News from the English-Speaking Part of the World

USA
We still can't get over the fact that Shawn Johnson is going to appear on Dancing with the Stars, but for Shawn herself, it's all too real. She has begun rehearsing with partner Mark Ballas, who won the show two years ago with then-partner Kristi Yamaguchi. ABC Medianet has posted some pics of Shawn and Mark practicing (see below). Meanwhile, Shawn reportedly told Inside Gymnastics that she intends to return to gymnastics after Dancing with the Stars. "Definitely," she said of her return to the gym. "After the show, I'll get back in the gym, start with gymnastics again and see where it takes me." The eighth season of the show will premiere on March 9 with a live, two-hour special.




Shawn Johnson and Mark Ballas (photos: ABC Medianet)

Great Britain
Last year, Becky Downie was crowned British champion and finished 12th in the Olympic all-around final in her first year as a senior gymnast. Now she will start her competition year earlier than ever in a bid to make 2009 equally successful, competing at the American Cup on February 21. This is what Downie told British Gymnastics about her upcoming assignment: "We’ve been working towards the American Cup since New Year, getting solid routines ready for competition. I think Britain was keen to send somebody to this competition, and Claire (my coach) felt it would be a good competition to get me going and focus my training towards. It will be the first time I’ve competed in America and the first time I’ve competed so early in the year, so it has definitely helped me to get into good shape, ready for the European Championships at the start of April.”


Becky Downie, looking forward to going to America
(Photo: Bernhard Schwall/Gymfan)

Australia
Gymnastics Australia reports that 14-year-old Emily Little, who recently won the AYOF vault final, will be Australia's sole representative at the annual Gymnix competition in Montreal, Canada, to be held March 5-8. Little is profiled here. Meanwhile, Little's WAIS club mate Lauren Mitchell will not compete at the Doha World Cup, as previously reported, but at the Salamunov Memorial in Maribor, Slovenia, to be held April 17-19. No news as yet of any upcoming international assignments for Dasha Joura, who hasn't been seen in action since the Olympics.


Emily Little (photo: Mark Nolan/Getty Images)

Upcoming competitions
International Gymnast has a list of participants of the WOGA Classic, which will be held in Frisco, Texas, tomorrow. The host club, which has produced the last two Olympic champions in the women's all-around, will be represented by Christa Tanella, Briley Casanova, Sophia Lee, Lily Hardin, Grace McLaughlin and Taylor Spears. We look forward to seeing which of these young ladies will be WOGA's next star (Rebecca Bross and Ivana Hong are not competing). Foreign competitors in Frisco include Canada's Sydney Sawa (a beam finalist at last year's DTB Cup), young Lithuanian standout Laura Svilpaite, Russians Kristina Kruglikova and Anastasia Karpova, and Ukrainians Yana Demyanchuk, Natalia Kononenko and Yevgenia Cherniy. The same Russian and Ukrainian girls will take part in the Nadia Comaneci Invitational the week after, along with Sandra Izbasa and Dana Druncea of Romania (Andreea Grigore appears to have been taken off the list). Nastia Liukin will reportedly be on hand in Oklahoma to commentate the competition.


Exciting newcomer Laura Svilpaite will also start her competitive year in America
(Photo: Bernhard Schwall/Gymfan)

AYOF Videos - Updated!

Flippingymkid is uploading videos of yesterday's action in Sydney. There is still no video of Tan Sixin's 15.85 beam routine, but some other gems and not-quite-gems are beginning to pop up. Here are a few...

This is Natsumi Sasada's beam routine, featuring a beautiful layout Garrison mount (!) as well as a lovely combination of switch leap, scale and back tuck. Aside from the mount, it's not a terribly difficult routine, but even so it's obvious that Sasada is the completely package on beam. She can turn, twist and tumble and has good flexibility and extension too. Anyone know when she's turning senior?

And this is Natsumi Sasada again, this time on floor. Her presentation needs a little more maturity and conviction, but the tumbling and dance skills are definitely there. Also, she spends refreshingly little time standing in corners doing nothing. This girl has heaps of potential!

This is Yukimi Ueda's beam routine. Ueda still lacks a bit of sophistication (her arms look bad), but it's great to see the Japanese actually make an attempt at beam choreography, however clumsy. Good switch leap-piked back combo too.

This is Sakura Noda's uneven bar routine, which has a few problems (bent knees on the bail-half, non-vertical casts to handstand, late turns) but is promising nonetheless.

This is Wu Liufang's beam routine. Wu is a gorgeous beam worker. She has the best Yang Bo jump since Yang Bo herself, and if she ever hits that switch Yang, it will be gorgeous too. Keep an eye on this girl - she could just be China's new beam star!

This is Cui Jie's lovely beam routine. She falls on a roundoff-whip combo (a new pass for her, we think), but her power on her tumbling is impressive (great piked front), and she has great form as always, except on the sheep jump.

And this is Cui Jie's floor exercise. The video takes an awfully long time to load, but it's worth it to see Cui's nice and tidy double Arabian. We trust her choreography, which is not very fluid at present, will improve when she moves to Beijing.

This is Britain's Jennifer Pinches on bars. She needs to learn how to keep those hips straight, but her toepoint is impressive, and she has a pretty big dismount.

And this is Jennifer Pinches on floor. She has great tumbling for a junior and has a nice way of expressing music. Definitely a gymnast to watch!

This is Australia's Emily Little on beam. Little has plenty of difficulty and pretty good form throughout (except on the front aerial), but something is missing. A bit more attention for the non-counting elements would be nice. And yes, that includes the mount. God, we're sick of those tuck jump mounts.

This is Emily Little again, this time on bars. She obviously needs to work on her low-to-high transitions.

And finally, this is Natalia Joura's meltdown on bars. Yep, she makes many, many mistakes, but her form is reminiscent of her older sister's, and we mean that in the best possible way.

We're wondering if the bars might have been too close to each other when the Aussies were performing, since both Joura and Little seemed to misjudge their distance to the high bar on their shoots from low to high and the rest of the team had plenty of problems on bars as well...

Keep checking back - we're sure there are lots of good videos still to come!