Inspired By the Olympic Women's Gymnastic Team

It seems like everyone and their dog has opinions about the Olympic gymnastics women's team, particularly Simone Biles.  Last week's team final was confusing when Simone pulled out.  Rumors and gossip abound before the NBC airing of the event, but when her vault was shown, with the slow motion replay following right after, it was obvious she was lost in the air.  When the team gathered around her after the vault Simone told her teammates that she was afraid of getting hurt.

Then Simone did what no one expected, she pulled out of the last two apparatuses she was planning to perform, Suni and Jordan filling in the exit.  The team went on to win a silver, facing the challenge with great courage.

As time went on it was known that Simone pulled out of those last two apparatuses for mental health reasons, while also battling an out of no where onslaught of the "Twisties," a sense of losing spacial awareness while in the air, and other whatnot's I don't understand, which is incredibly dangerous. 

What followed was a complete tear down and bullying of Simone online, calling her a quitter, some telling her to throw away the silver medal she earned.  (There are 4 team members on each countries team, with only 3 performing on each apparatus.  I recall the Russian team having a member who only performed on vault, which is what ended up happening with Simone, and is completely within the rules.  Simone rightfully earned that silver medal.)

The week that followed led to Simone pulling out of the individual all around, and the single vault, double bars, and floor routine medal finals.  Meanwhile she was able to find a gym with soft landings to work on the twisties and monitor her recovery each day.  

During this last week Suni Lee won gold in the all around with an amazing performance and super tight competition.  MyKayla Skinner didn't fly home openhanded, but with a story book ending won silver on the vault.  Jade Carey had a misstep on the vault, and came back the next day with a really strong performance on the floor, earning gold.

Meanwhile Simone Biles was in the audience cheering and encouraging her teammates, her future uncertain.  After the team final Simone made sure MyKayla was immediately contacted and told not to go home, but stay just in case.  And Simone told Jade after her failed vault to kill it on the floor.  

And yesterday Simone performed on the balance beam, an apparatus that doesn't require much twisting, and won a bronze, which is what she earned in Rio.

Everyone on team USA earned a medal.

I'm inspired by every team member.  Simone Biles for being brave and admitting she had a problem and needed to step back, only to come back with an amazing beam performance, not giving up.  Jordan and Grace for staying strong during the team final and performing great routines.  Suni Lee for her graceful performance, earning a complete set of medals.  MyKayla who performed amazingly during qualification, but didn't qualify thanks to the stupid "two per country rule."  She was planning on heading home, but got the chance to stay, and after years of trying and sacrifice she's an Olympic medalist.  And Jade for doing well in the all around individual competition, then stumbling on the vault, only to come back the next day and becoming an Olympic champion.

You are all amazing women.

Midnight Winter Wonderland, and My Mom Runs Out of Gas, sort of . . .

Have you guys been watching the Olympics?

I've been following Ice Skating.  It's the only sport I legitimately keep up with, on and off Olympic years.  Grand cup series through US Nationals, Four Continents, Worlds, etc.  And just so you know Ice Skating is a real sport, because they dance on knifes, on ice, while throwing themselves in the air and spinning with multiple G forces.  (And ice skating for real scares me.  Ever since I toe picked and flew forward back in 2013, getting hurt really bad--my wrist and arm still hurts at times even now--I haven't skated.  Fell off the horse, never got back on, and I'm okay with that.  I appreciate seasoned Ice Skaters all the more because of my injury.)

Anywho, I was up pretty late Sunday night watching Ice Skating, without realizing how much is was snowing.  I looked out the window just before midnight and was greeted with this most incredible snowy scene.  Sky lit up from light reflecting off snow, bright and wondrous.  This whole season has been pretty dry.

(This year I finally got complete darkening window curtains.  Moved to Utah in 2001, what took me so long??!!  Blackening window curtains are a must on snowy nights.)

Just a couple weeks ago we had above normal temperatures around 60 degrees Fahrenheit.  It was wonderful!  Now it's freezing and I've got a bad case of Spring Fever, which has caused me to Spring clean.

In other news, yesterday my Mom and I had a day mixed with exasperation, frustration, and slight amusement.  I ran into the grocery store while my Mom stayed in the car listening to music.  When I came out the car wouldn't start.  Several attempts, no success.  The gas warning turned on right when we got to the store so we thought we would be fine.

Thankfully the parking lot had a lube doc and a gas station.  We walked over to the car place and asked if we could barrow a gas can, they had one, and then walked to the other end to get the gas.  My Mom was exasperated because she had never ran out of gas.  I laughed the whole time because the whole situation was quite amusing.  We were lucky that there was a gas station and a lube doc within close walking distance.  It was so cold while we were walking.  26 degrees F.

