Meanwhile, in Other Parts of the World...

--- According to Sina, Yang Wei may become a specialist rather than an all-arounder. The 2008 Olympic all-around champion, who only just resumed systematic training after a long break and a high-profile wedding, says he does want to take part in this year's National Games (a big sporting event in China), but "not necessarily in the all-around." "I first want to resume regular training. I haven't made up my mind yet about what I'll do later, but I definitely want to represent Hubei Province at the National Games," said Yang. "Last time, the Hubei men's team placed sixth. I hope we can do better this year."


Yang Wei in Beijing (photo: Alexander Hassenstein/Bongarts)

--- In Holland a few more unflattering articles have been published on the goings-on in the national women's gymnastics team. The country's largest newspaper, Telegraaf, just devoted a couple of articles (here and here) to perceived wrongs in the Dutch gymnastics world, quoting former national team members Petra Witjes and Berber van den Berg, as well as current national team member Loes Linders' mother. We're not going to post the articles here as we're too busy to translate them and they don't go beyond the usual arguments against women's gymnastics (i.e. it exploits children who suffer verbal abuse at the hands of their ambitious and frequently socially inept coaches and don't dare contradict those coaches for fear of losing their place on the team), but it is more bad press for Dutch gymnastics, which once upon a time seemed so promising...


Sanne Wevers, Dutch female gymnast of the year
(photo: Iris van den Broek/Gymnasticsphotography)

--- On a more positive note, the same newspaper, Telegraaf, reports that the Dutch Gymnastics Federation has named Sanne Wevers and Epke Zonderland as its top athletes of the year 2008. Zonderland made the Olympic high bar final and won the event at the World Cup Final; Wevers won both bars and beam at the Glasgow Grand Prix and made the World Cup Final on beam, from which she had to scratch due to an elbow injury. Holland's bronze-medal-winning team at the Junior European Championships received a special "young talent award."

Injury Report

--- According to Globoesporte, Jade Barbosa is currently in America (supposedly in Miami) for a second opinion on the osteonecrosis in her right hand. "The doctor over there is used to treating elite athletes, and he is studying the problem," said Elisete Chagas, Jade's stepmother and agent. "We hope that she won't have to leave the country for treatment, because that would be very costly."

--- Despite our best efforts, we haven't been able to find any information on the injury that kept Yang Yilin from performing at the World Cup Final, beyond Lu Shanzhen's initial statement that it was a "waist injury" (which may also be translated as "lower back injury"). As far as we can tell, there hasn't been any mention of Yang in the Chinese media recently. If anyone has any information on her situation, do share it - we're intrigued by the Chinese media's silence on the subject!


Sang Lan (photo: Sina)

--- Meanwhile, things are looking up for another Chinese gymnast who sustained a much more serious injury, Sang Lan. Sang, a Chinese national vault champion who got paralyzed when a timer vault went horribly awry at the 1998 Goodwill Games, is probably China's most famous disabled person. Sina reports that she was very busy in 2008, traveling around the world as an ambassador for the Olympics and Paralympics. She also carried the Olympic torch the day before the Games began. Sang recently told Chinese reporters that 2008 was a great year for her and that her main hope for 2009 is to be able to learn how to drive a car. "If it's possible, I'd like to try and drive my own car. That would make me so happy." She went on to explain that being able to leave the house on one's own is a great hope for any disabled person, but conceded that it might be difficult to fulfill her wish, as it's hard for disabled people in China to get an adapted car, or a driver's license for that matter. Yet Sang remains optimistic. "Things can only get better, right? I'm sure a day will come [that I can drive a car]." (Check out this link for a recentish New York Times interview with Sang Lan.)

--- Dutch national team members Suzanne Harmes and Sanne Wevers appear to be recovering well from the injuries that prevented them from shining at the World Cup Final. Both gymnasts performed at the Univé Gym Galas held in three Dutch towns just after the World Cup Final. Their heavily watered-down but none too painful-looking routines can be seen in this ten-minute, high-quality video, which takes a long time to load but does give a good impression of the galas. It also shows a rather heavy Chellsie Memmel performing her bar routine, as well as glimpses of several other performers strutting their stuff.


