Thrill of Victory and the Fun of Defeat

Thea won floor at State Championships for her age division. If not for her two falls on beam, she'd probably also be the All-Around champion and her high marks would have counted toward the team score (Not being mean...I just like giving her a hard time).

Her beam series has plagued her all season. She hit about 4 or 5 for 5 in warm-ups. In every meet this season, she's missed. I wonder what the professional commentators would have to say about it....

The Weekend...

...was busy.

Peter Vidmar Invitational went Friday through Sunday. I only caught a little bit of it on Saturday evening, after my event at the Chinese-American Museum's Lantern Festival. Parents next to me were asking what was up with the Australian team's style of sporting sagging shorts and saggy long pants that make their torsos look long and their butt-cracks show. I asked Wade (Australian coach at Broadway) and he said the Aussie's were influenced by the saggy pants look of American gangsta culture and put their own twist to it. We both felt embarrassed.

Sunday, I was at the UCLA meet (lost to Georgia) and thought I'd help with the tear down at PVI afterward; but they weren't even done with competition when I got there.

Peter Vidmar's talk at the end (I'm sure much is stock material- PVI's in something like its 20th year- but this is the first one I've more or less attended) was entertaining and inspirational.

He made the competitors give their parents a standing ovation, telling them their parents didn't have to bring them to the meet or to gym day in and day out; to think of the sacrifices they make on their behalf and each day when they get dropped off at gym, to say "thank you". He then got cheered into giving a pommel horse demonstration to show what he could still do. It was pretty funny and he is in great shape for his age. One mom joked to him when he fell off, that this was going up on YouTube! He told everyone they just witnessed history, as it was the 1st time he's ever fallen off the horse.

Vidmar was great, and I so wish I had come armed with the camera to film this.

Maybe that mom's footage of his pommel horse work (with the 'historical/hysterical first time ever" fall) will in fact make it up on YouTube...

Quotes of the Week

Blair March 1st: "Last night after gym I was by the toilet bowl ready to puke, thinking I had the stomach flu. My mom gave me Pepto Bismol. After a while I realized my stomach was just sore from too much conditioning."

Blair February 28th being spotted on her two giants to layout flyaway...I tell her to come back up and go again; she says, "Yesss! This is like getting a free ticket pass at a Magic Mountain ride!"