Ick - just saw a different US women's uniform - this is all red with odd little flame things on the arms. Actually, they're not as bad as the first ones I saw (red top, white middle, blue bottom).

Edit to add:

http://www.nbcolympics.com/slideshow/gymnastics/5039022/detail.html

This has the white Romanian outfits, the red/white/blue US ones (FYI Leau: at least one *is* wearing a bra)...

Beth, I suffered from the same confusion regarding the US outfits. There were a lot of undies showing, almost everyone was wearing white today!

And pegazus, I'm not sure I know what you mean... The US didn't win!

That was before the end, when they were marking them on the beam! And thanks to that Russia got 3rd instead of 2nd, not to mention the floor. The second US got 9.6 for a disaster while Khorkina got 9.4 for a nearly perfect performance. Then the floor - awful, awful judging. The US didn't win for one reason - it would have been too emberassing in the end to give anything less than what the Romanians got on the floor. It would have been total stealing, while like this it will pass. I think the whistling in the audience told the story. The guys commentating for Eurosport couldn't understand either why on Earth were the Russians getting these marks, some of the Romanians too. Same old story, we've seen this dozens of times already. Shameful.

Thanks for ruining it for me guys.
oh, well...

who cares about the leotards?
so what if the American Gladiator designers did the US duds?

judging is usually subjective
discrepencies are common
and the judges sometimes miss things are think too much or are seeing too many routines and they get all jumbled up
it's tough to be a judge

remember...
those who can't do, teach;
those who can't teach, judge.

knowing NBC here...we won't get Khorkina's routines
it's gonna be totally USA biased
but that didn't surprise anyone, did it?

the only thing I can say about the marks on the apparatus
is that if some girls have higher start values
a disaster wouldn't drop it as much
but if you do a clean program with a low start value
then the low score is justified.

however, by what you are saying that is not the case
and I am not surprise that has happened
because it happens all the time

maybe because the US is the current 2004 world team champs
they were given the benefit of the doubt
I hate it when that happens.
it's like having your past help your future.
it should always be a clean slate
what have you done for me lately?

no worries, mate...

I'm not too bummed
I just kinda wanted to have some suspense
when I was watching the program tonight
it's only 5:00 pm here...I have three hrs til
Olympic primetime starts

but according to peg...I'm gonna be horrified
and really pissed at the judging.
hmm...that happens to me every time I was figure skating
and gymnastics...feels right to me

Ah, now I see the photo of the all red with some white ont he sleeves is the Russians... I still don't like that leotard much, but when compared with the US one...

Argh, no wonder I like track, badminton and kayaking better.

Not much to discuss over the style of the judo pyjamas

Ack sorry LordAndry, I totally forgot!! I suppose I was too angry last night - bad, bad me! Sorry!!

Yes, well watched the routines this morning again, and I still stand by what I said - it was judged poorly but I was not the only one who thought so - an international judge of female gymnastics agreed with me in her commentary of the last nights events.

You know it is not fair, to the US as well because they are good and they do not need this, they'd get the medal on merit alone so why do things like this? And yes, we do see this all the time for decades now although I must admit my fav was when in Moscow I believe the crowds were booing so loud and whistling for a gymnast to get a better mark (against the home Russian!) that in the end they had to change it so the guy won! Well obviously this wasn't that bad, but the little 0.1s mean so much in the end.

Lol, LordAndry, honestly I do not remember a championships of either of those two when I wasn't bummed out about the judging. It would be a shock to my system if they judged correctly

Pega - which people and when do you think were unfairly judged? I watched the routines last night/this morning...

Well take the beam for example - US number 2 girl - she got a 9,6 if I remember well. Now first we had the Romanians there, then the Russians. Keep in mind that this is the best for the Romanians, while the a-bars are the top US one, and they didn't do well there. So what do we get - number 2 US girl (sorry but I do not remember the names anymore, who went when) has at least two clear mistakes (insecurity on the beam, and the dismount) not to mention a few minor ones but she gets a 9,6 which is a total impossiblity! That was clearly judged to keep the US in the game. When you compare what the others did you see the clear bias in the judging. It may sound a little but the difference between Romania and the US was 0,1 after the beam and that is how much you lose when step out on the dismount.

