China Wins Team Gold; US Gets Silver
Wednesday August 13, 2008
 The Chinese Women's Olympic Team Photo © Al Bello / Getty Images |
Though it was a heartbreak for the US women, there were some great moments during the meet. Nastia Liukin nailed the best bar set of her career for a 16.900 -- a score that shows she could very well become Olympic bar champion in a few days. Bridget Sloan, the youngest and least experienced member of the team, led off the entire competition with a powerful double-twisting Yurchenko vault. And the Chinese girls showed up with the best bar team in the world -- with three sets valued at more than a 7.0 difficulty (7.7; 7.7; 7.1).
Other than the one mistake from Cheng, the Chinese had a great competition and deserved to win. It's the first time that China has taken Olympic team gold on the women's side -- and they did it with an amazing combination of extreme difficulty and stellar technique.
Final results:
1. China 188.900
2. USA 186.525
3. Romania 181.525
4. Russia 180.625
5. Japan 176.700
6. Australia 176.525
7. France 175.275
8. Brazil 174.875
Comments
I think the American women performed wonderful.
No matter how much effort they used or how much perfection they mustered, they were going to have to settle for Silver no matter what.
So I think Alicia was a blessing to the American Women, because the judges didn’t have to lie about finding a few minor mistakes.
And Alicia shouldered the responsibility, instead of the judges having to lie about them.
The Americans were more than good enough to win Gold, but it was not going to happen, no matter how perfect they would have been.
They did a wonderful job. I am happy Alicia was the strong one.
I’m so proud of the USA team. Even if they hit, they still could have come away with silver, so who knows? Though I’m sure they wished they hit, and I feel bad for Alicia, silver is something to be proud of, for sure. They definitely went into the competition with a disadvantage, and China didn’t fall apart, like we all expect them to.
It really was a contest between the US and China, one of the two were destined for gold.
Sounds like it was a well performed competition. I didn’t see much of it.
The US should be proud. CHina was unbeatable, imo.
Too bad for alicia though!