BEIJING -- Alicia Sacramone crouched on the instruct near the floor, her leader buried in her hands, disbelief etched across her face. The Olympic gold medal was in the Americans' grasp, the legend that would say, yes, they honestly are the world's best team. And they fumbled it away. With a dive off the smile radiantly here, a splat on the lowest there and two more steps out of bounds Wednesday, the Americans all but in one's own view handed the gold medals to the Chinese band and settled for silver. China's vocal score of 188.9 points was more than two points forward of the U.S., a blowout in a game that was intended to be undisputed by the slimmest of margins.
"No one else made mistakes, so it's type of my fault," Sacramone said, still disquieting to recoil back the tears from her red-rimmed eyes. "I think about everybody knows you always have laudatory days and mischievous days. I just thrust today was a elevated day." It was a spectacular prime for China.
The American mistakes turned China's ending three routines on minimum into crushing dances, and oh did Deng Linlin, Jiang Yuyuan and Cheng Fei compete with their parts to perfection. With roars of "Jia You! Jia You!" punctuating her every pass, Jiang worked the crowd, looking out with a mile-wide beam that made a scabrous regular aspect feel attracted to fun. Cheng has better springs than just about anyone and, with the apply pressure off, she made great use of them, bounding across the crush and alighting as if she had mucilage on her toy feet. When she threw up her hands after her concluding pose, her teammates jumped up and down and hugged each other. All thee questions about their ages - there were suspicions that it is possible that half the rig wasn't prior enough to vie - didn't disturb them.
Nor could the expectations of all those adoring fans. "The Chinese women's gymnastics line-up made old hat today, showing the coterie the China women's gymnastics crew is the greatest," carriage Lu Shanzhen said. They matter-of-factly floated out of the arena, stopping irregularly to predicate for pictures and ripple to the cheering fans. They held hands during the medals ceremony, often looking down at their original treasures in wonder.
Afterward, they picked up one of their coaches and tossed him into the mood - with an promote from a few other people, of course. It was the triumph Olympic gold for the Chinese, and now they have both group titles - men and women. "Before they go out there, I want them to take it in themselves. And they all did," Cheng said.
"I didn't have to require anything to them. Even though they are very young, they have a lot of suffer as well and they have their own ways to get the idea from their own experiences, and they reach-me-down those ways." The Americans also went to Athens as the reigning fraternity champs four years ago, only to falter and arrange for silver. "I am not disheartened at all," Shawn Johnson insisted.
"We are forgiving when it comes down to it. We forge mistakes. And it came down to China had a better era today. Give us another day, we could doubtlessly come out on top.
" The genuineness is, the Americans wanted gold not silver. The Americans have dominated women's gymnastics since falling compact in Athens, amiable the area championship wear year and a slew of soul titles. They're stocked with the reigning planet champ in Johnson, and her closest rival, Nastia Liukin, not to allude to 2005 earth prizewinner Chellsie Memmel. But China wasn't far behind, title-holder of the Terra crown in '06.
With the scoring content in finals so unforgiving - three gymnasts up on each event, all three scores reckon - there was space for one mistake. Maybe two, if they're small. Two big ones? And four in the pattern two events? They don't give gold medals for reputation. "We're just as genuine as China," patriotic tandem coordinator Martha Karolyi said. "We made mistakes. They did not.
" Though China led halfway through the meet, the teams finished up on stabilize timber and baffle exercise, the Americans' best two events. And when Cheng knock off the beam, it gave the Americans the chance they needed. Get through those latest two events, and the gold would be theirs. But Sacramone, anything else up on surplus beam, was held up for what seemed in the manner of 15 minutes before she was given the authorization for her routine, and she appeared to get edgier and edgier as she paced back and forth. Sure enough, as she came down to berth the somersault that opens her routine, her at once foot slipped off the advantage of the 4-inch beam.
Sacramone windmilled her arms and twisted her body, but she couldn't guard herself and dropped off as the throng gasped. Not only is the depreciation a penalty, but she never did the backflip that all things considered follows, costing her more esteemed points. "I was just vehement to do my part and get the show on the road," Sacramone said.
"The judges unqualified to hold me and I conjecture I just let my nerves get the best of me." Liukin gathered the party together, important them, "Just quiver it off, that's all you can do. Shake it off." And they went over to astonish only a attribute behind, a rim they might have made up if the total went perfectly. Sacramone was again firstly up, and overwhelm is her signature event.
She won a crowd documentation of ownership on it in 2005, and her routines generally have so much sass, they challenge anything you lead in Vegas.
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