London Summer Olympics 2012

zarinaballerina, my favourites are also Vika/Aliya. I love Aliya confidence, she's so sure in her very movement, incredible, she went through an difficult injury and I love her coming back to her old shape. Vika has to work on her fighting spirit but I can't help myself I love her lines so much I also love Romanian team, hope they will give a good performance in finals!
And oh my God, France team won swimming relay over USA! Wow! Congrats France! We took the bronze finally a medal for Russia in swimming.

nbc gymnastics coverage is always lame... the same three unprofessional and unwanted commentators. a huge ell oh ell for tim dagget saying "the russians are only A LITTLE BIT better than the americans on uneven bars" hah. it's one thing to have patriotism but it's another thing to blatantly lie to the american public. the russians aren't A LITTLE BIT better than the americans on uneven bars... they're amazingly better. the russians can score in the high 15's and possibly low 16's while the americans can't even socre in the 15's (except for gabby but she's not as good as the russians on uneven bars). anatasia grishina just needs to hit and wow the russians will really be ahead. and i can assure you that aliya will throw that amanar in the team final and all around final.

i'm also sooo mad at bela karolyi's comments about the line up during the floor rotation. saying that jordyn should've went last because she's the best. and i'm so mad at the american commentators saying that jordyn was underscored (if you ask me her uneven bars was overscored) and implying that she should've been in the all around instead of aly. the two per country rule is just lame but it is what it is and there's no reason why anyone should take away aly raisman's efforts. aly may not have the prettiest gymnastics, but i'm impressed at how she's made these little improvements over time and her work ethic has definitely paid off.

Just like swan above - I am rooting for Russian Gold!
And congrats for Team Japan on silver (Men AA)

I watched Matsumoto win her gold medal (judo)! She was amazing! 0_0

swan wrote:

nbc gymnastics coverage is always lame... the same three unprofessional and unwanted commentators. a huge ell oh ell for tim dagget saying "the russians are only A LITTLE BIT better than the americans on uneven bars" hah. it's one thing to have patriotism but it's another thing to blatantly lie to the american public. the russians aren't A LITTLE BIT better than the americans on uneven bars... they're amazingly better. the russians can score in the high 15's and possibly low 16's while the americans can't even socre in the 15's (except for gabby but she's not as good as the russians on uneven bars). anatasia grishina just needs to hit and wow the russians will really be ahead. and i can assure you that aliya will throw that amanar in the team final and all around final.

i'm also sooo mad at bela karolyi's comments about the line up during the floor rotation. saying that jordyn should've went last because she's the best. and i'm so mad at the american commentators saying that jordyn was underscored (if you ask me her uneven bars was overscored) and implying that she should've been in the all around instead of aly. the two per country rule is just lame but it is what it is and there's no reason why anyone should take away aly raisman's efforts. aly may not have the prettiest gymnastics, but i'm impressed at how she's made these little improvements over time and her work ethic has definitely paid off.

A+ comment!

I found it hilarious how they were sooooo sweet towards the Chinese, now that they don't seem to present much of a threat for gold (though you never know), but blasted the Russians all the way through. LOL!

I adore Gabby Douglas, and I hope she wins AA gold. She is one of the ONLY true all-around gymnasts. She is amazing at vault, uneven bars, good at floor, and fantastic on beam if she stays on and doesn't let a tiny wobble get to her. Most previous AA Olympic winners usually had one weakness - Gabby really doesn't have any.

chiyori wrote:

swan wrote:

nbc gymnastics coverage is always lame... the same three unprofessional and unwanted commentators. a huge ell oh ell for tim dagget saying "the russians are only A LITTLE BIT better than the americans on uneven bars" hah. it's one thing to have patriotism but it's another thing to blatantly lie to the american public. the russians aren't A LITTLE BIT better than the americans on uneven bars... they're amazingly better. the russians can score in the high 15's and possibly low 16's while the americans can't even socre in the 15's (except for gabby but she's not as good as the russians on uneven bars). anatasia grishina just needs to hit and wow the russians will really be ahead. and i can assure you that aliya will throw that amanar in the team final and all around final.

i'm also sooo mad at bela karolyi's comments about the line up during the floor rotation. saying that jordyn should've went last because she's the best. and i'm so mad at the american commentators saying that jordyn was underscored (if you ask me her uneven bars was overscored) and implying that she should've been in the all around instead of aly. the two per country rule is just lame but it is what it is and there's no reason why anyone should take away aly raisman's efforts. aly may not have the prettiest gymnastics, but i'm impressed at how she's made these little improvements over time and her work ethic has definitely paid off.

