you're a constellation of stars. i just hate to think you might be ignoring some of them because they don't burn quite as bright.

There has been a lot of chatter lately about the upcoming Nastia Liukin Supergirl Cup.  Making its debut last year, the NLSGC was intended to be a high-production competition for Level 10, up-and-coming athletes who had never before had the chance to experience performing on a podium. 

Awesome!  A meet designed to showcase and inspire Junior Olympic gymnasts!  What a fantastic opportunity for these girls, right?  Whether it was a chance to experience a big-time meet with the TV cameras, or a chance to be seen by the top NCAA recruiters, there appeared to be a lot incentive to qualify to this inaugural event. 

Rumblings regarding the shady qualifying procedures began almost immediately.  Organizers paid a hefty sum of $2,500 in order to be considered a "Nastia Liukin" qualifying meet.  However, that money was in turn donated to the Nastia Liukin Fund, which provided scholarship money to talented girls who may not have the means to train and compete, so that's actually pretty awesome.  The confusion came with actually qualifying the girls: each invitation determined their own selection criteria.  One meet might qualify the top Junior and Senior AA competitors, another meet might qualify the top two girls from the 5th of 8 sessions.

The real issue quickly became the question of WHO exactly was allowed to qualify.  At one of the very first invitationals, the CGA Club Parents Coaches Spectacular (nice name, by the way) not one but two elite girls became the top qualifiers. 

Lexie Priessman, Mary Lee Tracy's latest meal-ticket from Cincinnati Gymnastics Academy, qualified to elite in June 2009 by winning the Parkette National Elite Qualifier.  Later that summer, Lexie placed second at the US Covergirl Classic, on a PODIUM, and went on to compete in Dallas at the Visa National Championships, also held on a PODIUM. 

She was followed by Amelia Hundley, also from CGA, who qualified to elite at the 2009 Excalibur Cup.  Despite competing at the US Classic in both 2009 and 2010 (both on a PODIUM), and Nationals in 2010 (PODIUM), Amelia has qualified to the 2011 NLSGC, to compete on the PODIUM yet again.   

In the following months an additional twelve elite girls would qualify to the final meet.  14 girls, out of a field of 36, had competed in elite prior to the Nastia Cup. 

In some cases, I find it acceptable.  If an athlete qualified to elite, gave it a whirl, found it wasn't to her liking and then dropped back down to L10, that's fine.  I don't find it fair to punish a girl for trying elite.  What I don't find acceptable are girls who are in the MIDDLE of their elite careers competing in meets meant for level 10s. 

In the end, Mary Lee Tracy's tiny 13 year old outshone the older level 10 girls to win the first Nastia Liukin Cup.  She got a fancy new leotard, a bunch of airtime, and lunch with Nastia herself. 

Many fans hoped that the meet's organizers would fix the qualifying issues for the second cup, to be held in March 2011.  Either change the premise to simply being another elite meet, or limit who is allowed to qualify.

This did not happen.

As of this past weekend, two girls have qualified to the NLSGC.  Are they two new-to-the-scene, undiscovered kids?  No.  Are they two high school girls who are hoping that maybe Miss Val will give them a look?  No.

The first qualifiers for 2011 are Amelia Hundley, again, and Kayla frickin' Williams.

Oh yeah.  Kayla Williams.  You know, WORLD CHAMPION Kayla Williams.

You remember, that one time when she went to the WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS and competed ON A PODIUM and won the GOLD MEDAL in front of the WORLD. 

Don't get me wrong, I am a fan of Williams.  I was pumped when she won (on a PODIUM) and I think she will fit in swimmingly at Bama.  It's great that she's back in shape, and that MLT hasn't destroyed her completely.  But I just don't see why in the world she would even WANT to compete in this meet. 

Is she super excited to meet Nastia?  Pretty sure they've been to camp together.

