Hey, I have to send a big shout out to the new sweethearts of gymnastics. In a sport of deductions, these two were getting deductions for being great, while the Chinese girls kept getting good scores even though their routines were full of balance checks. Go figure! But in the end both Nastia Liukin and Shawn Johnson took the gold and the silver in that order. For some reason the judges found excuses to make them wait for excessive long periods of time before they were given the green light start their routines. I kept watching these two girls struggle to maintain their focus and concentration. In the end they prevailed but they really had to work hard to earn the two top spots.
Nastia Liukin and Shawn Johnson took the Gold and the Silver Medals.
Picture borrowed from the Internet.
I couldn't help comparing these two to two of my all time gymnastics favorites. Shawn Johnson = Mary Lou Retton, and Nastia Liukin = Shannon Miller. One small and muscular, the other slender and graceful.
I've noticed a great mixture of talents in this Olympics. What I mean by mixture is this, we all know that the Romanian coach came to the US and trained our girls. A Chinese Olympian that fought so hard to have the Olympics in China is our female volley ball coach. Shawn Johnson's coach... Chinese. Our American gold medalist... Russian, Alexander Vladimirovich "Sasha" Artemev... yeap Russian, the only four female table tennis representatives, all American citizens born in China. I see this as the world coming together through sport. I am sure some of you may have a totally different view, but it is in fact a potpourri of races all competing for the USA.
Parties and more Olyimpics watching, sounds like a plan for the weekend.
What are your plans for the weekend?
