Olympics!

[Emmsmom]

I think the US Gymnastics team has been really judged unfairly! The Chinese are getting by with so many errors and still managing to get high scores! PLUS all of their girls aren't16 either! I think that choosing China to host the Olympics was a HUGE mistake! Our girls deserved MUCH better than they got! They did a GREAT job!

[Janet]

I didn't watch the gymnastics part..just Michael Phelps and then didn't watch it all. I had heard on the news about the girls not being old enough, but it hadn't been proven yet when I heard it. I can't give much of an opinion since I didn't really follow the Olympics, just not something I'm really that interested in.

[Emmsmom]

There was an article found by the press that said that one of the girls at a competition last year was only 13. So she would only be 14 this year. Later on China took the article down and even changed her birthdate on other articles! We have really watched a lot this year. I really like watching the diving, gymnastics, and swimming.

[Dobie]

I watched most of the women's events - it did seem as though a couple of the chinese girls were much younger then 16.
As far as scoring goes, the scoring on the vault and balance beam seemed to not favor the Americans. The thing to point out is that the chinese were not the judges, it was the Olympic judging committee - so who knows why the Americans scored so low.
But that said - they were scored well enough to finish Silver in the Team, Golid/Silver in the all-around, and did well on individual events. The team should be proud of their Olympics.

[Emmsmom]

Last night when we were watching the vault competitions I was just shocked by the scores. One Chinese girl fell on her knees during her landing. YET, our girl only hopped a tad. The Chinese girl ended up winning the gold! Now you know something is seriously wrong there. Also on the uneven bars.. Our girl and the chinese girl had the very same scores. They were tied!!! Yet the judges determined that the chinese girl should recieve the medal! I don't get it. I watched another olympic sport and the very same thing happened... In that case the BOTH received a medal!!! BOTH of these girls should have gotten medals! I think it all boils down to the judges being anti-American... sad...

[DianaB]

I think that politics should be kept out of the Olympics but sadly it always seems to creep in. I haven't been watching the Olympics but I certainly hope that all of the competetors are being judged on their ability not on their nationality!

[Emmsmom]

Oh I agree. The Olympics should not be a place for politics. This kids that are there worked hard to get to that point!

[gja1000]

Here is a link to an interesting article on yahoo spots about the olympic medal count EXCLUDING the judged events. http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/beijing/blog/fourth_place_medal/post/The-REAL-Olympic-medal-count?urn=oly,101537

The Non-judged 2008 Medal Count
China: 22 gold; 11 silver; 11 bronze
United States: 21 gold; 19 silver; 21 bronze

Here's a quote from the article, "As you can see, in the events where medals are determined by competitors rather than judges, the gold medal gap between China and the U.S. is greatly narrowed, and the total medal count is an American runaway. Counting the judged events, China has a commanding lead in golds. Hmmm... Nope, nothing fishy about that!"

[Emmsmom]

Wow! Sadly there ins't anything that can be done tho. I think the girls really got screwed!