2012 Summer Olympics in London - Danell Leyva and more!

[spellbound]

Originally Posted by theEmbarcadero

No one else is here....no one else cares. Guess I just won't blog here anymore...

Hey! I was down at the beach with family the past couple of days. Been watching PLENTY of the Olympics but posting here not exactly a priority!

However, now that I'm back I'm eager to discuss the Speed Counter Wiping Finals sponsored by Bounty.

(and, yes, all those Cold War era names certainly do resonate with me. Obviously, it's a good thing that the Olympics are not nearly as nakedly political as back then but some of that cloak-and-dagger mystique and intrigue has been lost, I'd say)

[QuantumX]

Originally Posted by QuantumX

Well, Danell Leyva is competing today and he is from Miami. I hope he does well and I will post the results.

According to what I was able to dig up, Danell Leyva came in 3rd while John Orozco came in 8th. If they had performed that well the other night rather than crashing and burning, the United States probably would have gotten the silver, but the funny thing about this list I found is that there are no Chinese. I wonder what happened there?

[QuantumX]

Originally Posted by spellbound

(and, yes, all those Cold War era names certainly do resonate with me. Obviously, it's a good thing that the Olympics are not nearly as nakedly political as back then but some of that cloak-and-dagger mystique and intrigue has been lost, I'd say)

The last bit of cloak-and-dagger I can remember occurred at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona when Tatiana Gutsu, a gymnast from the Ukraine competing for what was then called the Unified Team (weird) after the break up of the Soviet Union, won the gold in the individual all-around event and Shannon Miller got the silver. Gutsu fell off the balance beam during the qualifying round and had actually failed to qualify for the all-around. Suddenly, the night of the competition, we hear that the Russian girl who did qualify had an injury and that Gutsu would get to compete after all.

Years later in an interview, the Russian girl admitted that she didn't have an injury and that her opportunity was taken away and given to Gutsu. I don't recall anything else having been said or done about it. All I know is that Shannon Miller from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma USA should have a gold medal in that event instead of a silver and was the true champion of Barcelona in Women's gymnastics.