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.

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[ Read More... ]

Nastia didn't make the USA women's gymnastics team. At the USA Olympic trials she fell on her bars dismount and had a bobble on beam, and wasn't picked for the team. She just started training hard about 9 months ago, and also had a shoulder injury she had to cope with. Shawn Johnson also tried a comeback but had to quit because of her knee injury she had - torn acl during skiing (she started[ Read More... ]

Nastia didn't make the USA gymnastics team?