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Good news.

Canadian gymnast Brandon O’Neill was back training during official podium training. He injured his ankle Monday. And spent most of his waking hours since doing rehab / recovery to get ready for Saturday.

He has very high pain tolerance. Sounds like Brandon will be in the line-up for Team prelims.

Rumour is that France had two big injuries the week before they left for Beijing, one cruciate ligament and one broken thumb. That almost every Men’s Olympic team lost a key athlete leading up to the Olympics. (i.e. Paul Hamm)

With Brandon, Canada still has their original lineup.

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
.

The favourite on Horizontal Bar will be one of the most exciting gymnasts to watch in Beijing. He’s yet another international star coached by a parent.

coach Wolfgang Hambuechen

more Hambuechen photos on the NBC Olympics site

Click through for details: The Perfect 10 blog:

the return of the aerial cartwheel on Beam

Mattie Larson

Cheng Fei

NCAA gymnastics

Russia’s recent resurgence.

Big and more diverse tumbling on the Woman’s side

Raj Bhavsar

Fabian Hambuechen

Beth Tweddle’s rocking bar set

Oksana Chusovitina & Jordan Jotchev

Ten Things I Like Right Now… – Perfect 10

Mattie Larson Online – fan site

Highlights of the Beijing Olympics will be streamed daily on YouTube to 77 territories where the digital rights have not been sold or acquired on a non-exclusive basis.

The package will include highlights, news, daily clips directed mostly for the people of Africa, Asia and the Middle East.

“For the first time in Olympic history we will have complete global online coverage, and the IOC will have its own broadcast channel and content production facilities,” said Timo Lumme, the IOC’s director of television and marketing services.

Countries outside of the 77 territories will be “geo-blocked”. The channel is www.youtube.com/beijing2008. …

Beijing Olympic Games blog

Excellent news. Congratulations to the IOC for extending coverage to parts of the world “blacked out” by the old media. Starts August 6th.

I only wish I could see those clips myself in North America.

A full list of the nations eligible is posted on the official press release. (My friends in Cambodia can get it!)

All those young, healthy people in one place. What do you expect?

Chinese condom manufacturer Elasun released cheeky and clever ads with an Olympic theme. They depict athletic stickmen with condoms in place of various sports apparatuses such as basketball nets, bicycle wheels, archery targets and gymnastic rings. A ribbed condom was even used to symbolise the water surface in swimming.

In the Sydney 2000 Games each athlete was given 51 condoms on arrival at the Olympic Village, but another 20,000 had to be shipped in when supplies began to run low.

Seems this ad campaign is going viral on the internet. Smart marketing.

(via the Beijing Olympic Fan blog)

I’ve made all the “easy” predictions for Beijing.

In the last few days, I’ll try to scramble to fill in as many blanks as possible.

Most will pick Diego Hypolito from Brazil to win Floor Exercise. He’s the defending World Champion. He’s very consistent. He’s young and, I think, healthy.

Personally I’ve never been a fan of Diego’s style.

Romania’s Marian Dragulescu is back out of retirement. He actually tied Shewfelt in Athens … but lost the Gold on Floor in the tie break.

However — being a Canadian — I think I’ll double my chances by calling for either Kyle Shewfelt to repeat as champion. Or his teammate Brandon O’Neill to take the Gold on Floor.

photo Sam Sanford Blades

If all the top guys HIT, I feel Brandon is the man to beat. But over the past 15yrs I’ve learned never to count out Shewfelt. If he can get into the Final, Kyle’s super tough under pressure.

Recall that Canada was the top team on Floor in prelims in Athens. I expect they will be in the top 3 on Floor in Beijing as a team.

UPDATE:

… O’Neill’s status for the BrandonOlympic gymnastics competition is up in the air after he injured an ankle in training earlier this week.

The Edmonton native was doing a tumbling pass at the National Indoor Stadium on Monday when he suffered the injury. “He landed quite short and when he hit the ground he felt something move in his ankle,” said Canadian coach Tony Smith said Tuesday. …

Canuck gymnast suffers ankle injury – CP

What a shame.

Kyle Shewfelt says the Canadian men were “hitting routines like they were going out of style”. And Canuck Elyse Hopfner-Hibbs is ‘good and ready’.

Dasha Joura says the Aussie girls “exude confidence and consistency”.

Podium training for the Chinese teams was called “normal” by the coaches. (no injury)

… OK, OK. This is the calm before the storm. LET THE GAMES BEGIN, already.

