Meet of the Week 2

This week our meet of the week is the 1994 world championships All-around. It was one of the first major competitions that I watched and I still think it is great.

Meet of the Week

To cope with post-Olympic boredom and the desire to watch more gymnastic,. I have come up with a new segment: Meet of the Week. In this I will revisit a gymnastics meet/competition from the past. Today it is the Women's team final from 1996. This is the American version so it's a bit American-centic. But it is still quite enjoyable.

Olympic Sounds Aren't Real

It turns out that many of the sounds in the broadcast of the Olympics are actually faked:

“That afternoon we went out on a canoe with a couple of rowers recorded stereo samples of the different type of effects that would be somewhat typical of an event,” Baxter recalls. “And then we loaded those recordings into a sampler and played them back to cover the shots of the boats.”

The real sound, of course, would have included engine noises and a helicopter whirring overhead. The fake sound seemed normal, just oars sliding into water. In a sense, the real sound was as much of a human creation as the fake sound, and probably a lot less pleasant to listen to.

So, in order to make a broadcast appear real, the soundtrack has to be faked, or to put it perhaps more accurately, synthesized. We have a word for what they’re doing: This is sonic fiction. They are making up the sound to get at the truth of a sport.

Read Full Story

It's just a pity that they go to so much trouble yet they can't even find a decent camera angle for rings, uneven bars and high bar.

Josh Jefferis on the Radio

Josh Jefferis appeared on Triple J (an Australian radio station) this morning. You can listen to the interview here:

http://www.abc.net.au/triplej/media/s3572460.htm

Josh starts at 15:50.

Zou Kai Scammed

Controversial Olympic gold medalist Zou Kai and teammate Yang Wei have been caught up in a multi-million dollar scam. Wang Ti, a former footballer's wife apparently convinced a number of athletes and artists including Zou and Yang to hand over large amount of money under the false pretence of getting apartments at a discount.

Zhu Shiqun, the mother of Zou Kai, the gymnast who was allegedly cheated out of 1.5m yuan, told the Chengdu Commercial Daily she feared the scandal might hit China's chances at the Games.

Read Full Story

Latest Lauren Mitchell Videos From VISA

VISA had added some more videos of Lauren Mitchell:

Reach For The Sky (Movie)

I just stumbled across a gymnastics movie that I had never heard of before. It's called 'Reach For The Sky'. It's about 2 young gymnasts who aspire to train at the Romanian national training centre in Deva. It's well worth watching.

It just keeps going

Attention over Maroney's scowl is still getting attention. This time from TIME:

Worst Moment: American gymnast McKayla Maroney, the defending world champion on the vault, entered the Olympics as the heavy favorite to win that apparatus. She nailed performances during the team competition, and seemed invincible heading into the vault final. But after landing on her backside during her second vault attempt, the presumed gold turned into silver—and Maroney could barely hide her disgust. During the medal ceremony she stood on the podium with her arms crossed and wore a scowl rather than a smile. Read more: http://olympics.time.com/2012/08/16/the-best-and-worst-moments-of-the-olympics/?xid=rss-topstories&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+time%2Ftopstories+%28TIME%3A+Top+Stories%29#william-lee-adams#ixzz23lE5KftW

http://olympics.time.com/2012/08/16/the-best-and-worst-moments-of-the-olympics/?xid=rss-topstories&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+time%2Ftopstories+%28TIME%3A+Top+Stories%29#william-lee-adams

Aussie gymnasts return

The Aussie gymnasts have just arrived back in Australia after their Olympic campaign. There have been a couple of small mentions:

Several members of the women's hockey team also arrived, as did kayaker Alana Nicholls, javelin thrower Kim Mickel, gymnasts Emily Little and Lauren Mitchell, BMXer Lauren Reynolds, WA's lightweight fours rowers and members of the men's water polo team.

link

Gabby Douglas' Story

This is a really interesting video from a couple of months ago about our new Olympic champion. It shows a bit of her training and she also discusses a bit about how she got into gymnastics and her move to Iowa.

Ruggeri on Uneven Bars

Paul Ruggeri does uneven bars... and pretty well too.