Then the floor as well - the second Russian was totally marked down for nothing (that is when the commentators lost it on Eurosport and started asking what was going on) Khorkina got a decent 9.6 but when you add what she unjustly lost on the beam, what the US got there, then what the Russians lost again on the floor you get Russia 2nd and US 3rd.

I don't remember it all anymore, but that was not fair. On the other hand, it's nothing new. What is stupid is that the US girls are great, they don't need that to win a medal. They would have had one either way.

We didn't even get to see the other Russians on the floor - only Khorkina...

And I did see her smile at the end of her routine!

I felt so sorry for the Chinese girl who fell from the uneven bars...

His first smile during the entire final! Made her look much more sympathetic.

Every time the audience was whistling out of disapproval of a girl's score, all our commentators said was "the start value of this exercise was not a 10, so they couldn't have scored much higher than they did". Don't know if they thought it was fair or not.

I have to agree with pegazus on the second Russian floor exercise. Didn't understand the low score at all!

Ah yes Leau she did smile then, true. But I still wish I looked like that

Well what's done is done - we can watch the men tonight, ought to be good ... hopefully they'll have better outfits

And no bras!

:: falls from her chair laughing ::

I sure hope so!

Jocks??

I'm sure that the men would only have jocks on the pommel horse
a wrong move there could seriously hurt the family jewels

I agree that Terrin Humphries got a better score.
the score was a 9.6 and she probably deserved a 9.45
a few too many bobbles...but no major mistakes
her start value was a 9.9 though so that helped
and she got bonus points for a very difficult tumbling pass

but yeah, when your name is Carly Patterson and you are both the team world champ and the all around world champ
you get breaks.

I felt bad for Li Ya and I'm glad she didn't hurt herself
that face plant looked pretty bad
thank god for mats

on Svetlana Khorkina...her beam did deserve the 9.4
consider...start value of 9.8
I know her mount and dismount are unique
but they are not difficult
two bobbles and a missed linked element
dropped her start value to 9.7 and knocked off 3 tenths
however, she looked great on beam
so I guess that is why people were irritated by the score.
notice how she was not annoyed by it
she knew what was up and what she was gonna get

The Russians were very weak this year...
they were helped out by the fact that Ukraine and China fell

It's weird when the judges are so picky
then a not so good routine gets a good score
I get irritated

I have to say
I really do not like the format

why can't it be like qualifying?

you have a team of six athletes
send up five and use only four scores
what is wrong with that?

three up, three count
really cranks up the pressure
plus I wanna see more gymnastics...not less

:: bangs head on desk ... several times ::

Ok who ever is watching knows what just happened (hint - the fall) and what the person in question won - the same mark the Romanian girl got last night for a *perfect* routine on the a-bars! If that is not favouritism ...

the Romanians were not perfect on the uneven bars last night
they had issues like everyone else
just a lot less...they had three pretty clean programs
just not very difficult ones
of the three girls...the start values were 9.7, 9.8 and 9.8
I only remember Oana Ban and Catalina Ponor
Ponor just killed her floor routine last night
it was a pleasure to watch...scored a 9.752

Octavia Belu has the right idea
no need for extra difficulty, it's too risky
do a simple routine, get a good score
and wait for everyone else to mess up

did something happen in the men's all-around tonight?

Oh you could say that ... all I can say about the result is that I have a strong urge to vomit and nothing more.

As for the Romanians - I was referring to the fact that the girl got 9.137 for a good routine; lower difficulty for a start yes, but they gave her that mark and she had no major mistakes. Well tonight we had a fall and he got 9.137 ...

I am not sure why I bother watching in the first place. I doubt I will tomorrow after this.

First of all, I have no knowledge whatsoever about gymnastics, other than what I hear from the commentators. I occasionally watch an event, and have no idea about the worth of certain elements within an exercise. But to me the scores the gymnasts obtained (on the last three rotations that is, they didn't show the first three here) didn't seem too unfair. Some were a little bit lower or higher than I'd expected, but like I said, I don't know anything about it, so I just assume the judges are right.

But maybe that's what they expect?

LordAndry do not read further down!!




SPOILERS:








Leau - yes but just think this - the margin of victory between the first and the second and then think of those little differences even you spotted. By the way the expert commentator here said that on that routine I mentioned 9 would have been an absolute maximum.