London Summer Olympics 2012

I can't believe I never knew rhythmic gymnastics even existed until just two days ago! I love almost as much as skating! It's so amazing and beautiful, and I hope it becomes more popular (Well, popular here anyway. I don't know how popular it is in other countries). Also, I quite enjoyed seeing someone use one of Mao's old song, Fantaisie Improptu last night

I hope someday they will also add acrobatic gymnastics as an olympic sport. It's also amazingly beautiful.

Star85 wrote:

I can't believe I never knew rhythmic gymnastics even existed until just two days ago! I love almost as much as skating! It's so amazing and beautiful, and I hope it becomes more popular (Well, popular here anyway. I don't know how popular it is in other countries). Also, I quite enjoyed seeing someone use one of Mao's old song, Fantaisie Improptu last night

I hope someday they will also add acrobatic gymnastics as an olympic sport. It's also amazingly beautiful.

Zhenya Kanaeva the favourite for Gold medal used this music for her ribbon routine and just now she won her second gold at Olympics!!! Congratulations Zhenya!!!!

Thanks to you guy I've discovered rhythmic gym. Can't believe I've never watched it. So beautiful and elegant and pleasing to the eyes. Kanayeva is so magnificent. She's in a league of her own.
On a side note, it's interesting to see that RG girls are generally quite tall, because I'm used to seeing short petite AG girls. Most of the girls in the individual final stand above 5ft7. Is it just selection effect?
Btw, does anyone know which channel often broadcasts the World Rhythmic Gymnastics Championships? Either English or non-English will do. I only have ESPN and Star Sport for Asia and they don't broadcast artistic sports like figure skating, gymnastics, but I may look into sopcast.

Any one watched the women bronze medal volleyball match?
I could not believe my eyes when Japan won against all odds!

Saori Kimura was almost sky high with every winning strike!
They were so persistent and gave everything they had!
I found that very courageous and inspiring.

MaoChan756 wrote:

Any one watched the women bronze medal volleyball match?
I could not believe my eyes when Japan won against all odds!

Saori Kimura was almost sky high with every winning strike!
They were so persistent and gave everything they had!
I found that very courageous and inspiring.

I watched it too! Both teams were good in defense, so it was a really interesting match to see. I thought both teams played well but I was cheering for Japan and so happy they won. And, yes, that hitter was unbelievable!

Star85 wrote:

I can't believe I never knew rhythmic gymnastics even existed until just two days ago! I love almost as much as skating! It's so amazing and beautiful, and I hope it becomes more popular (Well, popular here anyway. I don't know how popular it is in other countries). Also, I quite enjoyed seeing someone use one of Mao's old song, Fantaisie Improptu last night

I hope someday they will also add acrobatic gymnastics as an olympic sport. It's also amazingly beautiful.

I used to love rythmic gymnastics, but then I got fed up with Irina Viner (head coach of russian gymnastics) pushing her "chosen one" to the top no matter what. I agree with Zhenya's win, she was great, but poor Dasha Dmitrieva had to be underscored so Zhenya could have a somewhat pressure free win. It's always been like this, the chosen one could afford mistakes and still receive huge scores for it, and everyone else pretty much fought for the bronze, because the silver was reserved for russian gymnast number 2. The "chosen one" is basically Patrick Chan of rhytmic gymnastics, except that zhenya rarely makes mistakes. she trully is exceptional.

Anyhow, congrats to the medal winners!

I must say I was very (pleasantly) surprised by the South Korean gymnast Son. She would've won bronze, had she not droped both of the clubs. For someone who placed 11th at last year worlds this is a HUGE improvement.

MaoChan756 wrote:

Any one watched the women bronze medal volleyball match?
I could not believe my eyes when Japan won against all odds!

Saori Kimura was almost sky high with every winning strike!
They were so persistent and gave everything they had!
I found that very courageous and inspiring.

That was a thrilling match to watch. Both were good, but the Korean team tended to choke at important moment. And Kumura had some unbelievable winning points.

I know nothing about RG, except for Son Yeon-Jae who got a bit of attention here due to her lovely face. I only watched her performance for the first time yesterday, and wow she's talented and it's amazing for this young gymnasts to push herself among the top gymansts.

Anyone watched men's rings event? I didn't, but there seems to be a bit of disputation surrounding Zanetti's execution scores, which were considered too high by some commentators and pundits.
What do you guys think?

zarinaballerina wrote:

I used to love rythmic gymnastics, but then I got fed up with Irina Viner (head coach of russian gymnastics) pushing her "chosen one" to the top no matter what. I agree with Zhenya's win, she was great, but poor Dasha Dmitrieva had to be underscored so Zhenya could have a somewhat pressure free win. It's always been like this, the chosen one could afford mistakes and still receive huge scores for it, and everyone else pretty much fought for the bronze, because the silver was reserved for russian gymnast number 2. The "chosen one" is basically Patrick Chan of rhytmic gymnastics, except that zhenya rarely makes mistakes. she trully is exceptional.

