Beijing Olympics Recap: Men’s Gymnastics – US and China Medals

First off, an admission. When it comes to guilty pleasures, I have a few. I’m a pretty typical red-blooded, liberal, sporty guy from Philly. I follow baseball fervently, with a couple fantasy baseball teams and a throwback Phillies jersey in my closet. But, I will admit that there are a few Avril Lavigne songs that I love, mostly because of a couple routines from SYTYCD. I also love Top 10 (or Top 100) lists, whatever they are for.

AND…. I enjoy Olympic gymnastics. My wife and I were talking a couple nights ago about how we both remembered the women’s gymnastics from 1992 (the Kim Zmeskal and Shannon Miller year), and so on. But generally, it’s more about the women’s than the men’s.

However, last night, I got caught up in the Men’s Team Gymnastics Finals. The bottom line doesn’t quite capture the excitement: China expectedly won the gold, going away. The USA held on to win the bronze.

Bronze winners

Gold winners

Again, that bottom line doesn’t come close to capturing the excitement of last night, which thoroughly caught me by surprise. The US men were extremely short-handed, having lost Paul Hamm and Morgan Hamm days before the Olympics started. They were the only two with Olympic experience! As a result, the US went into the Olympics with two out of their six gymnasts being alternates. I can’t remember the last time I saw an Indian-American doing gymnastics. They were NOT supposed to be contending for a medal, yet after 3 events last night, they were leading China for the gold! Granted, it was an illusory lead given that China still had its powerhouse events, but nevertheless, what a run. They had some tense moments with the dreaded pommel horse — BTW, there is SUCH a difference between people who barely get by on the horse and those who excel — with Kevin Tam opening with a terrible score in the 12s. But they pulled it out.

China on the other hand HAD to win the gold. Their head coach had promised to jump off the tallest building in Beijing if they didn’t. Probably an empty promise, but man, what pressure. They had a terrible Athens, where they were hoping to set up these Olympics with a statement gold. Their leaders were under scrutiny. Silver was not an option. They struggled in their first rotation. And so on and so on… But they were amazing on the parallel bars, and when they finished up on the high bar, the crowd’s reaction to their win was goose-bump-worthy.

South Korea Update:

The Korean men kinda bombed in the men’s gymnastics, but they have been dominant in Archery. (One of the weirdest country-domination pairings ever… Korea and archery?? Where did that come from? It’s like China and diving, Americans and backstroke, Kenya and the marathon.) AND, they have done well in swimming, because of one Park Tae Hwan. I’ve never heard of him, but he’s been stellar in these games, winning a gold and a silver already. And he’s only 18 years old. I have a feeling he’ll be one of the top gold medalists in 2012. He’s also got a face that’s made for TV… I’m sure he’s incredibly popular and swooned over by the ladies in Korea.

Park Tae Hwan, for all the Korean ladies reading this blog