Gymternet Weekly: Biles to Paris, Boorman to the Netherlands, and a viral vaccination (April 5 – 12, 2021)
It’s never a dull week around the gymternet! Here’s our weekly roundup of news, videos, and more from your favorite gymnasts!
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Top headlines from this post
After waiting an extra year for this summer’s Olympic Games, some athletes are asking: ‘Why not stick around for three more years?’ Unsurprisingly, Simone Biles is one of them.
Simone Biles’ former coach Aimee Boorman will make her second Olympic appearance this year, but this time, as a coach of the Netherlands’ women’s team.
Illinois gymnast Evan Manivong impressed the masses with his unique post-vault salute at the 2021 Big Ten Championships.
Paris not Tokyo could be last Olympics, hints Simone Biles
After thinking hard about hanging on another year to compete at the Covid-19 delayed Tokyo Olympics, four-time gold medalist gymnast Simone Biles recently said she just might stick around for another three years for the 2024 Paris Summer Games.
The 24-year-old American hinted during her appearance at the Team USA virtual media summit last week that she might put off retirement and try to compete in Paris in an individual event such as the floor exercise where she is a five-time world champion.
Biles said she was getting some pressure from her French coaches Cecile and Laurent Landi to consider Paris and did not rule out the idea.
“I am not so sure because Cecile and Laurent are from Paris, and so they have kind of guilted me into at least being a specialist and coming back,” Biles said when asked about retiring.
Read more here.
Aimee Boorman to help coach Dutch team in Tokyo
Simone Biles and her former coach Aimee Boorman will be at a second Olympics together after all.
Dutch reporter Lisa Deen shared the news on Twitter last week, stating, “National coach Bram van Bokhoven, coach Jose van der Veen and the ex-coach of Olympic champion Simone Biles (USA), Aimee Boorman, will accompany the NL team during the Olympic Games in Tokyo. Individual coaches are still allowed to accompany their gymnasts in the run-up to the Games.”
Boorman hinted at a gymnastics-related project in the Netherlands back in early February, when she made a trip to Amsterdam to coach.
NCAA men’s finally goes viral thanks to a… vaccination card?
Any publicity is good publicity, right?
The NCAA men finally got some well-deserved attention this past week when Evan Manivong’s stuck Kas one-and-a-half at the 2021 Big Ten Championships went viral after he saluted and proceeded to whip out his vaccination card to show off for the judges (and everyone else) to see.
At the time of publishing, the video had a whopping 3.7M views, so what did Manivong have to say about his statement vault? Simple: “Go get vaccinated everyone!”
In addition to getting shoutouts from Good Morning America and Andy Slavitt, the White House Senior Advisor on the COVID response, Manivong tied his career-high on the event with a massive 14.750.
Morgan Hurd speaks at #StopAsianHate rally in NYC
Five-time World medalist and Olympic hopeful Morgan Hurd recently took time out of her busy training schedule to speak at an anti-AAPI (Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders) violence rally in NYC, following the Atlanta spa shootings that claimed eight lives, six of whom were women of Asian descent.
You can listen to Hurd’s powerful, emotionally raw speech below.
Epke Zonderland and wife, Linda, welcome second son
Congratulations are in order for The Flying Dutchman, and not because he’s almost certainly guaranteed an individual Olympic berth to the Tokyo Games this summer.
Zonderland and wife, Linda Steen, recently welcomed a second son, Jan, the Dutch high bar specialist announced on social media.
Jan, who takes his father’s middle name, joins big brother Bert Eize, who was born right before his dad took gold on his specialty event at the 2018 World Championships.
Congratulations to Epke, Linda, and Bert! If history repeats itself, Zonderland babies might be a good indication of a gold medal on the horizon!
Sunisa Lee poised to battle for Olympic gold this summer
After posting a massive 15.050 on bars (with her “backup routine”) at the 2021 Winter Cup, Sunisa Lee looked like she could win uneven bars gold if the Tokyo Olympics happened right now, but the future Auburn gymnast still has over three months to go until she gets her potentially gets her chance. So what is she focused on in the meantime?
Well, besides working toward adding back vault and floor to her arsenal, Lee seems to just keep getting better on her best apparatus.
In one of her wildly popular Instagram training videos, Lee once again showed off one of her incredibly difficult sets (yes, she has a variety of them that she just “chucks”).
Most notably, Lee seems to continue to fine-tune and improve on her wildly difficult Nabieva (G) + Bhardwaj (E) connection. Also, the fact that this routine has a total of 3 handstands is a testament to how out-of-this-world she is on bars.
SEMO clinches team title at 2021 USA Gymnastics Women’s Collegiate National Championships
Host Southeast Missouri State took the team title at the 2021 USA Gymnastics Women’s Collegiate National Championships held Saturday at the Show Me Center in Cape Girardeau, Mo., behind a top all-around performance by sophomore Dahlia Solorzano-Caruso.
Runner-up Lindenwood was unable to defend its 2019 crown, falling to the Redhawks by 0.15. Air Force finished in a close third. Read more from the team and all-around finals here.
USAG’s nationals concluded on Sunday with Texas Women’s gymnasts leading the field during the individual event finals. TWU’s Maddie Gose and Isabel Goyco were crowned the vault and floor champions, respectively. Centenary’s Taylor Ann Wilson won uneven bars, and SEMO’s Anna Kaziska took the beam title.
See the full individual results here and All-Americans from the meet here.
Flashback: 2021 Winter Cup in photos
We’re taking a look back at USA Gymnastics’ 2021 Winter Cup through the lens of photographer Lloyd Smith! Plus, relive the event with our live blogs and recaps from our on-site coverage of the weekend. Click here to read.
