What do you think about the Tyson American Cup Finals? New code of points makes the men's high bar real interesting and same for women's floor - love the 'high-flying' (as Bart Conner likes to put it a lot, and they were totally high-flying!!) skills - full twisting kovax (called Coleman I think), double layout kovax were awesome!! Shawn Johnson and Mexico's Elsa Garcia really tumble high!! Shawn is small too - talk about power!! Ukraine's Daria kind of had a 'wardrobe malfunction' I guess - or maybe her leotard wasn't fit correctly...on the floor, her leotard from the back kind of looked like a thong leotard...hope she doesn't feel bad about it...that's why NEW RULE SHOULD BE - BIKE-LIKE SHORTS ALLOWED!!

Ya, too bad for Daria's 'wardrobe malfunction'....it does happen sometimes - I say yes for the shorts in competition too! Elsa Garcia from Mexico was the only woman that did not fall once apparently - she got 3rd (NBC coverage doesn't show everything!). Some falls/mistakes: Natasha Kelley fell on her Hindorff on uneven bars, Shawn Johnson messed up on her series and missed her back pike on balance beam. Fabian Hamb

It's funny that more and more of the USA gymnasts (Shawn and Natasha both did here) are using middle eastern music in their floor routines - in our club too actually, and also in the Hilton gymnastics & skating show too! Cool music! :D Shawn is interesting to watch - lots of energy and she looks like she's having fun and loves what she does. And talk about air-time! Elsa too! Makes sense Shawn is compared to Kim Zmeskal by her perky upbeat personality. Looks like Daria needs a size bigger for her leotard, or maybe the sticky spray instead...shorts are good - this 'wardrobe malfunction' does happen to gymnasts wearing even the correct size leotard. Kind of takes away from the sport.

Here are the finals results, incl. the scores for the individual events: Women's: http://www.usa-gymnastics.org/events/2007/tac/results/day2w.htm Men's: http://www.usa-gymnastics.org/events/2007/tac/results/day2m.htm Shawn Johnson is champ in her first senior competition - kind or reminds me of the ice skater Tara Lipinski can comes onto the senior scene quickly and wins Olympic gold. Jonathon Horton is in good company with Blain Wilson - Wilson won 3 straight American Cup title from 1997-1999, Horton gets his second in a row this year.

I don't like it when people put two hands on your face - like Martha Karolyi did to Shawn after she won the American Cup finals - it's like controlling Shawn's coaches seem real nice, like they respect her.

don't forget Martha's hand clutching Shawn's neck too after her bars routine..ickqqq

[color=darkred]The touching thing could be a cultural thing - in one of my human resources classes I read about how Asian cultures are not big on physical contact but Italians are ... which of course is stereotypes but still we had to understand that people from different places are obviously going to be different and we should try to understand. That said, yeah - I would not want people grabbing on me. I would not even want the big Karolyi bear hug after a hit routine. Ick. [/color] :twisted:

[quote=DevilsAdvocate069]The touching thing could be a cultural thing - in one of my human resources classes I read about how Asian cultures are not big on physical contact but Italians are ... which of course is stereotypes but still we had to understand that people from different places are obviously going to be different and we should try to understand.[/quote] Ya, true; but it really does make a difference the feeling you get from someone - you know like it's not just what you say, but how you say it.