U.S. gymnastics victory less about redemption than about domination
The literal meaning is to be delivered from something. To be rescued, perhaps.
From what, mind you, did Jordyn Wieber need to be rescued?
This wasn’t redemption. This was a butt kicking beyond the normal scale of your average rout.
The United States again exists atop a medals stand in women’s gymnastics at the Olympics, and no amount of drama in relation to its most accomplished athlete suffering a monumental disappointment 48 hours earlier was going to disrupt the correct order of things.
The Americans won gold by five points over Russia on Tuesday at North Greenwich Arena, which in a sport where tenths of a point can mean the difference between glory and goat, this was the Green Bay Packers against the Wisconsin Badgers.
This was winning a World Cup finals soccer match 7-0.
“A good old-fashioned shed whipping,” said John Geddert, coach to Wieber.
He used that word a lot afterward. Redemption. Wieber used it. Redemption. It was their way of explaining how the world champion’s solid performance in the team final took the sting off her not qualifying to compete for the all-around title Thursday.
It wasn’t redemption. It was the reality of sport.
Wieber was good Sunday. Her teammates, Gabby Douglas and Aly Raisman, were great. It happens. And from the realization that no country can qualify more than two athletes for the all-around competition came swift charges of injustice from Geddert. “It’s a stupid rule,” he said. “And you can capitalize stupid.”
It’s the Olympics. It’s the same sort of restrictions other sports own. U.S. swimmers and track athletes are sitting home right now who failed to qualify in the top two or three places at trials but who could win medals here.
It’s the idea of welcoming 200 countries and 10,000 athletes to one spot on the global map every four years, the all-inclusive nature that defines what is good and compelling about the games. It’s the right way, or would you prefer to limit the Olympics to 15 or 20 nations and take from the experience some of the best stories of the human spirit the world learns from this two-week odyssey?
It’s a killer for Wieber, sure. Devastating. When you are 17 in a sport not kind to those advancing in teenage years and you have worked most of your life for this moment, days and weeks and months and years of training and overcoming injuries for the opportunity to be an all-around champion and vie for your place on the Wheaties box and reap the benefit of millions of dollars in sponsorships, to miss out as she did can’t adequately be described in a sound bite or two.
“I let her cry for a bit (Sunday),” Geddert said. “But after five minutes of disappointment, it was back to preparing for the team final. I’ve never been prouder of an athlete than how she responded.”
They all did. The team gold is the first for the U.S. women since 1996, and it was decided quickly. The Americans opened on vault, and, one after the other, all three competitors stuck landings. McKayla Maroney, up third, flew higher and higher and higher before descending to earth.
The U.S. managed 15.0 or higher on all but three of its 12 scores. The Russians had one score above 15. Romania earned the bronze, what with communism having ended and Bela and Martha Karolyi now coaching the Americans. China was fourth because things don’t work out as well when you can’t cheat and use 14-year-olds any longer.
The Americans arrived at two previous Olympics world champions and gold-medal favorites, only to watch Romania (2004) and China (2008) grab the honor. But the U.S. hype was justified this time. It was a runaway.
“It is inspiring to watch them,” Great Britain gymnast Rebecca Tunney said. “It’s their hunger that separates them. They want it from a very young age and work so hard and put so many hours in. You can see they’re better than everyone just by watching them train. Bam. Bam. Bam. Every routine. Very professional.”
Now there is a word to describe Wieber on Tuesday. Not two days after sinking to the lowest point such a decorated athlete could know, she began her team’s afternoon with a 15.933 on the vault.
Yes to professional.
No to redemption.
“I was pretty disappointed (Sunday) but had to find a way to put it behind me and get it together mentally for this team,” she said. “I had to pull myself together and move on. Being with the team, bonding with them, hanging out, it helped a lot. To have a gold medal hanging around your neck, it’s really an indescribable feeling.”
Domination.
That’s the most appropriate word.
Las Vegas Review-Journal sports columnist Ed Graney can be reached at egraney@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4618. He can be heard from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday on “Gridlock,” ESPN 1100 and 98.9 FM. Follow him on Twitter: @edgraney.
