Author: Rick Mc

Slate tracked NBC TV coverage summing up the number of times these “sappy” words were spoken:

… The London Games did indeed out-sap the 2008 Summer Games and the 2010 Winter Olympics—our count of 849 sappy words beat Beijing by 127 and blasted Vancouver by 178.

The bronze medal for the Sappiest Word of the Olympics is … a tie! Because we are kind and generous and sentimental, we will not go to a tiebreaker sap-off. Instead, parents and proud—each of which was uttered 61 times over NBC’s 17 days of coverage—will both earn bronze. The silver goes to dream, with 74 mentions. And after settling for second place in 2010, mom—emotional, inspirational, teary-eyed mom­—has taken the gold as the Sappiest Word of the Olympics, standing atop the podium with 79 utterances. Congratulations, mom. You earned it. …

And what about the Sappiest Line of the Olympics?

It couldn’t belong to anyone else but NBC’s … Tim Daggett:

… this to say about his experience winning gymnastics gold in 1984:

You can’t even describe the emotion. It’s like, take every emotion you have, put ’em in a blender. It felt like there were 10,000 volts of electricity running through my body. Everything was amplified to a point that I’ve really never since felt. But each and every one of us had a dream, and a little magic happened that day.

read more – The London Olympics Sap-o-Meter

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Thank you for everything Jordyn, you are a true champion among champions!

Joint effort with D. Santos

Twitters: @DanielCSantos @CSaccullo

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Very controversial in London, as they have been in past Olympics, are the somewhat arbitrary ways that FIG breaks ties.

Krisztian Berki v Louis Smith, for example, in the Pommel final.

That’s one of Guardian’s top 10 photographs of the Olympics Games. Tears of happiness in prelims, it seems. Thanks Sher.

Louis opted to do his “easier” routine. It cost him.

• Aliya Mustafina and Aly Raisman both scored 59.566 AA

• Aly Raisman and Catalina Ponor both scored 15.066 in the Beam final … Judges had Ponor 1st, over-ruled after appeal by the Head Judge. Injustice done?

• Aliya Mustafina and Vanessa Ferrari both scored 14.900 in the Floor final

• Kohei Uchimura and Denis Ablyazin both scored 15.800 in the Floor final

There were too many ties. For sure. 😦

Brigid McCarthy argues that ties should be allowed:

… it is … confusing and unrewarding for the viewers who do not know the rules …

FIG – TIE BREAKING RULES:

In case of a tie at any place on any apparatus except vault in Competition I for the qualification to Competition III, the tie will be broken as follows:

Average of the 4 counting B-jury deductions
Average of the three lowest of the 4 counting B-jury deductions
Average of the two lowest of the 4 counting B-jury deductions
The lowest of the 4 counting B-jury deductions
Average of the 5 lowest B-jury deductions
Average of all 6 B-jury deductions

FIG WTC Chair Nellie Kim knows all about Olympic ties. She tied Nadia AA on Floor at the 1980 Olympics. Wikipedia.

The problem with allowing ties, as FIG allows at Worlds, is the temptation for judges to deliberately tie.

BEST, I feel, would be to calculate the E score in some way which results in less chance of a tie. Perhaps average all scores.

related – Confessions of a Gymnastics Fan – Make It or Tie-break It

Unorthodox Gymnastics linked to this classic. Men’s Synchronized swimming.

Harry Shearer, Martin Short and Christopher Guest on Saturday Night Live.

Click PLAY or watch it on MySpace.

Martin Short & Harry Shearer
http://mediaservices.myspace.com/services/media/embed.aspx/m=34590156,t=1,mt=video
Duane | Myspace Video

Of course there actually are male synchronized swimmers. Very skilled.

If you want to beat Bolt, start training for Rio.

Queen Elizabeth posted a translation of an interview with Sovietski Sport on August 9th. (It’s a bit of a scandal rag, be warned.)

There’s some uncertainty over which coaches will continue at Lake Krugloye after the end of this month. Head coach Andrei Rodionenko, women’s team coach Alexander Alexandrov, and women’s uneven bars coach Evgeny Grebenkin have all been mentioned by name. …

Nemov is mentioned as one of Andrei’s critics.

Rewriting Russian Gymnastics – Andrei Rodionenko interview

How many watched the Irish Olympian flip on TV during Closing Ceremonies?

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Thanks Full Twist!

Ranking nations by total Olympic medals isn’t really the best way to judge relative success at the London Olympics. Some countries have a lot more people — or a lot more money — than others. ….

See what the world map of winners looks like when we take population or GDP into account. …

Artistic, Trampoline & Rhythmic medals TOTAL:

Artistic, Trampoline & Rhythmic medals by POPULATION:

Artistic, Trampoline & Rhythmic medals by GDP:

HuffPo – Olympic Medal Count Map: London 2012 Totals By Country, Population, Wealth (INTERACTIVE MAP)

Thanks Chere.

Olympic RINGS Final:

1. NABARRETE ZANETTI Arthur (Brazil) 15.900
2. CHEN Yibing (China) 15.800
3. MORANDI Matteo (Italy) 15.733

full results (PDF)

Chinese head gymnastics coach Huang Yubin:

… a ”dark night in the history of gymnastics” and an ”injury to every one in the world who loves gymnastics”.

He concludes by asking the IOC and FIG to investigate the judges and scores. The letter is translated … edited by Sina Sports by idarklight@Cfensi. …

Blossom

Click PLAY or watch a comparison on YouTube.

Both amazing routines. The general public would assume that the STUCK landing should be the difference maker.

It’s much more complicated than that as Uncle Tim details – Arthur Zanetti vs. Chen Yibing: You Decide

… I can’t decide.

Cool.

@J_Horton11:

So I keep getting a lot of questions about whether I’m going to Rio. The answer is… yes I will be training the next 4 years for Rio!

Nobody wants to retire these days. 🙂

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