Here are the Sports Illustrated MEDAL PICKS:

GYMNASTICS

Men
Team
G: China
S: Japan
B: Russia
Also favored in 2004, China tumbled to fifth in Athens.

Individual all-around
G: Yang Wei, China
S: Fabian Hambüchen, Germany
B: Hiroyuki Tomita, Japan
Yang led all-around in ’04 before crashing from high bar.

Floor exercise
G: Diego Hypólito, Brazil
S: Zou Kai, China
B: Marian Dragulescu, Romania
Hypólito’s sister survived bus wreck, won worlds medal.

Pommel horse
G: Xiao Qin, China
S: Hiroyuki Tomita, Japan
B: Yang Wei, China
Yang proposed to fiancée at a fake press conference.

Rings
G: Chen Yibing, China
S: Jordan Jovtchev, Bulgaria
B: Yang Wei, China
Bad (early-group) U.S. draw may cost Kevin Tan a bronze.

Vault
G: Marian Dragulescu, Romania
S: Leszek Blanik, Poland
B: Daniel Popescu, Romania
Dragulescu was on Romanian Dancing with the Stars.

Parallel bars
G: Mitja Petkovsek, Slovenia
S: Li Xiaopeng, China
B: Kim Dae Eun, South Korea
Former world champ Li is finally healthy after foot ailments.

Horizontal bar
G: Fabian Hambüchen, Germany
S: Vlasios Maras, Greece
B: Justin Spring, U.S.
Hambüchen was Germany’s ’07 sportsman of the year.

Women
Team
G: China
S: U.S.
B: Romania
U.S. beat China by a point at worlds last year.

Individual all-around
G: Shawn Johnson, U.S.
S: Steliana Nistor, Romania
B: Yang Yilin, China
Rain flooded Johnson out of her Des Moines gym in June.

Vault
G: Cheng Fei, China
S: Hong Su Jong, North Korea
B: Alicia Sacramone, U.S.
Germany’s Oksana Chusovitina, 33, could win a medal.

Uneven bars
G: Nastia Liukin, U.S.
S: He Kexin, China
B: Ksenia Semenova, Russia
Liukin’s dad, Valeri, was first man to do a triple back on floor.

Balance beam
G: Li Shanshan, China
S: Steliana Nistor, Romania
B: Shawn Johnson, U.S.
Li’s routine is so good she fell at ’07 worlds and still won silver.

Floor exercise
G: Cheng Fei, China
S: Shawn Johnson, U.S.
B: Alicia Sacramone, U.S.
Brown junior Sacramone has won two world floor medals.

Rhythmic
Individual all-around
G: Anna Bessonova, Ukraine
S: Vera Sessina, Russia
B: Olga Kapranova, Russia
Anna’s dad was Ukrainian soccer player of year in 1989.

Group
G: Russia
S: Italy
B: Bulgaria
U.S. didn’t qualify anyone in rhythmic gymnastics.

Trampoline
Men
G: Ye Shuai, China
S: Dong Dong, China
B: Yasuhiro Ueyama, Japan
Ye is a former diver and artistic gymnast.

Women
G: Irina Karavaeva, Russia
S: Huang Shanshan, China
B: Karen Cockburn, Canada
Cockburn’s husband is Sydney medalist Mathieu Turgeon.

Brian Cazeneuve – SI

So says LBLG.

Anything would look cute on these tiny — supposedly Olympic-age — girls.

These pics from Andrea’s Live.Breath.Love Gymnastics Olympic Photos page.

Japanese Gymnasts

Raj and Joseph USA

see more

China will soon dominate internet traffic, I predict.

The favourite to win Parallel Bars at the Beijing Olympics, Li Xiaopeng, has started his own blog. Here’s an English translation of one post:

July 27, is my birthday and it coincides with the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympic Village! I feel so lucky and am so happy at this.

I was scheduled to take part in today’s opening ceremony, so I got up at 6:30 am to dress myself up. The suit I wore to the ceremony was borrowed from our coach since I , like some of my other teammates, hadn’t got the outfit yet. Although it was not my exact size I was so happy wearing it. …

read more … – Li Xiaopeng: A more meaningful birthday

The Chinese original version has more photos.

1996 Olympian Mo Huilan has a new blog as well. Read a sample post in English – To talk about my little sisters

Mo says “… if Jiang Yuyuan can keep calm and compete at her normal level on balance beam, this team will have 60 to 70 percent chance of beating the American women’s team.”