5 posts tagged “he kexin”

Despite committing an error almost DPRK-esque in magnitude, China will get to keep their team gold. What does this mean for Chinese gymnastics and gymnastics in general?

1.) China will continue falsifying ages. It's naive to think otherwise. They're just going to be much more careful about it. Are they going to risk another He Kexin and fake the documents of another little prodigy and attempt to erase all articles referring to her as being age-ineligible for the Games mere months before the Olympics? Well, I don't know. That was a huge risk to take. Not only did it pay off for them, but they got away with it. If nothing else, they're no longer going to put important documents on the Internet anymore.

2.) China will now be put under a microscope. While I'm going to say that any articles about rising stars that end up on the Internet will not have any references to age, people will be keeping caches of any and all articles. Speculation will continually follow them.

3.) The FIG and IOC, long regarded as incompetent, have lost pretty much all credibility. This whole "investigation" was just a dog-and-pony show to put up the pretense that they're doing something and that they do not condone the cheating. They had the same evidence before the Olympics as they did when they started this whole thing. They just hoped that, like all news stories, it would soon fade away for the next big thing. Unfortunately for them, the only way that would have happened is if any team, not necessarily the USA, but any team had won over China. But China won and when a team that most people believe is cheating wins, those people want something done about it. What I wonder is what this will do to Grandi's bid to raise the age limit. When they refuse to enforce the age limit in place now, it's stupid and unfair to impose a higher limit.
 

Knowing that this decision will be unpopular, the FIG and IOC brought in Yang Yun and Dong Fangxiao from the 2000 Sydney Games. Yang famously said she was just 14 in a documentary aired on state-run television and Dong showed up as a worker at the 2008 Games with papers that suggested she would have been ineligible for Sydney, not to mention that her own blog also supported that. I highly doubt it's still up on her blog, though.

However, the statute of limitations for medal revocation is almost up. And what would be the point now? Some have suggested that China is barred from the 2010 Worlds (being barred from London 2009 isn't much of a punishment because the National Games are also around that time and China never sends their A-listers to the Worlds vs. the National Games). Given the rules in gymnastics, not only would China miss a major competition, but they wouldn't get to qualify for the Olympics. Since the top 24 teams in 2010 get to go onto 2011 and those 12 teams qualify a full team to the Olympics (that is, if I have that right).

But you want my prediction on the absolute outcome of everything? Nothing. Absolutely nothing will happen.

Spoilers, if you weren't a numbnut and stayed up all hours of the night, scrambling over the Internet trying to catch live feeds on CCTV-5 and elsewhere trying to watch live. BTW, NBC, you fail. Instead of wasting the energy shutting down the few decent live feeds there were, maybe you should have realized that amongst the casual fans you want the ratings from, there are a grand many hardcore fans that are counted in those ratings. So you had a couple of options: 1.) show qualifications live or 2.) have a live feed like you did for podium training. Quit being greedy bitches and actually appeal to the fans. I can guarantee it would work better for you in the long run; in any case, I'm sure there would be less profanity-laden e-mails in your inbox.

Anyway.

My thoughts, in bullet form (I would be more coherent, but I just found out that Issac Hayes died and now I'm all discombobulated again):

• He Kexin falling on UB was a little unexpected and her nearly missing out on qualifying for UB finals could have been one of the biggest upsets of this Olympics.

• Deng Linlin almost booted Jiang Yuyuan's AA spot. Also surprising.
  

• Alicia Sacramone missed out on qualifying for FX EFs. Devastating, but when one thinks about it, the writing was on the wall all year. Her floor has been regressing since Stuttgart and I will go out on a limb and say that's where she peaked. I love A-Sac, mostly because she's not your robotic sound bite gymnast in interviews ("It's such an honor!" "I just want to go out and hit my routines!" and so on), but she hasn't really hit a floor routine all year.

• In that vein, Nastia Liukin ended qualifying for FX finals, as well as the expected BB and UB EFs! WTF, yo?

