A Must-See Gymnast, and the Meaning of Joy

WSJ ^ | 16 Jan 2019 | Jason Gay

[DUMBGRUNT]

If you haven’t seen the clip of Ohashi’s performance, go watch it right now. It’s barely a minute long. I’ll wait right here. OK, are we good? That was something, wasn’t it? I think there are a number of reasons why tens of millions of people are responding so positively—and emotionally—to this. First of all, Ohashi is an incredible athlete—she does about 20 things in this routine that if an ordinary human like you or me ever did, we would never stop talking about it for the rest of our lives. She makes extremely difficult maneuvers like tumbling passes look as normal as strolling down the sidewalk.

It’s so, so joyful. It radiates warmth and glee. There’s a playfulness to her routine, to be sure—UCLA coach Valorie Kondos Field, aka Miss Val, is a college gymnastics legend for the way she’s injected happiness into a rigid, often cruel sport—but it isn’t a goof, not at all. What Ohashi is doing is extremely hard to do

[Sergio]

Wow! A video worth re-watching.

[petitfour]

Age

[dfwgator]

LOL, I always wonder how all those Decathletes Bruce defeated in the Olympics felt about losing to a girl?

[Chickensoup]

I am afraid they would to me.

It would just be more aversive in a pre-teen athlete.

[SaveFerris]

I’m sure they’d like him to at least return his medals.

I remember when that guy was on cereal boxes. Good gosh.

[dfwgator]

[SaveFerris]

In 1976 we would have never believed it possible.

Then again, on 9/11/2001, we would never have believed a Muslim-sympathizer would be elected to the White House TWICE just slightly more than 7 years later.

[al_c]

Age difference, I imagine.

[dfwgator]

[Doogle]

[ProtectOurFreedom]

Wow, amazing. Me, I’m quite happy to be able to get to a standing position after stretching on the floor for 20 minutes.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

Yeah, that grin alone says it all, doesn’t it? Gotta love the pure joy there!

[ProtectOurFreedom]

A “Muslim-sympathizer”?

Sympathizer? You sure about that? I would have dropped that modifier.

[SaveFerris]

LOL ouch

[dfwgator]

When you watch the Olympics, it seems to me that there’s little joy in the gymnasts.

And yes, I’ve often had my suspicions about many of those coaches, and now we’ve come to learn that those suspicions are true.

[SaveFerris]

Well, once in awhile I'm .......... too nice, LOL.

I agree with ya. I think he was here to do as much destruction as possible. All while grinning and telling lies.

He was an agent of Satan; still is. Of course he showed just who he was from the very beginning. How stupid are Democrats? Very, very, very stupid.

[Karoo]

...and that would be a shame - IMO

she kinda reminds me of Trump at his rallies: he enjoys himself and involves the audience in his enjoyment. It’s infectious.

[House Atreides]

Thanks for posting; it was joyful. I have just one thing I wonder about...HOW THE HELL DID SHE MANAGE TO NOT INJURE HERSELF?

The girl is awesome!

[Silentgypsy]

Heh! There’s a place in this world for us, too! I just wondered how you know that some of her feats were so difficult.

[central_va]

That’s a good one.