Silver on Tuesday - Gold tonight???

I went over to my sister's house to watch the women's team finals on Tuesday night. It was disappointing, the only goal for our team was gold, and we fell short. For the most part our gymnasts were solid, especially at the beginning, but it didn't stay that way.

However, China's gold has been mixed with controversy. Several news reports have supposedly found evidence that a few of the girls are likely younger than 16, the required age to compete in gymnastics at the Olympics. I remember when this rule was first put into place and I wasn't a huge fan of it. It doesn't allow gymnasts who might be 15 the year of the Olympics, and at their peak, to compete. And very often a 15 year old gymnast at her peak won't be at the same point four years later, when she is 19. Not that it's not done - there are several very talented 19+ gymnasts, but there are lots of gymnasts who hit their prime at 14/15/16. So while I'm not necessarily opposed to having gymnasts younger than 16 compete, I am opposed to a team possibly cheating. And my main reason would be the uneven playing field. If one team can have gymnasts of any age, and another team can only choose gymnasts 16 or older, then the second team's pool of possible gymnasts is smaller than the first team's. There's a good chance every country has several extremely talented gymnasts under 16 - and would possibly have used them - but didn't, because of the rules.

So anyways, all I'm saying is that whether or not their passports say they are 16 (which I personally don't trust), and whether or not the IOC believes they are 16, their gold will always be a little clouded by suspicion. It only takes the casual observer to be seriously doubtful that they are 16 (And to put this picture in perspective, I know all gymnasts are short and small, but I have read in several sources the shortest Chinese gymnast is 4'6", and the 3 smallest all weight around 70 pounds.) The last 3 are the ones I personally doubt. We'll probably never know.

Now for some pictures that matter - here's our team winning silver, followed by my personal favorite performances of the evening: Nastia Liutkin on bars and Shawn Johnson on beam. Nastia because her bar routine is so beautiful, difficult, and she does it flawlessly (she scored a 16.9 - one of the absolute highest gymnastics has seen this Olympics) and Shawn because she nailed that beam routine. Having been a gymnast, I admire confidence and rocksolidness on beam more than anything else. I know what that beam is like and I could barely do a cartwheel without some kind of balance check. She can do tumbling passes down the beam without the tiniest wobble. Both of these girls are favorites to win gold tonight in the All Around finals, and you better believe I will be watching.