London Summer Olympics 2012

i know we're all winter olympics fans here, but who is excited for the london summer olympics in a few weeks? what will you be watching? i for one am a huge fan of gymnastics (both men and women artistic as well as rhythmic).

an emotional moment that nearly put tears to my eyes as i was watching live:
http://www.nbcolympics.com/video/gymnastics/u-s-womens-gymnastics-team-unveiled.html

I can't wait for olympics to start!

I LOVE womens artistic gymnastics (I'm rooting for Romania and China) and rhythmic gymnastics. I'm not a fan of men's gymnastics.

I also love synchronized swimming so I hope Eurosport will broadcast it, otherwise I'm screwed.

I can't watch the announcement since it's only available in the US. Hopefully someone put it on youtube. I'm surprised to see that Marta didn't take any veterans.
I also can't help but think what would happen, if Bross hadn't injured her knee at last years nationals. It was a stupid decision, going for a vault that wasn't nowhere near ready, IMO.

is anyone a fan of rhythmic gymnastics here? i love the sport! do you know if Russia's Evgenia Kanaeva will still compete?

i also like the sport but havent really been following the sport!

I relocated to the States, and wow there's a whole lot of support for the athletes! I want to see Missy Franklin get some medals for her swimming events. I don't watch gymnastics that much but I'll try because it looks interesting. Any team/athlete to look out for?

Watch for Gabby Douglas in women's gymnastics! I have a feeling that she may win AA gold ahead of the favorite, Jordyn Weiber. I hope she does... not a fan of Jordyn. McKayla Maroney is a powerhouse at vault. And Missy Franklin, whom you mentioned. And of course Michael Phelps/Ryan Lochte.

zarinaballerina, if you were heartbroken like most about bross' vault at last year's nationals, you'd be even more heartbroken about what happened last night. she fell twice on bars (her ticket to the olympics, though a far shot) and didn't even finish it. and then nbc didn't even show her beam set which she hit. poor becca. i'm not a fan of her gymnastics (she has the most awkward choreography) but she's definitely a sentimental favorite of many since she blew her knee at nationals last year. also, marta didn't take any veterans because they just can't contribute to the team. marta isn't interested in taking any specialists since there's only five spots for the team instead of the previous six and all the veterans are specialists. nastia's bars are hard to watch since she can't do them cleanly without any falls and her start value isn't that useful anyway. alicia looks even more amazing than she did four years ago but mckayla's vaults are superior and the us has enough depth on beam to use alicia on beam. shawn was forced into early retirement because of her knee just a few weeks ago. it was tough watching team usa's gymnastics recently because of these instances but i find the chosen team much stronger than four years ago and are definitely the favorites coming in for the olympics.

patknowsbest, evgenia kanaeva is still competing! unless she messes up, she's basically unbeatable. an event to watch her for is ribbon (which she got a perfect score for, the first perfect score in the new judging system). her ribbon song is fantasie impromptu and it's interesting to compare her interpretation of the song to mao's interpretation. hopefully she won't change that routine for the olympics.

klarification, there are so many teams and athletes to look out for and i just can't name them all. team japan fans, watch out for olympic silver medalist and reigning three time all around world champion kohei uchimura! he's the favorite to win gold for the men's all around. he has beautiful execution that gives his gymnastics a very elegant look. quite arguably the finest all around gymnast ever in men's gymnastics. in fact, team japan's men's gymnastics is one of the favorites to win team gold, though they will have to battle for it against china and the us.

kohei uchimura: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2P4ciEGFV0 nearly perfect vault and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOTHPKFPD8g 2011 all around world championships

then there are my favorites this quad, the russian phenoms aliya mustafina and viktoria komova. they haven't shown their true potential due to injury this past year, but they're amazing. the russians are known for balancing power and grace.

aliya mustafina: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zaDb_dzUQpk incredible floor exercise
viktoria komova: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VhOEv--LzAs&feature=related the princess of bars

women's all around will be intense among aliya mustafina, viktoria komova, jordyn wieber, gabrielle douglas, larissa iordache, yao jinnan, and huang qiushuang.

Oh my! Thank you dear friends. I'm really pumped up for the London Olympics. I'll take note of the athletes you mentioned, but of course I'll look out for other rare gems!

I can't wait for Sochi though.

swan, thanks for the info!

