A List Of Things Thrown Five Minutes Ago

LIKE RAP STARS, GYMNASTIC CHAMPIONS NEED ONLY ONE NAME: With the artistic gynmastic competitions completed, Taylor provides a recap before we move onto Almudena Cid and other ladies of rhythm:

The gymnastics portion of the Olympics are over, and this is how the final medal count stands: China: fourteen, nine of them gold, USA: ten, everybody else: two or one.. Poland, Ukraine? You are now tied with Uzbekistan.

Welcome to the next era in gymnastics, where USA is still an excellent, top-notch, powerful, adjective-prolific team, but it is not a juggernaut. That would be China. Whether or not half the Chinese women's team was eligible, it's impossible to deny that the People's Republic has taken over the gymnastics world. Will it continue at worlds next year? What about London 2012? Maybe if Bela and Co. scream loud and hard enough, there will be more stringent guidelines for proving age (Can you see it? British officials denying the visas of next generation of questionably prepubescent Chinese gymnasts.). Meanwhile, I heard nothing about the ages of the Chinese men, and again, they were an unstoppable train in every competition: team, all-around, and events.

At the same time, the superpowers of gymnastics are pulling away from the rest of the pack, team-wise. Individuals from countries like Russia and Romania shine and individual specialists shine even more -- I'm thinking Sandra Izbasa, who was shaky on beam during all-around, but gold-medal worthy on the floor event final. Is this a function of the new scoring system, that specialization is rewarded?

This is the first Olympics with the new scoring system in place, but it's been there for almost two years at international, medal-viable competitions, including the world championships in Germany last year. Why all the outrage now? Did Bela seize on the large audience that NBC primetime sports can provide to make a forum for his longstanding grievences? Why did it seem to reward the artistic part of gymnastics one night and deny it the next. It's most likely its just an uninterested system being all things and all evils to all people. Oh yeah, they're modifying it slightly next year too, just to keep everybody on their toes.

The women of the USA Gymnastics team were at least a better sport than the commentators. Thanks Tim, for registering your barely contained biased outrage on Nastia's behalf while she was graciously accepting her silver medal, a feat that 99.998 percent of people will never accomplish. She wuz robbed!, he and Elfi grumble over the national anthem. (Side note: Sacramone wuz robbed! robbed! of bronze.) I can set aside the laughable, cheesy statements of Al -- and of course they have to keep up a good banter between the three, but when I watch a whole broadcast and learn nothing significant about the sport or the routines of the athletes I'm watching, or when even as an ardent team US supporter I feel bad for the way Tim is backhandedly complimenting the Chinese team, something's wrong. I watched the all around final on the NBC website, without the soundtrack of Al, Tim, and Elfi. It was glorious.

While Shawn and Nastia were battling it out for one and two, the surprise of the all-around competition for me was Ksenia Semenova from Russia. She came in fourth by only a few tenths (and was less than two points behind Liukin). She has a similiar style to Nastia and is only 15. With a few more elements, especially to her floor routine and she will be in serious contention as a champion all-arounder for the next couple of years, maybe even to the next Olympics.

The most moving part, strangely enough, was the medal ceremony for the all-around. Watching the three top women in gymnastics was a study in contrast. A huge sunny smile from Yang Yilin that quickly disappered into blankness. And was that disappointment or pride or both on Shawn Johnson's face? (I'm still not buying the Shawn-Nastia BFF story.) The best, though, was the real, honest to god "I can't believe I did this" moment from Nastia Liukin. Go team.

Also, from Taylor's corner of the ALOTT5MA Repressive Regime Desk, evidence that the Chinese may not have a Takings Clause in their laws, and doesn't have much tolerance of elderly citizens who claim otherwise. Comments open for all of Wednesday's events, including the men's 200m dash, the women's 400m hurdles, BMX racing and the women's beach volleyball final.