London 2012

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Gymnastics flying high in London

Posted by barneyspender on August 8, 2012
Posted in: Gymnastics, London 2012, Olympics, Sport. Tagged: , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

Walking in an Epke Zonderland: the Flying Dutchman’s daring routine on the high bar was the single most thrilling performance in the gymnastics competition

It is with a touch of sadness that I closed out the Artistic Gymnastics on Eurosport 3D yesterday and began to think about my top moments of the competition (see below).

It had been an eye-opening experience for someone who had never previously been that close to the sport. Strength, artistry, poise, precision and incredible athleticism wrapped up in explosive flashes of action.

I had always enjoyed watching gymnastics but – apart from some rather half-hearted vaulting and rope-climbing sessions during my school days – it is not a sport I had ever studied at close quarters. Until that is, I was detailed to commentate on it during these Olympics.

People often criticise the choice of commentators for sports that are not their speciality. I can understand that but I am afraid this is how it works: like any television company that takes its sport seriously, Eurosport has a number of employees on its books who are either commentators in a specialist sport and/or work on the news desk. They are at the very least professional broadcasters.

When a big competition like the Olympics comes along, these full-time broadcasters are redeployed to pick up different events. For example, the BBC used its cricket correspondent Jonathan Agnew to cover the Archery competion, probably on no better strength than that it was at Lord’s Cricket Ground. He had no previous knowledge of archery but is a first rate broadcaster.

Such was the case for me – although I hasten to add I am several divisions below Agnew when it comes to the broadcasting league tables.

My specialities are rugby union, which I cover for Eurosport, and, like Agnew, cricket – my first commentary was way back now in 1988.

But in the last 24 years I have also been called on to commentate at various times on tennis, table tennis, athletics, football, swimming, ten pin bowling and polo – the last of which was a tad unfortunate as the SOS from SABC came just as I was finishing off a very imbibious lunch prior to a South Africa-Argentina test to which I had been invited purely as a guest.

So to be asked to commentate on gymnastics was at the same time exciting and daunting.

The North Greenwich Arena (aka the Millennium Dome and the O2 Arena) provided a superb setting for the gymnastics albeit very pink

Exciting because it is such a great sport but daunting because of all the technical talk involved. How could I possibly learn the difference between a Yurchenko and an Amanar on the vault? What was a double Arabian?…you get the idea.

Fortunately, unlike some television stations, Eurosport believes in the value of having an expert on the commentary team. Hence my fellow commentator Dave Crossan and I were joined by Ioannis Melissanidis, the 1996 gold medallist on the floor.

That meant that David and I could anchor the presentation while Ioannis could bring an expert eye and talk us through the technicalities.

It was a happy combination which leant colour and depth to some thrilling gymnastics.

TOP FIVE IN THE GYM

To pick a few moments is a touch mean but I am going to do it nonetheless. In no particular order here are my moments from the gymnastics. Feel free to add yours:

1 – A gymnast requires not just technical excellence and a touch of artistry but a degree of courage as well. He who starts with a very difficult routine is reaching for the highest prize in the knowledge that one error could end it all. In the case of Epke Zonderland an error could also have meant serious injury. But the Flying Dutchman produced a hair-raising routine on the high bar, with a breath-taking series of combinations that had the crowd at the North Grenwich Arena gasping in awe and fear. And he was perfect. No mistakes and a deserved gold medal.

2 – Beth Tweddle is an equally adventurous gymnast on the uneven bars. Now 27, she had won the World Championship twice but never had an Olympic medal. Indeed, no British woman had ever achieved a podium finish. She qualified first in the bars and the NGA went dilly when she set off again on a high octane performance in the final. Like Zonderland she produced a heart-stopping performance right up until her dismount. Unlike the Dutchman, though, she didn’t quite nail the landing. A couple of steps and the gold had gone to the Russian Aliya Mustafine. But Tweddle did collect the bronze and the smile on her face at the medal ceremony showed just how much it meant to her.

3 – I don’t want to come across as too British in this piece but it would be wrong of me to overlook the achievemnts of the British team. When I was a kid, gymnastics really wasn’t seen as a British sport. When the Olympics came around, we would all admire the grace and skill and beauty of Olga Korbut, Nadia Comineci and co (I am afraid I never really took much notice of the men) but there were no Brits to look out for. In the last few years, though, there has been a sea change in the way gymnastics is perceived. Louis Smith got things rolling in Beijing with a bronze on the pommel horse and he went one better than that this time with a silver, losing out to Hungary’s Krisztian Berki on execution value after they had finished level on points. His teammate Max Whitlock added to the Brits’ day by taking bronze. With the British men – European champions in May – also winning bronze in the team event, the women reaching the final and Tweddle taking her bronze, it was an exceptional Games for the Brits.

