Right, the US has never had a swimmer dominate the world in the pool before. Sincerely, Mark Spitz John Naber Matt Biondi Janet Evans Jenny Thompson Amanda Beard Amy Van Dyken Dara Torres
A pretty good commentary about it on yahoo http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/beijing/gymnastics/news?slug=dw-karolyis081308&prov=yhoo&type=lgns Karolyis’ sour grapes makes bad whine By Dan Wetzel, Yahoo! Sports 9 hours, 30 minutes ago Yahoo! Sports BEIJING – Marta Karolyi kept staring over at these tiny Chinese opponents, their faces caked in makeup, and the disgust would rise within her. “Little babies,” she kept telling her team in the middle of the Olympic women’s gymnastics team final. “Oh, look at the little babies.” The Americans would laugh about it, laugh at their coach bashing their opponents. But for Marta, the U.S. national team coordinator, and her husband Bela, the NBC commentator, this was no joke. The Chinese had figured out how to upset their gymnastics dynasty, churning out these little athletic machines, perhaps so young they couldn’t even sense the pressure of the moment. The Karolyis couldn’t handle the results on Wednesday, a precise Chinese team, powered by three girls under suspicion for being just 14 years old, blowing out a stumbling crew of Americans. Courtesy of a 188.9-186.525 score, China took gold to the Americans’ silver. What kills the Karolyis isn’t that the Chinese would risk the health of their children by throwing them out here before their bones and muscles mature. It’s that the Americans won’t allow the Karolyis to do it, too. This isn’t a morality play here. In truth, no matter Marta and Bela’s bleating, no one knows how old the Chinese girls were. This was a myopic focus of the Karolyis on someone outfoxing them. ADVERTISEMENT Win or lose, they have to be the center of attention – from carrying Kerri Strug around for the cameras in Atlanta, to carrying on and on here in Beijing. It feeds their machine, increases their power in USA Gymnastics and convinces another generation of parents that they alone are best to make their tumbling daughter’s dream come true. “One little girl has (a) missing tooth,” Marta sniffed with indignation at the Chinese, although she would offer no name and admit she “has no proof” of anything. Later she’d claim, without any substance and lacking facts, that Olympic judges delayed Alicia Sacramone from starting her beam routine in an effort to shake her concentration. “There was no reason for it,” she said. Marta had all sorts of conspiracies going, a bushel of sour grapes. American media accounts have alleged, citing birthdates on old documents, that China was using gymnasts under the mandated age of 16. The Chinese produced passports that showed the girls were old enough, the International Olympic Committee accepted them and everyone says the issue is closed. Not with the Karolyis it isn’t. Earlier this week, Bela declared the Chinese were using “half people” and hammered them for cheating and arrogance. During the NBC broadcast of Wednesday’s competition, at least three times he reasserted the charge. Marta was no less diplomatic. Her team had crumbled under the pressure, made mistake after mistake after mistake and, to their credit, took the result with dignity. “They had a great meet,” Shawn Johnson said. “They deserve that medal.” Marta would have none of it. For whatever faint praise she would offer the Chinese, there were wild accusations of delay conspiracies and cheat birthdays to put smaller, more nimble girls in the competition. For each acknowledgement of her team’s own foibles, she stood in the middle of the media backstage swinging around, tossing out bombs, seeking more questions so she could offer more fuel to the fire. “So much talk about this,” she said. Even in the unlikely event everything Marta could dream up was true, even if the Americans had just been on the wrong end of this historic cheating, it was neither the time nor the place for pouting. Not after all the falls and stumbles. BEIJING - AUGUST 13: Alicia Sacramone of the United States loses her balance on the beam during the artistic gymnastics team event at the National Indoor Stadium during Day 5 of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games on August 13, 2008 in Beijing, China. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images) BEIJING - AUGUST 13: Alicia S… Getty Images - Aug 13, 1:45 am EDT Yet she kept claiming it was “a close fight.” It wasn’t. This was all a losers’ lament, an embarrassment. The U.S. had no credibility left. The gymnasts understood that. They rightly accepted the blame for only winning silver with a team that is beyond reproach. The Karolyis couldn’t just lose with dignity. They couldn’t accept their gymnasts’ best. They look across the way and lust over a system that might allow them to trot out a 4-foot-6, 68-pounder who bends and flips with ease. Bela coached Nadia Comaneci to seven perfect 10s in the 1976 Olympics. She was 14. With glory like that, who would remember all the other little girls who were injured? Who would care? This was a nightmare for Marta. She had to watch Sacramone, a 20-year-old woman, crumble under the pressure and stumble off a beam. Meanwhile, the Chinese kept sticking their landings. “Little babies,” she barked. It was too much to bear. The little babies had gotten her. The little babies were driving her and her husband nuts. The little babies were winning gold.
Ok first off, I'm gonna call bulls**t on the whole television feed thing being responsible for Sacramone's delay on the beam. Bob Costas clearly said at the beginning of the broadcast that NBC would be switching back and forth between events. They cut back to gymnastics multiple times and had to show video replay of a number of gymnasts' routines to catch the viewers up to speed. They did the same thing in the men's final...in fact with the men's final I don't think we saw every single routine from the US men. Furthermore, we were watching the delay in real time. The feed had already switched back to the women; it doesn't make sense then that she would continue to stand there. I also don't buy Martha Karolyi's explanation either. This isn't some conspiracy theory. These delays were happening throughout the entire men's and women's competitions (both finals and qualifications). If anybody is to blame for Sacramone spending an ungodly amount of time waiting to perform her routine it's the stupid judges; I kept waiting for something like this to happen. It's not fair for these athletes, who are ready to go, to have to wait for scores to display in double and triple the amount of time it should take. That's something that needs to seriously be addressed. Also, I think the Karolyi's have done some great things for women's gymnastics, but they need to seriously stop all the complaining. The Chinese team may have cheated, but whether or not those girls were underage was not the reason the US lost. The women's team made too many mistakes down the stretch and the Chinese did not. This is starting to remind me a lot of the 2000 Sydney games. That team underperformed and seemed to be plagued by mistakes in their routines. And afterwords there was a lot of inner turmoil, mainly directed in the direction of Bela Karolyi, which may have been a key reason why he stepped down from coaching the team after those games. The women won silver...along with a bronze for the men. That's plenty of reason to be proud. And here's hoping Sacramone bounces back and medals in the vault. If anything, I hope she at least ends her Olympics on a strong note.
Well said, the Karloyi's needs to realize that despite the allegations of been under aged and other things team USA simply lost to a better team, 16 or 12. It is not like Chinese gymnasts where bottom dwellers and then all the sudden started to win gold medals once they started playing in Beijing. I am not going to put too much emphasis on the time delay thing, these are Olympic level gymnasts I would think a extra 5 or 10 minutes shouldn't bother them that much. That been said I really don't like how she pretty much blamed team USA's lose (even tho they won a silver) solely on Alicia Sacramone messing up. I really don't understand how you could throw your own gymnast under the bus like that, very unprofessional.
Especially considering that Sacramone could have been perfect but the other out of bounds deductions on the floor routine could have cost them.
Hopefully the US can beat those little kids in the individual comps. I read they're much better in those because the Chinese just have specialists. Oh great, men's synchronized swimming on NBC...let's see what's on the online feed...
Just to make sure I am reading the schedule right... US plays Greece at 7 am tomorrow morning, correct?
Actually the disqualification of the Chinese swimmer allowed Australia's Libby Trickett to participate in the finals. She is the world record holder in this particular event.
she moved very slightly before the start. she didn't jump early, but that movement could potentially throw other swimmers off. she didn't have to do it, but things happens.
