Age of Chinese gymnasts investigated - CNN.com

On Monday, I wrote about the allegations of the Chinese team using underage gymnasts in the Beijing games.  It appears that the Internet community – and in particular Stryde Hax, have been hard at work trying to ascertain whether or not the Chinese cheated.  Based on research from Stryde, the New York Times and a host of others, it appears that the Chinese have, once again, been caught cheating.  Official documentation on the Chinese Government’s Sports Ministry site (http://www.sport.gov.cn) that supported the allegations that the Chinese team cheated seem to have mysteriously vanished from the website.  Ahh, Internet Censorship at its absolute finest.

The cat has been out of the bag on this one for quite a while – now the question becomes whether or not the International Olympic Committee or the International Gymnastics Federation will actually continue to swallow the Chinese party line and believe that the government issued passports are valid.  Remember that this is the same government who determined that the seven year old girl who sang the “Ode to the Motherland” song wasn’t cute enough to appear on global television, so they had another girl lip-synch the song (see: Young Olympics singing star didn’t really sing).  If the Chinese government is willing to sacrifice the integrity of the opening ceremony, it seems pretty obvious that there are no limits to how low they will sink to win gold medals.

Stay tuned – I’m sure there’s much more to come …

Gymnastics Scoring needs an Overhaul - E.M. Swift - SI.com

I watched the gymnastics competition last night in growing disbelief.  China’s Cheng Fei won a bronze medal, despite landing on her knees in one of her two vaults.  Given the high level of competition, how is that possible?  How can you land on your knees and beat out someone who had a minor misstep – not a fall, not a tumble, not a step out of bounds – a minor misstep?  As I’ve been watching the Olympics this summer, the judging in the gymnastics is clearly favoring the Chinese gymnasts.  Beyond the nonsense with Cheng Fei’s vaulting, the scoring fiasco in the uneven bars routine was even more bizarre.

Both Nastia Liukin (US) and Chinese gymnast He Kexin had minor flaws in their routines – He had a small step on the landing, and Liukin had a minor issue with one of the moves in her routine.  Both routines carried a difficulty of 7.7 and both gymnasts scored a 9.025 on execution which works out to an overall score of 16.725.  But when the scores flashed up, the gymnasts weren’t tied – because the third tiebreaker (and tell me this isn’t just the dumbest solution) is the average of the three lowest of the four counting judges’ deductions!!  Seriously?  That’s how you decide an Olympic gold?

Any sport requiring judging – gymnastics, diving, figure skating – is going to have some subjectivity.  But come on – there has to be a better way of determining the tiebreaker!  Or even better – since the score is made up of the Execution Score multiplied by the Degree of Difficulty … why not just award joint gold medals and recognize the fact that there was really nothing to choose between the competitors.  If you absolutely must have only one winner – then let them decide it as athletes.  Head to head.  Of course – this being one of those subjective sports, you still have to deal with judges scoring.  But at least, a head to head matchup would determine the true champion – as opposed to determining the winner by using an equation that does not even take all of the scores into account!

And, since I’m on a rant about He Kexin (well, Gymnastics in general!) … there’s no way that she is 16 years old (or will be 16 years old in 2008)!  A Chinese newspaper reported that she was 14 back in May.  China’s history of cheating – yes CHEATING – in gymnastics is nothing new.  At the 2000 Sydney Olympics, Chinese Gymnast Yang Yun competed, claiming she would turn 16 on December 24, 2000.  However in a television interview she confessed that she was 14 years old at the time of the competition and that she and her coaches lied about her age.  According to IOC president Jacques Rogge, they leave the responsibility for ensuring the eligibility of athletes up to the international federations.  In other words, if they can produce a forged passport saying that they are old enough, the IOC doesn’t care.  Typical.

By the way, the articles in various Chinese newspapers that prove that the Chinese gymnasts are underage are of course, no longer available online … what a surprise.

If you want to read more about the Chinese Gymnastics Cheating phenomenon, check out David Flumenbaum’s poston the Huffington Posts’ website.

