Women's Gymnastics

I was fortunate enough to see the women’s all-around final in gymnastics yesterday. I love that gymnastics is more than a sport – though there’s plenty of athleticism – and it’s more than a competition – though there’s plenty of that too. It’s an art form, a dance, and it’s very mental. One of the things that TV viewers have a difficult time appreciating is that the event, in fact, resembles a four-ring circus. While one competitor is on, say, the balance beam, three others are simultaneously performing their event, the PA announcer is blabbing in three languages, and, most distracting of all, the gal doing the floor routine has her music of choice blaring on the speakers.

Most of my focus was on the lead group of the two Americans, Nastia Liukin and Shawn Johnson, the Chinese favorite, Yang Yilin, a couple of Russians as well, and also another Chinese girl (one of the alleged 14 year-olds I think – I suppose she has the next Olympics to look forward to).

It was a beautiful competition to watch and the drama climaxed with the last floor routine. Going into it, Liukin was first, Yang was second, and Johnson was third. Under pressure, all three did beautiful routines, no out-of-bounds or falls, and Johnson managed to edge Yang out for the silver. Later in the day, we got an unexpected surprise and were able to congratulate the Americans in person on NBC’s Today show.