So, I think out of all the trials, the event that I am the most determined not to miss is the Men's gymnastics. First of all, I think they are the best looking men in the world. My personal opinion. But more importantly they have strength and a sense of perseverance that I have rarely seen in any discipline.
This year, I only saw one returning Olympian to the trials, everyone else was completely new to me. Jonathan Horton. He did well, right up until his last exercise- the floor. It was devastating to watch in a mater of a second as his hopes went from fairly solid to wide open. I nearly cried. He under rotated and landed off balance and fell out of bounds on something he has never missed before. He got back up and finished, but you could tell it really hurt his hopes. Just goes to show, anyone can have a bad moment. He still has a chance, but we wont find out till tomorrow when the team is selected.
They did something I don't recall from Olympics past selecting this team. Its not completely points based. They are taking the top to finishers at the trials, and then everyone else is ranked and reviewed and the judges will pick the remaining three for the team tomorrow. It was weird to follow the selection process and seemed so subjective. I see the benefit to getting the best team possible through this process, so I like the Idea, but I know how political judged sports are already ,so I am kind of sad to see this process in that it will definitely kill the dark horse sneak in by a miracle approach that is so wonderful for the Olympic human interest stories. They found one to replace it though, talking about the two young men that did qualify today, and how their success is helping to help out their families.
We had the first gymnast to qualify for the Olympics from the Bronx today. I think that is pretty awesome. John Orozco was amazing in most of his events, and then all the sudden in the parallel bars things started to go awry. When he finished we found out something was wrong with his hand, and he wasn't getting it to release the bar. It was amazing to me that he was able to do as well as he did, and kind of scary, something could have gone really badly wrong, but he toughed his way through it and it was inspiring. You could see he was in a lot of pain when he finished.
I would like to end by saying, my favorite event is the rings. Amazing strength, flexibility and control are necessary for the rings. But I once again have to say NBC's commentating has gone down hill. They used to tell us what the moves were the athletes are doing, to educate the audience. The commentary has been sparse throughout the trials, practically like watching a live feed. I had to take over commentary for my friends today. I have watched enough Gymnastics, I think I did a decent job, but I miss the old commentary. NBC, please work on bringing back old standards of commentary, and showing us the points and scores. We were in the dark as to rankings and scores for most of the men's competition, and it just is harder to follow when that happens. Hope they straighten it out before the Games. Well, tonight there will be swimming and track. Please watch and support our American team, or if you are from another country, Please watch and support your athletes. They invest a lifetime, and lots of their own money in this, for most of them there is no big pay off. But you can watch them and appreciate their effort, and honestly as an athlete sometimes that is a pay off enough.
This year, I only saw one returning Olympian to the trials, everyone else was completely new to me. Jonathan Horton. He did well, right up until his last exercise- the floor. It was devastating to watch in a mater of a second as his hopes went from fairly solid to wide open. I nearly cried. He under rotated and landed off balance and fell out of bounds on something he has never missed before. He got back up and finished, but you could tell it really hurt his hopes. Just goes to show, anyone can have a bad moment. He still has a chance, but we wont find out till tomorrow when the team is selected.
They did something I don't recall from Olympics past selecting this team. Its not completely points based. They are taking the top to finishers at the trials, and then everyone else is ranked and reviewed and the judges will pick the remaining three for the team tomorrow. It was weird to follow the selection process and seemed so subjective. I see the benefit to getting the best team possible through this process, so I like the Idea, but I know how political judged sports are already ,so I am kind of sad to see this process in that it will definitely kill the dark horse sneak in by a miracle approach that is so wonderful for the Olympic human interest stories. They found one to replace it though, talking about the two young men that did qualify today, and how their success is helping to help out their families.
We had the first gymnast to qualify for the Olympics from the Bronx today. I think that is pretty awesome. John Orozco was amazing in most of his events, and then all the sudden in the parallel bars things started to go awry. When he finished we found out something was wrong with his hand, and he wasn't getting it to release the bar. It was amazing to me that he was able to do as well as he did, and kind of scary, something could have gone really badly wrong, but he toughed his way through it and it was inspiring. You could see he was in a lot of pain when he finished.
I would like to end by saying, my favorite event is the rings. Amazing strength, flexibility and control are necessary for the rings. But I once again have to say NBC's commentating has gone down hill. They used to tell us what the moves were the athletes are doing, to educate the audience. The commentary has been sparse throughout the trials, practically like watching a live feed. I had to take over commentary for my friends today. I have watched enough Gymnastics, I think I did a decent job, but I miss the old commentary. NBC, please work on bringing back old standards of commentary, and showing us the points and scores. We were in the dark as to rankings and scores for most of the men's competition, and it just is harder to follow when that happens. Hope they straighten it out before the Games. Well, tonight there will be swimming and track. Please watch and support our American team, or if you are from another country, Please watch and support your athletes. They invest a lifetime, and lots of their own money in this, for most of them there is no big pay off. But you can watch them and appreciate their effort, and honestly as an athlete sometimes that is a pay off enough.
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