Sleepymel’s Thoughts

Woot! Huge congratulations to Nastia Liukin and Shawn Johnson for winning gold and silver, respectively, in the women’s all around competition in gymnastics!! Amazing!

Ok, ok, to be fair, it certainly wasn’t only Alicia Sacramone’s fault the American team didn’t win gold in Women’s Team Gymnastics. The American team as a whole is a very good team. It’s just that the Chinese team was phenomenal (even if there is no way they’re all 16, the legal age for competing in the Olympics. By the way, I really do love how Béla Károlyi cannot get through an interview without mentioning this. It’s pretty funny.). I really don’t know how possible it was for the Americans to win gold even without the falls or if they were ever favored to win; they really would have had to have perfect routines to compete with China.  Maybe if the team was comprised all of Nastia Liukins and Shawn Johnsons. Honestly that last Chinese competitor, Cheng Fei, could have done somersaults around the floor and they still would’ve won.

Seriously though, congratulations to the American women for winning silver!

Well, congratulations to the American men’s gymnastics team for getting the bronze in the team competition tonight! I can’t say I’m completely enthused with the results, but bronze is certainly pretty great. I was so excited watching the first half of the competition. The American’s were leading halfway through, it was amazing! They had some really spectacular performances on the high bar – oh my gosh, it made me so nervous to watch, but it just looked so cool! I was a bit disappointed in the little mistakes the team kept making from that point on, though. Especially from the alts. A 12 and a 13 in scores (most of the scores shown throughout the show were around 15 which is considered good, amazing is over 16, I think 17 is the limit)?? Really?? *sigh* It really just made me wonder what could have been if the Hamm brothers had been able to go. They were so freakin’ good in the last Olympics. They were what made me really get into the men’s gymnastics for the first time! It would have meant a definite silver and the team could have even been a serious contender for gold!

Obviously they’re way, way greater than I ever was at gymnastics, but still, am I wrong for hoping for the best and expecting at least their best?