John and John became best friends through their training and travels with gymnastics. They have combined their passion for the sport and their desire to give back to younger gymnasts by joining forces for Flip Fest.
I have been having a great time over here at World Championships in Aarhus Denmark. The competition has been a little disappointing for the United States. The men finished 13th and failed to make the team finals. They just had a few too many mistakes and against the best in the world you just can't do that. They have a good team though and I would be very surprised if they didn't bounce back next year when the World Championships take place in Stuttgart Germany. The women had a better finish, but not exactly what they came here for. They finished second to China and they too had two falls and a couple rough routines which opened the door for China to step up and steal the gold from the heavily favored Americans. The Chinese looked very good. They have amazing style and execution and they didn't have any mistakes. They deserved to win. It will be an interesting couple years. With the Olympics in Beijing, I am sure the Chinese will not rest on their laurels, they will be working very hard to turn this World Gold medal into an Olympic Gold medal.
I ran into Jordan Jotchev, Flip Fest special guest and 16-time World and Olympic Medalist, a few times and he is doing well. He made floor and ring finals and will have a chance to add to his medal count on Friday night. He was in the stands watching team finals the other night with his Flip Fest sweatshirt on. He told me he's wants to come back to camp next year, and he's ready to do some more fishing. I told him we will have to name one of the boats "The Jotchev". Hopefully we will be talking about his 17th and 18th World medals.
Aarhus, is no tthe most exciting city. It's a rather small, typical European city. It has some cute streets and good shopping areas, but everything is really expensive.
There are only finals left, so I will keep you updated on the everyone finishes up.