6 posts tagged “olympics”
Well...we are closer to knowing who the US is sending to China in August. Shawn Johnson and Nastia Liukin were both named to the Olympic Team yesterday and neither one was a huge surprise (both finished 1& 2 at Nationals as well). So...now we look at who should fill the four remaining spots - the following is from International Gymnast
Projected Olympic team
The U.S. doesn't have the depth it had in 2004, but will be able to put up three very strong routines on each event. The only question mark is uneven bars, which is where the Chinese could take a big advantage with two potential scores of 17.000.
Shawn Johnson: Solid as a rock here, throwing the hardest routines on three of the four events. I don't think floods — or even tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes or asteroids — could distract Shawn. She looks very unphased by everything. Her parents and coaches have done a tremendous job with her.
Nastia Liukin: Had a few misses here, but she and her dad know the time and place to nail everything when it counts is in August in Beijing, not June in Philadelphia. They've got to head back to Texas and perfect uneven bars, because a truly flawless routine there could lead to three golds for Nastia: team, all-around and uneven bars. Nastia is not just an artistic gymnast, she is a performer. But most significantly, she is a fierce competitor in the style of Svetlana Khorkina, doing routines and making skills the unbelievers say can't be done with her age and physique. She is the sport's leading lady today.
Alicia Sacramone: Even Marta Karolyi, who has tried to be as vague as possible about the potential team, admits Sacramone is a lock for this team. Alicia is unquestionably the best vaulter on the U.S. team, and also can contribute on balance beam and floor exercise in team finals. With her refreshing personality and poise, she is one of the best representatives for women's gymnastics today. Most importantly, she is a great leader and deserves to be team captain again. But with a sore calf and aching Achilles, this 19-year-old needs to avoid overtraining in the next six weeks to be fresh for Beijing. Marta and Mihai, let Alicia rest a little and enjoy her star status this summer.
Samantha Peszek: Proved her consistency all year with strong performances at the American Cup, U.S. Championships and U.S. Trials. The U.S. will need her double-twisting Yurchenko vault and possibly floor in team finals, and she can compete on any event in prelims. Sam has lots of tricks and clean form across the board and that plus consistency have moved her into Marta's winners column.
Chellsie Memmel: Clocked a ticket to Beijing with her strong performance on bars, an event where the U.S. desperately needs every tenth to not get clobbered by the Chinese. Memmel can also help on balance beam and floor exercise, where she does not hold back on the acrobatics. The only question mark for Memmel is her history of untimely injuries, but Marta can't deny a healthy Memmel. { Personally, I hate her gymnastics, BUT the US does need her on UB, just PLEASE don't let her do the AA!}
Bridget Sloan: The U.S. Olympic team won't be announced until late July precisely because of gymnasts like Sloan, who needs more time to recover from her knee injury. The U.S. needs her on uneven bars, and extra focus here is what could secure her spot. Marta likes gymnastics like Bridget has, which is clean for the most part and done with an elegant body line.
Now.......One gymnast that I hope does very well at Camp and gets on the team is ......
Mattie Larson: Another beautiful gymnast who Marta would love to show off. Her floor exercise will likely be well-received in preliminaries and the U.S. could use her there in the team finals. Even the non-gymnastics fan can see this gymnast's floor routine is more pleasing to watch than nearly every other one.
Now my idea of Chinese Food is.....
"Kung pao chicken" made official for Olympics
((from Yahoo News)
It's official. Hungry foreign hordes craving a fix of diced chicken fried with chili and peanuts during the Beijing Olympics will be able to shout "kung pao chicken!" and have some hope of getting just that.
As it readies for an influx of visitors for the August Games, the Chinese capital has offered restaurants an official English translation of local dishes whose exotic names and alarming translations can leave foreign visitors frustrated and famished.
If officials have their way, local newspapers reported on Wednesday, English-speaking visitors will be able to order "beef and ox tripe in chili sauce," an appetizer, rather than "husband and wife's lung slice."
Other favorites have also received a linguistic makeover.
"Bean curd made by a pock-marked woman," as the Beijing Youth Daily rendered the spicy Sichuanese dish, is now "Mapo tofu." And "chicken without sexual life" becomes mere "steamed pullet."
According to one widely repeated story, the Chinese name of "kung pao chicken" comes from the name of an imperial official who was fed the dish during an inspection tour.
With the Beijing Olympics 51 days away, a notice on the city tourism bureau website ( http://www.bjta.gov.cn ) told restaurants to come and pick up a book with the suggested translations.