• Chellsie Memmel did not qualify for UB EFs. She fell on her Tkatchev, thus taking her out of contention. That pisses me off. She is only doing one event, much to her fans' chagrin, and she fails to hit that one event so she could at least go for an individual title. Wasn't UB her specialty or something?

• Sam Peszek kind of confirmed my suspicions that she would become the dead weight of the US team, despite her being one of the guarantees (I will never understand how she got into that golden position). Not only has she regressed (her FX has downgraded and she's barely hitting that and Sloan has surpassed Sam on vault), but she sustained an ankle injury and did not compete on FX or VT, that is, THE EVENTS SHE WAS PUT ON THE TEAM FOR. And it's now past the point of no return, so we can't put in Lothrop, who would probably be the best alternate for this position, given that she's pretty good on VT and FX.

• Sloan, however, is rocking the casbah. Her UB was off, but hot damn did she bring in the scores on every other event, even BB, and everybody was saying that would be her lowest score. Go Bridget!

• Shawn, unsurprisingly, hit every set. Her nerves from podium training have seemingly dissipated and she went out there like she owned the joint. But, her flexibility skills have also regressed, and that's really saying something in her case because her splits and leaps were rudimentary at best in the first place. It seemed like they were improving last year, but looking at the pictures from TQs, she's is really cheating the hell out of them:

SJBBTQ.jpg

There are a couple more, but you get the point.

• Japan made Team Finals!!!!! すごい！　おめでとうございます！　私は、日本がうれしい！ (Yeah, my Japanese is a little rusty, but the main point is I'm so happy for them!). Koko Tsurumi qualified for AA, however Mayu Kuroda did not qualify for UB finals, which is a shame because she's rather good on them, even if she doesn't have a 7.0+ A score.
  

• Australia also made TFs, but not without an implosion from their stars, Dasha Joura and Lauren Mitchell. Dasha failed to qualify for the AA or any EFs, and we're all heartbroken along with her. Apparently, she crunched her ankle (hot damn, what is with this Olympics and ankle injuries???) in training and continued to compete on it for the sake of her country. Somebody predicted that not only did she not qualify for any individual rounds, but this Olympics would probably be the last we see of Joura. I really hope not. Are we going to lose everybody with a modicum of originality in this sport?

• Great Britain failed to make TFs (Japan just squeaked by them). Beth Tweddle, however, proved she's hardcore by saving her awesome combo after hitting her feet on the low bar. That was crazy.

• Romania was looking rough. I'm going to go out on another limb and say that the two consecutive Olympic team champions will find themselves not on the podium at all. Russia could easily surpass them. Romania is barely a team; it's Nistor, Izbasa, and friends. Though frankly, it's difficult to watch both Russia and Romania while they're rebuilding. There was no infrastructure left in place after everybody and their mom retired so now they have to start from square one.
  

So apparently China held an internal test event recently. News to you? To me, too. Wenshuli from one of the gym boards graciously provided information. The girls were divided into two teams: blue/white & red/yellow.

Jiang Yuyuan (my favorite of the Chinese; she's so cute!) does indeed have an Amanar (15.7). But her overall AA score wasn't where it needs to be if she's going to contend for an AA medal.

Cheng Fei won FX and VT, of course. Was there any doubt?

He Kexin broke 17 on UB.

Li Shanshan has a 7.3 BB A score, but was wobbly. The Olympic BB gold would be hers to lose, but she's so inconsistent. Not to mention that her inconsistency could lose her spot on the O-Team.

Deng Linlin (also adorable) won the AA with a DTY and a 7.0 BB A score.

Xiao Sha also had a 7.0 on BB and won the event.

Sui Lu (?) has a 6.4 on FX and 7.1 on BB. I have no idea who she is.

Yang Yilin's foot is still injured, so she only competed UB. Did well, placing second.

Pang Panpan was 4th AA. She has a FTY, but a 7.1 UB A score.

Not much about Zhou Zhuoru. Zhang Nan is fit, but without much difficulty (this does not bode well for my hopes). Same could be said about He Ning.

