(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

[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.