Posted on 07/30/2012 8:36:30 AM PDT by tonyome
Did anyone else watch the Olympic women's gymnastics last night? One of the young girls on the U.S. team is black. She is a great gymnast, but during last night's competition, she fell off the balance beam, and took several steps out of bounds on the floor exercise, yet beat out a fellow teammate to advance to the All Around final, even though her teammate made far less mistakes in her routines on the balance beam and floor exercise. I know nothing about Olympics Gymnastics judging, but even one of the NBC commentators remarked that her floor exercise routine "was scored much higher than I thought it would be". In my opinion, I think the judges gave the girl a break because she was black. Some people might be offended by that comment, but it looked fairly obvious to me.
I take it you didn’t watch the qualifying rounds? (it has been replayed on USN this past week) She was unbelievably good, blowing the others out of the water.
Sometimes athletes choke or have a bad day.
It is pretty insulting to these athletes to assume affirmative action.
Didn’t see it......but let’s just say I wouldn’t be at all surprised.
And you’re surprised?
[any idea when/if any equestrian events are scheduled?]
Olympics gymnsatics why watch at all?
Also, while she may have had what the media may have thought was going out of bounds, first, the media isn’t the judge and the judge may have seen it differently, second, her routine was far more complicated than the others who seemed at times to play it safe.
I watched the raw feed of the gymnastics. The judges got the results correct. Remember that starting difficulty matters a lot, not just execution.
The real “affirmative action” is the rule that a single country can only place two competitors in the individual all-around final. Wieber was 4th overall, but will have to sit out while 21 girls she out-scored get to compete.
Sometimes athletes choke or have a bad day.
And when this occurs in a judged performance they should be scored appropriately for those errors. By saying she was excellent in the preliminary rounds, are you suggesting that her performance there should be considered on future rounds?
“It is pretty insulting to these athletes to assume affirmative action.”
But we do live in a ‘different world’, now.
Even if she blazed through the past qualifying rounds, her current performance was what was being judged, wasn’t it?
She advanced because her total scores were high...She screwed up in several things but did exceptionally well in her other routines..They take all the cores and mesh them together.
Gabby is an exceptional gymnast. There was no affirmative action going on...
See my post #10.
“Everyone get’s a trophy”. Just for showing up. It’s the new world of PC.
your statement is totally ridiculous- she is a tremendous gymnast and whatever her color i am glad she’s on our (USA) team...
the affirmative action comes in as only two gymnasts from each team are allowed to compete for the individual honor of best gymnast; that’s a joke as the American team is five deep and there are now inferior gymnasts now competing for the individual competition while great American gymnasts are sitting on the sidelines...
i avoid the feminized profile after profile Olympics coverage- I wish we could bring back Cosel et al and the thrill of victory and not the agony of another effing profile.
That being said , if aa applies, lets hope she is at least a real african American with authentic slave blood.
your statement is totally ridiculous- she is a tremendous gymnast and whatever her color i am glad she’s on our (USA) team...
the affirmative action comes in as only two gymnasts from each team are allowed to compete for the individual honor of best gymnast; that’s a joke as the American team is five deep and there are now inferior gymnasts now competing for the individual competition while great American gymnasts are sitting on the sidelines...
Exactly, especially about the difficulty level - that does count for more.
See the other comment (I should have put them in one). The point was, she is an amazing athlete who did a much more difficult routine than the others. Just because the media claims something is out of bounds, doesn’t mean it was or the judges saw it. She also may have been given more points for the level of difficulty versus doing safe routines like many of her competitors.
All of this arm chair quarterbacking and assuming the worst in everything gets pretty old.
No the real affirmative action is the US girl who finished 4th overall and is disqualified from being in the final because of the “only two per country” rule as two other American’s finished 2nd and 3rd. That means someone form another country gets a spot in the final she did not earn.
Okay but no word on equestrian events?
They’re the only Olympic things I’ve watched since Ono got knocked flat while skating and the judges didn’t give a flip.
It's like only allowing 2 SEC teams to go to BCS Bowls.
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