I’m writing this with a heavy heart.  My beloved Manchester United could do no better than scrape a 1-1 draw against Newcastle United yesterday.  Wasteful finishing, lack of creativity and a dearth of experienced (and match-fit) strikers could see the EPL title headed back to West London this season.  While United looked lackluster against Newcastle, Chelsea looked absolutely dominant in their 4-0 thrashing of Portsmouth.

OK, you could make the argument that United have been hit hard by injuries to Ronaldo, Carrick (who limped off with an injury), Hargreaves, Park and Saha (nothing new there).  Add to that the absences of Anderson (Olympics), Nani (suspension) and Tevez (bereavement) and United certainly have their share of personnel issues.  But how is it that United failed to guard against this?  United went into this game with two fit strikers (Wayne Rooney & Fraizer Campbell).  Campbell may be the real deal, but he has (including yesterday’s game) exactly one game of Premiership experience under his belt.

United’s entire summer was consumed by the Cristiano Ronaldo transfer soap opera.  Apparently, the United front office were incapable of handling more than one high-profile transfer saga at once.  Top-class strikers are not cheap to be sure, but given United’s riches following their EPL and UCL double last season, surely there was enough in the transfer kitty to buy one decent striker!  United, as always, were linked with a host of names this summer – the Russian duo of Andrei Arshavin and Roman Pavlyuchenko, Dutch hitman Klaas-Jan Huntelaar, former Arsenal icon Thierry Henry, Samuel Eto’o and of course Dimitar Berbatov.  None of these have (yet) yielded a new arrival at Old Trafford – and there are less than two weeks left in the transfer window.

Meanwhile, Chelsea who are arguably the favorites to win, well, everything this season not only landed themselves a World Cup winning coach in Luiz Felipe Scolari, but also picked up a new defender (Jose Bosingwa) and another midfield playmaker (Deco), but successfully retained the services of seemingly want-away stars Frank Lampard (who has signed a new five year deal) and Didier Drogba.  Their ruthless dismantling of a Portsmouth side that only a week earlier had held Manchester United scoreless in the Community Shield has served as notice to the rest of the EPL.  Chelsea are back – with a wallet full of cash and a dressing room full of international superstars.

Meanwhile, nothing but the deafening sound of silence emanates from Old Trafford.  Is anyone awake in there?  Hello?  Hello?  I guess not …

I’m definitely going to be sleep deprived for the next week or so watching the Olympics.  Last night was the perfect illustration of how pressure affects different people.  There was the good, the bad … and the downright ugly.  Since I hate ending posts on a low note, I’m going to deal with the bad and the ugly at the same time.

You have to feel for the US Women’s Gymnastics team.  Going up against the Chinese team is a daunting prospect at best.  Going up against the Chinese team in Beijing at the Olympics becomes even more intimidating a task.  But going up against the Chinese, in Beijing with only four healthy gymnasts?  C’mon – that’s just asking too much, isn’t it?  Losing Samantha Peszek and Chellsie Memmel to ankle injuries meant that every score counted during qualifying.  The US team negotiated that tricky hurdle and it appeared that maybe, just maybe, the gymnastics gods might cut them a break.

I watched last night’s women’s team finals.  I don’t care what the Chinese government says – there is absolutely NO way that their gymnasts were older than 14.  The average height of the Chinese team is 4’9” and their average weight is only 77 pounds.  They have NO curves whatsoever.  Give me a break – that’s supposed to be what passes for a 16-year old girl?  The US team averaged around 5’ in height and a shade over 105 pounds in weight.  Granted, the US women have a lot more muscle, but even beyond that, they at least look like they’ve hit puberty.

Moving on from my rant about Chinese dishonesty, which I think is utterly rampant, the US faced an uphill battle all night.  But when the Chinese girls faltered, on the balance beam, it seemed as though the US team would nip in and pull off somewhat of an upset.  But, it was not to be.  Call it succumbing to pressure, call it nerves, call it whatever you want to – the US women practically gift wrapped the gold medal after Alicia Sacramone’s ambitious (and ultimately disastrous) balance beam mount, followed by bobble after bobble by both her and her team mates.  To add insult to injury during the floor exercises, first Sacramone fell over at the end of one of her tumbling passes and then matters were made worse as first she, then both of her team mates inexplicably stepped out of bounds.