I prefer watching gymnastics and swimming during summer olympic games so I'll watch out for these athletes.

swan wrote:

zarinaballerina, if you were heartbroken like most about bross' vault at last year's nationals, you'd be even more heartbroken about what happened last night. she fell twice on bars (her ticket to the olympics, though a far shot) and didn't even finish it. and then nbc didn't even show her beam set which she hit. poor becca. i'm not a fan of her gymnastics (she has the most awkward choreography) but she's definitely a sentimental favorite of many since she blew her knee at nationals last year. also, marta didn't take any veterans because they just can't contribute to the team. marta isn't interested in taking any specialists since there's only five spots for the team instead of the previous six and all the veterans are specialists. nastia's bars are hard to watch since she can't do them cleanly without any falls and her start value isn't that useful anyway. alicia looks even more amazing than she did four years ago but mckayla's vaults are superior and the us has enough depth on beam to use alicia on beam. shawn was forced into early retirement because of her knee just a few weeks ago. it was tough watching team usa's gymnastics recently because of these instances but i find the chosen team much stronger than four years ago and are definitely the favorites coming in for the olympics.

patknowsbest, evgenia kanaeva is still competing! unless she messes up, she's basically unbeatable. an event to watch her for is ribbon (which she got a perfect score for, the first perfect score in the new judging system). her ribbon song is fantasie impromptu and it's interesting to compare her interpretation of the song to mao's interpretation. hopefully she won't change that routine for the olympics.



then there are my favorites this quad, the russian phenoms aliya mustafina and viktoria komova. they haven't shown their true potential due to injury this past year, but they're amazing. the russians are known for balancing power and grace.

aliya mustafina: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zaDb_dzUQpk incredible floor exercise
viktoria komova: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VhOEv--LzAs&feature=related the princess of bars

women's all around will be intense among aliya mustafina, viktoria komova, jordyn wieber, gabrielle douglas, larissa iordache, yao jinnan, and huang qiushuang.

Thanks for the info swan. While I'm not a fan of USA gymnastics, especially Bross (I don't like her style, not enough flexibility...), seeing her stupid and unnecessary injury was really painful, especially considering that without it she would've easily qualify for the olympics. Valeriy Liukin should really sort out his priorities, imo. Athlete's safety first, don't let your gymnast compete on a vault she can't finish it without your help! Stupid, stupid, stupid.

Another gymnast who unnecessarly "blew up" her knee on a vault was Mustafina. That's a real shame, because she was practically a lock for AA olympic gold. I hope she'll manage to come back to her old form and wipe the USA butt in the AA. But it's going to be difficult.

Seeing Nastia ( I watched 2012 nationals on youtube) was a bit hard. She should've tried her comeback earlier, it takes time to get your body back in top form.

I'm really excited to see what Romanians will do, now that Belu and Bitang are back! I hope Lirissa Iordache is going to medal in the AA and win on floor, though her beam is also gorgeous. Hopefully the team will manage to medal.

Abou Kanaeva; I haven't been watching rhhytmic gymnastics for the past year (slovenian commentators are so annoying that it's unberrable ), but I've heard that she has confidence issues. I wonder why, because she's truly great and so beautiful to watch.

swan wrote:

aliya mustafina: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zaDb_dzUQpk incredible floor exercise
viktoria komova: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VhOEv--LzAs&feature=related the princess of bars

women's all around will be intense among aliya mustafina, viktoria komova, jordyn wieber, gabrielle douglas, larissa iordache, yao jinnan, and huang qiushuang.

I definitely regretted not being able to see Viktoria Komova compete in person at the 1st YOG in 2010. My friend who saw her compete said she was awesome.

roma wrote:

I definitely regretted not being able to see Viktoria Komova compete in person at the 1st YOG in 2010. My friend who saw her compete said she was awesome.

I've only seen her on TV, she is sooo good. To me she's better than Aliya. I won't be surpised if she'll be the one standing in the middle of the AA podium.

for me, aliya is better than vika because aliya actually performs two vaults as an all arounder, which is basically unheard of these days. and vika is too headcasey and that i don't trust her to perform a clean beam set or floor exercise. it's vika's inconsistency that cost her the gold medal against jordyn last year (though in my book, jordyn gets one point deduction on artistry, and vika should have won). too bad injury really set aliya back... i don't know if she'll be ready for london.

swan, I agree about Vika beeing a headcase, but IF she'll manage to put her nerves under control then IMO she's a major threat or even the one to beat. Aliya is an excellent gymnast, but Vika has (in my unprofessional opinion) better lines and artistry.

Seeing Aliya compete at the level she was at the Europeans after being out for so long is amazing. Hopefully she'll manage to be ready to fight for the AA gold. I'm also interested in what Chinese will bring. They are simply breathtaking on bars and beam.

I can't wait for olympics to start!

Apparently, Ryan Lochte won the 400-meter individual medley and dethroned Michael Phelps. That was fine and dandy but Phelps came in FOURTH. I think everyone was shocked. Everyone assumed it would be a one-two combo on the podium for them, but uh, Phelps wasn't prepared enough. (He only had a year to prepare, or so reports say)

By the way, another surprise for me is the South Korean archery team. I thought they had this in the bag. Apparently, they thought so too.

Excited for the girl's gymnastics!

