Congratulations USA Gymnastic Team!

The 2012 Olympic Women Gymnastic Team (dubbed the "Fab Five") won gold in the team all arounds tonight, July 31st!  CONGRATS!!!

McKayla Maroney, Gabby Douglas, Kyla Ross, Jordyn Wieber, and Aly Raisman are the first women's team to medal in the team championships since 1996, in Atlanta. They came in ahead of Russia, who settled for silver, and Romania came in bronze. China, in fourth place, did not metal.

         It is kind of irksome to me how American-centric NBC is in the gymnastic coverage. Like, I want to see all the stuff that the American team does... but really last night I only saw Russia and USA...and one Chinese person... and one Romanian person. But it's so frustrating, because your person will be doing their routine and they run and do a tumbling thing - and you SEE someone flail and fall of the balance beam! And they never come back to that! Like, it's not like I especially enjoy that, of course. 

But it's interesting, and I want to see what's going on.

Russia was not very happy last night. (Meaning the gymnastic team). They had nearly edged up to the USA on several spectacular uneven bar routines, but then there were some major goofs on balance beam and floor. Even though they still ended up medaling with silver, the gymnasts were all in tears at the end of the trials.

To me, I would think that that's probably more due to the humiliation and shame and annoyance with themselves scoring so low when they know they can do so much better, then piled on top of the disappointment. They seemed happy enough at the medal ceremony, and will continue to compete throughout the ceremony.

My day was nearly shattered when their win was announced... on the radio... before I could watch the NBC coverage at 8! Cuz we don't have cable. We never had extended cable. So I was just SO UPSET. It ruined the suspense. Like, sometimes it's really stressful, but it's kind of the point of watching these things!

So, about the team....

Gabby Douglas and Aly Raisman are going on to the individual all-arounds. And Jordyn Wieber isn't. Which sucks. Because not only was Jordyn 3rd place from the USA, she was FOURTH place out of everyone going to the finals. So why isn't she??? Because you can only send two people per country.

It used to be three. It should be three. No, there SHOULDN'T BE A LIMIT. It's an olympic final. There are 24 people who make it. Those 24 - SHOULD BE THE BEST 24 GYMNASTICS AT THE OLYMPICS. It's that simple, to me. Jordyn is reining world champion, and this was probably the once-in-a-lifetime shot she would get at the individual all-arounds. Grr! And I really bet that she would have medaled had she been aloud to move on. It's just not fair. She was one of the very best!

GRR.

Kyla Ross did not do vault or floor for the team qualifications. McKayla is ONLY doing vault, which is a little unusual, but her vaults are amazingly incredible, with unusual height, intricacy, and perfect landings. She is a valuable asset to the team, and will also be competing in the individual vault trials.

(I should add that both Kyla and McKayla competed in all four apparatuses to secure their place in the olympic team, and thus purely capable of other routines as well)

After all this, I should probably post the different gymnasts and their pictures, just in case you don't know....

Jordyn Wieber (2011 World Champion):

 

Gabby Douglas (nicknamed "Flying Squirrel"):

Aly Raisman (Who does her floor routine to Hava Nagila!):

McKayla Maroney:

And last but not least, Kyla Ross:

 Together they make only the second USA gymnastic team to win olympic gold in the team final!

So yeah... I'm not sure if any of this matters to you guys at all, as most of you probably know it, but now you have a blog post about it... so, woop....

~Julia