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laurierobeyJust bite me.
Silver's disappointing for U.S. women gymnasts
Team didn't win 2nd place, it lost the gold medal to Romania
Amy Sancetta / AP
Despite making it to the medal podium for the first time since 1996, the U.S. women's gymnastics team did not meet its golden expectations in Athens, writes NBCSports.com's Mike Celizic.
COMMENTARY
By Mike Celizic
MSNBC
Updated: 2:02 a.m. ET Aug. 18, 2004ATHENS, Greece - Sometimes you win silver, and sometimes you lose gold. Tuesday night in an Olympic Indoor Hall that was, for a change, more full than empty, the U.S. Olympic Women’s Gymnastics Team did the latter.
You’d like to put a nicer gloss on it, as the women did themselves, beaming with pride after the team competition, proud to collect Olympic hardware for the first time since 1996 in Atlanta.
“It’s been eight years since the United States has been on the medals stand,” said Mohini Bhardwaj, who stepped in for an injured Courtney Kupets on the balance beam and held her own. “We’re really happy about our performance.”
This was 30 minutes after the competition’s last rotation, which saw the Romanians nail down their team gold with a scintillating performance on the floor exercise while the Americans, who had proceeded them, watched glumly from the sidelines.
The U.S. women gymnasts came off the floor with no tears and no excuses. But the team coordinator, Martha Karolyi, said afterwards that while nice, there was sting in the silver medal. She wanted gold and felt the team should have had it.
The team’s coach, Kelli Hill, disagreed, saying, “We got beat by a better team tonight and there’s no dissatisfaction in that.”
Much as I get annoyed at the projectile weeping that often accompanies figure skating and gymnastics, the absence of any ocular moisture was a little disconcerting. This team accepted the silver very readily. Maybe if there had been more sting to the prospect of second, they would have tried harder to finish first.
And despite what the Americans said about Romania having won the gold, the truth was that the winners had to come from behind to get it. After two of the four events, Team USA, the defending world champions and perhaps the finest gymnastics team the nation had ever assembled, held a .338-point lead over Romania with the balance beam and floor to come.
That’s a substantial lead in gymnastics. But they gave it all back and then some on the next apparatus, the beam. Bhardwaj did the best she could – a 9.400 – as Kupets’ last-minute replacement. But her teammates – Carly Patterson and Terin Humphrey – couldn’t back her up.
It’s easy to blame Kupets’ injury. But well before the beam, Carly Patterson, the team’s leader and the best gymnast in the qualifying round, had put up disappointing scores of 9.325 and 9.287 on the vault and the uneven bars. If she had just hit decent scores of around 9.5 on both of those – or even one of them – the Americans wouldn’t have lost their lead so early.
Patterson came back on the floor exercise and the balance beam, but the damage was already done. She had nailed championship performances before. This time, she didn’t.
You can talk about Olympic pressure, and it’s enormous, especially on a team that’s told it’s supposed to win. And the scoring system in the Olympics, newly installed at last year’s World Championships, is merciless.
In the old days, six gymnasts performed and the worst score was thrown out. Also, every gymnast had two chances on the vault, with the best score counting. Now, each team puts three athletes on each apparatus. They get one shot at it, and every score counts. No one has the luxury of feeling that if they blow their routine, the score can be thrown out in favor of a better one by a teammate.
But everyone had to live with the same rules. And the pressure on Romania, which feels about gymnastics similarly to the way the United States feels about basketball, is also high. In that country, second place isn’t a cause to celebrate. It’s reason to ask, “What went wrong.”
Everything went right for the Romanians when it counted. They scored big on the beam and then waited for the United States to put up a score on the floor exercise. The U.S. responded again with substandard scores, especially from Kupets, who inexplicably lost her balance on a simple pirouette. It had nothing to do with her sore hamstring. It just happened, she said.
There are still individual championships to be decided and the all-around individual champion to be crowned. Kupets and Patterson both have shots at the latter title.
But even if they finish one-two – a great individual achievement – in the world of gymnastics, the most coveted title isn’t the individual one; it’s the team gold.
The United States won it in 1996 when Kerri Strug stuck a vault on an ankle that was injured so badly she had to be carried to the medal stand. This year, there were no such heroics. There were only athletes who didn’t have their best nights when the situation demanded it.
Silver isn’t bad. In fact, it’s very good. It’s just that this team, the defending champions of the world, could have – and should have – done better.
