KFC

Not that I ever had a high opinion of Al, but that's SUCH a strange and dickish thing to dig in your heels about. My word, Al, are you really challenging her on who she gets to call her parents? Good fucking grief.

I don't really think that's true, though. The 10.000 system (when they carried out the placements to three decimals) worked well around '92-'96 to distinguish between good and great. It was a flawed system, too, but I think it did a better job of reducing the number of athletes just chucking super difficult skills that are clearly too difficult for them to perform properly. In 2012, there was that vaulter from the Dominican Republic who kept throwing a double front that she clearly was not able to fully rotate to her feet. But because the start value was so high, she kept throwing a crappy version of the vault and used the high D score to cushion the deductions on the E score. The perfect 10 system prevents an athlete from doing that because you can't keep padding your score with an inflated start value.

Truly "fair" would be having the top 3 AAers in the world compete in the actual AA competition. I like what someone said upthread about having the top 5-6 (or even top 10) automatically qualify regardless of nation, and then the next top 20. The rules make little sense if we're talking fairness, since FIG actually *reduced* the number of competitors for the All-Around from 36 to 24 after 2000.

The ironic thing is, I think the scoring changes have done more to damage the sport than the arbitrary per-country caps have done to level things out among the non-dominant nations. Preventing Gabby Douglas (or whomever the 3rd-ranked American is) from competing in the AA isn't going to help someone like the athlete from India get on the podium. It's just punishing Douglas for being from a dominant country. If the FIG really wanted to even out the playing field, they'd revert back to the 10.0 system. It was easier for viewers to follow and it capped the level of difficulty and put more emphasis on form and technique. You'd see much fewer injuries because the athletes wouldn't be chucking skills they can't really perform properly just for the sake of a high D score. And you'd also have people like Aly Raisman (whom I really respect) winning medals with such atrocious form.

In addition to that, their site is just over stuffed with all sorts of links, graphics and irritating pop-ups. It takes twice as long as it should to navigate the site. None of their links are intuitive.

Yeah, it's both impressive and surreal to think she's won medals competing for a nation that no longer exists and was not around when most of her competitors were born.

Their coverage of the competition in London was especially bad. I think they showed maybe ONE event of Marcel Nguyen's even though he was the silver medalist in the All-Around. Ridiculous, considering it was tape delayed, and NBC already knew who the podium consisted of.

I get what you're saying, but I think the landscape has just changed so much that for Biles to lose, she'd literally have to fall multiple times (and on several events) to lose. She just has such a massive buffer over the entire competition, that even a lights out performance from another athlete wouldn't beat Biles if she's anywhere near what she normally delivers. There's no one who really comes close to her as an All-Around athlete, whereas there was infinitely more depth in 1992, and to a certain extent 1996. It's just not like that in gymnastics anymore (or at the moment). In those games there was 8-10 athletes who were in contention for the podium and gold.

I don't really understand the concept of being Team Drama if it means the all the athletes in the competition aren't performing to their abilities or someone has to fall for the event to be deemed "exciting." Simone is far and away the best gymnast, so I don't know how you couldn't root for her to win the AA title. Boring or not, she's managed to maintain a pretty unprecedented level of dominance throughout the entire quad. And while Olympic gold medals aren't career achievement awards, if anyone other than her wins the gold, it also will not be an accurate reflection of who the best gymnast in the world is.

I thought she said the "Bernie or bust" people were ridiculous, which is a definite distinction, IMO.

I just keep thinking, "why oh why does it have to be Jules?" Even Kristen was more articulate and less flustered when dealing with Bethenny than Jules has been.

Or maybe she's not bothered by Tom because birds of a feather and all, and they've already got an open arrangement in place.

I think she's kind of like Alex, in that she's not particularly fast on her feet. She needs more time than reality generally provides to form her thoughts on things. I'd like to see her express herself like that during the reunion, but in all likelihood, I think she'll probably stutter and stumble again. To be an ace on a reality show, you generally have to be a fast-talking, very direct/blunt-to-the-point-of-rude personality or someone who can keep their emotions in check and not get flustered, and I just don't think that's Jules at all.

I actually thought Jules was pretty savvy to not say anything. Much as Bethenny said she didn't want to rehash the incident, she did, and Jules calling it out would have only ended in more bloodshed. Girl just can't go toe to toe with Bethenny, and you just know Bethenny was ready to go off on her, so it was probably for the best that Jules kept her mouth shut and saved the snark for the talking heads.

I feel like I'm being gaslit everytime Dorinda appears on my screen. Ladies, she is not to be trusted!

I'm still debating whether the engagement is real or just another one of Lu's "I'm trying to get pregnant with Jacques" storylines.

Just thought I'd mention, for 2020, they're reducing the team size even further. Only FOUR athletes per team, but an additional two athletes can attempt to qualify for event finals as individuals. For example, had that been in effect for Rio, imagine if, say, Skinner and Locklear were brought along to compete for vault and bars finals but not as part of the team competition.

Okay, I think judging ANY of these women's parenting skills/level of engagement in their child based on their expressions in a random pap shot is kind of a reach and a pretty slippery slope to go down. Which isn't to say there haven't been awful/disengaged parents on these HWs shows (if anything, it's practically a requirement), I'm just saying pap pictures aren't really a good gauge for it, IMO.

Heh. As if there were any doubt. Why anyone falls for her "I don't know if I'm coming back this season, it was just so toxic" poor-me bullshit year after year is anyone's guess. She always returns, it's never a question, much as she might like to pretend it is. But, hey, it keeps working. So why should a broken record change its tune?

I find Dorinda's constant flip-flopping to be the biggest crime of the HWs this season. Especially when she tries to frame her actions as that of a peacemaker when she's really anything but.

Gabby's mom, Natalie Hawkins. I think she's been pretty open about it. Although I agree with that I get a "living off her daughter" vibe from the mom and that Gabby seems to feel pressure to be the family breadwinner. I've heard a lot of negative things about the mom, although clearly Gabby seems like a well-adjusted individual.

Yeah, I question The Mail's claims that Serena and Sabine wouldn't wear the dress. Serena and Sabine have been in completely different outfits/silhouettes all year, so I'm pretty sure they were never "assigned" the Wimbledon nightgown dress. The dress in question is basically the same shapeless outfit that Nike's been putting Bouchard in all year at the slams. She wore a red and white version at the Australian Open and a royal blue version at Roland Garros. Nike used to have such trendsetting outfits back in the late '90s. I'll never forget that black dress with white piping they designed for Mary Pierce in '96.

That's interesting, I haven't heard that rumor. I frequent some gymnastics boards and the general impression I got was that Chow is very well respected but Gabby's mom has a lot of issues with managing her finances, not just her bankruptcy. And it sounded like he overlooked payment while Gabby was still an up-and-comer but then he wouldn't put up with it now that's she making money as an Olympic gold medalist.

Not really that surprising, but based on this USA Today article, it sounds like Martha is leaning towards Kocian and Hernandez over Locklear and Nichols: http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/columnist/nancy-armour/2016/06/27/womens-olympic-gymnastics-team/86426030/ I think the real question isn't the team, but who the alternates will be. Specifically that third alternate slot, since most everyone seems to think the other two slots will be the remaining bars specialist (Kocian or Locklear) and Nichols (or Hernandez).

You reminded me of another reason why I enjoyed Lu's special. There's a level of candor there that I appreciated. I still want to see one on Sonja and LVP, but I fear Sonja might be too confused to separate fact from fiction, and Lisa Vanderpump is far too concerned with cultivating an image to ever be as forthcoming as Luann was last night.