the worship of the Kim dynasty.
[March 31] Valley
of dreams for India's new super-rich
It is a project worthy of a Bond villain - a spanking £1.5
billion playground for India's new super-rich that exists
in a parallel universe to the heaving, stinking reality of
the slum-ridden cities.
Amby Valley is a "dream city" under construction in the Sahyadri
Hills east of Bombay that is as gleaming and perfect as the
old British hill stations of Shimla and Mussoorie are tatty.
The 10,000-acre Sahara Lake City, created by Subrata Roy,
whose £5 billion Sahara Parivar Group is one of India's largest
conglomerates, is a fitting testament to one man's monumental
ego.
Fittingly, the massive television advertising campaign being
waged to sell the concept of Sahara City to India's new rich,
is notably short of Indian faces. Among the "brand ambassadors"
are former international sports stars such as the tennis players
Anna Kournikova and Boris Becker, the British decathlete Daley
Thompson, the Romanian gymnast Nadia
Comaneci and the American Olympic 400 metres hurdler Edwin
Moses.
[March 30] Gym
Coach Remains Jailed on Sexual Exploitation Charge
An Effingham County gymnastics coach remains in jail on charges
that he sent sexually suggestive emails and pictures to an
11-year-old girl on his squad. A judge granted William McCabe
a $10,000 cash bond yesterday, but so far McCabe hasn't come
up with the money and is still in the Effingham County jail.
McCabe was the coach at the Savannah Metro Gymnastics and
Cheerleading Center. He is charged with one count of sexual
exploitation of a child. More charges are pending.
[March 30] Montreal
: Always perfect 10
Montreal and Nadia
Comaneci, the 14-year old gymnast, became household names
when the Canadian city in Quebec hosted the 1976 Olympics.
Nadia
scored seven perfect 10s and won three gold medals. Montreal
today is still scoring... as the cultural capital of Canada;
as a tourist delight; as a charming University town, as America’s
Paris and as a city with a unique subterranean life.
[March 29] Rincon
coach remains jailed without bond
RINCON - A gymnastics coach charged with a sex offense involving
an 11-year-old girl could remain jailed without bond until
June, authorities said Wednesday. A bond hearing for William
Allen McCabe, 29, of Rincon is being delayed until McCabe
hires a lawyer, court officials said. McCabe, owner of Metro
Savannah Gymnastics and Cheerleading at 153 Commercial Court,
was charged Tuesday with sexual exploitation of children,
a felony. "No bond has been set so he could be in jail until
the next grand jury," said Leigh Hales, an assistant court
clerk. "That session begins on June 5, but it could be later
before indictments are returned."
[March 29] Gymnastics
coach fired over gay porn past
(AP) A tumbling coach who worked with cheerleaders at Mater
Dei Catholic High School in Breese, Ill., has been barred
from the campus because principal Dennis Litteken learned
the 22-year-old gymnast had starred in gay porn videos. Josh
Weast of O'Fallon was not a school employee, but for the past
three years he had been allowed to use the Mater Dei gym to
coach a group of about 40 girls and boys. Weast said Monday
he regretted making the videos, adding that he made them about
a year ago at a time when he needed the money badly. Still,
he said his private life should have no effect on his coaching
activities.
Commenting on the case, the executive director of a well-known
Illinois gay rights group said private religious schools have
a legal right to enforce their own values as long as federal
antidiscrimination laws are not violated.
[March 29] Parents
Concerned Following Arrest of Gymnastics Coach
A gymnastics coach arrested for sending inappropriate sexual
emails will be released from jail on a $10,000 cash bond.
Tuesday afternoon, Rincon police and the FBI charged McCabe
for sexual exploitation of a child.
[March 28] Gymnastics
coach arrested
Reportedly sent improper emails to young student
A popular gymnastics coach in Effingham County has been arrested
for allegedly sending inappropriate emails to an 11 year old
girl that he coached. 30 year old Bill McCabe turned himself
in to authorities Tuesday morning. That's after law enforcement
officals searched his home and seized his personal computer
sometime Monday.
