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News of the Week
Pac-12 may not have a season
As part of its Utah coverage, local news outlet KSL had an interesting revelation…
But beyond the two meets scheduled, there’s no guarantee of a season ā the Pac-12 has yet to give gymnastics its “official release,” according to Farden, which leaves questions as to when or if the Pac-12 will host a gymnastics season. Gymnastics is a no-contact sport, and the gymnasts can keep a social distance more than other sports, but the league has yet to sign off on a season.
NCAA Results:
 Georgia: 196.150 | vs |  Missouri: 194.250 |
 Florida: 197.500 | vs |  Auburn 195.725 |
 LSU: 196.550 | vs |  Arkansas: 196.350 |
 Alabama: 196.850 | vs |  Kentucky: 195.825 |
 Utah: 196.900 1st  Utah State: 194.350 (3rd) | Best of Utah Quad Meet |  BYU: 195.700 (2nd)  Southern Utah: 194.325 (4th) |
Kyle Shewfelt objects to Olympians jumping the vaccine line
In a previous edition of The News I highlighted the IOC’s plans to push for vaccinating its athletes ahead of the Olympic Games, going as far as to “jump the line.” As unpopular as this plan will be, the IOC probably has the political capital and vaccine access to pull it off. The only thing stopping this plan, objections from the athletes themselves. And that’s what appears to be happenng. Kyle Shewfelt Tweeted:
I love the Olympics, but I strongly believe that athletes should not receive priority access to the vaccine.
The story made news all over social media including areas that cover general news rather than sports news. Reuters and CBC produced articles on the subject. The plan to vaccinate athletes is surprisingly feasible. As a country, Japan has secured 524 million vaccine doses for a population of 126 million. Diverting 25,000 doses to the IOC is minuscule in comparison. After spending billions of dollars on Olympic facilities, combined with the international prestige of hosting an Olympic Games, Japanese officials could see 25,000 doses as a small price to pay if that means saving the Olympics.
It is up to the athlete community to say “this is wrong” as they are the last remaining obstacle to this plan going forward. Kyle Shewfelt appears to be one of the athletes doing exactly that.
NCAA stalls on reform:
For those who follow me on social media (and elsewhere), you may have remembered me speculating that the NCAA would eventually try to exploit the COVID-19 Pandemic to delay the passage of legislative reform. The primary issue being athletes being granted legal protections to profit off their name and likeness. Well, the NCAA just did exactly that by delaying a key panel hearing.
Norah Flatley does the #MannequinChallenge
Kiya Johnson scores a Perfect-10
The highlight made its way to #2 on ESPN’s top-10 sports plays.
Agnes Keleti turns 100
It isn’t very often that the Olympic community gets to celebrate a 10x Olympic medalist reaching her 100th birthday. The official websites of both FIG and IOC published profiles of Agnes Keleti on their websites. NBC Sports had a story on Keleti while IOC President Thomas Bach took the time to give Agnes a call to wish her well. On Twitter you can find some GIFs of Agnes blowing out birthday cake candles while Nadia posted a Keleti tribute of her own.
Blog Update
I wrote an article on the 1928 Italian team. It predominantly featured two gymnasts, Carla Marangoni and Bianca Ambrosetti. They were part of the same silver-medal winning team at the 1928 Olympics, but they died 90 years apart. Only in the most tragic circumstances can something like that happen. The story of Bianca Ambrosetti is an example of the longstanding history of child athletes participating in Olympic WAG. But what happens when one of these child athletes dies young?
What other People Wrote
Scott Bregman and Jordyn Wieber got together to produce a small feature piece. The two names involved is really all that needs to be said as they are both insanely popular amongst gymnastics fans. International Gymnast published an online interview with Turkish gymnast Goksu Uctas Sanli. Gymnovosti gave a brief update on the Russian team.
What Iām Reading This Week
College Gym News recently published their December 2020 Recruiting Roundup. ESPN published an NCAA gymnastics preview highlighting all the gymnasts to watch this season. Meanwhile, on YouTube there is a video of gymnasts botching wolf turns for a minute straight.
Throwback Article of the Week
The Perfect Ten is Misunderstood
With the start of the NCAA season comes an NCAA article I wrote from around this time last year. Back when the biggest problems facing the sport was a debate over 10.0 vs open ended scoring. I find it ironic that this was the article I wrote in late January 2020 right as the COVID-19 situation was reaching the point where it was becoming impossible to contain, and a world-wide outbreak was inevitable.
Picture of the Week
Back when I was creating the profiles section for this site, I had the idea of allowing my Twitter followers to vote on which picture I should use for every gymnast. This picture was my preferred choice for Natalia Yurchenko. But my Twitter followers felt differently and voted for another one instead. If you want to find the winning picture, you have to go to my biographies section.
For recent editions of The News click here. For a master list of all editions, click here.
An Old School Gymnastics Blog 
Loved reading this tthanks
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