Strength and Disappointment
The Main Blurb
If anyone assumes that men’s gymnastics is exactly like
women’s gymnastics, they can’t be more further from the truth. Although both
sports require power, strength, and finesse, both emphasize different aspects.
The women’s area requires much more finesse. Ladies are
usually very small (which is usually why most gymnasts are under the age of
20), and their tumbling and leaping skills are important for all four of their
events.
Men, on the other hand, is all about power. There are six
apparatus for the men, and most of them are about the upper body strength.
Still rings, pommel horse, and parallel bars all demand holding up your body by
your hands. You’ll rarely find a men’s gymnast with a small frame. Normally
they are all upper body.
I actually enjoy watching men’s gymnastics more than women’s
– but not just because I’m a woman. I can’t get over the raw strength and power
that these men show! Could you do a
handstand as you’re suspended eight feet in the air and you’re just holding two
rings?
Unfortunately, today my admiration for men’s gymnastics was
tarnished by two different things: 1) The American men stunk up the joint, and
2) The streaming on my computer kept crashing when it started to air an ad.
Which was a lot – because it’s NBC and all they think about is ad money. I was
shocked to see how dismal their routines looked – they were hitting the pommel
horse, they were stepping off to the sides (or sitting!) in their vaults, and
their finesse routines didn’t have enough difficulty to get them back in it.
They finished fifth.
I was saddened to hear about the appeal of the Japanese to
reconsider the starting difficulty and have it be accepted. But I wasn’t sad
for Great Britain – shape up Brits: they were still on the medal stand! I was
sad for the Ukranian team! No one had talked about their potential for a medal,
and they went out there and did everything they could. They had the bronze in
their grasp, and it was taken away when the Japanese were placed second.
And what did I tell you on Saturday about the Chinese?! I’m
just going to get a banner or something and hang it outside my window that says
“I WAS RIGHT!” They rebounded from that atrocious performance on Saturday to
win the gold. I knew that was going to happen. I didn’t want it to happen, but
I knew it would.
Enough about gymnastics – it’s making me depressed.
Mini Blurbs
Matt Grevers and Missy Franklin got my memo from yesterday –
both of them won golds in the 100-m backstroke. Bonus win: Nick Thoman won
silver! Rebecca Soni couldn’t outtouch Ruta Meilutyte, so she had to settle for
silver in her case. And Ryan Lochte? You better shape up or think of better
excuses for your less than stellar performances the past two days.
I would have really enjoyed the mass scoring that took place
in the women’s water polo match against Hungary, except for that ear-piercing
whistle that kept blowing every ten seconds. That just hurt too much.
Women’s volleyball was fun to watch, though – they beat
Brazil three games to one. I would much rather watch indoor volleyball than
beach volleyball – for more reasons than the obvious.
I always thought the national teams were all supposed to
have the same or incredibly similar uniforms. Rebecca Soni has been wearing a
gray swimsuit while some men have worn all black and sometimes have a flag on
the sides. And what’s with the gray podium warmups? Is it to distinguish
ourselves from the British? And why wasn’t Kim Rhode (skeet shooter) wearing
the gray warmup when she accepted her gold medal? Let’s act unified here, Team
USA. Right now I’m not feeling it.
Something fun to watch has been rowing – not to watch the
rowers, but to watch the bikers that are riding at the same speed as the
rowers! How do they keep the pace and not run into anything? I’d love to be one
of those bikers.
Got to watch a little kayak action today, which is pretty
much the Summer’s answer to Winter’s slalom skiing. As I watched it, I
wondered, “This is what is preempting live coverage of gymnastics?”
Speaking of preempting/delay/primetime coverage, I read an
excellent article about why NBC is living in ancient times when it comes to
airing Olympic events. In summary, we Americans expect to hear news immediately
– whether it is by the Internet, phone, or television. Sports is news. So when
we are forced to find alternative means to get our sports news immediately, or
are forced to wait till the sun is going down, we aren’t happy. Unfortunately,
most of us can’t scramble addresses online to get coverage from other countries’
feeds, so we have to wait till primetime. And because of that, NBC’s numbers
have been huge the past couple of days. So no matter how much people complain,
NBC is proving through ratings that keeping their marquee events till primetime
(and prime ad dollars) is working. Will they show a bit of humanity in 2014?
There’s about a 10-12 hour difference between us and Sochi, so probably not.
Rio is a definite possibility.
Today’s roundup: gymnastics, kayak, rowing, women’s
volleyball, beach volleyball, women’s water polo, swimming of all kinds, and
diving.
