Gymnastics Coaching.com

Chinese gymnast He Kexin tied American rival Nastia Liukin on Bars. But under a complicated but logical tiebreak system, China got the Gold, USA the Silver.

(AP Photo / August 18, 2008)

Nastia’s father / coach Valeri tied for an Olympic medal in the past — when both athletes stood atop the podium, both winning gold.

Tiebreaks determined Beijing medals, so far, in

Pommel Horse

Bars

Men’s Vault

About.com Gymnastics has a poll on the topic. And some background:

… The rule to break ties has been in effect since after the 1996 Olympics, and was at the direction of the IOC, according to FIG president Bruno Grandhi.

He told NBCOlympics.com, “For me, it’s not correct. When two people arrive on the same level, they are champions. But this competition doesn’t belong to us. It is the IOC’s.”

Tiebreakers Add New Controversy to Event Finals Day Two

But before you get too outraged about yet another complication in our sport, frustrating the media and the general public, think back to what happened before the rule was imposed.

Judges who could not decide who should win a Final … deliberately tied gymnasts. We ended up with too many ties.

I’ve got mixed feelings on the tiebreak rule. I liked it in 2004 when Kyle Shewfelt took Gold on Floor over Dragalescu in a tiebreak. But it’s yet another barrier between our sport and the general public. First we lose the “perfect 10”. Now this.

During the Olympics in the USA I’m seeing many comments like this on the internet:

… The former Olympic gymnast is part of NBC’s coverage team for the gymnastics competition this week. Lots of times when Daggett is talking, you don’t just want to mute the TV. You want to break the speakers. …

You can’t be serious … Tim Daggett – News OK

For the record, I think Tim Daggett does quite a good job. (If he’s pro-USA, that’s mainly because he’s working for NBC broadcasting in the USA. Commentators in Canada are very positive about Canadian gymnasts.)

Even sidekick Al Trautwig is reasonably good as the “everyman” who asks the dumb question that regular viewers are thinking.

In the past I though Elfi Schlegel was excellent, spending a lot of time with the athletes in preparation for broadcasts. This Olympics she’s been positively “bland”, not contributing much to the conversation. Tim has to lead even on the women’s apparatus.

(I was horrible as a broadcaster myself last year for local cable TV coverage of the Canadian National Gymnastics Championships. That may be the reason I’m so supportive of Tim.)

… Since his retirement following the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, Daggett has worked as a television commentator, covering the gymnastics events for NBC at the Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Atlanta, Sydney, Athens, and Beijing. …

Wikipedia

related:

The NBC Commentators Who They STILL Haven’t Gotten Rid Of – Polished Gymnastics 101

Why I Don’t Like Elfi Schlegel – blog

Coach Dave Adlard likes Shannon Miller, Missy Marlowe, Bart Conner, and Peter Vidmar. Both John Macready and John Roethlisberger would be good too, of course.

Leave a comment if you have a personal favourite gymnastics commentator from anywhere around the world.

Irina Karavaeva misses the medals. Another GOLD in Gymnastics sports for China.

full results

Karen Cockburn, He Wenna, Ekaterina Khilko – photo Grace Chui from Facebook

Congratulations to Karen Cockburn, my favourite, who has had medals in the past 3 Olympics!

Thanks Stu.

UPDATE: Though I competed Trampoline long ago, I’m no expert. But having now seen the Finals on NBC TV, I felt Karavaeva was badly underscored. What did she miss?

Slate has a slideshow of unusual gymnastics photos.

see more

Nastia … won the silver medal in the uneven bars during Day 2 of the individual event finals Monday evening at the National Indoor Stadium. The gold medal went to He Kexin of China, who was first in the rotation and posted a score of 16.725. Liukin followed and her score was also 16.725, but tiebreaking procedures placed her second. Beth Tweddle had the highest start value at 7.8.

Bars:

(L-R) Nastia Liukin, He Kexin and Yang Yilin. (Photo credit: Getty Images) – source

Too bad. I was cheeing for Jordan Jovtchev (in his 5th Olympics) but he finished 8th in the Final. Pinheiro Robrigues Danny attempted the impossible “Victorian Cross”.

