<p>:( 
</p>
<p>Ari, your KCAC buddies love you no matter what!</p>
<p>Phelps breaks the medals record! USA wins gold in 4x200 relay!</p>
<p>NBC could not even get their splits right! Grrr… Yay for Phelps!</p>
<p>Yay for Team USA!</p>
<p>My stream froze before Phelps went in and then came back after his first 100m, phew.</p>
<p>Okay, Phelps has done it. Good for him.</p>
<p>Here is the wikipedia article about the Russian gymnast whose record he broke. (the article has already been updated!)</p>
<p>[Larisa</a> Latynina - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larisa_Latynina]Larisa”>Larisa Latynina - Wikipedia)</p>
<p>Wow, you should really google Larisa Latynina and watch the videos. In the late 50s/early 60s they were doing somewhere between current level 5 and 6 in the Olympics. When I say that my not all that talented daughter was doing that in 4th grade, I am dead serious. If she was winning medals for that, what did the non-winners look like?</p>
<p>The sport has become SO much more difficult in our lifetimes. </p>
<p>Who is the gymnastics expert on CC? When did the “elite” and other current levels start? Was that “elite” back then? Did women start doing giants when they moved the bars further apart?</p>
<p>WHat a performance in that relay. Lochte started it off great and the Phelps was even faster on the anchor. That was a statement.</p>
<p>My connection froze for the entire race but its back on now for the medal ceremony. i so wish nbc would just show it live on tv and then package it all up again for the casual fans in the evening.</p>
<p>I think Olga Korbut did the first ‘big’ release move on the unevens in the 72 Olympics. Didn’t she stand on the top bar and do a back flip or something like that.</p>
<p>Yes, Korbut’s dive off the top bar is still terrifying to watch - no wonder it was banned. </p>
<p>In my quest for information I googled “when did women start doing giants?” LOL, the results were NOT about gymnastics. </p>
<p>I revised my search and found this:</p>
<p>[Uneven</a> Bars History (With 2 Videos)](<a href=“http://gymnasticszone.com/uneven-bars-history]Uneven”>http://gymnasticszone.com/uneven-bars-history)</p>
<p>^^ No, but NBC will be sure to mention it in a commercial for their morning newscast BEFORE they show the race tonight. The same will happen with the gymnastics gold. I had to lie to my family last night when they saw the commercial for Missy Franklin with her Gold & her parents before they aired the race. They all looked at me knowing I’d watched it all earlier. I quickly waved my hand and said “oh no, that was for a relay thing earlier”. They bought it until they saw the race. I just didn’t want it spoiled for them. Of course, I won’t be able to get away with it again.</p>
<p>Missy - I don’t even want to know what your search revealed. You’re too funny!!</p>
<p>The NBC connection quit for me too on my ipad but i could reboot the app in time to see the final legs of the race. Annoyingly I had to wait through their intro commerical before they would continue the live feed.</p>
<p>If gymnastics of the past look so primitive, take a peek at the swimming records of that time. 
For example, 100 free:</p>
<p><a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_record_progression_100_metres_freestyle[/url]”>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_record_progression_100_metres_freestyle</a></p>
<p>I guess I was correct, Phelps was competing with a gymnast :)</p>
<p>Yes, he is competing with a gymnast. I do think he thought he would win the gold in the butterfly. He thought he still owned that stroke and I think he wanted 3 golds in the same event. He still has a couple of chances to do that.</p>
<p>Are there any sports that would present as many opportunities for medals as swimming and gymnastics do?</p>
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<p>That seems a little disrespectful. She was the best of her generation, in 50 years time I dare say people will be looking back on Phelps and saying the same thing. Just because it is harder now doesn’t mean it wasn’t hard then. It’s so easy to look back and scoff at past athletes and compare them to the modern day, but the achievements of today are built on the ones of yesterday.</p>
<p>^^^^^In the same vein, when you look at old gold medal ice skating performances from many years ago, they also seem very primitive and completely unimpressive compared to modern performances.</p>
<p>Now ice skaters no longer do the school figures, which I’m sure required quite a bit of skill but for the uneducated like myself, was a huge snoozefest.</p>
<p>Athletics has 47 medals and swimming has 34.</p>
<p>I think Phelps and Lochte are the only swimmers that won the gold for the 4x200m free relay three times: 2004, 2008, and 2012!</p>