Who da thunk it?
Projection for the Olympics:
China: 48.0
USA: 49.3
That’s the guesstimate by Andrew Thornton on Gymnast.com.
… The U.S. girls, on the other hand, do tend to get credit for everything, and in fact have shown much more consistency on beam this year than China. I’ve seen Cheng Fei, Xiao Sha, and Li Shanshan all fall this year, while Shawn, Nastia, and Chellsie have hit every routine I’ve seen them compete. My point here is that looking at hit percentages and the chance of actually getting the “expected†start values, I would say that the U.S. is probably a little stronger on beam than China. If China nailed three perfect routines with all connections, it might be a different story, but it is VERY rare to find routines where they actually do this. …
details and video routines: Virtual Meet – USA vs China Balance Beam
Andy has previously run virtual meets between the two top Olympic teams on Vault and Bars.
Three Event Totals Thus Far:
China: 146.45
USA: 144.6
Final event yet to come is Floor.
It doesn’t look good for the USA. The difference between the two teams on Bars is HUGE.
Gymnastics Coaching.com 