2024 Gymnastics Articles

[rlayt]

We don’t entire threads for each article. And Aly isn’t active enough for a thread.

Aly Raisman Joins ESPN as Gymnastics Analyst in ‘New Chapter’ of Her Career: ‘I’m So Excited!’ (Exclusive)

Aly Raisman is set to join ESPN as an analyst on its NCAA gymnastics broadcasts, PEOPLE can exclusively share

people.com

She seemed better at speaking last time i heard her so I hope she continued to improve.

 

[blake]

I thought she did a decent job especially for a first timer. She was pretty calm and I've never found her speaking voice obnoxious, but you can tell her advocacy work has changed the way she speaks vs when she was an elite. I hope in the future she can find a balance of providing critique/analysis without coming off too negative. Her and John >>> John and Alicia.

Like KJC, I think Aly's knowledge of the sport has a lot to offer viewers which gets diluted by the uncritical lens of everything is amazing and positive that is present in NCAA gym.

 

[Passion]

The story in Simone Biles’ new floor routine: The ‘big boss of gymnastics’ is back
Tess DeMeyer - Jun 27, 2024

FORT WORTH, Texas — The motion is swift and subtle.

Aside from a few shouts of “C’mon, Simone,” fans at the U.S. Gymnastics Championships are quiet, already anticipating the next big moment, when Simone Biles raises her right fist above her head and knocks downward three times against an invisible barrier.

Seconds later, the crowd roars back to life when Biles nails the landing of her third tumbling pass. Amid the high-difficulty skills packed into her floor routine, the knocking movement is easy to overlook. But that brief moment among the tumbles, leaps and turns, the move’s creator says, captures the narrative behind the floor routine Biles will compete at the U.S. Olympic gymnastics trials this weekend and, if she is named to the five-person team, in Paris.

Grégory Milan, the French choreographer behind the routine, said the mimed knocks are meant to convey the renewed emergence the four-time Olympic champion is making through her journey to a third Summer Games.

“I am breaking my aquarium, I am taking my freedom and I am not letting anyone hurt me anymore,” Milan said through an interpreter of the meaning of the knocks. “I am breaking out of my cage, in a sense. Breaking out to finally be free.”

Woven around Biles’ four challenging tumbling passes is an artistic story of her growth and continued dominance of the sport. Biles’ appearance at the U.S. Olympic trials in Minneapolis is the latest — and biggest — step on her comeback tour after her stunning withdrawal from multiple events during the Tokyo Games in 2021 because of a mental block that prevented her from safely executing twisting skills. Since then, Biles has spoken about the immense pressure she felt entering those Games and the public backlash she faced after pulling out.

“I’m just more nervous when I do gymnastics,” she told reporters after the team final in 2021. “I feel like I’m also not having as much fun. … I wanted it to be for myself. I’m still doing it for other people.”

Her floor exercise for 2024, through its movements and music, is intended to embody her journey. At 27, Biles is no longer the teenager she was in Rio in 2016, when four gold medals turned her into a global icon. She and Milan, who lives in Vincennes, France, and studied at the Paris Opera’s school of dance, worked together at Biles’ Texas gym over four days in late April on a routine that blends modernity with classic inspiration.

And it all starts with Taylor Swift.

The idea to use the heavy thumping beats of Swift’s “… Ready For It?” to open the floor music came from Biles’ agent, who suggested incorporating the megastar in the performance. The mix also includes “Delresto (Echoes)” by Travis Scott and Beyoncé.

Shortly after winning a national title on floor at the U.S. championships June 2 with two scores over 15.000, Biles said that learning a new routine with new music was her least favorite step in the process.

“But I do love Taylor Swift, and I do love Beyoncé,” she said. “Those are my girls.”

Milan, meanwhile, pulled inspiration from the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, a revolutionary modern dance company founded by its namesake in 1958. Ailey focused his work on the Black American experience and gained international acclaim with his signature ballet, “Revelations,” in 1960. The troupe is not characterized by one particular type of dance but rather embodies a blend of different styles and techniques, resulting in an artistic fluidity that Milan wanted to infuse in Biles’ routine.

“I wanted to have an Alvin Ailey mindset just because of what they represented,” he said. “At the beginning, I had in mind that she would do something that shows she’s emerging, that she’s breaking the barriers a bit of gymnastics to say: ‘It’s over now, I’m not a little girl anymore. After everything I’ve gone through, I’m now a businesswoman, I’m a married woman, I’m a happy woman.'”

