Heh - I was just talking to Mr Kindred about it, and he was all, 'yeah, but it might be a strategy to help manage Tom' and I was all, 'yeah, but wouldn't you do that in private, rather than in front of the media?' I mean, a lot of people are very frank with each other in sport, but it's all behind closed doors usually - you don't air your dirty linen in public and all that. I think that Alridge will really suffer for making these comments, even if they were in the heat of the moment. But he's apparently not a prospect for 2012 anyway, so chances were the partnership would split up.

The other two things I learned about this from Mr Kindred were:

1. Absolutely nobody in the sport expected the two of them to win a medal, and
2. It is universally accepted that Daley is a far better diver than Aldridge (perhaps why he's now been so keen to say 'it wasn't MY fault? He might be pre-empting 'you let Tom the Wonder Boy down' comments?)


And on the gymnastics front: I've had a fair bit of exposure to a lot of different sports at the elite level, thanks to my husband's work (and him incessantly talking about it). I would happily support any child of mine to seriously take part in any sport ... except gymnastics. The kids who do that have to make a commitment to hardcore training when they're far too young to appreciate what they're doing, and what harm it might do them.

That was some days of our lives BS right there. She moved to Italy to train with him and then he dumps her for Frederica Pellegrini, his training partner, and then the two of them allegedly put nude pics of her on the internet.

And still Laure hasn't learned not to shit where she eats because she's dating another guy in her club back in France.

And yes. The relay was made of awesome.

Catching up on this thread...

OK, true story. I was watching the opening ceremony, and listening to the commentators (who was that -- Costas and Matt Lauer?) talk about Johnny Mo and how he'd put together this huge ceremony. I often feel when watching bits of the Olympics that I've come in in the middle of a story, and I figured there'd been extensive news coverage of Johnny Mo and his awesomeness in the days leading up to the Olympics. Then at one point they talked about how Johnny Mo was the most famous director in China or something, and I was like, "Dude, really? I've never even heard of him. If I had to guess who the most famous director in China was I'd probably guess Zhang Yimou."

*crickets in brain*

*ten seconds later*

"OHHHHHHH! *ZHANG YIMOU*!"

Doy. Anyway, yes, AMAZING opening ceremony. I think my favorite was the printing-press blocks. I cannot BELIEVE they did everything that precisely. Ah, Communism.

Then, of course, I cried about 80 times during the Parade of Nations, as I always do. Cried when Iraq went by. Cried when Palestine went by. Cried when they were talking about how the Chinese were cheering for everybody even if they were in disputes with them because it's all about international cooperation and they were welcome regardless. Cried when the US went by, mostly because they had one of the Lost Boys of Sudan carrying the torch (and I can get very frustrated with America, but seeing people from all different parts of the world all together and smiling because they're so happy to be part of it makes me feel pretty patriotic). Definitely cried at the earthquake survivor kid (he went back to save his classmates because he was the class leader and it was his job! Auuuuuugggghhh tears). Cried at basically any tiny country showing up in native dress grinning their heads off and waving their country's flag as everyone cheered. Cried when the guy was running on the wires with the torch and they put up images of all the countries the torch had gone through.

Cried in a different way when Costas (Lauer?) mispronounced many many country names, including calling Cape Verde "Cape Vurd" (rhymes with turd). WHO HAS NOT HEARD OF CAPE VERDE? OR AT LEAST SALSA VERDE? COME ON. Hee hee.

As far as the actual Olympics, I'm mostly watching gymnastics, because I'm lame, but both my sister and I are incredibly excited that Raj Bhavsar gets a chance to compete. BECAUSE HE WANTS IT SO BAD, MAN. Though of course I'm sorry that the Hamms were knocked out. But, poor adorable Raj. It sucked so much when he had to be an alternate.

As for the women, I love watching them but I do cringe at how teeny they are, especially the Chinese girls -- good lord. I think the age limit is a good thing -- didn't it happen around the time of Dominique Moceanu?

And I was pissed off listening to the commentators talk about how the Romanian women's team was so much less "focused" than it used to be. "Now you see them standing around chatting, and that one girl got a *hug* from her coach after she *fell*! That never used to happen when they got daily beatings from their masters! WTF!" Shut up.

