Kudos to Gabby Douglas, but Shame on NBC

Congratulations to Gabby Douglas, 16, who becomes the third consecutive American gymnast along with Carly Patterson (2004 Athens Olympics) and Nastia Liukin (2008 Beijing Olympics) to win all-around gold. Douglas, who was greatly influenced by Dominique Dawes, a member of the 1996 Olympics gymnastics team that won gold in Atlanta, becomes the first African-American to win an individual gold medal in women's gymnastics.

But, we feel outraged that NBC, the network broadcasting the games in the United States, had to zoom in constantly on Viktoria Komova, 17, the Russian gymnast who ended up finishing second as she underperformed on the floor exercise, her last event.

This was yet another dubious moment for the network which has been scorned by American Olympic viewers on social media outlets, such as Twitter and Facebook. NBC was also criticized for not airing a moment of silence to the victims of the July 7, 2005, London terrorist attacks at the opening ceremonies of the games.

There was yet another controversy in women's gymnastics at the games, and for a second time, it involved American gymnast Aly Raisman, as she lost a tie-breaker to Russian gymnast Aliya Mustafina, 17, because the Russian gymnasts' lowest score, which occurred on the balance beam, was dropped.

Earlier, Raisman had edged out teammate Jordyn Wieber, the defending world champion, for the second American slot in the all-around competition. A provocative new rule states that only two gymnasts from each country may compete irregardless of scores.

http://www.chalkbowl.com/gabrielle

http://www.gabrielledouglas.com

Kudos to Team USA aka The Fab Five for Winning Gold in Women's Gym

Congratulations to both Team USA, also known as the Fab Five or the Fierce Five for winning the team gold medal in women's gymnastics and to Team Canada as our neighbors to the north finished in fifth, the highest ever placement for a Canadian team in the sport.

The team victory is perhaps especially sweet for Jordyn Wieber (pictured above) since she could not qualify for the all-around competition because of a highly controversial, perhaps even dubious rule, which only allow two competitors per country based on qualifying scores, irregardless of how high those scores might be.

For Team America, McKayla Maroney paved the way with a 16.223 score and Aly Raisman, who won the highly coveted second slot instead of Wieber, assured team victory with a fluid floor routine. Gabby Douglas, who had the highest score for Team America in the first round, competed on all four events with high scores on each of them. Kyla Ross (pictured below) held steady as well.

For Team Canada, the fifth place finish will make headlines in national newspapers tomorrow even if the team did not get a medal for their historic accomplishment.

Various Canadian media sources said the team members were overjoyed. Kristina Vaculik (pictured middle) tweeted that 'Canada rocked the house,' while teammate Domique Pegg tweeted that she was proud of the team's accomplishment.

Russia finished a distant second in large part because top gymnasts Anastasia Grishina and Ksenila Afanseva had very disappointing floor routines and Aliya Mustafina stumbled on the balance beam.

Romania won bronze, and the team's chances of winning gold were diminished because of an injury to standout gymnast Larisa Ioardoche. But, Catalina Ponour, 24, one of the oldest gymnasts competing at the Olympics and the lone remaining member of the 2008 Athens Olympics gold medal-winning team had an impressive balance beam routine.

Astonishingly, China, a team that won gold at home at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, finished fourth.

http://www.usagym.org 

http://www.jordanwieber.com

http://www.gymcan.org

Olympic Stories- Anna Li Making Best of Olympics After Bad Injury

Anna Li, 23, had overcome concerns that she was too old, too tall at 5'4 and too injury-prone as she had two surgically repaired broken feet, yet she qualified for the women's Olympics gymnastics team as an alternate for the squad that would head to London.

Li was a stand-out at traditional powerhouse UCLA where she helped guide the Bruins to the school's sixth NCAA title in 2010. UCLA narrowly lost to the University of Alabama this year at the NCAA championships this spring.

On July 28, Li blogged about her Olympics experience in an entry that was posted on uclabruins.com; alas, Li suffered a devastating injury when she feel from the uneven bars during the team's second workout. Li will be wearing a neck brace in the coming weeks and she thanked everyone for their get-well wishes.

But, the former UCLA gymnast was upbeat about her time in the United Kingdom, and she talked about how it took her a moment to realize that when the team's plane landed at 7 a.m. local time in England, that it was 1 a.m. in her home state of Illinois, where Li, the daughter of two Chinese Olympic gymnasts, went to Waubonise High School in the Chicago-suburb of Aurora.

In the years since graduating from UCLA, Li has performed as a stunt woman.

Li said the initial workout occurred at 8:00 a.m. and lasted for close to four hours, and that she took a nap at the team's hotel from noon until 2:50 p.m. for that second workout, where the injury resulted.

The gymnast is one of several UCLA alumni or active Bruins  in the 2012 London Olympics. Yesterday, former Bruin Courtney Mathewson, who helped UCLA to four consecutive NCAA titles, scored three vital goals in Team USA's narrow 14-13 win over Hungary in women's water polo.

As for women's gymnastics, Team USA had a shocking development on Sunday as defending world all-around champion Jordyn Wieber, 16, did not qualify for the all-around at the Olympics due to a highly controversial rule that only allows for two gymnasts from each country irregardless of the gymnast's score.

Gabby Douglas and Aly Raisman are the two gymnasts who qualified for all-arounds. Wieber will still compete for the team in the team finals which are happening tonight, surprisingly early for gymnastics which has traditionally been held in the middle of the Olympic games.

According to a survey from bleacherreport.com, some 70-percent of those surveyed felt that the Olympic gymnastics rule should be scrapped. 

http://www.annali.us/

http://www.uclabruins.com

http://www.bleacherreport.com