Silver's disappointing for U.S. women gymnasts
Team didn't win 2nd place, it lost the gold medal to Romania
Amy Sancetta / AP
Despite making it to the medal podium for the first time since 1996, the U.S. women's gymnastics team did not meet its golden expectations in Athens, writes NBCSports.com's Mike Celizic.
COMMENTARY
By Mike Celizic
MSNBC
Updated: 2:02 a.m. ET Aug. 18, 2004ATHENS, Greece - Sometimes you win silver, and sometimes you lose gold. Tuesday night in an Olympic Indoor Hall that was, for a change, more full than empty, the U.S. Olympic Women’s Gymnastics Team did the latter.
You’d like to put a nicer gloss on it, as the women did themselves, beaming with pride after the team competition, proud to collect Olympic hardware for the first time since 1996 in Atlanta.
“It’s been eight years since the United States has been on the medals stand,” said Mohini Bhardwaj, who stepped in for an injured Courtney Kupets on the balance beam and held her own. “We’re really happy about our performance.”
This was 30 minutes after the competition’s last rotation, which saw the Romanians nail down their team gold with a scintillating performance on the floor exercise while the Americans, who had proceeded them, watched glumly from the sidelines.
The U.S. women gymnasts came off the floor with no tears and no excuses. But the team coordinator, Martha Karolyi, said afterwards that while nice, there was sting in the silver medal. She wanted gold and felt the team should have had it.
The team’s coach, Kelli Hill, disagreed, saying, “We got beat by a better team tonight and there’s no dissatisfaction in that.”
Much as I get annoyed at the projectile weeping that often accompanies figure skating and gymnastics, the absence of any ocular moisture was a little disconcerting. This team accepted the silver very readily. Maybe if there had been more sting to the prospect of second, they would have tried harder to finish first.
And despite what the Americans said about Romania having won the gold, the truth was that the winners had to come from behind to get it. After two of the four events, Team USA, the defending world champions and perhaps the finest gymnastics team the nation had ever assembled, held a .338-point lead over Romania with the balance beam and floor to come.
That’s a substantial lead in gymnastics. But they gave it all back and then some on the next apparatus, the beam. Bhardwaj did the best she could – a 9.400 – as Kupets’ last-minute replacement. But her teammates – Carly Patterson and Terin Humphrey – couldn’t back her up.
It’s easy to blame Kupets’ injury. But well before the beam, Carly Patterson, the team’s leader and the best gymnast in the qualifying round, had put up disappointing scores of 9.325 and 9.287 on the vault and the uneven bars. If she had just hit decent scores of around 9.5 on both of those – or even one of them – the Americans wouldn’t have lost their lead so early.
Patterson came back on the floor exercise and the balance beam, but the damage was already done. She had nailed championship performances before. This time, she didn’t.
You can talk about Olympic pressure, and it’s enormous, especially on a team that’s told it’s supposed to win. And the scoring system in the Olympics, newly installed at last year’s World Championships, is merciless.
In the old days, six gymnasts performed and the worst score was thrown out. Also, every gymnast had two chances on the vault, with the best score counting. Now, each team puts three athletes on each apparatus. They get one shot at it, and every score counts. No one has the luxury of feeling that if they blow their routine, the score can be thrown out in favor of a better one by a teammate.
But everyone had to live with the same rules. And the pressure on Romania, which feels about gymnastics similarly to the way the United States feels about basketball, is also high. In that country, second place isn’t a cause to celebrate. It’s reason to ask, “What went wrong.”
Everything went right for the Romanians when it counted. They scored big on the beam and then waited for the United States to put up a score on the floor exercise. The U.S. responded again with substandard scores, especially from Kupets, who inexplicably lost her balance on a simple pirouette. It had nothing to do with her sore hamstring. It just happened, she said.
There are still individual championships to be decided and the all-around individual champion to be crowned. Kupets and Patterson both have shots at the latter title.
But even if they finish one-two – a great individual achievement – in the world of gymnastics, the most coveted title isn’t the individual one; it’s the team gold.
The United States won it in 1996 when Kerri Strug stuck a vault on an ankle that was injured so badly she had to be carried to the medal stand. This year, there were no such heroics. There were only athletes who didn’t have their best nights when the situation demanded it.
Silver isn’t bad. In fact, it’s very good. It’s just that this team, the defending champions of the world, could have – and should have – done better.
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Date: 2004-08-18 01:12 pm (UTC)CYa!
Mako
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Date: 2004-08-18 02:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-08-18 03:44 pm (UTC)moochingstaying at Scott's brother's place...Tnx & HBD!
Mako
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Date: 2004-08-18 07:47 pm (UTC)