U.S. Olympic Women's Gymnastic Trials

[Drunk Monk]

What an insane event. S&T caught trampoline and rhythmic on Tues, and Men's semis on Wed. I joined them last night for Women's semis. Gymno is much better without all the commentary. Last night was all about Jordyn Wieber, who is like an amazon cast in bronze, so unbelievably solid and powerful, so committed in her every move. Gabby was close behind. Many of the other superstars like Sacramone, Raisman, and Maroney were awesome, but missing those crucial details and not scoring well. Sad to see Nastia fall twice. She'll have to rally tomorrow to make the team.

[Greg_phpbb3_import1]

Where are they doing the trials?

[Drunk Monk]

hp pavilion. funny thing - i worked there for years and now only go there for fights. when i worked there, i always went through the staff gate. for fights, i always go through the press gate. it was the first time i went through the front door.

finals in a few hours. 8)

[Greg_phpbb3_import1]

Can we just all pretend our petite gymnasts are over 18? That way I don't have to feel as creepy watching it.

I was going back and forth between this and the X-Games. The X-Games make me say "Holy Crap" and "WTF" a lot. Tonight was big air BMX. This starts on a really tall ramp that I wouldn't even want to stand at the edge of. They also had the really entertaining Moto-X through obstacles. They put way too many riders on a too small course through the middle of Staples Center. Hilarity ensued. They had rocks to navigate and water and loose chunks of wood and caterpillar tractor tires. It is quite entertaining.

[Drunk Monk]

The finals were amazing. Cirque du Soleil opened with an astounding acrobatic act from their Vegas Elvis show, and that was the lull of the evening. I've been in the gymnastics world for three years now, as long as T has been competing, and the Bay Area is huge for gymnastics. Here in Fremont, there's a gym off almost every exit of 880, and Fremont is not known for its gymnastics. Get all those girls together for the Olympic trials and the HP was on fire. And USGA puts on a great show. They know they have the spectator sport. Plus it's so much better not to have to listen to insipid commentary. The magnitude of this event was enormous, especially when you consider it was all about 14 girls. It's an intense sport - train for decades just to bust a few minutes of the most bad ass moves ever. There was a huge street fair outside, with a free concert by Kenny Loggins, which we skipped.

As for the team, well, now I can hardly wait until the Olympics. I dubbed Gabby 'the energizer bunny'. She was just so perky. I found out this morning that her nickname is 'the flying squirrel' to which my family said 'at least you got the rodent part right.' Jordyn, well, she's like a marble greek goddess come to life. Her power and grace is just astounding. McKayla is an alien. Just look at her face. That's why she can fly so damn high on the vault. Alien. Aly is cut from the same quarry as Jordyn - both gals have so much power in their necks and backs, like granite. Powerhouses. And Kyla is an elf. So we have a squirrel, two greek goddesses, an alien and an elf representing us. GO USA!

It was bittersweet to watch Nastia's final routine. She's been the darling of US gymnastics since Beijing and I'm honored to have seen her live. She has a style and flair that is really something special and accepted the conclusion of her stellar career with grace.

[cranefly]

So we have a squirrel, two greek goddesses, an alien and an elf representing us.

Hey... How come ain't I watching this?

Agreed, the commentary on TV can be very annoying, making it almost unwatchable at volume. One of the problems I have with gymnastics is that the dismounts and the landings seem to dominate the scoring. Back when I was head of the Olympic Committee, I tried to introduce LTFAS (Let Them Fall and Sprawl) to the event. But no, they wouldn't listen to me. Their loss. I think the TV commentary over-emphasizes the common elements of everyone's routine, forcing you to focus on what shouldn't be the highlights. Sort of like in figure-skating where they say, "She's coming up to a triple axle followed by a four wheeler with fondue, then a double-dip ice cream parquet." Once the skater does it, the commentator analyzes the piss out of it until the next big move. Sort of like trying to watch a martial arts movie with a friend, only he keeps fast-forwarding to watch only the best parts of the best fight scenes. That's something I'd never do on my own, except maybe to test out the fast-forward mechanism on the DVD player.

