Yay! Women’s gymnastics is under way! I am, of course, extremely partial to the US team and I’m happy they had a decent showing to finish second in the prelims.
I have to say that I was so impressed by Mo — she was the rock of the team. I’m so happy that she’s performing well and will get a chance to win an individual medal in the Floor Exercise final. She’s so awesome. Now, on the complete other side of the spectrum, I feel so awful for Courtney McCool. She missed major connections in her beam routine and stepped out of bounds on the floor — so uncharacteristic of her. She’s usually such a confident and clean gymnast. But I guess once the nerves set in after her first mistake, she couldn’t quite recover. It’s too bad that the coaches left her off the roster for the team finals, but I understand that they can’t take the risk (especially with this no margin for error 6-3-3 format, which I don’t like at all but that’s another rant for another time). It’s really sad to think that her Olympics experience is over.
Random women’s gym stuff:
Carly Patterson’s beam routine ROCKED — she was solid and hit all of her big skills. Check out the link if you want to download her routine. I’m really hoping she medals in the All-Around.
Someone please take the glitter and eyeliner away from Terin Humphrey! She’s such a beautiful gymnast but her makeup is seriously overwhelming. (And this coming from a makeup fiend).
I love the Romanians on beam (Catalina Ponor — wow!) and the Chinese on bars (their swing and huge release moves are unbelievable).
It’s really sad to see the Russians (men and women) doing so poorly as a team. They used to be the powerhouses of the sport and now I don’t think they even have a chance at winning a medal.
Stuff on today’s competitions:
*So* excited for the US men’s gymnastics team and their silver medal! And of course the Japanese team on their gold! 😀 I just wish that NBC had shown more of the Japanese men’s routines. They won the gold medal and they were only shown on 2 events. Boo.
Marian Dragalescu’s vault was INSANE.
Why oh why are they not showing Sexy Alexei Nemov?! He’s my Russian boyfriend!
Paul Hamm has the weirdest voice.
It’s also really disappointing to see all the empty seats during gymnastics. In the past 3 summer games (the ones that I can actually remember watching), the arena has been jam-packed with people. If I could head over to Athens right now, I totally would.
Very happy for Natalie Coughlin and her gold in the 100m backstroke! I was a senior at Cal when she was a freshman and I remember reading about her in the Daily Cal — probably when she won NCAA Swimmer of the Year. Anyway, just happy to see a fellow Bear get a win in the Olympics. Oh, and does anyone think she looks a little like Bethany Joy Lenz? Just me? Ok.
Women’s team final tomorrow! Expect more exciting Olympics comments from me, heh.
One more thing — I’ve enjoyed seeing all the promos for the new and returning NBC shows. I have to remember to do a blog about that.