(no subject)

[trinityvixen]

It's a shame about the ladies gymnastics. It is, but they should know that it wasn't mistakes on their part. The Chinese outclassed and out-competed them, fair and square. Even without the major deductions on beam and floor, they had the USA beat by well over a point. Way to go, China! Seriously, they have awesome gymnasts. I still think the men did better, overall, but the ladies held their own and made it their own.

I look forward to the individual event competitions and the all-around individual final. Shawn Johnson seems poised for more greatness, but I'm especially keen to see Nastia Liukin on beam again. She is so fluid. Her limbs have no bones, I swear. Shawn has her beat on balance and sticking her landings, but Nastia looks better in motion.

Oh, and Michael Phelps is going to break his neck carrying his medals around, but we knew that.

Comments

[jethrien.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it's a lot less exciting when you have a set point value going in. There's no room for pleasant surprises, just unpleasant ones.

I'm not sure who I like watching better - Johnson or Liukin. Liukin's got those impossibly long legs that she places so elegantly, but I really loved the solidity of Johnson's landings on the beam. No wobble, just bam! pose. I've liked previous years' floor exercises better - the Americans were so rattled. I remember some where the girls were smiling and actually having fun out there.

I have trouble feeling sad for the Americans overall - the men's swimming has been that disgusting. Is it the suits? Everyone seems to be shattering way too many world records this year. We won the relay by a margin that was almost insulting to everyone else.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

I like Johnson better as a performer, but Liukin is just so visually great to watch. She has a dancer's poise. Johnson is the superior gymnast, but Liukin is the artist.

The floor made me cringe all over. It just didn't seem like out-of-control boundary-breaking. It seemed like they all took a step for no reason. Poor Alicia Sacramone--first beam, then floor. Ouch. I wonder what's happened to the ladies' program that they're so vulnerable now? Possibly it's the injuries--losing one literally right before the qualification round was especially bad.

Yeah, no one is pitying Team USA after that 4x200M last night. Michael Phelps shouldn't be allowed to come back next Olympics because that's just mean. Even if he's 27 at that point. (OMG SOOOOO OLD!!! /sarcasm) He should, like Lance Armstrong, realize that he's broken the record, take that, and bow out gracefully. Because it's ridiculous how good a swimmer he is. And yes, the record-breaking swim was amazingly crazy. At least it was a true break of the record, not just some new tech making them outswim the record by 1/100 second. FIVE SECONDS!?! That's not just the suits...

[jethrien.livejournal.com]

OK, yeah, that one race has nothing to do with the suits. The announcers were hysterical ("The camera has to pan back just to get the rest of the swimmers in the frame!"). But from what I've seen (and I haven't seen all the swimming matches), the gold medalist in practically every race has broken the world record. In some cases, all three of the top people have broken the record. It's weird when they don't break the record. Maybe it's selective memory, but I feel like in some previous Olympics, way fewer of the races have involved breaking records, and a lot of them were Olympic records, not world records. People tend to freak out a little more about the Olympics, and I'd thought that it was not uncommon for the Olympic record to be worse than the absolute world record.

As for the women's gymnastic team - I think it was nerves. They were rock solid through the vault and the uneven bars. Then Sacramone flubbed the beginning of her routine (maybe after watching each of the Chinese gymnasts wobble all over the place?), and it just shook them all. Liukun and Johnson got through their beam routines, but Sacramone was right on the edge of tears going into the floor. She freaked, tensed up, and blew that landing. And then they were all convinced they couldn't recover, and let their nerves get to them.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

I think the rampant record-breaking is, in fact, due to the suits this time for the most part. They've had something similar in the past, but what most of the teams have now is a new and different version. New and improved, even. Most of the record-breaking that I saw was very slight, usually not more than half a second. (Except in Michael Phelps' case; he's broken at least two by more than a second.) No idea if that explains all of it, but it does explain some. At least two olympics back, Ian Thorpe wore a speed suit, but it was just this year that someone was complaining about the edge the new fast suits gave people. I assume that means the edge is more than just imagined.

And it's too bad about the gymnasts, but I don't think they should beat themselves up too much. With the new scoring rubric, it was nearly impossible that they would win without a major F-up by the Chinese anyway, since they did just about everything with more difficulty than the Americans.