GYMN-L Digest - 10 Jul 1996

There are 4 messages totalling 123 lines in this issue.

Topics of the day:

1. Piskun and hypothetical Unified Team (2)
2. Guys predictions
3. Olympic Gymnasts and College

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Date: Wed, 10 Jul 1996 00:32:52 -0400
From: ***@MAGNUS.ACS.OHIO-STATE.EDU
Subject: Piskun and hypothetical Unified Team

Sovetsky Sport for June 19 had an interview with Yelena Piskun, which I
will try to translate later and post if I have time. But I found the first
question kind of interesting. She was asked to pick gymnasts to represent the
CIS (ex-USSR) as a Unified Team, like the one that competed in Barcelona. Her
answer to "Who would be on it?" was: "Of course, Lilia Podkopayeva of Ukraine.
Then Sveta Boginskaya, Russians Dina Kochetkova, Svetlana Khorkina and, I
guess, Roza Galiyeva, Oksana Chusovitina of Uzbekistan, and probably me."
So who would gymners put on a hypotheticial Unified Team?

Beth

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Date: Wed, 10 Jul 1996 00:58:48 -0400
From: ***@KENT.NET
Subject: Re: Guys predictions

>We keep hearing about girls predictions but nobody has said anything about the
guys yet? I don't know enough to predict anything but Yuri Chechi winning
rings.....anybody have any ideas?
>
>

I'm the one that posted the "predicting poll". I give a little cheer every time
I read a response with mens predictions. (out of 21 responses so far,
only 7
have answered for men, and some of those didn't answer every question.)
My theory is, if you can't think of anybody else, pick Vitaly Scherbo. One
person voted for Chechi three times on rings (not unacceptable). Or
cheat - rewatch your videos or look up standings on web pages to
refresh your memory or give yourself an idea of the top names.

Anyhow, I think you can bet on the Chinese doing very well (Li Xiaoshuang
is also a good name to put down when you can't think of anybody else.)
Sherbo and Misutin have both medaled on FX for at least the past two
World Champ's so those are probably good predictions to make.

I do make a point of watching the mens competitions but sometimes
it's hard to differentiate between different gymnasts. There's a lot of guys
whose names sound the same (Chabaev, Sharipov, Varopaev etc). And
others who all look the same (especially the Asian men). What makes
a female gymnast stand out in my mind when I first see her is usually
originality. It's hard to be innovative on most of the mens' events.
Besides, most pommel horse routines look the same to me.

Anyhow, get those poll responses in if you have yet to do so. I hope to
post the results on Thursday or Friday.

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Date: Wed, 10 Jul 1996 00:07:19 -0500
From: ***@CARLETON.EDU
Subject: Olympic Gymnasts and College

I was wondering out of the seven girls on the US Olympic teams where each
(for those old enough) is going to college and the eligibility of each
one. This is what I've gathered so far ... feel free to correct me.

Miller-not eligible, currently at UOklahoma I've heard interested in
Stanford.
Dawes-not eligible, currently at Maryland going to Stanford next year
Strug-eligible, UCLA
Chow-? (would assume not eligible because of coke commercial), stanford
Borden-eligible, Georgia
DomM-not eligible, too young for college
Phelps-?, too young for college

Also I believe Dawes signed a letter of intent for Stanford, but then
became ineligible ... does being accepted to a school for sports and then
not being able to compete effect acceptance to school? How about money
wise. No more chance of athletic scholarship has got to mean funds come
from somewhere else. What is the big attraction of Stanford for girls no
longer eligible for NCAA? Do these girls plan to go and train/workout
with team and just not compete? I know Stanford is a top school, but do
some girls chose to go there over a small liberal arts college or and
Ivey league because of the gymnastics even if they won't be competing for
the school?

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Date: Wed, 10 Jul 1996 01:19:11 -0400
From: ***@AOL.COM
Subject: Re: Piskun and hypothetical Unified Team

<< She was asked to pick gymnasts to represent the
CIS (ex-USSR) as a Unified Team, like the one that competed in Barcelona.
Her
answer to "Who would be on it?" was: "Of course, Lilia Podkopayeva of
Ukraine.
Then Sveta Boginskaya, Russians Dina Kochetkova, Svetlana Khorkina and, I
guess, Roza Galiyeva, Oksana Chusovitina of Uzbekistan, and probably me."
So who would gymners put on a hypotheticial Unified Team?
>>

I think Piskoun did a pretty good job of picking that team! They would be
unbeatable, no matter how much the Romanians are overscored. :)

Now, a more difficult question: if you were the coach of the team comprised
of the above athletes, who would anchor each event? Who would you cut from
each event?

Hard questions, since I think all seven of those gymnasts will be in the Top
10 in Atlanta.

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End of GYMN-L Digest - 10 Jul 1996
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