First, let me say that I am not a fan of the time difference here on the west coast when it comes to Olympic watching. The prime-time Olympic coverage doesn't start until 7 p.m. Pacific Time here, which means it is 10:00 back home in Indiana when I'm getting my first chance to watch the day's action....and everyone back home has already seen three hours of it at that point, resulting in some texts to me regarding the results. I had to tell my mom (just an hour ahead of me in Colorado) to stop texting me because she was giving too much information away! haha So...please keep in mind that I am seeing everything at least a few hours after you, and I'm requesting that you don't send any "spoilers" my way! :)
Now, on to my thoughts from the women's team preliminary competition tonight in gymnastics. I was very disappointed right from the start to see that Sam Peszek was injured during warm-ups. She is usually a very reliable and solid competitor for the U.S., so I felt very bad for her and the rest of the team that she could only compete on bars, because she would have really shined on floor and vault I know. It was
pretty obvious that the rest of the team was quite shaken up and had a bit of the jitters all night long. I thought that Bridget Sloan really showed her inexperience in international competition with some of the little mistakes she made, but was impressed to see that out of ALL the gymnasts from all of the countries competing, she actually placed 11th overall. The top 24 advance to the All-Around Finals later in the week, but there is a two athlete per country rule, so unfortunately Bridget won't get to compete in the AA because Shawn Johnson and Nastia Liukin placed 1st and 2nd overall, respectively (WOW!) I was so impressed with Shawn Johnson tonight - she was the only gymnast from the U.S. who hit every single routine and she proved that she can handle the Olympic pressure. Nastia Liukin was amazing on every event other than her landing on bars, where she fell backwards. If she can hit in the all around competition, it could be one of the tightest all around finals we've ever seen (between her and Shawn, both pictured above).
As for the U.S. going into the team competition as the 2nd place qualifiers, I agree with what Bela Karolyi said when he told Bob Costas it was actually an advantage. The Chinese have all the pressure right now to stay out in front, but when comparing the scores and hypothetically thinking that the U.S. won't make so many mistakes in the finals, it should be a very close contest. Also, I think the U.S. has a great advantage because they already had a rough night. After dealing with the steps out of bounds, wobbles, falls, etc. tonight, they'll be much more relaxed in the team finals because they'll know that they have nothing to lose. I'm very excited to see how things play out in the team competition!
Now let's talk about those Chinese gymnasts...if you watched the coverage you know that all of the gymnasts must turn 16 in the calendar year of the Olympic Games in order to compete. There has been a great deal of controversy over whether or not all of the
Chinese gymnasts are actually 16. Ummm...have you seen those girls?! A few of them look to be no older than 12! No kidding! It's a travesty that the IOC cannot gather the proof necessary to disqualify some of these girls from competing. According to the NBC commentators, all of their passports say they are at least 16. Well, let's think about this: if you're China, and you are trying to prove your world dominance in all sports, and you are hosting the Olympic Games, it seems like it might be just a bit too easy to fudge the birthdates on a few athletes' passports! Bela Karolyi is furious about it, with good reason. Click here to read an article focusing on Karolyi's thoughts on the situation. I love this quote from the article: "They are using half-people. One of the biggest frustrations is, what arrogance. These people think we are stupid. We are in the business of gymnastics and we know what a kid of 14 or 15 or 16 looks like. You don't have to be a gymnastics coach to know what they look like at 16." I agree 100%. When all of the other countries are playing by the rules, it just isn't fair for the Chinese to do this. Like Bela, I do not fault the athletes themselves, but the Chinese government.And now a few final thoughts:
1) Wasn't it so nice to see the U.S. women's team huddle together at the end of the competition and give each other pep talks? This looks like a true team, not a bunch of selfish athletes out for themselves in a sport that is largely "individual" and would be easy to fall into the trap of self-centeredness.
2) Oksana Chusovitina is still competing at age 33?!?! I remember watching her in the 1991 World Championships, which were held in Indianapolis and I was lucky enough to attend and watch at age 11. This is her fifth Olympic Games...she has competed for the Unified Team, Uzbekistan, and now Germany. The really amazing thing is...she's still good. Go Oksana! I'll be cheering for her. :) She qualified for individual event finals in Vault.
Also, for those of you who don't know, these are the members of the U.S. women's team who qualified for other events in the competition:
-Shawn Johnson - AA, Beam, Floor
-Nastia Liukin - AA, Beam, Floor, Bars
-Alicia Sacramone - Vault
Stay tuned, I'll be full of opinions on the upcoming gymnastics competitions this week I'm sure! :)
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