Enjoy the Last Few Moments

The qualification rounds have come to an end...unfortunately with Alex's 18th placing, she didn't make it to the top 10, which would have brought her to the finals.

I managed to watch two of the four routines on TV...since Germany didn't qualify at all for this Olympic sport, they hardly show any of it. Eurosport is only showing 1 hour of the 4 day competition. Luckily there are other channels which seem to appreciate the most beautiful Olympic sport.

Both routines that I had missed (once due to channel surfing, trying to find out where they televised the sport, and the second time since the network decided to cut halfway through the 3rd round and show 3 hours of news) didn't seem to go as perfectly as she would have liked...Alex placed 8th at the Good Luck Beijing competition and now 18th...I guess with all the nerves and pressure...To see the preliminary individual results, click here. Group preliminary results are shown here.

Anyways, what counts is that she actually made it to the Olympics, a childhood dream of hers, and now she can finally relax and enjoy the moment for a few more days.

HOOP score 16.550 (14th)

CLUBS score 16.175 (18th)

The Final Warm Up

Alex's last competition before flying off to Beijing was the E-ON Cup 'Queen Margarita' in Varna, Bulgaria, where she ended up getting four bronze medals! =)

Hoop (16.575)


Clubs (16.300)


Ribbon (16.650)


Rope (16.300)

Sexiest Female Olympian....ALEX!

So I promised I would add some videos of Alex performing, and I just stumbled upon a recent video of her (from August 3rd). The video was taken place in the Sport Seneca gym where I used to train 6 days a week...and even my former coach who used to weigh us practically everyday, was interviewed! Quite shocking to hear her voice so suddenly, after 10 years. She still looks the same though.

Anyways, this blog IS about Alex and not any other past turmoil. =) The Olympics start in 3 days and I'm so excited!

It also happens that she was picked as the Sexiest Female Olympian competing at the Beijing Games, from an internet magazine list of 50, beating out Russian tennis star, Maria Sharapova!

Thanks to Alex, rhythmic gymnastics is finally making a better name for itself.

Group A: Round 2

For those who are living in Europe at this time, it's only natural to be glued to the TV screen this entire month. "Why?" most Americans would ask. "Is there another crappy Eurovision Song Contest going on?" No. Thankfully not.

EURO 2008, i.e. UEFA European Football Championship - soccer, not American football - has started! Having Czech roots, I am naturally cheering and screaming for the Czech team, singing "Kdo neskáče není Čech, hop hop hop!" throughout the tournament. My other top favourite is Portugal with their genious player, Christiano Ronaldo; unfortunately France and Italy have shown poor performance in their first game so they're out of the love list. Germany is definitely the team that I don't want to see advancing to any of the next rounds.

Yesterday's games Czech Republic vs. Portugal & Switzerland vs. Turkey was one of the most exciting games played so far. My throat was hurting from all the screaming and cheering I did!

The Czechs really challenged the Portuguese and had so many great chances to score, but the Portuguese were better towards the end and have secured their seat in the quarter finals. Score 1-3.


Czech Republic - Portugal 1-3 EURO 2008

No one would have ever thought that Turkey would actually have a shot at the quarter finals, but somehow they managed to kick Switzerland out of the match with their second goal in the 92nd minute! Cars were honking their horns till midnight and if I had any spare change on me, I would've gone to the next Döner Imbis and would've eaten a juicy Döner in celebration! Score 1-2.


Switzerland - Turkey 1-2 EURO 2008

Now both the Czechs and the Turks are tied, so we will need to win the next game against them, in order to advance to the quarter finals. The Czechs played a really good game against Portugal and showed much better performance than in their match against Switzerland, so they stand a good chance.

And the Winner Is...

FINALE, ooohhhoohhhh!
FINALE, ooohhhoohhhh!

And guess who won?! THOMAS GODOJ! =) Yooooooohooooo! My predictions were right all along, AND Germany finally picked someone well worth it. In the past, the people who won were for some reason most of the time gay (no offense to gay people, but just not my style) and left the spotlight within minutes -- one exception: last year's winner.

But FINALLY someone who sings in my kind of style, is worth looking at, and is as natural as BIO can get [note: Germans love anything "BIO" (organic); bread, socks, plants, phone calls, cars etc.] He's got a lot of potential and according to RTL's Voting Results, he was everyone's favourite from the beginning, with always ca. 50% of the votes. =)

His first performance: 'Fairytale Gone Bad' by Sunrise Avenue


DSDS Thomas Godoj: Fairytale Gone Bad by Sunrise Avenue

His second performance: 'Chasing Cars' by Snow Patrol


DSDS Thomas Godoj: Chasing Cars by Snow Patrol

His third performance (Finale Song): 'Love Is You' by Thomas Godoj, produced by Valicon


DSDS Thomas Godoj: Love Is You

His fourth performance together with the remaining finalist, Fady Maalouf: 'My Way' by Thomas Godoj & Fady Maalouf


DSDS Thomas Godoj & Fady Maalouf: My Way

Thomas sings his winning song (62% of the votes)


DSDS Thomas Godoj: Love Is You - Singing as DSDS' 2008 Superstar

I know, I know...I think I've tired everyone out with DSDS. Again, I am not usually such a big supporter of the show, but Thomas always took my breath away, as he did with Germany. Does that mean I have something in common with Germans?! ;) I hope you at least enjoyed it as much as I did -- and look out for him in the international charts!

Party Hits & Acoustic Ballads

Finally we get to hear and see more from Thomas!
As there are now five remaining candidates, each has two songs to sing instead of one. Yesterday's theme was "Party Hits & Acoustic Ballads" and Thomas Godoj sang the songs "You Get What You Give" by The Radicals and "Behind Blue Eyes" by The Who. The first song I love, but I don't particularly like Limp Bizkit's version of 'Behind Blue Eyes'. However, it seems as though Thomas can turn any song I don't like into a song that I can play over and over...of course sung by him. ;)

DSDS Thomas Godoj: You Get What You Give by The Radicals

I found his second performance much better than the first. Judge for yourself:

DSDS Thomas Godoj: Behind Blue Eyes by Limp Bizkit

Three shows to go!

Sport Seneca Closing It's Doors

I've been hearing rumours. Now it seems that it's partly true.

The sport school where I've grown up, spent hours training, met some of my best friends, and practically lived 9 years of my in, is closing - partly. I went to Sport Seneca, a place for Elite athletes, from 91 - 99. It's separated into three different areas: skating, artistic gymnastics, and rhythmic gymnastics. I started out in skating, then moved to pre-elite gymnastics and then finally decided to stick to rhythmics.

While on Facebook, I kept reading how Seneca was closing, which I really couldn't believe since it was so successful. As a place for training Elite athletes, it brought up many athletes who participated in World and Olympic competitions, including myself. So I finally decided to do some research on my own and came up with the following article:

http://www.cbc.ca/sports/indepth/russell/column_080225.html

http://www.intlgymnast.com/news/2008/feb/020708_seneca.html

I find it quite sad that the only reason being for the close, is lack of finances. There has always been a problem with funding rhythmic gymnastics in Canada, but for it to be a problem for Sport Seneca's artistic program is really unbelievable, after reading the following quote from IG News:

The coaching duo over the past three decades, including Olympians Monica Covacci, Luisa Portocarrero and Michelle Conway and world team members Koyuki Oka, Leah Homma, Lydia Williams and Elyse Hopfner-Hibbs.

I wish all the best to both Carol and Brian, and hope that someday, Sport Seneca will produce more World-class artistic gymnasts.