Category: Uncategorized

I saw this on Double Layout.

It’s only every 4yrs that I realize (again) just how incredible are the American sprinters.

The United States’ women’s 4 X 400-meter relay team from left, Francena McCorory, Allyson Felix, Sanya Richards-Ross and Deedee Trotter celebrate after winning the gold medal during the athletics in the Olympic Stadium at the 2012 Summer Olympics, London, Aug. 11, 2012.

(AP Photo/Martin Meissner)

Two controversial Olympians compete for South Africa. Oscar Pistorius. And their opening ceremonies flag bearer, Caster Semenya.

Caster Semenya knew she’d blown her first Olympic final by starting out too slowly.

She expected critical feedback from her coach and, based on her experience over the last three, difficult years, she expected some unkind speculation about her performance in the 800 metres.

She got both.

But she cherishes her Olympic silver medal all the same. Three years after being forced to undergo gender tests after winning the world title in a stunningly fast 1 minute, 55.45 seconds at age 18, Semenya is now an Olympic medallist, too. …

South Africa’s Caster Semenya ends up with Olympic silver in 800m

You see, the girl from a rural village was born with unusual sexual characteristics, resulting in an unfair competitive advantage. Some say.

Certainly she should be allowed to run against either Men or Women. She’s been tested and approved to run in the Women’s competition.

If you are interested in her unique case, check Science of Sport‘s detailed post – London 2012: Women’s 800m perplexity, analyzing Semenya’s race

Personally, I’d like to congratulate Caster on her Silver. And wish her well in future competition.

Get a better start. Next time.

Update. Seems Tommy’s Mom, Virginia Ramos, has stated that there’s no engagement.

Original (wrong) post below:

Engaged.

Their children MUST be gymnasts.

Tommy Ramos is a Puerto Rican graduate of Architecture from Penn State. She retires with 5 Olympic medals.

Romanian news sites report they plan a cruise post-Olympics. And a small wedding in Romania.

The Russian became the first rhythmic gymnast to win two Olympic all-around titles, defending her gold medal from Beijing on Saturday. It caps a spectacular four years for Kanaeva, who also won the last three world titles, and gives Russia the last four Olympic individual titles. The Russians have a chance for another four-peat in Sunday’s group event, too.

Kanaeva posted the highest score in three of the four events and finished with 116.90 points. That was more than two points ahead of teammate Daria Dmitrieva. Liubou Charkashnya of Belarus won the bronze medal. …

NANCY ARMOUR

It’s been a very good games for the smaller nations. So far the most successful countries are:

1 Grenada
2 Jamaica
3 Bahamas
4 New Zealand
5 Slovenia
6 Trinidad and Tobago
7 Denmark
8 Hungary
9 Estonia
10 Australia

details

… Jamaica, with its 50-athlete delegation and which has 10 medals to its credit. … one medal for every five athletes sent or 1:5. …

CBC – Medals per capita, GDP: Ranking the real Olympic superpowers

Thanks Jason.

A sneak peek of China’s Rio squad (VIDEOS):

Chinese National Junior Championships were held in Hangzhou in June, for girls 12-15. …

14-15 All around champion Zhu Siyan. She also won UB and FX.

12-13 AA champion Yuan Xiaoyang. She also won vault.

12-13 FX champion Liu Ying

12-13 UB champion Fan Yilin

12-13 UB 2nd place Luo Huan

And the already known
Lou Nina
Mei Jie
Wang Wei
Liu Zhilin

… Xie Wenwei. She.can.dance.period.

Obviously, Team China needs Vault / Tumblers if they want to compete for a Team medal in 4yrs.

Click PLAY or watch age 12-13 Vault Champ Yuan Xiaoyang on YouTube.

5.2 + 8.325 = 13.525
5.0 + 8.1 – 0.1 = 13.0

Avg 13.262 – 1st

See more videos from that competition on the piibunina YouTube channel.

He’s so honest.

From a rsport.ru interview translation posted on “Fanatic“:

– Everyone is talking about the difficult nature of Aliya. When you started working with her, did you expect her to grow into a great gymnast and a champion?

– You know, I did not want to take her. I came, and they told me “Here’s this girl Mustafina who was left without a coach. She trains at CSKA (Central Sports Army Club) in the “not too promising” group”. …

…

– Would you say that she had been the most difficult student in your career?

– No, I had too difficult a time with Bilozerchev ( He is blaming himself here). I had to work with Boginskaya – another one who was a real treat (sarcastically). Do you think Komova is easy? For some reason there is a stereotype that Mustafina is the villain while Grishina is supposedly the perfect child. Absolutely not! And Komova works very hard, but all of them can get sulky. They also understand how nothing is given (how you must work for everything)!

And Aliya came over to me after the bronze medal in the all-around, and says: “Do you know what the journalists said? Valentina Rodionenko told them that I had no chance to win anything here, except on bars”. What could I say to say to that? The interview was given before the Olympics. Why? I wish/I should have gone and apologized in her (Rodionenko’s) place/ behalf….

source

Here’s another translation of the article.

Alexandrov is the best interview in gymnastics these days.

Has Valentina Rodionenko finally been muzzled? … I hope so.

Language warning.

http://www.funnyordie.com/embed/d4c3176404

In London, McKayla collected a Silver with this.

1. IZBASA
2. MARONEY
3. PASEKA

4. BERGER
5. CHUSOVITINA
6. PENA ABREU

Many want a Code of Points where a fall in the final drops you off the podium.

Lauren Hopkins on Couch Gymnast:

If the 2012 Olympic Games used the proposed (2016) code rather than this quadrennium’s code, the standings would look something like this:

1. Sandra Izbasa (ROM) – 14.433
2. Maria Paseka (RUS) – 14.050
3. Janine Berger (GER) – 13.884

4. McKayla Maroney (USA) – 13.766
5. Oksana Chusovitina (GER) – 13.360
6. Brittany Rogers (CAN) – 12.960

[(SV V1 + SV V2) / 2] + [10.0 – (V1 + V2 deductions)] = Score

… It’s also interesting to note that had this “execution over difficulty”-based vault finals code existed in 2008, Alicia Sacramone would have won gold with her Rudi and DTY.

Maroney would not get medal under new Code

related – korbutflip – Vault standings if the 2013 COP were in place