All the gymnastics teams, men's and women's, and from all over the world, seem to do it - the teammates chattering, yelling, and encouraging the gymnast teammate on the mat competing - isn't it distracting though?! They're like "come on", "you got it", "go", "stick", blah blah. And they are so close to the mat too, and loud - you can hear it on the NBC London Olympics coverage. So distracting or do they just like it? They must like it since they keep doing it!

I think everyone does it in the gym too, during practice routines, so it is just part of it, not distracting. It's more like background noise, and you're concentrating on what you're doing. The crowd was really loud during Jordyn Wieber floor routine in the team finals at the London Olympics! You could just barely hear her floor music on the NBC coverage through all the cheers.