New Coaches and Old Stars with the Mexican Team

Did you know Mexico's national rhythmic gymnastics team is now coached by the beautiful Olga Gontar from Belarus, the 1993 junior European champion, and by the celebrated Bulgarian coach Lyudmila Dimitrova who has worked with many stars in both Russia and Bulgaria? Well, they started working in Mexico in the beginning of 2011 and I am sure will bring great results to the team.

But the true star at the Pan American Games was a gymnast with a long history, Cynthia Valdez. She took the silver medal at the Pan American games and won the gold medals with hoop and clubs. Had she not made some mistakes in the all around, she would have been an uncontroversial Pan American champion! Here is her hoop routine, in which she shows forceful and passionate gymnastics for sure. Her clubs are even more interesting and I wish she performed them error-free.

Fans have been debating whether Cynthia or American Julie Zetlin deserved to win the Pan American all around gold. While I like both of them, I am increasingly impressed with Cynthia, and hope to see her ahead of Julie in the future. The 23-year old Cynthia, who has won bronze medals in previous Pan American Games events in 2003 and 2007, stayed away from the sport for almost 2 years due to injuries. I think Cynthia's absence from the international carpet may have made her less of a favorite in the minds of the judges. I would have loved to see her at the Olympics, but now that many gymnast stay in the sport until age 25-26, I am really hoping she will find strength and motivation to stay, even if she is not competing in London next year.

Bulgarian-Born Maria Kitkarska Represents Canada at the Pan-American Games

I already wrote about Maria Kitkarska, a young Canadian gymnast in my Bulgarian language blog (http://ludafenka.blogspot.com/2011/02/blog-post_26.html). A friend has informed me that she did great at the Pan American games in Guadalajara, placing 7th. The medal winners were Julie Zetlin from the United States, Cynthia Valdez from Mexico, and Angélica Kvieczynski from Brazil. Kitkarska's teammate, the more experienced Canadian, Mariam Chamilova, took 4th place. The elegant Shelby Kisiel from the USA took 5th place, while Ana Milagros Carrasco Pini, the fierce new prima of Argentina came in sixth.

Here are some pictures of Maria from the Montreal World Club event this winter. She looks especially stunning in her red ribbon leotard. Maria, who just started competing as a senior this year, performs with a big smile in every routine, a bit like the famous Israeli gymnast, Irina Risenzon. I am really happy that Maria made the top 8 at the Pan American Games and hope to she continues improving and smiling.

Decades of Bulgarian Gold Tradition : A Comparison

As many of you know, the Bulgarian rhythmic group won the gold in one of the finals at the World Championship in Montpellier. Here is their winning routine, which I find "safe" but smoothly executed:




To take us on a trip of beauty back in time, I will also remind you of the last time the Bulgarian group won a world title: in 2005 under Lili Ignatova with these ethereal 5 ribbons, also a very safe routine, with some extremely intelligent choreography:




Finally, another 6 years ago, one of my favorite groups of all time presented this routine at the Worlds in Osaka. You will spot a lot of differences in the level of risk, originality and style between those routines. Feel free to share with me what those differences are.

But I can tell you this: despite the error, this routine is crazy. And I would dare many 2011 teams to perform it. Double-dare: perform it with wide smiles on their faces:




Sometimes the most daring routines are not winning ones. But they do win the hearts of the fans. However, it is important to be "safe" and "smart" when you are going for a world title. And now the Bulgarian team is doing just that. 12 years ago we were really "out there" in terms of innovating. But now we are back on the podium!

You may call it a "win-win" situation.