So we get back to the car, put the gas in, tried the ignition again, and nothing.  Didn't work!  A call to AAA, 1 1/2 hours of waiting (in which I got to peruse a Seagull bookstore while my Mom waited in the car), and the tow guy arrived to check the car.  It was the battery!  The funny thing is, after he charged the battery for over 5 minutes, the battery showed 100% with each test.  He said it was weird and didn't understand why the car had problems in the first place since the battery was testing so well.  Ah well.  C'est la vie. 

Lessons I learned: 1, check the tempurature before leaving the house, as I only brought a sweater, and 2, don't forget gloves!  Other than that "ride with the flow," as life likes to throw random bumps at us now and then.

(BTW, I'm listening to Spotify, the Japan Top 50 list.  At #1 is this song called Changed by One OK Rock.  Never heard this song before, but it's really catchy.  Listened to it on loop while writing this post.)

And I just realized that the sport I follow is technically called Figure Skating, not Ice Skating, because that what all the guides say.  I don't care enough to go back and fix it. Heh.

 

My Favorite London 2012 Olympic Moments

The funny thing about my family is that we're not super sporty people; it's probably because we're geeks who spend most of our time with the arts and sciences.  But when the Olympics are on, the TV is on, and we get excited over everything.

I think apart of it is because the Olympics isn't your typical sporty fair.  There is something for everyone: from soccer to basketball, table tennis to gymnastics, track and field to trampolining, etc.  And the team you are cheering for is your home country, so there's good ol' fashion national pride.

Favorite Scandal Moment

After the Men's team final, the British erupted in a loud applause when the scores went up and their home team got Silver.  Prince William and Harry were in the audience sharing in the excitement.  China got Gold, Britain Silver, and Ukraine Bronze.  Then someone from Japan's team went to the judges to file a complaint.  Kohei Uchimura wasn't given credit for his handstand dismount off the pommel horse, which lowered the score.  As part of regulations, they had to offer money, a few Benjamin Franklins, and their plea was heard.  The score was changed.  China Gold, Japan Silver, and Britain Bronze.  That one change, about .7 points increase, bumped Japan to Silver and tossed Ukraine off the podium. The home team had to go from an elated second to third.    

Favorite USA Victory

The U.S. girls team winning the Team Gold.  I remember watching the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta on TV.  That for me was the Summer between Middle School and High School, and I'll never forget watching Kerri Strug needing to land a second vault, standing, on a hurt foot to grantee the team a Gold.  Since then we haven't had a girls team strong enough to bring home the team gold, until now.  These girls were amazing. Mackayla's vault was perfect and deserved a perfect score.  Overall Amazing.     

Favorite Sport

Rhythmic Gymnastics.  My previous post was all about Synchronize Swimming, which is amazing, but I thoroughly enjoyed the Rhythmic Gymnastics team compition.  What these girls can do is really astounding.  

Favorite Royal Moment

    

During the Cross Country Equestrian course competition, all the royals were there enjoying family time.  There was a point where Kate was talking to Will, pointing to the camera.  He looked at the camera and waved, and Kate started giggling.  It was cute.

Zara Phillips, Queen Elizabeth's granddaughter, won a Silver medal with her Equestrian team. 

Favorite New Sport

Mountain Bike: Women's Cross Country.  I had no idea Mountain Biking was in the Olympics!  I stumbled upon it by accident, but it was really fun to watch. 

United States Women Ruled!

The U.S. finished off the medal count in first place with 104 medals: 46 Gold, 29 Silver, and 29 Bronze.  For the first time there were more U.S. women in the Olympics then men, and the ladies brought home more medals then the men.  Also, for the first time there was a women competing from every country in the London games.  Amazing. 

Another amazing feat is that 38 World Records were broken at the London Olympics.

It's been fun,
Sarah

The Awesomeness that is Synchronized Swimming

I honestly think it's sad that Synchronized Swimming gets the bad rap that it does.  Even in the middle of the 2012 Summer London Olympics I made this sport a joke on my Facebook wall: "You know you're a geek when you yell at the screen during an Olympic Archery event . . . I guess I would be more of a geek if I did that during Synchronized Swimming."  Joking aside, I think this is such a fantastic sport with an unbelievable amount of difficulty.

Back when my family was in California we had a pool, and I used to try some of the synchronized swimming moves to no avail.  It's amazing how they can swim upside down with their legs out of the water.  No matter how hard I tried I could never come close.

During the London 2012 Olympics Russia took gold, China Silver, and Spain bronze, though Spain was my favorite.

Okay, those pics look odd, but they were actually some of my favorite moments from their routine.  Below is a video of their qualifying for the Olympics.  The costumes are different, and there are some slight differences in the choreography.  

Some of my favorite shots were the duel cam, which showed what was happening in and out of the water.  I wish it was possible to watch all the routines like this.

My Dad noticed something interesting about the Japanese pose before they started.  He asked Steven what kanji (Japanese written character) they were representing, and Steven believes it was Kokoro, Heart.

Happy end of Summer swimming!
Sarah