Don’t get me wrong – an Olympic silver medal is nothing to scoff at.  But you have to wonder about the mental toughness of the US team when they not only failed to take advantage of the opportunity handed them, but then turned in even more error-laden performances than their main rivals.

By contrast, is there a bigger Olympic story than Michael Phelps’ quest for eight gold medals?  Coming into the evening, Phelps had already captured three gold medals, with the added bonus of breaking the world record for each event along the way.  Last night, Phelps competed in both the 200m butterfly and the 4×200m freestyle relay finals.  As if winning gold medals four and five weren’t enough, Phelps stood on the brink of history – one gold medal away from standing alone as the only Olympian with ten gold medals.

The evening’s events were almost anti-climactic as Phelps captured the 200m butterfly gold medal, breaking the world record along the way for good measure.  Although the margin of victory was less than a second, a gold medal is still a gold medal.  On to the relay.  To say that the US utterly annihilated the competition would be an understatement.  At one point, the camera had to pan back from the US swimmer just to get the second place swimmer in the frame such was the margin of victory.  The US Men shattered the previous world record, becoming the first team to break the seven minute mark for the 4×200m relay – nearly 5 seconds faster than the previous record.

Five gold medals, five world records.  More gold medals than any other Olympic athlete in history.  Three events left.  23 years old.  Apparently the pressure of the weighty expectations just doesn’t seem to affect Michael Phelps …

I stayed up late tonight to watch Olympic swimming – in particular, the Men’s 4×100 Relay.  Everyone’s read about Michael Phelps and his quest for eight gold medals – a haul that would eclipse the great Mark Spitz’ feat so many years ago.  Now, I’m not a swimming aficionado – I’ll be the first to admit it.  But this is the Olympics – try as you might, you’re going to get caught up in the hype, the emotion and the moment.  Now – I haven’t really been paying too much attention to the subplots – but I was a little shocked to hear that Alain Bernard, who swims the anchor leg for France on the relay team said that the French team would “smash” the US team in the relay.

Anyone involved with sports at any level knows you just don’t make that kind of comment – that’s bulletin board material of the worst kind.  That’s the quote that you’d better back up, or it defines your entire career – you’re the guy with the big mouth who couldn’t deliver.  Yeah – Bernard became that guy tonight all right.

The race itself was edge of your seat stuff.  The Swedish team – who came in FIFTH – they broke the World Record.  A World Record that had been set only the previous evening by the US “B” team.  Eamon Sullivan, the Australian lead-off swimmer broke the 100m Freestyle record that had been held by … you guessed it, Alain Bernard.  And what of Alain Bernard?  He of the “smash” quote?  He pretty much choked in the last 25m, allowing team captain Jason Lezak to slip by and touch the wall eight one-hundredths of a second ahead of him.  Perhaps Bernard will have learned his lesson – talking smack is a brave pursuit at the best of times, and if you’re going to do it on a stage as big as the Olympics, you’d better be able to back it up.  Oops.  Tell you what Alain – why don’t you go shove a baguette up your ass?  Because you just got served by the United States of America.  Smash that.

Just a collection of Random Thoughts on a Friday:

• Weekends need to be longer!
• Why is it that we love to celebrate other people’s birthdays but never our own?
• Is it possible to learn speed reading at the age of 37?  Grad school reading is kicking my butt at the moment!
• If you want to read a truly heart-warming blog, go read The Life of Riley which is about Olive Riley – who recently passed away, at the grand old age of 108!  Olive was arguably the world’s oldest blogger.  John McCain – take note.  If a 108-year old can write her own blog, you ought to at least  be able to figure out how to use email!
• Apparently people were queuing up overnight for the new Batman movie, “The Dark Knight” – I’ll probably wait for the DVD, simply because movies are getting way too expensive!
• Apparently Jimi Hendrix will be featured in the upcoming Guitar Hero: World Tour video game.
• I need to quit buying new XBox 360 games and actually finish some of the games I have.  This weekend, in between writing a paper and catching up on reading, I think I will play 2006 FIFA World Cup and Beowulf

And that’s it for this week’s Random Friday Thoughts.

