Men's and Ladies' Gymnastics

[dorispulaski]

McKayla Mulroney has a broken toe, which she just reinjured in practice.

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/gameon/post/2012/07/usa-gymnast-mckayla-maroney-breaks-toe/1

She is still planning to compete on the vault and is in London.

Anna Li, first alternate, injured her neck & will not compete. She has to wear a cervical collar.

There are two other alternates; a third may still be named to replace Anna.

Competition in the Ladies events starts Sunday.

 

[Tonichelle]

The men's team looked great on the Today Show. It was hysterical Savannah Guthrie told them to do a stunt, and Matt Lauer freaked out because he was worrried a freak injury could happen... Go Team USA!

 

[Olympia]

She asked them to do a stunt? They should be carried from place to place in sedan chairs! This is not the moment to introduce anything unplanned in their training regimens. At least let these poor souls make it into the arena in one piece.

When does gymnastics start, anyway?

 

[snowflake]

Men's Qualification starts on Saturday.

Artistic Gymnastics schedule

 

[Tonichelle]

She asked them to do a stunt? They should be carried from place to place in sedan chairs! This is not the moment to introduce anything unplanned in their training regimens. At least let these poor souls make it into the arena in one piece.

When does gymnastics start, anyway?

Yeah they all did backflips (called them something else, but they were backflips lol)... Matt was ready to die lol

 

[blue dog]

Kieran Behan, a long shot to even make the finals in gymnastics, was once told he could never walk again.

I think he and Sarah Robles (US women's weightlifting) are my favourite stories of the games so far:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/27/s...te-in-3-gymnastics-events.html?pagewanted=all

 

[skatingfan04]

Anyone watching the women's qualifiying? Canada just made the team final . As a Canadian, I'm so thrilled. Gymnastics has always been a major struggle for us, so this is REALLY huge.

I've got a question for those of you with some knowledge of the sport. I was watching the floor routine for Victoria Moors CAN, and she seemed to get through really well. Her tumbling passes looked clean, and she did a great job performing between the elements. She actually had a 6.000 in difficulty, which to my knowledge is quite high, and she's been scoring really well all year. Yet, here, with what seemed to be a really strong routine, her execution score was terrible (8.1000) and her overall was a 14.100, which is really low by her usual standard. People thought she had a chance at making the final on floor going in, which her previous scores would suggest was a possibility, so it was surprising to see her drop so low here. Can anyone give some insight? Thanks!

 

[heyang]

I read some spoilers and they made me realize how deep the US team is in Ladies gymnastics.

I felt for bad for the German man (Boy?) who injured himself on vault and yet continued through the remaining excercises knowing that he'd have to land in pain. He limped off of each routine. To add insult to injury, he didn't catch the high bar on one of his release moves. He was actually one of the favorites to go into the All-around. At the end, he was just trying to score high enough to get the team into the team finals.

I don't think NBC will broadcast any gymnastics until primetime, I guess I'll have to look online if I don't want to wait.

 

[Olympia]

I saw the spoilers also. Very true.

I haven't seen a lot of the gymnastics, just here and there, but I'll say that Daiane dos Santos of Brazil is a ball of fire in the floor exercise. I do hope she made the finals! She's apparently 28, in her third Olympics or thereabout. She even has two floor moves named after her. I hope she does her absolute best this time around.

 

[skateluvr]

oh no bad spoiler for us...i saw crying...i guess we'll see it tonight.....

 

[Johar]

Why don't we see anyone mount the balance beam like this anymore:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7SjVtUKXg4

 

[skateluvr]

These rules are crazy Jordan is World Champion and will not be in the 24? Because each country gets two? East Podunk gets two? Poor Jordan. I cried for her.

 

[Johar]

I felt awful for her. Currently watching the Russian women on Floor.

 

[Olympia]

I felt awful too. That rule seems pretty idiotic. Gymnastics is brutal enough without it.

Russia and China have not shone in this round either. I hope this doesn't mean that this year's gymnastics will be a splatfest.

