In the most amazing comeback in sports history, USA Gymnast from Waukesha Wisconsin (For those who don't know, i'm from wisconsin, very near Waukesha) came back from a devastating fall on the Vault, which took him down to 12th place. Through amazing perseverance and raw Wisconsin strength, Paul was able to realize his dream of being the FIRST EVER american All-Around Gymnastics gold medalist. He beat out his South Korean competitors by a margin of .012, 12 one THOUSANDTHS of a point.

His winning rotation was the high-bar, and his score came in at an amazing 8.372!

I know a lot of you aren't american, but i ask that we all give a very appropriate cheer for this phenomenal athlete.
I'm excited, i love the olympics. edit: Sorry, had the score messed up, it's indeed an 8.372 rather than the 8.327 i had originally posted.

Message edited on: 08/18/2004 23:13

I saw it on TV...excellent...excellent!!

I can cheer for him too Slakker! Not to be Jingoistic about it, but to celebrate the sheer guts and determination this man displayed in overcoming amazing odds!

Super performance! Couldn't help feeling sorry for the Koreans, though. All the main competitors were just fantastic. I'm not that interested in the Olympics, a lot of it is pretty boring, but the gymnastics are FANTASTIC.

I think there is some.. (well maybe more than some) subjectiveness involved.. As far as I could see, the koreans were superior on all of those events. In most cases their body build is more suitable for the event. This gives them the advantage, and I think that the judges seem to score them more difficultly. Oh well, I watched it, and was very impressed and amazed. (I still can't even comprehend how they are able to do the rings...)

And I mean, don't take this out of contest, I am american after all. But I just think that sports like.. gymnastics and synchronized diving or figure scating, while showing some pretty amazing physical feats, are extremely subjective. Much unlike timed events.

Message edited on: 08/18/2004 23:30

Message edited on: 08/18/2004 23:34

Australian female swimmer, who won a gold medal a couple of days ago in the 100m butterfly (swimming) after enduring 3 shoulder reconstructions. To me, this is a show of guts and determination (but your guy didn't do too bad either).

Message edited on: 08/18/2004 23:28

I suppose looking at it from the aspect, it makes sense Ornlu. There may be a subjectiveness to it, but overall i'm sure the judging was fair and the deductions given were deserved. As i'm sure you heard from the broadcasters, the little things can certainly add up in deductions and bring the score down greatly, and Paul Hamm's two final rotations were absolutely amazing.

And yeah, Thomas is a great swimmer. How about a cheer for the Thorpedo, while we're at it? He's arguably the best swimmer on the planet. I guess we'll see where Phelps ends up after these games, but Thorpe has been dominating for so long. Can't help but have respect for people like that. Not to mention that coming back from 12th place in the OLYMPICS is absolutely unheard of.

Message edited on: 08/18/2004 23:44

Yeah, Flak, you're right! My hat is off to her as well!

Go the Aussies!! (I'm from Australia)

Uk swimmer who trained for 4 hard years, got to the olympics, jumped in the pool for a warm up before here qualifying race and cut here legs open on the underwater camera, went home with stitches! Uk weightlifter, who trained for 4 hard years, got to the olympics, came on stage (starting his time limit for the lift) for his event wearing non regulation kit, told to change came back on with four seconds to spare, running to the weights, slipped and fell! Make snooker and darts the main events I say, then we would rule the world!

Jeez! NON-REGULATION KIT.....this is the kind of thing that makes the games a no-no for me. I applaud the sports peps who work so hard to do their thing, but the petty-mindedness on the rule-makers sucks. Congrats to all of your heroes and I hope yours do well. The great thing is that they are doing is getting rid of the drugs cheats. The bad thing is that the I.O.C. is an exclusive club who's members are all millionaires who get to travel the world 1st Class and pay for nothing. The UK want the games to come here in 2012. Nothing wrong in that, except that here we have all the facilities ready to go in Manchester and yet the British O.C. won't allow any city other than London to bid. In London they are talking about making an olympic village and stadia etc near the Millenium Dome, which means ripping out huge chunks of the area where people actually live. Those peps will have to be re-housed, probably in sub-standard housing. They will never be able to afford to move back into an area where many spent their entire lives. I'm with Orbital on this, make dominos an olympic evemt!

My Nan got thrown out of her social club for cheating at dominos..... yeh they found her with a packet of bourbon biscuits and a bottle of tip-ex.....sorry cack joke!

Now, Beer Drinking, that would be a great British event...Gold everytime!

It's got to be said though kit can make a huge difference which is why there are rules, I used to kayak with several olympic team folks, and breaking the rules on boat design or paddle design could make a difference of multiple seconds. In the weights arena, clothing is available that provide extra support to the stomach/lower back and enables the lifter to lift more, hence the pettiness on kit. I'd rather see someone win because they're the best athlete rather then they have the best kit, I'd go as far as saying the kit should be supplied so everyone has the same.....

Well johnyf I would have to argue with you on the British winning a gold for beer drinking, being a Canadian I believe we would give you a hell of a run for your money. Partying too much is one of the reasons why our athletes suck(with the exception of our baseball team) which is probably our best chance at gold. We only have one medal so far, bronze in synchro diving. I didn't even know that was a sport.

Yeah I've been to canada, you guys are crazy when it comes to your alcohol. Probably beause there's not a whole lot else to do =) but still, I'd say canada'd go gold on that.

Um...no way. The United States would totally win the beer drinking... All we'd have to do is compile a team entirely from Wisconsin. That's all we do around here, beer and cheese. You guys all go get yourselves a 6 pack, maybe a 12 pack for a party...here in wisconsin we get two 30 cases, a keg, and we end up going to the store to get more beer before we get to midnight.

Hard to believe anyone would get to Olympic level, and turn up in non-regulation kit!! One of our walkers was involved in a car crash, broke his foot and a bone in his back :o(

Excuse me...but what you yanks and Canadians call beer, here in Britain we give to kids on a hot summers day! ROFLMAO.

ROTFL, Must be said every time I've had friends over from the states, two bottles of WaggleDance and they've gone giggly :).

Got to agree with johnyf - from my experience, US beer is pretty watery.

Well...that would be true, except i know a lot of people who drink a lot of guiness. Call that watery, my friend.

guinness is far from an american beer my friend ;-) a lot of the major beers here in the U.S. are very watery (Budweiser, Coors, MGD, etc). But a lot of microbrews here are very good and strong to boot! Living in Portland, OR (which happens to be the leader in micro-breweries in the U.S) I have had my share of some very good beer. Long story short, us yanks know our beer too ;-)

I'm with JohnyF on this one.....a Brit could dink US beer all week and not even get a buzz.....