Gymnastics: The Women

Now it's no more than two per country.

Hi All,

After watching the gymnastics over the past couple of days, it is apparent how nervous the gymnasts were in the team comps due to the new "3 up, 3 count" rule. No more throwing out the highest/lowest scores and all that anymore, so no buffer and that means the pressure is definitely on during a performance. Even Khorkina got a case of the shakes when she was on the bars during Team comp - I have seen her fall on release moves at the O's before, but I've never ever seen her wobble doing her pirouette elements and she is by far the most experience gymnast out there, so if this new rule is putting extra pressure on her, no wonder some of the younger girls had faces like death masks when it was their turn to perform.

I'm really glad there are finally some people in the stands watching these wonderful performers....

The problem for Khorkina is she is so skeletally thin that I think her energy and stamina is limited. She looks really bad, a stick figure as compared to the slim, sinuous Khorkina of 1996 and 2000. She always had an interesting hairdo but she didn't even bother with that this year--just a plain ponytail. She is still a good-looking woman, but she just doesn't look healthy.

euterpe said:

I've always like Khorkina, but she looks awful! She is skeletal, and her face is so drawn. She looks more like 30 than 25. What has happened to her?

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Actually, I thought Khorkina looked better than she did 4 years ago, now that she's dropped that close-cropped android haircut. On a similar note -- what is up with Terin Humphrey's eye makeup?? IMO she's the most exciting of the US women (based on what I've seen so far), but that heroin-chic raccoon eyeliner has gotta go. It's one of those looks that doesn't look good on anyone.

Overall, I have to say that I was rather disappointed with the overall quality of the routines last night. They were well executed, but I didn't see anything that I found particularly interesting or anything that made me go "Oh, wow" (except for Oana Ban on the floor exercise; what PHENOMENAL tumbling; I expected her to hit the roof!). Hopefully we'll be seeing more interesting things in the all around and invidual apparatus.

I saw Oana Ban last year and knew who to root for come the olympics...but I think she was not at her best here compare to the worlds. Still she is a great gymnast and tiny too.

Now...Catalina....where was she during worlds. Wow...I love her floor music.

Maybe it's her homage to the Olympics .