August 16, 2004
Day Two Gymnastics
The NBC announcing crew are a bunch of uncultured cretins that need to learn the value of not talking. Why do they not shut up. I'm trying to listen to her floor music, here.
In the same vein, NBC has taken to announcing upcoming events with a "bug" in the lower-right corner of the screen that takes up fully 20% of the visual area of the screen. And then explodes into an NBC peacock that takes up closer to 50% before disappearing. Hello? I'm trying to watch here?
The US women's team this year is pretty good but just not very inspiring. The past few Olympics, they had a lot of energy, ranging from bubbly to elegant to quietly powerful. I'm just not getting that this time around, which is too bad. There's really not anything I've seen from the US team that would have looked unusually good at a level 10 meet; I guess that just means I'm spoiled. Maybe next time.
My favourite is definitely Mohini Bhardwaj. She's 25, and first of all it's nice to see an adult out there competing for a change. But more importantly, she goes out there and performs solid, good stuff. It's not the most spectacular stuff, but her variance seems low. She can be counted on to get a score that, under ideal conditions, will be surpassed by all her team members, but when (inevitably) something goes wrong for one of them, will be a perfectly respectable anchor.
At first I thought I really liked the US leotards, but now I'm not sure. I'm really not a fan of the shiny leo that seems to be all the fashion rage in international gymnastics. At least they don't have the raglan sleeve line like a lot of countries do---let's face it, guys, if you're built like a world-class gymnast, a raglan line just emphasises your broad shoulders and makes you look grotesque. :P
"If you're a Democrat, then you win when people think." --Bill Clinton
Posted by blahedo at 5:47am on 16 Aug 2004