Yeah, I like the Romanians and the Chinese (they're so enthusiastic!) The Russians are elegant, but they cry when they win, they cry when they lose, and they view a silver as losing which grates on me a bit. I mean, it's an honor just to get to the Olympics!!!
I don't mind crying when they win, but I don't like they way they carry on when the lose the gold -- especially in 96 -- they lost by quite a large margin and it seemed the tears were a bit of a put on - very phony. The Romanians dealt with it much better, as they usually do. I love the chinese team, especially on bars and beam, I wish they could put together a really good competition where they all perform well at the same time under pressure.
I love gymnastics, but I don't like what floor and beam have become in recent years--graceless--all tricks and no grace. I miss the days of Turischeva--such an athletic ballerina! Now it's all "noise". And on beam, everyone does exactly the same tricks with a bit of arm waving in between.
RealtorGal do you seen this as a prediction on how figure skating is going? I see more emphasis on jumps and not equal emphasis on spins and footwork.
I;m one of the ones who liked gymnastics, but I don't love it the way I love figure skating. I think, for me, part of it is the fact that there are not a lot of televised gymnastics competitions, and therefore it is hard to learn much about what I am watching, whereas with so many figure skating competitions, I have been able to learn so much about the sport, from simply learning the names of the elements to learning to appreciate edge quality, flow, etc. and still learning.
dlk, good question. I think that ever since a technically superior Nancy Kerrigan lost gold to the artistically superior Oksana, things have turned around. I'm not sure when they changed "artistic mark" to "presentation mark" but that kind of tells you that they decided to find a way to give the best jumper the gold no matter what.
Of the current gymnasts, I especially like Nemov and Khorkina. In the past I especially loved Svetlana Boginskaya. Man, she had it all. But I too miss the days of the mature women like Tchurischeva (sp?) and what was the Czechoslovakian woman's name who did such a great floor exercise at the '68 Olympics in Mexico City (if I have the date and city right)? She was stunning. I agree that the floor exercise has lost the grace and dance that made it so wonderful to watch. Lilia Portupiyava (totally slaughtered that spelling) the '96 (I think) all around champ was the last really graceful gymnast we saw on floor. Shannon Miller on both floor and beam was also incredibly beautiful. Even mean ol' Rgirl got a little tear in her eye when Shannon won the gold on the beam.
Rgirl
Does anyone know whether gymnast (or rhythmic gymnasts) either in North America or in Europe ever have an opportunity to make money from their talent and training? Can they join the circus or something?
Mathman
Mathman,
Bart Connor and Nadia Comenici have a tour with elite gymnasts. They play mostly college gyms. According to my family in Arizona, the gymnastics tour has sold out every time it's come to Arizona State, but the ticket prices are quite a bit lower than they are for COI or SOI. Rhythmic gymnasts often go into performing in circuses that have a Cirque du Soleil style, plus there are a couple of prominent "dance/gymnastics" companies--Svetlana Boginskaya performs with the top company among these. For the artistic gymnasts (ie, Shannon Miller, et al.; what we tend to think of as gymnastics), the performing opportunities are not as open for doing gymnastics, but then their bodies can't really perform at the level for very long. A lot of the elite women gymnasts are still young enough when they finish their competitive career that they can still complete college and start something new. Some even continue competing on the NCAA circuit. Others go into coaching, of course.
The men can compete longer and until they're older. "Life after gymnastics" for men range from Bart Connor as a prominent coach and "mover and shaker" in gymnastics to Tim Dagget as commentator to Mitch Gaylord as porn star. Though I would think that some of the more modern circuses would be an option for the men as well.
Rgirl
It depends on the person.So far,only Nadia Comanici and Mary Lou Retton have struck my fancy.
I LOVE gymnastics! I'm a high school gymnast and an unfathomably pitiful and fat one at that.
I'm not exaggerating--I can't even do handsprings hardly.
Craig
I like Gymnastics but I don't watch it a lot. Only when I flip channels. It's umbelieveble the things those peoples can do !
Another gymnasts fan here.
I always watch it when it's on tv, loved the Commonwealth games last yr.
My favs are Svetlana Khorkina & Simona Amanar.
I watch all the gymnastics & I used to do gym for about 8yrs, started when I was 5 & stopped about 5 yrs ago when I was 13ish.
Apparently Svetlana khorkina is now acting in Russian theatre, anybody know anymore on this??
I love gymnastics, I was a fan even before I started following fs regularly. But it's barely ever on TV so I don't pay much attention to it anymore.
They made the code of points so incredibly brutal. I honestly think that has sucked some of the excitement out of the sport from a fan perspective. And the media is looking for drama, perfect 10's. I don't think it's a coincidence that there is less and less gymnastics being aired now.
This is a little OT but I'm afraid the same thing will happen to skating if they switch to the new judging system next season.
<span style="color:blue;font-family:comic sans ms;font-size:x-small;"><strong>
I love Holly Vice
she is amazing and she is so cute
I also like Raducan
I like rhythmic gymnastics the most though </strong></span>
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