During an interview following the routines, Gabby was asked how she deals with the nervousness of competing in the Olympics. She smiled broadly and proudly responded that she “meditates on Scripture”, and said, “The Bible really helps me out.”
She deserves affirmative action just for that.
She is a great gymnast. Go, Gabby!
You demonstrate one of the real evils of affirmative actions (I'm not saying you're evil, I'm sure you're a fair, good guy since you're a Freeper): it makes us suspicious of individual achievements of members of the groups benefiting from this awful law (mainly African Americans). Other Freepers have pointed out that while in the floor-ex she stumbled, she was that great doing very hard routines in the others to come in second.
Bela Karolyi was spot on last night on NBC. He said the rule limiting all-around competitors to two per nation is absurd. There’s no way Jordyn Wieber isn’t one of the 24 best gymnasts in that competition, but she’s aced out by a stupid rule.
If we want to talk about rules, that’s the one to talk about, not affirmative action. Let’s see the best compete.
I did watch it but I don’t think it was unfair. Going into the floor exercises, Gabby was quite a bit ahead of Jordon (if I am getting their names correct ) Even with the deductions she received she was still able to hold on to her lead. It was the total of the rotations that is considered.
Yes I do believe it.
Someone had to be cut but I get a bad feeling this little girl would have won the gold had she not been.
It could be the announcers thought she didn’t do as well because they have latent racialism.
Anyway, the real affirmative action in gymnastics is the stupid rule that only 2 people from a country can be in the all-around competition. This means it’s not the 3 best people who will get medals, instead we will make sure more countries get a chance to send athletes to the finals even though they have no chance of winning.
If there was just a “winner”, it wouldn’t matter — if you can’t beat 2 of your own teammates, what chance did you really have to win? But they hand out bronze medals to the 3rd-place competitor, and now it is possible that the 3rd-best person in the world isn’t even allowed to compete.
It’s worse because gymnastics is an inherently subjective grading system, and who knows whether that 3rd-place girl was cheated somewhat by an incorrect subjective decision.
First, Gabby did not fall off the beam. She was well ahead of the other gymnasts going into the final rotation.
It is a shame that FIG rules dictate that only two gymnasts from each country can compete in AA and in event finals. Jordyn is the world champion, but she came up short. Her scores on all events except Floor were lower than Gabby’s. Gabby made a bad error on Floor, but she had done so well on other events that it did not matter. Aly had the lowest scores on Vault and Bars, but she did better than Jordyn on Beam and on Floor. She does the hardest Flooor routine in the world. Jordyn did not perform as crisply as usual. She seemed off.
Gabby is not a part of the clique of her teammates. It is hard to watch. The other girls are all BFFs and say it every chance they get. but Gabby loves God and says so. You can see her praying and reciting Bible verses as she moves between rotations. And I do NOT hear Gabby love from coaches or commentators!
The girls’ team is interesting to me this year. The team captain, Aly, is Jewish. Gabby is a Southern black whose daddy is in the military. And Christian. Jordyn is Lebanese Catholic. Kyla Ross is half Asian, half white. And I don’t know about McKayla. And they were chosen for their skills, not race(s).
I confess that I used to watch Gabby years ago when we lived in Virginia. Our daughters went to the same gym though they were little. Gabby has always been a cut above in her drive and ability. I am so happy to see her do so well. It must have been terribly difficult to leave home to train in Iowa.
These girls are the best, and they need to come together and do their best in the team competition tomorrow.
But in all seriousness, the girl just didn't do as well as Gabby Douglas and thus, because of the asinine rules, will not compete in the all around event.
btw- that girl you claimed was rewarded on the basis of Affirmative Action, Gabby Douglas- she just blew the competition away and won the gold in the woman’s all around...