Another one of my favorite sports to watch during the Olympics is gymnastics. In this year’s womens USA team, most of the gymnasts are new except for one. I was expecting to see old faces from the Beijing 2008 Olympics, but unfortunately, championships such as Shawn Johnson and Nastia Liukin did not enter this year’s Olympics due to injuries. My favorite female gymnast is Shawn Johnson because I find her different from other athletes. I admire the fact that she has a lot of Olympic spirit as she is all smiles on and off the stage and still manages to smile whenever she loses. It’s disappointing that she isn’t included in this year’s Olympics but it’s great news to hear that she is currently in London watching the Olympics with her teammate, Nastia Liukin. The US womens gymnastic team in the London Olympics is not that bad. Congrats to Team USA for winning gold a few days ago.
For the mens, I was pretty disappointed in the US gymnastic team as it seem like they did not put in much effort in training as they made countless mistakes during the team final such as falling off the pommel horse and stepping out of line during the floor exercise. Due to lack of training, I think that most of them in the team are not ready to enter the Olympics yet. As for Team China, they have snagged gold once again, making history like how they had back in Beijing 2008. They seemed to have trained intensively in preparation for the Olympics because their skills are close to being flawless. My favorite male gymnast is Zou Kai from Team China. The first time I saw him was back in the Beijing Olympics and I thought his gymnastic skills were really good and flawless. He never fails to disappoint because he has done it again in this year’s Olympics. I guess the training he has done all paid off. I can’t wait to tune in the next few days to see him making history again in his next individual final competitions.
The Japanese team were pretty good as well but one of the members named Kohei Uchimura almost ruined the chance at getting a medal for himself and his team when he landed on the floor awkwardly after performing the pommel horse. The awkward landing had cost him a lot of deductions, placing the team at 4th place. However, everything changed when the Japanese coach protested to the judges that they did not give the correct points to Kohei Uchimura, forcing them to recalculate the score.
Final results were: 1st place for China, 2nd place for Japan, and 3rd place for Great Britain. The corrections had moved Japan up to 2nd place, replacing Great Britain who had to be moved down to 3rd place for the Bronze. It was the first time Great Britain had snagged a medal for gymnastics; they were really happy about it as they thought they were going to get silver but were a bit disappointed when the final results gave them the bronze. But they were fine with it because a medal was better than having nothing. The ones who are the most disappointed are the Ukrainians who had to pack their bags and walk away empty-handed after they were pushed down to 4th place when they originally were in 3rd place. It was very emotional watching that scene of them walking away with sad expressions on their faces. The Ukranians were happy and celebrating for 10 minutes but that 10 minute of happiness turned into emptiness at the end. I was almost in tears and will never want to watch a scene like this ever again because it’s really heartbreaking to watch. I think the judges should be more careful next time in giving the correct points.
Also, I did not like the fact that the Japanese coach was handing money to the judges while requesting for an appeal to correct Uchimura’s score because it seems like he is bribing them. I wonder if he knows that he is ruining his country’s image by doing such a suspicious act in public!
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