Oh dear and now I'm afraid I'm starting to sound annoying...

i'm heartbroken for kohei uchimura's uncharacter mistakes for the preliminaries! i'm hoping he will deliver for the all around and team finals! he certainly is the best gymnast of all time (sorry, nadia comaneci...).

i was never a fan of michael phelps so a mean little gremlin inside of me was happy he came in fourth. he always came off as arrogant to me and his subway commercials need some work. i'm totally happy for ryan lochte, though.

omg! swan, same here! I was in shock at what happened to Uchimura. I want GOLD for him.

swan wrote:

i'm heartbroken for kohei uchimura's uncharacter mistakes for the preliminaries! i'm hoping he will deliver for the all around and team finals! he certainly is the best gymnast of all time (sorry, nadia comaneci...).

i was never a fan of michael phelps so a mean little gremlin inside of me was happy he came in fourth. he always came off as arrogant to me and his subway commercials need some work. i'm totally happy for ryan lochte, though.

I was so shocked!!! he's the favourite to win all around event. Hope he will come back stronger. I'm cheering for our girls today, hope they can show good gymnastics!!!

swan wrote:

i'm heartbroken for kohei uchimura's uncharacter mistakes for the preliminaries! i'm hoping he will deliver for the all around and team finals! he certainly is the best gymnast of all time (sorry, nadia comaneci...).

i was never a fan of michael phelps so a mean little gremlin inside of me was happy he came in fourth. he always came off as arrogant to me and his subway commercials need some work. i'm totally happy for ryan lochte, though.

Me too. The favourites are making a lot of mistakes (Wieber hasn't even qualyfied for the AA), I'm sure Uchimura will come back. And I agree, he's THE BEST EVER!
Ditto about Phelps. And i must confess, I think Lochte is cute.

@polosatik, I'm so happy Vika is going to the AA finals in 1st place, but someone should really have a serious talk with her. You DON'T just give up (or almost give up) in the middle of the routine simply because you made a mistake. I hate this about her. She should look at aliya as an example, This girl fights through no matter what. It'll be interesting to see who'll win the AA. And I'm so hoping Russia will win team final (or Romania).

zarinaballerina wrote:

swan wrote:

i'm heartbroken for kohei uchimura's uncharacter mistakes for the preliminaries! i'm hoping he will deliver for the all around and team finals! he certainly is the best gymnast of all time (sorry, nadia comaneci...).

i was never a fan of michael phelps so a mean little gremlin inside of me was happy he came in fourth. he always came off as arrogant to me and his subway commercials need some work. i'm totally happy for ryan lochte, though.

Me too. The favourites are making a lot of mistakes (Wieber hasn't even qualyfied for the AA), I'm sure Uchimura will come back. And I agree, he's THE BEST EVER!
Ditto about Phelps. And i must confess, I think Lochte is cute.

@polosatik, I'm so happy Vika is going to the AA finals in 1st place, but someone should really have a serious talk with her. You DON'T just give up (or almost give up) in the middle of the routine simply because you made a mistake. I hate this about her. She should look at aliya as an example, This girl fights through no matter what. It'll be interesting to see who'll win the AA. And I'm so hoping Russia will win team final (or Romania).

For like 5 minutes, I was squinting at the results and thinking, wtf? she's 4th! And then, my brain kicked in and saw that both Raisman and Douglas were in front of her... Duh...

Sad for her but I must admit that I like Gabby Douglas better. Better lines and more spunk... she's also not as consistent, but that just adds to the excitment. You just never know what she'll produce. No particular feelings about Aly Raisman, but happy for her. I hope she does good in the AA.

I'm happy for Vika... she's been struggling for a while and I was starting to wonder if she would crash and burn at the Olys, but she rallied wonderfully. I haven't seen any of the events, so I didn't know about the "almost-giving-up" part, but motivation is often a problem with supremely gifted athletes. Apparently, Miki Ando, while a hugely talented jumper, was one of the hardest athletes to motivate and tended to give up quickly when things weren't going her way. That improved a little with age and, sadly, Morozov, but I can see how difficult it is for a 17 year old.

And OMG! Is that Canada in the Team Final?! lol how awesome and totally unexpected! I was lamenting the fact that I would get little to no gymnastics cooverage aside from trampoline because we just suck, but yeah! You go girls!

I hope Romania kicks it up a notch and knocks one of those teams off the podium! I kinda like them all, but I've got a special place in my heart for Catalina Ponor. THAT's how you make a comeback (sorry Nastia, I like you to).

ETA: Wha! And they are 2 Canadians in the Vault Final... Seriously, lol! Are we finally getting good?

chiyori wrote:

For like 5 minutes, I was squinting at the results and thinking, wtf? she's 4th! And then, my brain kicked in and saw that both Raisman and Douglas were in front of her... Duh...

