Mainely Running
Join me as I train in Maine and race all over the world in pursuit of my goal to run a marathon on all 7 continents

Monday, July 30, 2012

When Fourth in the World isn't Good Enough

I was exhausted from the tri yesterday but made myself stay awake to watch women's gymnastics. I was a serious gymnast growing up and so I still get ridiculously excited when the Olympics are on. My heart broke for Jordan Wieber last night.



 image source

She has worked and sacrificed her entire life for this, and then because of a 2 athlete per country rule, didn't make the finals even though she was 4th overall. She was clearly disappointed but handled it with amazing grace, managing to seem genuinely happy for her teammates. I would have been rip-shit.

That is the thing about gymnastics. It demands so much and then it all comes down to 7 minutes. All four events take less than 7 minutes combined. It makes marathon training seem like a bargain in terms of time invested in training vs time in competition. Running is hard. Biking in hard. Triathalon is hard. All of the sports I do now are hard. But none even come close to gymnastics.

What do you think about the 2 athlete per country rule? Do you think this hurts the team's chances in the finals?

2 comments:

  1. I learned SO MUCH last night about Women's Gymnastics. Is the 2 athlete rule new? I felt so bad for her and I didn't even know who she was before last night. They still get to do the team all around, but no individual events?

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  2. I am your source for useless gymnastics facts. The 2 athlete rule has been around for awhile. The qualifying rounds qualifies the top 8 teams for team finals, the top 24 all-around gymnasts for the individual finals (but only 2 per country), and then also individuals for the vent finals. So Jordan is out of the individual all around final.

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