Martha Karolyi on psychological warfare:
[QUOTE]Martha Karolyi said Alicia Sacramone was made to wait too long to compete on the balance beam, causing her to lose her concentration. Sacramone fell off the beam, got a low score and pushed the U.S. farther behind the Chinese team. The U.S. finished with silver.
"It was an extremely long time," said Karolyi. "It's the little things. It's a psychological warfare."[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE] Regardless what caused the delay, Karolyi was suspicious. Asked if she thought the delay was intentionally done to throw off Sacramone, Karolyi said, "Well it could be."
She also discussed Sunday's qualifying, when an official on the floor spoke to Shawn Johnson as she was ready to vault: "They never should talk to the gymnast, and they are obliged to do it right."
Still, Karolyi said her girls had no excuses to not win gold: "We did so much training of making them tough and keeping their focus and concentration and still it happens. It is disappointing."
Karolyi also continued charges that China was using underage gymnasts, even saying one gymnast was missing a tooth, a suggestion that permanent teeth had not come in.
Still, the U.S. did not perform well. After Sacramone's fall on beam, she fell on the floor exercise and stepped out of bounds. Shawn Johnson and Nastia Liukin got deductions for stepping out of bounds on the floor as well.
[/QUOTE]
On
International Gymnast:
[QUOTE]Afterward, American coach
Marta Karolyi greeted the Chinese team, telling them, "Congratulations, you deserved it." [/QUOTE]
Reasons for long wait does not seem to be TV broadcasting like USA Gymnastics President Steve Penny says:
[QUOTE] USA Gymnastics president Steve Penny said he would not file an inquiry, adding delays are normal when there is live television. Penny said two factors impacted the delay: "They were having some keypads issues, what the judges push. The other was a broadcasters decision. It was not NBC. The Beijing Broadcasters were showing the floor live as Alicia was ready to compete on beam. They couldn't change in the middle of a live event."
Penny added "The reasons seem logical, even though we don't like them."
Mark Parkman, a spokesman for Beijing Olympic Broadcasting (BOB), which supplies feeds to countries around the world not including what NBC does, denied TV was involved.
"It was not our decision to hold the competitor from competing," Parkman said by telephone. "Those are decisions that are made by the FIG (International Gymnastics Federation) competition official. The federations run the competition."
BOB estimates the delay was more than two minutes. FIG officials did not respond to a request for an interview.
Former gymnast Bart Conner, a 1984 Olympic gold medalist, said waiting is normal and pointed out how long Sasha Artemev had to wait on pommel horse Tuesday during the men's team competition.
"There are international judging panels on the floor," he said. "The locals are not in charge of what happens."
[/QUOTE]
The age issue:
[QUOTE]"At this point, the FIG and the International Olympic Committee have closed the (age) issue," said Chris Korotky, publisher of
Inside Gymnastics magazine. "It's fair to address, but at this point the competition was what it was. Today China was a better team on the competition floor. I think there's no making excuses."[/QUOTE]
also here:
http://gymchat.com/messageboards/showthread.php?t=74569
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