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One of the best decisions ever made by F.I.G. was to go to the sudden victory, 3-up, 3-count Team Final format. Talk about thrilling!

The Women’s showdown between China and the USA will be awesome. But I’m looking forward even more to the Men’s Team Final. With the guys, anything can happen.

Jonathan Horton will have a busy day today in the Men’s Team Finals. He will be competing in every event except for pommel horse. Here is the lineup:

* Floor: Justin Spring, Joey Hagerty, Jonathan Horton
* Pommel horse: Kevin Tan, Raj Bhavsar, Sasha Artemev
* Rings: Raj Bhavsar, Jonathan Horton, Kevin Tan
* Vault: Raj Bhavsar, Jonathan Horton, Justin Spring
* Parallel bars: Raj Bhavsar, Jonathan Horton, Justin Spring
* High bar: Joey Hagerty, Jonathan Horton, Justin Spring

read more – Stick It Media

more excellent Jon Horton photos on NBCOlympics

Congratulations to coach Paul Hall and everyone in the U.K.

… Louis Smith, 19, and Daniel Keating, only 17 and the youngest male gymnast in Beijing, brought Britain into the men’s gymnastic finals for the first time since 1920. This is all the more remarkable for their ages; Keating still competes in junior competitions back home. Both young men were being groomed for the home games in 2012, but impressive results at last year’s Worlds helped to fast-track them to Beijing.

Smith qualified to be in the pommel horse finals, finishing fifth in that event. Keating not only squeezed into the all-around competition as 24th of 24 qualifying men, but made the finals for pommel horse as well.

Stick It Media

That’s going to be the most exciting Final, I expect. Along with Vault.

We lost the “perfect 10” because the Men’s judges in Athens 2004 bungled that competition in front of a worldwide audience of millions.

But is this NEW scoring system working?

NBC commentator Tim Daggett doesn’t think so:

… Daggett felt compelled to go on the air with this statement on NBC that he feels there is something amiss with the way the men’s routines are being judged in Beijing. He appears to be saying that each routine is not only evaluated by judges on the floor but that behind the scenes, judges are in front of screens possibly watching slow motion playbacks of each routine. He is intimating that there is too much micromanaging of the scoring from the top down, and that for the sake of athletes who trained their whole lives for this moment, this changing rules in the middle of competition has to stop.

We await more news on why the judging in Beijing has provoked this kind of serious critique after only one day of gymnastic competition.

Tim Daggett Questions Fairness of New Olympic Judging – Stick It Media

See the Daggett interview for yourself on NBC video.

I’ve not spoken with any of the Olympic judges yet. But it sounds really, really bad.

The Canadian coaches were furious about the judging. Rings Supervisor Alvaro Carvalho de Sousa was even called out. Accused of manipulating the scoring to eliminate the Canadians in the Team competition.

And is the women’s judging any better?

Bela Karolyi ranted on NBC that Shawn Johnson was scored 8.8 on Beam in prelims by one B-panel judge. Did you see that routine? Where are those deductions?

That’s an impossible score.

I’ve got a bad feeling about this code. The B-panel judges are not getting it right. They are too severe on the best routines. Too lenient on the worst routines. Playing it “safe” in order not to be too far out of range.

UPDATE: Read the comments. Very interesting. Many disagree with me.

Mais oui.

Michael Phelps celebrates after the U.S. 400-meter freestyle relay team won the gold medal, breaking the world record with a time of 3 minutes, 8.24 seconds. Phelps’ teammate Jason Lezak came from behind in the anchor leg, catching France’s Alain Bernard to win by eight-hundredths of a second. Before the race Bernard had said that France would “smash” the Americans. (Getty Images / August 11, 2008)

Phelps won his second Gold medal with this world record. This astonishing race was the biggest highlight of the Olympics so far for me, after the Opening Ceremony.

Hey, Alain Bernard. Learn the golden rule of sport. Do not motivate your competition by talking trash about them.

Rawles posted a full list with commentary:

VAULT FINALS

1) Cheng Fei (China)
2) Hong Un Jong (North Korea)
3) Alicia Sacaramone (USA)
4) Oksana Chusovitina (Germany)
5) Anna Pavlova (Russia)
6) Carlotta Giovannini (Italy)
7) Jade Barbosa (Brazil)
8) Ariella Kaslin (Switzerland)

UNEVEN BARS FINALS

1) Yang Yilin (China) 16.650
2) Ksenia Semeyonova (Russia) 16.475
3) Anastassia Koval (Ukraine) 16.325
4) Steliana Nistor (Romania) 15.975
5) Nastia Liukin (USA) 15.950 [w/ fall]
6) He Kexin (China) 15.725 [w/ fall]
7) Daria Zgoba (Ukraine) 15.675
8) Beth Tweddle (Great Britain) 15.650 [w/ fall]