And who is going to get all of the TV time, I wonder?  Some nameless 18 year old looking for a scholarship?  Or the newest little pixie with the latest tricks?  Or maybe, just maybe, the huge comeback story of the Cinderella world champion?  

I blame Mary Lee Tracy for this, for all of this, I do.  She started the trend last year when she qualified two elites from her home gym at her home invitational.  Other groups simply followed suit.
I hope this all gets ironed out.  The original concept had so much potential. 

But, as it stands, this is just another opportunity for those chosen gymnasts to remain chosen.  To quote Emma Pilsbury from the hit Fox TV show Glee:

"You're a constellation of stars. I just hate to think you might be ignoring some of them because they don't burn quite as bright."

i just prefer to think of the homleess as outdoorsy. so shine on urban campers!

It's another fine WTF Wednesday over here in the frozen tundra that is Casa de Tampson.  Way too cold to go outside, so why not spend the entire week watching Youtube videos?  I know I did.  

I, personally, don't see any relation between Lady Gaga and Uchimura, although maybe he was attempting to kill himself with the quad double, I don't know. 

For those who don't know who Liz Kotler is, and I'm one of those people, she performed a toe-on Strong on UB back in 2003.  The routine itself is rather beastly, but that move is awesome.  Sounds exactly like a Chili Four Loko burrito. 

And yes, Hong Su Jong most certainly does "let loose." 

*sorry it's so tiny, click to enlarge*

I have to let these ones speak for themselves.  I'd like to think that Alicia's correlation to Mr. Bean is open to interpretation, and lies within all of us. 

if we lose, we should throw possums.

Is there anyone better?

I love love LOVE Dominique Dawes.  Always have, always will.  Is it a massive respect for her talent?  Yes.  Is it maybe a little bit of a girl crush?  Also yes.  But more than anything, it's how she dealt with everything.  She was a champ.  A classy champ.  She had all of the poise of a Texas beauty queen without all of the ditziness and fake boobs.  She is everything all women should be.

And now she's out there, making sure kids don't get fat.  Is there anything this superwoman doesn't do?  I have no doubt that if asked to do so tomorrow, she could bust out a back-to-back tumbling pass, in heels, stick that dreaded punch front, and then casually walk off of the floor and go shake hands with the President, with nary a ruffle in her hair.  That's how classy she is.

While she does hold plenty of clout in the record books, it's not nearly enough, given how incredibly fantastically perfect she was.  Granted, she competed against the best in a very deep field.  But even still, she was SO MUCH BETTER....

i told my parents i only want one thing for christmas this year: stop friending me on facebook.

It's our favorite day of the week!  That' right, it's...

And by "favorite" I mean "stupidest" because everyone calls it Humpday, and I hate that.  WTF Wednesday is so much better. 

Our first WTF comes courtesy of NastiaFan101, maker of montages, capturer of high quality videos.

Our friend Fanny was just minding his own business, checking out some close-to-the-bar catches of Demy.  Nothing out of the usual here, so it would seem...

 Let's have a look-see, a little closer this time.

There it is.

That is so wrong.  There are about five girls on that team who would get into adult videos WAY before Demy.

Moving on...

I wouldn't call them a failure.  They were just cursed with following the 1996 gold medal winning team.  And the 1992 bronze medal winning team.  And the should-have-medalled-but-got-screwed 1988 team .  And competing before both the 2004 and 2008 silver medal winning teams.

Speaking of 1988...

I'd say that was most definitely NOT a happy ending.  For her. 

I know very little about Sam Sheehan, other than she competed for Mary Lee Tracy, and that she won a medal at 2002 Worlds on floor.  I know nothing of her intellectual capacity, but she HAS to know that wearing a tube top, taking a picture, cropping off all existence of clothing and then using it as your Facebook default might not be the smartest thing to do. 

That tumbnail for the tootin' bathtub baby cousins sure is cute.  But I have no clue what it has to do with the 1983 Jr. International.  The girls aren't THAT young.

