2000 Olympian, Steve McCain is blogging LIVE from the Olympics:
…Today was the podium training for Men’s Gymnastics. Podium training is the first and only time the gymnasts get to touch the equipment before the competitions begin. The podium training also serves as a dry run for the event staff. Overall the U.S. Men look really solid on Rings, Vault, Parallel Bars, and High Bar. However, they showed real signs of weakness on Floor and Pommel Horse.
The biggest problem the U.S. men face is competing in the first round of 3 competitions. Historically, scores escalate after each round of competition. So, the same performance will score higher in the 3rd round of competition compared to the 2nd round. And, the 2nd round performance will score higher than the 1st round. There is nothing the U.S. men can do about it. It’s the luck of the draw.
NBC Olympics showed the Podium Training LIVE on their website. Here are my notes from the training if you did not catch the LIVE version.
read more including interviews with each of the guys on Gymnast.com
Steve is fairly upbeat in the post. But, to me, things do not sound good. Many of the other teams are doing FULL routines. Working fine details. Practicing sticking landings on the competition mats.
This team REALLY needed Paul.
I’ll be keeping my fingers crossed Saturday.
Katrina posted more details on the U.S. podium training
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Gymnastics Coaching.com 