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(Photo by Clive Brunskill/Getty Images)

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(via Shergymrag)

The first I’ve heard of this conspiracy theory.

International Gymnast Publisher Paul Ziert on podium training:

… OK, the American men had a less-than-impressive showing from what I have heard, but remember this is just a dress rehearsal. Nevertheless, from what IG has learned, the men’s program personnel pushed the big panic button, and irrationally created a situation which I know they will regret later. Sources have told IG that Morgan Hamm became the scapegoat for this shaky rehearsal. …

Ziert Alert! from Beijing

Ziert is wrong far more often than he is right.

But is there some truth to this allegation?

… Ex-gymnast and three-time gold medal winner Li Ning will light the Olympic cauldron, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

Li Ning, China’s best-known gymnast of the 1980s, is also founder of sports clothes manufacturer Li Ning. …

The Standard

One of my favourite gymnasts of all time.

Nice call, China.

Wrapping up my own Olympic Gold Medal predictions, I cheated and checked the list posted by Amy Van Deusen on About.com Gymnastics:

Women’s Artistic Gymnastics

Team
GOLD USA
SILVER China
BRONZE Romania

All-Around
GOLD Shawn Johnson, USA
SILVER Nastia Liukin, USA
BRONZE Steliana Nistor, Romania …

Click through for the full list, including Men’s, Rhythmic and Trampoline. Check out this poll, as well, and add your vote.

Smart.

The less media frenzy the better throughout the Games.

Though the team is stacked with experienced superstar veterans, the more psychic energy saved for the competition, the better.

… All-round favourite Yang Wei and his team mates slipped out of the National Indoor Stadium unnoticed on Wednesday after going through their paces in their only training session at the Olympic arena.

With a nation of 1.3 billion people expecting the hosts to pick up the majority of the 14 golds up for grabs in artistic gymnastics, the Chinese made sure no one would distract them. …

Gymnastics-Chinese build great wall of silence – Yahoo Sports

A fall on Horizontal Bar cost Yang Wei big time in 2004. … And in podium training he showed no release parts on Bar.

… Interesting.

Photo by Grace Chiu – Inside Gymnastics

Any of the finalists will have a shot at a medal in Beijing. (Qualifying for the Final is the most difficult step.) Vault for men is the craziest apparatus, years ahead in difficulty over the Women.

Of the many good vaulters, Leszek Blanik from Poland has the best chance of winning. His two super vaults are relatively “easy” (for him) and he should take smaller landing deductions.

Click PLAY to see Blanik winning the 2007 World Championships (to qualify for Beijing) on YouTube.

Blanik won the Bronze in 2000 but did not qualify to compete in Athens. He also won the 2008 European Championships on Vault (video).

See the rest of our Olympic Gold Medal predictions.

… “I would like to offer my greetings to the People’s Republic of China, the organisers and the athletes participating in the forthcoming Olympics games in Beijing,” said the Tibetan temporal head in a message released from the headquarters of Tibetan government in-exile Dharamsala.

“Right from the time of China’s application to hold the Olympics Games, I have supported China’s right to host the mega event,” he said. …

Dalai Lama wishes success to Beijing Olympics – NDTV

What a wonderful man.

Support the Games. Support non-violent protest of China.

Right on.

(via Beijing Olympics Fan)

Here’s a non-violent protest of Chinese totalitarian state. A “pirate radio station” just launched in Beijing:

A media watchdog took over a frequency on China’s tightly-controlled airwaves Friday in a symbolic protest calling for free speech just hours before the start of the Beijing Olympic Games.

Reporters Without Borders broadcast the 20-minute programme in Chinese, English and French beginning from 8:08 am (0008 GMT), exactly 12 hours before the Olympic opening ceremony. …

“China is the country of censorship, and this programme is our way of making fun of the Chinese authorities who still keep hundreds of journalists and Internet users in prison,” said a voice at the start of the broadcast. …

Media group takes over Chinese frequency in symbolic protest – AFP

And another. The USA Olympic Flag Bearer is from Darfur:

… Joseph Lopepe (Lopez) Lomong … was unanimously elected as flag-bearer by the captains of the US Olympic sports at a meeting today and with spectacularly good timing hurled himself into the politically murky waters of China’s relationship with his native land at the precise moment President Bush arrived in Beijing. Depending on whose figures you believe, the UN puts the death toll in Darfur at 300,000, while an estimated 2.2 million people have been displaced in the war. …

Lopez Lomong’s Olympic role tells important tale to world audience – Times Online

China is much criticized for economic involvement in Darfur.

A billion+ TV viewers worldwide will be reminded of Darfur during the Opening Ceremonies. I love it.

Frustrated that you cannot see the coverage you want from where you live?

Silicon Alley Insider may be the best source of information on how to watch the NBC Olympics stream online. And others — including the BBC. Check these two posts:

… NBC … paid $800 million for the U.S. rights to the Beijing Olympics alone, and $3.5 billion for five Olympic games through 2008. The Olympics are a vast money-losing operation for NBC, meant to provide a ratings halo for the network’s other shows and help promote the fall TV season. NBC expects to lose even more money on the online broadcast, but nevertheless sees it as an opportunity to build an audience that will surely seek coverage elsewhere if NBC doesn’t provide it. …

NBC’s Online Olympics Policy: Big Win For Pirate P2P Sites – Silicon Alley Insider

How To Watch The Beijing Olympics LIVE On The Web — Even If NBC Doesn’t Want You To – Silicon Alley Insider

The Beijing “piracy fest” may be the beginning of the end for ludicrously complicated internet broadcast restrictions. Death to the lawyers negotiating those contracts.

UPDATE

… Looks like I’ve got NBC streaming on my MacBook Pro using the Safari browser. Could not get it working on Firefox 3. I’m in the USA right now.

My favourite gymnastics photographer Grace Chiu already has many great shots up on the WWW. A few …

Ana Claudia Silva

Nansy Damianova

Li Shanshan

There are plenty of American photos too.

Inside Gymnastics – Photo Gallery: Women’s Podium Training

The 2-time world rings champion Chen Yibing is the favourite to win the strong man apparatus in Beijing.

He scored a 17.000 to win the event at a World Cup in Tianjin, China in May.

Click PLAY or watch the routine on YouTube. (starts at 2:25)

Olympic judges are inevitably conflicted in the Final as to which of the superb routines should win. But this year I predict the home town hero will not really be challenged. His unique mount — which I would call “Butterfly to Maltese” — is the edge he needs to separate himself from the field.

See the rest of our Olympic Gold Medal predictions.