A+ comment!

I found it hilarious how they were sooooo sweet towards the Chinese, now that they don't seem to present much of a threat for gold (though you never know), but blasted the Russians all the way through. LOL!

Same here. A+ comment!
I find that in every Olympics Team USA is always over hyped and they're surrounded by so much drama that to the casual viewer they seem to be the best. And I agree with you, Chiyori. They'd blast whoever is a big threat to them. Last Olympics it was the Chinese. Now its the Russians.

I've always been mostly for team Russia since Khorkina's time so GO TEAM RUSSIA!!!!! Go for the GOLD! haha!

MaoChan756 wrote:

Just like swan above - I am rooting for Russian Gold!
And congrats for Team Japan on silver (Men AA)

Wah! I though this was already the Men's Individual AA. Lucky its just the Team Event. Glad they improved on their performance from qualifying and got the silver.

For tomorrow's Individual AA though I want GOLD for UCHIMURA!!! I hope we'll see the old Kohei tomorrow.

From this website: An Olympic Fencer Refuses To Leave The Floor After Getting Screwed

Quote :

The clock never started! So Heidemann had more than one second to land the winning touch. At the very least, whether she landed it in time was highly in doubt. The match should have continued into another round, but instead Shin was declared the loser. So South Korea’s coach went to the judges.

Despite the clock issue, they ruled that the touch was good and that Heidemann was the victor. South Korea’s coach went off to file a formal appeal.

And Shin A Lam, now in tears, refused to live the piste (the platform that they fence on). In fencing, leaving the piste means that you have officially accepted the judges’ ruling. And seeing as the clock didn’t start, and she should still have a shot at gold, she sat down. It’s the filibuster of fencing.

She deserved her proper chance.

Alokya wrote:

I adore Gabby Douglas, and I hope she wins AA gold. She is one of the ONLY true all-around gymnasts. She is amazing at vault, uneven bars, good at floor, and fantastic on beam if she stays on and doesn't let a tiny wobble get to her. Most previous AA Olympic winners usually had one weakness - Gabby really doesn't have any.

hm... i can't crown gabby as a true all arounder because she is missing something... artistry. she's good technically considering she hits, but she (along with team usa in general) needs to do something about her artistry.

i feel so weird about the men's team final. the only rejoice is team china's gold. i was super impressed at their comeback from qualifications. i didn't expect them to perform so well, especially with teng haibin's unfortunate injury that forced him to leave. guo weiyang is known to be a headcase but wow i must say he did what he needed to do and the replacement paid off. as for team japan's unfortunately tainted silver... i don't care what anyone says and they deserved that silver. kohei uchimura's fall was definitely a surprise but eventhough his dismount was questionable, it's good he got credit for it in the end. besides, accoding to the rules set by fig, if there's any question about the dismount the athlete should be awarded the benefit of the doubt and be given full credit. i'm definitely going to have to watch the men's team final over again to review, but i think that the placement is right. it's just absolutely pathetic that the judges screwed up yet team japan actually had to pay MONEY to file this inquiry! if anything, fig should be paying japan back for their judging screw up!

swan wrote:

Alokya wrote:

I adore Gabby Douglas, and I hope she wins AA gold. She is one of the ONLY true all-around gymnasts. She is amazing at vault, uneven bars, good at floor, and fantastic on beam if she stays on and doesn't let a tiny wobble get to her. Most previous AA Olympic winners usually had one weakness - Gabby really doesn't have any.

hm... i can't crown gabby as a true all arounder because she is missing something... artistry. she's good technically considering she hits, but she (along with team usa in general) needs to do something about her artistry.

i feel so weird about the men's team final. the only rejoice is team china's gold. i was super impressed at their comeback from qualifications. i didn't expect them to perform so well, especially with teng haibin's unfortunate injury that forced him to leave. guo weiyang is known to be a headcase but wow i must say he did what he needed to do and the replacement paid off. as for team japan's unfortunately tainted silver... i don't care what anyone says and they deserved that silver. kohei uchimura's fall was definitely a surprise but eventhough his dismount was questionable, it's good he got credit for it in the end. besides, accoding to the rules set by fig, if there's any question about the dismount the athlete should be awarded the benefit of the doubt and be given full credit. i'm definitely going to have to watch the men's team final over again to review, but i think that the placement is right. it's just absolutely pathetic that the judges screwed up yet team japan actually had to pay MONEY to file this inquiry! if anything, fig should be paying japan back for their judging screw up!

