London 2012

Good lord, Jordan Jovtchev ("old" guy on rings) is one handsome dude! I always love seeing him on still rings, and it was nice to finally see some rings routines. It freaks me out seeing all the strain on the gymnasts' arms. It looks like they'll burst vessels or something!

That Chilean vault finalist (Tomas Gonzalez) cracks me up with his moustache. It makes him look way older than 26, and I love how he sprints down the vault runway! The vaults were just incredible last night, and Tomas did a fab job. I believe the commentators said that would have been Chile's first gymnastics medal, and I was really hoping he'd win it and bring his home country something new to marvel at and be proud of.

That Denis Ablyazin dude had me awed. I can't believe he qualified for 3 individual events!

I think "Olympic Rings" should be a weekly television show. I know I'd watch it.

And my imaginary Olympics boyfriend Sam Mikulak can be the host.

Putli Bai, I'd be right there with you watching on a weekly basis!

And I'd convince Danell Leyva to do commentary. Or just to stand there and look gorgeous.

HOW THE HELL WAS THAT HIGH BAR ROUTINE BY EPKE ZONDERLAND EVEN REAL?! OMG. I HAVEN'T STOPPED THINKING ABOUT IT SINCE I SAW IT AN HOUR AGO. AND YES, IT WAS INSANELY BRILLIANT ENOUGH TO WARRANT SIMULTANEOUSLY CAPSLOCKED, ITALICIZED, BOLDED, AND UNDERLINED TEXT.

Agreed. It was crazy. I'm always happy when it comes down to the best-as-performed, highest difficulty routines, rather than who managed to make the least mistakes. And now I'm gonna go rewatch that routine.

Zonderland's routine was amazeballs, I could watch that over and over, along with Kayla's TF vault, and every match that Traynor/Walsh play.

Sweet fancy Moses on a stick, Zonderland's routine was insane.

I'm always happy when it comes down to the best-as-performed, highest difficulty routines, rather than who managed to make the least mistakes.

Yes, this. I'm so tired of someone winning simply because they were the only one who didn't fall off the apparatus, step out of bounds, or sit down on their landing.

I'm seriously bummed that NBC pushed the men's springboard final to late-night. I would have liked to have seen the Russian's gold-winning performance, he was great in the prelims. At least I saw those.

So, the men's pole vaulters staged a mutiny. They didn't want to perform. The officials wanted only 12 to go through to the final, while they were quite happy with 17. Seriously? Here you are strutting your stuff on the biggest stage of all, your shining moment, and you want to call it off? Fuck you! You're here to perform, you idiots. Vault those poles. Yeah, you top guys spent a couple of hours sitting around while the not top guys got themselves eliminated. But everyone who wasn't eliminated today will take longer to be eliminated on Friday! Yes, I'm sure you have a perfectly sound tactical reason for it, but that attitude of not wanting to do what you're here to do and everyone wants you to do pisses me off.

Witness the sailing. A series of races. In the final race, the Australian team had managed to win the gold before even starting. But they went anyway, and made quite the decent go of it. Why? Because that's what they were there to do, and that's what everyone wanted to see them do!

Useless gits.

Fiammetta wrote:Agreed. It was crazy. I'm always happy when it comes down to the best-as-performed, highest difficulty routines, rather than who managed to make the least mistakes. And now I'm gonna go rewatch that routine.

Exactly. That high bar competition was the fiercest of the individual events, IMO. Every guy kept outdoing the one before him! Too bad that final Korean gymnast had such a terrible landing. His routine was pretty awesome until then. Zonderland and Hambuechen's performances were spectacular though, and their top finishes were more than deserved!

Zonderland was so amazing the husband and I both whooped and clapped, leading to terrified cats.

And he's rather easy on the eyes, too. He looks like a '70s surfer boy with that hair of his.

I'm catching up on last night's Olympics, AND YES, ZONDERLAND IS AMAZING. Also his name is ZONDERLAND. That's like Wonderland, ONLY WITH A Z. It's like being name Zisneyworld or Zarnia or Zogwarts. Like you took something awesome and then TOOK IT OFF IN A CRAZY DIRECTION! With a Z!

I think of his name as Wonderland and Zoolander put together. It's doubly awesome!

I have heard your calls for a gratuitous, practically nude picture of Zonderland, and I answer them.

Oh my. Bless you.

Ummm, the world just became a kinder place for two seconds. Thank you, choubetcha.

And here's my own nearly nude Olympic gymnast contribution: If he'd done that at the all-around, he'd have a gold medal right about now. And this is to make up for the lack of still rings coverage at the London Games.

Is NBC shitting me right now? I turn on the Olympics coverage and I get half an hour of the Dream Team...you know, the one from the 90s! Olympics are happening right now, I want to know what's happening now, in the current Olympics. Why on earth would I want retrospectives from decades ago? WTF!!!!!

The way I hovered in front of the TV during Jordan Burroughs' gold medal wrestling final, you'd think I had some personal investment in that dude's career. Wrestling has never even been of remote interest to me until today, but wow, it was fun watching the matches today! It definitely helps that each set is only 2 minutes long.

whatthedeuce wrote:The way I hovered in front of the TV during Jordan Burroughs' gold medal wrestling final, you'd think I had some personal investment in that dude's career. Wrestling has never even been of remote interest to me until today, but wow, it was fun watching the matches today! It definitely helps that each set is only 2 minutes long.

I had so much fun watching that! Dude is a cutie. I totally teared up watching him on the podium, singing the national anthem and trying not to cry. And when he ran up into the stands to hug everyone? Kill me now. He's my favorite Olympian.

Did you see his background story clip? Such an adorable kid! And obviously, he grew up to look not altogether shabby. Looks-wise, he reminds me a lot of actor Michael Jai White.

whatthedeuce wrote:Did you see his background story clip? Such an adorable kid! And obviously, he grew up to look not altogether shabby. Looks-wise, he reminds me a lot of actor Michael Jai White.

#alliseeisgold!!! So cute.

Dude, that's the best Twitter handle, seriously. I love that he seems very confident but not cocky or arrogant.

Oh, fuck you NBC and your WWII retrospective. If I wanted to watch WWII stuff, would I be tuning into the Olympics? NO. Also, fuck your other channels for replaying the end of the Mex-Bra game at least 3 times instead of any of the other sports.

I'm assuming tomorrow will have a 30 min retrospective on a caveman playing ball with an animal skull in lieu of the closing ceremonies.

Doesn't tomorrow have a commercial free presentation of that one show with all the animals? Or is that tonight? Either way, I don't think that show is going to make it past the first season.

I love Carmelita Jeter. That is all.

Bolt is really full of himself. He actually calls himself a legend? I am LOLing. I mean, yes, for the moment he is, but that's not a good strategy for the long term. Sooner or later someone will beat him.

By the way, here is Bolt's Twitter bio:

The most naturally gifted athlete the world has ever seen.