The gymnastics thread

[Tonichelle]

And even more so under the old judging system.

now, see, that's a fan talking I agree with Ptichka - before I started getting really interested in the competitive side of the sport judging didn't matter. I just watched the skating...

actually, for the most part I still try to do that... but now that I understand what's what it's harder not to disagree with the juding on occassion.

[ChrisH]

It's a shame that Shawn Johnson didn't perform 2 vaults in the qualification round. She would've been one of the favorites if not the favorite for the gold. I wonder what led to the decision to only perform 1 vault rather than 2. I'm guessing that each nation can only have 1 lady perform 2 vaults and that Alicia Sacramone got that opportunity. Something about Alicia being a world gold medalist at vault? Regardless, Shawn in one of world's best on vault and so should've been in the vault event final.

[Mathman]

The better way to verify the age is x-ray for bone age. I'm not sure why they didn't consider that to get over this issue.

I was thinking of carbon-14 dating. But then all the girls would test out at about 1000 years old from breathing carbon residue from fossil fuels.

Plus, you have to be dead.

<never mind>

[Medusa]

The better way to verify the age is x-ray for bone age. I'm not sure why they didn't consider that to get over this issue.

You can forget that method. First of all, the x-ray method is not absolute, there are physiological flutuations. And if the results are beyond these fluctuations you can cite several other conditions that will make this method irrelevant. These conditions can be completely harmless and it's pretty difficult to prove that the girls don't suffer from them. Prematurely born children e.g. can be 2 years behind with their bone-development (without suffering from any symptoms besides the "young" bone age), then it's possible that the child had a hormonal imbalance when it was younger and is still catching up with the other children who are the same age...

Another reason for Chinese girls to be small (and sometimes have a younger bone age) could be poverty, speak: malnutrition - it's often said that these girls are from poorer families, if they don't have the best food in the first years, if their mother is weaker and also not that well fed - it's possible that they stay smaller (just like Europeans were smaller before we all had too much too eat). My father spent the year between being 6 and 18 months old in a refugee camp in Berlin (because his parents fled from Eastern Germany before the wall was built), there was not much to eat, he had pneumonia etc. All the men in his family were/are as tall or taller than 6 feet 2, my brother is 6 feet 4 - my father never grew taller than 5 feet 9. What happens in the first years can sometimes not be reversed. And that the girls enter hard-core training right after being pulled out off their families probably isn't helping either.

[Tinymavy15]

It's a shame that Shawn Johnson didn't perform 2 vaults in the qualification round. She would've been one of the favorites if not the favorite for the gold. I wonder what led to the decision to only perform 1 vault rather than 2. I'm guessing that each nation can only have 1 lady perform 2 vaults and that Alicia Sacramone got that opportunity. Something about Alicia being a world gold medalist at vault? Regardless, Shawn in one of world's best on vault and so should've been in the vault event final.

Shawn is capable of WOW vaults, but she did not seem very confident doing them at the games. She got herself into that step over habit which really seems to have hurt her.

Another reason for Chinese girls to be small (and sometimes have a younger bone age) could be poverty, speak: malnutrition - it's often said that these girls are from poorer families, if they don't have the best food in the first years, if their mother is weaker and also not that well fed - it's possible that they stay smaller (just like Europeans were smaller before we all had too much too eat). My father spent the year between being 6 and 18 months old in a refugee camp in Berlin (because his parents fled from Eastern Germany before the wall was built), there was not much to eat, he had pneumonia etc. All the men in his family were/are as tall or taller than 6 feet 2, my brother is 6 feet 4 - my father never grew taller than 5 feet 9. What happens in the first years can sometimes not be reversed. And that the girls enter hard-core training right after being pulled out off their families probably isn't helping either.

Well the Chinese are small by nature, but these girls have been well-feed and taken care of since they were 3 years old. They do not live at home in the poor neighborhoods with their parents, but at training camps where they receive protein rich diets that are designed for athletes.

also, at least one of the girls had been billed as 14 years old until January when she magically bypassed being 15 and was suddenly 16!

[ChrisH]

Shawn is capable of WOW vaults, but she did not seem very confident doing them at the games. She got herself into that step over habit which really seems to have hurt her.

Even with her steps, Shawn was still at least the 2nd best out there. I've just looked at all the vault results and Shawn has the highest average vault score of all the ladies. Fei Cheng has the highest single score, but her average may have been pulled down a bit by having to do a different vault during the qualification round. If Shawn was participating, Fei would likely be a very small favorite over Shawn for the gold. Alicia Sacramone would be a slight favorite over Oksana Chusovitina for the bronze.

It seems like unlike the vault, 2 ladies per nation are allowed on the floor exercise (event final) and so most of the top athletes are competiting.

[Tonichelle]

also, at least one of the girls had been billed as 14 years old until January when she magically bypassed being 15 and was suddenly 16!

really? is there an article that discusses this? (not that I trust the US biased media but still )

[momjudi]

I'm having trouble posting links on the board but if you go to google and type in the keywords Chinese gymnasts ages you will find half a dozen articles from around the world discussing how last year two of the gymnasts on the team were reported to be rising stars at the age of 14 yet are now listed as 16 for the Olympics.

[Mathman]

I'm having trouble posting links on the board...

Hi, Momjudi. Here's how to post a link. (I see that you have "standard interface" checked on your user's profile, so that's good.)

At the top of the "reply to post" dialogue box there should be an icon that looks like a blue-green planet earth. Click on that, type (or paste) the url that you want to post into the space, and click OK.

If that doesn't work for some reason, you can do it ny hand.

Type [url*], then paste in the url, then [/url]. (remove *).

[Hsuhs]

I watched the gymnastics too, and got interested in Oksana Chusovitina's (GER) story (the girl won silver in yesterday's vault).

Oksana is 33, and has an 8 year old, who's diagnosed with acute lymphocytic leukemia. She uses her prize money to pay for her son't treatment.

Here's her bio on wiki:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oksana_Chusovitina

Isn't she like... the greatest?

[Johar]

Do the women do puch fronts and reverse tumbling passes anymore?

[Mathman]

Did you guys think of Sasha when Nastia Liukin did her floor exercise to "Dark Eyes?"

[dorispulaski]

I certainly did. I didn't catch what her deductions were though? But then, I'm not an expert.

[AwesomeIce]

Did you guys think of Sasha when Nastia Liukin did her floor exercise to "Dark Eyes?"

Not at all. Nastia's version is so much better than the one Sasha used that I don't even think of it as being the same music!

[jennylovskt]

Nastia Liukin is so beautiful. I loved her floor exercise very much! Didn't realize that it was "Dark Eyes", I just thought the music was familiar. I thought she should have won the gold.

Johnny Weir has very good eyes. He spotted her right away.