Eight Crazy Nights (of Gymnastics!)

Tonight marks the first night of Hanukkah. In celebration, I wanted to share a little song with you, in the stylings of Adam Sandler!

10 things that our favorite gymnasts MIGHT be doing this Holiday Season!

After I published the Thanksgiving Edition of this post, many of you asked for a Christmas or "Holiday Season" version. Here are 10 things that our favorite Gymnasts MIGHT be doing this Holiday Season!

(Brigid McCarthy)

10. Mexican national team members decorate their gyms with their 2011 Podium Training Leos. 

9. Aly Raisman develops carb and fat free latkes, made entirely of air.  

8. Shawn Johnson gives Jordyn Wieber the cursed "World Champion" fruitcake that Khorkina gave her 4 years ago. Marta suggests that she regift it to Komova. 

7. We finally discover something with more glitter than the Rockefeller Christmas Tree: A Parkette's hair. 

6. Mary Lee Tracy recommends leaving celery out for Santa to encourage "Clean Eating"

5. Nastia Liukin surprises St. Nick when she leaves her 7 inch platform heels out for him to leave treats in. 

4. For some reason, your Christmas Hamm begins assaulting the green bean casserole and cranberry sauce. 

3. Bela Karolyi dresses up for a "Breakfast with Santa" event for children under 12. No one is surprised when Yao Jinnan shows up. 

2. An anonymous donor sends Al Trautwig, Elfi Schlegel and Tim Daggett the Gymnastics for Dummies book for Christmas. Chapters include: "How wide is the balance beam?!", "Nastia Liukin has Russian Parents" and "Losing sight of the beam is hard!!" 

1. The US National Team bonds by decorating gingerbread men. Unfortunately, it seems that all the cookies ended up breaking prior to the big decoration day. 

(Property of National Geographic, Candy Caldwell)

New Elites to Watch for 2012

Every year, The Covergirl Classic serves as an amazingly big stage to for those up and coming elites. I wanted to showcase several girls who I think have the potential to amaze us all this season.

(GymDivas.us)

Alexis Beucler (who's affectionately known as "poof") turns 14 this December and is the newest member of a CGA Elite team made up of current and former National Team Members. While Beucler doesn't have a long resumé of titles she's won, I've never seen Mary Lee Tracy add a gymnast to her elite group without good reason. She's currently ranked 3rd on Floor amongst Level 10s in Ohio. Floor seems to be her strongest event, even if she does fall out of her double turn.

(GymDivas.us)

Elena Spengler, of Girls Co-Op is currently 11 years old and won this year's Challenge Competition for the HOPES 11 division. Her score was nearly seven points ahead of the second place winner! She's still going to need some upgrades is she wants to be competitive in the elite field, but she's definitely one to watch. Earlier in the season, Elena scored a 14.4 on beam, which would have earned her 5th place in the junior division of Championships.

(GymDivas.us)

Wesley Stephenson was a HOPES competitor this season who earned the silver medal at the American Classic in her division. She comes from Legacy Elite, which of course, produced both the "Caquatti" and Anna Li. She currently holds the Silver Medal from the Level 9 Easterns Jr. 1 Division in the All Around. Her vault, which I believe was a Yurchenko Full, really stood out to me. Wesley will need to make quite a few upgrades in order to make a big splash on the elite scene, but seeing as she said that she didn't begin to train for HOPES until after her JO Season ended, she's got fantastic potential.

(Property of USAG)

Alexandra McMurtry is the current reigning Level 10 Jr. A All Around Champion. While I'm not sure if she's announced that she's trying for Elite status, I'd be incredibly surprised if she chose not to. For what it's worth, every Jr. A National Champion has gone on to the Visa National Championships since at least 2005. Alexandra's known for her performances on vault where she performs a clean DTY (which earned a 9.95 at JO Nationals) and on floor where she's capable of a full in. Regardless of whether or not she goes elite, Alexandra McMurtry is a name to remember. 

Who am I forgetting? Are there more up and coming Elites that I should blog about? Let me know in the comments!