Saying goodbye to Kyla and McKayla

The thing I dread most come Olympic year has started to happen.

I first truly got into gymnastics roughly the week of the opening ceremony of the London 2012 Games. And as someone who doesn't do well with change and loves familiarity, I'm sure many of you can understand why, while I love seeing new faces, I would love it if it were possible to keep all the gymnasts from London in the competitive circuit.

I'm so happy with my familiar 'London group' that I very frequently rewatch competitions, and those competitions are usually anything from 2011 and 2012.

But it's happened. Two of the Fierce Five have officially retired from competitive gymnastics, and while I know it's inevitable, I can't say that a little piece of me didn't die when I heard the news.

Kyla Ross was someone I truly believed had a shot of making a second consecutive Olympic team. She was consistent, strong, graceful, and hard working. But I guess growth spurts and an ever demanding need for more difficulty got the best of Kyla and she has said goodbye to elite gymnastics to pursue her college career. I can't say Kyla was my favourite of the Five, but she was certainly a very beautiful elite gymnast whom I could definitely appreciate. She achieved a lot after the Games, and she should be very proud of herself. I hope she treasures all her achievements, that Olympic team gold most of all.

Credits to AshleyakaFlipper2 for this beautiful montage of Kyla from the 2012 US Nationals. 

Kyla's dreams certainly were made of gold and I hope she feels she achieved them. In my eyes, an Olympic team gold certainly does that. I wish Kyla all the best in her future endeavours, and hope she excels with as much grace and prosperity as elite gymnastics saw her.

That brings me to McKayla Maroney.

Just typing that made me die a little more, for McKayla was definitely my favourite of the Fierce Five. I was devastated to learn she had left the competitive stage, even though I was well aware she hasn't competed since 2013. I think part of me is mostly devastated for McKayla - I will never forget her saying that the second she fell in London, she knew she had to go to Rio, and now, time and injuries have taken that away from her.

However, McKayla wasn't without success. Two consecutive World vault titles, an Olympic team gold medal, and an Olympic silver vault medal are certainly nothing to be upset over. Her famous face from the podium will live forever in the gym world, but we will definitely miss her quirky personality and the way she competed with the same ferocity as a rocket ship launching into space. I had hoped beyond hope that McKayla would get the chance to redeem herself from London, but alas, it was not to be. I hope she can find success in her other ventures, and that she enjoys herself and has as much passion as she had for her gymnastics.

Credits again to AshleyakaFlipper2 for this beautiful montage.

McKayla will be an Olympian forever. As will Kyla. It's hard to say goodbye to old favourites, but we are lucky in this day and age that their amazing feats of beauty and power will be at our fingertips through YouTube and social media.

However, it won't be the same as seeing them out there in new competitions.

I know each Olympic cycle has to bring new faces and I know it's not possible to keep everyone around forever. But as someone who gets comfortable and familiar, it is actually a little emotional to bid an elite goodbye to McKayla and Kyla, and all the others who have retired after London.

Best of luck to the girls, and let's hold our heads high, and bring on Rio.

Is this the end for Mitchell?

I have been so out of the gymnastics loop pretty much since Worlds concluded in 2013. Life became so overwhelming, and being between Olympics, I didn't feel as much fire for this fantastic sport as I used to.

However, just last week, I started making an attempt to reinvigorate my interest, and by the gods, it worked. I'm so excited for Glasgow, and Rio, and everything in between. I've been catching up on the major meets for the past few days and I can't believe I ever let myself fall away from this sport.

But I did come back to the gymternet to sad news. Lauren Mitchell, my all time FAVOURITE gymnast, has torn her ACL.

ACL tears are so common these days, which is actually a very scary thing to say, but as much I love Lauren, I'm not feeling too hopeful for her. She's just turned 24, which in these days, is teetering on the edge of the older side of gymnastics. But it's not her age which is making me feel so hopeless for her; it's the fact that Lauren has not been injury free since before the 2012 Olympic Games. Even before then, she was struggling with her shoulders.