 

[deedee1]

BEST OF LUCK to our Japanese boys at Men's Team event (final) tonight! arty:

Seems too far away to capture the Gold medal now, I hope they will do their best, so that they can be proud of themselves at least. :yes:

P.S. Sorry about Jordyn Wieber. Sad to say but it happens to many sports to limit the number of spots to each country: e.g. only one spot for Judo, two spots for table tennis, and of course three at the maximum for figure skating...I am old enough to accept all the reasonable reasons, but I still get frustrated sometimes why all the world's best athletes can't participate in the biggest competitions such as the Olympics and the Worlds, which they have dreamed about and worked so hard for all these years... I feel for them.

 

[bekalc]

These rules are crazy Jordan is World Champion and will not be in the 24? Because each country gets two? East Podunk gets two? Poor Jordan. I cried for her.

No each country does not get 2. Each country can get up to 2 but you have to qualify in the top 24. So no country is even guaranteed "one spot" This rule has been place for along time. Gabby Douglas (you know the girl that really replaced Jordyn even if she was considered up there with Wieber) placed 2nd qualifier. She was 5th in prelims last year. Nobody cried or screamed for her. Screamed unfairness. What did Gabby do? Gabby went home and upgraded her routines.. What did Aly Raisman do. She went home upgraded her routines.

What did Jordyn NOT do. Jordyn didn't go home and upgrade her routines. Thats why she got surpassed. It doesn't matter what the media says. Jordyn was not going to win here unless some others screwed up.. She doesn't have the routines to do so this year. Last year she won over an injury depleted field because she had a more difficult. And Jordyn BARELY one that....They girl she won was competiting with only 3 full months of training and so had to water down her program and had a bit time dfificulty disadvantage. Vault especially got watered down. It should have been disconcerting to Team Wieber that it was close. It should certainly not have been a sign for no new materialized upgrades.

Komova went hope (now has the Amanar back and other upgrades every where she's upgraded by well over a point. And then Jordyn's teammates upgraded and closed the gap on vault. Not a shocker at all.

 

[Olympia]

You sound as if you have really been following gymnastics. Thanks for your insights! I was hoping a gymnastics buff would speak up on here with details about the competitors' preparations and known abilities. All I know is what I hear from the commentators on TV and what I've read in Time and Sports Illustrated. (I always buy the Olympic Previews.) So I've never actually laid eyes on any of these athletes, and of course they all look good to me. (I couldn't even stand up on a balance beam!)

I'm wondering whether you or anyone else on GS has anything to say about my personal favorite discipline, rhythmic gymnastics. This year apparently we have a competitor, a lone one, which leads me to hope for some televised coverage. I love watching the sport, though I'm pretty much totally ignorant about it. I don't even know whether they are usually part of international gymnastics competitions such as the World Championships.

 

[seniorita]

I follow rythmic but with few exceptions I like the ensemble more and watch the results in the season.

I would like Wieber to have a duel with Komova again in AA, but I didnt like her floor exercice (basically the music and choreo) at all and UB is not her thing too. From the USA team I really really liked Douglas that I didnt know much.
My best favorite is Iordache and she is injured. And I have a soft spot with Ponor cause she is a comeback and I saw her 3 meters away wiining the golds in Athens 2004.

No Greeks in finals, the one hope that was at the beam came 12th and we have one great athlete in Horizontal Bar who is the current WC and he fell

 

[Mathman]

Bela Karolyi says that "skate order" hurt Wieber's chances in the floor exercise. Countries usually put their number one performer last, so judges tend to give more generous marks to the last one up.

I agree with bekalc, though. The same thing happened to her as to Shawn Johnson lthe last time around. Bad timing, peak too soon, whatever you want to call it. Last year she was the best. But you can't be the best forever. If you stand still others will catch up.

 

[Olympia]

Thanks, everyone!

Seniorita, I'm sorry that your horizontal bar champion didn't qualify for finals. It's too bad there isn't a way for world champions to get some sort of wild-card entry to the finals. It deprives viewers, too, because often those competitors have some really thrilling routine or trick, and we won't get to see it. Wieber and your HB champion would both get in under such a rule.