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Interesting article on five technological changes in the Olympics 2008:

Supercomputers and weather control
Cyber warfare
On demand coverage
Anti-terrorism efforts
Timing

io9

It was linked from a Beijing Olympic Games blog post which added a few more:

Stadium technology
Blogging and social media
Twitter
Amateur video

How technology will change the Olympics

This blogger will be covering the Games. It will be interesting to see how fans skirt the unenforceable restrictions of NBC and IOC.

Athletes are allowed to blog — but only under silly guidelines.

image source

China is obviously conflicted and confused. They want to clamp down on freedom of Olympic speach. Yet 90% of Beijing’s major streets will be covered by Wi-Fi and WiMAX technologies for the Olympics.

It will be amusing to watch them try to restrict independent commentary.

Ever since I travelled there in 1997 I’ve believed that the internet will be the main agent forcing change in the doddering regime.

Athletes are highly motivated and pain tolerant when an Olympic Team spot is on the line.

… X-rays today showed a small fracture in the tibia, something she may have had since the final day of the Olympic trials last month. Eric (her father) said Mattie began experiencing pain in Philadelphia but was determined to finish the selection process. …

L.A. Times via Shergymrag

Top American gymnasts on pre-competition preparation. Link – Gymnast.com

http://gymnast.com/flashplayer/FlashPlayer.swf?v=http://www.gymnast.com/media/gymnast//upload/Videos/Ranch/Make_up_Hair.flv&eb=1&ap=1&av=sportnet.gy.videos&pv=video&szv=320×240&apv=doubleclick

Much more elaborate is costume and make-up for Cirque du Soleil acrobats. Click PLAY or watch Bobby and Emma on YouTube.

I’ve heard some Cirque costumes weigh 40 pounds!

You might want to tune in to HBO tonight:

A 1996 Olympic gold medalist, Dominique Moceanu, said in an interview airing Tuesday on HBO that elite gymnastics has a “dark side” and that many athletes, former athletes and administrators hope her former coach, Martha Karolyi, will be removed from her leadership role in USA Gymnastics.

Moceanu and former women’s all-around national champion Jennifer Sey, author of a book titled Chalked Up, discussed criticisms of women’s elite gymnastics for a story that airs at 9 p.m. Tuesday on Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel.

Houston Chronicle

I’ll be giving it a miss. Dominique Moceanu hardly has an objective perspective.

Marta Karolyi will remain as head of the U.S. program until she decides to retire. Perhaps Dominique will recommend a successor.

Dominique Moceanu – official website

related post: is ex-gymnast author Jennifer Sey a liar?

The always excellent Polish101- Gymnastics blog posted the best wrap-up I’ve seen:

Is This Process of Naming the Olympic Team Too Exhaustive For the Gymnasts?

With two major injuries (three if you count Memmel) happening at the camp, all signs seem to point to yes. While having three pressure-packed meets will do very well for the gymnasts’ mental toughness and confidence levels heading into the biggest meet of their lives, the potential for injury, as proven at the camp, runs at an all-time high.

It was said by most insiders that five spots to Johnson, Liukin, Memmel, Sacramone, and Peszek were sewn up at trials and having them compete at this camp meet could indeed backfire on the USA team who wants to send a team that is not only the best possible team, but in the best possible shape.

However, Martha K. was definitely intelligent to wait to the last minute to select this team. In the end, Bridget Sloan was unquestionably the best pick for the last spot, but would anyone have said that back in Philly? Surely not.

Worley’s injuries cannot really be blamed as much on this selection process, as she didn’t compete at Nationals. But in her case, she could’ve easily been named had her leg held up and thus might’ve been able to have competed great UB routines at the camp.

Had the team been named in Philly, than there would be no Sloan or Worley on the roster and Bieger would’ve most likely been picked, and as the camp showed us all Jana really wasn’t peaking at the right time. If I were to change how this selection process were to go down, I would say hold Nationals around or maybe a tad bit earlier than when Olympic Trials would usually be held (mid to late June) and hold an Olympic Trials in mid to late July, in front of a packed house and all, and decide the team right then and there. I think that would cover the needs for picking the team as close to the games as possible, and eliminating the camp meet entirely would do well for the girls staying healthy and in peak form in preparation for the Olympics.

there’s much more – It Is Now Official – Polish101- Gymnastics blog

National Anthem

more photos from Karoli camp – USAG – via Live.Breath.Love Gymnastics

related: Kris Robinson – “how I feel right now about the Olympic Team Results”

The girls, I think, handled the intensity. I’m feeling very good about their chances, especially in Olympic Team Finals.