[March 28] Fit
to be tried: Round and round with Gyrotonic
Combining the movement principles of yoga, dance, gymnastics,
swimming and tai chi, Gyrotonic is something seldom seen in
the United States outside of professional dance schools, rehabilitation
centers or spas , but Body In Motion has been offering it
to clients since the fall.
Gyrotonic was developed in the 1980s by Romanian fitness
expert Juliu Hovarth, a former ballet dancer and gymnast.
It started as a series of mat exercises, a yoga series for
dancers called Gyrokinesis.
[March 28] Gymnastics
coach accused of sexual exploitation of children
RINCON - A gymnastics coach was jailed Tuesday for allegedly
sending an 11-year-old girl sexually-suggestive Internet messages
and photos, law enforcement authorities said. William Allen
McCabe, 29, of 105 Lisa St. is charged with sexual exploitation
of children, a felony, a spokesman for the Georgia Bureau
of Investigation said. McCabe was being held at the Effingham
County Jail without bond pending a preliminary hearing today.
McCabe owns Metro Savannah Gymnastics and Cheerleading at
153 Commercial Court, which has youth teams that compete in
area and state meets, authorities said. McCabe coached girls
ages 4-17, including a pre-teen team that won a state championship
last year.
[March 28] Gymnastics
Coach Banned from Catholic School for Gay Porn Past
A tumbling coach who uses the facilities of an Illinois Catholic
high-school has been banned after school officials discovered
he had previously appeared in gay porn
[March 27] Gymnastics
give kids strength, confidence
Question: Should I have my toddler take gymnastics?
I have heard rumors that it can halt normal development, and
I am worried she will get hurt. Answer: The physical
benefits of gymnastics include increased balance, which can
help children through their athletic and personal lives. Children
also learn motor skills from learning new physical movement
patterns.Strength will be gained from using their own body
weight for resistance and tumbling. Agility is another factor
that will help children through their life for all types of
activities.
However, probably the greatest thing toddlers can learn is
self-confidence...
[March 24] Bart Conner comes to Romania
BUCHAREST (Mediafax) Mariana Bitang, state counselor in charge
with sports issues, said Friday that Nadia
Comaneci, Romania’s former greatest female gymnast, would
take part, along with her husband Bart Conner in the session
organized on March 29, 2006 by the council promoting the famous
Romanian athletes.
[March 21] WAC
to Stream Live Video of Gymnastics Championship
DENVER - The Western Athletic Conference will broadcast the
2006 WAC Gymnastics Championship live on www.WAC.tv. The meet
will be hosted by Utah State on Saturday, March 25 in Logan,
Utah at 2:00 p.m. MT. The WAC Gymnastics Championship will
be available for free to watch over the internet.
[March 21] On
the Perfect-10 hunt
Gymnastics judge Upadhye on a study tour to the Melbourne
Games. Shivani Naik Mumbai, March 20: The pursuit for Perfect
10 continues, though none has been recorded in major international
gymnastics since 1992. Nadia
Comaneci’s magic at Montreal in 1976 was erroneously shown
as ‘‘1.00’’ since the scoreboard was not equipped for this
brush with perfection. Thirty years on, tougher and austere
judging with picky robotic attention to detail in the Code
of Points means that Perfect 10 has disappeared from the four-apparatus
scene.
[March 19] Dragulescu,
Cheng shine over gymnastics new rules
LYON, France (Xinhua) -- Romanian star Marian
Dragulescu and Chinese world champion Cheng Fei each won
two gold medals on Sunday at the 2006 Lyon World Cup, the
first major international gymnastics event under new rules.
Dragulescu
scored Sunday's highest 16.587 points on his two vault maneuvers
and his performance on floor was equally gorgeous, which earned
him 15.725 for the title. Cheng, 17, extended her winning
form in November's World Championships and eased into victory
with 14.987 points on vault. She also took the floor title
with 14.975 points, out-performing Romania's Sandra
Izbasa in 14.950.
Romanians became the biggest winners as Ilie-Daniel
Popescu added their third gold medal on pommel horse.