Ugh, the gymnastics commentators are the absolute worst. I hate how they say things like, "Oh, she left out a twist there." How would I know that unless you tell me? Can you shut up for two seconds maybe? If leaving out that twist torpedoes her final score then you can tell me. Otherwise, STFU. I did end up putting it on mute eventually.

They were talking about that exact comment on Dan Patrick's radio show today, and were quite incredulous. Comments to the effect of "She's being forced to do this against her will. And we're SO lucky!"

I'm convinced they're the same people that do the figure skating commentary at the winter games.

Do they use the word "carnage" a lot? Because that would be a big giveaway.

Al Trautwig (the NBC commentator who is not a former gymnast) can go die in a fire. I HAAAAATE him. And although it is heresy where I live (because the guy is from around here), he can take Tim Daggett with him. They never fail to RUIN women's gymnastics, and I swear they are the worst kinds of jinxes. Last night they were saying, "She never messes up on this event!" And then "BAM!" gymnast go boom.

I really wish NBC would hire someone like Shannon Miller or Dominique Dawes to cover the sport.

Instead of an age limit for women gymnasts, I think this suggestion by the coach of the Italian team is the smar-*test*-('"):

"Enrico Casella, the coach of the Italian women’s team, had an idea to do away with age questions: create weight classes. That way, gymnasts of similar weight could compete more equally against one another, and the age minimum could be scrapped.

Until then, he said, there will always be rumors that athletes are too young. Looks could be deceiving, he said."
-New York Times

That way the girls might want to grow and get out of the teeny-tiny weight classes. It might be a good solution.

I hate to admit it, but Mark Spitz is being a bit of an ass. Is it that it's not all about you, Mark, or is it just that you want your face on TV to build the motivational speaking biz? I can't believe that he expected someone to comp him a trip to China so he could watch his record potentially broken.

Just so you know, I've been humming this song all day. It will NOT leave my head.

I was trying to make it work to the tune of "John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt," but no go.

Doo dah, doo dah.

I think Aldridge landed on his head a lot during his infancy. Spitz, too.

Well, simplifying an element _does_ hurt her score, right? And making a mistake early on could rattle Little Natalia's confidence in the rest of the routine. I can't really spot mistakes unless someone falls on their ass, so if the commentators don't point it out to me, I just see an indiscriminate succession of Amazing Things I Can't Do. I agree that blather of the "Her family forced her to continue gymnastics even though she grew up and got boobies!" and "Compassion has ruined the Romanian machine!" sort is annoying, though.

Another thing that bugs me about gymnastics is the affected dancey moves the women do in their floor exercises. Nastia Liukin manages to make it look rather graceful and balletic, but in most cases, it just looks like child beauty pageant "pro-am"-ing.

E I E I O?

Didn't the Australian team mime playing air guitars after they won? That was awesome, as was the relay last night. I can't believe that the U.S. team won, especially when France was ahead by nearly an entire body length at the beginning of the last leg! Amazing, simply amazing. I'll remember that race for a long time. While Michael Phelps certainly is the star of the team, I also would have liked to see some more focus on the other three swimmers of the team, since they did just as awesomely.

Is Michael Phelps as focused on breaking Mark Spitz's medal record as the mass media makes him out to be? He seemed to just be pleased to earn another gold after the relay last night, and the media seems to be obsessed with the record possibly breaking that they mention it at every opportunity.

I also prefer men's gymnastics now, especially since it is grown men competing, and there are more events to watch them on. I like how the men's floor routine is done without music: a few complicated tumbling passes and artistry and they're done. They don't have to have music blasting in the background as they move. Some of the musical choices for the women make me cringe.

I also found synchronized diving to be incredibly compelling! I like it when I stumble across a different and fun event at the Olympics. Now beach volleyball, I skipped through all of that. I didn't find that interesting at all.

If you like men's swimming and you like abs, then you will enjoy this quiz. Ryan Lochte's hair is INSANE.

I loooove synchronized diving. I discovered it in Sydney and it might be my favourite event now. As if it isn't impressive enough when ONE of them do that!

They did indeed, which was my favourite ever Olympic swimming moment.

I hope Leisl Jones can pull it off today - the Australian media is talking about her winning gold as a certainty, which always scares me.