A Quick Word About Women's Gymnastics

Yes, OK, Romania beat us in the qualifying round.

But somebody forgot to give them the mandatory deduction for bad costumes.  Seriously, what genius decided to put all the Romanian gymnasts is white leotards through which you could see their undies?

Our gymnasts might not be better, but we've got the better clothes.  U.S.A!  U.S.A!

Yet Another Word on the Blaine Wilson Thing

Olddog asks if it the rule change had any effect on the individual all-around.  As a matter of fact, I think it might have -- but not in the way you'd think.

The top 24 overall scorers make the all-around.  However, only the top 2 from each country make it.  Paul Hamm is our top scorer, and he most definitely made it.  Our second place guy was (ironically) Brett McClure -- I say "ironically," because he's the third guy who was hit with the rule change -- he's the one who didn't change his routine because it was still out of a 10.0.

So the question is ... if the rule hadn't been changed, would Blaine Wilson have outscored Brett McClure?  And the answer is, maybe.  I don't know which events each of these guys is good in -- I can only go by the scores they actually put up in the qualifying round.  And, as it happens, Blaine Wilson was ahead of Brett McClure on 3 out of the 6 apparati.  (By a lot.)  They tied on a 4th.  The 5th was the high bar, which Wilson fell off of (and McClure didn't), and the 6th was the pommel horse -- which Wilson sat out after his fall.  BUT, McClure had a really crappy pommel horse routine -- he ended up scoring 9.00 on it.  The odds are pretty good that if Wilson had gotten on the horse and simply not fallen off of it, he would have outscored McClure on the horse.  And if he had, he would have outscored McClure overall even with the fall on the high bar.

Which means, quite obviously, that -- all things being equal -- if Wilson had simply eaten the 2-tenths on the high bar (thereby not falling off and not having to skip the horse), he most definitely would have beaten McClure's total score and made the all-around.