Sad for her but I must admit that I like Gabby Douglas better. Better lines and more spunk... she's also not as consistent, but that just adds to the excitment. You just never know what she'll produce. No particular feelings about Aly Raisman, but happy for her. I hope she does good in the AA.

I'm happy for Vika... she's been struggling for a while and I was starting to wonder if she would crash and burn at the Olys, but she rallied wonderfully. I haven't seen any of the events, so I didn't know about the "almost-giving-up" part, but motivation is often a problem with supremely gifted athletes. Apparently, Miki Ando, while a hugely talented jumper, was one of the hardest athletes to motivate and tended to give up quickly when things weren't going her way. That improved a little with age and, sadly, Morozov, but I can see how difficult it is for a 17 year old.

And OMG! Is that Canada in the Team Final?! lol how awesome and totally unexpected! I was lamenting the fact that I would get little to no gymnastics cooverage aside from trampoline because we just suck, but yeah! You go girls!

I hope Romania kicks it up a notch and knocks one of those teams off the podium! I kinda like them all, but I've got a special place in my heart for Catalina Ponor. THAT's how you make a comeback (sorry Nastia, I like you to).

ETA: Wha! And they are 2 Canadians in the Vault Final... Seriously, lol! Are we finally getting good?

Sorry, I should've been more clear about Jordyn (I made it sound like she didn't make top 24 ).

The problem with Vika is (that's how I see it) that when her routine doesn't go the way she wants it, she just gets this body language where you can literally see her giving up. It's like she's saying to herself, oh crap I just nearly fell of beam (or which ever apparatus) so what's the point. She had this moment for about a second on a beam today. I almost screamed out loud (luckily I'm home-alone), but she got her act together. She has so much potential, if only she learned to control her nerves and fight until the very end.

I'm a HUGE team Romania fan (poor Iordache, if only she hadn't injured herself ), but according to reports (I couldn't watch the last division) Ponor did not deserve to be in the floor final (only 1.5 twist instead of triple) and many are questioning the beam final as well.

That's great for team Canada. I think some of the team members cried when they saw they were in the team final.

Go Russia for the team gold, and Vika/Aliya (I can't really decide ) for the AA gold!!!

I am so pumped up seeing you guys are on the S.Olympics!
Albeit gymnastics isn't much my cup of tea - I must say I was really sad regarding Uchimura's mistakes...
He was a 'sure gold' - Japan might really need to dig deeper now...
No gold medal yet

MaoChan756 wrote:

I am so pumped up seeing you guys are on the S.Olympics!
Albeit gymnastics isn't much my cup of tea - I must say I was really sad regarding Uchimura's mistakes...
He was a 'sure gold' - Japan might really need to dig deeper now...
No gold medal yet

All is not lost yet. Today, at the men team final, all teams start from scratch, so hopefully Uchimura and other team members got their mojo back, so they're going to kick some butts! I know they can do it.

OMG NBC, I haaaate you!! Just saw the late night coverage of the ladies qualifications... Couldn't you have focused the bleeding camera elsewhere. Sleazy sensationalism, sticking the camera in Wieber's face right as the scores are coming up and keeping it there the whole freaking time instead of focusing on the ones who are actually celebrating! That was just so cruel.

My heart really goes out to her. She gave a wonderful interview, so quickly after the event. She was still shiny eyed and sniffling, for god's sake... I can't even begin to imagine how horrible she must feel, having her dream crushed like that and having to face idiot reporters and then her teammates. Plus, she'll have to compete again in 2 days!

There's been a lot of upset here at the Olympics... and it's just the first two days!I don't follow gymnastics but there's a lot of hype surrounding the "Fab Five" and Jordyn and Gabby are at the center of it all. So when Jordyn gave a disastrous performance, at the Olympics, no less, it takes people by surprise. Like you guys said, Wieber not making it is kind of a shock. Maybe if there wasn't a rule that doesn't allow a third competitor from each country into the final then maybe things would have been different. Hope she pulls herself together in this difficult time. And I hope the media leaves her alone. Now I remember that video where the reporters pestered Mao after her Olympic FS

Russian Team looks solid, I'm already liking them.

About Phelps again, he looked good in the relay a while back. The 400IM was just something he wasn't prepared- physically and mentally- enough. You just don't go out there and think "I'm a champion so this would be easy."

People should pay more attention to the entire swim team than the Phelps-Lochte rivalry though.

For other events, South Korea just won women's archery for the SEVENTH TIME at a Summer Olympics. They're really incredible, so dominant in this field. And did you see Kim Rhode? 99 out of 100? And she plans to still continue until Rio. Someone give this awesome woman the high five she deserves.

Also, NBC, why no live coverage? I have to wait until primetime to watch the events I want and by then I'm already spoiled on twitter. Bummer.