Jesolo Trophy Gymnastics Competition

I love love love the gymnastics competition in Jesolo! I'll be sad to miss this once I'm back in the States. The arena is small and intimate... I'm so close to the best gymnastics from four countries -- including the United States!

Ali Raisman and Gabby Douglas were both present this year again (like last year) -- they were on the 2012 Olympic team in London. Both girls are shown in the photo below, where the girls are lining up to present themselves to the judges before competing on the balance beam:

Gabby on bars:

Ali about to go on beam:

There were also a number of "throwback" people present that were really fun to see!

Marta Karolyi is the national team coordinator (and in charge of choosing the US Olympic team) -- this will be her last year, as she plans to retire after the 2016 Summer Olympics:

Above -- Marta is talking to Ragan Smith -- a newcomer to the senior level this year and doing really, really well! Look up a video of her floor routine -- it's adorable and the choreography is awesome.

Kim Zmeskal is coaching and has a couple girls from her gym that are on the U.S. national team. She was part of the 1992 Olympic team and also World Champion! (This is her below, center... looking over her shoulder.)

Shannon Miller's coach, Steve Nunno is back and coaching a girl  who is new to the national team: Emily Gaskins.

Jesolo Gymnastics Competition - around town

One of my favorite weekends of the year -- the Jesolo gymnastics competition!!

I made the trip to Lido di Jesolo again this year. It is west of Venice on a strip of beach and is filled with hotels for the summer months. Going in March, the entire place is pretty much shut down and quiet.

The annual gymnastics meet is a big deal. It is the first international meet that the gymnasts prepare to have their full routines ready for. And then this year it's even bigger since it's an Olympic year!! The U.S. girls attend this competition -- there are 4 countries each year. United States, Italy, France, and Brazil were included this year for the senior girls.

A friend and co-worker of mine came with me this time! It was fun to have a friend to go with and we even found some nice restaurants (that were actually open, too) for dinner in the evening. We each had a full apartment to stay in, too! Haha... being low season, the costs are lower and it can be a bit difficult to find a place to stay that's open this time of year.

Below are pictures from around town:

Treasure hunting:

Enjoying a walk on the beach  : )

Heath, going into his apartment with a box full of fresh cookies and biscuits from a bakery! These made for the perfect snack during the competition.  : )

Enjoying a walk along the beach to get to the arena:

Hahaha -- a mannequin meeting in the off season:

There were young girls all over town for the gymnastics meet. In between the junior competition (under 15 years old) in the morning and the seniors in the afternoon, many girls were playing around and doing gymnastics tricks on the beach. These two girls below were impressive!

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:

Lido di Jesolo, Italy

I arrived to the Ute Hotel and promptly went outside to scope the views from the balcony.

Little lovely view of the sea to the right...

...and mountains to the left!

(The AquaLandia slides have a great view too!)

The hotel and room is very basic. It's a great price and just 3.5 kilometers from the arena where the gymnastics meet is that I'm here for. I figure that will be a nice walk along the waterfront!

Last year I tried looking around for gymnastics in Italy. Italy usually has a good team and strong gymnasts, so I figured there must be some. I did find a competition that looked good... but I couldn't find how to purchase tickets... all of the information was in Italian and all there seemed to be was a poster for the event... and then I stopped thinking of going when I realized it's not in Venice but about 30 kilometers away.

This year I've been watching interviews and videos from the Karolyi training camps. The girls each talked about the Jesolo Trophy meet in Italy... and how that is the first big meet that they are all training to be ready for. WHAT?!? That's the meet!! Once I began hearing how big this meet is... and even just that it's real, I decided I needed to make it work this year.

I searched and collected information. The assistant in the library at school helped me purchase the tickets online (it was all in Italian and required two different websites, a phone call, two separate transactions, and the postal service). I booked a hotel, bought train tickets, and am now HERE! Stoked.

The meet has been going on the past two days but I have tickets for Saturday and Sunday - the finals. The U.S. team actually hasn't had to compete yet to qualify, since they won the meet last year - they automatically qualify.

Three of the girls from the 2012 Olympic team are here - and are hoping to make the 2016 team... also, Simone Biles is here - she's been the World Champion the past two years and is the "it" girl in gymnastics right now. I'm really excited to see them in person and have two full days of gymnastics.

Some pictures of the beachfront: