Gotta give some kudos to NBC, America's big sombrero of broadcasting. That's right. A big ol' hat. See what I did there? Metaphor. Or something.
But yes. Their web feeds of gymnastics during That Large Sporting Event Held In a Nondecript Asian Location Just Last Month were phenomenal. Particularly during qualification rounds. The camera, literally, just kept rolling throughout the rotations. You saw march-ins and march-outs. You saw a gymnast dismount from the podium and celebrate with their coach after actually dismounting the apparatus. You saw every routine and the team being presented to the judges. You'd see them packing and unpacking their stuff and watching their team-mates. To me, this shows a team's true nature beyond what they do on the podium. It's camaraderie. It's preparation. It's non-diegetic [in a sense] information that adds to their performance.
Check out the resource I linked in the previous post and get your hands on extended team prelims and finals coverage. You'll catch such highlights as-
* Olivia musing "good one, [a] bewdy!" after Georgia's bars in prelims
* Lauren encouraging teammates as they mount various apparatus by telling them to treat the routine "like normal"
* Georgia does indeed get called "G-Bo" as she prepares for floor in the team final. Damn, and I thought I was so clever making that up!
* ShoMo and G-Bo prelims banter:
(Georgia has just finished beam, performing second after Shona in the lineup)
G: (puffing) "[You got a ] Great...beam score."
S: "(distracted as Ashleigh prepares) "What?"
G: "Reeeally good beam score."
S: "Me?"
G: "You, yeah."
S: "What was it?"
G: "15-3...something."
S: (pleasantly surprised yet hinting at how chuffed she truly is) "...nice."
* The arena announcer completely butchering every European name over the loudspeaker. Just listen to the huge pause between 'Ekaterina' and 'Kramarenko' that comes after Ashleigh's beam. Yet another reason to give one Mr Ade Foster the top job
* Dasha clapping and praising all her teammates in all the warm-ups, what a team player. Her beam is just the most gut-wrenching thing to watch. Her ankle must be so sore, and she waters so much down because of it (a split leap, her dismount... a front aerial taken too short nearly sees her topple but it's the ensuing side somi that clinches it). The poor thing. I hadn't seen the routine in full until now. She grins and bears it before her Shushunova jump but you can just tell it's hurting and she's panicking slightly. She breaks into tears the moment she lands her dismount, it's the saddest salute I've ever seen (save for Zamo's in the team final at Stuttgart last year). In the team huddle afterwards, P-Liddy tells them that the team will finish where they will finish, they will have to wait and see as there is one session to go. Lauren pipes up cheerily something about a "disaster" which I assume was prefaced with "any team could have a..." and then there is a chiding "LOOOR-enn!" from our head coach.
* In a happier moment, look for Lauren getting a quick photo in front of the beam in the team final; this is actually viewable in the BBC coverage (don't know about NBC just yet). Martine and the physio let her have her hugs after her routine, then grab her and whip her in front of the beam brandishing a camera, she laughs and smiles a little foolishly but also with a sense of pride and achievement. It's a very very brief moment that *I think* I left in for my montage (*coughcheckitoutinthepreviouspostifyouhaven'talreadycough*)
Have I mentioned how much I loved this team and they way they gelled!?
Sunday, September 7, 2008
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2 comments:
Hey Mez, it's Jackie here and after weeks of obsessing over Gymnastics, I finally remembered that you were hosting a (mighty respectable) blog about the very subject. I've really enjoyed reading your write-ups of the Australian women's gym team - especially considering seven sort of scrimped on the coverage and the rest of the english-speaking internet seems to be entirely composed of Americans (seriously, every website I go to talks about the Americans at length), so it's really great to see pockets of different national teams collecting in friendly areas. :)
Aww, I wish I could see these feeds that you were talking about. They sound really fun; I too have a bit of an obsession in watching the small, individual moments gymnasts show in between their mind-blowing routines - small fist pumps, the ways they comfort each other when one stuffs up etcetc. I was wondering if you knew of any good places where good information and enthusiasm about men's gymnastics is dished out? Maybe it's the late developing hormones talking, but I've become rather enamoured with the men's artistic events, but alas, they hardly ever get coverage, (in english) especially over their more graceful female counterparts. I'd be grateful for any tips or directions you have. :)
*rushes and hugs*
I miss you!
I suggest checking out some of the links I've listed on the page here. There is also a good blog by an LJ user called "Rawles" if you can find it. It has some info about each apparatus and the scoring code. Otherwise, wikipedia is a good place to start.
Nice to see you jumping on my bandwagon :) I love it like you love football (which I assume you still do?)
Do check the gymnastics multimedia forum I posted a link to an entry ago. There you can find a whole lot of downloadable files of BNC/BBC/Eurosport feeds that people have provided. Stuff that gets YouTube'd is being hastily removed by IOC and NBC trolls.
You should come to Nationals with me one year! Mishka had a grand old time last year, she spent the whole time giggling at the male competitors' hairy armpits...
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