Crikey! Australia loses by 31

In their first game of the medal round, Team USA ran into a very physical Australian team.  There were some hard fouls, as they tried to take the Americans out of their game.  At the end of the first quarter, the score was tied, but that was because Team USA couldn't buy a three, and they were shooting their free throws like Shaq.  Australia's shooting kept them in the game early, but the Americans were dominating inside, playing volleyball on the offensive boards.

By halftime Team USA was up by 12, and Australia's olympic experience was about to come to an end.  In every game so far, it has only been a matter of time before the Americans got their transition game going, and went on a big run to break the game open.  Against Germany, they started the game that way.  Against Australia, they started the second half that way.  Once they get out in the open court, good luck stopping LeBronze or Wade on his way to the basket.  The problem for the rest of the world is that there are some guys who can guard LeBronze, but they all play for Team USA. Four minutes later, Australia was down 23, Bucks' star Andrew Bogut was hobbling to the bench on a bad ankle, and that was all she wrote.  Final score USA 116, Australia 85.

On to gymnastics.  Thanks to Tivo, I can fast forward through everything else, and find womens gymnastics.  At least I thought I had when I saw a girl doing somersaults and bouncing up and down.  False alarm.  It was the Trampoline.  How about that?  Trampoline is an Olympic sport now.  Trampoline!  And in prime time, no less!  So what's next?  Origami?  Flower arranging?

The gymnastics came later.  The battle on the Uneven Bars came down to He Kexin of China, who looks like she's maybe 13 years old, and Nastia Liukin of the USA, the all-around champion.  They had identical scores, but He won on a tie-breaker.  My first thought was, oh boy - a controversy!  Think Bela will have something to say about this?

But first, someone needs to tell Al Trautwig the cold war is over.  His commentary reminded me of the 70's, where every athletic event was a life-or-death struggle between east and west.  At the awards ceremony, Trautwig said, "Does He Kexin really think she's won the gold medal?"

Yes, she does.  The  fact that she was standing on the top step might have given her a clue.  And the gold medal she had draped around her neck must have been a dead giveaway.  And for what it's worth, I thought she won it, too.  I can't comment on the accuracy of the judges because I'm not qualified.  Maybe the Australian judge woke up on the wrong side of the bed that day.  But they followed the rules, and that's all that mattered.

Of course this led to another Encounter with Bela, and I'm still not sure what he said.  Nothing like a controversy to make ol' Bela's blood boil.  I really wish I had one of those universal translators they used on Star Trek.  At the very least, NBC should have provided us with a Bela-to-English dictionary, or maybe English subtitles when Bela was talking.

Fortunately they had Tim Daggett explain the circumstances, which he did without a trace of a Romanian accent.  I looked at the raw scores of ALL of the judges, and when you added them up, the Chinese girl won.  But the rule is to throw out the high and low scores, which they did.  That's when it became a tie.  The tie-breaker is to throw out the next lowest score, and when they did that, He Kexin won.  You may say it's a stupid rule, but it's the rule.  It's not like swimming where they award duplicate medals in a dead heat.  Maybe they will change it for the next Olympics, and maybe they won't.  As for He's age, that doesn't matter to me.  I don't think there should be a minimum age, and if she's good enough to beat the other girls when she's 10 years old, give her the medal.

The final event was the Balance Beam.  Of all the events, this is the one that scares me.  The others all look like fun, but I'm amazed that more girls don't kill themselves falling off that thing.  This would be Shawn Johnson's last chance to win a gold medal.  She is a pixie with what they used to call a Pepsodent smile.  She holds the mythical title of America's Sweetheart, but she is emotionally and physically as tough as any athlete at the games.  She had been rock-solid all week, winning three silver medals, but minor mistakes in each event had kept her from winning the top prize.

Under the pressure of the final event, she gave her best performance of the games.  Next came her teammate, Nastia Liukin, and I found myself hoping she would fall off the beam.  Nothing against Nastia, but she already had the all-around gold medal (which is better) while all Shawn had was more silver than Tiffany's.  In the end, Nastia won the silver medal, and Shawn (finally) won gold.

Bob Costas interviewed her afterwards, along with her coach and...Bela!  Her coach was born in Beijing, and I found him easier to understand than Bela, but that's another story.  Bela described the balance beam as the purgatory of gymnastics...at least that's what I think he said.  He was engaged in Belaspeak, so it's really anyone's guess as to what he actually meant.  But at last there was a happy ending to the gymnastics competition.  And no more Bela.  I think.