If you’re a soccer fan (and I’m talking about European soccer here, not the MLS), then every summer brings about the transfer rumor mill.  Which high profile player is moving where, because he’s upset about something trivial, and wants more money blah blah blah.  In other words – typical pampered athlete drivel, but it does make for some good debate.

This summer has been particularly entertaining, due primarily to the turmoil surrounding one Cristiano Ronaldo and his desire to leave Manchester United to move to Real Madrid.  As side plots, we’re treated to the drama surrounding the tug-of-war between Chelsea and Inter Milan over Frank Lampard, former World Player of the Year Ronaldinho and the battle between AC Milan, Chelsea and Manchester City (yes – you read that right City, not United!) for his services and last but by no means least, the English transfer triangle involving Aston Villa, Arsenal and Liverpool over where Gareth Barry will play next year.

Let’s face it – this all boils down to money.  Lots of money.  While I don’t necessarily question that the players love the game, I don’t believe that many of the modern players have a truly deep-seated love for the game.  These players have been blessed with skills and they are simply leveraging them for money.  Once upon a time though, they probably loved the game for the sake of the game – very few players embody that sort of love and respect for their sport.  In the English game, there are three players in particular that stand out as examples of true professionals: Liverpool’s Steven Gerrard, and Manchester United’s Paul Scholes and Ryan Giggs.  All three would sooner retire than leave the club because they want more money.  There are no acrimonious contract negotiations that play themselves out in the media, no tabloid headlines about nights of drunken debauchery – nothing that would bring discredit upon themselves or the clubs that they love.

Somewhere in the last twenty years the love of the game has simply been crushed in favor of the love of a fat bank balance.  It’s not a phenomenon unique to European soccer – but it is becoming more of a cancer in that arena than it is in what we would think of as the more materialistically inclined sporting arenas such as the NBA, NFL or Major League Baseball where players are held to their contracts after a fashion.  In European soccer nowadays, is the player’s contract even worth the piece of paper that it is printed on any more?

Most people I know head out to Six Flags on a Saturday or Sunday.  They’ll usually get there a little after noon and spend most of the afternoon there, if not into the early hours of the evening.  Now, don’t get me wrong - I absolutely love Six Flags.  However, I absolutely hate standing in line!  That presents a problem when you’re talking about going to an amusement park during the height of summer.  However, this summer we’ve rarely spent longer than five hours at the park, and spent more time walking between the rides than standing in line to ride them.

The secret is (and this is just common sense) to get there early.  If you wait until noon (or after that), parking is a nightmare unless you want to spend $20 on preferred parking or $30 on valet parking.  If you don’t want to pay for premium parking, it’s still $15 and you’re parking the better part of a mile (or more) away.  If you don’t have a season pass, you can be sure you’ll spend at least thirty to forty-five minutes in line.  That’s over an hour wasted on … nothing.  I don’t like wasting time.

We get there before ten o’clock (which is when the park opens).  At nine-thirty a.m. you can get decent parking in the first couple of sections of general parking.  Since we have season passes, we skip the ticket line, and usually get ushered into the park where we stand around for twenty minutes waiting for them to open up all the attractions.  Once ten o’clock rolls around though - it’s straight to the Tony Hawk Big Spin which is the most popular ride at the park.  With a little luck, we can get two rides in within an hour.  At that point, we can move on to the rest of the park and let everyone else stand around baking waiting to ride the Tony Hawk.

Normally we’ll ride the Superman Tower of Power immediately after the Tony Hawk.  However, today we skipped the Tower and headed for the Flashback.  Two rounds on that, followed by two more on the Judge Roy Scream and we were ready for the Texas Giant.  My youngest daughter gets scared riding new rollercoasters, so I have to ride with her the first few times.  If you’ve never been on the Texas Giant, it’s like being tossed into a dryer and bouncing around like a basketball for three minutes.  Ah … the joys of wooden rollercoasters.  However, since my youngest was building up to ride the Titan, the Giant is a necessary stepping stone.  If you ride in the very front, you are spared most of the bruises.  As you move further back in the train, the bruising gets progressively worse!