He scored 15.175 points for the honor.
[March 17] Low
score for points system
WHEN a new scoring system for gymnastics was announced last
year, Nadia
Comaneci was unimpressed. She gave warning of "the Olympics
of mathematics", saying the public would be confused. The
key change is the end of the perfect 10, the holy grail for
gymnasts since it was introduced at the 1920 Antwerp Olympics.
It was not achieved at a Games until 1976 in Montreal, where
Comaneci, a 14-year-old Romanian, made her name for life with
a flawless performance on the asymmetric bars. Introduced
in January, the change is seen as a reaction to the fiasco
at the 2004 Olympics in Athens that left the men's all-around
gold medal in doubt for two months.
[March 14] Now
no one's perfect
THE perfect 10 is no more. Almost 30 years after Nadia
Comaneci tumbled into history as the first gymnast to
earn a perfect score in Olympic competition, a new scoring
system being introduced in Melbourne will produce a set of
numbers likely to confuse spectators, coaches and athletes.
In response to the scandals at the 2004 Athens Olympics --
most notoriously the flawed judging that allowed Paul Hamm
of the US to take the all-round gold medal instead of South
Korea's Yang Tae-young -- the International Gymnastics Federation
has introduced a system in which an execution score out of
10 is added to an open-ended difficulty score. Gymnasts can
still score a perfect 10 for execution, but there is no limit
on the total score. The symbolism of the old 10-out-of-10,
forever associated with Comaneci
and her seven perfect routines in Montreal, will be replaced
by world record scores on each apparatus.
[March 13] What
I love about gymnastics
The best thing about gymnastics is that everyone is friendly.
Although we all want to do well, no-one argues over who is
better than who and we all help each other.
[March 13] Shewfelt
leads talented gymnastics team into Aussie Games
There's not much for Calgary gymnast Kyle Shewfelt to complain
about these days. After all, the 2004 Olympic gold medallist
on floor is about to begin the Commonwealth Games, his first
major competition since the Athens Olympics.
Shewfelt was fourth on vault at the Athens Olympics, just
missing a bronze medal after some judging irregularities.
He was edged off the podium by Marian
Dragulescu despite the fact the Romanian badly muffed
his landing. But at the Commonwealth Games, the chances of
tainted or corrupt judging are slim to none with no Eastern
European countries competing and a new scoring code in effect.
[March 13] Flying
high in love-hate relationship
DAMIAN ISTRIA still remembers the date: June 5, 2003. A regular
training session in Brisbane preparing for the world championships.
Routine giant swings on the high bar. Just another day at
the office. What happened next, however, would shatter Istria's
Olympic dream and very nearly destroy his gymnastics career.
As he practised his turns -- the twisting move where gymnasts
flip their bodies in mid-swing -- the protective guard on
his right hand wrapped around the bar. Istria's body turned,
but the strap caught and his hand stayed fixed...
...Guided by long-term coach Sergei Chinkar, head coach of
the Australian men's program, Istria plotted a return to international
competition which would put him into contention for last November's
world championships in Melbourne. There, he performed four
rotations in the teams event and made the final in the high
bar. He finished seventh -- his best result at a world
championship.
[March 9] Dangers
of Cheerleading
After a college cheerleader fell on her head fifteen feet
over the weekend, a national safety group is calling for certain
stunts to be suspended from the college basketball tournament.
While cheerleaders say no stunt bans are in place in the area,
they say the sport is more dangerous than most people think.
Mental
gymnastics Brain-twisting exercises help keep memory limber
SOUTH BEND -- Florita Fonacier boiled some eggs the other
day and forgot to turn off the stove. Fortunately, she had
turned the heat to low. Nothing happened "except those eggs
were really done,'' she said. But afterward, she was pestered
by little stabs of doubt every time she left the house. Did
I turn off the stove?
[March 8] World
gets 1st look at new gymnastics scoring system
Gymnastics scoring, as we used to know it, is gone. No more
perfect 10s. But finally, the athletes and coaches know a
little about the new system. "If you don't like it, too bad.