Grace and beauty: Catalina Ponor may inspire a generation of female gymnasts that there is life after 20

4 – We all love a comeback and there were two superb ones in the women’s competition. Aliya Mustafina was on top of the world a couple of years ago but suffered a nasty anterior cruciate ligament injury a year ago. A place in London looked highly unlikely. But she fixed her knee and came back with wonderful composure. After helping Russia to the team silver behind the USA, she then took bronze in the individuall all-round and on the floor as well as a gold on the uneven bars. Arguably, her performance usurped that of Gabby Douglas, aka The Flying Squirrel, who won the women’s all-round and a team gold. The other comeback came from Catalina Ponor, the three-time gold medallist from Athens eight years ago. After quitting the sport in 2007, she found she missed it so much that she had to return. “It was like a drug for me,” she told Eurosport before the Games. The elegant, beautiful 24-year-old showed that, in spite of not winning a gold this time, the star quality never fades. A team bronze was followed by disappointment on the beam where she lost third to Ally Raisman after an inquiry. But she then made up for that with a delightful routine on the floor, not good enough for gold which went to the more powerful Raisman but still with enough quality to secure the silver. An example to the younger female gymnasts that there is life after 20, it would be great to see her in Rio in four years time.

5 – Last but certainly not least, the Japanese Kohei Uchimura. Labelled by many as the greatest all-round gymnast ever, he had a slow start to the competition, only qualifying for the individual all-round in seventh spot. His uncertain dismount from the pommel led to a steward’s inquiry which saw Japan elevated from fourth to second in the team event. But any doubts about his form disappeared in the all-round final when he was imperious. Grace, elegance, strength across the six apparatus…it was a thoroughly deserved gold medal to add to his three world championships. A silver on the floor was a nice bonus.

These are obviously just a few highlights. Apologies if your favourites aren’t in there. Feel free to add them below.

Barney Spender 2012

US gymnasts fly to new heights

Posted by barneyspender on July 31, 2012
Posted in: Gymnastics, London 2012, Olympics, Sport, USA. Tagged: , , , . Leave a comment

The USA women on the podium after landing their first team gold since 1996

I am going to be honest about this one. Although I used to enjoy watching gymnastics, I was never what you might want to call a fan. I fell in love with Olga Korbut when I was nine and admired – without falling in love with – Nadia Comineci four year later…but since then I have looked on at arm’s length.

That began to change last summer when I met up a couple of times with Ioannis Melissanidis, the exuberant Greek, who won gold on the floor at the Atlanta Olympics of 1996.

I was working on a book for the Olympics – sadly dumped at late notice by the publisher – and we were chatting about the pressures and experiences of preparing for and taking part in the Olympics.

It was only then that I fully began to realise the pressure and strain on a gymnast’s body, the attention to detail, the hours of work and the lack of beer in the gymnast’s diet. One line, in particular, stayed with me.

“Before I went out in the final, my coach said to me; ‘Today, you are not going out there to do a routine – you are going out there to fly’.”

And boy did he fly. His routine is a wonderful mix of muscular gymnastics and Nureyevesque ballet.

And that is pretty much what we saw from the USA women as they cleaned up the gold medal in the team event today (July 31), beating second-placed Russia by a whopping five points.

It began on Sunday when they drilled the bejaysus out of everyone else in qualifying. Already world champions, they were undoubtedly the team to beat.
The Russians had the best chance but the US were flying, almost literally, from the start, some wondrous vaulting on the first apparatus immediately giving them the initiative.

Jordyn Wieber, surprisingly eliminated from the individual all-round final by two of her teammates, led the way with a vault that earned her a score of 15.933 before Gabby Douglas lived up to her nickname of the Flying Squirrel with a 15.966.

McKayla Maroney then ignored her injured ankle to fire in another Amanar and log a 16.233 – an echo of Kerri Strug’s limping vault securing the US their only other women’s team gold back in 1996.

“Starting out on vault was really good for us,” said Wieber. “Just kind of kickstarting the competition like that was really good for us, and we just carried everything through to the next three events.”

It was poetry in motion and there was to be much more of it. Not just from the Americans. The Russians, Romanians and Chinese all had their moments but the Americans were too consistent in their brilliance to be troubled.

At 37, Oksana Chusovitina proves there is no reason why female gymnasts should not last beyond their teens

The one perturbing thing about the competition is the youth of the gymnasts – they are girls rather than women – and the burnout. Four years ago, we were all talking about Nastia Liukin and Shawn Johnson…now aged 22 and 20 respectively, they are has-beens, listed as retired gymnasts. It hardly encourages parents to put their daughters on the beam.

Three cheers then for the likes of Beth Tweddle anc Catalina Ponor, both in the mid to late 20s, and the extraordinary Oksana Chusovitina who is still going strong at 37, in her sixth Olympics.

I was lucky enough to be commentating the final with David Crossan – you should follow him on Twitter for Eurosport in 3D. It is a wonderful way to watch, the gymnasts bursting through the screen. Well, okay, not actually bursting through the screen but giving you a sharp little wake-up call as they hurtle off the vault.

An added bonus, incidentally, is Dave’s supreme efficiency at naming every song used by the women in the floor exercises – tonight he even picked up on Jude Law’s musical contribution to The Talented Mr Ripley.

