bladerunner
Banned Idiot
Regarding gymnasticsI dont think this method has given China any advantages over say America or Japan. In fact a quick look at the Olympic competition of yesteryearreveals that American women have performed miles better than their chinese counterpart, as did the Japanese men gymnasts in their glory years.
So it really comes as no surprise that they weren't able to retain their title or even medal in the team event in the current competition. In fact the way the Americans decimated the traditional compeititors in Russia China and Romania, makes a mockery of the top down management and training approch.
At this site you can scroll down to the bottom and pick any men's and women's gymnastic discipline and compare their respective successes by the amount of medals won from all the Olympics to 2008
If one watched the competition one could not help but notice that the American, Russian and Romanian team had a better mixture of size and strength to match the demands of the apparatus, whereas the Chinese girls were smaller on purpose. Perhaps this gave them the advantage on the beam, but disadvantaged them on the vault where strength is required and on the floor where a slightly larger size would command extra presence.
Therefore if things didn'.t go right for them on the beam and perhaps the uneven bars, they would be totally stuffed. In fact it did'nt even have to get that far. After Maroney the specialist vaulter nailded a 16+ first up in the first rotation and the whole team averaging 16, barring anything going wrong for the Americans , it was all over for the Chinese girls by simply basing it on their PB's.
Have you been played into the hands of the western media by using total medals rather than the color?
