China, not Americans, shows grace under pressure

The Monitor ^ | August 13, 2008 | AP

[2dogjoe]

BEIJING (AP) -- Alicia Sacramone's foot slipped off the 4-inch-wide tightrope that is the balance beam, her body wobbling and shaking as she fought to stay upright. Another slip, this time in the floor exercise, sent her tumbling onto her back.

Mistakes of millimeters by the Americans made for just enough of an opening for the Chinese to slip through for the team gold medal in women's gymnastics Wednesday at the Beijing Olympics.

"I was surprised by the mistakes made by the U.S. team," conceded Cheng Fei, who has seen enough of the Americans the past four years to know they're made of pretty stern stuff.

Maybe too stern.

The Americans were plainly uptight, their faces scrubbed clean of emotion and looking very much like a team trying to hold on to something they didn't have instead of one gunning for gold. Their exuberance and personality - qualities just as vital as their somersaults and twists - were nowhere to be found while the Chinese let loose with abandon. They smiled. They giggled. They traded high-fives and even a chest bump.

[SolidWood]

What’s that? AP(ropaganda) of Chinese supremacy?

[nhoward14]

Of course who knows how things would have turned out had the Chinese not sent 12 year olds out there.

[who_would_fardels_bear]

"They traded high-fives and even a chest bump"

What chests?

[EyeGuy]

“The Americans were plainly uptight....”

Obviously stressed from living a brutal life under the exploitative running dogs of capitalism.

---

“Their exuberance and personality - qualities just as vital as their somersaults and twists - were nowhere to be found while the Chinese let loose with abandon. They smiled. They giggled. They traded high-fives and even a chest bump.”

Due to the joys of the fresh lilac scents and butterflies-are-free fruits of the kind and benevolent communist system.

[spetznaz]

This is why I think people should spend a few months outside the US. Then they would know that certain cultures (e.g. the Chinese, the Islamic, the Soviet) are not as pleasant and ‘nice’ as they are made to be. As many faults as the US may have, it is positively angelic when compared to virtually any other locus in the globe.

[wastedyears]

Where’s the barf alert?

And yeah, American gymnasts will be worried when they’re competing against 12 year olds.

[2dogjoe]

Major Barf Alert!!!

[reagan_fanatic]

What a steaming load of nonsensical bullsh*t.

[the_devils_advocate_666]

great post, thanks

[Varda]

Pressure is an adult reaction and any grace under it is strictly an adult response. There was no pressure on the Chinese team because they are children.

[jveritas]

The Chinese national gymnastics team members are taken at the age of 3 away from their parents and they are allowed to see their parents only one time a year. This left wing hateful lunatic who wrote this piece of crap should live in China and see how to be treated as a subhuman under an evil communist regime really means.

[weegee]

The Americans were plainly uptight... while the Chinese let loose with abandon. They smiled. They giggled. They traded high-fives and even a chest bump.

The difference between VISITING a tyrannical police state when you live in the land of liberty and growing up IN that tyrannical communist nation.

[stinkerpot65]

Liberals admire and crave oppression, which is why they love China.

[weegee]

I was watching a period documentary on the Weather Underground (Bill Ayers and his fellow terrorists).

One woman in the terrorist cell mentioned how she travelled to Cuba in 1960 and saw a million Cubans celebrate the revolution in Havana. She then expressed some shock and regret when Castro paraded tanks and missiles in the street. But a fellow comrade told her that they needed those weapons because of the threat of American imperialism and she said that the Bay of Pigs invasion gave her support to that ideology. She brought up the whole incident because it helped shape her demented worldview that violence was okay and justifiable to use against the American government, industries, and police.

None are so blind as those who refuse to see. Red diaper doper babies are a threat to the society.

[ikka]

Read this article and notice that one of the Chinese gymnastics team girls is listed as being 14 years old. Not 16.

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/olympics/2008-05/23/content_6707927.htm

[nmh]

“Of course who knows how things would have turned out had the Chinese not sent 12 year olds out there.”

That’s about right.

These Chinese kids get the BEST meical care and nutrition. With this in mind, explain to me how come they don’t have all their ADULT teeth yet?

I was looking at the youngest looking girl and noticed space between her teeth on the side on the upper row. My NINE year old is at that stage for adult teeth. Size and frame indicate more of a 12 year old at BEST.

[illiac]

I left comments and “The Monitor” stating that while the American gymnasts made some mistakes, it is fast becoming evident that the Chinese gymnasts may be ineligible to compete because of their age.

[ßuddaßudd]

China sux ! imho

[red irish]

I have ALWAYS watched the Olympics but not this year. And just as you have said and others China does not treat it’s people right.Did you hear the news that “dog” was taken off the menus in restaurants? Besides Russia and China are too tight. Don’t trust either of them.