Olympics

[dumbledore11214]

> Jen: We're hooked on the Olympics too.  So far we've watched 
swimming, 
> including Michael Phelps winning most of his golds, gymnastics, 
soccer, 
> b-ball and some of the more obscure events on weekend days, like 
> trampoline & water polo (that one's pretty rough from the looks of 
> it).  I keep missing diving though, or is it not on yet? I'm reaching 
> the end of my fave events as track & field don't interest me as much.
> 
> And three of those Chinese women gymnasts did *not* look 16 unless 
> they're undernourished, which is a much more upsetting problem than 
> phony passports....
>


Alla:

My friends at work think Michael Phelps is half fish, lol. OMG the guy 
is amazing, truly phenomenal athlete.

But I don't know about the age of Chinese gimnasts, really. Asian kids 
and teens DO look much younger than european or american girls of the 
same age will look, it is true.

I know a girl of chinese decent who was to be fourteen this year ( I 
have not seen her for probably seven months). When I met her for the 
first time maybe year and a half ago, I thought child was seven. I kid 
you not.

And if the girls are under age, which is of course against the rules 
and they should be punished somehow, I think it makes it doubly 
embarassing that they beat our team. Often ( not you dear!!!) people 
say that chinese are under age that somehow makes the loss 
understandable.


I mean, I agree that judges would give every possible questionable 
deduction in favor of chinese and will deduct points from our girls 
where they would deduct nothing from chinese, but I do not see how 
under age factor alone will influence the win so much.

I was so screaming on TV when it was individual all around and Chinese 
girl did not lose much after she had to check her balance several times 
and Nastia and Shawm got points docked for much smaller mistakes.

Of course it is all in my eye and I am so not a gymnast HAHA, and maybe 
I am way off base, but I do believe that judges were extremely biased 
and THAT contributed to Chinese victory as well.

Having said that of course those are amazing teams and my accusations 
of biase only relate to small margins if that makes sense.

I mean if the teams are not almost equal, no matter how biased judges 
are, they cannot make much weaker team win IMO.

Alla