Why are we watching this tripe rather than a real competition?
For those who missed it, it’s some medal winners showing off for kicks.
Because it gets ratings. They do this every Olympics.
I actually wish I had seen it. I’d like to see the crazy stuff that they don’t dare compete. I wonder if anybody did a triple back on the floor.
The figure skaters do this in the Winter Olympics too, and it’s one of my favorite parts.
Didn’t it have something to do with charity too, some sort of disaster relief? Also, it’s just ceremony, done to close out the gymnastics section of the Olympics. No different than any other ceremonial tradition, really.
I don’t think it should be an Olympic sport, but some of those group rhythmic gymnastics shows were pretty damn cool. Those 30-40 Chinese college students doing some lame sexy dance, not so much, especially when they weren’t doing anything athletically interesting and coming right after the Olympic medalists!
Because it’s awesome.
How could you like watching the competitions, and then not like watching the gold medal winners fooling around and having a good time? Put me in a good mood last night, that’s for sure. Although, to be fair, it might have been the Captain.
It certainly helps dispel the idea that some of those Chinese gymnasts were robotic automatons. I loved the pommel horse routine. 
Tripe? The horse bit was hilarious and the guys looked awesome on the highbar. I just wish Shawn and Nastia would’ve taken some risks on the balance beam.
Just be glad we in the US got the extremely cut down version. I think the real thing was hours long.
I caught the replay tonite on (I think) Oxygen, and holy crap! the Chinese tumbling team was AWESOME!
Why the heck isn’t that part of the gymnastics events at the Olympics – they could easily swap it for the rhythmic gymnastics, which, although pretty to watch, is basically choreographed dancing with few gymnastic elements. The tumbling flips were ridiculously astonishing, and so good even those jackasses NBC has commenting were occasionally impressed into silence.
That, alone, should get the sport a spot in the Olympics.
Someone please tell me this is available online somewhere. I’d love to see these people goofing off when they’re not being judged.
Because it’s not a competition.
I remember watching a tape of the eighties Soviet team working out. I don’t know hoe this tape came into our possesion. Somebody knew somebody who knew somebody who made some copies I guess. It was a long time before youtube. The shit these gymnasts pull in the gym when nothing is on the line is out of this world. I saw someone throw a quadruple flip off of the highbar. But nobody will ever compete that stuff because there are too many possibilities for mistakes and deductions. The quad off the highbar was done into a pit and would pretty much be a guaranteed face plant, but they would have made it (ie lived without being placed in traction).
It wasn’t a competition here, because it was a demonstration for the gala. But there is absolutely no reason it could not be scored exactly the same as the vault or floor exercise – assign difficulties to various moves, and define deductions. Heck, they’re even revising the scoring system for gymnastics again after this Olympics; perfect timing!
levdrakon, your best bet is probably over at NBC. The women’s routines were rather more-of-the-usual, IMO. Some of the men did some routines that had elements they’d never do in competition – multiple releases on the high bar, for example. The rest was kind of an odd mix of rhythmic gymnastics prancing about, and expressions of Chinese culture. But the tumblers were great.
But it’s so free form that it would be nearly impossible to come up with a scoring system that makes any sense. They were doing things that appeal to the crowd because they look spectacular, but aren’t necessarily the most difficult. How do you score a gymnast petting the pommel horse? Think of how badly people react to the current judging controversies. At least with standardized moves you stand a chance of getting a reasonable judging equality.
Besides, the reason it works so well is that there’s no competition pressure. These athletes have been scrutinized for the past two weeks, every move, every step, every single motion has to be perfect. This is only time they can have fun without being judged. They couldn’t be as free and light hearted if they were being judged.
Perhaps I gave up on it too quickly. I’m not much of a gymnastics fan to begin with (the inane announcers don’t help) and I tuned in to watch a real event, not an exhibition. I can see how fans would love it.
You are talking about the gala. I am talking about the Chinese tumblers. The tumbling runs they were doing are essentially the same as tumbling runs in floor exercise, except that they were fancier because they only had to do one pass, and because the floor they were tumbling on was springier than that of floor exercise.
They could be scored in exactly the same way that current gymnastics are scored. It is not an ideal system, but it would certainly be no worse than how they score floor exercise or vault. I am not talking about gymnasts petting the pommel horse. I am talking about adding the tumbling run as an Olympic event.
The Chinese tumblers weren’t in the Olympic competition; there was no competitive pressure for them, and they haven’t been scrutinized at all during the Olympics. This was the first – and only – time they did anything here.
Ah, my mistake, carry on.