In China, where meetings are almost as popular as banquets, agreeing on the English-language menu has taken many rounds of discussions over previous drafts since last year.
Just as predictably in this country where nationalism and the Internet make a potent brew, controversy has already broken out over the blander new translations.
""I don't like this new naming method, it's abandoning Chinese tradition," one Internet comment declared. "There are many stories in the names of these dishes."
Show us something that's been on your mind a lot.
~ Going to the Olympics in August to see Gymnastics!
2008 Olympic Mascot Information
China holds funeral for panda killed by earthquake
By CARA ANNA, Associated Press Writer1 hour, 42 minutes ago
Nearly a month after China's devastating earthquake, the Wolong Nature Reserve held a funeral Tuesday for a panda that was crushed in the temblor.
The world famous panda center was badly damaged by the May 12 quake but officials initially thought all 64 pandas had survived. They later discovered that two were missing.
Nine-year-old Mao Mao, the mother of five at the breeding center, was found Monday, her body crushed by a wall of her enclosure when the river behind it swelled with landslide debris.
On Tuesday, panda keepers and other workers placed her remains in a small wooden crate and wheeled her quietly to a patch of ground outside the breeding center where a freshly dug hole waited.
The center's director, Zhang Hemin, stood with his cap in hand and then shoveled in a few spades of dirt. Mao Mao's keeper, He Changgui, stepped forward, crying, and placed two apples and a piece of bread by the covered grave. There were three minutes of silence.
As the others left, the director of the U.S.-based Pandas International, Suzanne Braden put her arm around He.
"You must look after her babies, OK?" she said. "And their babies."
He nodded. "I will go back to see her everyday," he said.
Forty-seven pandas continue to live at Wolong, while one other panda, Xiao Xiao, remains missing.
The endangered panda is revered as a kind of national mascot in China. About 1,590 pandas live in the wild, mostly in Sichuan and the neighboring province of Shaanxi. Another 180 have been bred in captivity.
The nature reserve was heavily damaged by the quake, which was centered just 20 miles away in the heart of Sichuan province's mountainous panda country. Five Wolong staff members were killed in the quake. Most staffers, tourists and pandas were outside at the time.
Nearly 70,000 people were killed, and more than 5 million were left homeless by the 7.9-magnitude quake.
Some of Wolong's pandas have been moved to another breeding center in Sichuan's provincial capital, Chengdu, and eight were flown to Beijing for a previously scheduled six-month stay at the Beijing Zoo for the Olympics.
The center will have to be relocated to a new site because of safety issues, said Huang Yan, deputy director of research, but it will remain within the confines of Wolong Nature Reserve, which is located in a damp, narrow valley several hours' drive from Chengdu.
He, Mao Mao's keeper, returned from the grave with red eyes. He had been the panda's only keeper since she was 3 years old. He would speak to her in the local Sichuan dialect as he worked.
"It's like you could say something and she would understand," he said. "If you were happy, she was happy too."
Wolong Panda Reserve: link
Pandas International: link
For some stupid reason is called the "VISA Championships". Oh, yes .... VISA sponsors the competition, thus the vague naming. Nationals is a few days long and includes both Juniors and Seniors, but NBC's coverage is sooooooo good that we will get a whole 2 hours of Senior Women (Saturday, June 7th 1-3 PST). That is ALL!
Gosh, they really do make it hard to be a gymnastics fan.
Of course - when you think about how the USAG picks the Olympic Team, Nationals and Trials really doesn't count as much anymore - it is all about "secret camps".
One reason I am losing my interest in the sport of gymnastics is the new code or rules, which goes for the tricks instead of awarding "artistic" gymnasts. One of my all time less favorite gymnasts is trying to make the Olympic Team. I really don't want Chellsie Memmel anywhere near Beijing! Her gymnastics are UGLY.
I prefer "Superstar" over Chellsie, though they do look like long lost sisters.
The selection of the two Canadian women who will get to compete at the Olympics Beijing has turned into a complete joke and the biggest victim will be Kristina Vaculik.
An online petition on the matter has been started and it is hoped that people will sign in support of Kristina and her coach Elena Daydova (The 1980 Olympic AA Champion).
Petition in support of Kristina Vaculik
You can also read more about the selection criteria at: IG Online Interview
IG online's interview with Carol-Angela Orchard (the coach of Elyse Hopfner-Hibbs, who along with Vaculik are the top two gymnasts in Canada and undoubtedly the most deserving candidates to go to the Olympics).
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