Yvette Moshage (photo: Iris van den Broek/Gymnasticsphotography)

--- Meanwhile, another Dutch gymnast, promising junior Yvette Moshage, seems to be less lucky. Moshage, second to Jordyn Wieber at Top Gym, twisted her knee on her dismount in the beam final of the Belgian competition. According to her website, Moshage has been diagnosed with a completely torn anterior cruciate ligament, a serious injury which will require a long recovery period. Ouch.

--- Finally, according to a print article we sadly can't reproduce here (L'Equipe, December 17), Russian-born French veteran Dimitri Karbanenko (aged 35!) underwent arthroscopy in Cagnes-sur-Mer on December 17. The article says Karbanenko has had problems with his left meniscus ever since the spring of 2006, but never had time to have it looked at. He wanted to shine one last time at the Beijing Olympics, but just missed out on a spot in the high bar final, and didn't make the all-around final either as he was outscored by his teammates Caranobe and Bouhail. He can't see himself performing at another Olympics. He may stick around for a little while longer to perform on a few events, but not for long, he insists: "I've never been able to do things just for the sake of doing them. I need a motivation, but I don't have one anymore. So I think I'll gradually retire."


Dimitri Karbanenko in Beijing, powerful as ever (photo: Reuters)

Dutch Injuries Not Too Bad

Sportweek reports that the elbow injury which forced Sanne Wevers to withdraw from the World Cup beam final isn't too serious. Wevers is supposed to be suffering from a partially torn muscle, and is expected to be out of action for a mere four weeks. She is said to be very relieved at the diagnosis, having feared she might have a completely torn tendon or damaged ligaments.


Sanne Wevers (photo: Pro Shots)

As for Suzanne Harmes, who couldn't finish her floor exercise in Madrid due to an injury sustained during the routine, she reportedly arrived in Madrid with a bruised ankle. She then twisted the same ankle during her floor exercise, and was in too much pain to finish her routine.

Meanwhile, NRC Handelsblad quoted the Dutch men, who were very successful in Madrid, winning a gold, a silver, and a bronze.

Horizontal bar champion Epke Zonderland called his gold medal "a fantastic end to the year 2008." The 22-year-old had been determined to avenge his fall in the Olympic horizontal bar final, which dropped him all the way to seventh place. "I think you could say I did that," Zonderland said with a huge grin on his face. "This was my best high bar routine ever." His 16.125 score was a personal best. Zonderland had never received a 16+ score before.


Horizontal bar winner Epke Zonderland (center) with veterans Phil Rizzo and Hiroyuki Tomita (photo: Volker Minkus/FIG)

For his part, vault medalist Jeffrey Wammes said his silver medal was up there with the bronze he won at the Europeans. "My first vault didn't feel particularly good, but when I saw the video footage afterwards, it didn't look too bad. My second vault was just super."

Yuri van Gelder's bronze medal on rings was his third of that color in a World Cup competition. He earlier collected thirty gold and silver medals. "Well, if you look at it [from a color-collecting perspective], it's kind of nice to have a bronze medal," Van Gelder said. "I'm not too unhappy with it. You can't always be the best."

News Roundup

--- USA Gymnastics reports that Nastia Liukin and Shawn Johnson have each painted a pair of boots for UGG Australia’s sixth annual Art & Sole Collection, which raises money for a children's research hospital. The boots will be auctioned in a few days and all the money will go to the hospital. While we approve of the idea, we frankly can't see anyone but die-hard Nastia and Shawn fans shelling out any money for these boots. UGGs are ugly enough to begin with, and we're not sure Nastia and Shawn actually improved them with their art work. Still, we appreciate the thought. Nice work, girls!


Steliana Nistor in her final competition, the Olympics (photo: Reuters)

--- More Athlete of the Year news: Sport365 reports that Steliana Nistor was voted the best female athlete of her province, Sibiu. The Romanian champion retired after the Olympics and is now a freshman at the Sibiu College of Physical Education and Sport. Also, according to GymPower, Holland's Sanne Wevers, who will present her spectacular beam routine in Madrid this weekend, has been nominated for best female athlete of her province, Overijssel. She faces some stiff competition from two Olympic gold medalists, so we doubt she'll win.

