Sunday, August 17, 2008

Olympic Mens and Womens Gymnastics Finals

We've had the mens and womens gymnastic team competition and all around competition and now is time for the specialist tricksters.

We start things off with the men's floor routines and you'd think that it would be cleaner than this but they were falling all over the place like bad figure skating. But who comes through in the end? Surprise, surprise. It's the Chinese. Here are your medalists.

Men's Floor Final


Zou Kai - China
Gervasio Deferr - Spain
Anton Golosutskov - Russia

Next up is the men's pommel horse. I don't understand all the intricacies of hand placements and travels and flairs but here are the winners in what is considered one of the hardest apparatus.

Men's Pommel Horse Final


Xiao Qin - China
Filip Ude - Croatia
Louis Smith - Great Britain

Women's Vault Event


This has got to be one of the most insane competitions I've seen. Alicia Sacramone was in the running for a medal. Good to see her bounce back after the team competition because let's face it, she pretty much screwed the U.S. chances... Another vaulter, Anna Pavlova would have probably gotten a medal but she went before the judges go-ahead. And to top it all off, a 33-year old German won a medal! What a story that is considering gymnastics is a sport that youth reigns supreme. A "mature" woman pretty much has no shot but Oksana Chusovitina, a mother no less, won silver! Favorite Cheng Fei who had all the expectations of the Chinese on her eked out a bronze after her a fall on her second vault. A North Korean won the vault final and it was nice to see... You hardly ever seen North Koreans since they are so isolated but good for her.

Hong Un Jong - North Korea
Oksana Chusovitina - Germany
Cheng Fei - China

Women's Floor Event Final


Surprisingly, you haven't heard much from Romania in this gymnastic competition. Usually they are so strong but I guess it comes in cycles and now it's U.S. and China's time to shine. But the Romanian gymnast, Sandra Izbasa put the smack down on everyone and made it known that the Romanians are still a factor by winning the Women's Floor Event final. Shawn Johnson came in second and Natsia Liukin added to the American medal count with a bronze. I must say, looking at people congratulating each other, I've very impressed with the camaraderie of all the gymnasts from different nations. Chinese, Romanians, Americans, etc. I would have thought there would be cat fights and all given the fierceness of competition and what's at stake. But I guess all the barriers are pretty much broken. You just see all these gymnasts so often at other meets as well. It's SO nice to see heartfelt hugs of congratulations. And I have to say, Shawn Johnson always looks so happy. We know why Natsia Liukin is happy because she got her all around gold, but Johnson still looks so happy with a silver. I'm very impressed with this young lady. She has a couple more events to go as I'm updating this so I hope she gets a gold.

Sandra Izbasa - Romania
Shawn Johnson - USA
Natsia Liukin - USA

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