The 22-year-old Shewfelt eclipsed fellow Calgarians Jarome Iginla of the Flames and PGA Tour star Stephen Ames in voting after becoming the first Canadian to win an Olympic artistic gymnastics medal.
'I'm super-excited,' Shewfelt said of the athlete of the year award. 'This is a great way to end the year. It's a way to move into 2005.'

One of the world’s premier gymnastics events, the 2005 American Cup will assume the status of an International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) World Cup competition. The World Cup will consist of preliminaries on Feb. 25 with the American Cup to take place on Feb. 26 televised live by NBC Sports.

The new format, which features individual event finals only, allows athletes placing among the top eight on each apparatus to earn World Cup points toward qualification to the bi-annual World Cup Final. Also at stake in the 30th American Cup is approximately $55,000 in prize money.

The American Cup is the second World Cup of the 2005-2006 circuit following the
>> DTB Pokal 2004 in Stuttgart in late November. After than the third event in this serie will be the >> 'Cottbus Tournament of Masters'.
The 2006 World Cup Final will be hosted by Brazil.

... see more in an Russian article on www.bulvar.com

In history she is also one of the three women who has won three times the same competition during Summer Olympic Games: in 1956 (Melbourne), 1960 (Rome) and 1964 (Tokyo) where, each time, she took the team title and the gold in the individual floor final.
In Rome in 1960, she even competed as a mom. Indeed, only 19 months after the birth of her daughter (she even competed in the Worlds of 1957 being pregnant!), Latynina took the all-around and floor gold, additionally to the team title.
source/info: UEG

Olympic Gold medallist on floor, Rome 1960 (Photo, right)>>

The 1996 Olympic parallel bars champion for Ukraine, Rustam Sharipov, told 'International Gymnast', that the elections were done by silent ballot for the first time. Sharipov said that in the past, election results were determined by a show of hands or verbal vote.
International Gymnast' reports, that Zakharova was a member of the Soviet team which won the gold medal at the 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow. The Odessa native also won the all-around titles at the World Cup in 1979 and 1980. For the past several years, she has sponsored an international tournament - the Stella Zakharova Cup - in Kiev. She is married to former soccer star Viktor Khlus, who is now the head coach of Kiev's 'Arsenal' team.

Gymnastics diva Khorkina fails to become president
Svetlana Khorkina, who retired from gymnastics as active athlete after the Olympic Games in Athens, was almost elected as president of the Russian Gymnastics Federation (FSGR) in Moscow, which would have been a huge sensation.
The double Olympic Champion and nine-times World Champion succumbed with 22:27 votes under the triple Olympic Champion and long-term president of the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) Juri Titov. After the election, the 69-year-old from Siberia offered to the 25-year-old Khorkina as well as to the 52-year-old Olympic legend Nikolai Andrianov a co-operation as vice-presidents of the federation.

'We even had reached a point, when gymnasts were personally persecuted because their coaches dared to speak against him.'
At the moment, it is not clear if Arkaev will remain head of coach.
The 18-times Olympic medal winner Larisa Latynina uttered a clear opinion on the verge of this congress:
'In my opinion, Arkaev should resign to the full extent.'
2004, Monday, December 27 Latynina celebrates her 70th birthday.
Sources: Russian Press
Translation: Florian Schmid-Sorg

Expending into women's artistic gymnastics...
They are accompanied by one of Russia's foremost acro gymnastics choreographers, Tatiana Silchenko....
'Last year our club produced world beaters in acro gymnastics and now we are expanding into women's artistic gymnastics,' said Dr. Chris Dreyer, managing director of DreyProps, sponsors of the Russian Gymnastics School of South Africa in Newlands, Johannesburg.
'It was the first time that South African acro gymnasts won gold at any major world event and we believe it is possible to do the same in artistic gymnastics.'
Dreyer says the club succeeded where so many other codes failed by launching a workable and meaningful . 'At the 2004 South African championships, only three of the 21-member Central Gauteng acro team were whites. This year the club's representatives in international events will also have more black gymnasts than white ones,' he said.
Elena Zamolodchikova is on her fourth visit to South Africa. 'The last time was eight years ago when I won the SA Cup in Cape Town. I couldn't wait to get back to visit Sun City and Durban again,' she said . 'I am aiming for my third Olympics (2008 Beijing) and would love to compete in South Africa again, but no one has invited me since 1996.'