Beijing 2008 Olympics 3

Both Chinese men's and women's gymnastic teams grabbed golds in team all-around events and it was probably the greatest moment in Chinese gymnastic history as China only got one gold in the 2004 Athens Olympics. However, the Chinese surely rebounded from the big disappointment and delivered fabulously at home. It is the second time Chinese win the men team all-around and the first time ever to win the women team all-around. On one hand, China finished in first place in the men event with a clear lead since its main opponents Japan was not as strong as it was in the 2004 Olympics and the US didn't have its veterans, Paul and Morgan Hamm, due to injuries. On the other hand, China narrowly beat the US as all three gymnasts, Alicia Sacramone, Nastia Liukin and Shawn Johnson, made mistakes in the final round, the floor exercise. However, there was also an age controversy about three of the Chinese gymnasts, He Kexin (何可欣), Jiang Yuyuan (江鈺源) and Yang Yilin (杨伊琳) as there were reports showing that they were not above or turning 16 in the Olympics year. To me, they don't look like they are sixteen so it is possible for China to alter the documentations so as to make them old enough to complete. Anyway, I do feel a little bit of jealousy in those critics concerning the age deputes since the US didn't perform well enough to reclaim its gold.


One of the three famous kids that appeared in the opening ceremony was on the New York Times' front page "In Grand Olympic Show, Some Sleight of Voice" (Aug13) as there were questions whether Lin Miaoke (林妙可) actually sang the song “Ode to the Motherland” (歌唱祖国). Lip-syncing oneself at important occasion is not bad but lip-syncing by another person is terrible to me. It's that always true that a girl with a pretty face cannot sing!?


By the way, I want to mention the other two kids as they had some missteps during the opening ceremony. The girl I didn't like most in the opening ceremony was Li Muzi (李木子) who performed next to Lang Lang (郎朗). She seemed not to know any manner and was highly suspected that she was picking her nose during the performance... Naviete could not be the excuse if her behavior was real...

Lastly, the third kid, Lin Hao (林浩), and the only boy in the group did nothing wrong but was given the wrong flag to wave during the march of nation. His Chinese flag was actually up-side-down! It was kind of embarrassing because he was doing it in front of eyes of billions people around the world...