I have no idea what I'm talking about.

[Drunk Monk]

Hey... How come ain't I watching this?

Good question. There's this great line in the gymno flick Stick It! where one of the guys realizes the awesomeness of women's gymnastics. I can't remember the line...something about athletic chicks in leos and how long has this been going on? Of course, in the movie, that guy is the same age as the competitive girls and it doesn't come off creepy like Greg, but there you have it.

[Greg_phpbb3_import1]

I stand as described. I also feel bad for the girls. It seems like a lot of pressure to be under at the age. And it all comes down to one mis-step, one off movement and their dreams are shattered.

They look fabulous. They do amazing things. They have to be sewn into their outfits. Couldn't they be 18?

[Drunk Monk]

Nastia is 22. And she's done.

We met Nastia a few months ago. She was on a promo tour for this event and a signing was held at a Peninsula gym. The stupid gym wasted like 15 mins. of her short appearance there showing a homemade overview video on her. Now, you must understand, Nastia has been the queen of gymnastics since Beijing. She has several product lines of gymno gear, her own national meet circuit, was a spokesperson for Covergirl, has made several movie and tv cameos, and is in almost every ad in the national gymno mag. That being said, she was very gracious, grounded and stunningly beautiful in person (when competing, she pulled her hair back into a ponytail exposing her impossibly high forehead, but in normal life, with her bangs down, she looks much more attractive). After the vid, a huge chaotic signing line formed and we were at the end. Because time ran out, the rep had to pull her away and she was desperately trying to sign for her fans. I did an 'over the top' Shaolin move to thrust T's "Road to London" sweatshirt and get one of the last autographs.

The ironic thing is that she has a signature gesture, a flick back of her foreleg. When she fell off the bars on Sunday, she fell hard, a total bellyflop faceplant. You could see the impact on her neck. And as she lay there for a second, her foreleg flicked back. It was hard to watch a champion of her caliber fall, but all things are impermanent, especially sports champs.

That being said, it's a competitive sport. All competitive sports have losers. In fact, the majority of competitors are losers. Don't feel bad for them, even if they are little girls.

[cranefly]

Nastia is a 22-year-old gorgeous blonde. I think she'll be fine.

(LCF again. In case you couldn't tell from the envy dripping from this post.)

[Drunk Monk]

DOOM would be so much simpler if you just registered your own account. CF's avatar doesn't really suit you.

[Drunk Monk]

Jordyn was robbed. No way should have those deductions put her out of the all-arounds. Broke my heart to see it. She's my fav on the team. And she's the reigning world champion.

[The Queen]

Jordan was robbed. No way should have those deductions put her out of the all-arounds. Broke my heart to see it. She's my fav on the team. And she's the reigning world champion.

The worst part was them interviewing the girl who made the all-arounds while poor Jordan was standing two feet away listening to her excited babble while she was crying and her heart was clearly broken. All I could think was, whyis she being forced to stand there?? The more I see NBC coverage, the more people I want to kill.

[Drunk Monk]

The worst part was them interviewing the girl who made the all-arounds while poor Jordan was standing two feet away listening to her excited babble while she was crying and her heart was clearly broken. All I could think was, whyis she being forced to stand there?? The more I see NBC coverage, the more people I want to kill.

I'm with you on that, which is why I prefer the Telemundo coverage. Jordan handled her interview very well, all things considered. I hope she kicks ass tonight and shows the IOC what they missed because of their stupid 2-max-per-country rule. Oh, let's not send the world's best to the finals. Let's allow more countries to be repped. That's so ridiculous.

[Greg_phpbb3_import1]

She did step out of the ring. That's a big no-no.

Poor men fell apart after coming in first for the qualifiers.

I need someone to show me where I can find out who qualified for the individual events.