Nastia Liukin's Controversial Silver in Uneven Bars

Okay, so after all the hub bub about Nastia Liukin's controversial silver in the uneven bars, I finally had a chance to watch it on tv. From my untrained eye and regardless of the fact that He Kexin and Nastia Liukin scored the same, I thought He Kexin had a better routine. It was more exciting and had more release moves than Liukin's. That's my personal preference stuck landing or no.

I'll say it again, I've been very impressed by the composure of the Americans not rising to the bait of stupid reporter questions on how she feels of the fact that the Chinese gymnasts might be underaged. Liukin replied that He Kexin is a great athlete no matter what the age. That's class. And no worries Nastia. People will remember you as the all around champion with a lot of class even more than they will uneven bar champion. That would have been icing. You already have the cake.

Oh, and for those that say gymnastic has a stupid scoring system and what not. True, but these athletes knew what they were getting into. If it's a subjective event, you live by the sword, you die by the sword. Yeah, it would have been nice if Liukin and Kexin could have both been winners but, what can you do?

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

Yang Wei Wins Men's All Around Gymnastics

The Chinese gymnastic machine keeps on rolling. There really was no competition for Yang Wei since his main rival Paul Hamm wasn't there in Beijing to push him. He pretty much walked over everyone and hit all six of his events. The other names expected to do well all fell or had some mishaps so Kohei Uchimura snuck in for the silver and France's Benoit Caranobe took the bronze.

After winning the men's team, women's team and now men's all around gold, there's undoubtedly more to come for this ultra prepared Chinese team. Look for the big red machine to keep rolling.