AuntieDiane6

If he wins, I hope he goes swimming in the bay, then walks alone on the beach late at night and then hitches a ride back to the village in the media bus.

They need to practice quotes for when they lose. A few minutes is too late for TV. And your ability to articulate defeat can create a deeply sympathetic response in the audience. And a TV movie.

Sorry, I find it offensive to think that having another human being 100% dependent on you does NOT impact a career. On the one hand, we're offended that a baby affects your life but on the other, we want extended paid maternity leave like every other civilized nation. Make up your minds! Most mothers gain between 30 and 50 pounds with a pregnancy and the idea that the next week after childbirth you can lose it all and be back to tip-top shape is highly unfair. Why do you think women get so upset with celebrity profiles that state these famous women are back in size 2 just 3 weeks after childbirth? It's a fair question.

Mary Lou Retton earned $10 million. Tours, books (her autobiography, written for children), endorsements (Wheaties, bowling centers--yes, I remember those ads), TV appearances, dolls, gym apparel, camps ... Bart Conner owns a gym, is a TV commentator, does appearances ... His longtime coach also owns International Gymnast magazine.

She won't go to college--at least not in the near future. Why waste your most productive money-earning years in college? Nastia Liukin is now at NYU ... 8 years after gold. That's what I see for Simone.

In a VERY cranky mood ... for some reason my DVR died just before the final session of the GYMNASTICS WOMEN'S TEAM FINAL. So I missed it ... Luckily I did catch it, albeit with the herky - jerky constant buffering delight of the NBC APP!!! (the streaming on the website did better).

Plenty of moves get denied, including OLGA KORBUT'S FAMOUS BACK FLIP OVER THE HIGH BAR. That is now outlawed. Part of the reason we "Westerners" cringe with the Chinese is because we hear of the horrors those girls go through... like not seeing their parents for EIGHT YEARS. What price victory? And there was the North Korean gymnast several years ago ... she was missing her TWO FRONT TEETH. It wasn't that they were knocked out--new ones were GROWING IN.

Because people who want to see gymnastics will be forced to stick around for the whole show. I wish gymnastics was FAR LESS POPULAR. Then NBC would dump it on Bravo where we would be able to see the entire event with decent commentators and no sob stories ... like rowing.

No.

Not really. To the casual viewer, all these routines look alike. They either need to be spectacular (like high bar) or epic fails (like falls).

A new drinking game ... how many time NBC mentions Simone's PARENTS. Al, first. Then Nastia (with camera on Simone's parents): "Mom and Dad rooting for their daughter."

Sure we would have paid. However, NBC was charging something outrageous -- like $199 for 3 channels of coverage (one channel for gymnastics). I kept calling Time Warner and finally they cut the price down to $20 for one day. So I paid $20 to watch the women's team finals and THEN I found out that I could hear the audio on that channel for the rest of the Olympics. If NBC had started out with a REASONABLE price, it would have worked. I would love pay-per-view gymnastics. ONE NEGATIVE NOTE: Time Warner is showing gymnastics ON DEMAND. Unfortunately, their On Demand channels are now non-recordable. I burn DVDs of all the Olympic gymnastics and figure skating, so I am VERY disappointed. Now I'm stuck with crappy NBC primetime for my collection (which goes back to 1988).

Well, they better raise the bar for what they consider their best. Did they think they'd get medals for Just Showing Up? Geez ... They didn't even mention the men's team finals in the show intro ... maybe they'll mention it tomorrow during a break from the women's event. I feel bad for the viewers who DON'T know what happened ...

Well ... I don't blame the announcer, I blame the swimming association for not hiring a media coach for them. Here's what the swimmer could have said, "I know that if I got out to a strong lead at the start, I could hold it until the end. I've spent the past year really working on my start. " "I know that Suzie Smith in the lane next to me has a fast start, so if I could get the lead by the turn, I could hold on." "I felt a lot of pressure being the lead-off swimmer, but I knew if I could give Kerry an advantage, she could really turn it into a big lead."

I'm glad to see most posters are of the same opinion as me: the US mens team has talent and skills ... and no consequences when they choke. Now that Marta Karolyi is retiring from the women's team, the men's team needs to bring her in as a consultant. The men are losing because they are not drilled to win. They are sloppy. They choke. They are brilliant one day and the next, they fall off the pommel horse like it was a mechanical bull in a Texas bar. You can never count on them to hit six for six. Do you think if Laurie splated on her vault and then followed it up with a fall off the beam, she'd still be on the team? Hell, no. She'd be watching the Olympics from the Jersey Shore. Don't blame college gymnastics. Half of the men's team has long graduated from college. I guess you can have a career in gymnastics if you're pretty mediocre. After all, on the tours, the women need a break.

It's too bad then they couldn't help their daughter with her drug problem (but of course, money can't help an addict who doesn't want help). Do you know if she's still alive or around? Or Simone's bio father? You'd think they'd surface once Simone got famous and rich... (just like fathers of famous white girls)

They often used to mention that Michael Phelps was raised by a single mother as his father walked out of his life. They also point out that Michael Phelps is basically a "baby daddy" as the mother of his child is his "fiancé." When Gabby Douglas won in 2102, they often showed her military father and did not mention that Gabby wasn't speaking to him ... Aside from Al's comment, TV commentators always like to mention the obstacles that athletes overcome ... I hate that the Americans always have jarring cuts of music... but at least it's better than years ago when they used to have solo violin music. Isn't the Russian team coach now working for Brazil?

He removed it. Let's not distract Simone or get her all involved in some PC controversy and then have every commentator bring it up for all interviews ad finitim.

Simone was already targeted at an earlier world championship by an Italian gymnast (who basically said Simone won because she was black). Simone took it all in stride. Hey, Simone has wonderful role models in how to handle hecklers: THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES AND HIS FAMILY.

The problem is that when everyone "hits" (like on the US team!!!), it's hard to distinguish an incredibly great routine from a really good routine. Simone gets a 10.0 and then Aly gets 9.95, next one 9.90. And what if you give Simone a 10.0 and then somebody else does an even better routine? Figure skating complained about the same thing with no more perfect 6s, but now judging is fairer and competitors know WHY they were downgraded or upgraded.

Back in the day, the Soviet Union could have captured ALL the medals and that doesn't help a sport gain popularity worldwide if one country--with great coaches and support--wins ALL THE TIME. I DO think 3 is OK, though, for all-around or maybe if the 3rd person is in the top 5.

There's only commentary on the Sub-division feed, not the individual apparatus feeds.

Sure. US men on pommel horse.

If NBC ever wonders why ratings are down, it's this: the Primetime show is delayed so everything runs over, they have no idea what events are important in gymnastics (i.e., the US men finish 1, 2 on floor -- completely UNSEEN) and the lifestream is so miserable that I want to throw my phone at my TV screen. There must be more demand for the lifestream today: every one of my screens is frozen and NBC doesn't tell me what country is on what event, so I have to try and figure out where China is ... When I call Time Warner to complain about the spinning-wheel-of-death, they tell me it's NBC's fault. NBC, of course, blames Time Warner and both probably cite my old laptop and new iPhone as the problem .... Grrr ...

They were shown in the overnight Gymnastics hour ... which was only 45 minutes since NBC editors suck. Not a single show ended on time, so I was forced to DVR the entire night ... My only hope is that with Time Warner On Demand, we may get individual sport episodes.