I'm uneducated about RG, but I prefer Daria to Zhenya, despite Zhenya on a different level. I love Daria's artistry and the way she handles herself. Her hoop and ribbon performances are such a pleasure to watch. The bronze medal is an even battle between Liubov Charkashyna , Aliya Garayeva and Son Yeon-Jae .

zarinaballerina wrote:

Star85 wrote:

I can't believe I never knew rhythmic gymnastics even existed until just two days ago! I love almost as much as skating! It's so amazing and beautiful, and I hope it becomes more popular (Well, popular here anyway. I don't know how popular it is in other countries). Also, I quite enjoyed seeing someone use one of Mao's old song, Fantaisie Improptu last night

I hope someday they will also add acrobatic gymnastics as an olympic sport. It's also amazingly beautiful.

I used to love rythmic gymnastics, but then I got fed up with Irina Viner (head coach of russian gymnastics) pushing her "chosen one" to the top no matter what. I agree with Zhenya's win, she was great, but poor Dasha Dmitrieva had to be underscored so Zhenya could have a somewhat pressure free win. It's always been like this, the chosen one could afford mistakes and still receive huge scores for it, and everyone else pretty much fought for the bronze, because the silver was reserved for russian gymnast number 2. The "chosen one" is basically Patrick Chan of rhytmic gymnastics, except that zhenya rarely makes mistakes. she trully is exceptional.

Anyhow, congrats to the medal winners!

I must say I was very (pleasantly) surprised by the South Korean gymnast Son. She would've won bronze, had she not droped both of the clubs. For someone who placed 11th at last year worlds this is a HUGE improvement.

Dasha is still young l, and her routines are easier then Zhenya's and Zhenya wasn't the chosen one in Bejing, she shouldn't even compete then(cause Viner didn't like her). The second to Zhenya always was Dasha Kondakova, who injured just before the Olympics. Dmitrieva is not on their level yet.

You can hate Irina Viner, but what she did with our team is amazing! After a lot of failures, she get the team together,it finally worked. How much she was bashed for too much difficulty , but Russian team did what they needed. A perfect performance!!!! And team Belarus beat Italy!!!!!!!YEY!!!

I can't express how much I enjoyed RG group all-around. There were so much going on: great variety, beautiful artistry, superb routine, unbelievable coordination yet each member still has a certain role to play, precise timing and fabulous skills. My favorites are Russia, Belarus and Italy in balls and Spain and Belarus in hoops + ribbons. I hope RG will become more and more popular outside Europe. To me Olympics ended right after RG finished. It'll be very hard for me to watch RG World Championships and European Championships as the sport is not popular here.

I'm pleasantly surprised at the presence of team Israel at this Olympics. They have gymnasts in the finals both individual and group all-around. Although they didn't challenge the medal, I look forward to seeing more from them in the future.

polosatik wrote:

Dasha is still young l, and her routines are easier then Zhenya's and Zhenya wasn't the chosen one in Bejing, she shouldn't even compete then(cause Viner didn't like her). The second to Zhenya always was Dasha Kondakova, who injured just before the Olympics. Dmitrieva is not on their level yet.

Yes i know, Dasha's difficulty can't match to Zhenya's (whom i reall like), but imo, Dasha's score should've been higher.
I was so happy when Zhenya qualified for Beijing, she was winning everything before Olympics, why the heck didn't Viner like her? halo, she was amazing. Was Sesina her favourite? The "chosen one" was meant more for Kabaeva than anyone else, I'm still pissed how irina Tchaschina (I'm not sure I spelled it right) was treated. She deserved better, not to mention Anna Bessonova.

My heart goes out to Kondakova, I would love to see her in London. her injury looks very painful, is it simmilar to Mustafina's?

zarinaballerina wrote:

polosatik wrote:

Dasha is still young l, and her routines are easier then Zhenya's and Zhenya wasn't the chosen one in Bejing, she shouldn't even compete then(cause Viner didn't like her). The second to Zhenya always was Dasha Kondakova, who injured just before the Olympics. Dmitrieva is not on their level yet.

Yes i know, Dasha's difficulty can't match to Zhenya's (whom i reall like), but imo, Dasha's score should've been higher.
I was so happy when Zhenya qualified for Beijing, she was winning everything before Olympics, why the heck didn't Viner like her? halo, she was amazing. Was Sesina her favourite? The "chosen one" was meant more for Kabaeva than anyone else, I'm still pissed how irina Tchaschina (I'm not sure I spelled it right) was treated. She deserved better, not to mention Anna Bessonova.

My heart goes out to Kondakova, I would love to see her in London. her injury looks very painful, is it simmilar to Mustafina's?

Yes, Vera Sessina was her favourite and even Zhenya's participation was in question. And I also always preferred Irina to Alina. Her smiling face throughout the program annoyed me to hell.

As cheesy as it might sound, I can't believe that the Olymps are over!
Seriously! x_x
We need more synchronized swimming! We need more gymnastics! And we def need more chances to root for Japan!
They got a total of 38 medals BTW - (which happens to be their personal best ever)
44 for my home country - Funny how I never root for my own country these days...0_0

Now back to Mao!

