well that sucks. our stuff is getting packed up on the 19th & 20th..and we plan on leaving here on the 21st.

Gold medal #3 this Os, and 9 lifetime, for Phelps YEAH! He's now tied with Paavo Nurmi, Larisa Latynina, Mark Spitz and Carl Lewis as the all-time lifetime gold medal champ, and before these games are over they should all be eating his dust (or whatever it is swimmers kick up)!

eating his bubbles??? lol

There ya go

Gymnastics: If those girls from China are all 16 years old then I'm still 21. Seriously, is it just me or does everyone see China being fakely fabulous on so many levels, but afraid to say so or they'll bomb us? The little girl lip synching because the real singer was "too fat and had crooked teeth", the fireworks that couldn't be seen through the smog, digitally enhanced for TV. Now, these Chinese girls being slipped through as 16 year olds when none of them looked over 10. If they truly are 16 and over, I truly hope they haven't being given something to stunt their growth just for gymnastics over the years.

Anyhow...rant over.

I agree. I look at those girls and then I look at my own 14 year old and she looks far older than they do. I understand that girls mature at different rates, but come on!!! There is no way they are 16. Compare them to the USA gymnastics girls. Our girls look like old ladies compared to them. The lip synching was extremely offensive, too.

One of the newscasters made that comment last night, basically that everyone is SUPPOSED to be 16, but there's nothing to be done now...

Did you hear about how those girls are chosen? There is a lottery when they are 3; then they are taken from their parents and can only see them once a year... how sad.

beyond that... MICHAEL PHELPS! MICHAEL PHELPS! MICHAEL PHELPS! :swim:

Hmmm, are you sure? ;)

I'll take America over any other country -- hands-down. Some folks have taken an 'America sucks' attitude w/the state of our economy, the war, etc. I say -- go live somewheres else for awhile. The good old U.S. of A. won't seem so bad. The greatest country -- ever! :D


I LOVE gymnastics -- just love it. Ahhhhh, Alicia Sacramone, what happened girl? The balance beam, the floor exercise -- falling off and going out of bounds? The video of that playing over and over and over in her head; they were so close too. The Chinese team had problems but boy did they pull through on the floor exercises. And the uneven bars - WOW! I really wish they had shown the medal ceremony for gymnastics though. :(

OMG!!!! Did you SEE the men's relay?? The most fantastic thing ever; they were like penguins flying through the water!!! Definintely worth staying up for! GO TEAM U.S.A.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I agree... something about this is making me uncomfortable... kind of like during the '36 Berlin Olympics... suddenly all the anti-Semetic posters went down, the night raids on Jewish homes and business stopped, etc. bc the ****'s wanted to impress the foreign cameras with how great Germany was under their rule for those two weeks. I'm not saying that the Chinese government is doing anything THAT terrible behind the scenes, but I just feel like a big 'ol Smiley face has been tacked onto everything and in reality all the Chinese atheletes who don't win their events will be relocated to some factory in the mountains after the games are over...

And I agree, the Chinese gymnastics team looks prepubescent. Like you said, if they ARE over 16, then I sincerely hope they haven't been given drugs to stunt their growth or whatever. If they are UNDER 16... well, I just hope they weren't kidnapped from their families when they were infants by the government...

OMG... I wrote my "kidnapped from their families" comment/joke BEFORE I read your post -- is that SERIOUSLY how those girls are chosen? That is very sad...

But yes, MICHAEL PHELPS! He's hotness with his 4,000 gold medals :D

KLK - that's what the announcers said last night. it's crazy.

women's gymnastics- I knew that Alicia Sacramone was struggling a little, especially after beam. Nastia was not having the best games either, so when she stepped out of bounds, i wasn't too surprised. But Sean Johnson? She's the world champ on floor. When she went out, I turned off the tv. I hope they can recoup for the individual medals. They all worked so hard; it was tough to look at their sadness.

I'd hardly call it kidnapping, and in fact they said the parents are for it, many families are kind of struggling to make ends meet (and yes, I know, the one-child policy and all that) and for the kid the shot at elite sports represents an opportunity they don't have. They showed one girl and said she'd called her parents to say I'm homesick, take me home, and the parents said, no, stick with it. Of course this is China, I'm not defending their system in any way (they're indoctrinated with the notion that the interest of the state outweighs the rights of the individual/family) and Americans no doubt would feel very differently about sending their kids to a year-round sports bootcamp

I think theres a conspiracy going on. They said that both the men & the women's gymnastics were just doing stuff they knew they could do well on. I dunno..it just doesnt seem right to me.