--- As you probably know, the World Cup Final isn't the only competition that will take place this weekend. Other international competitions will be held in Belarus and Belgium, while Germany's eyes will be focused on the Bundesliga Final, an exciting format in which gymnasts from two teams compete head to head and points are awarded for the margin by which the winner beats his direct opponent. Both the men's and the women's finals look very exciting on paper. The men's final will be a battle between KTV Straubenhardt (represented, among other people, by Fabian Hambuchen, Marian Dragulescu, Robert Gal, and Sergei Kharkov) and Cottbus, whose most famous team members are Philipp Boy and Ukrainian veteran Roman Zozulya. Philipp Boy admits that the Straubenhardt boys are the favorites to win the title: "If they [Straubenhardt] do a good job, we'll barely stand a chance." He hopes the Straubenhardt boys will succumb to the pressure and start making mistakes: "If they make a mistake, we want to make them sweat." He also said he and his teammates are not at all nervous about taking on the almighty Straubenhardt team. "What nerves? We're the underdogs, so we're quite relaxed going into the final. Let the Straubenhardt guys be nervous."


Philipp Boy, looking forward to competing head to head with Hambuchen (photo: Reuters)

--- The Bundesliga's women's final could well be even more exciting than the men's. According to the Bundesliga site, three out of the four teams in the final have the chops to win the title. Unfortunately, some teams will be missing their greatest stars. Cologne will probably be hopeless without injured Oksana Chusovitina. Chemnitz has lost Susann Herbst to injury, and Stuttgart will have to do without Marie-Sophie Hindermann. However, Stuttgart will have Kim Bui, who (like Fabian Hambuchen and Marian Dragulescu) withdrew from the World Cup vault final in order to help her club team win the national title. The fourth club, Hoffnungsthal, will be missing its Belgian star, Aagje Vanwalleghem, who did decide to go to Madrid. However, the club will be able to avail itself of the services of national team member Anja Brinker, who recovered from her injury sooner than expected and proved a force to be reckoned with in the club's last regular match before the final.


Kim Bui will skip the World Cup Final in favor of the Bundesliga Final (photo: AFP/Getty Images)

--- In men's gymnastics, the French, German, Swiss, and British under-16 teams had a friendly in Bristol, England, on Saturday, December 6. The hosts won comfortably, beating Switzerland by 411.750 to 403.500 and proving there's more to British men's junior gymnastics than Louis Smith. Germany placed third (391.950), 1.650 ahead of fourth-place France (390.300). In the individual all-around, the Brits scooped up all the medals. Reiss Beckford won, mostly thanks to an impressive 15.350 vault (84.250 total). Ashley Watson came second (83.550), while Max Whitlock ranked third (82.900). The first non-Brit was Switzerland's Oliver Hegi in fourth place (82.650). The complete results can be downloaded here (click on the link at the bottom of the page).


Team GB's new hope, Reiss Beckford (photo: BBC?)

Spotlight: Sanne Wevers

This weekend's Glasgow Grand Prix wasn't particularly well attended on the women's side. One of the relatively unknown gymnasts who managed to stand out in a positive way was Holland's Sanne Wevers, who won both the UB and BB finals. Wevers also qualified for the floor final, but a fall on her double pike opening pass and a step out of bounds on another pass prevented her from medaling.


Photo from Wevers' website

Sanne Wevers was born on September 17, 1991, and is coached by her father, Vincent. She also has a twin sister who is a very good gymnast, Lieke. At the 2008 Dutch national championships, Sanne placed second all-around behind Suzanne Harmes, while Lieke ranked third. Both sisters train at Bosan TON in Almelo, a club which has recently produced a string of quality gymnasts. Two members of Holland's bronze-medal-winning team at the 2008 Junior Europeans, Wyomi Masela and Yvette Moshage, hail from Bosan TON, as does Wyomi's elder sister Tahnee, who has been a member of the Dutch senior squad for some time now. Clearly the club is going to be a dominant force on the Dutch scene for the next few years.


Vincent Wevers: Holland's next super coach?

Sanne Wevers is best known for her beam routine, which features two double turns, one regular, the other with the left leg raised horizontally. Thanks to her beautiful beam routine (which currently has a 6.4 start value), Wevers made the beam final at the 2008 Cottbus, Tianjin and Maribor Grand Prix events before finally taking the gold in Glasgow. We have a feeling we'll be seeing a bit more of her in beam finals from now on.

Click here to view Wevers' gold-medal-winning performance at the Glasgow Grand Prix, including her two trademark double turns!