danajohnhill.org | Hard Times Come Again No More

I freely confess that I am no expert on gymnastics, either men’s or women’s.  But I do know one thing: if you don’t stick the landing, the performance is much less impressive, whatever else came before.  So it is frustrating for me to see so many gymnasts fail to land squarely on two feet, and, somehow do better than the few gymnasts who can stay still.  I hear that gymnastic routines are more technically difficult than ever before, and I don’t know enough to deny that.  To the contrary, I watched an athlete on the still rings a few days ago who powered his body above his head in such a way as to not only defy all laws of physics, but according to the television announcer, to be the first gymnast capable of said maneuver.  It was impressive.

But, while all these routines are becoming more challenging, the gymnasts simply cannot land without taking a big step, hop, or falling down entirely, even when it seems like that would be the least complicated aspect of their sport.  And it is troubling to see an athlete who does stick the landing score lower than one who doesn’t, marked down instead for not attempting some element that is supposedly more difficult, but which my eyes are too inexperienced to distinguish.

Meanwhile, the obviously underage Chinese gymnasts and the ridiculous new method of score tabulation has sullied, to me, what is an otherwise fantastic Olympic sport.  My proposals: let’s see some birth certificates; and let’s go back to a system in which a “10.0″ is perfect.  Everybody understands that.

Filed under: Current Events, Sports on August 15th, 2008