Harry24

For those of you who haven't seen it, I can't recommend the full stream of the men's all-around final on nbc.com strongly enough. It is well worth the investment of an hour or two. There are SO MANY great performances (Swiss guys, Colombian guys; Cuban guys, Russian guys - all fantastic! - in addition to the leading players); the announcers are excellent, relaxed, informative and entertaining; and the build up of drama is almost excruciating! The way NBC presented it on TV drained about 80% of all the drama. The announcers on the stream said it was hands down the best all-around competition they've ever seen. ETA: I was glad that Daggett mentioned the overly harsh judging of Uchimura on the pommel horse and rings. Mind you, he didn't EXPLAIN it ( heaven forbid), but at least he mentioned it. He also said something kind of garbled about how the judging panels changed at some point (During the competition? Between the qualifying, team, individual? No idea). And then of course he didn't get into any, you know, actual informative details, but it sounded potentially interesting. As lovely as Horton and Kupets were on the stream, they didn't even mention it, although they registered a little surprise at a few results.

I think Aly is delightful (and beautiful in a Sarah Silverman-esque at the DNC kind of way), but her parents can take a hike. I also think Aly has improved her grace, stretch and overall look by leaps and bounds over 2012. Well done.

I only caught a few minutes, but it sounded like James Blake was one of the announcers.

And Kohei has the top AA score for the morning group, so hopefully that means he's okay for the AA. I just love watching him.

At least Yamamuro stayed on the bar. He fell off in his warm-up. How high does an individual have to finish to qualify for the AA? Is Kohei in danger after the fall off the high bar? Is it possible that the huge crowd responses to the Brazilian team are affecting the Japanese? I would have thought they'd be inured to that with all their experience. Whoa! Brazil is now leading Japan by over a point!

Tanaka Kato had a big break where he bent over backwards while in a handstand on one of the bars and clearly had to do several moves to get himself back into the routine. Yamamuro had the same problem twice AND came off the bars. He was the 12. And now Kohei has fallen off the high bar on his first release. :-(

Yes, they had a 13 and a 12 in the parallel bars. And even Kohei looked kind of shaky for him (to my untrained eye).

Do the prelims have a bearing on the team competition? Oh, no. Poor Yamamuro is having a disaster. He just scored in the 12s on parallel bars (and he was the anchor guy), and IIRC he fell on his vault.

So it looks as though Uchimura only did one vault. So therefore he won't qualify to do the vault finals, right? Is he not scoring high enough on the vault these days to have a legit shot for a medal in the event finals or was this a strategic decision so he won't have to 1) spend time on the second vault, 2) expend extra energy at the event because other events are a priority? ETA: Thanks Posh and Auntie for the info/explanations.

Yeah, I was wrong. I gather a gymnast who wants to do the all-around has to compete all the disciplines in the prelims?

Anyone watching the NBC stream? Why isn't Kohei (sp?) competing with the Japanese team? ETA: Never mind, I see him, but he doesn't appear to be competing on the vault at least. But if any kind soul would like to explain the qualification process and implications, I would be massively grateful. Second question: is that other Japanese gymnast, Kato, actually wearing a wig? Or has he inexplicably but rather impressively managed to style his hair to look as wiggy as possible?

Noooooooooooooooooooooooo!! Don't hide the pretty!!!!!!! (In addition to being an all-around cool guy and great pitcher, he really has kind of a Gregory Peck Thing going on.)

J'adore this traditional thread. Does anyone else miss the "Faster - Higher - Hotter" title from TWOP days?

Is there a kind soul who can explain what we're looking at in the Skinner Twitter thing? (I'm not much of a Twitter reader.)

Normally, I would feel bad for Skinner, but after her comments on social media this past winter that were anti-gay and using the N-word. Oh, ew. For real? Totally agree about that wolf spin. If they could do it without waving their arms around as though they were about to fall over it would look better, but no matter how difficult it looks terrible (sort of like the infamous Besti Squat in figure skating - although that's not that difficult.) I also thought there was some charming choreography in the floor routines, far more than in recent years. I actually liked the Addams Family routine and thought she just nailed it. I also liked Biles' and Hernandez's routines. I think Raisman has improved tremendously in her dance quality and overall grace since 2012. I wonder how much a factor doing Dancing with the Stars was? I also think the issue with Gabby's expression was not so much the usual woman-have-to-smile bs but more that she looked so unhappy (not concentrated and serious).

Thanks, as always, for the info, GQJ. You're awesome. I see that NHK will be the first meeting of Virtue-Moir and Papadakis-Cizeron. Opinions on how this will go?

I honestly felt bad for Mark tonight. He looked lumpy and doughy in that group number, especially in contrast to Antonio's incredible, Adonis physique. (And wet too? Yikes.)

I actually came here to see if anyone recommended watching the WH press thing. I was a little icked out by the "MN" thing, but then I'm an old white person, so there's that. I guess I just found it overly disrespectful to Obama. I've also been missing the old Daily Show and Colbert Report during the election season and was hoping this show had improved since I stopped watching because I think Wilmore's POV tends to be interesting and funny. I saw a short bit the other night and thought it looked a lot tighter and less lame. Opinions?

My first thought upon seeing the opening seconds of tonight's episode was, "Aw, I'm so happy for Blackie and Bitey!"

Julian Fellowes is going to write for Game of Thrones?

This Federer fan is so happy for Rafa. He's such a great player and such a lovely guy, and it's been so painful watching his recent struggles. Vamos, Rafa (except against Fed)!

Thanks for sharing that video, mumbles. It was wonderful. He loved good positions and carriage in general, which, ironically, is I think the one thing that the new ladies champion lacks. She doesn't make those indelible pictures that skaters with beautiful posture and line do.

He was inspired on "Seinfeld," is very engaging on the Yankees broadcasts, but comes across as ... um, limited intellectually. His choice in candidate is not surprising. Sad but not surprising.

I've seen Spotlight twice and missed this both times! Thanks, Traveller519.

No question Sloane has been terribly disappointing since her win over a seriously injured Serena (why do sportswriters and broadcasters neglect to mention that?), but she has now won 2 WTA tournaments, last year in Washington and this year in Auckland. That's one reason why her crashing out in the first round at Oz was such a horrible disappointment.