The Ailey influence is particularly noticeable after Biles’ leap pass midway through her routine. For about 12 seconds, Biles’ routine turns into an expressive dance fit for a stage. She kicks her left leg up and throws her head back to take a large, exaggerated step. Her hands ball into fists as she reaches up and out, repeating the motion with her right leg. She then raises her arms and spins smoothly on one foot, lifting her other leg behind her in an arabesque-like position, before body-rolling down into a bow that resembles a figure-four yoga pose. She stands to strike the invisible wall three times and drops to the floor dramatically to prepare for a double wolf turn. It’s frenetic and restrained all at once — with a touch of elegance and femininity befitting the 27-year-old still at the top of her game.

“I wanted her to appear noble with something very pure, with her magnificent arms, the look in her eyes. I wanted something more athletic, more square, more geometrical,” Milan said.

The simplicity of the choreography is intentional, a choice Milan made to show Biles doesn’t have to be over the top to impose her presence. He felt too many complex movements would clutter her story of breaking free.

“Sometimes you don’t need too much, just a look, a way to position your arm, the way you carry a movement, and that’s what Simone succeeded in doing,” he said. “We feel she’s at peace, she’s happy, she’s calm so that when she heads to the corner to do her big tumbling passes, she needs to feel grounded, feel strong, feel safe to start her tumbling pass.”

Those big tumbling passes are, of course, a huge part of Biles’ routine. She isn’t holding back any of her skills entering her third Olympic trials. Her coach, Laurent Landi, said the goal is a difficulty score of 7.1, which is the highest in the world.

To hit that difficulty score, Biles completes nine flips and 6 1/2 twists. She begins with a triple-twisting double back tuck, also known as the Biles II, that is so challenging no other female gymnast has attempted it in competition. Next is a full-twisting front layout that connects through to a double-twisting double back tuck. This combination pass checks the box for front tumbling, which is a requirement judges look for in every routine.

The Biles I, a double back layout with a half twist that became Biles’ first eponymous skill back in 2013, makes an appearance as the third pass right after the knocking choreography. Her final tumbling pass is a double back layout, a skill that most gymnasts perform early in their routines when they have the strength and stamina to safely complete two flips in a straight body position. That’s never been an issue for Biles, who often generates so much power she bounces out of bounds on her landings.

She caps the routine by hitting a pose just as her music ends with an “oh!” sound effect. It’s become a signature over her illustrious career and also served as the conclusion to the 2016 routine that propelled her to Olympic glory in Rio. It’s an ode to her past that ends a routine that, in so many other ways, is about her present and future.

Milan said: “I wanted something that represents her, meaning, ‘I am the big boss of gymnastics, and I want to show you that I am a woman. … I am the American dream who made it.'”

The story in Simone Biles' new floor routine: The 'big boss of gymnastics' is back

After the lows of Tokyo, Biles is back and ready to take on Paris. That's part of the inspiration behind her latest floor routine.

www.nytimes.com

 

[Passion]

Just killing time waiting for Trials to start. This one isn't paywalled.

A day in the life of Beacon, the therapy dog at U.S. Olympic gymnastics trials

One of the biggest draws at this year's Olympic trials is Beacon, the first therapy dog to work for USA Gymnastics. And his schedule is jam-packed.

www.espn.com

 

[rlayt]

He is the goodest boi.

 

[irichluck21]

Beacon is so cute.

 

[JaJa]

Beacon is so cute.

When did therapy dogs become a thing at USA Gym

 

[JaJa]

Mr. Simone Biles gets time off from training Camp to watch Simone in Paris https://www.nbcsports.com/nfl/profo...aining-camp-to-see-wife-simone-biles-in-paris

 

[irichluck21]

When did therapy dogs become a thing at USA Gym

When Simone bravely came forward about her mental health situation, I would imagine.
I think its a great idea. Plus Beacon is freaking adorable.

 

[JaJa]

Here they are in their spacesuits -- I mean track suits -- talking to Hoda about going to the moon -- I mean Paris
https://www.today.com/video/team-usa-s-gymnasts-open-up-to-today-about-going-to-paris-213993029886