To be honest, I think you're throwing the baby out with the bathwater. You don't justify ambivalence with an entire olympic games because of one coach in one sport's one comment about one athlete.

Don't get me wrong, I'm okay if you don't care about the olympics, but events like the one you mentioned, although upsetting, occur throughout sports.

(I feel so stupid to talk like this as I don't even really care about gymnastics, but here I go . . .)

To clarify, she fell off the beam during the mount. She wasn't walking on the beam, she was jumping off a springboard, doing a flip and trying to land on something that is like 9 inches wide. That's not a neat trick, that's something 99.9% of the world can't do.

Saying "walking on a beam is a neat trick" is like minimalizing basketball and calling it cool to see a man put a ball through a hoop or baseball being pretty nice to watch a guy hit a ball with a stick. After all, that's all they really are, right? No, they're much more complex. And unlike basketball and baseball, two sports that I can play on an amateur level, I refuse to even try and jump up and down on a balance beam.

I personally believe that it's sad to see someone's entire life revolve around something other than God and then fail at it, but let's be honest, it happens daily. To have someone question their mental ability at this stage is not helpful, either. If she wasn't emotionally prepared to perform, she wouldn't have been put on the team. Let's not go back and second-guess ourselves.

We question the mental temperment of wide receivers, point guards and pitchers all the time. College quarterbacks younger than her get far more grief from the press, coaches (except Mike Gundy) and especially fans.

Like I said, I'm no fan. I also agree that the coach owes the girl an apology. But a silver medal in the Olympics will be something she will always have, and there's no guarantee that her not falling would have given the team the gold, anyway.

Blaming the loss on the official or the individual is grasping at straws. It's part of the game. The US beat some incredible teams and lost to an amazing one. Karolyi needs to get over it and move on - there's more work to be done. What a poor example.

You don't justify ambivalence with an entire olympic games because of one coach in one sport's one comment about one athlete.

I didn't say my ambivalence was justified by this event. Just "comforted."
My ambivalence is justified based on the Olympics being lame.

:-p

heh

Seriously, though - that swimming relay the other night was epic. It was great. I think you can still see it on NBC's olympic web site.

I'm excited for Track & Field to begin . . .

Jared, I am comforted to know that I am not the only person who is just not that interested in the games...I was beginning to think I was a freak.

I'm not that big of a fan of the Olympics, but let's not forget that this is what most of these people do for a living (a meager one at that sometimes, but a living all the same). I'm not a huge personal fan of lawyers, but I would never stoop as low as to belittle the hard work that they put in to their profession. I mean, take what ever job you do and substitute it in to that last full paragraph and see if you like what it says.

I mean, everyone is free to have an opinion, but to me this post crosses the line in to being mean and petty at the end.

Let's face it Jared, there are much fewer professional gymnasts in the world than there are professional writers. You just posted not too long ago how everyone and their dog is trying to be a professional writer.... well, not that many people even try to be professional gymnasts. Not that I think gymnastics is better than or cooler than writing, I'm just saying - a little perspective?

Maybe I should've added Humor to the category list. Maybe that would help with "perspective"?

Crossbow, I also think you missed the point that the only almost-serious point I was making was out of concern for this young lady's emotional welfare. In that sense, you're wrong: I'm not being petty. I'm saying her self-esteem is more important than her livelihood or talents.

Jared, she's not being treated any differently than Tony Romo was when he botched the snap on a game winning field goal in the Playoffs.

She was in a team competition - and she single-handedly prevented her team from winning the gold. She choked big-time on the world stage - just like Romo did, only she had more people watching. If this wasn't the team event, and it was just her competing for her own medal, the mistake would not have been near as pronounced - it should be noted that she made an equally huge mistake in the next event (floor) that completely sealed her team's fate.

I felt REALLY sorry for her - the world was watching, she knew that. That's just the price you pay when you don't perform as expected and "cost your team the game" on the biggest stage of all - coaches will complain, people will say you choked.

This is very similar in scope to the Romo fumble I mentioned, or even the ball going through Bill Buckner's legs in the '86 World Series. I think we have to see it for what it is - we care about sports and we have strong opinions about what happens in the big events. That puts a lot of pressure on the participants. I think that is the real failing here, not the nature of the Olympic Games themselves, or the reaction of a coach.