I couldn't agree more on the whole comment! Gabby is good even great but to proclaim her as one and only true AA gymnast is a bit unfair to other gymnasts (imo). Now if she had the lines and grace of the Russians and would learn how to point her feet, then I'd agree. IMO, the Americans are the most "powerful" gymnasts (their routines are amazing from technical point of view) and the Russians are the most "graceful" or "artistic".

I can't wait for the todays team finals; Aliya bringing her A game (please stick that Amanar), and I really hope Vika and Nastia will be mistakes free.
Team Russia for the gold! You can do it, I know you can!!!
Vika/Aliya for the AA gold!

I felt really bad for team Japan (and team Ukraine for losing the bronze) last night. It's not their fault that the judges were trying to screw them and they have every right to complain if they feel they were judged unfairly. And the audience should boo the judges for not doing their job properly not the athletes for trying to get the fair score.

Did you watch the medal ceremony? Did the audience boo team Japan on the podium as well? Eurosport switched to swimming So I couldn't watch.

@klarification, I saw this, I didn't understand what was happening, because I only saw the Korean sitting there crying. I assume the rulling was not in her favour? If it was an equipment failure she should have had another chance! It's not her fault, it's the organizer's fault, so why should she pay for it?

swan wrote:

i feel so weird about the men's team final. the only rejoice is team china's gold. i was super impressed at their comeback from qualifications. i didn't expect them to perform so well, especially with teng haibin's unfortunate injury that forced him to leave. guo weiyang is known to be a headcase but wow i must say he did what he needed to do and the replacement paid off. as for team japan's unfortunately tainted silver... i don't care what anyone says and they deserved that silver. kohei uchimura's fall was definitely a surprise but eventhough his dismount was questionable, it's good he got credit for it in the end. besides, accoding to the rules set by fig, if there's any question about the dismount the athlete should be awarded the benefit of the doubt and be given full credit. i'm definitely going to have to watch the men's team final over again to review, but i think that the placement is right. it's just absolutely pathetic that the judges screwed up yet team japan actually had to pay MONEY to file this inquiry! if anything, fig should be paying japan back for their judging screw up!

Oh. So that's what happened. That's what the money thing is all about. I was quite surprised about it since I saw Adam Rippon post this on Twitter and FB:

Quote :

Anyone else feel awkward when the head of Japanese men's team gymnastics just filed a petition and has cash in hand?

roma wrote:

Quote :

Anyone else feel awkward when the head of Japanese men's team gymnastics just filed a petition and has cash in hand?

Trust me roma, this isn't the first time this happened. It shows that even in the Olympics there is corruption. The fencer I posted about had to wait for 45 minutes while her team gave money to file a petition but even so she lost the decision because of faulty equipment. I think I heard other reports about this too in another sport but I couldn't remember what it was. In any case, my heart goes out to the athletes who had to train for 4 YEARS just to stand in this grand stage only to get screwed over by controversies such as this.

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/olympics--blame-the-sport--not-the--dumb--rule--for-jordyn-wieber-s-absence-from-olympic-all-around-final.html;_ylt=AmpZx2s9h3y_y4m0YBvJJThIAuh_;_ylu=X3oDMTRkYzhpcGdrBG1pdANPbHltcGljcyByaWdodCByYWlsIG5ld3MEcGtnAzBlZTViYWI2LTdmZmMtM2Y5Zi05NzM3LWNhZmU4YTU5ZjA4NQRwb3MDNARzZWMDTWVkaWFQcm92aWRlck91dGxpbmsEdmVyAzM0MGM5MDkzLWRhOTAtMTFlMS05YmVjLWIxYWI5YWEwZTk3Ng--;_ylg=X3oDMTNkZnE3NjQ3BGludGwDdXMEbGFuZwNlbi11cwRwc3RhaWQDNTc0YzQ5YzAtNGVhNC0zM2M2LWI1OWEtM2QxNjFlYzVjOGM2BHBzdGNhdANvbHltcGljc3xmb3VydGgtcGxhY2VtZWRhbARwdANzdG9yeXBhZ2U-;_ylv=3

"Gymnastics is gymnastics. Just enjoy the show because no one ever knows who really had the best performance.
They hand out a gold medal anyway."

