Olympics

[512OW]

first, i love nastia. i'd be serious too if i were not the media favorite. ever since her injury, she's had negative press, being called "washed up," "done for," etc. it's tough being the underdog.

Most people find it less stressful to be the underdog.

i think nastia worked really hard, and deserved the gold.

Absolutely. She definitely deserved it. She earned it, even more so than the scores indicate. The shame is, she'll fade into oblivion quickly because of her attitude... unlike Mary Lou and Nadia.

calling her vault the equivalent of a 5.12 is ridiculous. even with a lower start value, there were no visible errors in her vault, and she deserved higher.

Yes, she deserved higher. She performed it flawlessly. However, compared to Shawn Johnsons vault, which was about "14b", Nastias vault was really easy... probably about "12c". I did a similiar vault to what Nastia did when I was in high school. The only thing even remotely difficult about it was the blind landing. Frankly, it was an easy, safe vault... no questions. I wouldn't be suprised if its the easiest vault used to win all around gold in the modern history of olympic gymnastics.

i have mixed feelings about the show-boat finish. i give him props for caring more about winning than crushing a world record, but i kinda would have liked to see how fast he could have gone.

You will. He's only 21.

[Lateralus]

Usain had a great 2-3 runs, broke the world record w/o really trying, very sick race in the finals yet I'm smelling something dirty. Considering, he was a total nobody especially in the 100 1 year ago and now he's going 9.69. Can you say performance enhancing drugs? REALLY, hope I'm wrong but it jsut seems too good to be true.

Also, it still doesn't come close to what Phelps did in the grand scheme of things. If Usain goes and wins the 200, the 400 maybe the long jump and the relays up to 400 (most if not all in world record time) then we'll talk.

[Wes]

Level 10???

A little bit of work with google will get you more info, but basically level 10 is right below elite, which is what college/olympics are. I think there is a big range in elite though.

[Saxman]

OK, the people in the olympics make it look too easy. This video is really painful to watch.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid ... tics&vt=lf

[TankAzz]

yeah tania, i had no idea you were such a sick gymnast!!! i got to maybe level 7/8-ish... i guess someone's gotta warm the bench
same to you, odub... never knew you were a gymnast in the past.

i think shawn johnson was more the "darling" of the games this year, which would make the underdog role perhaps more stressful, particularly if you felt like fans were rooting for her over nastia (from nastia's position). it's also gotta be tough knowing that shawn could have another chance if she likes.... 20 would not be that old, whereas 22-23-ish can be old for a female gymnast (i know, i know, the 33 year-old mom is still kicking it, but in the sport of women's gymnastics that is by far a rarity).

furthermore (and don't keep reading if you want to be surprised with uneven bar finals--yahoo already ruined it for me), it's ironic that nastia and he tied for gold, but he gets the medal because her execution scores were higher. quite different from vault finals, where the chinese athlete was rewarded for falling on her face but trying a more difficult vault. i think a clear decision needs to be made that is consistent across events--- reward form or difficulty more? wouldn't an emphasis on difficulty advance the sport more? (sorry, i digress a bit from the original topic)

[krampus]

OK, the people in the olympics make it look too easy. This video is really painful to watch.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid ... tics&vt=lf

ouch, the high bar a 2:13, and it just gets worse from there. If those are from competitions, just imagine them during practice. and for god sake, what the hell is that guy standing next to the bars doing anyway? Not a god damn thing.

[tomdarch]

Usain had a great 2-3 runs, broke the world record w/o really trying, very sick race in the finals yet I'm smelling something dirty. Considering, he was a total nobody especially in the 100 1 year ago and now he's going 9.69. Can you say performance enhancing drugs? REALLY, hope I'm wrong but it jsut seems too good to be true.

Yeah - he seems likeable (for a cocky sprinter...), so I hope that he isn't doping. (well, any more than the other guys on the track) Given that a really big pool of kids are screened around the world for sprinting talent, they have been for years, and I assume that the training programs can't vary all that much, it's pretty surprising that someone could open up that big a gap on the best of the rest of the world. Look at how tight the rest of the field was behind him.

About pulling up at the finish - I wonder how much that was "an inexperienced kid" or whether he was actually using his brain. There's a "pro" track and field circuit, and I wonder if he was holding some back - after winning the gold medal, he's going to be making some real money over the next year. I'd guess that there's more money to be made breaking a world record at one of these pro events on top of winning races. I don't really know, but he may have been employing a little strategy there... (on top of the sheer joy of blowing away the world's best sprinters at the Olympics!) Given that his speed in the 100m didn't seem to be at the start, but down the track, the 200m may be pretty amazing too.

With women's gymnastics - I've been liking it a lot more than I used to, and I think that the new difficulty+execution system is a big part of it. From what I've heard, the new system skews to reward difficulty more than the old system. While waving your arms around in the air in an elegant way is nice and all, cranking bad ass tricks is way more appealing, at least to me.

On the men's side - the high bar releases are pretty cool. But style-wise I really like the spin-around-one-hand-on-the-pommel horse move - it almost seems like an old-school breakdance move.

[TankAzz]

alexander artemev has the most entertaining pommel horse routine i've ever seen. there are more difficult routines, but he is just great to watch (and historically, i never say that about pommel horse--not my favorite men's event)

[heidiramma]

Way to go for the 33-year-old gymnast. YEAH!!! I miss my gymnastic days too, but there's still hope apparently.

[Crankmas]

Ray has a gym