Lauren at the floor final of the 2012 Olympic Games.

During the Olympics in London, Lauren had a pretty bad abdominal strain which was causing her a great deal of pain, which only made her fifth place finish on floor even more wonderful. After London, she took some time off to try and heal up, as well as finally having surgery on her shoulders which had been bothering her for almost the entire quad.

She had an almost successful comeback too. She competed with the Australian team at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, managing to pick up a silver with the team, and another on floor exercise. It was a good comeback after nearly a year away from the sport, but for those of us who love Lauren, it was rather sad; just four years earlier, Australia had swept the medals. I myself was feeling a little down. It seemed that even at the Commonwealth Games, Lauren's stronghold on Australian gymnastics was weakening.

But then came Worlds, and Lauren was incredibly pumped to go. That lifted me up and I started feeling more hopeful for her. I knew a comeback can be years in the making, so I reminded myself that with Lauren's age and her track record with injuries, it was probably going to take a little more time.

Then disaster. Just days before Worlds were due to begin, Lauren rolled both of her ankles training floor. She was pulled out of the lineup, and her 2014 season was over. Ankle surgery took place sometime at the end of the year and effectively ended her competitive season.

I had the wonderful opportunity to watch Lauren at the Chetkovich Cup in October last year. She did perform her floor routine, but it was seriously watered down on account of her injured ankles. However, she still loved every second of performing that routine, and deep down, I knew she wasn't going to give up on gymnastics without a fight. I also got the awesome chance to meet her after the event, and even though she wasn't allowed to, she signed a drawing of her that my friend had done for me, and had a quick chat. I could tell she was tired and probably just wanted to go home and get a good night's sleep, but she was lovely and sweet just the same.

Then came the news of her ACL, and probably meniscus injury in the other knee. I was devastated. Lauren may not be the most consistent, the most daring, or have the greatest technique, but she does have a lot of style and quirk. She truly loves competing and works hard in every aspect of her gymnastics, which is clear even when she's having an off day. It's that drive, that determination, that willingness to smile even when a routine went badly that I love about Lauren. She has been a pioneer for Australian gymnastics, and made history for us. No matter what anyone says, whether they think Chelaru should have won, that day was Lauren's, and she was truly ecstatic to win.

Lauren on the podium in Rotterdam, 2010. She is clearly ecstatic to be World Champion.

Lauren has said that even with the ruptured ACL, she is hoping to make a comeback for Rio. I would love to see her make it. Even though her injury rap sheet makes me lose confidence, I do think that if anyone can do it with her circumstances, it's going to be Lauren. I would love to see her make one last Olympic team, and finish on a good note, rather than go out because of an ACL tear. With a little under a year to Rio, let's see what the mighty Mitchell can do.

Prepare yourselves!

I have joined the land of gymnastics blogging!

Now, there are probably a thousand different gymnastics blogs out there, so it kind of seems foolish to insert myself into a popular topic, but I believe that each gymnastics blog offers a different perspective on the wonderful sport of artistic gymnastics, and a lot of the blogs that I read are American, so as an Australian, I feel I can help fill a bit of a void. Not that OzGymBlog doesn't already do that of course!

I want to start off this blog by saying that if you're looking for some well established blogs with plenty of articles to read, look no further than Spanny Tampson (spannysbigfakesmile.blogspot.com), which will most certainly give you a laugh, Arabian Punch Front (arabianpunchfront.blogspot.com) on which you can montages, posts about leotards, pretty much anything, and The Australian Gymnastics Blog (ozgymnastics.blogspot.com) for all things Australian gymnastics.

I'll be taking a worldwide approach to my blogging and focusing only on the elite side of things, as that's what I follow.

Hope you enjoy whatever I have to say in the future, and I'll see you around!

Twitter - @godofbacon
Instagram - @raducanyoucan