Somebody else will, and they will work it and they will be
the winner," U.S. women's team coordinator Martha Karolyi
told The Associated Press. Karolyi was in Philadelphia for
last weekend's American Cup. It was the first international
meet to use the new two-mark system. The International Gymnastics
Federation abandoned the 10-point scale after judging errors
at the 2004 Athens Olympics.
[March 8] National
Gymnastics Competition Springs Into Town
OKLAHOMA CITY -- Olympic gymnastics champions Bart Conner
and Nadia
Comaneci, and Oklahoma City Mayor Mick Cornett, announced
at a press conference today that Oklahoma City has won a bid
to host the 2006 USA Gymnastics Junior Olympic Women’s National
Championships. The event, to be held Friday, April 28 through
Sunday, April 30 , is recognized in the sport as a springboard
for Olympic hopefuls and a major attraction for NCAA coaches
and scouts. The event, hosted by the Bart Conner Gymnastics
Academy coincides with two additional high-profile International
Gymnastics Hall of Fame events on the same weekend.
[March 6] Oresick
Development: Chillin' With An Olympian
It was the roll call heard round the world (or at least from
Cedar to Fairmount): "McGrath. Miller. Moceanu." She
was the plucky, pint-sized, gold-digger from the 1996 Summer
Olympic Games, who—between the balance beam and "The Devil
Went Down to Georgia"—stole our 12-year-old hearts.
Now Dominique Moceanu, gymnastics virtuoso, is in your
philosophy class. Exciting? No. Having a Theta write on your
Facebook wall is exciting. This is a whole new horizon of
awesome. She agreed to meet me, and I have to admit, I was
nervous. Sure, I’d rubbed elbows with celebrities before.
I sold Meagan Cowher popcorn when I worked at the movies,
and I once saw Razor Ramon from far away. But this was the
real deal: your favorite Magnificent Seven member (sorry,
Amy Chow), and a heroine from the last great Olympics (sorry,
Dream Team IV).
[March 2] Gymnasts
break in new scoring rules
The system gets its international debut Saturday at Temple.
After the 2004 Olympics in Athens, in which there was much
bickering over scoring, the International Gymnastics Federation
decided to implement a new system to help quell the controversy.
So far, the system has yet to be used in international competition
in the United States. But that will end Saturday at the Tyson
American Cup, scheduled for 11:15 a.m. at Temple's Liacouras
Center. The American Cup will feature some of the world's
top men and women gymnasts. In addition to the United States,
teams from Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, Japan,
the Netherlands, Romania and Russia are expected to participate.
[March 2] Romanian
athletes to resuscitate sports
State Councilor Octavian
Belu said on Tuesday, in a session of the Health Commission
of the Senate, that the lack in logistics and the absence
of medical assistance are the most pressuring problems in
Romanian sports management. He also added the difficulties
in financing sports clubs in the list of troubles. Belu's
plans for creating better management in Romanian sports are
sustained by prominent Romanian sports figures such as world
known gymnast Nadia
Comaneci and basketball player Ghita Muresan, both residents
of the United States.
[March 1] The
Age/ Australia The story of two Nadias
THIS sporting year, Melbourne's focus is very much on this
month's Commonwealth Games, but (especially for those old
enough to remember) it also marks the 30th anniversary of
14-year-old Nadia
Comaneci becoming the first Olympic gymnast to score a
perfect 10, seven of them in all, at the Montreal Games. Nadia,
at 44, is still very much in demand these days, like in Los
Angeles last weekend, where she and her husband Bart Conner,
also an Olympic gold-medal winning gymnast, were among those
honoured at a special sports dinner. Conner told the gathering
that they were in Chicago recently, checking into a hotel,
when he noticed the name "Nadia"
on the clerk's name tag. "I said to her, 'That's a nice name',"
Conner said. "She said, 'I was named after the famous gymnast.'
I pointed to my wife and said, 'This is Nadia.'
The clerk said: 'Oh, were you named after the gymnast, too?'
"
Romanian Gymnastics News Archive.
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