The Tough Call award

Choosing between watching the competition and sightseeing the truly historic city of St. Petersburg. I ended up skipping a majority of the men's competition to see the sites and then hung out for all of women's competition.

Scary Moment award

Anastasya Kolesnikova's fall on her UB EF dismount.

Paraskevi of Cyprus. Crashes hideously on both her team vaults. Scores 0.0 on both. Poor girl. (:^(

Elena Dolgopolova's first team vault. Misses the block on a yurchenko and crashes hard, dashing her hopes of reaching the vault finals.

Extreme Routine award

Aljaz Pagan (SLO) on EF HB. Crazy moves and a cool routine, even though he placed last. Oh well, next time!

Most Impressive Teams award

French Jr. and Senior men - placing first above the Russians on their home turf!

Biggest Rip Off award

Carlsberg Cafe at Hotel Kosmos in Moscow. The food was reasonable, but the drinks were outrageous! I mean 50 rubles ($8.33US) for a glass of orange juice?? Get real!! >:^(

Best Bargain award

Svetlana Khorkina posters at the Longines booth in the arena lobby. Large sized (28" x 40.25") black and white glossy image (although printed with process colors for some reason). Not originally meant for sale but for display only, the Longines people realized they could sell them since EVERYONE was asking how much they cost. Eventually they sold them for five rubles each(83 cents US). I bought two and gave one to Lyudmila Korolenko (Lyubov Sheremeta's coach). I should have bought a LOT more!

The "Best Soviet Export" award

Male gymnasts -The Senior men's team competition ended with France winning gold and Germany winning bronze. Both teams have ex-Soviet gymnasts that played a key role in their standings (Dmitri Karbanenko for FRA and Sergei Kharkov and Valeri Belenki for GER). Could Australia be next???

The "Team to Watch in the Future" award

ESP women, with remarkable dancing choreography. They impressed a lot of people and in the future could be what France is now.

The Kerri Strug award

Valeri Belenki - did his two team vaults with a hurt ankle. Continued on with PB, but he was in obvious pain.

The "Woo hoo!! Lookin' good!" award

Elena Grosheva, with striped sweater and black miniskirt.

Natalia Yurchenko, with a velvety top and bottom! Woo hoo!

Most Boisterous Fans award

SUI during the men's competition, complete with synchronized cheer and clapping after every single routine. Celebrated Deiter Rehm's bronze vault medal outside the stadium with other fans!

The "Shameful Confession" award

Me! But promise not to tell, OK?!?

(Penguin looks to the left)

(Penguin looks to the right)

(Penguin looks to the left again)

OK! I bought the Russian Playboy with Svetlana Khorkina in it! Now before you all get in a tizzy, the Russian version of Playboy is REALLY tame! And the pictures are tasteful. At least I didn't have the gall to ask Svetlana to autograph it. What?? You want me to post the pictures?? Forget it!!!I can't think of a better way of getting drop kicked by Svetlana than by doing that.

"Best acknowledgement to fans, supporters and countrymen after a routine" award

Svetlana Khorkina after EF competition. She comes out and personally thanks her supporters in front of the entire crowd. Neat!

The "Happy Happy Joy Joy" award

Adrienn Varga winning vault EF. Yay!

Eugenia Kuznetsova inheriting Roza's European Beam Champion title. She is my favorite active gymnast. (I guess I have a thing for European Beam Champs! Hee!)

Olga Roschupkina and Andrea Isarescu tying for silver Jr. Women's AA. Both were outstanding, and I look forward to seeing them compete in the future.

Overall Coolest Dude award

Yuri Chechi. Since he was not competing, he was able to be very accomodating and friendly to fans of all makes and models!

Runner ups - Dmitri Karbanenko and Sergei Kharkov

"Up and coming" award winners

M: Florent Maree (FRA). W: Andrea Isarescu (ROM) and Olga Roschupkina (UKR).

The "Essential clothing item for St. Petersburg" award

Leather jackets. Everyone has them. I am glad I brought mine so I could sort of blend into the crowd, but somehow everyone was still able to tell I was from out of town. Hmmm. Maybe it's my tuxedo?

The "Most Disgusting Clothing Item" award