Rings:

Dragalescu from Romania finished 4th on Vault nailing his awesome “Dragalescu” vault, but falling on the second vault — exactly the same thing he did in Athens. This means he will come away from Beijing with no medals at all. Perhaps the last “comeback” we will see from the dominant Floor / Vault man of this decade.

Men’s Vault:

Congratulations to Leszek who was not even allowed to compete in 2004 though he was then, as he is today, the #1 vaulter in the world. (Form is not great, however.)

more results – Gymnast.com

Steve McCain’s live blogging notes.

My predictions on who would win the Gold medals.

WOMEN’S FLOOR:

Sadly, Alicia finished just out of the medals on Vault. But it’s wonderful to see Oksana Chusovitina win a medal in her 5th Olympics!

WOMEN’S VAULT:

In a shocker, both Dragalescu and Hypolito MISSED. These guys took advantage:

MEN’S FLOOR:

You cannot be too surprised that Sasha Artemev fell, placing seventh on pommels. He has been very inconsistent on that awesome routine. I was cheering that young Louis Smith of Great Britain took Bronze. Congrats to him and coach Paul Hall.

MEN’S POMMEL HORSE:

more results – Gymnast.com

Or read Steve McCain’s live blogging of Finals.

Looks like they’ve signed most of the big names in USA Gymnastics.

… Okay, so after the Olympics are over the greatest gymnasts in the country are gonna be on the road and coming to an arena near you! What could be cooler than the best gymnastics in the world? …

2008 World Tour of Gymnastics Superstars

Yup. Only in the USA do they have the gall to call an American Tour … a “World Tour”.

Some of the dates will conflict with the “World Series of Baseball”, I suppose.

related post: Gymnastics SPECTACULARS give me a headache

UPDATE: Ha. The “World” has now been removed from the official poster. (Click through to see the revised poster.) And the TV advertising in the USA does not use the “World” either.

… Now. If only they would adopt the “North American Series of Baseball”.

My friend, former gymnast, Cristina Knihnitski is opening a new CHEERLEADING facility.

The club has been running several years. Now they are opening a new gym.

Website looks great. Good luck!

Prairie Fire Cheerleading – Saskatoon, Saskatchwan,

Good article:

… FIG raised the minimum age from 14 to 15 in 1981. In 1997, it went to 16. Boosting the minimum age was supposed to encourage coaches to go easier on younger athletes.

U.S. Olympic gold-medalist Bart Conner has his doubts.

“In many ways it was a knee-jerk reaction from the gymnastics federation to remind coaches to not push so hard,” Conner said. “But I’m not sure that’s really worked. I’m not sure if, in the gym, that causes a coach to back off a little. Maybe it does. …

I think the age rule has had some overall influence. Some coaches do more long-term career planning. But the “cheating” problem, outweighs the benefits in my opinion.

Read the whole article:

Tom Daley’s age hasn’t been an issue. The British Olympic diver is 14 and his youth—his braces were only recently removed—makes his story compelling.

Nor has anyone made a fuss about Antoinette Joyce Guedia Mouafo. At 12, the swimmer from Cameroon is the youngest athlete in the Beijing Olympics and had never swum in a 50-meter pool.

…

Age rules at the Olympics are set by the federations that run the sports, and many don’t have any limits. …

Arne Ljungqvist, head of the IOC medical commission, said age-manipulation is a problem that’s tough to detect. Ljungqvist runs the IOC’s effort against doping and concedes age manipulation is another form of cheating.

“This is a problem when you have an age limit that there is a temptation for manipulation,” Ljungqvist said. “How to prove that is very difficult. There are ways and means of establishing the age, or the supposed age of a person, but it isn’t absolutely scientifically accurate—nor a legally accurate way of doing it.”

Minimum age rules vary widely at Olympics – AP

Antoinette Joyce Guedia Mouafo – Reuters

Top 8 move on to Finals.

full results