Olympic Gymnastics

[KungFuPanda]

And I wonder if some are springier than others or if there is a regulation. Remember the first night of floor when everyone was stepping out of bounds? We were wondering if that floor was simply more springy than they were used to.

 

Hmmmm . . .is Regulation Springiness a thing?

 

Also, should they get rid of the age restrictions? With such a short shelf-life for a sport, is there harm in letting athletes compete WHENEVER they peak? It would spare us the constant drama over the age of the Chinese gymnasts.

 

Who actually knows something about gymnastics and wants to chime in with an opinion?

 

Here is another breathtaking performance. I can't begin to guess this girl's age.

 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2yokMycd-EQ&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Edited August 9, 2012 by KungFuPanda

[Serenade]

This said that it wasn't available in my territory, but I did find it here :)

 

 

 

Thanks for posting this! My TV went out right in the middle of his performance, and I thought I would never be able to see the whole thing. Wow! Totally awesome.

[abacus2]

:iagree: and I really wanted to see her score reflect what we all saw.

 

Yes. What gets me is that they keep replaying this vault in slow motion and I can't see a thing wrong. They even did an overlay comparison between Maroney and the men's all around champion from Japan (now arguably the best male gymnast ever with his '09 world champion, '10 world champion, '11 world champion, '12 Olympic champion record) preforming the same vault. Maroney flew about a foot higher despite starting from a slightly lower vaulting table.

 

I've been watching gymnastics every chance I get since I saw Mary Lou on TV as a kid. This Olympics has produced some breath-taking performances. If I am not mistaken, the US women put together 28 consecutive routines with no significant errors to claim the gold in the team competition. Amazing. Gabby Douglas just flies on (and off) the uneven bars. McKayla Maroney's vault in the team competition was perfect and I think should have been given a 10 for execution. The men's high bar was incredible. The Chinese gymnasts who took gold and silver in the beam event final were fabulous. Allie Raisman and the Romanian who took silver in the floor competed wonderful, near perfect floor routines.

[pfamilygal]

I think it's the difficulty. The new rules encourage higher difficulty, making it harder to hit when you need to. (Smaller margin of error.)

 

I miss the artistry of Svetlana Boginskaya.

 

 

And Lilia Podkopayeva. She was my fav!

 

I also really like Andreea Raducan. Peeved me greatly when they stripped her gold over a Sudafed the team's doc gave her. Poor dear.

[staceyobu]

And I wonder if some are springier than others or if there is a regulation. Remember the first night of floor when everyone was stepping out of bounds? We were wondering if that floor was simply more springy than they were used to.

 

I did hear commentators say that it was a very springy floor and had caused some problems for the gymnasts.

[Georgiana Daniels]

I did hear commentators say that it was a very springy floor and had caused some problems for the gymnasts.

 

Yay, I was in-sync with an expert opinion:D

[Murmer]

Hmmmm . . .is Regulation Springiness a thing?

 

Also, should they get rid of the age restrictions? With such a short shelf-life for a sport, is there harm in letting athletes compete WHENEVER they peak? It would spare us the constant drama over the age of the Chinese gymnasts.

 

Who actually knows something about gymnastics and wants to chime in with an opinion?

 

Here is another breathtaking performance. I can't begin to guess this girl's age.

 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2yokMycd-EQ&feature=youtube_gdata_player

 

The reason they upped the age restrictions (right after 1996) was to protect the athletes. The hope is that by raising the age coaches would be smarter about training young athletes so that they have less injuries and more longevity. It appears to have worked with many athletes staying around longer.

[plansrme]

Yes. What gets me is that they keep replaying this vault in slow motion and I can't see a thing wrong. They even did an overlay comparison between Maroney and the men's all around champion from Japan (now arguably the best male gymnast ever with his '09 world champion, '10 world champion, '11 world champion, '12 Olympic champion record) preforming the same vault. Maroney flew about a foot higher despite starting from a slightly lower vaulting table.

 

 

 

Just want to make sure everyone knows the overlay was her vault from team competition, not the individual event final. The event final vault did have some form breaks in it, and it was not as high as her team final vault.

 

As for floor springiness, my understanding is that a brand new floor is always springier than one that has been broken-in or worn out. The commentators mentioned a couple of times that the athletes did not get a lot of "podium training" time, which is when they actually practice on the competition surfaces. Accordingly, not only was the competition floor brand spankin' new, but it had not even been broken in like the probably also brand new training gym floor. So yes, I do think it was springier than the girls were accustomed to from at their home gyms and the Olympic practice gym.

 

Terri