Why such a big fuss about the rules? Did the USA team not know about them beforehand? -_-
I am quite confused by the reaction from USA - No one would question the rules if another athlete from any other country would have lost a spot...
It is quite irritating that they think they are the 'underdogs'...

MaoChan756 wrote:

"Gymnastics is gymnastics. Just enjoy the show because no one ever knows who really had the best performance.
They hand out a gold medal anyway."

Why such a big fuss about the rules? Did the USA team not know about them beforehand? -_-
I am quite confused by the reaction from USA - No one would question the rules if another athlete from any other country would have lost a spot...
It is quite irritating that they think they are the 'underdogs'...

This is the problem with sports that attempt to combine artistry and athleticism. You'll have to quantify it and being objective is really, really hard.

Wieber lost her chance. Let's move on.

that article is just soooooo rude to aly! aly deserves her all around spot! and if geddert is so mad, then he should've done something about fixing jordyn's "connections" on the beam instead of complaining about her being underscored. i don't think that he understands that at usa nationals and olympic trials all of those scores are artifically boosted and not a true representation of the athlete's abilities. everyone knows that those scores won't be as high on an international stage.

i'm upset that team russia didn't get the gold... i'm not even watching the award ceremony. they had a meltdown on floor exercise. but what i'm most frustrated about is how russia didn't come out with their full difficulty. aliya NOT doing her amanar as she hinted? aliya, if you're going to do one, what other time than the olympics? even more surprising is grishina NOT doing her highest difficulty on bars? to me, that was the nail in the coffin before they even went on beam and floor.

i must say though, team usa really brought it today. i'm very happy for gabby because she STAYED on that beam and hit! after all her struggles with beam, i really didn't know whether or not she would hit. and aly's face after she finished floor exercise! team usa performed to tell the world that they're not the underdogs.

Quote :

i'm upset that team russia didn't get the gold... i'm not even watching the award ceremony. they had a meltdown on floor exercise. but what i'm most frustrated about is how russia didn't come out with their full difficulty. aliya NOT doing her amanar as she hinted? aliya, if you're going to do one, what other time than the olympics? even more surprising is grishina NOT doing her highest difficulty on bars? to me, that was the nail in the coffin before they even went on beam and floor.

I was surprised too. First Japan, then this? So many surprises. But I can say that at least this is no fault of the judges. (Uchimura, anyone?)

Congrats to Romania! They received a team medal for women gymnastics for the tenth Olympics in a row! And of course, the Fab Five since they lived up to the hype. USA women’s gymnastics team won gold by 5.066 pts. Scoring may have changed, but it’s the largest margin of victory since 1960.

swan wrote:

that article is just soooooo rude to aly! aly deserves her all around spot! and if geddert is so mad, then he should've done something about fixing jordyn's "connections" on the beam instead of complaining about her being underscored. i don't think that he understands that at usa nationals and olympic trials all of those scores are artifically boosted and not a true representation of the athlete's abilities. everyone knows that those scores won't be as high on an international stage.

i'm upset that team russia didn't get the gold... i'm not even watching the award ceremony. they had a meltdown on floor exercise. but what i'm most frustrated about is how russia didn't come out with their full difficulty. aliya NOT doing her amanar as she hinted? aliya, if you're going to do one, what other time than the olympics? even more surprising is grishina NOT doing her highest difficulty on bars? to me, that was the nail in the coffin before they even went on beam and floor.

i must say though, team usa really brought it today. i'm very happy for gabby because she STAYED on that beam and hit! after all her struggles with beam, i really didn't know whether or not she would hit. and aly's face after she finished floor exercise! team usa performed to tell the world that they're not the underdogs.

I couldn't agree more! This has been a problem for years. US gymnasts getting huge scores at nationals/trials and a lot lower scores for the same routines at worlds/olympics. Many of them don't understand why the difference. And the two per country rule wouldn't have been the problem had Jordyn placed among top two Americans. I really think her coach has majorly screwed her over.

Maybe Aliya has psychological issue with this particual vault, since she did injured herself on Amanar. Eurosport started broadcasting later (Americans were just about to hit bars), so I couldn't see the Russians on first two apparatus. I knew the Americans are going to win after Vika messed up the beam dissmount (I don't know how Aliya did since the director chose not to show it), but I couldn't believe my ears, when the comentators said Grishina has missed one tumbling pass. And then Ksenia falls as well , WTF?!!! Man they were lucky they had enough point advantage, I actually thought for a minute that they lost the medal. I don't know why, but I had a bad feeling about them going on the floor, I just knew something will go wrong, but I hadn't expected such a disaster.