I can't think of any Chinese gymnasts that would ever make me think "Baby got back!"  Baby, yes.  Back, no.

The Georgia Gym Dogs make me cry too, Jessica Simpson.  They really do.  

I wonder what James Joyce has to do with Yelena Piskun.  Maybe she was super smart?  Or was that Andreea Cacovean?  She did crossword puzzles.... in ENGLISH!

I can't even tell... are those chimps?  Or squirrels?  Or one chimp and one squirrel?  Bross does not resemble a chimp or a squirrel. 

And there we have it.  Another fine week full of Youtube WTFs.

i don't understand the difference between an elf and a slave.

Due to popular demand (and by popular demand, I mean one comment from one person) I have completed my previously "lost" horrifying choreography montage!   Thrilling.  Somehow, and I must have done this in a blackout rage because I have no memory of it, I did manage to resurrect the video files from my old busted hard drive.  Goes to show you where my priorities are. 

"You have limited time to save a limited about of files from your device.  What do you need to recover?"

"Fuck the pictures and documents.  I need my montage videos!"

Now, after seeing Nade00's dance montage, I was a little disheartened, because hers was awesome and pretty much did what I was trying to do.  But then I remembered that the horrible choreography pool from which to draw from was deep, and I might be able to find additional clips that hadn't been used before.  I mean, the content alone from one GymDogs meet is overwhelming. 

My video is dedicated to the choreography, and not to the dance ability of the girls.  Some of the athletes (victims?) in the video are actually pretty good dancers.  I'd be foolish to think Courtney Kupets was a bad dancer; she obviously CAN dance.  If anything, she must have a little extra dance talent in order to pull off the crap she did.  Yvonne Tousek is a BRILLIANT dancer.  She just did batshit crazy moves. 

Sometimes performance is what makes a certain piece of an exercise laughable.  The girls who just walk through the movements, to the girls who leap and prance with shit-eating grins on their faces.  It's all entertaining. 

Let me finish by saying that I really miss that days when dance was a part of FX.  And not running, twisting leaps.  Those aren't dance, no matter what the code currently says.  But real creative movement, whether it was a balletic gem or a Geza Pozar masterpiece. 

whether it's a heart attack or heartbreak, just like broadway, the show must go on.

Hello all! Sorry for the massive delay in posting.  There was a bit of a "fried hard drive incident" over here at Casa de Tampson.  Apparently, it is "bad" for your cat to knock your laptop on the ground while saving a Sims game.  I mean really. 

Here is our destroyer of hard drives.  A true beast.

A fried hard drive is like a Nabieva vault.  It just ruins everything. 

     =

So yeah.  I was in the middle of making a shitty choreography montage, but that is dunzo.  Nade00 released her far better one first, so I don't so much see the point in rehashing mine now.  Onto other things. 

Now that I have all of my business up and running, I shall update something soon.

May your days be form-break free, and your hard drives remained unharmed by cats. 

i'm more talented than all of you. i see that clearly now.

I don't know who reads this blog.  By the wonder that is StatCounter, I can safely say that not a whole ton of people read it at all.  Although, I do have it on good authority that one MISS VAL said she liked my UCLA video.  Even so, I have no delusions about how far my internet voice reaches. 

But I just wanted to put this out there.  Who knows, maybe one positive voice will cut through the mountain of negativity.

An open letter to Mattie Larson.

*************************

Dear Mattie,

Chin up.

Your fans will always be your fans, no matter what.  We will always root for you, we will always support you.  You are a GOOD gymnast.  You are beautiful, and your gymnastics INSPIRES other gymnasts.  Little girls will want to join this sport because of athletes like you.  Even with bitter old curmudgeons like myself, you remind us of why we love gymnastics. 

Nothing will ever take that away from you. 

So be happy.  You have impressed, you have inspired.  I know beyond a doubt that you will continue to do so, no matter where life takes you. 

We are your fans, no matter what. 

Always,

Spanny F. Tampson