MaoChan756 wrote:

As cheesy as it might sound, I can't believe that the Olymps are over!
Seriously! x_x
We need more synchronized swimming! We need more gymnastics! And we def need more chances to root for Japan!
They got a total of 38 medals BTW - (which happens to be their personal best ever)
44 for my home country - Funny how I never root for my own country these days...0_0

Now back to Mao!

Me neither, I almost teared up when the olympic flame was being extinguished.
I can't believe it's all over, I got so used to watching different sports, I was almost glued to TV during gymnastics, and now I have to wait until next year for worlds, which probably won't even be broadcasted by Europsort.

Slovenian athletes won 4 medals (gold, silver and 2x bronze) , but I haven't cheered for them either. however they did compete in sports that aren't interesting to me, so...

I can't wait until next olympics, Sochi can't come soon enough! I'll be sad to see someone else in Jacques Rogge's place though, it's been said that he's retiring, so this were his last Olympic Games.

OMG! The Olympics are over?! Wah! I didn't notice... My sked has been pretty hectic with a lot of emergencies. I better catch up later this week when I have better internet connection, too.

Who got the highest number of gold medals? Is it China again?

Nope, the US won both the medal count and the number of gold medals.

zarinaballerina wrote:

I can't believe it's all over, I got so used to watching different sports, I was almost glued to TV during gymnastics, and now I have to wait until next year for worlds, which probably won't even be broadcasted by Europsort.

Do you know which channels often broadcast Gym Words? It pisses me off that hours and hours are spent by gymnasts in perfecting the routines to give the most eye-orgasm performances and I couldn't watch them. We should have more gym.

pearlyriver wrote:

zarinaballerina wrote:

I can't believe it's all over, I got so used to watching different sports, I was almost glued to TV during gymnastics, and now I have to wait until next year for worlds, which probably won't even be broadcasted by Europsort.

Do you know which channels often broadcast Gym Words? It pisses me off that hours and hours are spent by gymnasts in perfecting the routines to give the most eye-orgasm performances and I couldn't watch them. We should have more gym.

No unforunately I don't. All I know is Eurosport. Slovenian television takes pitty on us slovenian gym fans and show some gymnastics broadcasting, but other than that...maybe there are also online streams available.

Sometime Russian channels broadcasting Gymnastics, so you can watch it through internet. if I find something I will definitely post the link here) Also I know one hardcore gym fan from Europe, I'm going to ask her for help, we won't stay without gymnastics this season!

Kanaeva is the master! I can't stop watching her ribbon performance to Fantasie Impromptu. Magic!

Team Russia was also fantastic. Actually, I prefer the team competition over the individual one. I miss the time when the Brazilian team made the olympics finals.

zarinaballerina wrote:

Star85 wrote:

I can't believe I never knew rhythmic gymnastics even existed until just two days ago! I love almost as much as skating! It's so amazing and beautiful, and I hope it becomes more popular (Well, popular here anyway. I don't know how popular it is in other countries). Also, I quite enjoyed seeing someone use one of Mao's old song, Fantaisie Improptu last night

I hope someday they will also add acrobatic gymnastics as an olympic sport. It's also amazingly beautiful.

I used to love rythmic gymnastics, but then I got fed up with Irina Viner (head coach of russian gymnastics) pushing her "chosen one" to the top no matter what. I agree with Zhenya's win, she was great, but poor Dasha Dmitrieva had to be underscored so Zhenya could have a somewhat pressure free win. It's always been like this, the chosen one could afford mistakes and still receive huge scores for it, and everyone else pretty much fought for the bronze, because the silver was reserved for russian gymnast number 2. The "chosen one" is basically Patrick Chan of rhytmic gymnastics, except that zhenya rarely makes mistakes. she trully is exceptional.

Anyhow, congrats to the medal winners!

.

+1 RG is even worse than FS, even Bronze medal is super predictable!

And now Viner has her new favorite, Merkulova - who has interesting routine but super messy.

I still don't understand apart from favortism how can she was even considered to be in OG instead of Dmitreva!


By the way, I'm quite sure that Viner favorite before 2008 olympic is Olga Kapranova not Sessina - that why Vera is left off the team and Olga went complete and won no medal because mistake in clubs routine.

Afsfan wrote:

+1 RG is even worse than FS, even Bronze medal is super predictable!

And now Viner has her new favorite, Merkulova - who has interesting routine but super messy.

I still don't understand apart from favortism how can she was even considered to be in OG instead of Dmitreva!


By the way, I'm quite sure that Viner favorite before 2008 olympic is Olga Kapranova not Sessina - that why Vera is left off the team and Olga went complete and won no medal because mistake in clubs routine.

I heard about Merkulova being her new pet, also the RG fans aren't very fond of her. So we'll basically be seing Merkulova on top of the podium for the next for years? Unless Zhenya doesn't retire, since Viner doesn't want it, I guess we'll be seing Zhenya-Merkulova.

I thought Sessina was injured, that's why she wasn't on the olympic team.

What I glean from your very insightful posts is that there's a secret hierarchy and full of favoritism in RG and all the results are predictable. How depressing, just when I start liking RG . I look forward to seeing more of Son Jae Yeon. She's one emerging star to watch out.