I have to say Gabby looks insanely strong! I'm still hoping for the Aliya/Vika AA gold, but Gabby is certainly making a strong case for herself. She looks very beautiful (her face not her gymnastics), but I HATE her feet. Why do all americans (Nastia not included) have problems with bad pointing feet. It's not that hard to gain a nice arch,if you work on it from childhood on, IMO. I know I'm nitpicking but this has been bothering me for years.

Agreed, American gymnasts need ballet lessons. Badly. Nastia was the exception. I was so bummed when she couldn't do well on bars at Trials... Bela Karyoli said that she probably would have been on the team had she managed to stay on.

Aunt Joyce made a fairly intelligent comment on Jordyn's coaches - they gave her a beam routine that is meant for a girl like Nastia who is light, airy, and artistic. Jordyn is a powerball - she is very muscular and fights through things. She doesn't really perform them. The routines really didn't fit her style, and I'm sure it didn't help things with international judges. Even her floor is like that, but not to the same extent.

haha, nastia is certainly the exception in the artistry department for the americans, though i considered her toe "point" to be more of an interesting toe crunch (but i'll take that over flat feet ala aly and gabby). for me, the toe point to die for is from lilia podkopayeva!

artistry doesn't equal ballet (just look at the lovely routines some of the chinese do) but i wish that the americans would show some effort and dedication into their choreography. kyla ross has a beautiful look to her gymnastics except her robotic choreography kind of takes her look away, i suppose.

as for russia's team silver, i'll take it . they came in there after struggling through injury which held them back in certain ways. and it shows how much they've improved after four years. in the 2008 olympics, russia didn't even medal for the women! i'm expecting a lot more from them by 2016 and i can't wait until 2014 world championships for another team rematch.

aliya and vika have a chance for the all around and event finals, so hopefully one of them can grab gold there. oh, the troubles of going for the underdogs.

don't forget to watch kohei uchimura tomorrow! hopefully he will have a good performance to redeem himself after what happened during qualifications and especially team final. he is truly an exquisite gymnast and it's a shame that he looked so dejected after his pommel horse mishap in the team final. back in 2008 i didn't expect his gymnastics to go this far. i never thought he could surpass olympic champion yang wei as an all arounder but i was pleasantly surprised.

I am kinda worried about Uchimura's changes to struck gold this time - Japan has been loosing the medals ground with the Judo stars going for bronze...
Anyone heard about some controversy about China and S.Korea? Badminton I think...

I heard about that. 8 competitors from China, S. Korea and India are banned, because they manipulated the scores, to meet weaker teams in the next stage. Something like that on the olympics...

But the worst think was duel S. Korea vs Germany in sword (I don't know the name of this discippline). I don't even try to imagine how Korean had to feel.

The most interesting discipline is swimming so far. Lithuanian swimmer was amazing And yestrday i couldn't believe phelps lost

Uchimura won AA gold, Leyva bronze. I'm rather surprised with Danell, but wow!

YAY for Uchimura!!
Deserves it!!
Finally a second gold medal to break away from Japan's bronze stride! (seriously they just got 11 of em few minutes ago 0_0 )

kohei uchimura is now officially the finest gymnast ever. 15.1 with a fall on floor? amazing! finally to get that gold medal at the olympics! he didn't stand a chance against yang wei back in 2008. but now, nobody can stand a chance against him! he'd have had to have fallen twice for anyone to get close to him! four times all around champion!

tears for kazuhito tanaka. he had silver medal position until he faltered in the last two events.

MaoChan756 wrote:

YAY for Uchimura!!
Deserves it!!
Finally a second gold medal to break away from Japan's bronze stride! (seriously they just got 11 of em few minutes ago 0_0 )

11 bronze medals? in what? that's still a mighty accomplishment! london 2012 seems to be big for japan so far!

swan wrote:

MaoChan756 wrote:

YAY for Uchimura!!
Deserves it!!
Finally a second gold medal to break away from Japan's bronze stride! (seriously they just got 11 of em few minutes ago 0_0 )

11 bronze medals? in what? that's still a mighty accomplishment! london 2012 seems to be big for japan so far!

No, I meant in total - They have a total of 17 medals - 11 of these medals are bronze...
They are third in the listing for total medals earned - But 9th in gold standing - I am really happy for Team Japan!

Anyone knows the name of the Chinese swimmer who broke two records?