Jesolo Trophy Gymnastics Competition - INDIVIDUAL FINALS

Sunday of the Jesolo gymnastics competition was the individual finals. The top 6 girls on each event from the previous days competed once again.

Arriving during warm-ups, I was able to see the U.S. girls all warming up and practicing, whether they were competing that day or not. It was fun to see them a bit more relaxed.

Gabby Douglas has quite the over-split! ...and she's just sitting there hanging out  :P

Laurie Hernandez, USA junior gymnast, hugging her coach after her floor routine (she won 1st place!)

The participants lined up before each event to present themselves. Shown below are the seniors girls that qualified for the balance beam (on the left) and the junior girls (on the right).

The gorgeous Alyssa Baumann on the balance beam for USA:

Another one of Alyssa Baumann:

Ahhhhh - the impressive Simone Biles in her ending pose on the floor exercise:

Aly Raisman competed a new floor routine for the first time. It's gorgeous! -- Traditional Russian music. Shown below, she is in her starting pose, ready to begin:

I took over 50 videos too (YEAH!)... I'm going to attempt to put something together with some of my favorites together to show the amazing gymnastics from the weekend. ...Coming soon...

Marta Karolyi and the girls - Jesolo Trophy

I really enjoyed seeing Marta Karolyi at the Jesolo gymnastics meet. She is currently the National Team Coordinator for USA Gymnastics. I remember when her husband, Bella, came to GTC (Gymnastics Training Center in Rochester, NY - where I grew up doing gymnastics for 14 years)... He came with Dominique Moceanu and I was starstruck by both of them!!

It was really cool to be so close to Marta at the Jesolo Trophy competition and watch her coach and watch her interact with the gymnasts and other coaches. I really like that this international competition includes some of the top gymnasts in the world but is held at a small venue.

Marta has a standard position seen often throughout the meet: standing with hands on hips or arms crossed and carefully observing every move.

I loved watching Marta's reaction to big skills or the end of a routine (and how it differed for a stuck landing or one with a big step at the end). A "Marta-nod" is a good thing and a big deal!

Marta, overseeing beam warm-ups for the Juniors: 

Marta, overseeing as gymnast as she competes on the vault:

Marta speaking with (and presumably congratulating) the junior gymnasts on a great competition:

Marta with her arm around Gabby Douglas at the end of the Seniors' competition:

Marta, hugging Simone Biles on Sunday as a congratulations for a GREAT floor routine, worth 1st place... finishing up her time competing in Jesolo!

Jesolo Trophy Gymnastics Competition - SENIORS

Saturday afternoon was the team competition for the senior girls. The USA team was amazing! (...and won 1st place.)

Included on the team were Olympic gymnasts from the 2012 team: Gabby Douglas, Kyla Ross, and Ali Raisman - all vying for a spot on the 2016 Olympic team. I was most excited, however, to see Simone Biles. She is the current (two-time!) World Champion and is really amazing... and consistent! She somehow does ever move better, higher, and stronger than everyone else. She even has a move named after her on floor - The Biles is a double layout half.

Team USA

Gabby Douglas warming up on the uneven bars:

Pretty cool to see so many of these girls in person... in the same room...

Above, you can see Marta Karolyi, Ali Raisman, Kyla Ross, Simone Biles, and (ready to go on beam) Gabby Douglas... plus plenty more. Yeah!

The evening ended with Team USA winning gold.

'Gold' at the Jesolo Trophy in Italy includes a golden Venetian mask as the trophy...

...and Murano glass necklaces instead of medals for individual awards... very cool.

Jesolo Trophy Gymnastics Competition - JUNIORS

I purchased tickets for the Jesolo Trophy gymnastics meet... to see the senior gymnasts compete and then the individual finals the next day. Awesome enough -- the junior gymnasts' competition was free and open to the public!

Basically - that means that I watched gymnastics from 9:30am - 8:00pm on Saturday, with a two-hour break over the lunch time. Perrrrrfect.

Below are some of my favorite photos that I snapped during the juniors' warm-up and competition:

The 6 U.S. junior girls lined up and ready to compete:

A bit blurry since she's in (fast!) motion... but can you see the pink leotard above the coach in the red t-shirt towards the middle of the photo below?? -- the flying girl is doing a release move and, believe it or not, going to re-catch the bar from there! This is during warm-ups... the rest of the girls await their turn.

Team USA lined up to present themselves to the judges for balance beam:

Team USA - junior girls... huddling after completing all four events

1st place!

JESOLO TROPHY GYMNASTICS COMPETITION 2015

I just had one of the best weekends!! The gymnastics competition in Lido di Jesolo was amazing.

I really liked that the Pala Arrex arena is small in size. I sat in the 6th row the first day and the 3rd row the second! It was pretty amazing to be SO close to these amazing gymnastics... and Marta Karolyi  : )

Two full days of gymnastics - yes, please! Growing up, this sport was a huge part of my life... for 14 years. It's fun to be back in 'that world' for a bit and watch the top gymnasts in the world... compete live and in person.

Local gymnasts from the area put on a beautiful opening act. Below are a couple pictures showing pride for Italy... they later included flags for each of the 5 countries participating. 

Countries competing included: USA, Canada, France, Australia, and the host: Italy

The loudest cheers were definitely for Italy... and Simone Biles (of the U.S.).

The crowd was very supportive of the U.S. gymnasts though. They are top in the world (and ended up winning this competition). One young fan was all about supporting the American gymnasts!...

This girl's sign was my favorite - it says: Team USA, you slay.

Fans crowding the U.S. girls as they attempt to board the bus at the end of the day: