Picture Perfect Gymnastics 2009 (Iowa) by Hopes and Dreams

1st row: Alexis Russell, Yuri Nagai, Jade Beattie, Kendra Elm, & Carmelina Carabajal.
2nd row: Kendra Elm, Ana Balboa, Briana Jones, Kristin Furukawa, & Yuri Nagai.
3rd row: Briana Jones, Lucy Ennis, Carmelina Carabajal, Alexis Russell, & Jamie Bullock.
4th row: Kristin Furukawa, Kendra Elm, Kristin, Alexis Russell, & Kristin Furukawa.
5th row: Julie Kinal, Kristin Furukawa, Kendra Elm, Lucy Ennis, & Kendra Elm.
6th row: Gopher team, Angela Walker, Carmelina Carabajal, Jade Beattie, & the team.

Back at the Start
The hype of the Atlanta Olympics hit two years ahead of time. Planning to go and watch was weird because we were always more likely playing games than watching them. So we had to figure out how to watch the Olympics and sit still.

The Olympics wouldn't be back to the United States until it made its rounds to all the other countries, the promoters were saying. We'd need special shirts. Kodak said everyone needs cameras and film... tons and tons of film that would never go out of style. Food and drinks would be there but not very close to any events. They said that as long as all of Atlanta took a vacation, there wouldn't be any problem with lodging. And Marta would get people around. Marta, the transportation system, not Marta Karolyi. Marta Karolyi was our backup transportation plan. Everyone was encouraged to conduct Olympic tests and drills to make sure everything went according to plan. And that's how we got to gymnastics at the University of Minnesota. It was a test run for the Olympics.

The Sports Pavilion and Williams Arena are like a two-headed quarter, two stadiums under one roof. We couldn't find the Pavilion, but we were told that gymnastics was in the hockey part of Williams. Gymnastics on ice?!? Picture the beam sliding around on the ice and landing in a net... only in Minnesota. We found the Sports Pavilion where hockey used to be. Jim had a mustache. Meg looked the same; she doesn't age, except her hair was longer. The team and officials outnumbered the crowd, which didn't make any sense, because we were seeing great feats of athleticism.

What's funny is that we practiced taking pictures of gymnastics at the University of Minnesota, but ended up never getting tickets to Olympic gymnastics. The convoluted ticket system of ranking ticket choices meant that they said they didn't have tickets but then said that they did but by then we'd made plans for other events, like diving.

There should be beam diving. Perform skills on the beam as long as possible and then dive off. Or bars diving...

As long as gymnastics are on TV and on the web, there should be a gymnast cam. Has anyone tried that? It would be really cool to see a gymnastics routine, especially beam or bars, from the gymnast's point of view.

And is there a gymnastics monopoly? Not like Georgia, like the Monopoly game... Gymnopoly!

Gymnopoly isn't like Monopoly: no money exchanges hands, you know, per NCAA rules.

Gymnopoly began with each side of the board being skills in order of difficulty, but it soon made more sense to be NCAA women's gymnastics schools arranged by school colors (kind of). Click on the boards above to see a closer view.

Gymnopoly results card

So, Gymnopoly is almost like a recruiting game as opposed to being a ... what exactly is Monopoly?!? Monopoly was based on the 1904 player

Landlord's Game, deals with property and going to jail, which are landlord issues more than anti-trust issues, and lasts longer than the NCAA Championships. Gymnopoly is nothing like that.

Gymnopoly results card

Gymnopoly is a positive entertaining board game for the whole family to play during the off season. That's not how long the games will last; this isn't Monopoly!

Avoid trips to the hospital in Gymnopoly, just like real gymnastics!
Gymnopoly results card

For other entertainment, feel free to see the latest Vogue (below) player

with Jenifer Simbhudas and her sister Rebecca Simbhudas from the University of Iowa, because we heard that Jenifer once said she'd like to be on the cover of Vogue.

We hope you've been entertained. That's what we've tried to do from the start. player

Picture Perfect Gymnastics by Hopes and Dreams