Bronze on vault was Maria Paseka, did NBC really not show her? Man, would it really be that much to show the bronze medalist, too? Maria Paseka is the vault specialist on team Russia. It's her one and only event during team finals. Her expertise gave team Russia a score boost, but obviously not as much as Maroney's vault boosted team USA's score.
As for what they took off on Maroney's vault during the team finals, I can't tell ya. I don't follow gymnastics that much. And it seemed that to me, it's not just her height, but her form was absolutely perfect on that vault. I wonder if they have a deduction for the height of a vault being below some inhuman level (like 3 body lengths in the air or something), and Maroney just happens to get the least of that deduction due to her massive height. She may not have gotten a perfect score on the vault during the team final, but she did get the highest single score awarded to any female gymnast at these Olympic games so far. And barring someone pulling out something truly unbelievable on bars, it's not going to be topped. Maroney strikes me as being very much a perfectionist. Her silver on vault seemed to gall her. But I hope she walks away from these games knowing that she was, perhaps, the most special part of team USA and their gold medal win; she got the highest score of any female gymnast at the games, and far more people saw her do her trademark vault perfectly during the team finals than they would've during the vault event finals. She has set a standard that every gymnast will compare themselves to for years to come.
I agree there's too much emphasis on stuck landings. But it must be said, even when Maroney doesn't stick her landings (which she usually doesn't on the Amanar), she still gets a massive score for her perfect form in the air and her massive height. I think the judges have a very specific amount they take off on faulty landings, and there's a limit to it. If, as the NBC commentator Tim Daggett speculated, Maroney only fell on vault #2 because she was trying too hard to stick it, then the bitter irony is that Maroney should've rolled with imperfection rather than go for the impossible when a landing has gone crooked.
Ya know, I wouldn't doubt NBC is already scheming and doing specials on Gabby's life. Without Phelps competing, and with most of the gymnastic events over, they're going to have to bank on the biggest NEW star of these Olympics, which is Douglas, for those ratings they love.
P.S. I tuned in around midnight and was pleasantly surprised to see that NBC actually showed at least some of the pommel horse finals. I'm surprised because no American even competed in that. Really, it's an event Americans are terrible on. I'd think NBC would want people to forget pommel horse even exists.
