Tuesday, 20 March 2012

Nora Flatley

...A window into the American future?

It is nice when my daily twitter and youtube trawling drags up something I hadn't seen before and wasn't expecting. Thanks to some lovely gymnastike footage from the 2012 Northern Lights Classic, I got my first glimpse at level 10 American gymnast Nora Flatley.

This is her beam routine from earlier this year, see the Gymnastike website for the more recent footage

This girl has more artistry in her beam routine than most of the senior national team put together. That lovely mount sequence would have looked right at home in 1996 and some of her flexibility balances remind me of a young Chellsie Memmel. 

Who knows, maybe in a few years!

Her acrobatics are lovely too. Although she needs to work on her knees, her first flight sequence is top class and her technique on her layout is refreshingly non American. She floats that down to the beam with a technique reminiscent of the Chinese. 

Nora is another example of a great gymnast from Chow's gym, home of current toast of the town Gabrielle Douglas and Olympic champion Shawn Johnson. 

Nice to see such potential at such a young age, but potential from technique and presentation as opposed to cringeworthy upgrades that come years too soon. At 12 years old, Nora would be age eligible for the Rio Olympics. Perhaps we are seeing our first glimpses of a new crop of talent! 

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