Men's Gymnastics Team Final - that U.S. team is hilarious

Earlier tonight I made the statement, "The U.S. men's team has no chance at a medal." Well that crazy crew sure proved me wrong! Throughout the night Karl and I were continually laughing about the comments the U.S. men's team would make to the camera...they were completely pumped up and not afraid to express it. Then at the end of the night Jonathan Horton and Justin Spring (pictured above, with Raj Bhavsar) started going off about "USA! No one thought we could do it, we proved them wrong!" and grabbing at the "USA" printed on the chest of their leotards. Then...out of nowhere...quiet and shy Joey Hagarty jumped in the screen and yelled, "That's how we roll!" We probably rewound that moment on the TiVo at least four times and were almost in tears from laughter. If I can find a YouTube clip of it, I'll definitely post it.

About the competition - the Chinese were obviously the most talented team on the floor. On some events I thought they made the U.S. look like a bunch of junior gymnasts as opposed to seniors. Despite China's dominance, the U.S. was actually in the lead after three of the six events. Throughout the entire finals competition the U.S. team did surprisingly well after several mistakes in Prelims, and I was definitely the most impressed with Horton, who hit every single one of his routines and stuck every landing. He was truly the rock of the U.S. team tonight and I think if he can perform that well during the all around competition, he has a real shot at a medal. Alexander Artemev was also quite impressive. He usually buckles under the pressure in competition, but tonight on the only event in which he competed, pommel horse, it can be said that he saved the U.S.'s chances for the bronze medal with his awesome routine and score of 15.35 or something like that...

I felt bad for David Durante, the one alternate who didn't get the chance to compete. The NBC coverage showed him in the stands crying when it became apparent that the U.S. team was going to win a medal. He has trained so hard and I really feel that he deserved to be on the team. He was the National Champion in 2007 and is a solid all-around competitor. I know he had to be extremely happy for his teammates who won the medal, but also a bit sad for himself because at age 27 it is unlikely he'll continue training for the next Olympics. I have never been Olympic-caliber in anything, so I can't even imagine how it would feel to be so close to your Olympic dream and then come to the realization that it's most likely never going to happen.

Now back to the team that competed tonight - I think Karl said it best when he made the statement that the U.S. men's team reminded him of a "bad boy-band". They are quite a mismatched, scrappy little group, but they sure had heart and bravo to them for winning the bronze medal tonight when everyone had pretty much written them off in this competition. For a really nice and short commentary on the U.S. men's team written by Steve McCain, a former U.S. Olympic gymnast who is reporting from Beijing, click here.

Women's team finals tomorrow night! WOO HOO!!!!