Pictures:
http://sports.qq.com/a/20080423/000664.htm
http://sports.qq.com/a/20080423/000652.htm

It's looking more and more like it'll be China's gold to lose.

• World/Olympic rhythmic gymnast Alina Kabayeva is reportedly marrying outgoing Russian President Vladimir Putin. Um...yeah.
• NBC aired the Pacific Rim Championships:
• Dasha got a fluff!
• Elfi tried to imitate Dasha's accent. No, Elfi. Just...no.
• Britt Greeley of Australia shows promise, but the house music FX needs to go and the UB set needs some cleaning.
  
• Many of the Canadians were shown, including my favorite junior, Peng Peng Lee (her UB routine was shown and they replayed her gut-busting Bhardwaj several times in slo-mo)
• Samantha Shapiro won over many fans and looked like an overjoyed wriggling puppy. She was so cute!
• Rebecca Bross, the PRC AA champ, was shown only once on UB. Rebecca Clark wasn't shown at all.
• Darlene Hill got plenty of airtime, but was accompanied by the Head Trauma Trio's constant schmaltzy commentary about how her grandmother (and guardian) had passed away the month prior. Condolences to Darlene, fist shaking to Al, Elfi, and Tim. Was it really necessary to mention her mother's drug addiction?
• None of the Japanese gymnasts were shown, much to my chagrin. Not even Erika Lynn Danko and one would figure NBC would love to comment on a half-American half-Japanese gymnast.
• Nastia got a bit too much of a pass by the commentators on her FX. I like her and all, but FX isn't her event and you know if another gymnast performed like Nastia on FX, they'd be downright nasty.
• Not shown in the NBC broadcast, but Myzdrikova of Russia did a rarely-seen combo of triple twist-back tuck.
  
• The 2008 European Championships in Clermont-Ferrand, France came and went:
• Romania is a drama-llama, what with Stelliana Nistor doing AA in qualifications (there was no AA competition) and Romania winning the team title, Russia taking silver and France the bronze.
• Sandra Izbasa unveiled one of her best FX routines (and I did find out her music!) and won the FX title.
• Anna Pavlova showed the world that she is back with probably one of the most artistic FX routines in this quad (including a double layout!) and showed an Amanar vault (of which she flopped, but she has time to fix it up and make it pretty).
• Isabelle Severino had to say goodbye in one of the worst ways possible: torn Achilles' tendon.
• Beth Tweddle did indeed compete and unveiled an impressive new skill on the uneven bars. And she got braces!
• Vanessa Ferrari came, competed, and left...with nary a medal to her name. Everybody wonders what this could mean for her Beijing AA medal prospects. Her FX music makes me want to stick something sharp in my ears.
  
• Cottbus came and went:
• He Kexin (CHN) got an impressive 16.85 on UB. The UB EFs in Beijing will be the EFs to watch, what with Tweddle, He, Liukin, and Semoynova all gunning for the top spots and one of them will be left off. It'll be exciting and I for one, cannot wait, even if I know fuck all about UB.
• Chusovitina won vault.
• Marta did not send any of the USA girls. Not even any of the bubble girls like Hong or Sloan (who had to miss out on her chance with the Italy meet due to tweaking her knee).
• Izbasa won FX again.
• Daiane Dos Santos competed a very watered down FX and ended up last.
• Sanne Wevers (NED) did a double turn with leg at horizontal on BB flawlessly when most can barely do a single turn without a wobble or fall (see: Li Shanshan 2007 Worlds BB EFs).
• Jade Barbosa only performed a DTY and LO Pod on VT, not her Amanar and Cheng. Took 2nd, though.
• Yang Yilin supposedly broke her foot colliding with another gymnast. There really is not much other information out there about her injury.
• A US Olympic Media Summit was recently held. GettyImages has portraits of the athletes. Ivana Hong looks seriously buff. Since her foot was injured for so long, maybe the Fongs worked heavily on arm conditioning? *crosses fingers and hopes her bars have vastly improved*
• Speaking of Ivana Hong, her mother has told the New York Times about her escape from Vietnam.

I think that's it, word-wise. How about some videos?