<p>They were. If it hadn’t been for them, the appeal wouldn’t have been launched because when Karolyi was signalling him frantically and shouting for him to appeal, Raisman’s coach yelled back, “For what?” So he, clearly, wasn’t going to pursue it. Amazingly, one of the headlines on Yahoo this morning was, “Raisman’s quick-thinking coach saves the day!”</p>
<p>Has anyone watched any of the handball competition? I watched some of a quarterfinal match this morning between Iceland and Hungary. What an exciting sport this is to watch! I don’t think I’d ever seen team handball before.</p>
<p>I did not know the China beach volleyball women were very tall.
It’s interesting to watch them and Misty-Kristi in yesterday’s semi-final game.
Now we have USA vs USA for gold medal today.</p>
<p>I looooove team handball. It’s the greatest game ever, basically water polo, without the pool, and a little basketball and lacrosse. I played it some when I was living in Spain as a teenager. There’s no expensive, specialized equipment, the field isn’t enormous, there’s a lot of contact but no hitting, it’s fast-moving with lots of teamwork and strategy, and there’s a good balance between offense and defense. The rate of scoring is about the same as in lacrosse. It’s just a blast to play, and it’s fun to watch.</p>
<p>JHS, I wastched a bit of team handball and I certainly could have used some tips on the rules, etc.</p>
<p>Yes, it was thanks to the Karolyis and that other woman that the challenge was launched. And I just remembered something that made me not feel so bad for Ponor not medaling on beam. On qualification day, I was following the live tweets, and the guy I was following said that Ponor’s beam routine was the worst he’s ever seen her give and was so sad that she wouldn’t make beam finals…then a huge score came up. I’m pretty sure she got that score based on her reputation and that the judges wanted her to make finals.</p>
<p>Lee Manzano…how did he do that???</p>
<p>Dawn Harper (hurdles sliver medalist) is a delight.</p>
<p>Did you see Lolo Jones on the Today Show? Quite emotional. I feel bad when athletes get the reputation of all hype and no performance, because it is the media who gave them the hype in the first place. Like I said about Jordan Weiber, was Lolo supposed to turn down interviews because she thought she might not get a medal?</p>
<p>Are the athletes allowed to stay the full two weeks, no matter when their events end? is the decision made by each team - (e.g. USA Swim, USA Gymnastics?) I guess the athletes who are minors would need adults to be in charge of them. I’ve seen tweets from swimmers flying home.</p>
<p>I think it would be too bad to want to stay for the closing ceremony, but not be allowed to (esp the ones who couldn’t participate in the opening.) It would also be fun to have some days to just hang out, once the pressure was off. And there are probably athletes who would like to just stay there and eat.</p>
<p>Athletes are allowed to stay in the village for a period after the Olympics ends. Travel arrangements are made by the athlete’s federation. The American gymnasts are usually scheduled to leave the day after the gymnastics exhibition. Anyone who wants to stay longer is responsible for their own travel arrangements.</p>
<p>SaintSaens, could you elaborate on your dislike of Aly Raisman’s choreography? I was watching last night and thinking about it, and I pretty much hated EVERYONE’s choreography. Komova has the makings of an actual dancer, but the rest of them are wonderful athletes and not wonderful dancers at all. I was thinking about how much I preferred the men’s routines, where there was no music and they basically did one sensational series of acrobatic moves after another, and then walked away. No prancing and miming sexiness in between. I sort of disliked Raisman’s choreography least, because it was least pretentious.</p>
<p>Women’s gymnastics could really use a swing back away from the makeup, glitter, and costumes, and towards more athletic, but less decorative, presentations.</p>
<p>I think that they absolutely are moving toward more athletic presentations, and away frmo dance. The dance moves of the Russian girls are so beautiful, too bad they didn’t hit all their tumbling. And you want to see make up and glitter? Watch rhythmic gymnastics, or maybe competitive cheer. All they do in artistic gymnastics is eyes…lots of the sprinters have on a lot more makeup than the gymnastics, and they even wear jewelry.</p>
<p>Yes, I was glad that Raisman did the last move on the tumbling run and hit it…she left it out earlier because she hadn’t been nailing it.</p>
<p>As for just doing tumbling runs, I like that they still try to make it entertaining and add some dance. The turns can be just as hard as the tumbling.</p>
<p>I think the synchronized swimmers take the cake in the eye makeup dept.</p>
<p>I heard a commentator say that some of the sprinters look much more feminine then in years past with all the make up - despite their muscular builds. (I thought he was making a not so subtle comment about possible drugging.)</p>
<p>Some of the sprinters are really glamor girls - hair and makeup perfect, etc. I know that there’s been a lot of ridiculous press about Gabby’s hair, but I do think it’s great when the female athletes feel free to be as girly - or not - as they want to be.</p>
<p>Slightly off topic, but a pet peeve of mine. Why, oh why, is it necessary for the commentators to announce the weight of the female beach volleyball players?!? Height, yea, I get that. But their weight? Why is this necessary? They aren’t boxing. Most the time they are in those tiny suits anyway so why announce if they are 135lbs or 150lbs? If the girl looks good in those outfits jumping all over the place, leave her alone!!</p>
<p>I heard that the last couple of days, the US gymnasts who weren’t competing were wearing their hair exactly like Gabby’s.</p>
<p>I personally have observed that the better you are, the less you are required to think about your hair. For example, on drill team, woe to the little sophomore in the back row if her bun falls out, but if the captain’s bun falls out, oh well…</p>
<p>I agree. I do find height to be informative, because it gives the rest of us a bit of context…(although I do wonder how much the 4’6" Chinese gymnasts weigh…the height/weight chart says the “ideal weight” for 4’6" is 63 to 77 lb…how does someone who weighs 60 lbs have the power to do a killer bars routine!!!)</p>
<p>BTW, our men are getting beat by Italy in volleyball.</p>