BEAM FINALS

1) Li Shanshan (China) 16.125
2) Nastia Liukin (USA) 15.975
3) Shawn Johnson (USA) 15.975
4) Cheng Fei (China) 15.875
5) Anna Pavlova (Russia) 15.825
6) Ksenia Afanasyeva (Russia) 15.775
—————————————————-
7) Gabriela Dragoi (Romania) 15.450
8) Koko Tsurumi (Japan) 15.425

Two-Per-Country Victims (Balance Beam)

4) Alicia Sacramone (USA) 15.950
8) Ksenia Semenova (Russia) 15.775

FLOOR FINALS

1) Cheng Fei (China) 15.750
2) Sandra Izbasa (Romania) 15.475
3) Shawn Johnson (USA) 15.425
4) Nastia Liukin (USA) 15.350
5) Daiane Dos Santos (Brazil) 15.275
6) Ekaterina Kramarenko (Russia) 15.150
7) Anna Pavlova (Russia) 15.125
8) Jiang Yuyuan (China) 15.050

FINALS BERTH TOTALS BY COUNTRY

China – 10
USA – 9
Russia – 9
Romania – 6
Brazil – 5
Japan – 4
Australia – 3
France – 3
Italy – 3
Great Britain – 2
Germany – 2
Switzerland – 2
Ukraine – 2
Canada – 1
Czech Republic – 1
Belarus – 1
North Korea – 1

AND Nastia Liukin and Anna Pavlova are tied with the most finals berths (5) of any individual gymnast. Pavlova having qualified to every final but bars and Nastia having qualified to every final but vault.

read more from – Rawles

The final is a completely different ball game.

Commenter TCO and Andrew Thornton on Gymnast.com have both calculated the Finals Team Score based on the Preliminary performances:

read more – Meet Analysis – Women’s Team Prelims – Gymnast.com

The medal winning teams almost certainly are Russia (Bronze), USA and China fighting it out for the Gold.

I’m still confident the Americans will win. Though I have to praise China. Their less experienced team looked very relaxed in Prelims. And I was impressed they were using “visualization” prior to routines.

It’s going to be exciting.

USA Athletes Qualifying to Finals:

* All-Around: Shawn Johnson & Nastia Liukin
* Vault: Alicia Sacramone
* Uneven Bars: Nastia Liukin
* Balance Beam: Shawn Johnson & Nastia Liukin
* Floor Exercise: Shawn Johnson & Nastia Liukin

Shame Shawn did not do a second vault. She would have a good chance to medal if she had one.

(via Steve McCain on Gymnast.com)

I was hoping Daria Joura would win a Floor medal with her wonderfully artistic routine.

Sad. Sad. Sad.

IT all ended in tears for Australia’s great gymnastics hope Daria “Dasha” Joura last night as she crashed out in the qualification round.

As the star of the women’s team, Joura was considered a genuine hope to make history by winning Australia’s first individual gymnastics medal.

But her chances were cruelled when she hurt her ankle during the floor routine, hobbling her for the rest of the day.

The Siberian-born 18-year-old bravely continued and her contribution was crucial in securing Australia a place in the team final.

But Joura’s hopes of individual glory faded every time she landed on her weakening ankle.

“She jammed her ankle and it just got weaker and more unstable as the comp went on,” Australian coach Peggy Liddick said. …

The Daily Telegraph

Were there more ankle injuries than usual this Olympics?

I heard the Floor Exercise mat was “hard”.

I think so.

This looks like the end of a long, wonderful Olympic Team medal run for Romania. Russia looked much stronger in prelims finishing 3rd as a team. Romania finished 4th. (team results)

… World uneven bars champion Ksenia Semyonova led Russia, earning the team’s top mark (16.475 on bars).

Veteran Anna Pavlova competed two solid vaults and is a lock to compete in vault finals, where she is the defending bronze medalist. She took the team’s top score on balance beam, 15.825, right ahead of Semyonova and Afanasyeva, who tied with 15.775. (Afanasyeva is ranked ahead of her teammate because of a tiebreak.)

Yekaterina Kramarenko took the team’s top score on floor exercise (15.150; 1 1/2 to triple full; piked full-in) and the second highest on uneven bars (15.550).

Russia’s only major breaks were falls on beam in the third rotation from 2004 Olympian Lyudmila Grebenkova (double turn) and Kramarenko (punch front). …

Solid Effort Lands Russians in Third – International Gymnast

The Chinese Women’s Olympic Gymnastics team easily “won” the team preliminary competition.

… “Whoa, it sounds like they were pretty amazing, but team finals is another day, with even more pressure than today,” said Nastia Liukin, who qualified for the all-around and for the final in every discipline but the vault for the United States. “It’s going to come down to who can handle that pressure the best.” …

Despite Unexpected Slip, Chinese Women Are in Control – NY Times

There’s no need for the Americans to panic. Despite the injury to Samantha Peszek, it will still be a close contest in the “Sudden Victory”, 3up-3count Team Final.

China is in a somewhat better position in terms of qualifying apparatus finalists. But Shawn and Nastia finished 1-2 in qualifying for the AA.

This is one of the great battles in Olympic gymnastics history.

The Gymnut posted some analysis.