nastia goes for uneven bars gold

Well, hm. Nastia’s mom must have read my post — yes, I’m sure that’s it — because she’s there, in the gym, watching her daughter.

Well, there you go, mom. Good choice. However the family worked it out, good choice, I think. How can anyone regret that ultimately? It’s the freakin’ Olympics, pippa.

But again, more judging weirdness here. Nastia got the same score as a Chinese gymnast. Their scores were the highest, so you think, “Oh, tied for first place, right?” Nope. There’s some kind of incomprehensible tie-breaker deal here that has just put Nastia in second place. The commentators can’t even make sense of it. Poor Nastia. She just looks sick. Now, it’s just a matter of watching all the girls after her perform, waiting to see if anyone overtakes her — er, them. Apparently, years ago, when Nastia’s dad tied for a gold at the Olympics, he and the other athlete shared gold, but they don’t do that anymore. So bizarre. Just listening to the commentators talk about it — they are confused themselves.

All right. Lots of standing around, judges’ huddles, waiting, blah blah.

Nastia gets the silver.

Okay. From what I can understand, there can be no judges on the panel representing any of the competing countries. That potentially creates situations where you can have much less experienced judges scoring the athletes. Apparently, the judge from Australia, gave Nastia a large deduction for a minor error and the Chinese girl a rather minor deduction for a much larger error. The commentators are really pounding that point home. I take their word for it. I’m just your embedded reporter here, not a gymnastics analyst. To me, both girls made what looked to be minor errors. I just don’t have the knowledge to know how different errors should be judged. To my eye, Nastia’s looked, ultimately, more refined. So. When they line the judges’ scores up — in the tie here — throw out the high and low, they are still tied. So the next lowest score of each athlete was thrown out — and Nastia’s next lowest was lower than the Chinese girl’s. Tim Daggett, gymnastics commentator, is adamant about Nastia’s routine being better and that the Australia judge just didn’t judge it correctly or didn’t have the knowledge to even do so.

Here’s what My Manic Boyfriend, Bela, had to say:

DIS NEW SCORING CREATE A MURKY SITUATION. NOBUDY UNNERSTAN DUH SCORING ANYMORE. PEOPLE AT HOME DON’T UNNDERSTAN. AND VHAT ISS HAPPENING ON DUH FLOOR? IT’S RIDICULOUS. GYMNASTICS ARE REFUSING TO GIVE OUT TWO GOLDS, TWO SILVERS, OR SOMETHING?? THEY ARE DE SAME SCORE!!

Someone help me. My head hurts and I’m going to bed. And, seriously, if I dream about math tonight, I’m gonna smash some skulls in the morning.

I DON’T UNNERSTAN!