What I think about ...
men's AA contenders for the 2000 Olympics
There are a lot of men IMO who can win an AA medal in Sydney. Anyone who can hit every event with decent difficulty will have a chance.
a split leap should look like
Many Gymnasts these days do not perform simple skills in the way they should be performed, because they have to concentrate more on difficulty to keep up with the code. We often see leaps that are not 180 degrees stretched or with unpointed toes. This really takes away the beauty of the sport. Go to
http://sports.sina.com.cn/others/9910/178448.shtml That is what I think a simple but exact split leap should look like on the beam: truely 180 degrees stretched (actually this one is more than 180 degrees!) with head up, toes pointed DOWNWARD instead of forward (it really makes a big difference), and the hands naturally stretched side way. There is no rushing, no struggling, and no cheating. Simple but elegant skill. (For another example of how pretty a boring skill can be, go to http://sports.sina.com.cn/others/9910/168374.shtml) These two pictures are two of my favorites from the 1999 World Championships.Chinese women's Bronze in Tianjin
Some fans wonder whether the Chinese women had some more than fair advantage for their edging Bronze medal over the Ukrainians in Tianjin. These days it is common to assume the host country has some home advantage or sometimes even unfair advantage. Over the web I have read many event by event commentary of the 1999 Worlds. Here is what had happened during the women's team finals in Tianjin: the Chinese had one fall on beam from the first up Bai Chun Yue, all others hit and thus they did well on beam without the discarded score. They did very poor on vault that three of their best vaulters either fell or stumbled (Bai Chun Yue, Huang Man Dan and Dong Fang Xiao); ridiculously it was Liu Xuan and Ling Jie who saved this event (Liu Xuan got the highest vault score 9.3+ for her country and she happened to be the weakest vaulter on the team). The surprise came on floor--where no Chinese made any obvious mistake. None of the Chinese in Tianjin is a lousy floor performer IMO and they all had a 10.0 SV (Not lousy to me means they know how to dance. Yes, they know how to dance, at least decently--with good form, pointed toes, notable extesion, and rhythm matching the music). They all did well on bars and were able to drop the lowest score 9.5+. Now back to the Ukrainians, they did very well on floor (at least more tumbling than the Chinese). On bars they were good as always but their releases were not high and thus not as good as the Chinese (Gorodny fell). On beam, they did not perform to their potential to score big. On vault, they were not as weak as the Chinese, but still had a fall. Conclusion: the Chinese won because they stayed up on floor; the Ukrainians lost because they could not hold on on beam. Note: China only had five gymnasts in team finals plus Ling Jie was sick!
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