Gymnastics, and track and field

May-Treanor/Walsh versus the Brazilians, Talita/Renata in the semis to face the Chinese; there have been some amazing points in this match. Americans took the first set pretty easily, second one has been nip and tuck; now they're pulling away, 16-12. Now match point, 20-12; the've just taken it to another level. 20-13, 20-14, Brazil serves into the net, and 21-14. 107th match win in a row for them.

Trampoline gymnastics, never really watched much of this. Weird watching them bouncing so much to gain height; the Russian after two Canadians, she's clearly better. Slight screwup at the end, I think, one foot on the trampoline, other on the blue border. Whoah--insane score, she's fourth! Tim says maybe cause she didn't finish with control.

He Wenna, the overwhelming favorite. Man, she gets insanely high; all her jumps are right in the middle, the twists and turns are clearly better. Yeah, no contest here, another gold for China.

Now still rings for men. Odd, Tim Daggett seems to have changed his announcing style; he's not as fun to listen too, like he's trying to be more combative or something. Just doesn't flow, somehow, anymore. Nothing great so far, now Chen Yibing on the rings, this is his event; teammate Yang Wei is in first at the moment. Man, great routine, and he sticks the landing.

Likely gold #5 for the Chinese men gymnasts; wow, 16.6. Italian goes, it's perfunctory--hmm, 16.2, in sixth.

Now to track and field, where NBC has yet to have the chance to show an American winning gold; they should fire the entire U.S. Track and Field federation, that's just ridiculous after 4 days. Women's 400M hurdles semis. The women really slow down before each hurdle, they're so much more deliberate then the men who almost run through. American way out front, wins. Second heat, U.S. champ in it, along with the other favorite, who's Jamaican and another American; the Jamaican blows everyone away, she's gonna win this final.

Odd cut to women's pole vaulting, no buffer. Russian just crushes everyone on her first jump; her teammate nails her first one too. American's only been jumping for four years, was watching this on TV in Athens. Hmm, not great endorsement for the U.S. team.

Weird, just like that it's the American against one of the Russians--they've shown just these three. The editing is really bad, they're like wearing totally different outfits from one cut to another.

Back, they just abandon the women's pole vault to show the men's 400M hurdles finals; no explanation. U.S. always wins this event, I know what happened so it's slightly less fun. Three Americans, including one nicknamed 'Batman'. 10 hurdels; man, they are just attacking these. Americans doing well, running 1-2-3, and they sweep! Angelo Taylor wins easily, had won in Sydney. Not as much excitement as you'd think from the announcers; Batman struggles to get third. Hmm, Taylor's a nice guy, humble and sincere; Kerron Clement silver and Bershawn Johnson bronze are too, this is one of the best, most respectful interview I've seen at these games. I really like all three.

Back to gymnastics, uneven bars final with Nastia Liukin. They show her mom, who is too nervous usually to watch. Al brings up age issue again, Tim says this was the showdown he's most looking forward to. Elegance vs. firecracker. Chinese gymnast up first, two big releases right off the top, she's looking very good. Nice landing; should be a good score. 16.725, great score.

Now Nastia. She's rocking through this; a few blips, Tim says--but a great dismount. She doesn't look thrilled, just satisfied. Tim talks himself into saying she's gonna still come out on top. Hilarious watching her mom watch, she's so into it, moving with her daughter. 16.725, they're tied; she's ranked second though. Liukin is just realizing that they're tied, a few seconds after everyone else; wants to know why she's second. Tim, who I do believe has been told to be more something, says he doesn't think it's right, she should be first. Next gymnast basically comes down off the bars; a few more non-factor gymnasts.

Now the second Chinese gymnast; nice routine by her. Funny, the first Chinese gymnast lifts up the second, as if she's acknowleging she's the champ--but her score falls short. A Brit next, she's not bad--pure power, fun moves. Obvious mistakes at the end though, Al says it's like she was in a hurry. 16.625, in fourth. Russian last, she won the world title last year in this event. Tim starts complaining about the judges, you've got a panel of no-name countries since you can't have a judge from your own country on the panel. Russian looks okay, not great.

Tim says the Australian judge scored Nastia too low, the Chinese gymnast too high. Chinese team taking a photo; nice run for them here. Nastia is tearing up. Marta Karolyi is trying to cheer her up. Hmm, but at the end when they explain the tiebreaker, the Australian judge's score favors Nastia! Bela is now railing against the entire system in the studio with Bob, saying it's too complicated. He's just fillibustering; nothing to do with the actual results.

NBC is getting a bit weird here, just because an American loses, they're attacking the entire system; wanna bet if Nastia had won they'd be defending it? The rules are the rules, you know what they are coming in; now Tim says Nastia did better, she should've won. That's a better argument, although I'm not sure I see it.

It's really very poor sportsmanship on the part of NBC; Al even asks if the Chinese gymnast really thinks she won gold. Well, 4 of the 6 judges ranked her higher, so it's hardly her own personal delusion.

This kind of mindless jingoism, of burying your head in the sand is exactly what Obama is fighting against from McCain. We're a great country, but we have some very real problems--we're never going to solve them, nor beat China in gymnastics, if we refuse to face up to them squarely and instead just wildly wave the flag.

Men's vault finals now; two vaults, best average score wins. God, now the commentators are talking in the past tense, Frenchman up first. Then Pole, and he's tied by another Frenchie. Whooo, let's see if they spend as much time yelling about this. Romanian last, whoah, a clearly superior vault! High, fast, and stuck. 16.8 on his first vault. Sheesh, they give it away, he fails on the second--and he does fall. Hey, he's a competitor, he goes for it; doesn't wanna be given it, wants to win it. And the Pole Leszek Blanik wins; pulls out a photo of his baby and kisses it, it's so cute.

And now back to the women's pole vault; sheesh. Jenn Stuczynski; misses her height, and the Russian wins gold again. And that's it--Yelena Isinbayeva goes for an Olympic Record--and makes it! Jenn criticizes her, all on mike; it's actually pretty harsh, kindof crazy to show all that. He just rips on her, and a horrible tone; wow, very bizarre. She's almost left in tears. And now Yelena sets a new world record, as the crowd roars! The greatest women's pole vaulter ever. I think Jenn needs to get a new coach; they don't even ask her about that afterwards.

Then they run a very weird segment, about how everyone's been staying up late to watch the Olympics. It's just fluff, and stupid actually. And everyone they talk to except one is white. Not funny at all; just self-congratulatory.

Chris Collinsworth, top five moments so far. Jeez, what's gonna be number one? Opening ceremony; USA vs. China in basketball; Men's 100M butterfly, Michael Phelps' fingernail; Nastia Lukins' gold; and the men's 4x100M relay.

It's really been a slow night; not sure how the rest of the week is gonna go either. 39 golds for China, 22 for U.S.; we have 72 medals overall, 67 for China.

NBC looks at the U.S. baseball and softball teams, and the U.S/China baseball game's ugly antics, before finishing with the medal ceremony for discus champ Stephanie Brown Trafton.