Anyways, after we got our mandatory pummelling on the Giant, my youngest headed off to ride the Crazy Legs with my dad, while my oldest and I headed off to the Titan.  Today was the first day that we sat right up front - what a rush!  Seriously - the first drop is just amazing!  Two rounds on the Titan, and we headed over to meet up with my dad and my youngest daughter for a couple more trips on the Flashback … and then called it a day.

All in all, we spent four hours in the park and rode all the major rides (except for three) twice.  However, my youngest isn’t tall enough for the Tower of Power, and neither girl is tall enough for the Batman / Mr. Freeze rides.  While we were leaving the park - hot, sweaty and tired, we chuckled at the people who had decided to come later - and spend longer in lines.  While they were still standing in line to pay admission - we were headed to Marble Slab for ice cream and air conditioning.  And that’s how we do Six Flags on a Sunday.

Apparently South Carolina’s Governor and Lieutenant Governor believe that separation of Church and State should only apply to non-Christian religions.  South Carolina will be the first state to allow Christians (and ONLY Christians) to profess their faith with a state-issued license plate.  The South Carolina plate is based on a design (shown below) that was originally designed for the state of Florida.  However, Florida scrapped the idea of a faith-centric plate over specific concerns regarding the separation of Church and State.

South Carolina’s Lt. Governor, Andre Bauer has offered to personally pay the $4,000 deposit required for the DMV to start producing the plates.  This $4,000 deposit will be returned to Bauer at a later date.  The group Americans United for Separation of Church and State has filed a federal lawsuit.  The group argues that the plates violate the Constitutional prohibition against government favoritism of one religion over another.

Interestingly, Bauer responded that allowing Christians to have their own specialty plate is freedom of speech.  He contends that if you opposed the idea of these license plates, then you are prejudiced against Christians.

South Carolina’s DMV will allow other faiths to have plates printed, for the same $4,000 fee – however those plates will be subject to limits and rules that will not be imposed for the Christian plate.  Other faiths can have a religious symbol – such as the Star of David – but no words would be allowed.

So … remind me again why CHRISTIANS should get preferential treatment?  I personally hope that this plate never sees the light of day – if the Federal Courts and Supreme Court allow this plate to be created and circulated, then it will only confirm the belief that the United States is not in fact a “Free” country and that the First Amendment is a right guaranteed to all.  You damn well better be a Christian to enjoy the full protection of the Constitution of the United States of America.

ESPN Page 2 - TMQ: Belichick needs to be suspended

“Spygate” is the scandal that simply refuses to die.  The owners are sick of it, the fans are sick of it, and believe me, the New England Patriots are truly sick of it.  But it won’t go away – because, as Gregg Easterbrook writes in his column – the guilty party has yet to be punished.  That guilty party is the New England Patriots coach, Bill Belichick.  Supporters of Belichick argue that he was fined $500,000 – a significant sum for most folks, but in all honesty $500,000 is barely a drop in the bucket for a coach with three Super Bowl titles on his resume.

Most folks would probably forgive Belichick if the signal taping had only occurred for one season.  However, Belichick has been engaged in video taping signals for the past eight years.  The testimony given by former Patriots videographer was a damning indictment on Belichick’s activities.  Instructions given to those who were responsible for stealing signals were, “… to avoid detection and use cover stories if asked why [they were] taping.”  Seriously?  How much more blatant could you be?  And yet, Belichick maintains that he misinterpreted the rule.  So, let’s take a look at the rule, shall we?

"Videotaping of any type, including but not limited to taping of an opponent’s offensive or defensive signals, is prohibited on the sidelines, in the coaches’ booth, in the locker room or at any other locations accessible to club staff members during the game”

Seems to be pretty clear to me?  Belichick seriously can’t expect anyone to believe that he misinterpreted that, or made a simple mistake.  He is a cheat.  Plain and simple.  The three Super Bowl titles that the Patriots have accumulated under Belichick are all tainted.  For the last eight years, the Patriots coaches have known what defensive plays were being called 75 percent of the time.  Three out of every four plays.  Imagine being able to play poker where you were able to see your opponent’s cards 75 percent of the time before you bet.

At this point, Belichick should simply be banned from the NFL for life (and that includes his nomination to the Hall of Fame).  A one year suspension is not enough.  Eight years of systematic abuse of the rules should be enough to close the book on his NFL involvement – permanently.