You can join us on Wednesday for the men’s individual all-round final. Sadly, I will lose my Mr Statto to the athletics track next week although the blow has been cushioned by the news that the aforementioned Ioannis Melissanidis will be joining me in the box for the individual apparatus finals.

Incidentally, if you have never seen his gold-medal wining performance from the Atlanta Games of 1996, then spare a couple of minutes now to take a peek.

 

©Barney Spender 2012

Dubious Greek melodrama over Voula Papachristou

Posted by barneyspender on July 25, 2012
Posted in: Greece, London 2012, Olympics, Sport. Tagged: , , , . 1 Comment

Voula Papachristou: guilty of stupidity, not racism

Greece loves a drama, the more melodramatic the better. In Athens, and I am sure in all parts of the beautiful Hellenic world, this is evident in daily life.

A yaya waddles for the bus and misses it, all hell breaks loose; wailing, gnashing, evil incantations, the works. A motorist edges out into the traffic causing a motorbike to slow down from the 100ks he was doing while smoking his cigarette, taking on his mobile and nursing his frappe and the world explodes. The decibel level goes through the roof with belly-aching screams of mutual loathing, the hands and fists pumping as if one or other is about to batter the living bejaysus out of each other.

And nothing, of course beats an Olympic-sized drama on the eve of the Games. Eight years ago, the country went quite dilly when Kostas Kenteris and Katherina Thanou missed a doping test after, ahem, falling off their motorbike. The panel beaters would have done a good trade with the amount of breast-beating that was going on.

Well, now we have the case of Voula Papachristou, a triple jumper, who is off the team for what was deemed to be inappropriate use of the social media.

Now, I have worked in offices in Athens where the management will sit doing nothing for weeks on end before lurching towards one of his employees to deliver a fierce and totally unjust broadside. The management and ownership of Greek companies are by and large playground bullies, ever eager to throw their weight around in a bid to come out looking strong and just and fair.

And cowards. The target is more usually than not a) young and b) female, to wit the most junior ranks in the office.

Hence when I hear about Papachristou being axed from the Greek Olympic team for tweeting a joke that walks an uncomfortable line between bad taste and racism, I cannot help wondering if this isn’t another example of the playground bully throwing his weight around, using a sledgehammer to smash open a nut.

This is what Papachristou tweeted: “With so many Africans in Greece … at least the West Nile mosquitos will eat homemade food!!!”

Erm, well it isn’t particularly funny and it is certainly in bad taste, especially given the immigration issues in Greece.  But is it racist or just a bad joke?

You see people make jokes about all sorts of things. Back in the 1980s there were numerous gags about AIDS, usually with some kind of gay twist. Did that make everyone homophobic?

How about this one; “Did you hear about the leper who failed his driving test?…He left his foot on the clutch.”

This kind of joke may be crude and may poke fun at the leper community but is it actually anti-leper?

At what point does a joke go beyond the poking fun and actually become –ist?

Everyone will have their own view on Papachristou’s joke. My own feeling is that she is guilty not so much of telling a joke that is racist but of telling a joke that isn’t very funny, rather like Daley Thompson’s throwaway line about a misspelt tattoo probably being Irish.

Racism is, of course, a hot potato in Greece at the moment. There is a massive influx of immigrants from Africa, Iraq, Afghanistan and so on.

Greece’s European colleagues have conveniently turned their backs on the problem leaving Greece to deal with large-scale immigration on its own. It has responded in heavy-handed fashion, using over-populated holding camps and making it inordinately difficult for immigrants to become legal residents.

Papachristou will be missing from the triple jump at the London Olympics because of her tweet

And there is certainly racism in Greece; aimed not just at the illegals but at the large number of Albanians and Bulgarians who, while I was living in Athens, were blamed on a daily basis for the increase in crime. My wife and I were racially verbalised on several occasions by a neighbour who  told us time and again that we weren’t wanted and that we should go home. (I think it was Freddie, our cat she really didn’t like – but he was of course a genuinely 100 per cent Athens street cat so she turned her venom on us.)

In the confusion of this year’s elections came the disturbing rise of Golden Dawn, the far-right party that is all but Nazi in its doctrine. They won seven per cent of the vote in the second election and now sit in parliament.

This has perhaps made Greeks edgy about the whole racism debate. And Papachristou’s case might not have been helped by the fact she had retweeted comments that came from Golden Dawn.

Even so, in the spirit of democracy, is it not somebody’s right to have freedom of political choice and freedom of expression?

So far as I recall, no one suggested that the British Prime Minister David Cameron step down for his preposterous and some might say racist comments suggesting that Greeks would not be allowed to enter the UK if they left the Eurozone.

Papachristou tried to make a joke and it backfired. She quickly apologized.

She certainly needed a good rap over the knuckles and a severe dressing down about the realities of life in the public eye.

But expelling her from the Olympic team was heavy-handed – an overreaction aimed perhaps at appeasing a national guilt with a big international statement.

©Barney Spender 2012