First World Cup in Belgium!
At the kick-off press conference the organizers of the first World Cup Artistic Gymnastics in Belgium announced the countries that have already signed up. With provisional entries of over 25 countries amongst which the absolute top countries as Russia, Romania, USA, Brazil, Australia, Germany, China, Ukraine and Japan this World Cup will certainly be one of the biggest!
Olympic debut at the age of 20
Vice European All-around Champion Rafael Martinez is one of the new big hopes of the Spanish men's national team in Athens now.
Next to the wellknown international experts like Jesus and Manuel Carballo, Gervasio Deferr and in the team with Victor Cano, Allejandro Barronechea, he dreams to be under the best eight Olympians at the Games in Athens and also from the floor final...
At the national...
Team favorite China in top form
Despite a long-lasting journey and jet lag, the men of the Team World Champion China make an excellent impression.
Especially the winner of the silver medal in Sydney and Vice-World Champion of Anaheim YANG, Wei presented his routines on the highest technical level. Both he and his compatriot and World Champion on pommel horse Li, Xiaopeng completed their programmes without any stability problems.....
... however, there are further teams and...
With the arrival of the German delegation, almost all participants of the competitions in gymnastics are in full training in the Olympic city.
The US men already completed their second rotation, the Canadians attracted attention by their hard and strict training, and especially the elder and more experienced gymnasts appear to be excellently well prepared...
These are observation by Dieter Hofmann who will report from the competitions as GYMmedia's correspondent...
The story of Phivos and Athina
Phivos and Athina are the mascots of the Olympic Summer Games in Athens 2004. Athina is the ancient Greek goddess of wisdom and peace as well as Athens' patron. Phivos is better known as Apollo, the god of light and music. Both are mainly coloured in blue (representing the Greek sea) and orange (referring to the Greek sun). 196 drafts had been sent to the managers of the Olympics who finally decided in...