So long as they are intelligent in the “taper” before Beijing, I don’t believe they have “peaked” early. These young women must be tough as they must endure travel and jetlag, as well. China does not.

It seems to me that every single WAG gymnast has been announced that’s competing in the Olyympics. Keep in mind though that these are nominative rosters and countries have up until 24 hours until the games start to change their team.

see the list on gymnicestics

Russia:

Ksenia Semenova, Ksenia Afanasyeva, Anna Pavlova, Ekaterina Kramerenko

Daria Elizarova and Svetlana Klyukina are not yet confirmed

Yulia Lozhechko won’t be going to Beijing, head coach Andrei Rodionenko said Monday. – IG

I like it.

… The drawing was created for me. It’s of my favourite gymnast, doing one of my favourite skills.

Daiane Dos Santos’s double arabian layout!

gymnicestics

Paul is not the only contender talking the trash.

Yang Tae-young is the gymnast who’s coaches screwed up during the Individual AA competition at the Athens Olympics. A huge blunder, they did not check his start scrore on PBars.

He finished with the Bronze in the AA.

… “Whether I’ll be competing with him (Hamm) or not at the Olympics, I don’t really care,” Yang said in a joint interview with South Korean media this month.

“There are other gymnasts who are better than him and I’d like to focus more on them and also on my performance,” he said in the interview recently released to international media.

With the FIG refusing to redistribute the medals, Yang and the South Korean Olympics committee filed an appeal with the Court for Arbitration for Sport (CAS).

Hamm said he would return the gold if the decision of the Lausanne-based CAS went against him but the court ruled in the American’s favour.

Yang accepted the verdict when it was made a few months after the Athens Games and pledged to win gold in Beijing. …

Reuters

Don’t these guys have media training? People advising them not to help motivate their opponents?

PHNOM PENH, July 16 (Xinhua) — China Wednesday donated a batch of gymnastics equipment worth around 14,000 U.S. dollars to Cambodia for its gymnastics federation to carry out daily training of national athletes.

The equipment included balance beam, low balance beam, spring board, crash mats and landing mats, according to the relevant certificates signed by Cambodian Tourism Minister and president of the National Olympic Committee of Cambodia (NOCC) Thong Khon and Chinese Ambassador to Cambodia Zhang Jinfeng.

While delivering his speech for the donation ceremony, Thong Khon wished that the upcoming Beijing Olympics and the current series of celebrations for the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between the two countries would score success.

China View

Gaofei

I was there, coincidentally, leading an Olympic Solidarity course.

The proceedings were hampered by an electrical outage caused by a HUGE thunder storm. But the Cambodians were charmed by the Chinese ambassador who spoke fluent Khmer and seemed genuinely interested in the young gymnasts who demonstrated for her.

Cambodia now has a full set of F.I.G. equipment for Artistic. But the Floor is badly damaged. Currently they tumble on a slightly less broken tumbling strip about 3ft wide.

“they should be worried.”

That was Paul Hamm’s reply when asked if the Chinese should be worried about his comeback.

(via StickItMedia)

It’s comments like this that make me cheer for Yang Wei.

I’m one of those who wished Hamm — and USA Gymnastics — would have handled Paul’s controversial 2004 Olympic win differently. As did this blogger:

… Hamm not only refused to give his gold medal to Tae-Young, but even announced his opposition to Tae-Young receiving a second gold …. in doing so Hamm missed out on the opportunity of a lifetime. If he had stepped up and given Tae-Young his gold, he would have gone down as one of the great heroes of Olympic history, held up to generations of children as an icon of virtue and sportsmanship.

Hiphop Music

Perhaps we’re all due for a reminder of Vault in his 2004 Olympic All-around win.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

The score of 9.137 seems a bit high.

If he wins the 2008 Olympics, Paul Hamm will still not be one of the great heroes of Olympic history. At least not to me.

Leave a comment if you disagree.