Olympic Stories- Beth Tweedle of Great Britain

The age of 27 is a prime age for many athletes, including those who play basketball, baseball or soccer. But, that is not the case for women's gymnastics as American gymnast Alicia Sacramone, 24, and Nastia Liukin, 22, are likely finished with the sport after not qualifying for the U.S.A women's gymnastics team, which won gold at 2012 London Olympics.

Enter Beth Tweedle. The British/English gymnast reportedly wanted to hang in to compete at the Olympics in her home country. Tweedle is a three-time world champion on bars and the 2009 world champion on floor exercise. She is the most recognized British gymnast in her history, and one of the most famous female athletes in the entire United Kingdom.

Yesterday, NBC, which is televising the Olympics in the United States, focused solely on Gabby Douglas and Aly Raisman, the two Americans vying for gold, which Douglas received as well as their two Russian competitors Viktoria Komova and Aliya Mustafina, who won silver and bronze respectively.

NBC did not even show one event with Tweedle, who finished an impressive sixth in the all-around competition with a 170.495.

On Monday, Tweedle seemingly has a respectable shot at winning an individual apparatus medal on the bars, her specialty. And, according "The Daily Mail," an English newspaper, gymnastics icon Olga Korbut thinks Tweedle has an outstanding shot at winning gold on bars.

http://www.bethtweedle.com

Quote of the Day/Week- Svetlana Boginskaya

For those of unfamiliar with the blog, we really enjoy linking one entry to another. And, we also love irony. So, what is better than following a quote from Ronald Reagan, the most fervent anti-communist president in American history, with a quote from the Belarusian gymnast Svetlana Boginskaya, 39, who once competed for the Soviet Union.

Ironically, Boginskaya now lives in Houston.

The gymnast known as "The Belarusian Swan" is one of three great female gymnasts from Belarus, along with Olga Korbut and Nelli Kim.

Boginskaya won an individual gold medal on vault in the 1988 Seoul Olympics and she helped her teams win team gold medal at the 1988 games and also at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.

She surprised the gymnastics world with a very impressive comeback in 1995, and she wound up competing for Belarus at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, which became famous for the United Team dubbed "The Magnificent Seven," which featured Dominique Dawes and Dominique Moceanu. Boginskaya retired for good in 1987, at the age of 24, which is older than when most Olympic gymnasts retire.

Her quote is quite 'ironic' given that Boginskaya's flamboyant floor routines were among the most startling in the gymnastics sport:

"I don't think many people will remember me when I retire."

This is part of our series on international athletes who won gold or silver medals in Summer Olympics past as the world is gradually getting ready for the 2012 London Olympics.

Status Update_ Does Modern Technology Really Work....

Status Update 1/29: "Last night, I was watching the Stanford-Utah meet live from Salt Lake City when the feed gave out during the last five minutes. I didn't know who won the meet until almost an hour later!"

Hence, the reason why I am going with an image of iconic Soviet/Belarusian Olympic gymnast Olga Korbut who won gold at the 1972 Munich Olympics. She is now a gymnastics teacher in Scotsdale, Ariz.

Stanford (ranked #2) won the narrow meet over Utah (ranked #4) by 196.825-196.500 margin in front of an impressive 13,835 fans at the Huntsman Center.

Ashley Morgan, daughter of baseball great Joe Morgan, Shelley Alexander and team captain Danielle Ikoma helped Stanford by nailing the beam in the final rotation. Morgan scored a very good 9.9 on that event.

The win by the Stanford Cardinal (remember no 's') marked the end of a 20-meet home winning streak by the Utes.

But, for Utah, freshman gymnast Nancy Damianova from Montreal, Canada, was quite a standout. And, I expect she could well be the next Daria Bijak (well, perhaps). One has to be impressed by the loyal following that Coach Greg Marsden has developed for the Utah gymnastics program.

In other college gym news, top-ranked Florida won its home meet over Penn State and our beloved N.C. State Wolfpack by a score of 197.5-195.3-194.075 (yes, I know the sport's scoring system is confusing for those who don't follow the sport, hey, it's even that way for me!). The Wolfpack were missing gymnasts Brittany Vontz and Brooke Barr, but Jess Panza scored an overall 9.775 for the 'Pack. Alaina Johnson and Ashanee Dickerson lead the way for Florida.

SIDEBAR: I am starting to wonder if someone at Fox Searchlight Pictures is reading my blog. The film "127 Hours" did finally open in the Roanoke, Va., and Greensboro, NC, area yesterday (see earlier entry). For those in Winston-Salem, I highly recommend seeing the film at the A/Peture Cinema, a place I've heard lots of good things about.